Killer7: Difference between revisions
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==Story== | ==Story== | ||
===Setting=== | ===Setting=== | ||
In an alternate version of the early 21st century, the United Nations (UN) intervened in all international conflicts and ultimately formed a treaty that brought about world peace. All UN member states signed a formal agreement to commence the total abolition and disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction around the world. This culminated in an event known as "Fireworks" where all nuclear missiles were launched and detonated outside Earth's atmosphere. Fearing a lack of control over the international market and hoping to combat pandemic disease and cybercrime, the International Ethics Committee (IEC), a "peace-keeping organization", shuts down all air travel and bans private use of the internet. As a result of this, air transporation is replaced by intercontinental expressways, the construction of which is still ongoing for most of the events of ''killer7''. | In an alternate version of the early 21st century, the United Nations (UN) intervened in all international conflicts and ultimately formed a treaty that brought about world peace. All UN member states signed a formal agreement to commence the total abolition and disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction around the world. This culminated in an event known as "Fireworks" where all nuclear missiles were launched and detonated outside Earth's atmosphere. Fearing a lack of control over the international market and hoping to combat pandemic disease and cybercrime, the International Ethics Committee (IEC), a "peace-keeping organization", shuts down all air travel and bans private use of the internet. As a result of this, air transporation is replaced by intercontinental expressways, the construction of which is still ongoing for most of the events of ''killer7''. | ||
===Timeline and connections to Kill the Past=== | |||
''killer7'' features characters and concepts originating from previous titles in the [[Kill the Past]] series. However, in the world depicted in ''killer7'', the internet and airplanes are banned, a fact which contradicts the events of ''[[The Silver Case]]'' and ''[[Flower, Sun, and Rain]]'', meaning the game takes place in an alternate timeline. Nevertheless, the story's themes of confronting personal trauma as a necessity to overcome existential struggle firmly establishes it as a 'Kill the Past' title. Furthermore, some characters in ''killer7'' would go on to make cameo appearances in ''[[Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes]]''. | |||
In an interview featured in ''[[Hand in killer7]]'', Suda said he writes his stories with one big world in mind, but that the settings are different due to incompatible timelines. It is suggested by [[Jaco's Report]] that the timeline may have been deliberately split in-universe, referring to a point in time where "history became maligned". | |||
===Plot=== | ===Plot=== | ||
[[Christopher Mills]], an informant for the US government, gives [[Garcian Smith]], a man with a silver briefcase, a new assignment for the killer7: infiltrate the abandoned Celtic Building infested by Heaven Smile. They confront the source of the Smiles: [[Kun Lan]] a man | [[Christopher Mills]], an informant for the US government, gives [[Garcian Smith]], a man with a silver briefcase, a new assignment for the killer7: infiltrate the abandoned Celtic Building infested by Heaven Smile. They confront the source of the Smiles: [[Kun Lan]], a man calling himself an old friend of Harman's and wielding a supernatural power known as the "Hand of God". The two discuss the state of the world, Kun Lan declaring that it will "keep getting smaller". | ||
A few days later, 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired at Japan. Julia Kisugi of the Liberal Party contracts Christopher Mills to have the had of the UN Party, Toru Fukushima, killed in hopes of reclaiming the Yakumo Cabinet Policy for the Liberal Party. Mills, in turn, hires the killer7 to assassinate Fukushima at a restaurant, but the Kisugi kills him first before being killed herself. Meanwhile, the US and Japan plan to hold a crisis meeting about the missile attack, but the former has already decided not to assist them. The killer7 are tasked with taking out Jean de Paul, an assassin for the IEC working under orders to murder the meeting's attendees. After his death, Jean de Paul's ghost reveals to the killer7 that Kenjiro "Matsuken" Matsuoka, a young UN Party leader possessed by Kun Lan, is in possession of the Yakumo. The crisis meeting takes place over a game of Mahjong that ends when all attendees shoot each other to death. Consequently, the nation of Japan is obliterated by the missiles and subsequently colonized by the IEC. | A few days later, 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired at Japan. Julia Kisugi of the Liberal Party contracts Christopher Mills to have the had of the UN Party, Toru Fukushima, killed in hopes of reclaiming the Yakumo Cabinet Policy for the Liberal Party. Mills, in turn, hires the killer7 to assassinate Fukushima at a restaurant, but the Kisugi kills him first before being killed herself. Meanwhile, the US and Japan plan to hold a crisis meeting about the missile attack, but the former has already decided not to assist them. The killer7 are tasked with taking out Jean de Paul, an assassin for the IEC working under orders to murder the meeting's attendees. After his death, Jean de Paul's ghost reveals to the killer7 that Kenjiro "Matsuken" Matsuoka, a young UN Party leader possessed by Kun Lan, is in possession of the Yakumo. The crisis meeting takes place over a game of Mahjong that ends when all attendees shoot each other to death. Consequently, the nation of Japan is obliterated by the missiles and subsequently colonized by the IEC. | ||
