Characters / Katana ZERO

This is the character page for Katana Zero. Given the nature of the game, spoilers abound.

Main Characters

Zero / The Dragon

A nameless assassin that is working for a secret group to assassinate key figures in New Mecca. The protagonist. The media seemingly nicknames him 'The Dragon' after a few jobs.

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• Ambidextrous Sprite: His sword is traditionally depicted as being sheathed on his left hip, as he's right handed. Not only is this flipped when he faces left, but so is the left side of his kimono's collar that exposes his shoulder.
• Anime Hair: Of the "samurai blowout" school of hair-styling. The only other character in the game with a worse case than his is his old war-buddy Fifteen.
• Antihero: The protagonist's only motivation towards killing countless people essentially boils down to being told to do so. Later in the game, he even admits to enjoying killing. During a therapy session you have the option to say you don't enjoy killing, but the screen glitches out and forces you to say so. Not to mention you also have a lot of mean dialogue options, and the interrupting feature can make the protagonist seem like a Jerkass if used frequently.
• Assassin Outclassin': Invoked at the end of the game. Zero can find an assassination dossier for himself in his handler/therapist's suitcase, in case he went rogue or learned too much about how Chronos is made or the purpose of his assassination missions.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: The main advantage his Chronos doses give him, allowing him to relive and analyze numerous occurrences of the same event again and again in order to determine the scenario most likely to result in him killing everyone in his way.
• Ax-Crazy: Downplayed, as he has standards, but as The Dragon's sanity slips, so does his control over his bloodlust. Best expressed by the scene in which he may snap and kill a war veteran that accosted him and the scene where he is forced to discuss how he enjoys killing, not to mention him braining The Psychiatrist with a paperweight in the normal ending.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Chronos is not responsible for him Parrying Bullets or throwing potted plants with enough force to kill people. As described by the psychologist:
  The Psychiatrist: Your swordsmanship? Your combat acumen? No, these are the product of years of training.
  The Psychiatrist: Your precognition? Your perception of time? Yes, these are side effects of the drug. This is why we cannot allow others to abuse it.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Thanks to the drugs that the protagonist takes, he can visualize his plan of attack before executing it with near-perfection. You later fight a NULL user who can do the same thing, and will even turn back time with you. However, it's later hinted that the Dragon's precognition is based on his latent psychic abilities as a Gamma NULL — having been inoculated with Chronos since he was young.
• The Comically Serious: He's a silent, stoic, cold-blooded killer. He can also say that his getup is cosplay, get into a conversation about anime, play a Yu-Gi-Oh-esque card game (complete with saying the names of cards aloud), and use his sword to cut up drugs and proceed to inhale them, all without batting an eye.
  • Hilariously, if the Receptionist openly flirts with him, one of the dialogue options makes him genuinely flustered, averting this trope.
• Defiant to the End: Proves to be this when captured by V. Somewhat deconstructed, in that with the exception of the breaking speech, spitting on or cussing out V leads to his "death" and another restart.
• Death-Activated Superpower: A variant: His Mental Time Travel only triggers when he "dies" in a vision, and once he doesn't die on one path, that future becomes reality.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A diagnosed psychopath and assassin, he's nonetheless disgusted by V's sadism.
  • He draws the line at killing children. Even hitting the prompt to execute Al-Quasim's family multiple times while he is under the influence of severe drug withdrawal won't do a thing.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: When being interrogated by V, he can do, say. and reply to many things, them being begging, or just insulting V, one of them is him saying "Fuck you" right before V replies it back to him, and V just sends a bullet to his skull. Then there is another one where V says that he is getting late to his date, which Zero can reply that he hopes that she is ugly, and V Lamely Comebacks by saying that he should "Shut the fuck up." before he shoots him in the head.
• Foreseeing My Death: Zero's main asset. Unlike many examples of this trope, he can fight fate: his precognitive visions allow him to avoid any actions that would kill him, and he can have visons over and over until the sequence of actions that lets him survive is seen-after which he can execute it flawlessly.
• Glass Cannon: ZERO is quick, nimble and can destroy any thug with one well-placed katana strike... but one misplaced bullet, punch or knife does the same to him.
• Heroic Willpower: Any attempt to make him kill a child quickly runs straight into this, as shown by him ignoring the Interface Screw when the game tries to force you to kill a child.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He's a skilled and ruthless iaido master who cuts down his foes with superhuman skill. He also enjoys listening to electronic and dubstep music, displays an apt knowledge of obscure anime, is a skilled dancer, and can engage in an impromptu Card Battle Game with the otaku receptionist provided she wasn't eliminated. He can also troll various people, like telling the otaku receptionist that he's cosplaying as a "Pinkachu" when he obviously isn't, and responding to her skeptical questions with Pokémon Speak until she gives up out of exasperation and annoyance.
  • On a darker note, he also shows numerous Pet the Dog moments that call into question his supposedly lax morals. While it is indeed possible to be nice to people, the psychiatrist proclaims the protagonist is a medically diagnosed psychopath. During one monologue, the protagonist even outright says that killing soldiers in the Cromag War "wasn't so bad", but seems to feel remorse about executing civilians, among numerous other examples. While these could be just an example of Even Evil Has Standards, it's so consistent that it genuinely calls into question just how psychopathic Zero is supposed to be.
