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[jgillon2k19]

Killer 7 As A Postmodern Work

One of the most striking elements of Killer7 as a video game is its subversion of what could be expected of it at face value. One may expect a video game about assassins to be standard affair, a first or third person shooter, something where you kill the final boss and beat the level, but Killer7 ultimately twists this known formula on its head, creating something that certainly takes pieces of other works, but creates something wholly new and original from them. 

As a game, Killer7 mixes genres in a way that no game has successfully done since, taking elements from House of the Dead styled “Rail Shooters” and combining it with classic point and click adventure gameplay. This genre mixing ensures that very few new players will feel familiar with how the game works, forcing players to view the game from a new perspective, using both quick reflexes and precise aiming for combat, as well as thinking through the many puzzles the game presents.

https://youtu.be/kNBdPNxLyvk?t=315

In this gameplay video, the player can clearly be seen slowly learning how the game works, initially attempting to shoot at an invisible enemy, then learning to scan, turning them visible and vulnerable. This approach to gameplay forces players to relearn how to handle basic enemy encounters by punishing the behaviors that many other games would reward, and forcing players to think first to get the best possible outcome. 

Killer7′s visual design can be broadly defined by the term “Cel Shading”, which refers to a technique used in rendering 3D objects with unrealistic lighting systems that use different light levels rather than a smooth transition. This style is most prominently used in games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Jet Set Radio, which feature bright and colorful worlds that can be seen as very child-friendly. Killer7 adopts this style, but subverts the expectations set by previous cel shaded games by presenting a very mature and adult-oriented experience. 

By far, the most postmodern element of Killer7 is its story, and the extremely unorthodox methods that are used to tell it. For starters, unlike most games, a vast majority of the characters that you speak to and play as in Killer7 are already dead. From the titular Killer7 (with the exception of Garcian and Harman Smith), the recurring characters Travis and Susie (who only appears as a talking severed head), as well as the targets assassinated in previous levels, a vast majority of the cast of this game is either already dead, or will be. The “Ghosts” that the player will encounter throughout the game do not speak normally as other characters do, instead delivering dialogue through subtitles with jumbled, nonsensical speech played over it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-HAnFt0W1E

The speech of living characters, however, can be just as esoteric as that of the ghosts encountered. The first time the player meets the game’s antagonist, Kun Lan, he attempts to trick Harman Smith, who tells him “Tricks are for kids”, and then proceeds to catch the bullet he is shot at with, flying out the window and landing on top of the space needle.

https://youtu.be/dTZO60PaFTc?t=215

After the game’s ending, a title card appears stating “Shanghai, 100 years later”, in which a nearly identical scene takes place.

https://youtu.be/ArDj_PySA5c?t=522

The overwhelmingly complex and dark plot of killer7 is highlighted by scenes like this, where it seems to acknowledge just how strange a world it has created. While the main plot may focus mostly on a conspiracy by the Japanese government to take control of the United States, and many horrific scenes take place throughout, Killer7 is also a game where you have a series of duels to the death with “The Handsomemen” who are essentially a group of power rangers in Times Square.

https://youtu.be/ZvGR1HhvXB0?t=140

This sequence is followed by several fourth wall breaks, including a character who insists that she knows Garcian’s name because she writes the story before fading from existence, and a fake credits sequence for “Hardboiled Shooting Killer7 Online” with character art that parodies various arcade games. 

The ending of Killer7 is without a doubt the most important piece of this game’s postmodernism. After learning about the Japanese Government’s true secret weapon against the US, a person by the name of Emir Parkreiner, All of the members of the Killer7 except Garcian and Harman are permanently killed. This scene is followed by a series of flashbacks at the Union Hotel, where it is revealed that Garcian had killed all of the members of the Killer7 previously, and had simply been using their weapons throughout the game. Gargian is awakened to his true identity, Emir Parkreiner, and is terrified of what he has done. 

In an extra chapter you play as Garcian who has fully become Emir Parkreiner, and is now nearly invincible. Emir confronts Kenjiro Matsuoka, who works for the Japanese government, and players are given a choice to either kill him and allow the US to destroy Japan with no consequences, or let him live and allow Japan, which was nuked previously in the story, to launch their own nuclear missiles at America. This is followed by confronting the final member of the Heaven Smile terrorist organization, who is revealed to be Iwazaru, who helped you through the game, whose real identity was Kun Lan, the game’s antagonist.

https://youtu.be/P0GVnbIxhnw?t=217

This ending is as strange as it is ambiguous. It raises far more questions than it could ever answer, and being followed by the aforementioned post-credits scene only makes it that much more bizarre. 

