History VideoGame / Killer7

* EvilAlbino: Kun Lan plays this straight; Kevin Smith is more of an [[AntiHero Anti-Heroic]] version.

* SoundtrackDissonance: "Greensleeves" over a murder scene, loud (and ''[[EarWorm awesome]]'') [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xi-CxR-a2o techno]] as you're walking down a completely ordinary hall; it goes on.

* Garcian Smith: The Cleaner. Uses a silenced pistol called ELECTROLITE. His special ability, as mentioned above, is to retrieve the dead corpses of his allies and revive them. A reserved ConsummateProfessional and TheStoic. In gameplay, he's the weakest out of all of the Personae.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: The revolvers Dan and Coyote use are significantly more powerful than the semi-automatic pistols used by KAEDE and Garcian. Halfway through the game Dan upgrades to the Demon Gun, [[http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/d4eb14f669a15656bac586709b725172/http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f340/Malachids/Demon-Gun-2.jpg a revolver with two barrels and twelve rounds in one huge cylinder]]. Finally, Greg Nightmare's Golden Gun is also a revolver, and it is capable of [[spoiler:killing Heaven Smiles in one shot]].

[[caption-width-right:350:The Killer 7 (clockwise from top-left): Dan, Mask De, Garcian, Coyote, Kaede, Kevin, and Con. Last names are all Smith.]]

* AbstractApotheosis: Each of the members of the [=killer7=] represents an inversion of one of the traditional Japanese values. Each one also has a moment where the irony disappears and they display their corresponding value.

** Con, who is a teenage punk, represents Respect. He is shown to have an admiration for the Handsome Men, and according to AllThereInTheManual really looks up to Coyote and MASK.

** Kevin, who can run away from battles, represents Courage. Kevin is brave enough to perfect aim and always pull out another knife; [[spoiler:he also manned the front desk of the hotel in the past]].

* FirstPersonGhost: For some reason, the animated cutscenes in Cloudman work this way, with characters addressing the camera as if it were the killer7 (but sometimes the camera shifts, and ''sometimes'' when that happens the person is talking away from you, so...who knows?). The killer7's dialogue is also unheard here too. In one instance ("we don't get many black folk around here"), it's explicitly directed at Garcian.

* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:The ''entire game'']], as revealed in the supplementary material, Jaco's Report. [[spoiler: An FBI agent who lost his family to the Heaven Smiles uses a machine that predicts the future to predict the Last Smile. As the probability of the predictions happening increases with each one that comes true, he sets the events of each mission in motion.]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: Mask de Smith is the strongest character in the game, and his grenade launchers can one-hit kill almost any enemy (except for certain bosses), and later mask upgrades can make him reload faster to not reload ''at all''. Unfortunately, killing enemies as him will grant you little to no blood, unless it's an enemy that ''only'' Mask can kill.

* DualWielding: Con and Mask, with respectively handguns and grenade launchers.

* FirstPersonGhost: For some reason, the animated cutscenes in Cloudman work this way, with characters addressing the camera as if it were the killer7 (but sometimes the camera shifts, and ''sometimes'' when that happens the person is talking away from you, so...who knows?) The killer7's dialogue is also unheard here too. In one instance ("we don't get many black folk around here"), it's explicitly directed at Garcian.

* GangstaStyle: Con does so while DualWielding, but Coyote has an especially bad case - he does not merely hold his gun sideways, but diagonally ''over his head''. [[RealityEnsues He also has serious kickback and is one of the most difficult characters to aim with]].

* HateSink: In a cast full of deranged and villainous characters, Samantha manages to come across as especially despicable despite simply being an extremely abrasive nurse. It helps that she's [[spoiler: a rapist]].

On May 26 2018, Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture announced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dphVWNPKCiM&feature=youtu.be a HD port]] of the game to PC, with Creator/{{NIS America}} in charge of publication.

** Coyote, who is a thief, represents Honesty. Coyote suddenly reveals some of his past on the TV in Cloudman.

With that, we depart from the realm of sensibility. ''[=killer7=]'' can become an exceedingly confusing game, thanks to its multiple layers of metaphor and symbolism, its vignettes and non-sequiturs, and its tacked-on plot threads that don't come together until the ending--and even ''then'' you're likely to have more questions than answers. Themes of war, religion, personal conflict, and politics all weave into one gigantic MindScrew, wrapping around each other like the bondage straps around [[NinjaButterfly Iwazaru]].

** At the end of the Handsome Men fight, Garcian's counterpart Handsome Pink reveals her real identity as Love Wilcox, and explains how she wrote the story of this battle, implicitly making her the leader and not Handsome Red, Harman's counterpart. [[spoiler: All of this foreshadows Garcian's true identity as Emir and his position as the host personality of the Smiths, not Harman]].

