XSGC - Killer7 - No Holds Barred

[Ekkebus]

Alright Wood, we can talk about Encounter Pt2 now. I actually haven't finished it yet, my playtime was delayed because my Wii was being a bitch and its the only Gamecube I have in the house at the moment.

[Wood]

WOOOOOOOOO! I was waiting all week to talk about this! Ok, so here's my thoughts on this:

We finally see Blackburn take revenge on his former partner...and I say "revenge" out of context because he doesn't simply take him out, execution style. Nope, he flat out erases any traces of the man even existing. Kills his parents, his wife, his kids, probably even his pets. All because the guy turned his back on blackburn and the deal they had going. With that said, even Blackburn's residence echos both how wealthy his chosen profession has made him, and how sick he is. Body bags of little boy bodies are layed next to a statue, discarded like bags of garbage. The main house is difficult to see if anyone actually lives in it or not. The only sign of life seems to be the smiles. Everything else just seems immaculate, with wood sided rooms and giant, unused bathrooms. The guest house seems more interesting, as it's got a lot of security in place. Locked down doors, and actual bedrooms in that location.

Now, here's another spot that drives home the point of "If you're playing a game for story and analysis, for goodness sake DON'T PLAY IT ON HARD!". It's Ayame FUCKING Blackburn again. She's way easier to hit this time, as she's just going to either run to or appears in front of an open window. Even with a maxed out Dan, she took a ton of hits to take down. I ended up blowing through all of my thin bloods because of all the hits I was taking, said "Fine, I'll do it live, FUCK IT!", and switched to Mask. There's something very, VERY satisfying about taking down Ayame and seeing her die in a fire. And surprise! She was in kigurumi cosplay (look it up in google, and what's left of your child like innocence will be gone forever, fair worning). After that, you get to go to Blackburn's super secret hidden villain lair (ok, to be honest, that's actually really cool) and go into a nice little mini-game where Dan faces off against Blackburn himself. That kid tells you to look at the pidgeon's neck, meaning it will actually change posture when he's ready to fly off, and not hop to make you screw up and draw too early, which gets you shot. In normal mode, the pidgeon might actually coo as well, but not so on Deadly.

After that, you're treated to murdering Blackburn like he's been killing all the girls he's been kidnapping, by what I assume is cleaning out all of their internal organs and turning them into life-sized dolls. Really, really, really sick stuff.

Oh, the ghost of Ulymeda makes an apperance, talking about how his way of life was directly influenced by the Yakumo (may be mispelled, I appologize), thus tying his storyline directly into the political main plot of Killer 7. The car puzzle did take me a bit, as I couldn't tell what the orenatation of the cars were to the control panel. But it wasn't too difficult. And all it gives you is the power ring, which I belive is not useful for solving future puzzles. And there seems to be quite a bit of puzzles that you really do not have to solve to get through the chapter. I feel like they're there to make me wake up personas to squeeze out more storyline, which I really don't mind doing.

I'm going to be blunt and say the next chapter is easily my favorite, though Ayame's theme is really REALLY good. I must agree with you on that.

[Zeiram]

I've caught up through Ulmeyda's chapter, but there isn't much that I have to add to the analysis. Except this is a game with unfortunate timings for when my mom walked in the room (I was trying to get past the stadium blowing up before that point... so she walked in during Sitbon's scene instead).

Oh, the ghost of Ulymeda makes an apperance, talking about how his way of life was directly influenced by the Yakumo (may be mispelled, I appologize), thus tying his storyline directly into the political main plot of Killer 7.

Ah, I knew I remembered that bit but it didn't come up where I thought it was mentioned.

[Ekkebus]

Alright, Alter Ego is go.

For next week we'll play Smile up to the hotel. Then the following week we'll do that hotel along with Lion and we'll be all wrapped up!

[Wood]

I appologize for the very late post. Here's my thoughts on Alter Ego:

The villain this time seems to be the comic book writer for the series "The Handsome Men", who's storylines seems to cross over to the real world, to include the killing of a US Senetor. This, obviously gains the attention of the government, who calls in Garcian to take care of the situation, especially when the next issue ends with Killer 7 turning into Smiles. What's interesting to note is the animation of the cut-scenes look like they were done by yet another animation studio, this time to fall in line with typical anime stylings, which is a good choice considering the "Hadsome Men" are a Sentai group.

The main level is done in, what, Puerto Rico? The Killer 7 go through what seems to be both pristine and seeming abandoned latin american town, with the only human interaction between Dan and a guitar player that greets him when the assignment starts. Also, Iwarzu seems incredibly helpful as he's the one gathering the color palets you need to open the door to finish the assignment. What I find interesting is he's somehow interacting with actual people to get these things, though it's through performing favors, according to him.

