Killer7

killer7
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Grasshopper Manufacture RIZ Co. (PS2 port)
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Goichi Suda (story, writer, director, producer) Shinji Mikami (story, executive producer)
Composer(s)	Masafumi Takada Jun Fukuda
Series	Capcom Five
Platform(s)	GameCube, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	JP June 9, 2005 NA July 7, 2005 PAL July 15, 2005
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, rail shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	BBFC: 18 CERO: 18 ESRB: M OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 18+
Media	2 × Nintendo optical disc 1 × DVD-ROM

killer7 (キラーセブン, kirāsebun^?) is an action-adventure video game jointly developed and published by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was released on June 9, 2005 in Japan; July 7, 2005 in the United States; and July 15, 2005 in Europe. The game was written and directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, and produced by Shinji Mikami.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 killer8 1.2 hopper7 2 Story 2.1 Characters 2.2 Plot 2.3 Voice actors 3 Related media 3.1 Original Soundtrack 3.2 Comic book 4 Reception 4.1 Awards 5 References 6 External links

Gameplay

The gameplay in killer7 is that of an unconventional first-person shooter. The game takes place on rails, and the player, using the A and B buttons (or for the PlayStation 2, the Triangle and X buttons), directs 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.

A substantial part of killer7 is its puzzles – the player must collect rings that are required in some puzzles while other puzzles require a talent of a specific persona, and even further puzzles are solved when not using rings or character abilities based on heavy logic and thinking. There are six rings, those being Fire, Water, Wind, Time, Stamina and Power. If the player hears the twang of a guitar underscore, it means that a puzzle needs to be solved or an item needs to be used; items are used automatically for the player to solve puzzles if the item is in possession, though rings must be selected in order to work. A lighter tune is heard when the player has successfully overcome an obstacle.

When the player encounters one of the enemies, known as a Heaven Smile, it announces its presence by producing a maniacal laugh. The player then must go to first-person shooting 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 "Thick Blood" that can be converted to serum, the "experience points" of the game that can be used to level up each persona at checkpoints called "Harman's Rooms". There is a limit to the amount of serum that can be converted from Thick Blood, which varies between stages. Serum can be carried over each stage but Thick Blood cannot. Harman's Rooms sometimes offer the ability to save, though not all do, and always exist for blood upgrades and respawn points should one of the Killer7 be slain.

killer8

After successfully completing the game, a new Start menu will appear. The menu appears almost the same as the previous one except for the new yellow text and the words killer8. As the player starts the game a second time, the younger Harman Smith is now accessible as a new persona. Also new to this mode is the "bloodbath" difficulty mode. Nearly every single attack from a Heaven Smile in Killer8 mode is fatal. Almost every single character, save for Mask and Harman, can die from just one attack. In addition, critical spots are not visible on Smiles in this mode. The bosses are harder to beat, though the damage of their attacks remain the same. In the battle against Greg Nightmare in Target 05: Smile, the seventh Heaven Smile runs toward younger Harman Smith instead of Garcian, because there are now eight personas and not just seven.

hopper7

A final mode appears after the completion of killer8 called hopper7. In this mode the Heaven Smile look like normal people except they wear big grasshopper masks, and all are killed in one hit, as if their entire bodies were a "critical point". All other game play is unchanged; only the first level is playable.

Story

Characters

The title revolves around Harman Smith and Kun Lan, who are demi-gods, fighting a battle of good versus evil over several centuries. In the game's present, Harman has taken the form of a sixty-year-old assassin who is bound to a wheelchair, tended to by a maid named Samantha. He is capable of manifesting seven personalities into the real world, each with their own personal style of killing; the group is collectively known as the Killer7. The dominant personality is Garcian Smith, who, while in the presence of security cameras or television sets, has the ability to call upon the six other members of the Killer7 at any time. The other six personas, all with the Smith surname, include aggressive Irish-American Dan, barefoot Japanese-American female KAEDE, albino British Kevin, Puerto Rican Coyote, young Chinese-American Con, and Mexican luchador MASK de Smith. Unlike most multiple personalities in fiction (and all real forms of the disorder), Harman does not just think he is someone else; rather, his personas actually take on a unique physical body when called upon and each have their own unique set of guns and fighting styles. During the course of the game, the player is introduced to other ghostly figures from Harman's past that attempt to help the Killer7, including Travis Bell, the first target Harman assassinated, and Iwazaru, a subservient personality that appears from time to time in order to give the player hints.