• I Work Alone: What he says to V when he gets offered to take part in his snuff film.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Dragon seems to habitually re-sheathe his sword after every swing, even when swinging multiple times in a row.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: The protagonist is a Master Swordsman capable of effortlessly slicing through armored enemies, and can deflect bullets even without resorting to bullet time.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: The one time the protagonist actually finds a real weapon rather than (see the trope immediately below) old bottles or plants, namely a pistol, he just throws it right at the enemy as he would any other one-use missile.
• Improbable Weapon User: Applies when the protagonist picks up items frequently. It'd be hard to throw a potted plant at someone hard enough to kill them.
• Logical Weakness: His precognition is an odd variant on a Death-Activated Superpower — so if he doesn't die in a vision, his future sight doesn't trigger, so it doesn't protect him if he only gets knocked out. This is exploited by V to capture him, by Comedy and Tragedy to drug him, and is seen again when he's victimised by a suicide bomber in the bunker.
• Mental Time Travel: His confrontations with V, Comedy, Tragedy, and Headhunter indicate that due to the Chronos in his system, if he's killed, time will just rewind to before his death.
  Comedy: [if "I can't die." is picked] This is for real. The chronos in your bloodstream is running out. You'll actually die if you choose to. [if "Why would I ever choose to die?" is picked] Oh, I don't know! Maybe it's something you want? This seems like a unique opportunity, since time usually resets whenever you die.
• My Hero, Zero: Towards the end of the game, it's revealed that during the war, his NULL codename was Subject Zero, though he also goes by just ''Zero.''
• No Name Given: Dragon isn't given a name the entire narrative — "the Dragon" is just a codename, and no one says his real name. The closest he has to a real name is the Subject Zero designation, but that's more of a You Are Number 6 scenario rather than an actual name.
• Older Than They Look: A midgame conversation implies that the Dragon is very young-looking. He's a veteran of a recent war, but that was seven years ago and he still looks quite young. His dossier says he's just 22, but in a withdrawal-induced hallucination/flashback he says he's been fighting for 28 years. Considering he's a NULL (and that the ending confirms that yes, he was in active service during the war) it's probable that Chronos abuse has physically slowed his aging.
• One-Man Army: He's capable of carving his way through swaths of thugs and police officers with nothing but a katana and his ability to enter a Bullet Time state by slowing his perception of time.
• Parental Substitute: To the Girl, due to her father never seeming to pay attention to her.
• Power Incontinence: His perception of time is sufficiently detached from the present that his mind may sometimes randomly jump forward or backward in time for a few moments.
• Pretty Boy: While a fair share of the promotional art for the game depicts the protagonist as somewhat gruff, he is noted in the game for having a slim build and a baby face. One of the NPCs you can interact with, an anime fangirl, is smitten by his looks and becomes infatuated the moment he tries passing off his attire as anime cosplay.
• Professional Killer: He works for a mysterious cabal to assassinate specific targets while leaving no witnesses in exchange for daily doses of Chronos — a rare and highly addictive drug. It turns out that the people the protagonist is being sent to assassinate are all connected to the NULL supersoldier program and said drug — which is actually a flawed supersoldier serum.
• Psycho for Hire: According to the therapist, he's a psychopath who carries out missions for no reason other than satiating his bloodlust and addiction to Chronos. Of course, given who the therapist is...
• Reluctant Psycho: He has several Even Evil Has Standards moments and a Would Not Harm An Innocent attitude, it's suggested he's not really proud of being a Psycho for Hire.
• Save Scumming: His precognition is a variant on this, planning mission in his head via his powers until he finds the one correct path.
• Seers: He has precognition due to the Chronos in his system, using this to plan out his missions.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: His participation in the Cromag War messed with him.
• Silent Protagonist: Sort of. Most of the Dragon's dialogue is decided by the player, but the only time he ever talks on his own accord is when he's up on the rooftop with the little girl, admiring the city's beauty.
• Super-Strength: While not explicitly stated to be part of his power set, he is capable of throwing a variety of objects with enough force and precision to kill someone in a single hit. Said objects fly in straight lines without dropping at any point. These include among other things: bottles, knives, pot plants and entire stone busts.
• The Protagonist: The player controls him for the most of the game. Expect until The Dragon tape, and the V's tape, where the player's contrpl is being assigned to the people in the tape.
• The Sociopath: Heavily downplayed, and possibly even subverted. The Psychiatrist calls him a psychopath, but while he is compulsively violent, he doesn't seem to actually enjoy it much, and he shows sincere regret over killing civilians in the Cromag Wars. If he is a sociopath, he's an incredibly high-functioning one, and the Psychiatrist is later revealed to be a massive liar.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: His withdrawal from Chronos seriously messes with his mind. This comes to a head when you fight the Secret Boss, which is heavily implied to be the Dragon going critical on his withdrawal symptoms and hallucinating. It gets even worse at the ending of the Katana HERO April Fool's bootleg, where all of the 4Kids-style anime wackiness and "poorly-translated" dialogue is heavily implied to be how Zero remembers everything that has happened up until now. During the ending, he is outright asked if he is "losing it".
• Thousand-Yard Stare: According to Snow, he has one of these bad.