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After discovering that every new issue of the "Handsome Men" comic book seems to predict future events, the killer7 travel to the Dominican Republic to assassinate Trevor Pearlharbor, the comic's artist, under the belief that he has somehow brought his fictional characters to life. However, Pearlarhbor is betrayed and killed by The Handsome Men, who are actually revealed to be a group of cosplaying hackers disgruntled by the internet ban. They are defeated by the killer7 in Times Square. | After discovering that every new issue of the "Handsome Men" comic book seems to predict future events, the killer7 travel to the Dominican Republic to assassinate Trevor Pearlharbor, the comic's artist, under the belief that he has somehow brought his fictional characters to life. However, Pearlarhbor is betrayed and killed by The Handsome Men, who are actually revealed to be a group of cosplaying hackers disgruntled by the internet ban. They are defeated by the killer7 in Times Square. | ||
As the United States elections draw near, Matsuken, who leads the 10 million UN Party members living in the US, murders Hiro Kasai, a Liberal Party leader, by making him jump off a roof. The US Government is concerned that, if they converge on a single state, the UN members might be able to win a seat in the US Senate. Meanwhile, Garcian enters Harman's room to find him and Kun Lan playing chess and conversing casually. After noticing Garcian, they begin to laugh maniacally. Mills is assassinated at his next briefing with Garcian, with the latter sent to investigate Coburn Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, which he discovers, through a series of tapes at the school, is a front for the UN Party to train children to become assassins, and for Japan to manipulate the results of the US presidential elections. At the school's gymnasium, the killer7 confront Matsuken but are all incapacitated by a group of invincible Smiles made of darkness; only Garcian remains. He travels to the Union Hotel, where he witnesses visions of the other Smith Syndicate members being killed in their rooms and realizes the truth: his true identity is Emir Parkreiner and the one responsible for killing the killer7 at the hotel 50 years before. Garcian reaches the roof where he sees a vision of his younger self and shoots its third eye, causing it to close and prompting the vision to shoot itself. Shocked by this revelation, Garcian exclaims that it's "wasn't him" and that it was "all a misunderstanding" before opening his silver briefcase to reveal the arsenal of all the killer7 personae. He looks down in despair. | As the United States elections draw near, Matsuken, who leads the 10 million UN Party members living in the US, murders Hiro Kasai, a Liberal Party leader, by making him jump off a roof. The US Government is concerned that, if they converge on a single state, the UN members might be able to win a seat in the US Senate. Meanwhile, Garcian enters Harman's room to find him and Kun Lan playing chess and conversing casually. After noticing Garcian, they begin to laugh maniacally. Mills is assassinated at his next briefing with Garcian, with the latter sent to investigate Coburn Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, which he discovers, through a series of tapes at the school, is a front for the UN Party to train children to become assassins, and for Japan to manipulate the results of the US presidential elections. | ||
At the school's gymnasium, the killer7 confront Matsuken but are all incapacitated by a group of invincible Smiles made of darkness; only Garcian remains. He travels to the Union Hotel, where he witnesses visions of the other Smith Syndicate members being killed in their rooms and realizes the truth: his true identity is Emir Parkreiner and the one responsible for killing the killer7 at the hotel 50 years before. Garcian reaches the roof where he sees a vision of his younger self and shoots its third eye, causing it to close and prompting the vision to shoot itself. Shocked by this revelation, Garcian exclaims that it's "wasn't him" and that it was "all a misunderstanding" before opening his silver briefcase to reveal the arsenal of all the killer7 personae. He looks down in despair. | |||
Three years later, Garcian, now awake and living as Emir Parkreiner, arrives at Hashima Island to destroy the last Heaven Smile. Deep underground, he encounters Matsuken, who gives Emir and The Player a choice: let him live, which would allow Japan to mount a counterattack against the United States; or kill him, which would lead the US to discover Japan's secret role in their elections and result in the total annihilation of Japan. Regardless of the player's choice, Garcian finds the last Heaven Smile: Iwazaru, one of the 'Remnant Psyches' that has been assisting the killer7 all along, and shoots him to reveal his true identity as Kun Lan. | Three years later, Garcian, now awake and living as Emir Parkreiner, arrives at Hashima Island to destroy the last Heaven Smile. Deep underground, he encounters Matsuken, who gives Emir and The Player a choice: let him live, which would allow Japan to mount a counterattack against the United States; or kill him, which would lead the US to discover Japan's secret role in their elections and result in the total annihilation of Japan. Regardless of the player's choice, Garcian finds the last Heaven Smile: Iwazaru, one of the 'Remnant Psyches' that has been assisting the killer7 all along, and shoots him to reveal his true identity as Kun Lan. | ||
Latest revision as of 14:52, 23 July 2026
- This page about the videogame. For the titular group of assassins, see Smith Syndicate.
