SlashZero, from Streetlamp, is a side-scrolling roguelike that reminded me almost instantly of BlazBlue: Entropy Effect X. It doesn’t have the line-up or as much story as BlazBlue eventually got, but the overall appearance and feel were reminiscent.
It’s a fast-paced, good-looking action slasher that features two protagonists, Fina and Nyx, who work as Timehackers, special agents that can travel between multiple timelines in their mission to stop something known as Heiros. Having only played the playtest build I can’t get into the story much, but as a justification for the constant loop of death and resurrection it works as well as any.
Each timeline has a slightly different feel, but I had expected more diversity. I haven’t seen anything outside of the demo yet, which itself is set in a very Cyberpunk-y future, and the different timelines don’t take place in different time periods, but slightly changed versions of the game world. I’m hoping to see some real variations given the thousands of years humanity has been around.
Both Fina and Nyx have different movesets, weapons, and abilities, meaning that there is some difference to be found by playing each level through at least twice. Nyx likes to get up close with a pair of swords, while Nyx performs Gun-fu combos at range. There’s a standard attack, heavy attack, i-frame dodge, and a handful of special moves. You’ll periodically find new moves you can unlock by finding caches in the world and choosing from a selection, similar to something like Hades.
Also, like Hades, you can alter the move you cast with B or add elemental or damage effects to your dodge, which allows you to mix attacks with buffs to deal massive damage to your enemies. In motion, SlashZero is beautiful. It’s bright and colourful, the art style crisp and smooth and the backdrops detailed. It has been made with care, that much is certain.
In between missions you’ll visit a small bar in the city where several NPCs offer services and context, filling in backstory while allowing you to upgrade certain elements. There’s a hint of Hades about it, as their stories will change and progress as you play more, but with somewhat less emphasis on it. It’s always good when a roguelike has ways to progress beyond simple skill trees.
Perhaps SlashZero’s biggest strength so far is the variety of attacks, abilities and combos across the two characters. They’re different enough to really make it worthwhile to try both, and the arsenal of attack modifiers and skills make it worth experimenting each run to see what works best for your preferred playstyle. It makes it feel tactical, like BlazBlue: Entropy Effect did, and that adds a great deal of colour and replayability to the title.
SlashZero has no official release date yet, but this playtest already reveals a polished, well-made action game with massive potential. Sure the genre is beyond oversaturated now, but SlashZero’s approach to frenetic, challenging (but not punishing) action might just be enough to make it stand out in the crowd.
SlashZero is being developed by Streetlamp Studios and is due to be released in on Steam and Windows in 2026.