Snow: There was nothing behind those eyes. No soul, no remorse. He didn't care about the mission, or the people he killed, or even himself.

• Unwitting Pawn: Shown to be one on account of having amnesia, being used as an assassin in a government conspiracy to kill everyone connected to the drug Chronos and the NULL super soldier program.
• Violation of Common Sense: If he gets punched by a burly mook, he gets killed. If he gets punched by V, he'll simply be knocked back and get up with no problem.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: While the Dragon is noted for his inhuman killing efficiency, his greatest blind spot is his inability to put up with hurting innocent civilians — particularly children. In his most vivid memory of the time he served in the Cromag Wars, as well as his final assignment as a contract killer, he's tasked to leave no survivors or witnesses, and in both cases, fails due to child presence. It's implied this was a regular sentiment during wartime, and further records from the NULL lead architect, Leon, imply that despite successfully engineering Gamma NULL to be the most powerful super soldiers known to man, they ultimately lost the war and were deemed a failure. Given the game doesn't spare any opportunity to show the belligerency of a NULL, it can be inferred that they failed to win due to disobedience; in the Dragon's case, most likely not wanting to kill children.

The Psychiatrist

The Dragon's therapist, who he regularly visits to talk about his PTSD-induced nightmares, other things relating to his missions, and to get his regular dose of medicine. It starts to become apparent that he's tied to things Dragon looks into.

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• Affably Evil: He doesn't act on his own motives and it's implied that his family is taken hostage if he fails to follow orders.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In the normal ending, Zero finds him in his office, breaking down in paranoia. He screams about how he can't find his daughter. Zero then proceeds to beat him to death with his daughter's own paperweight until he's a bloody pulp. There's no satisfaction, and despite all he's done, it's hard not to feel sorry for him. In the psychotherapy ending, it doesn't get much better either. He catches Zero's Punch, then gets his eye stabbed, either immediately after, or after watching Zero Freak out and have a seizure..
• Bludgeoned to Death: One of the fates he can fall to. Is that Zero will use the Healing Stone to smash his head into red paste.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: It's implied that his Akira-esque boss form might just be a hallucination playing out in Dragon's head — which was confirmed by the developer on Twitter.
• Berserk Button: Don't interrupt him. Interrupt him all the time and you get to fight him as an Optional Boss.
  • Don't pull unwanted attention during your missions. He absolutely HATES that. Naturally, the plot forces you into doing so, so he gets really nettled.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's a professional, and he acts like one. Then Dragon starts digging into things he shouldn't, and he pulls out all stops to insult, berate, and punish him.
• Body Horror: Whatever combat drugs he takes seemingly mutate him into a monstrosity, but it's subverted as it was mostly in the Dragon's head.
• Bullying a Dragon: Granted, his family has possibly been taken hostage and/or killed, but you'd think the guy would be nicer to the unstoppable, psychotic, unstable, drug-addicted killing machine sitting a few feet away from him.
• Eldritch Abomination: During the True Final Boss, the war drugs he takes to fight you seems to turn him into a freaking AKIRA-like abomination. In reality, the drugs he takes just causes Zero to hallucinate the transformation in a case of Your Mind Makes It Real, as after the fight, the therapist is back in his chair, with the Dragon's sword in his face.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He mentions having a daughter. When either the Dragon's escapade on the highway or his final contract is implied to kill her, he just about snaps.
• Eye Scream: His actual fate after being defeated as the True Final Boss, courtesy of Zero's katana.
• Forbidden Fruit: Gives a number of direction through the game that the player is free to listen to or ignore at will.
• The Handler: He serves as the protagonist's, supplying him with assassination targets after each therapy session in exchange for a daily dose of Chronos. It eventually becomes clear that he's a government agent who's more of a handler than a therapist, and is using Zero's amnesia to manipulate him into killing off everyone related to the NULL Project.
• Pet the Dog:
  • If Dragon manages to get through the prison level without taking a single life, he'll state that he and Dragon's employers are genuinely elated by his "exemplary" work. It's basically the only moment where the Psychiatrist actually compliments him.
  • The Psychiatrist also expresses genuine pride if you choose not to talk to Electrohead and remain obedient, being very satisfied with the Dragon's work.
• Psycho Psychologist: The "Ulterior motive'' version: he provides therapy and Chronos as a means of manipulating The Dragon to cover-up the NULL project.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • If the protagonist does everything he can to piss the therapist off, he snaps and pumps himself full of super soldier serums to gain powers surpassing Chronos, but which (seemingly) transforms him into a monster.
  • Provided the therapist be sufficiently enraged, the assassination dossier for Fa Yuan is simply full of "KILL" repeated over and over — though this is likely the protagonist's Chronos withdrawal acting up, since it's a normal dossier in the game's regular route.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Because of the limited pixel-artstyle of the game, this isn't really visible, but the page image clearly shows this trope. This gets played straight in his first phase as the True Final Boss, complete with dramatic glasses adjustment.
• The Shrink: Of the Harmful variety. It's subtle at first, but it becomes clear that he is not interested in Zero's mental well-being at all. It seems that he only cares about eliminating everything and everyone that might reveal the NULL project to the public, working through Zero . It's unclear if he even is an actual licensed psychotherapist.
• Tranquil Fury: He has his moments where it's very apparent he's enraged at Dragon, but mostly keeps his calm.
• True Final Boss: If the player meets all the prerequisites of performing every mission against his directive, as well as continually angering him in every therapy session, talking to Electrohead, Killing the police when he tells you not to, and refusing to take the Chronos injection after the Electrohead fight, you fight him after completing the Bunker level.
• Unreliable Expositor: Given how he is dosing you with addictive drugs to get you to kill people, it's more than probable that his diagnoses are a bit suspect.
• Villainous Breakdown: By the end of the game, he's considerably more hostile, and when the Dragon shows up at his office to demand answers, he finds the Psychiatrist desperately packing a briefcase, hurling papers across his desk, and smashing his phone with the decorative paperweight his daughter sent him. It's implied that his ties to the Chronos project are about to be exposed, and he's lashing out in a paranoid frenzy.

