In this paper, directional sequence entropy and directional Kronecker algebra for $\mathbb {Z}^q$ -systems are introduced. The relation between sequence entropy and directional sequence entropy are established. Meanwhile, directional discrete spectrum systems and directional null systems are defined. It is shown that a $\mathbb {Z}^q$ -system has directional discrete spectrum if and only if it is directional null. Moreover, it turns out that a $\mathbb {Z}^q$ -system has directional discrete spectrum along q linearly independent directions if and only if it has discrete spectrum.