One thing I like about this assignment is the size of the place. It's much bigger than some of the previous locals. It also has a decent flow to them. The puzzles aren't too bad. Navigating the streets with Con is a bit on the annoying side, considering some of the smiles you encounter along the way (I hate laser smiles). What I didn't catch the first time I played through the game was that the song at the beginning of the assignment is what Con hears as he gets to the correct path. Fitting, considering it's a song about being lost, and finding your way. The church was neat, especially with Dan having to blast his way through A HUGE duplicator. It's crazy when it starts invisible, only to find out it's taking up an entire cathedral. On deadly, it gets pretty intense. Also, like I said about the size, once you reach the end, and you don't have all of the color pallets, there's 3 warp doors that'll take you back to certain areas of the city to go back and search, which would have been pretty handy, had I not been so obsessive about discovering everything I could before I moved from area to area.

The actual fight with the Hadsome men was pretty fun, though the whole thing is actually heavily scripted. Mask turning into a costume that really reminds me of Cell from DBZ was pretty cool, plus the 5 charge shot is cool as well. Now, it's been a bit, but the Character Love deserves some discussion. Does Garcian refer to her as a "Avatar", or something to the effect? It seemed like he was saying something to that her game reality was parallel to the real world, as she was the handsome men. That part is still pretty confusing to me.

Oh, and before I forget, I think Suda is making a point about artists and their patrons. Travis keeps mentioning that the artist is going off the deep end for not going along with this financiers, and that it puts him in a position to have him replaced or simply gotten rid of. Granted, the game gets rid of him in the literal sense, but I think it's a commentary of how at somepoint, your artistic work is no longer your own.

[Ekkebus]

You know, I honestly don't have a lot to say about this chapter. I enjoy it, but its kind of uneventful from a story standpoint until the end. I guess you could say the same about Cloudman but I just get more out of that.

The stage takes place in the Dominican Republic. Its a cool setting though let me tell you it can be pretty fucking aggravating if you have to go back and scour the city for a color palette that you missed. Fortunately I found them this go around which made the stage go down a lot smoother.

The highlight of this chapter for me is the confrontation at the end between the Killer7 and the Handsome Men. THe thing is totally scripted but its still a lot of fun, and of course, Mask's evolution from a somewhat useless character to an unstoppable badass continues. What struck me about this fight is how its set up as a 7 vs 7 even though there are technically eight characters on either side and I think its kind of telling that the 7 who fight are Con, Coyote, MASK, Kevin, Dan, KAEDE....and Harman, not Garcian. I have some more to say about this and how it relates to the conversation with Pink after we wrap up the next couple of chapters.

Also note this fight is, I believe, SUDA's first big video game within a video game homage which he carries on into the NMH franchise.

[Zeiram]

A little belated to help Wood & Ekkebus, but here's the trick I use for fighting Ayame at the end of Encounter Part 1:

Run clockwise (the same direction she runs) until just before rounding a corner, then turn around. Using KAEDE, aim with the scope towards the farthest streetlight along your edge of the lot so that you'll have Ayame running towards you. When she gets to that far corner and turns, stay in the scoped view and start panning to the right. Her lateral movement is nearly the same speed as your gun sweeping, so you'll be able to line up a shot by the next streetlight really easily. If you are good, you can even tag her when she first rounded that corner (it doesn't hurt to try, you'll have another bullet ready to fire for the "easier" shot).

It takes more hits than with the grenades, but the progress is pretty steady.

[Ekkebus]

Wood, I forgot to ask but what about Alter Ego makes it stand out for you as your favorite. I like it too but it didn't really stand out to me over the likes of Encounter, Cloudman or Smile.

Speaking of which Smile Pt1 is open for business. So, I completely fucking forgot about the entire first part of Smile. That is to say, the initial mission at the hotel before you go to the school. Which is to say, that's as far as I got. I still plan on finishing for next week but the Hotel is all I have to talk about for the moment.

[Wood]

I just liked how Alter Ego episode seems to be much more light hearted compaired to just about every other episode. Granted, I really hate Roller Smiles a lot. However, the fact it's about a Sentai group rolling over into the real world, a huge replicator fight, and that game within a game made it fun. The bad news is I haven't gotten much progress in Killer 7 right now. I'm in the lobby of the Hotel right now. Again, it's not that fun on Deadly at the moment. I heard somewhere that bellhop is from Silver Case, an earlier Suda game. Is this true?

[Ekkebus]

Alright, its all on the table now. I actually haven't gotten to wrapping it up yet but don't let that hold anyone back.