killer7 (Japanese: キラー7, Hepburn: Kirā Sebun) is an action-adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom and published by the latter for the Nintendo GameCube and the PlayStation 2 in June 2005. It was directed and designed by Goichi Suda, who co-wrote the story with Shinji Mikami. Grasshopper's first title released outside of Japan, killer7 represents the third main installment in the Kill the Past series.
Set in an alternate timeline, killer7 follows the titular elite group of assassins, who are the seven physical transformations of the wheelchair-bound Harman Smith, an elderly man suffering from "Multifoliate Personae Phenomenon". Hired on behalf of the United States government to eradicate the rising supernatural terrorist threat known as Heaven Smile, the 'Smith Syndicate' eventually find themselves unraveling a dark conspiracy concerning the true nature of US-Japan relations and the secret of their origins. The complex political-thriller story of killer7 explores themes of paranoia, fragmented identity, international hegemony, state-sanctioned violence, and the interdependence of light and darkness, among many others.
Featuring elements of first-person shooting, exploration, puzzle-solving, and even survival-horror, killer7 often defies categorization altogether and intentionally deviates from conventional action-game design through its deliberately unorthodox control-scheme and challenging storytelling. Upon release, the game polarized critics, some of which found its story confusing, while others praised it for its presentation and music. killer7 has since gained a strong cult following and is regarded as one of Grasshopper and Suda's major works.
An HD remaster of killer7 developed by Engine Software BV was released by NIS America in 2018.
Gameplay
killer7 has very unique action-adventure gameplay that combines first-person shooting, on-rails adventure exploration, and rudimentary puzzle solving. Designed specifically for the unique layout of the GameCube controller, most movement in killer7 can be accomplished only by holding the A button (different buttons may apply for other controllers on other platforms), which causes your player character to move forward on a set path until they reach a junction. At a junction, various options to select appear on the screen, such as paths, objects to examine, or characters to talk to. Pressing the B button will cause your character to turn around instead, letting you go back the way you came. These various paths and junctions make up the layout of the game's various areas. This method of moving from set point to set point to interact with points of interest is reminiscent of the gameplay of The Silver Case.
When the player has to engage with enemies (almost always the Heaven Smile), holding the R trigger will enter aiming mode, causing your character to pull out their weapon and enter a first-person viewpoint. The reticle at the center of the screen can be moved around with the control stick and fired with the A button, similar to other first-person shooter gameplay, except you are not able to move your position while aiming. Additionally, Heaven Smile are typically invisible by default, and must also be scanned using the L trigger before they become vulnerable.
The player has access to the various personae of the Smith Syndicate, who they can switch between at whim, as long as the persona in question has been awakened in the current stage. Each character has a different weapon and other statistics, meaning they are each best suited to different situations. They all also have their own special moves, which can for the most part be activated with the Y button; these special moves are key to solving various environmental puzzles that the player comes across. However, most special moves can't be used without the use of thin blood, which must be gathered (along with thick blood) by killing the Heaven Smiles. Different methods of killing them (such as hitting them in their glowing weak spots) will reward the player with different quantities of the types of blood. Thin blood can also be used to heal the player's health, which is represented by an eye; a more open eye indicates more health remaining.
