Killer7
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| Killer7 | |
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| Developer(s) | Grasshopper Manufacture |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Shinji Mikami (story, executive producer) Goichi Suda (story, writer, director, producer) |
| Release date(s) |  June 9, 2005 July 7, 2005 July 15, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Action, Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: M (Mature) CERO: Z (Ages 18 and up only) PEGI: 18+ BBFC: 18 USK: 18 OFLC: MA15+ |
| Platform(s) | GameCube, PlayStation 2 |
| Media | 2 × GameCube Optical Disc, 1 × DVD-ROM |
Killer7 is a video game jointly developed and published by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was released on June 9, 2005 in Japan, July 7, 2005 in the United States, and July 15, 2005 in Europe. It was a highly anticipated title for its mysterious plot, stylish cel-shaded graphics, and unorthodox gameplay. The game was part of the Capcom Five series of games.
A 12-part comic book series based on Killer7 is currently being published. As of 2 March, 2007 issues 1-4 have been released. They are published by Devil's Due Publishing, and re-tell the events of the game with added dialogue and scenes to better convey Suda 51's original concepts, and to make them easier to understand.[1] So far it has received mixed reaction. It is to be believed that the comic has been cancelled and will not go past issue #4[citation needed].
The game was written and directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda 51, and produced by Shinji Mikami. Mikami is well known for being the creative force behind a string of stylish, original titles including Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe, and Devil May Cry.
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[edit] Concept
The title revolves around Harman Smith, a 60-year-old assassin in a wheelchair. He is capable of manifesting seven personalities each with their own deadly abilities, and the whole group is collectively known as the Killer7. The leading personality is revealed to be Garcian Smith, who has the ability, once activated by security cameras or television sets, to call upon the six other members of the Killer7 almost anywhere at any time. Unlike most artistic presentations of multiple personalities, Harman does not just think he is someone else; rather, the personae actually take on their unique physical form and abilities when called upon.
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay in Killer7 is unconventional by normal standards. The game takes place on rails, and the player, using the A and B buttons (or for the PS2, the Triangle and X buttons), "tells" the character on screen to move forward or reverse direction, respectively. The most freedom the player has comes when the player reaches intersections, at which point the player must choose which path to continue.
A good amount of the gameplay in Killer7 is in its puzzles. The player must collect rings that will help with certain aspects of the game. There are 6 rings (not counting the vision ring); Fire, Water, Wind, Time, Stamina and Power. The diversity of the characters is what provides for most of the mystery in the game. For example, if the player hears the twang of a guitar, it means that a different character must be used. A lighter tune is heard when the player is successfully past an obstacle.
When the player encounters one of the enemies, known as Heaven Smiles, it announces its presence by laughing maniacally. The player then must go to first-person shooting mode and scan their surroundings in order to see it. Destroying any limbs of the Smile or hitting their weak "critical spot" consisting of a glowing spot on their body gives the player so-called "Thick Blood", which is then used to upgrade six of Harman's seven personalities (Garcian cannot be upgraded) at checkpoints called "Harman's Rooms," which sometimes offer the ability to save, and always exist for blood upgrades and as respawn points, should one of the Killer7 be slain.
[edit] Story
Note: The story of Killer7 is, as their creators mention (see quote below), open-ended, meaning that most of the characters, events, places and situations presented in-game are rich with symbolism, metaphors, and are multi-layered. Taken on the first level, nothing in the game really makes any sense. Therefore, interpretations of the actual meaning of it all are potentially as varied as the number of people that have played the game.
The storyline centers on Harman Smith, an assassin who manifests and employs the Killer Seven, a team of assassins that are multiple personalities of himself, each with their own specialities. The only one that can communicate with any of the other personalities, including Harman himself, is Garcian Smith. He is also the only one that can revive other personalities if they happen to be killed, which has given him the nickname The Cleaner.
The Killer Seven are hired to assassinate Kun Lan, a man who actually regularly plays chess with Harman Smith. Kun Lan possesses the God Hand, and he is the leader of the terrorist group called Heaven's Smile. The members of this group are called Heaven Smiles, people who have been touched by Kun Lan's God Hand. They are living proximity mines, walking bombs with permanent grins etched into their mouths. They are the main enemies in the game. The goal of the Killer Seven is to stop Kun Lan and eradicate the Heaven Smiles.
In the game the player discovers that Garcian is actually a "reincarnation" of sorts of Emir Parkreiner, once an assassin trained by the Japanese United Nations Party at their underground training facility at Coburn Elementary School. The goal of the United Nations Party is to unify the whole world under Japanese control, using the Yakumo Policy, which was devised by previous Japanese politicians as the ultimate way to achieve power. The UN aim to do this by training teenagers as assassins and politicians at Coburn Elementary School, and if they failed to comply, they would be sold as orphans on the black market, consequently being turned into Heaven Smiles. Emir Parkreiner was a star student at the school and was mentored by then principal, Harman Smith.