The Girl

The daughter of the Dragon's next door neighbor. Due to her father being absent, the Dragon usually finds her playing in the hallway and getting into conversations with her.

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• Children Are Innocent: She's in the dark as to what Dragon's personal life involves, and he can take the approach of making sure she never finds out.
• Damsel in Distress: At the end of the game it's revealed she was kidnapped by Comedy and Tragedy, who plan on fridging her… if she even existed outside the protagonist's head in the first place.
• Deadpan Snarker: While she acts as a Cheerful Child most times, if the Dragon tries to play along with her she often responds with biting sarcasm — like asking him if he's aware that Behemoth and Leviathan are just toys if he says they're scary and look really strong.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Her silhouette shows up in the protagonist's first few nightmares, before the shadowy figure throws her into the silhouetted machine and she's turned into the Leviathan toy.
• Hallucinations: Much like Comedy and Tragedy, her actual presence in reality is disputable. She doesn't interact with anyone except the protagonist throughout the course of the game, the protagonist's landlord points out that the person she claims to be her father was a junkie with no children to speak of, and after a point she stops appearing in the protagonist's nightmare flashbacks — specifically around the time when he's becoming close to her. Despite this, much like the two aforementioned masked men, she has some tangible impact on reality, such as in one scene where she makes the protagonist food while he's asleep. Comedy makes a remark about the protagonist having a conscience in regards to the kid, though it's unknown whether this is meant to be a figurative or literal interpretation.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: She's scared by the samurai movie that the Dragon picks up, hiding her face and whimpering during the gory battle scenes.
• Lethal Chef: The one time she tries to cook for the Dragon, it ends up poorly. To be fair, all she had to work with was fish and protein paste.
• Morality Pet: To the Dragon. The scenes with her really bring out the human in him.
• Wonder Child: She comes into the Dragon's life abruptly, and proceeds to bring out the best of him. However, it's heavily implied that she herself is a hallucination embodying Zero's conscience.

Targets

Josh Rose

One of the early-level targets.

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• The Atoner: He is the only person connected to the Chronos conspiracy who seems to feel any regret over his actions; should Zero give him the chance, his last words are to apologize for all the pain he's caused through Zero and the other NULL Soldiers.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Jumps down the balcony upon being confronted, going out on his own terms rather than the player's. If Zero has a throwable item, however, he doesn't get a chance to jump.
• The Conspiracy: Seems to have been one of the industrialists or businessmen behind the Chronos project.
• Driven to Suicide: Once again, both for feeling regret for his contribution to the NULL project, and to refuse Zero the satisfaction of killing him.

Electrohead

A popular DJ who stumbles across a stash of Chronos.

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• Boom, Headshot!: If the Dragon takes too long to kill him, V — presumably the one who the stash of Chronos belonged to — kills him via a bullet to the head.
• Character as Himself: In the game's soundtrack, the music track for his level, "Hit the Floor", is credited to his name.
• The Conspiracy: One of the only aversions in the game. Electrohead has no connection to the overarching Chronos conspiracy; he was just a drug-loving DJ who found the wrong stash.
• Consummate Liar: His dossier describes him as such in an attempt to dissuade the Dragon from speaking to him.
• Cool Helmet: His helmet is a reference to deadmau5 and Daft Punk, encasing his entire head and having a view screen that changes based on his emotional state.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: He mentions that ever since he took Chronos, time keeps warping and repeating, and that he's already spoken to the protagonist numerous times — mistaking him for a drug-induced hallucination at first.
• Forbidden Fruit: Talking to him. It reveals some key details about the game's plot, regarding Chronos.
• Innocent Bystander: For a given value of "innocent", anyways; he offers some exposition on Chronos, but he has no idea what he's gotten himself into by stealing that Chronos shipment. It gets him killed.
• "Just Joking" Justification: When he realizes the Dragon doesn't know what he's talking about, Electroface goes from panicking to smugly gloating that his "groupies" are going to brutally murder the Dragon… and then right back to panicking if told that they're all dead or that he's going to die, saying his threats were just a joke.
• Loophole Abuse: The Psychiatrist explicitly orders you not to talk to Electrohead, however you can still talk to him and ask for relevant information without violating the contract. The moment he threatens the Dragon, select the option to kill him - or, if he decided to take his words back and strike a deal with the samurai, immediately select the dialogue action to kill him before any other options pop-out.

Fa Yuan

A political prisoner being held at Mutual-Nil prison.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Fifteen corners him, he pleads for his life. It doesn't work.
• Already Done for You: When you reach him, he's already been assassinated.
• The Conspiracy: Fa Yuan's place in the Chronos program is uncertain, and it's not really clear what his role was. He still knew enough to die for it.
• He Knows Too Much: Given who they sent after him, someone clearly wanted this poor bastard dead before he could talk. Unfortunately for them, Fifteen was faster. Unfortunately for Fa Yuan, Fifteen didn't need him alive.
• Kangaroo Court: Fifteen can claim that his imminent court date is one of these. Whether he's right or not is never determined, as Fa Yuan never lives to stand trial.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Fifteen gets the information he needs from Fa Yuan, he drowns him in his own toilet.

Al-Qasim

A wealthy, reclusive industrialist.