Thick blood can be turned into serum by the Mad Doctor in Harman's Room, a recurring area that the player uses to save their game, awaken personae and view tips from Iwazaru. Serum is a form of experience points that can level up the personae's statistics, causing them to perform better and unlocking new abilities. The persona of Garcian Smith is special, and cannot be switched to in normal gameplay, only in Harman's Room. When one of the other personae is killed in combat, their severed head will be left at the scene of their death and the player will be taken back to the last Harman's Room visited. If Garcian is brought to this scene, he retrieves the head and returns to the Room, where the persona can be revived. However, if Garcian himself is killed in combat, the game is over and the player must load a saved game.
Story
Setting
In an alternate version of the early 21st century, the United Nations (UN) intervened in all international conflicts and ultimately formed a treaty that brought about world peace. All UN member states signed a formal agreement to commence the total abolition and disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction around the world. This culminated in an event known as "Fireworks" where all nuclear missiles were launched and detonated outside Earth's atmosphere. Fearing a lack of control over the international market and hoping to combat pandemic disease and cybercrime, the International Ethics Committee (IEC), a "peace-keeping organization", shuts down all air travel and bans private use of the internet. As a result of this, air transporation is replaced by intercontinental expressways, the construction of which is still ongoing for most of the events of killer7.
Timeline and connections to Kill the Past
killer7 features characters and concepts originating from previous titles in the Kill the Past series. However, in the world depicted in killer7, the internet and airplanes are banned, a fact which contradicts the events of The Silver Case and Flower, Sun, and Rain, meaning the game takes place in an alternate timeline. Nevertheless, the story's themes of confronting personal trauma as a necessity to overcome existential struggle firmly establishes it as a 'Kill the Past' title. Furthermore, some characters in killer7 would go on to make cameo appearances in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.
In an interview featured in Hand in killer7, Suda said he writes his stories with one big world in mind, but that the settings are different due to incompatible timelines. It is suggested by Jaco's Report that the timeline may have been deliberately split in-universe, referring to a point in time where "history became maligned".
Plot
Christopher Mills, an informant for the US government, gives Garcian Smith, a man with a silver briefcase, a new assignment for the killer7: infiltrate the abandoned Celtic Building infested by Heaven Smile. They confront the source of the Smiles: Kun Lan, a man calling himself an old friend of Harman's and wielding a supernatural power known as the "Hand of God". The two discuss the state of the world, Kun Lan declaring that it will "keep getting smaller".
A few days later, 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired at Japan. Julia Kisugi of the Liberal Party contracts Christopher Mills to have the had of the UN Party, Toru Fukushima, killed in hopes of reclaiming the Yakumo Cabinet Policy for the Liberal Party. Mills, in turn, hires the killer7 to assassinate Fukushima at a restaurant, but the Kisugi kills him first before being killed herself. Meanwhile, the US and Japan plan to hold a crisis meeting about the missile attack, but the former has already decided not to assist them. The killer7 are tasked with taking out Jean de Paul, an assassin for the IEC working under orders to murder the meeting's attendees. After his death, Jean de Paul's ghost reveals to the killer7 that Kenjiro "Matsuken" Matsuoka, a young UN Party leader possessed by Kun Lan, is in possession of the Yakumo. The crisis meeting takes place over a game of Mahjong that ends when all attendees shoot each other to death. Consequently, the nation of Japan is obliterated by the missiles and subsequently colonized by the IEC.
One year later, cult leader Andrei Ulmeyda bombs a concert venue and challenges Garcian to stop him on live television. He previously worked as a mail clerk who inadertently came across a piece of the Yakumo that he used to create a front for an international pharmaceutical company. After Ulmeyda injects himself with the Heaven Smile virus and kills several US soldiers, the killer7 step in and assassinate him.
A few months later, Curtis Blackburn, Dan Smith's sadistic former mentor, murders several people at an Immigration Bureau. It turns out that he has been using his government work and a theme park he runs as a front to kidnap children to sell their organs in the black market. After killing one of his adopted orphans, AYAME, the killer7 track Blackburn to his house, where Dan kills him.