There are three Harman Smiths: the older deity figure (seen in the chess games), the younger traitorous one, and the spirit of the younger Harman (the one most commonly found in the game). Emir's/Garcian's relationship was with young Harman. The Harman in Garcian's house is the spirit of the traitorous young Harman Smith, and spends his time forced into deep sleep so that he stays under the control of the deity Harman. Garcian knows how to awaken Harman, in which time old Harman stays in control for the conversation.
Emir became a hit man and was asked by Kun Lan at the age of thirteen to kill old Harman Smith and his team of assassins, staying currently at the Union Hotel in Philadelphia. Emir kills all of the Smith assassins and after killing Harman Smith, Emir, who believes he killed his mentor, shoots himself on the roof on the hotel. Instead of dying, however, he is reincarnated as Garcian Smith who has the power to control the once dead Smith assassins, and is also spiritually bound by deity Harman.
Garcian becomes aware of his true identity after reliving his past events when a mission leads him back to the Coburn Elementary School and the Union Hotel. At Coburn Elementary School, Garcian comes in contact with cassette tapes that elaborate on the identity of Emir Parkreiner. When the Killer Seven reach the auditorium, the Smith personas all presumably die at the hands of seemingly invincible Heaven Smiles. After all the personalities die, Garcian appears and takes possession of his old weapon, the Golden Gun (This is probably a reference or an homage to James Bond since the courier pigeons are named after Bond girls) and kills the Heaven Smiles and proceeds to the Union Hotel, seeking answers.
There, he experiences several flashbacks of the Smith Assassins being systematically shot and killed by someone armed with the Golden Gun. On the top floor of the Union Hotel the young Harman Smith, re-awakened due to Kun Lan's efforts, reveals Garcian's true identity, afterwards he then seeks revenge and kills the impressions of the deities Kun Lan and Harman, ending the chess game and therefore the battle between East and West. Garcian witnesses the final flashback of Emir's 'Third Eye' closing, before taking his own life on the roof of the hotel. He soon becomes remorseful and in denial over killing his own team, discovering he had been carrying their weapons in his briefcase the entire time. He gradually comes to realize that he really is Emir.
Three years later, Emir/Garcian arrives at Battleship Island in Japan to resolve the issue of Heaven Smile and the escalating diplomatic tension between Japan and the United States. There, he meets Kenjiro Matsuoka, a president of the United Nations Party. He warns Emir that if he does not kill him right now, the U.N. will rally under him and plan a massive assault on the U.S.. But if Emir kills him, then Japan will be destroyed by the U.S. to hide Japan's knowledge of the fact that the elections in the United States are rigged by the Education Ministry. So the player must decide whether to save Japan or the United States.
Either way, Emir finds himself back in his trailer house, where he chases down the Last Shot Smile into the basement where it is revealed to be Iwazaru, and in turn is revealed to be a reincarnation of sorts of Kun Lan, and of the remains of his mental and psychological hold on Emir. He finishes off Iwazaru/Kun Lan, finally ending the menace of the Heaven Smiles and freeing himself of Harman and Kun Lan.
However, despite Emir's efforts, the battle restarts 100 years later in Shanghai, and so the battle between "Good/Evil," Yin/Yang, East/West forever goes on.
Shinji Mikami has been quoted saying, "Me and Goichi Suda [the writer] are fond of plotlines that are 'Open Ended,' and what I mean by that is, when you first play the game you will think, 'What-Just happened?' and it's not until you watch it all again that you say, 'Oh, he was talking about this thing or event here, or he was referring to THAT person' and it's not until then that the plot starts to make sense. These are very complex, very involving stories that you do not usually see in video games these days." This holds true for Killer7.
[edit] Killer8
After successfully completing the game, a new Start menu will appear. The menu appears almost the same as the previous one except for the new yellow text and the words Killer8. This is not a different game but there is one difference. As the player starts the game a second time, the younger Harman Smith is now accessible as a new player. Also new to this mode is the lethal difficulty mode: nearly every single attack from a Heaven Smile in Killer8 mode is fatal. Nearly every single character, save for Garcian, Mask, and Harman, can die from just one attack. Also, no critical spots show up on Smiles in this mode, so it's in the player's best interest to build up a character to gain the Critical Lock-On Ability to work around this handicap. On the GameCube version, you will have to switch the discs back from Disc 2 to Disc 1 to restart the game.
[edit] Hopper7
A final mode appears after the completion of Killer8 called Hopper7. In this mode the heaven smiles look like normal people except they wear big grasshopper masks, and all are killed in one hit, as if their entire bodies were a "critical point." All other game play is unchanged, however only the first level is playable.
[edit] Staff
[edit] Production Staff
[edit] Voice actors
Despite the massive amount of major and minor characters in Killer7, not all of the characters in the game have their voice actors credited to them at the game's end credits. The reason for this occurrence has not been revealed.
