Katana ZERO creator Justin Stander has confirmed that the game’s long-awaited DLC remains in development and has expanded to the size of a full sequel. The October 22, 2026, announcement also revealed that the expansion will feature more than 30 new songs, accompanied by a short teaser showing additional footage from the project.
Stander shared the update through his official social media account, acknowledging the extended development period while explaining how substantially the project has grown.
“I’m still working hard on the Katana ZERO DLC,” Stander wrote. “We made it bigger. It’s the size of a full sequel, plus a soundtrack of over 30+ new songs.”
He added that further updates would follow, although no release date or launch window was announced.
The statement represents a significant development for an expansion originally announced shortly after Katana ZERO launched in April 2019. More than seven years later, the project has evolved from a planned content update into something its creator now considers comparable in scope to an entirely new game.
This is not the first time the expansion has grown beyond its original plans. In March 2021, Stander revealed that the DLC had become approximately six times larger than initially intended. The latest announcement suggests that its development scope has increased further, although Stander did not provide specific comparisons involving campaign length, playable levels or total gameplay hours.
The announcement was accompanied by a brief teaser featuring the game’s distinctive pixel-art presentation and animated environments. However, the footage does not establish how much of the expansion is complete or which gameplay features will appear in the finished release.
One of the clearest new details concerns the soundtrack. Stander confirmed that the expansion will include more than 30 new musical compositions, substantially expanding the audio content associated with the original game’s fast-paced combat and atmospheric storytelling.
Katana ZERO is a neo-noir action-platformer built around precise sword combat, time manipulation and encounters where a single hit can kill the player. Developed by Askiisoft and published by Devolver Digital, the game originally launched in 2019 and is available on PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
Its combination of instant-death combat, rapid retries and nonlinear storytelling helped establish a distinctive identity among indie action games. The upcoming DLC is intended to continue the experience, although the latest announcement did not provide new information about its narrative, enemies or gameplay mechanics.
Another unresolved question concerns pricing. The expansion was originally announced as free downloadable content, and an April 2025 teaser reiterated that it was still coming at no additional cost. However, Stander’s October 2026 statement did not reconfirm that arrangement.
Consequently, while the DLC remains an expansion rather than an officially announced standalone sequel, its final pricing has not been established in the latest update.
Askiisoft also has not announced whether the expansion will launch simultaneously across the game’s existing platforms.
For now, the confirmed developments are that production continues, the expansion has reached what its creator describes as sequel-sized scope, and its soundtrack contains more than 30 new songs. A release date, detailed gameplay breakdown and updated pricing confirmation remain outstanding.