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• Boom, Headshot!: How V kills him.
• Bound and Gagged: By the time Zero gets to him, V has him tied up and is in the process of torturing information out of him. Or attempting to, since he's gagged.
• The Conspiracy: One of the industrialists behind the Chronos project. Interestingly, he still seems to have had access to a supply of it, and used it to retain Headhunter's services.

Antagonists

V

A Russian thug hired by an unnamed employer in order to find out how to make Chronos. Makes for the most prominent antagonist in the first half of the game.

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• Axe-Crazy: It doesn't take long to see how nuts V is.
• An Arm and a Leg: Fifteen wastes little time in quite literally disarming V before abducting him.
• And I Must Scream: He inflicts this (maybe) on Zero's neighbors for the crime of listening to music too loudly and being obnoxious. Fifteen gives him a taste of his own medicine.
• Attention Whore: Wants attention from one person — The Dragon. Exploiting this is the one thing that gets under his skin and lets The Dragon escape from his bindings.
• Bad Boss: V doesn't care at all that the Dragon is killing his men. In fact, he's thrilled, seeing his killings as an auteur killer at work.
• Badass Normal: How do you think he got this job, he asks? He's not on Chronos at all, but more than able to keep up with the main character just the same.
• Beard of Evil: If you look closely, he has a little blue goatee.
• Bilingual Bonus: Frequently peppers his speech with Russian Cyrillic.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Apart from his gangster chains, V packs a gold-plated pistol as his weapon.
• Co-Dragons: Along with Snow.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Got his arms chopped off by Fifteen, followed by being tortured for information. His own post-mortem account (whether you can take that at face value or not) adds that he got shot with a lot of Chronos during the process, as well, which never ends well.
• Death by Irony: Dealing with Chronos in the first place puts a big target on you.
• Establishing Character Moment: He pulls Dragon into a limo and gets into a talk about his "job". During such, he asks Dragon if he can use his katana as a razor/threatens a prostitute he has with him into giving him a razor, cuts up some drugs, and slams his face down to inhale it.
  • His Snuff Film could be seen this way, too, showcasing one of his most conspicuous character traits — namely, his love of inflicting horrible tortures on helpless victims.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner:

V : "Think you are tough shit dragon? Well I am the Dragon Slayer!"

• Frazetta Man: He gets called a "Fucking Sub-human" by the main character.
• Fat Bastard: His Trading Card art depicts him with a noticeable belly and he complains about being out of shape due to shooting his personal trainer.
• Hate Sink: Easily the most unlikable character in the game, having zero redeeming qualities compared to the rest of the cast, and is just a cruel sadist who loves being a total asshole to everyone he meets.
• Husky Russkie: The most physically imposing antagonist, he is stated to be Russian and peppers his speech with Cyrillic.
• Irony: His behavior stems from his desire for attention and approval from The Dragon, which is why he pursues Zero. Zero isn't actually the Dragon, meaning that a lot of the killing sprees he was so enamored with may not have even been Zero's handiwork. He does get the attention he wanted from Fifteen, though… in the form of being tortured to death, just like V did to at least two others.
• I'm Your Biggest Fan: The Dragon gets this treatment from V when he first meets him, but since V is a complete sadist willing to film himself torturing anybody for fun, Dragon isn't too thrilled about this. V later loses all respect for Dragon when he starts interfering with his schemes to procure the means to restart Chronos production and also because he wasn't given the attention he so craves from Dragon.
• Jerkass: If he didn't have a Kick the Dog moment every five minutes, he'd probably die.
• Killed Offscreen: The last we see of him, he had his arms chopped off by Fifteen and was apparently taken away by him. SNOW states that he's dead in a mid-credits scene, and he's also shown tied to a chair in Fifteen's hideout. He does have one final appearance while Zero is tripping on Chronos, but it's completely ambiguous whether or not this is "real" or just another hallucination.
• Lame Comeback: During the interrogation, V will mention his date, that can make Zero say that he "Hopes that she is ugly" which will make V instantly pull out his pistol and reply back that he should "Shut the fuck up." right before killing him on the spot.
• Made of Iron: Takes a lot of punishment before finally going down, all without making much of a fuss, and boasts of being shot a great many times by a NULL sniper and still being in the shape to hunt them down afterwards.
• Numerical Theme Naming: More subtly than Fifteen and Zero, but "V" is also the roman numeral for five, though unlike them he was never a Super-Soldier.
• One-Letter Name: He's only ever referred to as "V".
• Psycho for Hire: He's violent, sadistic, and hated by his collaborators; and has been hired to find a way to restart Chronos production.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His attempts to get Zero's approval comes across as a teenager trying to get the positive attention of a delinquent they admire, and it is easy to upset him to the point where he essentially throws a tantrum.
• Recruiting the Criminal: He tries this on the Dragon, not realizing that he's already working for an employer to shut down rival Chronos producers. However, his sadism causes this to backfire, as the Dragon outright rejects his proposal and V then tries to kill him.
• I Never Told You My Name: This is V's reaction to Zero calling him by name.
• Starter Villain: The first major antagonist Dragon encounters in the story, and the first to give him any run for his money.
• Stupid Evil: V is very, very capable when it comes to violence. Unfortunately for whoever hired him, this is the only thing he's capable at. Both times he has someone hostage who could tell him about Chronos, he kills them before they can talk — the first time on a whim to make sure Zero doesn't extract him safely, the second time in a fit of rage induced by Zero's Breaking Speech.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The snuff video he leaves for the Dragon shows him killing the stoner neighbours by injecting them with Chronos and torturing them to death. He himself suffers this fate at the hands of Fifteen.
• Torture Technician: As evidenced by the film he sends to the Dragon, he's rather fond of inflicting pain on a helpless captive.
• The Worf Effect: After being the only person to survive multiple encounters with the Dragon and threatening him even when cornered, Fifteen shows up and removes his arms in a matter of seconds, hijacking the plot from him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Implied. His two victims in his Snuff Film come across as being a pair of rowdy older teenagers.

