Deception 3 (PSX) - Part 2

Previously, Reina along with her step family from a fictional country Burganfada, has been kidnapped to fictional kingdom Alendar. She’s left alive by the evil Alendarian king because of her beautiful look and the rest of her step family is killed by their captor named Miguel. Eventually, she escapes from the jail with the help of kind Alendarians: Marco and his big brother Albert. Using trap magic that’s given by Marco, Reina kills any intruders who dare to kill or capture her. She ends up in Castle of Agony which is said to be Albert’s secret base. Suddenly, Marco is injured and ends up dead by chronic fever. The misfortune doesn’t end there. Reina encounters Miguel outside of Castle of Agony. Using his mini cannon, Miguel destroys Castle of Agony. The explosion caused by it sends Reina flying to cliffside and falls. Does she survive?    

Of course, she survives because she’s the protagonist of this game. Besides she fell to water. Watching anime and movies, I learn that everyone that fall to water, will survive. No matter the height. Speaking of water, you can push enemies with push wall, through canal. Is it beneficial? Other than buying time, probably not. The push deals no damage like pushing someone through dry terrain with same method in this game. There’s one case damage fall exists and that is through high waterfall in Castle of Agony. But it’s too late to show that because -well you know- the castle is destroyed.

Oh shoot! I didn’t realize that the image on Push Wall is that horrible demon face with big ear in Classic Doom map! I often see this demon face in E3M4 House of Pain map. I think.

 

Reina is caught red-handed using trap by Albert. He thought he’s the only left that able to do the trap magic. Suddenly, Albert has heart attack. He explains that it’s the effect of trap magic because it’s still imperfect. I blame the red stone that grants the magic instantly. Whatever something that brings result in instant, always have bad side effect. So, if you want the trap magic, you must learn it through training for a year like Millenia from Kagero. But your sense of humanity becomes duller and you become expressionless in process.  

 

The kidnapper’s gang is back to terrorize me including Miguel himself! But his mini cannon is no longer as powerful as the last time we met. It’s no longer powerful enough to destroy entire castle but that’s probably for all of us sake because everyone including Miguel himself is within this castle. Much like Christina and Sirado, Miguel takes cinematic flee after only one hit. I don’t like this samurai named Ortega, with slash dash like Shogun in Kagero. On the bright side, Balboa is trapped in snowball rolls down the stairs. The sight is so cartoony. This moment is funnier if you know that Balboa is Gordon’s big brother. You know Gordon, right? He’s my first victim in jail in chapter 1.

 

I got summon ring which I will set into this thunder claw. The trap name becomes SumThunder Claw or SThunder Claw for short. Summon ring will make the trap activates slower but it will attract enemies at walking speed and totally forget to attack you. I recommend you put this summon ring on trap that have range of effect only 1 block and springs instantly. For example: bear trap and spring floor type. Mega Rock is too slow. Pendulum blade is faster than Mega Rock but still too slow for summon ring too works properly. Blast Bomb and Spark Rod probably quite good to be put summon ring into.

 

I also got Chaos emblem. It’s claimed to make trap into heteromorphic form. That’s some cryptic description. My best guess that Chaos emblem will make the trap changes into something that totally different from its basic or nature. I better give some examples rather than just explain it for too long.

In this moment, I try to change Snow Ball (Mega Rock + Cold emblem), replacing Cold emblem with Chaos emblem. It turns into Stealth rock which invisible but deal less damage. They will never know what hit them. Quite literally. I personally don’t use it. I mean yes, enemy can’t see the rock rolls toward them so they can’t dodge it. But I seldom to meet situation where enemy can dodge my rock often. I always make enemy open to attack before rolling the rock, by using bear trap, Buzzsaw, magnet wall, or flash bomb.

Other example of combination with Chaos emblem: 1) The familiar Chain Needle, if I combine arrow slit with it. 2) *Groan* Magic sac, if I combine bear trap with it. 3) The quite reliable one: Confusion Gas, if I combine vase with it.

 

There’s one chapter where I get surrounded by assassin and ninja. However, I can escape them with this launcher pad. Wheee! It’s clearly springer from Platformer game. Kind of feels out of the place with this game but it’s helpful regardless.