- Dwight Schultz — Harman Smith
- Greg Eagles — Garcian Smith
- Michael Gough — Dan Smith
- Tara Strong — KAEDE Smith
- Jun Hee Lee — Con Smith
- Miguel Caballero — MASK de Smith
- Benito Martinez — Coyote Smith
- Heidi Anderson — Samantha Smith
- Bart Flynn — Christopher Mills
- Jim Ward — Toru Fukushima
- James Horan — Jean DePaul
- Robin Atkin Downes — Hiro Kasai/Hasegawa (uncredited)/Maitre'D (uncredited)
- Cam Clarke — Andrei Ulmeyda
- Chris Cox — Gabriel Clemence
- Alastair Duncan — Curtis Blackburn
- Masayo Hosono — Ayame Blackburn
- Debi Derryberry — Love Wilcox
- Jennifer Hale — Linda Vermillion
- Steven Jay Blum — Kenjiro Matsuoka/Benjamin Keane (uncredited)/Trevor Pearlharbour (uncredited)
- Joe Lala — Kun Lan
- Kris Zimmerman — Punk Kid C
- Jack Angel — Narrator
[edit] Trivia
- The character "Kevin Smith" is not named after the director Kevin Smith, although, like Smith's on-screen character Silent Bob, Kevin never speaks in the game. Suda 51 claims that he had never heard of this director nor seen his movies.
- There were actually two versions of the Killer7 story - one being the original story from Suda 51, which would cost too much time and money to make into a game, and the other being the shortened version Suda 51 made for the game. The original story was detailed in a Japanese-only supplemental book entitled Hand In Killer7: Kill The Past, Jump Over The Age.
- Harman and his band of personalities all share the same last name, Smith, making them "the Smiths", as in the 1980s pop group. Killer7's creators acknowledged and furthered the reference by scrawling "How Soon Is Now!" (the title of one of the band's most popular songs) on a wall in the first mission as well as by naming the in-game memos after the band's songs.
- The Killer7 is a customised AMT Hardballer in Capcom's Resident Evil 4, an obvious tie-in to Killer7. Though unrelated to any of the guns used in Killer7, it is remarkably similar visually to KAEDE Smith's gun.
- In Resident Evil 4, when the 'Handcannon' weapon is equipped, on the menu screen, Leon holds the gun exactly the same way as Dan Smith does in Killer7.
- Also in Resident Evil 4 a monster called "Regenerator" appears, which looks similar to a common "Heaven Smile" in Killer7.
- The TV channel Garcian watches at the beginning of the Cloudman and Alter-Ego episodes, ZaKa TV, is the same channel the player works for in Michigan (one of Grasshopper Manufacture's previous titles).
- The bellhop who greets Garcian Smith in the Union Hotel during the Smile episode is Edo MacAlister, the hotel manager of Flower, Sun and Rain (another of Grasshopper's previous games).
- Jack Thompson cited Killer7, among other games, for being responsible for the deterioration of modern society, claiming that 'profanity, sex and bloodshed are commonplace'. This quote was later used on the back of the third comic book for publicity.[2]
- On the back of some of the GameCube version boxes, the game website printed on the back lead to 'www.Killer7.com'. This was a typographical error and instead lead to a pornographic website.[3] The site is no longer functional, however. The appropriate typing for the game's website is 'www.Killer-7.com'.
[edit] Reviews
The reviews for the game have been very mixed. The review scores have ranged from low 5's from sources like Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro, or a 1.5 out of 5 in GamePro's case, to low-to-mid 8's from sources like GameSpot, IGN, and Nintendo Power. Some of the reviews from reviewers like IGN and Gamespot have stated that the Nintendo GameCube version is graphically superior, far faster loading times, and has better control than the PlayStation 2 version, meaning that these sources recommend the Nintendo GameCube version over the PlayStation 2 version. Many fans think that the reason for low scores are that reviewers were not attracted to the game's strange style and gameplay. However, the UK's most highbrow and upmarket publications, Edge and games™, were generally enthusiastic about the game and both awarded it 8/10.
- IGN: 8.1/10 (GCN), 7.9/10 (PS2)
- GamePro: 1.5/5 (PS2)
- GameSpot: 8.3/10 (GCN) 8/10 (PS2)
- GameSpy: 2.5/5 (GCN) 2/5 (PS2)
- Game Informer: 7.5 and 7.75
- Nintendo Power: 8.5/10 (GCN)
- X-Play: 3/5
[edit] Awards
Although the game has met mixed reviews, some of the game's strengths have definitely been recognized.
- GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2005
- IGN's The Best of 2005- GameCube awards
- Fourth place in IGN's Top 10 Tuesdays: Underrated and Underappreciated Games [13]
- Nintendo Power Awards 2005 [14]
- Won
- Best New Character
- Nominated
- Best Sound/Voice acting
- Best Graphics
- Best Adventure Game
- Best New Concept
- Best Story/Writing
- Best Cut-scenes
- Best "Holy Crap" moments
- Won
In 2007, Killer7 was named 20th best GameCube game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.devilsdue.net/killer7
- ^ http://cube.ign.com/articles/639/639809p1.html IGN:ESRB Adversary and Lawyer Targets Killer 7 by Matt Casamassina, accessed August 5, 2005
- ^ http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/25/killer-7-box-points-to-porn-site/
- ^ IGN GameCube Team (2007-03-16). The Top 25 GameCube Games of All Time. IGN.com. Retrieved on March 18, 2007.
