XSGC - Killer7 - No Holds Barred

[gobbleskat]

The first level never shut me down. I just stopped after I finished playing it. I was playing it on PS2, mind you.

[Ekkebus]

Some advice for those that are having trouble.

- Keep in mind you can heal your characters when they take damage. In the blood sub menu you can use your vials of blood to restore your health.
- I personally think Con is the best Smith for the first level. He doesn't have much health but is extremely fast in every way. You can use his foot speed to get away from Smiles. He also has the fastest reload and fire speed of any character. Generally you want to stick to Con, Dan or Coyote for most of the first level and only switch to the others as their abilities necessitate. KAEDE, Mask and Kevin are pretty specialized in what they do and aren't really good for traipsing around with. Only use Garcian when you're going to recover somebody because if he dies, its Game Over.
- Every smile has a gold weak spot. It is always in their head, around their elbow or upper thigh. If you can hit that its a one hit kill plus you get more thick blood which is important for healing and powering up your character.
- Try to upgrade one character ASAP. It doesn't take much blood to purchase a few upgrades and they can make a huge difference. A couple levels in waver will make it much easier to hit the gold spots on enemies. A couple levels of power will make it so you won't need to worry much about hitting them, especially with Dan or Coyote.

[Wood]

Going almost an hour out of my way to find a Gamestop with the GameCube version was absolutely worth it. I couldn't find my PS2 copy of the game, so I picked up this version, and I'm extremely happy about it. I don't have to wait to change characters for such a long time, and the overall loading fit in with the pacing of the game.

Oh, and I beat Angel in some really good time, considering I was trying to go off memory of 5 or 6 years ago. Also put the game on Deadly. I don't seem to be very good at hitting the gold spots very well, and even with Dan it takes a lot of rounds to take down a normal smile at this difficulty setting. Then again, it might be the meds I'm on.

My question is, what is wrapped around those soul shells? It's been bugging me for a long time.

[King wiL]

I didn't have too much trouble with it except for not being able to figure out where i was supposed to go/what i was supposed to do a few times. The music when you go to a puzzle without the item you need made me laugh, it sounds kinda like the "Jackass" theme.

[Zeiram]

Can you upgrade characters in the first level? I played off of a continued save and the Blood Room was always closed, but a lot of the characters were only at Level 2 for their stats.

[Ekkebus]

You can start doing upgrades right away. The thing is that there is a limit to how much blood you can exchange for serum in each chapter. This is to keep people from grinding Smiles in rooms where they regenerate and just overpowering every character very early on.

[King wiL]

I couldn't figure out how to upgrade so i didn't bother to. Figured the game would tell me how to when i could, though it doesn't do a great job of explaining how the game mechanics work, it expects you to read all the tutorials and understand them. A little frustrating but i'm over the main hump of getting what i'm doing now.

[Ekkebus]

This game is from before the era we're in now where every game explains how to do everything in meticulous detail. If you're waiting for it to tell you how to do something you will be waiting forever. So I'll fill you in myself. To upgrade characters, go to the TV in Harman's Room. When you turn it on, the blood machine on channel 0 comes up first and this is what you want. Here you can choose to have the thick blood you've collected processed into serum which can then be used to upgrade your characters.

[Wood]

Well, I'm glad there is an inverted aiming option in the game. However, I'm not used to having to aim southpaw (aiming on the left stick). Because this is my 2nd play-through, I'm really looking forward to analyzing everything coming in the next few chapters, and seeing how everything ties together.

[Ekkebus]

Alright, its Monday. Let open discussion of Angel begin.

Zeiram requested that we do two part missions across two weeks and in the interests of everyone being able to keep up I will grant said request. I'll update the OP but for next week the goal is just to get through Sunset Pt1.

[bokista]

I completed the Angel chapter just a few moments ago. Here are my initial thoughts.

First thing to keep in mind about my experience with this game is that I'm not big on story in games. I can appreciate a good story but it's never a reason for me to play. I'm also not a fan of the deliberately weird (in most any medium). This means there is a major challenge for me when approaching this game: is the gameplay compelling enough to make me want to keep playing?

I've generally gotten used to moving around. Navigating is no problem and I'm beginning to enjoy the structure of rail paths with directional choices.

I still take issue with the design of some of the combat. I can handle the aiming, but too often the game has demanded quick reflexes at times when I'm choosing a path. Nothing sucks worse than being prompted to choose a hallway while being bumrushed by a Smile you didn't know was coming. On Tim's advice I've been using Dan and Con. I'm looking forward to needing to use the other characters to do more than just open doors.

Speaking of opening doors, the puzzle solving is a little too adventure gamey for me. I actually turned to a walkthrough just to ensure I don't get frustrated with running around (since it's not the fastest thing in the world). The toilet puzzle in particular would have stumped me, as I generally am not in the mindset to "try your items on different interaction points."

The Angel battle was kind of meh, but I could see how it would have been clever for its time. The shooting mechanics demand a slower game, but I found the battle to be a little plodding. Stand... wait for her to turn. Stand.. wait to trigger the fire. Run, shoot, hope you hit. Repeat. But that seems to be a problem of its age more than anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing how other bosses play out.