Strong Terry

A mook who happens to be very, very popular across New Mecca. Is the first casualty of the contract on Electrohead.

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• Avenging the Villain: One of the later-level mooks announces he's "been saving a bullet" for the protagonist for killing Terry.
• Brick Joke: Early in the game the protagonist can overhear a conversation between two mooks arguing who would win in a fight, the Dragon or Strong Terry. Who's Strong Terry? Is this foreshadowing, and he's the level's boss, perhaps? Nope, he's nowhere to be found there. So you move on, get to the next level, business as usual, you kill the first regular enemy that gets in your way, and...

  Mook: WHAT DID YOU DO TO STRONG TERRY???

• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: It's entirely possible to beat the entire game without ever hearing him named. It's almost assured that the protagonist does not care either way, even though Terry himself is mourned.
• The Dead Have Names: One of the very few aversions to No Name Given in the entire game.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Subject of this, with some other mooks speculating whether he could win against the protagonist.
• Mooks: The only thing separating him from all others is that he was given a name.
• Present Absence: Among the mooks at least.
• Running Gag: Given his absolute gameplay irrelevance, all the mentions of him and the characterization he gets are reduced to this.

SNOW

V's partner in crime, a female ninja.

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• Dark Action Girl: Very good with her sword, and is working for a rival of the Dragon's employers.
• Enigmatic Minion: Compared to V, whose love of violence and desire to use Chronos to bolster his murder sprees is obvious, it's hard to tell what SNOW's stake in all this is.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Disgusted by V's snuff films, claiming to not "approve of his pet projects."
• Highly-Visible Ninja: She wears a white high-collared kimono and geta sandals, but is referred to as a ninja.
• Inexplicably Awesome: It's left ambiguous if she's a NULL or just a really good Badass Normal.
• Petal Power: Can teleport in a flurry of razor-sharp cherry blossom petals.
• The Stoic: She is calm and aloof, in contrast to her Axe-Crazy partner, V.
• The Unfought: While she hinders your mission progress at points, you never actually face her head-to-head.
• Worthy Opponent: While she chides the protagonist for his stance being sloppy to his face, she tells V that he showed absolutely zero fear when she came at him and that she is looking forward to crossing blades with him in the future.

Mr. Kissyface

A tall man wielding an axe, and an accomplice of V's.

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• Agent Peacock: It's a subtler case than most, but he wears a vibrant purple mask and wields an axe with a lilac-hued handle. None of that makes him any less dangerous. Though the name is less than subtle.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He might be a thug, but he rocks a classy white suit, even when about to commit murder.
• Blade Lock: He engages with the Dragon in these four times before the Dragon's katana cuts through his axe's handle.
• Blood Knight: Chuckles with delight when the Dragon escapes his bonds, kills the other two guards, and reclaims his sword — remarking that now they can have some fun.
• The Brute: He may be V's right hand man, but he's considerably bigger than the rest of the cast, even Snow.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He is first seen on a framed picture in the first level.
• Faux Affably Evil: He wears his nickname and suave nature quite ironically.
• Giggling Villain: He gets a good chuckle out of violence, and also snickers at V getting riled up by the protagonist.
• Only Sane Man: As opposed to V, he recognizes that the Dragon's trying to get his partner riled up, and objects to V blowing Kasim's brains out because the old man hadn't told them how to make Chronos yet.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: He busts out grenades when on his last legs.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Or an axe, in his case, which either returns to him or returns to his hands. However, this also leaves him open to attack.

Headhunter

A female NULL allied with Fifteen.