 

I don’t know how Sirado know I’m in this castle of Hue. But I’m glad he’s back along with new henchmen for my murderous desire. Here’s a pair of classic efficient RPG casts: a tank and a healer. Thankfully, the healer usually only has a set number of healing magic so the gameplay doesn’t end in stalemate. This combo is pretty lethal. First is a thunder claw to pin my victim. Second, I use push wall to push the mine cart to him. Even though the push wall range is only 2 block and the mine cart is 3 blocks away. The wall trap still connects to the mine cart and makes it slide along the rail. Third, there’s wall spike that periodically appear, at the end of the track. If the timing is right, the victim that already pushed by the mine cart will also be stabbed with the wall spike but it will break in process because of the mine cart. Last, there’s an Iron Ball waiting to roll down along the slope.

 

I hate cinematic escape in this game. At least in this case, I need to deplete Sirado’s entire health bar before the cinematic escape triggered. I threw Sirado into guillotine which automatically activated by proximity. But because of stupid cinematic escape, Sirado looks fine clipping through the blade of guillotine. It doesn’t make sense. I hate this even though this screenshot looks hilarious.     

 

Sirado escapes only been executed by Prime Minister Edgar with excuse “Insubordination to the king” because Sirado isn’t able to bring in Reina. Later, Edgar tells his adjutant Lavaan to exterminate all of Sirado’s followers and confiscate their property. That’s Spanish Inquisition like, right?  

 

Now, I acquire curse emblem which makes trap imbued with abnormal status or drain life property! Now, I can have the reliable Flash Bomb by combining Blast Bomb with Cursed emblem. This is the opposite of Buzzsaw case. I get Flash Bomb slower than in Kagero. I win some, I lose some. But that’s just my minor complaint because I compensate the absence of Flash Bomb with summon ring.

 

More enemies come to get Reina but neither for bounty reward nor at King’s order. They aim for the brooch she wears. Turns out, the gem stone in Reina’s brooch is the Core Stone of 8 Legendary Stones from old legend of Alendar. With those 8 Legendary Stones, one can control the time and change the past. Thus, Reina and Albert team up to collect the remaining 7 Legendary Stones. They go back to the factory that Albert believes his master keeps one of the Legendary Stones. While Albert searches the stone in annex and accidentally meet Cecilia, Reina deals with Cecilia’s henchmen inside the factory. By Reina, I mean me. It’s ok though. I have fun time hurting the thugs until dead with Iron Ball, rolling wooden barrel, Buzzsaw, and Hellfire bomb.

Hang on a moment. Isn’t this annex room is the same room in Red Blood hideout where Captain Keith have conversation with his subordinates, in Kagero? Anyway, the Legendary Stone is kept within a wooden barrel in the factory and I take it from their cold dead hand.    

 

Thunder Claw can be used optimally in Hue Castle where there are water canals. But I try to spice things up and deploy Oil Claw instead. Another good feature in this game is there’s one more trap that can put victim into Oiled status, other than Oil Vase. So, you can put enemies in burning status easier. Back in Kagero, I can’t use Flare Rock to burn oiled enemy because I have to use Oil Vase which also ceiling trap like Flare Rock. There can only be 1 Ceiling trap on effect at the time. The same thing goes with Floor and Wall trap. But now, I can use Flare Rock if I pair it with Oil Claw!

 

Yet another good feature in this game is the branching path for different ending is very apparent with 2 option that you can choose at your own will. Like in this moment where Cecilia asks Reina to follow her at the knife’s point. If Reina follows Cecilia, she will help Cecilia’s master to collect all the Legendary Stones in return Reina will be given opportunity to kill the king, avenging her step family. For now, I choose not to switch side because I know Cecilia’s master is not good person either. Don’t worry about Reina. She manages to escape the knife’s point because Cecilia has illusion to see Reina as her little sister.

 

There’s one occasion where a mysterious letter signed by Christina, invite Albert and Reina into kidnapper gang’s hideout. But as Reina confronts Christina, she denies to invite them into the hideout. After Reina, I mean me kill all the enemies and makes Christina runs in pain. Albert catches a small girl and taken her with us. Little did he knows that the small girl is spy.   

In another chapter, Reina is tasked to attack Dark Ruin. The combat feels little different. Because enemies don’t appear from the start and you can’t even to see them at the map. Reina must fight the enemies at one room at the time. The room is completely locked so Reina can’t retreat to other room either to get healstone or set another batch of traps that hopefully more interesting. I didn’t remember there’s enemy who behave like the infamous Shogun in Kagero. But my memory fails me and I learn about that hard way. This Hellknight armed with two-headed scythe is the equivalent of Kagero’s Shogun. He normally moves slow. But when you are in his line of sight, he suddenly dashes really fast and sneaks a vicious slash at you. A knight poke at me from behind with pitchfork, makes thing worse for me.

