XSGC - Killer7 - No Holds Barred

[Wood]

The last boss of this chapter marks when I start really hateing the boss fights in the later chapters. Cloudman isn't bad though. But I'll get to that later. First thing, this part as it fits in the story is shady, secret political meeting. I think Suda equates dealing like this to straight up gambling and cheating. Most of the puzzles deal with some sort of gambling game, and even disabling cheating.

Story wise, Garcian goes with his second contact and finds put his target is Jean DePaul, the sushi chef from Restaraunt Fukushima (whoa, didn't see that coming). His goal is to shut down the talks, if I remember correctly. Meanwhile, Kun Lan reappears and we're introduced to Matsuken, who seems to be Fukushima's successor. We get more story about Susie, talks break down, and the boss fight really sucks, and almost impossible without Kaede. Fuck those dudes!

I really wish there was more to say about this chapter, but a lot of it was already told in part 1. If anything it just sets up that the Yakumo (sp?) has changed hands, that the destruction of Japan does not silence the UN Party (or the Japanese power that's in the US now), and really this whole political drama plays out without Killer 7's involvement. You kill smiles and two already dead men, and that's really it. The talks break down by itself, the Yakumo passes hands, and Killer 7 is just there. It really does seem just to set up the political drama to conclude later in the game.

I think Cloudman should be way more fun to break down than this chapter.

[Ekkebus]

I don't get why (or how really) Garcian goes from Washington DC back to Seattle and then back to Washington again within like a 24 hour period. Incidentally when his house loaded up the first scream I heard sounded a lot like the Colossus roar.

From a design standpoint this level is extremely straightforward. Four floors, each with a puzzle and you can move freely between them. Each floor is pretty much laid out in the same way with the puzzle down the hall to the right and the answer down the hall to the left. This seems as good a time as any to talk about my personal theory regarding Yoon-Hyung, the masked clue giver. First off, I think the puzzles in this game are stupidly easy. They usually only consist of one or two steps and the free advice that Yoon-Hyung will usually clear up any confusion. Because of this, I feel like Yoon-Hyung's sour attitude when donning the mask is something directed at the player for their own inability to work out such a simple puzzle since the clue at that point will basically boil down to "This is what you do, you fucking dumbass". That's just my opinion but its one of several things about the design of Killer7 that I think are meant to reflect critically on game design or gamers in general.

Sunset, I think, is the hardest chapter to parse for story because it is just rally confusing. There's a lot of names and different entities jockeying for position and stabbing eachother in the back, and its hard to keep track of who wants what and at the same time make sense of why they want what they want. I'm curious what people think regarding the missiles flying overhead at the end of the chapter. Are those missiles meant to intercept the ones that were targeted at Japan meaning Japan is saved or are they just the missiles meant to destroy Japan and Garcian and Mills are casually watching them fly overhead?

I'm not a big fan of the boss fight in this level either. I remember it taking me forever to figure out what I needed to do the first time around since the actions that the bosses take are so subtle and you have to be quick and precise to actually shoot their weak spots. It doesn't take many shots to take them down but actually setting up and executing those shots is such a pain.

[King wiL]

Sunset Pt.2 things to say...
I'm realising the Irony and bad timing with hunting Fukushima lol.
Bits i hated - The mother smile on the 3rd (i think) floor. I kept missing my power shots with Dan and running out of blood. It took me nearly an hour to get past it. I eventually realised i could get shit tons of blood from the guys with the fucked up head/arm on the top floor and keep revisiting that corridor.
Fuck the last boss fight, it took me 45 minutes to figure out how to hurt the old guys, i was usink Kaede and figured it out when my housemate pointed out the targey aiming reticule changes when you look at something you can shoot. Took me a further 20 minutes to actually kill the damn boss. Other than those reservations, pretty good chapter.
Was hoping to get the next one done today but didn't have the chance so i'll do it tomorrow night and come straight on here for thoughts. Still loving the game

[Wood]

Considering the conversation that Mills and Garcian have about the missiles, I think they're the ones that are on track to destroy Japan. Mills says there's not going going to be fireworks and Garcian says something to the effect of "The treaty wasn't a promise, but a countdown to destruction".

[Ekkebus]

Ah, I was completely blanking on the conversation when I sat down to write that post.

