SlashZero is an upcoming action roguelite with heavy platforming and build customization. Learn more about the game’s plot, gameplay, release date, our review of the playtest, and more.
Everything We Know About SlashZero
SlashZero Plot
Players take on the role of a Timehacker; an elite agent tasked by an entity named Silver to fight the spreading Hieros-I corruption across timelines. Along the way, they will encounter the ruins of civilizations, learning about their collapse, and unravel the mysteries of the creeping scourge.
SlashZero Gameplay
SlashZero is an action roguelike with heavy emphasis on combos and customization. You can unleash flashy skills, fight diverse enemies, modify your builds, before ending in big boss fights. After that, you can rest up at the main hub where you can upgrade your base abilities and unlock features.
SlashZero Release Date
SlashZero does not have a release date as of yet. However, starting on March 27, 2026, a playtest is available for interested players to sign up for.
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 Steam |
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| TBA |
SlashZero Review (Playtest)
Zero It Definitely Isn’t
Where does the thrill of a roguelike come from? The satisfaction from using absurd builds? The gambler’s excitement of earning RNG-based upgrades? Or maybe the relief that comes from taking risks that pay off? Really, it’s all of that—and much more. It is a genre built on randomness and the absurd, where player skill is directly matched by foresight and expression.
SlashZero operates on these exact same principles; some more than others, in many ways. Visually, it’s one of the most premium-looking action roguelikes out there, and it definitely has the core feature polish to match. However, in terms of everything else, SlashZero just feels rather standard.
I mean, sure, visual fidelity may contribute heavily to a pleasant gaming experience, but it rarely makes a title memorable on its own. And in a genre as crowded as action platformers and roguelikes, good graphics are just a luxury. Instead, it’s the mechanical hook that really takes a player’s attention.
Take Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia for example; these two games are the masters of "Summon-Based Combat" (think JoJo) where fights are done using entities separate from the protagonists. It gives them a distinct identity, and is also primarily why they're remembered fondly.
On the other hand, SlashZero only really offers an impeccably executed baseline experience, but without a signature thumbprint—at least for now.
Small Setup, Big Possibilities
Part of SlashZero's charm lies in its simple control scheme. The regular package really only includes basic attacks, special or heavy attacks, double-jumps, dash and aerial dashes, a normal skill, and an ultimate; standard fare for most action platformers that strips away much of the complexities of frenetic platformers, yet still supporting incredible combo potential. Of course, that means a much lower entry barrier without lowering the ceiling by much.
Lacking any distinct mechanic in terms of its combat functionality, though, doesn’t make it boring at all. Instead, the minimalist control scheme feels like a deliberate design choice. That is, by reducing the mechanical friction, it creates a vacuum that you can fill with your custom builds.
See, among the standard roguelike’s RNG-based upgrades are those that could not only change the properties of your attacks, but add entirely new moves to your arsenal. But if a game with an already complicated set of controls would do so, it just inches further into convolution. After all, the cognitive load of a complex game is already at a point where adding even more options would barely do anything.
Yet, in SlashZero, since there’s so few moves to begin with, each new addition to your arsenal feels like a godsend and profoundly shapes the combat loop. That is, each new ability ain’t just a bump on your stats; it’s a fundamental expansion of your tactical options, letting you view each skirmish in an entirely different perspective. Heck, you can even turn it into a pseudo-fighting game by taking certain upgrades.
It’s the small things that make a big difference here, like adding a pinch of salt to your cookie to make the sweetness richer.
Cheap Builds and Chips
Build customization in SlashZero comes in the form of your roguelike RNG upgrades on top of roguelite meta-progression features. The former needs no introduction, but there’s quite a bunch for the latter that not only cover baseline stats, but also hub functionality unlocks and pre-run character specialization.
The meta-progression upgrades are arguably the most important here, at least in terms of direct rewards. These essentially serve as the connective tissue that ties one run from the next, and unlocking them becomes a secondary, yet very important goal to achieve. They also reward you regardless of whether you end up with a heavily specialized build, or a more average one due to bad luck.
My favorite one in particular involves stacking all the mid-air passives with every single upgrade that encourages you to jump or dash as often as possible, resulting in a playstyle that resembles roleplaying as an amphetamine-drunk chimpanzee.
Though this is rather commonplace for any good roguelike, SlashZero won’t lose to any of them in terms of player expression. There is a very specific joy in realizing a build works not because it's “good” in the traditional sense, but because you’ve successfully exploited its mechanics to see just how far they’ll bend—or just be funny to play with. And simply knowing that possibility exists creates a lot of replayability in the name of experimentation and exploitation.
Optimized, Yes, but With Problems
SlashZero is entirely in 3D; a relative rarity even today. Yet despite its supposedly higher load on our potatoes—I mean computers—it still somehow runs extremely well even on median hardware… which ironically makes its smaller faults much more difficult to ignore.
This can be best felt, not just seen, by just how responsive its controls are. It’s tight enough that it’s very easy to pull off last-minute dodges and exploit windows of opportunity hard and often. In addition, the game’s incredible optimization also makes most loading sequences near seamless visually, as the developers even designed the stage-end animations, the loading screen, and the area select start-up to look like one transition.
However, this can be a double-edged sword. For example, there is still a bit of work to be done there since this sequence is prone to any form of stutter from variables such as using HDDs or slower SSDs. And because the game tries its hardest to hide the seams, it becomes much more obvious when they fail to do so.
This also creates an uncomfortable sense of inconsistency which makes literally any other part of the game that doesn’t involve seamless transition feel cheap by comparison. That is, since they tried to set such a high bar on their presentation, SlashZero inadvertently made standard attempts at loading feel like a step backward.
The Real Problem is in the Whole Picture
While SlashZero’s visuals are absolutely awesome and it might feel like a near-perfect game when paired with its very solid action roguelike core design, there’s a rather important issue to mention. Especially if SlashZero will price itself like a premium title based on its 3D aesthetics, it’s just not going to work as well as it could. And that’s because this has become a genre mostly defined by the “next weird game.”
See, while SlashZero’s surface level qualities are indeed nearly impeccable, it doesn’t actually offer anything new. Tight controls, for example, are a basic requirement for any action roguelike worth its salt. Visuals? You don’t need to be a 3D game to be aesthetically perfect. Meta-progression? It’s kind of standard here, too. What about the builds, then? Sure, they’re great fun to mess around with, but that’s not a rarity nowadays. Even the flashy combos are just another decorative feature common among action platformers.
I mean, just look at Noita and its builds that lag the game so hard it stops at single digit frames—and that thing uses pixel graphics.
That is to say, it needs something that will make it pop from the mass of action roguelikes in the market beyond just crazy good visuals. Fortunately, SlashZero is still in the early stages of its development, and they do already have a solid base. So, here's to hoping that the upcoming features would make it rise above the rest.
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SlashZero Product Information
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| Title | SLASHZERO |
|---|---|
| Release Date | TBA |
| Developer | Streetlamp Studio |
| Publisher | Skystone Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Action, Roguelike, Platformer |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | TBA |
| Official Website | SlashZero Official Website |
