Just got served a mighty mind-screw...Killer 7 is amazing.
You gotta hear me out. There are things that are said about this game that shouldn't be. Yes, Killer 7 just warped my mind. Ah, wait, no it didn't. It tried pretty damned hard, though. Really hard. "Straight up," as Travis would say, it was a pretty uneven journey. Just a few hours ago I was bored out of my mind, trying to level up my characters (like traditional JRPGs, the leveling system here encourages players to grind away, though in the end there's really no reason for it; if I can scare you off resorting to this tactic that is a good thing), and then I decided to just get on with the endgame - which was the best thing I could do. Probably just the kick I need to get me out of the "I'll sit back here and level myself up to safety" rut I always fall back into.
That's the thing. If you can laud praise on a game where you simply juggle stats and potions because there's a story behind it, you can praise Killer 7 which has gameplay that the average RPG would die for, a smooth run on a rail and pull your gun mechanic. It's too slow for some tastes, and the whole is not close to being perfect, but it's more than a step in the right direction - the nearly infinite levels of intricacy here make up for it. The Capcom producers for the project - Shinji Mikami and Hiroyuki Kobayashi - worked very hard to accomodate the unique ideas Grasshopper Manufacture designer Sudo 51 had in mind, and the fortuitous partnership has resulted in what is clearly one of my favorite games this year, if not of all time.
The endgame - well, no spoilers here - reminds me that this is an adventure game, and as such the story is front and center. One of the two main complaints is that the main gameplay mechanic - running along a rail, shooting enemies in their weak spots, reloading, using powered-up shots, all in a very stylized fashion - isn't especially refined or challenging.
Many of the best features offered by the character leveling system are out of reach until the last level, unless you want to have a totally lopsided character development (on second thought, that might be a good thing. Level up the Hellion - and maybe the Punk - as far as you can, damn everybody else. The rest are either not really helped by the system enough to make denying the top tier abilities to the best gunfighters, or they get an auto upgrade. Yes, even among the seven assassins, there are stars).
The game spends a lot of time setting up conventions and rigorously adhering to them until one opportune moment (and there are a number of them)...if you're not the stony, unmovable type, you'll just possibly feel at some point that the game is trying to chip away at your sanity. I wouldn't know...I spent too much time being thoroughly entertained.
Let's see...first, upon booting the game for the first time, I noticed some of the clumsier-seeming conventions such as the view of the moon (accompanied by a pulse monitor's intermittent ping, which makes the moon jump onscreen. Odd, but it's there). The game doesn't seem to like to do two things at once, so the blue or pink Game of Life/TV static pattern load screens are there even before and after other purely stylistic stuff goes on. There's lots of sitting about as you wait for people to talk (no fast forwarding through text is allowed) or for the game to load...but don't skip conversations.
The first thing I did in the game was listen (and chuckle) to all of Iwazaru's instructions and intel. Iwazaru is the ghost of a gimp in a red bondage suit, and a reasonably interesting fellow. Here I should note that what you're hearing when he talks is actually English, but it doesn't match the words onscreen very often...this may be a breakdown in the game's translation, as I've heard other versions have less garbled English for these chats with the dead, but on the other hand it's easy to imagine it was intentional. I think throughout the whole game I spotted one typo ("wretch" instead of "retch"). At one point I ran across a piece of Engrish on a billboard. Oh, I thought, that's amusing! Within moments, the game let me know that it was aware that was incorrect and was asking me to spot it. Uh...wow.
Don't be insulted. A recurring story element is about the U.S. presidential elections being a sham, but I think it very likely that this is actually an introspective commentary by the Japanese on their own system, where one of the parties controls the Japanese Post Office which collects the votes. Yeah, it sounds odd, but the game's too smart to be talking about the American "Education Ministry" controlling the vote "as that's where the votes are collected" - far too smart. There are many such clues. Sorry, that's a spoiler, but I think most people who haven't been watching Mr. Koizumi's attempts to reform Japan lately will not understand and feel this is another pretentious Japanese game trying to tell us about our own system of government.