* Coyote Smith: The Thief. Uses a revolver called FREAK SCENE. His special ability is infiltration, with him being able to leap tall heights and pick locks. Coyote is aggressive and vicious in combat, and this is reflected in gameplay, with him being about as strong as Dan but lacking in self control, making him harder to use. He has a faster running speed, however, meaning he can back out of a sticky situation easier than Dan.
* Kevin Smith: Four-eyes. Uses a set of throwing knives and a larger knife for stabbing known as DEBASER. Kevin can turn invisible at will, allowing him to evade enemies. Kevin is incredibly fast in gameplay, and his subtle knives are quite fast- while he is bad in a close quarters fight, his lack of a gun means he never needs to reload, and can be quite dangerous if you're skilled.
* Con Smith: A blind punk. Armed with two automatic pistols called DISARM. Con can run exceedingly fast for a price of thin blood, and his rapid agility combined with his automatic pistols and quick reload times make him quite dangerous in close combat. His style isn't suited for subtlety though, and as a result he is extremely bad in fights at range.
* MASK de Smith: The Mask. Armed with dual grenade launchers known as DREAM ALL DAY. A mexican wrestler, MASK can use his super strength and powerful weapons to open holes in places the other Smiths cannot get through. He can also charge his grenade launchers for powerful effect, and is quite slow. He's a MightyGlacier through and through.

In contrast to the MindScrew storyline, the developers uniquely streamlined the gameplay of ''[=Killer7=]'': a character moves along a set of predetermined paths, so all a player can do is choose forks and turn around. When attacked, players hold down a button to switch into first-person view and aim crosshairs manually (similar to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''). The Heaven Smiles remain invisible until players use another button to scan for them; as they approach, players can see an obvious glowing spot upon them, and while shooting this spot results in their instant death, players will find it difficult to do so. Any enemy who gets in too close to the player will laugh at the player before exploding and causing damage. DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist most of the time -- as Garcian can retrieve the severed heads of the other Smiths and revive them -- but if Garcian himself dies, the game ends.

* SoundtrackDissonance: "Greensleeves" over a murder scene, loud (and ''[[EarWorm awesome]]'') techno as you're walking down a completely ordinary hall; it goes on.

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/killer7_better.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:The killer7 (left to right): KAEDE, Con, Dan, Garcian, Coyote, MASK de and Kevin. Last names are all Smith.]]

* LongSongShortScene: ''Rave On'', with a total length of five minutes or so, plays exclusively in the short staircase between the Vinculum Gate and the Colosseum.

* WastedSong: "Geopolitics", the theme that plays when the player transitions between locations, is about a minute long, but the player is lucky to hear more than 10 seconds of it (and it's mostly covered up by sound effects.)
** "Rave On" only plays on the staircases leading to/from the Colosseum. It's more than four minutes long, but most players will stay in those rooms only the 20 seconds necessary to reach the other side. At least they won't hear the last few seconds where [[LastNoteNightmare the music breaks down and grinds to a halt]].

* BoringButPractical: Kevin Smith's knives aren't the most exciting weapons to use, but using them draws more blood from your enemies.
** Additionally, they don't need to be reloaded, and their aiming doesn't waver.

* LimitedWardrobe: Harman only ever wears Jesuit priest clothes, Garcian a white suit, and Kevin nothing but sunglasses and chinos. MASK changes his clothes exactly three times in the game, and in each case it's a plot point; on the other hand, before finding the blue mask, he wears a different mask in each level. In contrast, Dan, KAEDE, Coyote, and Con wear different clothes in each level, albeit always of the same style.

* WorldMap:
** LevelMapDisplay: Each level has one that highlights what room you're in and several other features. On Normal, Harman's Rooms, characters and rings needed for puzzles, and Soul Shells are shown. Deadly removes all but the Harman's Rooms and Soul Shells, and [[spoiler:killer8]] removes the Soul Shells.
** There's also a map of the Earth used in navigation cutscenes.

Creator/{{Suda 51}} (who went on to do ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'') created this game, and Capcom published it on the Gamecube and Playstation 2. See also earlier Suda games ''VideoGame/TheSilverCase'' and ''VideoGame/FlowerSunAndRain'', games in the "Kill the Past" universe that contain thematic links, as well as ''VideoGame/KillerIsDead'' for a later Grasshopper game with a similar visual style and premise.

On May 26 2018, Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture announced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dphVWNPKCiM&feature=youtu.be a HD remaster]] of the game for PC, with Creator/{{NIS America}} in charge of publishing the remaster.

* ThemeNaming: All of Johnny's carrier pigeons are named after [[Film/JamesBond Bond girls]].

* AwesomeButImpractical: Mask de Smith is the strongest character in the game, and his grenade launchers can pretty much one-hit kill almost any enemy (except for certain bosses), and later mask upgrades can make him reload faster to not reload ''at all''. Unfortunately, killing enemies as him will grant you little to no blood, unless it's an enemy that ''only'' Mask can kill.

* InMediasRes: Angel pretty much throws you straight into the game without a single bit of exposition. Additionally, the screen summing up the objective of it indicates it's the thirty-third job undertaken by the Smiths.

On May 26 2018, Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture announced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dphVWNPKCiM&feature=youtu.be a HD remaster]] of the game for PC, with Creator/{{NIS America}} acting as the publisher of the remaster.