Plot

In the near future, the Japanese United Nations Party is attempting to unify the world under Japanese control. To that end, Garcian Smith is asked by Christopher Mills, an agent of the United States to assassinate a number of targets that are working with the Party to prevent this from occurring. As Garcian and the Killer7 attempt these tasks, they find that their efforts are interfered with a mutant terrorist group known as "Heaven Smile"; the members have been converted by Kun Lan using his "God Hand" into living bombs.

One of the last missions takes the Killer7 to Coburn Elementary School near Seattle, Washington. While exploring the school, the Killer7 discover tapes that reveal that the school was a front for the Japanese United Nations Party to train young children to become assassins. One such child, Emir Parkreiner, was mentored by Harman Smith and stood out from the others, but his fate is unknown. Clues at the school point to a shooting massacre several years earlier at the Union Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the hotel Garcian discovers that all of the Killer7 personas were victims of the massacre, all killed by Emir, save for Garcian; Garcian's persona is actually that of Emir's, who committed suicide after realizing he had shot his mentor, Harman. Emir reincarnated as Harman, Garcian, and the other Killer7 personalities, but had forgotten his past, and relearns of the painful truth in the present.

Three years later, Garcian arrives at Battleship Island in Japan to put an end to Heaven Smile and to ease tensions between Japan and the rest of the world. He meets with Kenjiro Matsuoka, president of the Japanese United Nations Party, and insists Garcian make a choice: keep Kenjiro alive, which will allow Japan to rally underneath him for an assault on the United States, or kill him, which will lead to the United States discovering their elections have been rigged by Japan, and will lead to Japan being destroyed. Regardless of the choice the player makes, Garcian will discover that the last Heaven Smile is nearby, and gives chase. Garcian kills the smile to discover it is Kun Lan himself, ending the threat of the Heaven Smile.

The game concludes a century in the future in Shanghai as Harman and Kun face off once again.

Shinji Mikami has been quoted saying, "Me and Goichi Suda (the 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 do not usually see in video games these days."^{[citation needed]}

Voice actors

Despite the massive amount of major and minor characters in Killer7, not all of the characters in the game have their voice actors credited to them at the game's end credits.

• Dwight Schultz — Harman Smith
• Greg Eagles — Garcian Smith
• Michael Gough — Dan Smith
• Tara Strong — KAEDE Smith
• Jun Hee Lee — Con Smith
• Miguel Caballero — MASK de Smith
• Benito Martinez — Coyote Smith
• Heidi Anderson — Samantha Sitbon
• Bart Flynn — Christopher Mills
• Jim Ward — Toru Fukushima
• James Horan — Jean DePaul
• Robin Atkin Downes — Hiro Kasai/Hasegawa (uncredited)/Maitre'D (uncredited)
• Cam Clarke — Andrei Ulmeyda
• Chris Cox — Gabriel Clemence
• Alastair Duncan — Curtis Blackburn
• Masayo Hosono — Ayame Blackburn
• Debi Derryberry — Love Wilcox/1st Heaven Smile (uncredited)
• Jennifer Hale — Linda Vermillion
• Steven Jay Blum — Kenjiro Matsuoka/Benjamin Keane (uncredited)/Trevor Pearlharbour (uncredited)
• Joe Lala — Kun Lan
• Kris Zimmerman — Punk Kid C
• Jack Angel — Narrator

Related media

Original Soundtrack

killer7 Original Sound Track was released on June 20, 2005 by Sony Music. It features all 61 original compositions by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda, spanning over a 2-disc set.