On that note, there's a parody of Sentai shows (fans of the almighty bounce will be quite pleased!), and the thought of Americans reading superhero mangas is likewise going to seem odd to the American player. In other words, if this seems like some culture shock to you, it's probably because it's not really the U.S. that's depicted...most of the time, that is. If you want to understand the plot and feel able to appreciate it, you should separate this from the other bits of commentary strewn about.
Oh, and the game is very violent. I can't really count the number of gunshots to the head that were depicted (though the game's beautiful graphics engine doesn't really depict these very well, on the whole), and there's a lot of sadistic stuff going on. Jack Thompson was outraged that there is a "sex scene" in the game, but it's really rather degrading, which is really worse for the kids, all things considered. As the box promises - the game delves into the mind of a killer, and makes detours to check in with some other severely twisted personalities - some moreso than others. Pray that you're not like them. Given the extreme nature of the violence presented here it is important to state that it is clearly not designed to titilate, but to motivate. There is a theme of redemption running through the game, and as those you kill make their way to join the ranks of those gathered Hades, they inevitably take a moment to stop by to speak with you again and complete their story, and offer thanks for freeing them from their curse.
That's all that needs to be said. Of course, you might want to know more, so here are the sections I cut, but thought might be useful:
Aesthetics
Graphically, the game is superb. You liked the Resident Evil remake, with its one-second looping background animations of foliage? Well...yes, I was impressed too. You liked Resident Evil 4's textures, but couldn't stand that sometimes gray textures had flecks of color in them? Well, I don't really know what to say to you there, but anybody who likes design should love the graphics here. This is my first cel-shaded game, and I am glad of that. You can see the contours of a woman's middle back, or the joints in a pro wrestler's spine. There is actually quite a bit of texuring outside of crystal-clear puzzle elements: some objects have razor-sharp textures, while others have delicate edges. Move your aimpoint up and down - a wall that initially seems featureless will actually be sporting a flower pattern, and you'll notice that a band of darkness moves vertically across the screen as you move the aim up and down. The common type of enemy characters ("Heaven Smiles") are charred-looking vile purple monstrosities, that all have common elements, but are often configured differently in brilliant ways. There's a playful feeling to some of them, but many are simply horrific.
There are many cutscenes. Seems a bit excessive to have a hand-animated version of the recurring scene where the main Killer, Garcian Smith, eats his lunch, but it's there. I didn't watch the credits too closely in this regard, but multiple animation studios worked on cutscenes, so there are stylistic differences here. It's fine. They work in the context of their missions, perfectly so. There's a neat map scene (which you can press Start to skip - you might want to do this at the endgame, as the travel music is far too lighthearted for that point in the game!) where the world map is turned into a puzzle of blocks that organize themselves onto the map. Ah, shucks. You know what, enough examples - just take my word for it, the game looks great.
The sound is amazing. I can't really tell if Grasshopper Manufacture made much use of commercial sound libraries; I thought I recognized one sample in one of the tracks from the last few missions, but overall I'm struck by how original and refreshing the content of the songs was. There are downloads for many of the songs on the 'net - there's a "Music Sampler" put together by one group that can be found here, and IGN also has four tracks available straight from the developers in an interview article with the composers, found here. Don't miss these. I'm getting the soundtrack, even at the lofty price of ~35 greenbacks it goes for. Amazingly, these tracks really don't demonstrate the amazing breadth of the musical work - there's a great deal of variety not represented, such as the tracks that play in the Dominican Republic.
Speaking of the DR - the game's not huge, but pleasantly large and varied. You get to scope out some pretty interesting places here, and while some missions in the main game really aren't that appealing, the others more than make up for it.