Killer7′s entire existence is a wonder, for something as strange and off-putting to have been made at all is incredible. Despite this, the game has garnered a strong cult following for its extreme use of postmodern ideals to create something that takes the familiar and turns it into something that had never been done before, and likely will never be done again. 

Many of director Suda51′s other projects are similarly postmodern, from clear fourth wall breaking to fast forwarding through a long speech mid cutscene, his work never fails to turn the tried and true into something new and different.

[jgillon2k19]

Killer7 and Race

For a game released in 2006, Killer7 features an impressively diverse cast of characters, many of which subvert racial stereotypes, while other can, in some ways, reinforce them. 

Garcian Smith, who is in many ways the lead character of the game, is one character that subverts many stereotypical portrayals of African Americans in media. Though each member of the Killer7 is an assassin by trade, Garcian’s main purpose throughout the game is to act as a “cleaner” by rescuing his fallen comrades and reviving them. Garcian is described as “a sweet man who would not hurt a fly“, a far cry from stereotypes of African Americans as violent gangsters. At the end of the game, Garcian learns his true identity, Emir Parkreiner, and that he had previously killed all of the members of the Killer7 as well as several others. He opens his suitcase to find all of the other members’ weapons, realizing that he had been in control of them the whole time, and breaks down in tears. Garcian Smith is a very well developed character that subverts many stereotypes of African Americans in media.

Mask de Smith is a Mexican wrestler who joined the Killer7 upon being assassinated before a big match. From his dialogue, Mask de Smith is shown to be a caring person, fond of animals and children, and his self-styled wrestling technique shows a true passion for the sport. Mask’s friendly nature and hard work on a sport he is passionate about subverts many stereotypes about Latin Americans in media as being members of a cartel, or thieves. 

Coyote Smith, however, is a character that reinforces the very same stereotypes that Mask subverts. Coyote is described as a “Latino thug”, and is referred to as “the thief” by Iwarazu. Coyote’s talents include lockpicking, jumping to extreme heights, and vulgarity. While it is possible that some of the depth missing from Coyote’s characterization was present in content cut from the game, as he is presented in the released product, Coyote is a character deeply based in stereotype.

Con Smith is a Chinese teenager who is completely blind. His presence in Killer7 subverts stereotypes of both Asian people as well as the blind, as he is as fast and acrobatic as he is vulgar. The stereotype of Asians as a model minority in the US is greatly subverted by Con’s lack of respect for others and penchant for violence. While not a more positive representation, Con certainly does not uphold any stereotypes.

KAEDE Smith is a Japanese-American member of the smith syndicate who subverts stereotypical representations of Japanese women as submissive, as she is both a skilled assassin as well as being particularly critical of men. While KAEDE’s knowledge of martial arts may be seen as stereotypical, I believe that it is important to note that this may also further subvert stereotypes of women as well. 

For a video game released over 10 years ago, Killer7 has a fantastic amount of diversity in its main cast, and does an overall good job of subverting stereotypical representations of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Asians.

[jgillon2k19]

Economy and Technology

Killer7 Was a three year project led by Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom Production Studio 4 to be released as part of the “Capcom Five” for the Gamecube. The game took three years to develop, and Goichi Suda has said that he “remember[s] it being really, really hard“, but feeling “a definite feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment” at creating such a unique title. However despite three years of hard work, Suda has also stated that what was shipped in the final product was “only one third of what was written” for the game.

While there is not much information about the specific development process of Killer7, it is important to note that video game development as a whole is a difficult and laborious business. On top of this, despite being developed as a part of the “Capcom Five” for Nintendo’s Gamecube, Killer7 released for the Playstation 2 as well, showing that Capcom did not have faith in the Gamecube’s success, and this decision likely effected development, as the game now had to be designed for two consoles instead of just one. The game experienced several release delays due to the story and graphics being done first, and gameplay needing more fine tuning at the end of development, and finally being delayed to release on July seventh (7/7) in the US.

