The Killer 7 plot thread with 100% spoilers

Games
1

Anyone else finish this?

I’ll have a review in the CGM that comes out next month, but I don’t mind saying in advance that I loved the storyline, as incomprehensible as it ultimately is. There are threads on GameFAQs and Gaming Age that demonstrate how it’s nearly impossible to piece together any sort of final truth, but I thought I’d list some facts that I think anchor any attempt to analyze what’s going on.

  • Much of the game is in Emir Parkreiner’s imagination, where he supposes he’s a team of elite assassins.

  • Emir was molested (?) by the principal of the school, where he imagines (?) there’s a plot to rig the US elections and seed the country with Japanese agents.

  • After fleeing the school, Emir goes on a killing spree in the Union Hotel. His victims were each of the members of Killer 7 and Garcian – not Harlan – is the personality he invents after the fact.

  • Izawaru was the screaming man Garcian imagines he’s kept in his basement. His true identity is that he’s Kun Lan, as is clearly indicated when you kill him at the end of the game and finally see him without his eyes sewed shut. Similarly, Harlan is kept in “Harlan’s room”. The “forbidden room” is where Harlan and Kun Lan meet and play chess.

  • The game follows Garcian’s gradual realization of his own identity, represented by his third eye being opened before he kills himself on the hotel roof. The actual game is a Jacob’s Ladder sort of interlude in the brief moments between Emir’s last victim and his suicide.

At least that’s my theory. The political epilogue is difficult to fit in with this idea, but I think it sort of exists alongside Emir’s internal fiction as an alternate political reality.

Anyone else want to weigh in? I don’t think I’ve been as absorbed in a story-driven game to this degree since Planescape: Torment.

-Tom

2

Wow. I had to read this twice to make certain that this was not some joke-y thread. I didn’t expect the story to be THAT far out there.

So what did you think of the game? This could be next on my list.

3

This story sounds incredible. I had tried the game but was incredibly turned off by the recurring enemies, which quickly taxed my easily-triggered frustration and pushed the game right back into the little Gamefly envelope from whence it came. Thanks to this news I’ll probably pick it up once the price has dropped.

4

That’s about how I read those aspects of the story, though the political angles are what really blew my mind.

The game made me wonder exactly what I was killing the whole time. Didn’t you find it odd that newscasts were talking about politics, but not about the fact that monsters had appeared all over the world? Your character in the game seems to be completely paranoid.

I noticed this right at the beginning:

Harman Smith
Heaven Smile

The words look similar. The only connection I eventually surmised is that the game is about a recurring battle between “gray” forces. At the beginning there’s the showdown between Harman and Kun Lan, in which they allude to an ongoing struggle between the two of them.

After you finish the game, there’s the epilogue in which the two of them of them are having a very similar encounter hundreds of years into the future.

This coincides will with the game’s more-serious comments on how one of two things seems destined to happen: Either the United States will utterly destroy Japan, or a Pearl Harbor-caliber incident is doomed to repeat itself.

“History repeats itself” is what I ultimately determined to be the theme of the game, if there is one.

I really liked the story, too. I liked that it flew off in all kinds of seemingly senseless directions but had a few recurring threads through it, as if defying you to rationalize the whole thing.

But if it’s a game about the mind of a madman, you shouldn’t be able to simply piece it all together, right?

5

So what’s the final take on this game? Over on The Chaos Engine it’s pretty much loathed as an unplayable mess with a nonsensical storyline. Yet some people on GAF sing its praises. Is this another love-it-or-hate-it a la Metroid Prime?

6

Ack, firstly, those of you who haven’t played the game shouldn’t be reading this thread! Go away! Come back when you’ve finished! :)

There were distinct political and psychological layers, and I’m not sure I understand how they’re related. I get that the two characters are sort of a god/devil or father/villian dialectic for Garcian. As you note, Greg, Harman Smith on one hand, Kun Lan’s Heaven Smile creations on the other.

But the bookend battles were puzzling. I don’t get what they’re doing in Shanghai 100 years later. Urk. (BTW, I tested it and it’s the same scene no matter which ending you choose).

Of course, it’s possible Garcian didn’t commit suicide. In fact, now that I think about it, you simply shoot the younger Garcian/Emir in his third eye, at which point the older Garcian opens the briefcase and you get the reveal that he’s been the only member of Killer 7 all along. Then there’s the epilogue where he goes home and kills Iwazaru/Kun Lan, only to have the same struggle 100 years later.

I wish I could go back and watch certain bits without sifting through saved games.