Gameplay notes
About the Killer 7 - henceforth, just Killers. These are the titular seven assassins, six of whom are selectable at any time in missions, with the seventh the game's "cleaner" (he resurrects the dead, so it seems). In all, you play 8 characters throughout the game when the group's leader shows up (at rare moments). In regular gameplay, some critters require you switch to a specific persona to take them down, and this isn't the quickest process (it's very stylish, though, as the current persona bursts into so many blood platelets which fly offscreen, and then the process happens in reverse as the replacement materializes).
On average, each Killer is well-rounded yet has specific abilities that make them vital to the game - some mostly for puzzles, other for combat. There are, on Normal, only a few spots that actually require you to switch characters in combat or take heavy damage, as certain characters can't damage specific enemies. That's a non-issue, for the most part. While boss fights are generally very interesting, don't expect blocks or dynamic counters (though there are some, they are generally hard to use) to factor into the gameplay, or to run circles around the enemy. Generally, you just stand still and aim or time your shots, depending on the circumstances. The game focuses instead on getting you to aim your crosshair correctly. Even so, it's obviously flawed - there are many special moves, the purposes of some of which still elude me, and I imagine many folks will feel the boredom more intensely than I did (it was pretty intense there for a moment, heh heh, was afraid I'd overheat my GameCube going in and out of a door).
Perhaps Killer 7's biggest sin is forced Soul Shell gathering. You run through levels and do rather Resident Evil-esqe tasks, but without the traditional inventory (and on that note, every item that will be used up (as I recall) is some sort of silvery "engraving. Some puzzles require you to find mission-context items (these are often quite cool; for one mission you need to collect a complete collection of action figures on blue bases, just like the Bottle Caps in Resident Evil 4 - exactly like those, but without any voice clips. Mikami worked on...no coincidence here). There's rings to serve in place of watering cans, torches, fans, magical stopwatches, you name it. Quite an assortment. The game cheats for you; the map has little pictures that pretty much spell out what you need to do and who you need to do it with in almost all circumstances (combination or code entering exercises excluded, though for those a marker shows up as well).
Soul Shells, on the other hand, are basically tokens you use to go through a magical gate that doesn't really exist to get to the boss, who really still exists in the world anyway. These are basically there only to make sure that you're seeing everything in the mission.
Bonus Mode
Upon completion of the game, a new mode opens up. It is very hard. I died, and, on the advice of Travis, I laughed. It was rather fitting, all things considered. I will be back again for more.
Closing comments
The game is not only brutal and mean. Well, maybe it is at times (that final level in particular). There are some amazing scenes, however, sure to warm the heart:
Coyote Smith, the athletic thief, says this at one point: "Sorry pal, but I have to Do this, or The anger inside just won't go away."
Whenever you're playing as Coyote, check out the TV and switch to Dan's channel. Dan will have a mock-rude comment about you, and ask how you've been.
Mask de Smith has some of the most amazing - loads of fun to watch - sequences I've ever seen in a game, and two of them are at the Japanese restaurant. Here's the gist of the first:
Mask de Smith bashes a huge rock with his face. The front entance to the restaurant is cleared. Three Japanese fellows walk down the hall.
Head Waiter: How many in your party, sir? (something along these lines)
Mask: I'd like to talk with the manager.
Head Waiter: May I ask what is this concerning?
Mask: Yeah, I'm here to kill him.
Head Waiter: We'd be delighted to serve you.
*all three waiters turn into Heaven Smiles*
*Mask de Smith instantly blows all three away with his handheld grenade launchers*
Oh, and I must say...it gets better, as well.
I can't really talk about the other characters I want to for fear of breaking the game experience...enjoy it for yourself!
Capcom USA has a Killer 7 site up. Last time I checked it was pretty incomplete. The Japanese site has the exact same site, in English in addition to Japanese, and it is complete. Check it out if you feel so inclined (I should note that the wallpapers are a waste; the game's cell shaded graphics don't look terribly great when they're not moving):
http://www.capcom.co.jp/killer7/english.html
(The text of this review's copyrighted to me - yes, I'm special
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Yeah, that's due to the game, as well. As a sometimes-creative writer, it's pretty inspiring stuff.
Originally Posted by SoulBlazer