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• Anti-Villain: Her goals and motives are all too justified after what was done to her, her goals align in many ways with the protagonist's by the time they meet, and she bears absolutely no malice to him.
• Beam Spam: Combining both of the firearm spam tropes, she's able to Flash Step while using her main beam rifle, and usually caps a combination attack off with an uzi salvo covering the screen.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: After being killed, her head is used to bypass the retinal scan of the final vault door in the protagonist's way.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Like all NULL super soldiers. She alludes to seeing a great number (possibly hundreds, or thousands) of cycles of this fight, and almost assuredly gets to rewind and try again like the protagonist would, many times before she is actually brought low for good.
• Death Seeker: Implied by her defeat — a battle between NULLs is a battle of wills, and the fact she canonically loses despite apparently seeing our protagonist die hundreds of times implies this.
• Face Death with Dignity: She does not plead for her life or rant furiously upon being brought down, rather simply begging the protagonist to avenge her, bringing down those that did this to her and him.
• Final Boss: She's the final boss of the normal playthrough.
• Flash Step: She can effectively teleport around the battlefield, like Fifteen does.
• A God Am I: If Zero tells her he doesn't kill because he enjoys it but for Chronos, she declares Zero, herself, and the other NULLs to be gods made immortal by the time-altering drug.
• The Gunslinger: In contrast to her fellow NULL brethren, Headhunter is an expert marksman who primarily fights with firearms.
• Ironic Nickname: It's her own head that ends up being hunted and put to use.
• Killed Off for Real: If Comedy and Tragedy's statements regarding Chronos users being unable to truly die until they're on the brink of withdrawal is true, her running on fumes is what enabled the protagonist to kill her.
• Neutral No Longer: Despite being Fifteen's companion, she initially doesn't harbor the same desire for revenge against her masters that he does, expressing ambivalence towards having a direct hand in his plot and seemingly only acting as a bodyguard. This mentality changes severely once she goes through her Chronos withdrawal, so much so that her dying request to the protagonist is asking for him to kill their creators for her sake.
• Off with His Head!: How she finally dies, decapitated.
• Sanity Slippage: By the time she's fought, she's run out of Chronos altogether, and is either already undergoing withdrawal (as the protagonist accuses), or close enough to the state that its inevitability is putting immense mental pressure on her. Either way, she will reject all peace overtures and attempt to take what Chronos is left in the protagonist's blood.
• Smoke Out: She throws flash grenades that can knock back and stun the protagonist.
• Super-Soldier: She's no Gamma NULL like the protagonist and Fifteen, but went through much of the same stuff as they did and came out with similar results, powers, and grudges.
• Swiss-Army Gun: She has a gun that acts as a plasma cannon, machine gun, and grenade launcher.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: The only NULL we see who is still wearing the uniform, as opposed to Fifteen and Zero, who have switched to a suit and a kimono — which is constantly mistaken for a bathrobe — respectively. Particularly odd as she wants revenge against the government that gave her that uniform.
• Taking You with Me: Her final attack consists of charging the protagonist with a bomb belt, a last-ditch effort to force him to rewind. Should that fail, she will let herself die.
• This Cannot Be!: In their initial encounter, both she and the protagonist foresee killing each other only for their precognitions to cancel each other out. She's shocked by the realization that he is a fellow NULL, and is forced to flee when the police arrive.
• There Can Be Only One: After the death of Al-Qasim, she and Fifteen are left without a supplier of Chronos. When facing the protagonist in the final level, she rejects any proposal of an alliance — with her saying that there's only enough Chronos left for one of them. She even declares her intent to infuse herself with the protagonist's Chronos-saturated blood after killing him in order to survive.
• Victory by Endurance: How her battle works. For all their dodges and flips and incredible combat prowess, both her and the protagonist can rewind time and start all over again if they die. The fight ultimately comes down to who first decides to stop doing that and gives up and lets themselves die — a battle of wills, as she puts it.

Others

The Receptionist

A young woman who works at the front desk of the Murdower Hotel, but may end up changing jobs or dying as the game goes on.

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• Character Death: If the protagonist angers her or reveals that he is an assassin, she will be silenced by the therapist.
• Hidden Depths:
  • She's a massive otaku, and if the Dragon is nice to her, she gushes over his samurai "costume" and their (apparent) mutual love of anime and cosplay, and flirtatiously asks him to come watch anime with her some time. In their second encounter, provided she wasn't killed for discovering that the protagonist is an assassin, she can challenge him to an impromptu Yu-Gi-Oh-style card battle.
  • She's also sharper than she lets on. If the Dragon claims that he's wearing a bathrobe and going to take a shower, in their second encounter, she lets on that she's figured out he's an assassin but becomes his Secret-Keeper.
• Love at First Sight: Can immediately develop a crush on the Dragon if he's nice to her, and will awkwardly attempt to ask him out several times. If the Dragon tells her that the totally-not-made-up anime is about spinning tops, she dials her flirtation up a notch and invites him to her room.
• Morality Pet: Can become this if the protagonist is nice to her, as engaging with her brings out the protagonist's own Hidden Depths.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Her appearance is reminiscent of various classic anime, befitting her otaku nature.
• Secret-Keeper: One of the dialogue trees leads to her figuring out the Protagonist is an assassin, but keeping that information to herself.

Leon von Alvensleben (spoiler warning)

Let us see how suitable you are.

The lead scientist behind the NULL Project. He is only encountered near the end of the game, hidden inside of an abandoned military testing lab disguised as a slaughterhouse.

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• Dead All Along: Or at least cryogenically preserved — making it unclear why the giant screens show him holding a sniper rifle when the reticle appears.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The one behind the NULL project, and by extension, the entire game, but he's never seen until around the game's climax. And even then he's been cryogenically frozen for quite a while, and dies immediately after being released.
• Herr Doktor: As his name implies, he is German or Austrian.
• His Name Is...: His pre-recorded messages offer some considerable insight into the plot, but when he's actually confronted in-person, he immediately crumbles to dust; see No Immortal Inertia.
• Mr. Exposition: Given his role as lead scientist of the NULL Project, he knows far and away the most about the plot of any character to be met in-game. Unsurprisingly, he's killed almost immediately after finally being met in-person, preventing him from giving too much away.
• No Immortal Inertia: He suffers from this after Zero releases him from cryostasis, crumbling to dust in a matter of seconds.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He appears for one level, and arguably only a few seconds of his screentime are actually him; the others are recordings. He was also the lead scientist of the NULL Project, making him indirectly responsible for virtually everything that happens in the entire game.
• TV Head Robot: Effectively — if Zero triggers any of the ceiling-mounted cameras, Leon's face will pop up on a screen and he will subject Zero to a series of tests designed to assess his aptitude as a NULL and kill him if he fails — all while sniping at him. It turns out this is either a sophisticated automated message system or a digitized copy of his conscience a la Arnim Zola from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• Walking Spoiler: For his heavy involvement in the NULL supersoldier program, as well as for the circumstances in which he's finally found. He also offers some of the most detailed exposition in the game on who Zero is and where he came from.

