Killer7

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killer7
Cover art
Nintendo GameCube boxart
Developer(s) Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher(s) Capcom
Designer(s) Goichi Suda (story, writer, director, producer)
Shinji Mikami (story, executive producer)
Platform(s) GameCube, PlayStation 2
Release date(s) Flag of Japan June 9, 2005
Flag of the United States July 7, 2005
Flag of Europe July 15, 2005
Genre(s) Action-adventure, Rail shooter, RPG
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: M/ MA17+
CERO: Z
PEGI: 18+
BBFC: 18
USK: 18
OFLC: MA15+
Media 2 × GameCube Optical Disc
1 × DVD-ROM

killer7 is an action video game jointly developed and published by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom for the Nintendo 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.

The game was written and directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, and produced by Shinji Mikami. Mikami is well known for being the creative force behind a group of stylish, original titles including Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe, and Devil May Cry.

A 12-part comic book series based on killer7 is currently being published. As of March 2, 2007 four issues 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 Suda51's original concepts, and to make them easier to understand.[1] So far it has received mixed reaction.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

Pre-release screenshot of a battle in killer7.
Pre-release screenshot of a battle in killer7.

The gameplay in killer7 is that of an unconventional first-person shooter. The game takes place on rails, and the player, using the A and B buttons (or for the PlayStation 2, the Triangle and X buttons), directs 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 substantial part of killer7 is its puzzles – the player must collect rings that are required in some puzzles while other puzzles require a talent of a specific persona, and even further puzzles are solved when not using rings or character abilities based on heavy logic and thinking. There are six rings (not counting the Vision Ring Garcian starts with), those being Fire, Water, Wind, Time, Stamina and Power. If the player hears the twang of a guitar underscore, it means that a puzzle needs to be solved or an item needs to be used; items are used automatically for you to solve puzzles if the item is in your inventory, though rings must be selected in order to work. A lighter tune is heard when the player has successfully overcome an obstacle.

When the player encounters one of the enemies, known as Heaven Smile, it announces its presence by producing a maniacal laugh. 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 "Thick Blood" that you can convert to serum, the "experience points" of the game that can be used to level up each persona excluding Garcian at checkpoints called "Harman's Rooms." There is a limit to the amount of serum that can be converted from Thick Blood, which varies between stages. Serum can be carried over each stage but Thick Blood cannot. Harman's Rooms sometimes offer the ability to save, though not all do, and always exist for blood upgrades and respawn points should one of the Killer7 be slain.

[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. As the player starts the game a second time, the younger Harman Smith is now accessible as a new persona. Also new to this mode is the "bloodbath" difficulty mode. Nearly every single attack from a Heaven Smile in Killer8 mode is fatal. Almost every single character, save for Mask, and Harman, can die from just one attack. In addition, critical spots are not visible on Smiles in this mode. The bosses are harder to beat, though the damage of their attacks remain the same. In the battle against Greg Nightmare in Target 05: Smile, the seventh Heaven Smile runs toward younger Harman Smith instead of Garcian, because there are now eight personas and not just seven.

[edit] hopper7

A final mode appears after the completion of killer8 called hopper7. In this mode the Heaven Smile 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] Story

[edit] Characters

The title revolves around Harman Smith and Kun Lan, both who are demi-god, fighting a battle of good verses evil over several centuries. In the game's present, Harman has taken the form of a sixty-year-old assassin who is bound to a wheelchair, tended to by a maid named Samantha. He is capable of manifesting seven personalities into the real world, each with their own personal style of killing; the group is collectively known as the Killer7. The dominant personality is Garcian Smith, who, while in the presence of security cameras or television sets, has the ability to call upon the six other members of the Killer7 at any time. The other six personas, all with the Smith surname, include aggressive Irish-American Dan, barefoot Japanese-American female KAEDE, albino British Kevin, Puerto Rican Coyote, young Chinese Con, and American wrestler MASK de Smith. Unlike most multiple personalities in fiction (and all real forms of the disorder), Harman does not just think he is someone else; rather, his personas actually take on a unique physical body when called upon. During the course of the game, the player is introduced to other ghostly figures from Harman's past that attempt to help the Killer7, including Travis Bell, the first target Harman assassinated, and Iwazaru, a subservient personality that is a manifestation of Kun Lan in Harman's mind.

[edit] Plot

In the near future, the Japanese United Nations Party is attempting to unify the world under Japanese control. To that end, Garcian Smith is asked by Christopher Mills, an agent of the United States to assassinate a number of targets that are working with the Party to prevent this from occurring. As Garcian and the Killer7 attempt these tasks, they find that their efforts are interfered with a mutant terrorist group known as "Heaven Smile"; the members have been converted by Kun Lan using his "God Hand" into living bombs.

One of the last missions takes the Killer7 to Coburn Elementary School near Seattle, Washington. While exploring the school, the Killer7 discover tapes that reveal that the school was a front for the Japanese United Nations Party to train young children to become assassins. One such child, Emir Parkreiner, was mentored by Harman Smith and stood out from the others, but his fate is unknown. Clues at the school point to a shooting massacre several years earlier at the Union Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the hotel Garcian discovers that all of the Killer7 personas were victims of the massacre, all killed by Emir, save for Garcian; Garcian's persona is actually that of Emir's, who committed suicide after realizing he had shot his mentor, Harman. Emir reincarnated as Harman, Garcian, and the other Killer7 personalities, but had forgotten his past, and relearns of the painful truth in the present.

