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Killer7 is a video game jointly developed and published by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube and the Sony 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. It is currently being converted into a 12-part comic book series, with part three having just 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 Suda 51's original concepts, and to make them easier to understand.

The game was written and directed by Suda 51, AKA Goichi Suda, and produced by Shinji Mikami. Mikami is well known for being the creative force behind a string of stylish, original titles including Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe, and Devil May Cry.

Concept

The title revolves around Harman Smith, a 60-year-old assassin in a wheelchair. He is capable of manifesting seven personalities each with their own deadly abilities, and the whole group is collectively known as the Killer Seven. The leading personality is revealed to be Garcian Smith, who has the ability, once activated by security cameras or television sets, to call upon the six other members of the Killer Seven almost anywhere at any time. Unlike most artistic presentations of multiple personalities, Harman does not just think he is someone else; rather, the personae actually take on their unique physical form and abilities when called upon.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Killer7 is unconventional by normal standards. The game takes place on rails, and the player, using the A and B buttons (or for the PS2, the Triangle and X buttons), "tells" 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.

When the player encounters one of the enemies, known as Heaven Smiles, it announces its presence by laughing maniacally. The player then must go to first-person 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 so-called "Thick Blood", which is then used to upgrade one of Harman's seven personalities at checkpoints called "Harman Rooms," which sometimes don't have the ability to save, but exist only for Blood upgrades and as places to respawn, should one of the Killer7 be slain.

Story

The storyline centers on Harman Smith, an assassin who employs (some would say even "owns") the Killer Seven, a team of assassins that are multiple personalities of Harman Smith, each with their own specialities. The only one that can communicate with any of the others, including Harman himself, is Garcian Smith, an African-American man. He is also the only one that can revive other personalities if they happen to be killed, which has given him the nickname The Cleaner, as he may clean the scene of the personalities' dead bodies.

The Killer Seven are hired to assassinate Kun Lan, a man who actually regularly plays chess with Harman Smith. Kun Lan possesses the God Hand, and he is the leader of the terrorist group called Heaven's Smile. The members of this group are called Heaven Smiles, people who have been touched by Kun Lan's God Hand. They are living proximity mines, walking bombs with permanent grins etched into their mouths. They are the main enemies in the game. The goal of the Killer Seven is to stop Kun Lan and eradicate the Heaven Smiles.

In the game the player discovers that Garcian is actually a "reincarnation" of sorts of Emir Parkreiner, once an assassin trained by the Japanese United Nations Party at their underground training facility at Coburn Elementary School. The goal of the United Nations Party is to unify the whole world under Japanese control, using the Yakumo Policy, which was devised by previous Japanese politicans as the ultimate way to achieve power. The UN aim to do this by training teenagers as assassins and politicians at Coburn Elementary School, and if they failed to comply, they would be sold as orphans on the black market, consequently being turned into Heaven Smiles. Emir Parkreiner was a star student at the school and was mentored by then principal, Harman Smith.

There are three Harman Smiths. The older, deity figure (seen in the chess games), the younger traitorous one, and the spirit of the younger Harman and the one most commonly found in the game. Emir's/Garcian's relationship was with young Harman. The Harman in Garcian's house is the spirit of the traitorous young Harman Smith, and spends his time forced into deep sleep so that he stays under the control of the deity Harman. Garcian knows how to awaken Harman, in which time old Harman stays in control for the conversation.

Emir became a hit man and was asked by Kun Lan at the age of thirteen to kill old Harman Smith and his team of assassins, staying currently at the Union Hotel in Philadelphia. Emir kills all of the Smith assassins and after killing Harman Smith, Emir, who believes he killed his mentor, shoots himself on the roof on the hotel. Instead of dying, however, he is "born again" as Garcian Smith who has the power to control the once dead Smith assassins, and is also spiritually bound by deity Harman.

Garcian becomes aware of his true identity after reliving his past events when a mission leads him back to the Coburn Elementary School and the Union Hotel. At Coburn Elementary School, Garcian comes in contact with cassette tapes that elaborate on the identity of Emir Parkreiner. When the Killer Seven reach the auditorium, the Smith personas all presumably die at the hands of seemingly invincible Heaven Smiles. After all the personalities die, Garcian appears and takes possession of his old weapon, the Golden Gun (perhaps a reference or an homage to James Bond) and kills the Heaven Smiles and proceeds to the Union Hotel, seeking answers.

There, he experiences several flashbacks of the Smith Assassins being systematically shot and killed by someone armed with the Golden Gun. On the top floor of the Union Hotel the evil, young Harman Smith, re-awakened due to Kun Lan's efforts, reveals Garcian's true identity. At first, Garcian is in denial and becomes remorseful over killing his own team, but later he realizes that he really is Emir. Garcian then seeks revenge and kills the impressions of the deities Kun Lan and Harman, ending the chess game and therefore the battle between East and West.

Three years later, Emir/Garcian arrives at Battleship Island in Japan to resolve the issue of Heaven Smile and the escalating diplomatic tension between Japan and the United States. There, he meets Kenjiro Matsuoka, a president of the United Nations Party. He warns Emir that if he doesn't kill him right now, the U.N. will rally under him and plan a massive assault on the U.S.. But if Emir kills him, then Japan will be destroyed by the U.S. to hide Japan's knowledge of the fact that the elections in the United States are rigged by the Education Ministry. So the player must decide whether to save Japan or the United States.