Killer7′s 2018 re-release on Windows was developed by Nippon Ichi Software America, who changed the game’s aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, and made the game playable on modern hardware with a mouse and keyboard. Suda has stated that this remaster did not require a lot of fine tuning of graphics because the game originally did not use very many textures, and most of the graphical style was determined by lighting of flat colors. The PC release of Killer7 does not feature any new content or bonus features, the only changes are graphical, but Suda hopes that it will sell well enough to convince Capcom to let Suda revisit the game, and perhaps include some of what was cut from the original. 

As Goichi Suda’s first game to be released outside of Japan, he has said that it was developed with western audiences in mind, but he still wanted to include Japan as an element in the story in order to keep it from feeling inauthentic. Suda has said that for the three years of Killer7′s development, he “went on a complete media blackout”, focusing only on completing the game’s development. As a result of this, Suda created something that he feels is wholly unique, but such a style of development could definitely be seen as extreme, and potentially very unhealthy. It is unclear whether other developers working on Killer7 operated under similar conditions, but considering the realities of game development as well as Japanese work culture, it is likely that many hours of overtime were spent working on this game. Grasshopper Manufacture has not developed a game to be published by Capcom since Killer7′s release in 2005.

Sources:

https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/7688-killer-7-interview-we-sat-down-with-goichi-suda-to-discuss-the-return-of-his-cult-classic

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/suda51-goichi-suda-killer-7-retrospective-interview-feature

[jgillon2k19]

Introduction

Killer7 is a game released in 2005 for the Nintendo Gamecube and Playstation 2, it was directed by Goichi Suda and co-written by Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series. The game was ported to PC in 2018, and I first played it last month, and was surprised by how stylish the presentation was and how strange and complex the overall plot was.

In Killer7 you play as the titular Killer7, also known as the Smith Syndicate. Created by Harman Smith, and led during missions by Garcian Smith, the Killer7 is a group of assassins who each have different abilities that they use to fight against the terrorist organization “Heaven Smile” made up of strange invisible mutant creatures. Dan smith uses a powerful revolver that can destroy powerful Heaven Smile in one shot. KAEDE Smith has the ability to cut her wrists and shower blood on an area to reveal hidden areas. Kevin Smith is able to take off his sunglasses and turn invisible. Coyote Smith is able to jump great heights as well as pick locks. Con Smith is able to move extremely fast, and has an enhanced sense of hearing due to his blindness. Finally, Mask de Smith is able to use wrestling moves as well as wielding dual grenade launchers that are often used to blow up walls to progress in a level. These seven personas can be swapped between throughout the game, with Garcian acting as a way to revive any that get blown up by Heaven Smile.

The game’s story revolves around destroying the Heaven Smile, but it is far from straightforward. After the first chapter throws you into the middle of the action, a cutscene explains that this game takes place during a mass nuclear disarmament of all world powers, and that amid this disarmament a nuclear missile has been launched at Japan. Throughout the game you encounter the perpetrators of this crime, and uncover the deep conspiracy that the Killer7 are ultimately wrapped up in. However, despite the very dark and hard boiled narrative, the game often takes very bizarre and ridiculous turns such as receiving assistance from a decapitated head each chapter, the Killer7 dueling to the death with a group of power rangers, and being helped through the game by a man in a red gimp suit suspended from a bungee cord.

Where Killer7 shines the most is in its writing, where the game strikes an incredible balance between the increasingly dark and violent plot, and a tinge of humor and eccentricity to it all. Simple game mechanics such as using Coyote Smith’s jump result in a text box appearing on landing stating that “The eagle has landed on the roof”, and a main character, Travis, can be found in each level giving a hint of what to do next, always wearing a shirt with different text on it ranging from “Bad Girl” to “Hustle”. The man in the gimp suit, Iwazaru, often warns the player that “we’re in a tight spot” before giving advice on how to proceed, and many of his hints are based on nicknames he has given to the members of the Killer7 that must be guessed at by the player. 

What makes Killer7 so special to me is how it can consistently be so strange and charming all while presenting a truly engrossing story. While at times it can be extremely confusing, and the gameplay itself was archaic even when it first came out, it still stands out as an extremely unique and interesting work of art. Unfortunately due to how strange it is and how it plays, many people pass on this game, but many of the people I have talked to who have played it regard it as something truly special.