This coincides will with the game’s more-serious comments on how one of two things seems destined to happen: Either the United States will utterly destroy Japan, or a Pearl Harbor-caliber incident is doomed to repeat itself.

So is it correct that in the second episode, when you see the missiles streaking overhead while Garcian and Christopher Mills are talking on the Seattle overpass (awesome scene, BTW), Japan is being destroyed? The ending where you let the Japanese assassin lives presumes that he mobilizes the Japanese agents, who orchestrate the counterattack against the U.S.?

But if it’s a game about the mind of a madman, you shouldn’t be able to simply piece it all together, right?

That’s not about to stop me from trying! :)

-Tom

7

This is apocryphal, because I’ve never been able to source it. But I was once told that during a press junket for Barton Fink, the Coen Brothers were being pressed on what certain details of the plot meant. Exasperated by the the questions, they finally insisted that Barton Fink wasn’t a story so much as a state of mind.

Which applies perfectly to Killer 7.

-Tom

8

I forgot to mention in the e-mail that he also did Michigan, that game where you’re the reporter in a crisis and have to make decisions on whether to cover hot stories of action or actually help people. That one was pretty chilling as well.

-Kitsune

9

So what’s the final take on this game?

Pick up the next issue of CGM. :)

However, I really liked Greg’s Gamespot review. I thought some of his complaints were a bit immaterial, but he was considering it as a game whereas I look at it as something unfortunately squeezed into the form of a game. Kitsune pointed out that writer Gouichi Suda seems to have been influenced by something in Japan called sound novels.

And to quote something Kitsune told me in an email: “If you want my advice on interpreting the plot, this type of writing almost always seems to seek for more interpretation in the way it makes you feel about it than the actual plot details.”

-Tom

10

Did anyone figure out the names of the levels, or the reason for the naming? I see no pattern emerging, really. Oh, fun fact: The memos are all named after The Smiths songs.

11

Game sounds alot like conspiracy theory symbolism and whatnut… you guys should catch up on your Illuminati info!

etc

12

So, are games art yet?

13

Never noticed the Smiths thing, but that’s interesting. Why am I not surprised that those guys listen to the Smiths?

The level names start to make some kind of sense after a while, at least some of them. Alter Ego is coherent since that’s where the Killer7 take on the Handsomemen, their counterparts. I haven’t made any sense out of that whole bit yet other than that it’s awesome.

I was also trying to figure out the importance (if any) of the color of the moon prior to each chapter. The two I took some meaning away from are from the second chapter, where the moon is blood red like the Japanese flag, and the last chapter, where the moon looks as it should–unfiltered, since that’s the chapter where some of the truth, such as it is, is revealed.

The thing about Garcian being all seven of the personalities didn’t surprise me, since early on it occurred to me that there were far too many stairs for Harman to be taking them on his wheelchair. But it was cool to get the shot of what was in the briefcase after all.

14

But it was cool to get the shot of what was in the briefcase after all.

I almost expected a Pulp “You don’t get to know and what’s more it doesn’t really matter” Fiction take on the briefcase. But it turned out to be a really nice reveal.

Some things I didn’t expect, and really enjoyed:

  • Samantha’s last name!
  • Christopher Mills’ death (“Thirty years ago, you and Harman Smith-” BLAM!)
  • Why we were gradually being shown letters to Emir
  • The central door in the colosseum connecting to Harman’s trailer house
  • The boss characters reappearing as ghosts later in the game

the second chapter, where the moon is blood red like the Japanese flag

Good catch, Greg! I think the Alter Ego moon had some weird sytlized pattern on it, almost like a drawing. At least, I think it was Alter Ego.

Alter Ego is coherent since that’s where the Killer7 take on the Handsomemen, their counterparts. I haven’t made any sense out of that whole bit yet other than that it’s awesome.

I like the sort of sly joke in the fact that the Handsomemen battle is predetermined: the gamey-est part of Killer 7 is almost entirely non-interactive! I suspected as much, but wasn’t certain until I’d finished the game and was persuing the forum on GameFAQs.

-Tom

15

Just finished Killer 7 today, and man, what a ride. Maybe I’ve just got an awkward taste in games, but the elaborate “shooting-gallery” gameplay coupled with the excellent pacing of the puzzles managed to become addictive real quick. Coupled with the story it’s just a barrage of payoffs.

Stuff I really liked in particular:

  • Ulmeydas megapolis being revealed to be a giant mock-up plate of scenery that falls down with a loud “THUMP” behind you after you’ve run through the impressive entrance.