Comic book

An 'Issue #0' promo comic based on 'killer7' was included with copies of the game advance-ordered with EB Games, and 'Issue #1/2' was available at Comic-Con 2005. A 12-part series commenced in February 2006^[1]. Published by Devil's Due Publishing partnered with Kinitec Underground, they re-tell the events of the game with added dialogue and scenes to better convey Suda51's original concepts, making them easier to understand.^[2] The comic books received a mixed reaction, and the series was canceled after four issues.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Edge	8 of 10
Game Informer	GameCube: 7.5 of 10 PlayStation 2: 7.75 of 10
GamePro	PlayStation 2: [3]
GameSpot	GameCube: 8.3 of 10 [3]
GameSpy	GameCube: [4] PlayStation 2: [5]
IGN	GameCube: 8.1 of 10 [3] PlayStation 2: 7.9 of 10 [3]
Nintendo Power	8.5 of 10
X-Play	[6]

The reviews for the game were mixed. Review scores have ranged from 1 out of 5's from sources like Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro to 8 out of 10's from sources like GameSpot, IGN, and Nintendo Power. Edge and gamesTM, were generally enthusiastic about the game, and gave it 8/10 and 9/10. Some of the reviews from reviewers like IGN and Gamespot have stated that the Nintendo GameCube version is graphically superior, as well as having far faster loading times, and better controls than the PlayStation 2 version, recommending the Nintendo GameCube version over the PlayStation 2 version. The game quickly became a cult classic among gamers and was pivotal in introducing Suda51 to the western world. Interest soon formed in Grasshopper's earlier titles, which at the point had never been released outside of Japan. Flower, Sun and Rain was ported to the DS in 2008 and a similar DS port of The Silver Case is planned for 2010. Killer7's sleeper hit status meant there was substanstial interest in his follow-up game No More Heroes for the Wii which was well-received by critics.

Awards

Many of the game's strengths were recognized through the following awards:

• GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2005
  • Won
    • Best New Character (Harman Smith) ^[7]
    • Most Innovative Game ^[8]
  • Runner-up
    • Best Story ^[9]
    • Best GameCube Game ^[10]
    • Most Outrageous Game ^[11]
  • Dubious Honors Nominations
    • Most Gratuitous Use of F------ Swearing ^[12]
• IGN's The Best of 2005 - GameCube awards
  • Won
    • Best Adventure Game ^[13]
    • Best Story ^[14]
    • Best Game No One Played ^[15]
  • Runner-up
    • GameCube Game of the Year ^[16]
    • Most Innovative Design ^[17]
    • Best Artistic Design ^[18]
• Fourth place in IGN's Top 10 Tuesdays: Underrated and Underappreciated Games ^[19]
• Nintendo Power Awards 2005 ^[20]
  • 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

In 2007, killer7 was named 20^th best GameCube game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the GameCube's lifespan.^[21] In 2008, Game Informer named the game one of the top ten weirdest of all time.^[22]

References

External links

• Official site
• killer7 GameFAQs site
• Killer7 SINdicate
• killer7 at MobyGames
• killer7 on Suda51 Wiki, an external wiki
• Killer 7 investigates the horror of politics

v • d • e Suda51 Grasshopper Manufacture The Silver Case · Flower, Sun, and Rain · Shining Soul II · Michigan: Report from Hell · killer7 · Silver Case, 25 Ward · Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked · Contact · Blood+: One Night Kiss · No More Heroes · Flower, Sun and Rain: Unending Paradise · Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen · Untitled horror project · No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Human Entertainment Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout · Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special · Twilight Syndrome: Search · Twilight Syndrome: Investigation · Moonlight Syndrome Related articles Grasshopper Manufacture · Hideo Kojima · Human Entertainment · Masafumi Takada · Project 'S' · Shinji Mikami