The story... It's intriguing, I suppose. But it's intriguing because it's "oh man this shit's so crazy, don't you want to know more?" To which my responses is, uh, I guess. Like I said, a weird story doesn't do it for me automatically, so they're really going to have to give me some intrigue to keep my attention. I don't mind the weirdness of Travis or Iwazaru, though their dialogue is a little heavy handed. As y'all are more narratively focused, I'm interested to hear your commentary on the story.

[Wood]

Alright, its Monday. Let open discussion of Angel begin.

Zeiram requested that we do two part missions across two weeks and in the interests of everyone being able to keep up I will grant said request. I'll update the OP but for next week the goal is just to get through Sunset Pt1.

There's a lot of stuff to talk about here, and I'm not sure if I should start. I might as well start with the level design. Angel serves very much as a good introductory level, aside from the tutorial level. The path eventually loops around, so it's difficult to get completely lost. It introduces you to all of the set pieces that will reoccur throughout the game, namely the ghosts, Harmon's room, messenger pidgins, hanged men, soul shells, and introduction to the boss battles. It's always jarring to go through a techno club entrance to an abandoned warehouse into a boss battle. I think it's a design choice that Suda continued in No More Heroes, that is, a safe and empty section that's set up to get you ready for up coming battle by offering a few tips for the boss, and a safe section to ease yourself into it.

The couple puzzles took me a bit to figure out, but thankfully it's not nearly the level of insane as point and click adventures. Puzzles are thankfully marked by that awesome guitar riff, Plus that hint guy with the mask does give just enough information to figure out the puzzle. If not, you can donate thick blood to get a more blunt hint...and verbally abused. Seriously, that guy's an asshole with his mask on. I wonder if it's a subtle hint that we're all fuck-tards when we have a mask to hide behind.

I'm not sure what is up with the hanged man that mark all of the soul shell locations. They seem to work for the master, looking for all of his used bullets, but really, I'm just under the impression it's just a way to mark something to look out for, and nothing stands out more than a naked hanged man.

My question is who is the Chief Travis is referring to? It sounds like it's Harmon, but I'm not sure if he really means the main villain.

So, really, I think Angel is just a way of introducing the player to the various mechanics of the game, the characters, the bad guys, and the main villain. It seems to be a simple "US government contracts a syndicate of assassins to take out a domestic terrorist" storyline, with some things that point out there there might be something else going on here. Namely, not every "Harmon's Room" is exactly "Safe". It goes from a very clean, almost existing in a void, room with a TV and a professional maid, to a decrepit room, beat up furniture and that same woman wearing street clothes and choosing not to give two shits. The fact that you keep running into ghosts, one of which refers to himself as the first one you've killed, and another one who seems like a helpful girl that gives rings...given she's a disembodied head, also strikes as interesting development down the line.

The Angel in question really stands out, as she's the only character that has that has very anime eyes in this level. It makes me wonder what the purpose of that design choice was, other than to have her really stand out.

[Ekkebus]

So despite my professed love for this game, this is actually only my second playthrough. Much of my love has grown through discussions and reading that came after playing. That said I was surprised how naturally I fell back into the swing of moving, stopping, scanning and shooting.

Despite how unconventional the game design here is, I think there really is a good smooth flow to the proceedings. The on-rails movement was derided at the time for its lack of freedom. The expectation is that we as players should be able to move freely in a 3D environment and this weird 'hold the accelerator to go' idea just doesn't jive with a lot of gamers. Personally I don't think it was a bad move at all. One positive point I recall reading at the time was how the fixed camera angles and character paths help lend to the cinematic feel of the game. When your characters are moving through the various rooms and hallways you're seeing your characters move at the exact angle the creator intended. Certainly fixed camera angles have seen use in the past and continue to be used today but few games couple that design choice with the choice of keeping your characters movement also fixed. I also feel that limiting your movement helps keep things focused. When you spend at least half your time navigating the environment looking for items and solving puzzles I think that kind of limitations works to the games advantage.

As far as the first person pointing and shooting? Well, that basically is what it is. Its not really special in any particular way so you're either going to hate it or just feel fine with it. I don't really see it as being something someone is going to fall in love with.

As an introductory chapter, we're just given the tip of the Killer7 story in Angel. The main goal of this chapter is to introduce us to the Smith Syndicate, their relationship with the US government, how they operate and all of baggage that surrounds them. And yeah, there's a lot of pretty weird stuff. The key thing is though, and this is coming from the perspective of someone who has finished the game and knows the whole story, is that its not just being weird for weirdness sake. There were quite a few bits of dialogue that jumped out at me for how strongly they tie into the revelations that come later in the game that has completely flew past me the first time I played through. Something I'll go into more detail on once we get towards the end of the club run.

[DR EGG]

I stopped playing Killer7 after dying over and over again in the second level. The gameplay of scanning, turning, scanning again, shooting shooting, finally killing (or being killed) was repetitive and hard. This game is for masochists who love weird shit. Fuck you Suda51 for making invisible enemies who can kill you in one hit.

[Zeiram]

I stopped playing Killer7 after dying over and over again in the second level. The gameplay of scanning, turning, scanning again, shooting shooting, finally killing (or being killed) was repetitive and hard. This game is for masochists who love weird shit. Fuck you Suda51 for making invisible enemies who can kill you in one hit.

If you bear with it enough to level up the Smiths, the scan gains more of an auto-aim functionality.