Overall I think Sunset is the weakest chapter in the game. Its not bad persay but the confusing story, the ho-hum setting for the second half and the aggravating boss fight kind of make it stand out versus the rest of the game for me.

Also, wiL I'm pretty sure you can just ignore that Mother smile that you took so long to kill. You can just solve the puzzle and leave the floor. I actually didn't know she was in there until I'd already been in and out once with Coyote.

[Wood]

Ah, I was completely blanking on the conversation when I sat down to write that post.

Overall I think Sunset is the weakest chapter in the game. Its not bad persay but the confusing story, the ho-hum setting for the second half and the aggravating boss fight kind of make it stand out versus the rest of the game for me.

Also, wiL I'm pretty sure you can just ignore that Mother smile that you took so long to kill. You can just solve the puzzle and leave the floor. I actually didn't know she was in there until I'd already been in and out once with Coyote.

I'm also kicking myself for going and doing this game on "Deadly". That floor has a mother outside AND a duplicator. Somehow I managed to blast through enough eggs and run through with Coyote, jump up and get the object, then jump down to try to run out of there. This was before I realized that I can "Wake up" characters. That boss fight is almost impossible without Kaede, and trust me, I tried without her.

For a lot of this stuff, I'm finding myself playing chapters ahead of time and going back to repeat the earlier chapters to add to the discussion. I've done it for this chapter and Cloudman...but I may not do it for Encounter.

[Ekkebus]

Its Cloudman a'clock. Next week will be Encounter Pt1

[bokista]

Okay, so it's plainly obvious that I've fallen off the Killer 7 wagon. I started into Sunset pt 1 and everything was going okay. But I was always faced with the same issue: I never wanted to play. When it came time to get some gaming in, I looked at the games I was currently playing and always turned to something else. It's not that I disliked Killer 7 (I was willing to get past my hangups to give it a fair chance), it's that I didn't care. I wanted to be catching some Pokemon or rally racing or moseying through West Elizabeth instead. Killer 7 just wasn't doing it for me. Even the added pressure of doing a game club playthrough of it wasn't pushing me. Some day I'll go back to it, but now's just not the right time.

[Wood]

Sorry for the delay everyone. Wanted to write something on this one as I don't think anyone else has done a writeup to this chapter.

Starts off Ulmeyda doing a pirate broadcast to show both a stadium blow up (probably his own doing), all the while talking about the sort of upright citizens attend this "Stacy" concert, and to challenge Garcian, by name, to come find him, or else he "...won't have meaning".

Garcian sets off to talk to Harmon, though he steps in on him getting taken advantage of by Samantha, and by "taken advantage", I mean she's having sex with him, while he's damn near comotose. Harmon explains, after he "Wakes up", that he's going to stay and send Garcian to take care of Ulmeyda. Garcian's contact also confirms the broadcast happened, and marks Ulmeyda as the target. Suda shows that he understands enough about American culture to have Garcian explain that, "The no one wears a "Texas Bronco" shirt, except in Texas."

As the mission starts, we're greated with animated dialogue with what seems to be the only living people around in Inter-City, home of Ulmeyda's company "First Life". Otherwise, the only thing that's plentiful are the Smiles, and on Deadly, the Main Street is one of the most difficult places to deal with them, only with the numbers that keep respawning, and the fact that one of the runners spawn there too. It's painful before the Gas Station. Also, this place has the Ulmeyda Smiles, which are pretty goofy as they pretty much prance in a set pattern, and really won't bother you unless you're in their way, or you shoot them anywhere but their shirts. Also, Giant Smiles are a pain if you're trying to get blood from them. If not, wait for them to stop, turn around and run away as they fall. You won't take any damage, and they still blow up when they fall.

Some interesting things happen in this town. First, Iwarzu won't help you, but the ghost of cult members will pretty much take his spot. Julia's ghost will come in and actually thank you for killing her, as she explains it was the only freedom she would be able to get from her life becoming a commodity. Travis also fills in blanks about "First Life" that paints a picture of a corporation that shouldn't even be in business. Corporate phrases, late deliveries, and buzz words that really don't mean anything. Also, reading a password of the shirt of an Air-Humping Travis is really funny. To progress past the town, you have to collect a full set of bottlecaps from the Ulmeyda collection. It really paints a picture of how crazy someone is to have their own collectable pieces in his image, especially when some of them are really weird (Ulmeyda the Cheerleader? What's that bunny thing anyway?). Also, you do meet living people in the town, but it's all done in animated cut-scenes. What's interesting is they all seem to paint a picture of Ulemyda that really shouldn't even be as successful as he really is.