  • BBE…DWEEEEIIINGGGG. Best sound in a game ever. I must’ve heard it more than a thousand times and I still like it! BBE…DWEEEEIINGG!

  • The fakeout ending of the Alter Ego chapter. I was sitting there saying “You gotta be kidding me!”. And then, yeah, they were.

  • The extraordinarily sadistic walk-through-the-scraper POV-trip with Blackburn. Woah, stop capping heads right now, you cocksucker!

It seems that the consensus is that Kun Lan is Iwazaru, but I can’t help but wonder who the middle aged guy in socks balancing on the ledge of a skyscraper with a smarmy looking young Harman behind him was? He had the bondage-gear, ball-gag and all, down pat. HMMM.

What a long and weird experience.

16

So I checked this game out from the company story and sat down to play deep into the night and really get into it. Two hours later I don’t think I can go on, I just don’t think I can endure Killer 7 any longer. Just as some people can’t play FPSes because it makes them nauseous, I honestly don’t think I can continue because every moment of this game is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

It starts with the fact that I have real trouble with games that don’t map the controls to the environment. So if I my character is facing left, and I want to go left, I sure has hell better go left when I press left on the pad. I shouldn’t have to press up, or even worse X. And I’m facing left and I want to go right, triangle then X is pretty much the last thing I want to do. I’ve never really been able to get into rail shooters, whether it was Virtua Cop or Panzer Dragoon Orta, mainly because the analog stick is not a great mechanism for precise aiming. I find myself constantly over-rotating or circling around my target, as if I am writing on a cue ball with a ball point pen. I don’t know why anyone would want to play Duck Hunt without the light gun.

Things are compounded by the fact that anything I can do easily in real life, like, say, look around, I should be able to do easily in the game. Sometimes, on a good day, I can even look around while I’m moving, but usually I have to plant myself firmly in one spot and rotate on my Y axis. Killer 7 mimics my bad days by not only forcing me to hold down a button to look around, but I have to hit a second button to scan for invisible enemies. This must be from the Metroid Prime school where you have to hold down two shoulder buttons and use the C stick to look around.

But there are plenty of games that have camera-independent controls, and I’m usually able to overcome that. But Killer 7 just adds on the pet peeves. First there’s the constant fucking loading. My god, it’s like the EQ2 experience except the zones are the size of a dorm room. Plus, the loading or transition screen is visual white noise, further augmenting the game’s ardent stylistic goal of disconcerting the user. Job well done, I must say.

Then there is the narrator with the unspellable name. Unfortunately, you have to “speak” to him regularly, and unfortunately his voice is the aural equivalent of the loading screen, an unintelligible electronic babble. I was tempted to simply mute the game so as not to hear his voice, but I actually quite liked the ambient music. However, like any modern RPG, you should be able to button through the text as most of us can read faster than the game usually draws the text. But not here! Not only can you not button through it, but he prefaces every statement with the same goddamn thing every time. “We’re in a tight spot!” No kidding, I figured that out the third time I ran into you. Of course, it just adds to the frustration when he tells you nothing of value, such as “they must be insane, look at their eyes.” Thanks.

The story, as has already been pointed out here, makes little or no sense, so I’m not particularly interested in unraveling what may be an endless ball of twine. Finally, I ran forward to a junction point just as I heard the laughter of the phantoms, unable to view because I was in “junction mode,” I tried desperately to hit triangle and move out of the junction, but at that point the invisible whatsits bear hugged me and killed me, meaning I get to go through the cleaner’s excruciating resurrection mechanic (hmmm…what would Shenmue do at this point? Race forklifts? No…button mash to resurrect! Button mashing is a type of gameplay! Wheeee!) So when I died at another dreaded junction, I simply walked over and turned off my PS2.

As much as this sounds like it is damning critque of the game itself, and there are parts I think most people would genuinely find annoying, I really just want it to be a clear indication that some methods of input just simply do not work for some people. It’s not Carmack’s fault that my friend gets seasick playing FPS, and it’s not CAPCOM’s fault that I despise invisible walls in games and radically limited mobility. I’m really in no position to actually judge the merits of Killer 7 as a whole simply because I can’t bring myself to push on any farther. Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music may in fact be a work of genius, but I wouldn’t know, I can’t get past the first five minutes.

17

Jim, just to correct you on a few things:

It starts with the fact that I have real trouble with games that don’t map the controls to the environment.

Except for the shooting segments, Killer 7 isn’t a shooter. It’s more like an adventure game. With the compass and map, you shouldn’t have a problem nagivating the levels quickly.