Either way, Emir finds himself back in his trailer house, where he chases down the Last Shot Smile into the basement where it is revealed to be Iwazaru, and in turn is revealed to be a reincarnation of sorts of Kun Lan, and of the remains of his mental and psychological hold on Emir. He finishes off Iwazaru/Kun Lan, finally ending the menace of the Heaven Smiles and freeing himself of Harman and Kun Lan.

However, despite Emir's efforts, the battle restarts 100 years later in Shanghai, and so the battle between "Good/Evil," Yin/Yang, East/West forever goes on.

Shinji Mikami has been quoted saying, "Me and Goichi Suda 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 don't usually see in video games these days." This holds true for Killer7.

Staff

Production Staff

Voice actors

Trivia

  • The character "Kevin Smith" is not named after the director Kevin Smith. Suda 51 had never heard of this director nor seen his movies.
  • There were actually two versions of the Killer7 story - one being the original story from Suda 51, which would cost too much time and money to make into a game, and the other being the shortened version Suda 51 made for the game. The original story was detailed in a Japanese-only supplemental book entitled Hand In Killer7: Kill The Past, Jump Over The Age.
  • Harman and his band of personalities all share the same last name, Smith, making them "the Smiths", as in the 1980s pop group. Killer7's creators acknowledged and furthered the reference by scrawling "How Soon Is Now!" (the title of one of the band's most popular songs) on a wall in the first mission as well as by naming the in-game memos after the band's songs.
  • The Killer 7 is a Magnum gun in Capcom's Resident Evil 4, an obvious tie-in to Killer7. Though unrelated to any of the guns used in Killer7, it is remarkably similar visually to KAEDE Smith's gun.
  • In Resident Evil 4, when the 'Handcannon' weapon is equipped, on the menu screen, Leon holds the gun exactly the same way as Dan Smith does in Killer 7.
  • Also in Resident Evil 4 a monster called "Regenerator" appears, which looks similar to a common "Heaven Smile" in Killer 7.
  • Renowned hispanic actor Benito Martinez provides the voice of Coyote Smith in the game. Martinez is best known for portraying Capt. David Aceveda in the critically-lauded TV cop show, The Shield.
  • The TV channel Garcian watches at the beginning of the Cloudman and Alter-Ego episodes, ZaKa TV, is the same channel the player works for in Michigan (one of Grasshopper Manufacture's previous titles).
  • The bellhop who greets Garcian Smith in the Union Hotel during the Smile episode is Edo MacAlister, the hotel manager of Flower, Sun and Rain (another of Grasshopper's previous games).
  • Jack Thompson cited Killer7, among other games, for being responsible for the deterioration of modern society, claiming that 'profanity, sex and bloodshed are commonplace'. This quote was later used on the back of the third comic book for publicity.
  • Emir Parkreiner's starting position during the beginning of KAEDE's flashback cutscene on the 4th hotel floor shown during Chapter Smile is an error.Emir is behind KAEDE in the back of the hallway,but it is physically impossible for Emir to start here because the only thing behind him is a dead end and no stairway or elevator to have come out of.Emir should have been shown starting from near the elevator located in the center of the 4th hotel floor.In addition, Emir had to use this same elevator while on the 3rd hotel floor in order to get to the 4th floor anyway.
  • Many reviewers and fans have complained that each of the Smith Assassins, the main characters, should each have had an equal role in the storyline, have their backgrounds examined and most of all, have had more lines of dialogue. Only Garcian, Dan, Mask and (to a lesser extent) Con were featured in most cutscenes, leaving the others completely out of the picture.

Reviews

The reviews for the game have been very mixed. The 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 high 8's from sources like GameSpot, IGN, and Nintendo Power. Some of the reviews from reviewers like IGN and Gamespot have stated that the Nintendo GameCube version is graphically superior, far faster loading times, and has better control than the PlayStation 2 version, meaning that these sources recommend the Nintendo GameCube version over the PlayStation 2 version. (On a side note, the Nintendo GameCube version has indeed outsold the PlayStation 2 version - the only other notable occasions which this has happened is for Soul Calibur II, Timesplitters 2, and Viewtiful Joe.) Many fans think that the reason for low scores are that reviewers weren't attracted to the game's strange style and gameplay. However, the UK's most highbrow and upmarket publications, Edge and GamesTM, universally adored the game, both awarding it an impressive 8/10. This score is no mean feat in these notoriously strict magazines.

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 *
      • Most Innovative Game *
    • Runner-up
      • Best Story *
      • Best GameCube Game *
      • Most Outrageous Game *
    • Dubious Honors Nominations
      • Most Gratuitous Use of F
        -- Swearing         *
  • IGN's The Best of 2005 awards
    • Won
      • Best Adventure Game *
      • Best Story *
      • Best Game No One Played *
    • Runner-up
      • GameCube Game of the Year *
      • Most Innovative Design *
      • Best Artistic Design *
  • Nintendo Power Awards 2005 *
    • 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

See also

References

External links

2005 computer and video games | GameCube games | PlayStation 2 games | Capcom games | Cel-shaded computer and video games | Killer7 | Controversial computer and video games

Killer 7 | Killer 7 | Killer 7

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Killer7".

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