After passing every puzzle, and finding out the truth of "First Life", you finally meet Ulmeyda in person, and he's some crazy, Howard Hughs like person in a spacesuit. He explains that he wanted to formally request Garcian to kill him should he turn into a Smile, only to have the military come in and do something to Ulmeyda. I'm not entirely sure. He, surprise, becomes a smile, and you have to kill him...by shooting his Disembodied Afro.

I don't know, I seem to have a lot of difficulty analyzing this chapter. It doesn't push the political story-arch at all, and it seems like one of those filler anime episodes, though that's not saying there's anything bad about this story. It's a representation of how Suda views ways to bullshit your way to power. Ulmeyda found out that he take huge risks, found out how to convince people into following corporate brand without delivery any goods, and was able to make a city and psudo-religion out of his learnings. But it leaves more questions than answers. Why was the military after him? Why did he turn into a Smile? Why are there smiles there in the first place?

[Ekkebus]

Andrei Ulmeyda is one of my favorite characters in the game and this chapter is allll about him. The chapter opens with him calling out Garcian Smith on TV. On the journey through this town we find out all about his back story and how he worked his way up from a postal worker to being the head of this huge corporation. His face is plastered on billboards and of course has his own little collectible figure collection. When we finally come face to face with Ulmeyda the true reason behind his call to Garcian comes to light. Despite his already tainted blood, he's terrified of catching the Heaven Smile virus which is why he's in a containment suit. He's paranoid and what's Garcian to eliminate the Heaven Smiles that have overrun the town to ensure he doesn't catch the virus. And of course he went about getting Garcian's attention by blowing up a stadium full of people which attracted the attention of the federal government. They show up to capture Ulmeyda but upon penetrating his suit, they let the Heave Smile virus in which then mixes with the other crap in Ulmeyda's blood to transform him into the level boss.

The boss fight itself is ridiculously easy if you're patient. First you have to find a section of the ambulances that circles back around on itself, then just lure Ulmeyda there, run around and shoot his afro. One hit DONE. The most tense moment of the whole battle is really just finding him without running straight into him. The corridors are narrow and you don't get a good look around the corners before you turn so you have to be careful.

I love the whole false corporation reveal at the end. A company that makes itself seem big and important, not by making a product but simply by running ads. The premise, the billboards around town and of course, the huge cutout building. Its all just so well done and a very easy bit of social commentary to pick out.

I actually hadn't noticed that Iwazaru was missing from this level. That's very very interesting since obviously Harman didn't accompany Garcian for this mission either. And there's no Viniculum gate in this chapter either. Very interesting indeed.

Best part of the chapter though? Two words: TECKS MECKS. One of, if not the best song in the game.

[Ekkebus]

Well, Wood old buddy, its another thread about a great game that's come down to just me and you.

I actually didn't get to finish Encounter Pt1 because I kept dying in the motherfucking funhouse. Mercifully they drop your body outside but there's still a lot of smiles between there and the nearest save point.

[Wood]

Yeah, I'm really suprised it's back down to only us two, again. Definitely shows we both have a passion for this game.

But yeah, having worked Disneyland as a cast member, it's very, very difficult for me to imagine that location as a seedy way of abducting children. And yet, that's exactly what IZSKland is. It's also full of smiles for some reason. Blackburn and Dan Smith seem to have quite a history that's told in this part. I'm curious as to why Suda applies Japanese lables to American organizations. Case in point, Dan and Blackburn were in the Seattle Defense Force. Last time I checked, there's no such organization, and I think he refers to either the Seatle Police, or even the Coast Guard (they count as a defense force, thanks to the Patriot Act). Anyway, Dan got set up for some crime, and Blackburn, his superior, took him out execution style. What I find interesting about this is that it says Dan was dead before he ran into Garcian, and Travis dropping some huge bombs with "Hey Chief, you recovered his body, didn't you?"