Three years later, Garcian arrives at Battleship Island in Japan to put an end to Heaven Smile and to ease tensions between Japan and the rest of the world. He meets with Kenjiro Matsuoka, president of the Japanese United Nations Party, and insists Garcian make a choice: keep Kenjiro alive, which will allow Japan to rally underneath him for an assault on the United States, or kill him, which will lead to the United States discovering their elections have been rigged by Japan, and will lead to Japan being destroyed. Regardless of the choice the player makes, Garcian will discover that the last Heaven Smile is nearby, and gives chase. Garcian kills the smile to discover it is Kun Lan himself, ending the threat of the Heaven Smile.

The game concludes a century in the future in Shanghai as Harman and Kun face off once again.

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."[citation needed]

[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.

[edit] Audio

Soundtrack
Soundtrack

killer7 Original Sound Track was released on June 20, 2005 by Sony Music. It features all 61 original compositions by music director Masafumi Takada, spanning over a 2-disc set.

[edit] Reception

 Reception
Review scores
Publication Score
Edge 8/10
Game Informer 7.5/10 (GameCube)
7.75/10 (PlayStation 2)
GamePro 1.5/5[2] (PlayStation 2)
GameSpot 8.3/10[2] (GameCube)
GameSpy 2.5/5[3] (GameCube)
2/5[4] (PlayStation 2)
IGN 8.1/10[2] (GameCube) 7.9/10[2] (PlayStation 2)
X-Play 3/5[5]


The reviews for the game were mixed. 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; however, Edge and gamesTM, were generally enthusiastic about the game, and gave it 8/10 and 9/10, respectively. Some of the reviews from reviewers like IGN and Gamespot have stated that the Nintendo GameCube version is graphically superior, as well as having far faster loading times, and better control than the PlayStation 2 version, recommending the Nintendo GameCube version over the PlayStation 2 version.

[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
    • Won
      • Best New Character (Harman Smith) [6]
      • Most Innovative Game[7]
    • Runner-up
      • Best Story[8]
      • Best GameCube Game[9]
      • Most Outrageous Game[10]
    • Dubious Honors Nominations
      • Most Gratuitous Use of F------ Swearing[11]
  • IGN's The Best of 2005- GameCube awards
    • Won
      • Best Adventure Game[12]
      • Best Story[13]
      • Best Game No One Played[14]
    • Runner-up
      • GameCube Game of the Year[15]
      • Most Innovative Design[16]
      • Best Artistic Design[17]
  • Fourth place in IGN's Top 10 Tuesdays: Underrated and Underappreciated Games[18]
  • Nintendo Power Awards 2005[19]
    • 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

In 2007, killer7 was named 20th best GameCube game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan.[20] In 2008, Game Informer named the game one of the top ten weirdest of all time.[21]

[edit] Trivia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)
  • The Japanese version of the game used the same voicetrack in the North American and European versions, but there were Japanese subtitles. In other words, a Japanese voice track was ultimately never used.
  • Ayame Blackburn has a passion for anime cosplay which includes wearing a schoolgirl uniform and an animegao mask resembling the facial features of a female anime heroine. In addition, she enjoys making radically cliché introduction speeches in Japanese and striking action poses like those of Sailor Moon, among other magical girl-based series'.
  • Benjamin Keane makes a bet with Garcian, that if Keane wins a round of Russian roulette, then Garcian must kill the President of the United States, but if Garcian wins then Keane will reveal the secret of how to hit on women with 100% success. Keane loses due to Garcian's knowledge of firearms, and commits suicide, telling Garcian that, "Women are all the same."
  • Edo MacAlister, who works at the reception desk of the Union Hotel, was originally a character from Flower, Sun, and Rain, one of Suda51's previous productions.
  • Emir Parkreiner's weapon, a golden gun, is a reference to the same weapon publicized in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, and its novel.
  • Kun Lan has the power of the "God Hand," which may be a reference to the game of the same name directed by Shinji Mikami, who also executive produced killer7.
  • Mithra, the god of contract, appears as two boys called the Oracle, in a cathedral in the Dominican Republic, on the Killer7's search for Trevor Pearlharbor.
  • Pigeons the player encounters throughout the game are named after Bond girls.
  • The Killer7 is a weapon featured in Resident Evil 4, another game directed by Shinji Mikami, who executive produced killer7.
  • The Handsome Men, also known as the Punishing Rangers, are a parody of the Super Sentai/Power Rangers superhero franchise.
  • The surname "Smith" used by Harman and each of his personae is a reference to the British Indie pop band The Smiths, and each of the courier memos has the name of a song by the Smiths.
  • Travis Bell is often seen wearing muscle shirts sporting bizarre slogans. This may be a reference to H.M. Murdock, a character from The A-Team who was portrayed by Dwight Schultz, the voice actor of Harman Smith in killer7.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.devilsdue.net/killer7
  2. ^ a b c d "Review: Killer 7".
  3. ^ "Killer 7 (GCN)".
  4. ^ "Killer 7 (GCN)".
  5. ^ "Killer7".
  6. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Special Achievement Awards
  7. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Special Achievement Awards
  8. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Special Achievement Awards
  9. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Platform Awards
  10. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Special Achievement Awards
  11. ^ GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Dubious Honors
  12. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  13. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  14. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  15. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  16. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  17. ^ IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
  18. ^ IGN: Top 10 Tuesday: Underrated and Underappreciated Games
  19. ^ http://www.nintendo.com/np_awards
  20. ^ IGN GameCube Team (2007-03-16). "The Top 25 GameCube Games of All Time". IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
  21. ^ “the top 10 weirdest games of all time,” Game Informer 180 (April 2008): 28.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Suda51
Grasshopper Manufacture
Human Entertainment
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