Killer 7 mimics my bad days by not only forcing me to hold down a button to look around, but I have to hit a second button to scan for invisible enemies.

You only have to look around during the shooting segments, which are clearly identified by the sound of a Heaven Smile’s laughing. There’s also a quick reverse button. Two, in fact. As for seeing the environments, the camera is usually carefully positioned and can be switched with the L2 button.

Then there is the narrator with the unspellable name.

He’s not the narrator, but I can see how you would think that if you didn’t get past the first few areas. Iwazaru is one of several characters who talks to Harman.

Unfortunately, you have to “speak” to him regularly,

Most of your interactions with him are optional flavor text.

and unfortunately his voice is the aural equivalent of the loading screen, an unintelligible electronic babble.

All of the ghosts talk this way, with slight differences.

he prefaces every statement with the same goddamn thing every time. “We’re in a tight spot!”

The word you’re looking for is Aw-goo-stuh. Otherwise, you might want to at least get into the second chapter before making any assumptions about Iwazaru, mush less the rest of the game.

Of course, it just adds to the frustration when he tells you nothing of value,

It depends whether you consider the game’s writing “of value”.

The story, as has already been pointed out here, makes little or no sense, so I’m not particularly interested in unraveling what may be an endless ball of twine.

That’s a shame. This “endless ball of twine” is one of the best stories I’ve seen in a game since Planescape: Torment.

Finally, I ran forward to a junction point just as I heard the laughter of the phantoms, unable to view because I was in “junction mode,” I tried desperately to hit triangle

Just hit the look button. Like any other place in the game.

Look, if Killer 7 isn’t your bag, that’s fine. But you of all people should know better than to waltz into a forum and cast ill-informed aspersions on a game you can’t figure out. There are plenty of things not to like about Killer 7, but many of them aren’t the things you think you’ve found. :)

-Tom

18

Actually, I have to side with Jim on this one. I rented Killer 7 and, after sinking about twelve hours into it, finally decided to give up in frustration. I couldn’t possibly suck any harder at the shooter elements of this game, and I figure that if I didn’t get any better at it after a couple of days worth of playing, then I wasn’t going to get any better ever. The final straw came with those poison monsters in the gambling-themed house, the ones you have to hit the glowing bit to actually kill. What with the various dying-and-reloading, I must have faced about fifty of those bastards, and I didn’t kill a single one of them. Not even by accident, which is a pretty remarkable achievement when you think about it. That’s because - and I think I’ve made this perfectly clear by now - I really, really suck.

Unlike Jim, I’m fairly irritated with myself that I couldn’t continue, because I was really grooving on almost everything else about the game. LOVED the visuals, loved the music, and I was totally hooked on what tiny scraps of the plot I could understand. Yes, the loading times were irritating, but I’ve seen worse.

Ah, well. Perhaps somebody will post some sort of speed walkthrough and I can just watch the damn thing, instead of trying to play it.

19

Actually, I have to side with Jim on this one. I rented Killer 7 and, after sinking about twelve hours into it, finally decided to give up in frustration.

Dude, you were probably so close to the end! I think I got through it in about 15 hours, and I’m not that good at the shooting bits either. It definitely helps if you concentrate your upgrades on one character long enough to get the critical lock ability.

BTW, I’m not sure what poison guys you mean (the Poison Smiles are pretty easy to deal with), but you can always run backwards to give yourself more time and room. Also, there are very few guys you can’t kill just by using The Mask’s grenade launchers. The guys with jetpacks and the guys you have to spin around and shoot in the back are the ones who gave me the most trouble. But they’re both easily dispatched by The Mask, especially once you upgrade his costumes.

-Tom

20

Fair enough. But I don’t think my problem with is it that I haven’t “figure it out.” I think I have a pretty good idea what it is, it just so happens that it’s not for me. I don’t like the control scheme; I don’t like the shooting elements; I don’t like not being able to button through the text and read it at my speed; I can’t stand the sound of the undead voices; I don’t like button mashing someone to resurrect them; and I’m not particularly interested in the serial killer genre, whether in films, novels, or videogames. I find most of them to be sophmoric and shallow, like heavy metal musicians who love to sing about serial killers or the criminally insane because they think the morbid is also the profound. Killer 7 may have a great story, I’m just not motivated enough to fight the mechanics to discover it.

I really just wanted to point out how utterly personal this reaction was, and I don’t want to say anything about the quality of Killer 7 beyond the fact that I just can’t get into it in the same way that many of my friend’s can’t get into the button complexities of Soul Calibur. It’s just not for me.