As far as level design, the whole park really does seem like a creepy amusment park. Granted, I think the creepy part is that the only living people in the park are the smiles. I was going to say that the park being that dark is weird, but late night at Disney does get that way, especially at 3AM when they finally shut down most of the lights. The funhouse is meant to be relly confusing, plus I hate the broken smiles so much. I cannot hit them to save my life, literally. Also, that porcelain smile takes a while to figure out, as the only clue you get from that little kid is something along the fact that you shoot him in the heart, he's fast, but really stupid. Though, the award is Dan's upgraded gun, which looks much cooler, especially when there's no more tribal crap on the handle.

As I said before, I made a habit of playing the later chapters early, only to go back and replay the chapters during the discussion week. But seriously, fuck replaying this one. Why? Three words: Ayame FUCKING Blackburn. Seriously, she was a huge pain in the fucking ass the first time I ever played, and that was on normal. But NO! I had to play on Deadly, and she takes double the needed hits to drop her. Like 6 FUCKING GRENADE ROUNDS! And these are Lvl4 Damage Mask Rounds. I'm not even joking when I say she killed my love of Anime. I'm somewhat curious why Suda put in a very sterotypical Anime school girl as the boss of the stage. Is he saying that only creepy perverts are into this sort of stuff? Or maybe he just wants to implant his own hatred of Anime onto people who play this game. If the latter, well played Mr. Suda. Well played.

[Ekkebus]

Encounter overall is probably my favorite chapter in the game. I really like the story focus on Dan and Blackburn, there's great music and I love the settings. ISZK Land is tough though, no doubt. In previous levels the bulk of the enemies were just basic Smiles with a few of the other versions stuck in for some variety. Here it feels like everyplace you go is populated by more dangerous enemies like the Broken Smiles, Mother Smiles, the Protector Smiles (the big armored ones), and the hated "I have to shoot you kinda on the side so you'll turn around and I can shoot you in the back that's really hard to do with Garcian because he has such a small clip" Smiles. Also, for being just half a chapter its quite lengthy with a lot of time spent navigating the String Quartest, the Funhouse and then the everything after that that I haven't wrapped up yet. I will say this chapter illustrates a solid flaw in the game design with the constantely respawning enemies. This is especially annoying in the Quartet area where you keep going in and out of the theaters and the variety of Smiles that spawn mean you keep having to switch between different Smiths to take them down. It just gets a bit tedious after a while.

edit: Wrapped up the last bits of Encounter Pt1 today. Manged to take down Ayame with merciful ease. Only two grenade rounds. She can be a bitch of a fight though. I remember being very aggrevated with her my first go around. My first instinct was that I had to chase her down with Con or sneak up to her using Kevin's invisibility, both of which are nothing more than good ideas unfortunately. Also, as an aside the music for her fight, Sweet Blue Flag is my current ringtone.

The main story thread of this chapter focuses on Curtis and Dan's history together; and how Curtis is one sick fucker that keeps orphaned girls at his house. Again, there's a sprinkling of things that don't seem terribly relevant at the time but will become much moreso in a couple chapters timeie: Ayame's introduction as the Chairperson of the Educational Advisory Commitee. At the time it comes off as another bit of bizarre non sequitar but it actually ties in to one of the main plot threads of the game. This chapter in general is deceptively important to both the US-Japan and Killer7 storylines.

[King wiL]

hey hey hey i'm still here, i just been too busy and have to play catchup...

[Wood]

Yeah, it's generally a mistake to play on a higher difficulty when trying to analyze a story. She says a lot in her intro, so it was difficulty to catch the Education Committee part. I never thought to put two and two together. And yes, that ties into the story bigtime. Disturbing is when you beat her, she simply vanishes in the night, and takes off in a school bus with what sounds like a lot of children on board. Very disturbing indeed.

Also, right before you fight Ceramic Smile, to unlock the door there by shooting at the hearts of some demons or something. A not at all subtle hint on wher to shoot the smile. I've actually tried to go invisible for a couple boss fights, and not only will the game not let you, it puts a shaking banner that says "Stop messing around!", as if Suda himself is yelling right at you. Also, I didn't learn until Pt 2 that the amount of z's on a protector indicates how many charges Mask needs on his shots to take them down. Also, too many charges and the shot doesn't work.