After discovering that every new issue of the "Handsome Men" comic book seems to predict future events, the killer7 travel to the Dominican Republic to assassinate Trevor Pearlharbor, the comic's artist, under the belief that he has somehow brought his fictional characters to life. However, Pearlarhbor is betrayed and killed by The Handsome Men, who are actually revealed to be a group of cosplaying hackers disgruntled by the internet ban. They are defeated by the killer7 in Times Square.
As the United States elections draw near, Matsuken, who leads the 10 million UN Party members living in the US, murders Hiro Kasai, a Liberal Party leader, by making him jump off a roof. The US Government is concerned that, if they converge on a single state, the UN members might be able to win a seat in the US Senate. Meanwhile, Garcian enters Harman's room to find him and Kun Lan playing chess and conversing casually. After noticing Garcian, they begin to laugh maniacally. Mills is assassinated at his next briefing with Garcian, with the latter sent to investigate Coburn Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, which he discovers, through a series of tapes at the school, is a front for the UN Party to train children to become assassins, and for Japan to manipulate the results of the US presidential elections.
At the school's gymnasium, the killer7 confront Matsuken but are all incapacitated by a group of invincible Smiles made of darkness; only Garcian remains. He travels to the Union Hotel, where he witnesses visions of the other Smith Syndicate members being killed in their rooms and realizes the truth: his true identity is Emir Parkreiner and the one responsible for killing the killer7 at the hotel 50 years before. Garcian reaches the roof where he sees a vision of his younger self and shoots its third eye, causing it to close and prompting the vision to shoot itself. Shocked by this revelation, Garcian exclaims that it's "wasn't him" and that it was "all a misunderstanding" before opening his silver briefcase to reveal the arsenal of all the killer7 personae. He looks down in despair.
Three years later, Garcian, now awake and living as Emir Parkreiner, arrives at Hashima Island to destroy the last Heaven Smile. Deep underground, he encounters Matsuken, who gives Emir and The Player a choice: let him live, which would allow Japan to mount a counterattack against the United States; or kill him, which would lead the US to discover Japan's secret role in their elections and result in the total annihilation of Japan. Regardless of the player's choice, Garcian finds the last Heaven Smile: Iwazaru, one of the 'Remnant Psyches' that has been assisting the killer7 all along, and shoots him to reveal his true identity as Kun Lan.
Approximately one hundred years later, Harman and Kun Lan are seen battling in Shanghai, revealed as immortal, interdependent beings whose battle will continue forever. Kun Lan, laughing maniacally, declares that the world won't change, that "all it does is turn".
Development
killer7 was one of the titles in the Capcom 5, a planned set of five Capcom releases as Gamecube exclusives, overseen by Resident Evil producer Shinji Mikami. Killer7 was the last game to release out of the set, on June 9th, 2005. A censored release for the Playstation 2 was also released due to the struggling sales of the Capcom 5.
Targets
Cast
- Dwight Schultz – Harman Smith
- Greg Eagles – Garcian Smith
- Michael Gough – Dan Smith
- Tara Strong – KAEDE Smith
- Jun Hee Lee – Con Smith
- Miguel Cabellero – MASK de Smith
- Benito Martinez – Coyote Smith
- Heidi Anderson – Samantha Sitbon
- Bart Flynn – Christopher Mills
- Joe Lala – Kun Lan
- Steve Blum – Kenjiro Matsuoka, Benjamin Keane, and Trevor Pearlharbor
- Jack Angel - Narrator
- Jim Ward - Toru Fukushima
- Robin Atkin Downes - Hiro Kasai
- James Horan - Jean DePaul
- Alastair Duncan - Curtis Blackburn
- Masayo Hosono - AYAME Blackburn
- Cam Clarke - Andrei Ulmeyda
- Debi Derryberry - LOVE Wilcox
- Bart Flynn - Christopher Mills
- Jennifer Hale - Linda Vermillion
Development
Further works
Two works connected to killer7 were released shortly after the game was released: a companion book called Hand in killer7, which contained numerous plot details that go beyond what is seen in-game, as well as developer interviews and various other bits of content, and killer is dead, a serial novel published in a magazine that stars cut character Shigeki Birkin. killer is dead's final chapter was never written, but the character's story did get a continuation of sorts in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.
Suda has gone back and forth on whether he would want to develop a direct sequel to killer7. However, he has expressed interest in making a "complete edition" of killer7 in which various scenes that were cut at the storyboarding stage would be developed and put back into the game.