Fifteen (spoiler warning)

A mysterious Blonde NULL, out for vengeance against everyone responsible for the NULL Project. He wields similar powers to Zero, but with greater finesse; he's also his old war-buddy.

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• Anime Hair: A very noticeable case of it; it's long, blonde, goes nearly past his waist, and is braided into a snaketail. It's one of the traits he shares with his former comrade in arms, Zero.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons; he's nicknamed 'The Dragon' and his sword's sheath has a stylized dragon coiling around it. Further enforced by his Steam Background, seen to the right.
• Ax-Crazy: Implied. He's driven by a need for vengeance rather than V's sadism or Zero's sudden fits of violence, but his torture of V and his Dialogue Tree options for Fa Yuan are very telling. The Prison is also full of corpses that have been needlessly mangled, hung from the ceiling, or pinned to walls, suggesting that he must have really gone crazy after his playable level ends.
  Everyone has to die. For making us this way. Everyone.
  Al-Qasim will die. Leon will die. And You will die.
• Ambiguous Situation: He and Zero were partners in the Cromag War. Zero doesn't recognize him. Exactly what this means for their future dealings is unclear, especially if he really was the one who told Zero where to find Alvensleben.
• Badass Boast: His introduction consists of him stating that the protagonist isn't the Dragon, he is.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Wears a slightly-disheveled suit which does not slow him down at all.
• Blood Knight: He's a little too eager to dish out some payback, regardless of whether the recipients actually had anything to do with what happened to him.
• Establishing Character Moment: Appearing out of nowhere, ambushes V, and cuts off both his arms within a moment's notice, then claims he's the true Dragon before taking him away for interrogation.
  • He gets a second one in the Chinatown level, when he briefly outlines his plan for vengeance with Headhunter.
• Flash Step: Able to move so quickly he effectively teleports, letting him dodge lasers while slicing through anything in his path as he moves.
  • It's so fast even the security cameras can't catch him, indicating he can cover a good 10-20ft in less than a 24th of a second!
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: Like the protagonist, he fights using iaido — sheathing his sword after every attack.
• Interface Spoiler: The simple fact that he has custom UI and his own set of animations is probably a sign that he'll be playable again in the future.
• I'm A Monster: He expresses the opinion that the NULLs — himself included — are monsters, and that everyone responsible for their creation should die.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Tortures V to death for information, and to sustain his lust for vengeance.
• One-Man Army: Like Zero, Fifteen can effortlessly cut down dozens of heavily-armed enemies without even a scratch. This seems to come with being a GAMMA-Class NULL.
• Red Baron: The Media refers to his killings, and later Zero's, as being the work of a serial killer known as 'The Dragon.' It isn't clear whether the Media came up with this or not, but he appears to like it, since he claims it for his own in his first in-person appearance.
• The Real Remington Steele: He proclaims himself to be the real Dragon when attacking V on the highway.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His main motivation is hunting down and killing everyone involved with the NULL Project. He's so desperate for revenge that he uses valuable Chronos that he and his allies need to stay alive to torture V — giving him a taste of his own medicine in the process.
• Revenge Before Reason: Wastes a vial of Chronos to torture V to death. A vial that could have saved Headhunter's life (as she was slowly dying from withdrawal), and prevented her from fighting Zero.
• Super-Soldier: One of the only two known surviving GAMMA-Class NULL, the other being Zero. Though this is only true if you take V's final conversation with Zero at face value.
• Single-Stroke Battle: The end-result of anyone on the wrong end of his flash-step is being dispatched like this.
• The Unfought: Much like SNOW, he never crosses swords with the player.
• Neck Lift: As the end of his playable section, to Fa Yuan.
• The Unfettered: Anyone who stands between him and his revenge will die, as the entire staff of Mutual-Nil Prison found out the hard way.
• Walking Spoiler: Shows up out of nowhere about midway through the game, throwing everything out of whack as he does.
• You Are Number 6: Much like Zero, he has a numerical NULL designation — in his case, Fifteen.

Comedy and Tragedy

A pair of masked men in lab coats, who serve as the game's narrators and are pushing the Dragon towards an unknown destiny.

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• Early-Bird Cameo: Tragedy can be spotted sitting, reading a newspaper, at the lobby of Murdower Hotel.
• Giggling Villain: Comedy has a habit of letting out sadistic "He he heeeee!"'s whenever something that excites him is occurring.
• Hallucinations: They're ambiguously indicated to be this, suddenly appearing and disappearing. The only indications that they're not a product of Zero's PTSD and Chronos withdrawal is that a cop reacts to Tragedy appearing when Zero is surrounded by the police, and, in the ending, Zero's apartment is broken into with a note reading "A life for a life."
• In Love with Your Carnage: Comedy really wants the Dragon to become the embodiment of death, gleefully cackling when urging him to do so.
• Lemony Narrator: Tragedy narrates some parts of the game as though he's speaking to Zero, calling him "errant heart".
• Malevolent Masked Men: As their monikers indicate, they wear theatrical comedy and tragedy masks.
• Marionette Motion: They twitch and spasm constantly, appearing almost zombie-like in their movements.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Comedy is vulgar and revels in it, contrasting Tragedy's faux eloquence.
• Would Hurt a Child: They kidnap the Girl, and in an end credits scene discuss what "baleful end" she is going to suffer — Comedy in favor of doing something fun.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Tragedy speaks in botched Shakespearian English, contrasting his eloquent verbosity with Comedy's crass vulgarity.