 

My health is very low. Remember that every room where I encounter enemies, will be locked instantly until I defeat them all. So, I can’t get healstone on other room at this moment. Fortunately, this room has stairs which I can get advantage from it. I can see Hellknight without placing myself in straight line of his path thus preventing him from the wretched dash. Also, I can utilize Iron Ball rolls downstairs as always. However, this bastard deserves more painful yet more interesting death other than generic death of being whapped by Iron Ball. So, I Flash Bomb the bastard. Next, I push him with Fire Hammer (Which is Pendulum blade imbued with fire element), and then activate decoration ship’s laser cannon with the switch that I hit with Volt Javelin (Which is Arrow Slit imbued with lightning element). The switch is right above the door there. You can hit it with any projectile. Or I like to use expander which is push wall extended with chain. I have that by combining Push Wall with chaos emblem. You can see the trail of laser on that floor so you know where the laser will hit. Apparently, when Hellknight has white aura around him. Any damage he takes only worth 1 point. But since the cannon laser ignores victim defense. The Hellknight will take normal amount of damage.

 

There are still more guards at the Dark Ruin. But Cupido from the kidnapper gang, helps Reina to retreat and they’re safe at Hue Castle. Cupido and Christina the kidnapper gang boss, join Albert resistance group and help his objective to collect The Legendary Stone. Christina is used to be special agent that fight kidnapper gang but later she is captured and brainwashed. Now, the brainwash wore off and Christina don’t want to work as kidnapper gang anymore. While Cupido still loyal to Christina until the end. Suddenly, Miguel appears and try to assassinate Christina but Cupido intercepts him with solid hook punch. Then I’m tasked to kill Miguel’s lackeys inside our castle.

 

After killing Miguel’s men, Miguel throws knife at Christina but Cupido takes the knife. Miguel runs away while calling everyone sucker. I agree with him. Albert and co should tie Miguel down with rope or more extreme method is kill him on sight just like what Lord Edward Plunket Dunsany did with the bandit in Koudelka. Because we all know that Miguel is dangerous man. Under his dying breath, Cupido manages to say “I love you” to Christina. How touching. Not! :D

Reina is back to Dark Ruin and this time she will take control of it for sure. She overheard a commander in this place named Phalangist about the other use of The Legendary Stones besides time travelling, which is: to prolong one’s longevity by 1 day for each Legendary Stones. That’s total 8 days of extended lifetime. That gives Reina idea to extend Albert’s lifetime because the stupid mystic heart attack caused by the use of trap magic, is getting worse on him. For now, I have to kill Phalangist and his men then we can talk about the use of Legendary Stones later. I like this spinning spiked pillar with torch on top of it. It could belong in Mortal Kombat game as stage fatality. There are also a pair of it in Castle of Agony but we can’t return to that castle because of bastard Miguel. I will get you, Miguel. For sure!

 

We conquer the Dark Ruin. It now belong to Da Orks!

But we can’t breathe easily yet as Cecilia along with her company, storm the Dark Ruin for the last time. Her master, Queen Margareta is getting more and more impatient to get all The Legendary Stones she can have more power than ever. Typical evil mastermind that’s what she is. Cecilia behaves like ninja who doesn’t want to play by normal rule of “Appears in entrance door like normal person” and instead teleport behind me. That’s good reason enough to treat Cecilia with cruel yet lazy method of using Chain Needle. If you don’t know about it, Chain Needle is like Arrow Slit but instead of firing single arrow, it fires multiple needles. The needles have small damage for each projectile hit but there are 3 of them at least. But the thing is. According to my observation, enemy has invincibility period after getting hit so those 3 needles won’t hit the victim consistently. Only 2 needles that actually hit the victim. The 1 needle will fly through the victim harmlessly. So, Chain Needles trap is more optimal for 2 victims, I think.  

 

Once I kill Cecilia, Albert shows up and weep over her demise. Albert told Reina that long time ago, he and Cecilia live together. I bet they had fornification once or twice while Marco asleep at night or in other golden opportunity. Whether it’s marital or not, it’s up to you to decide. Once again, I don’t care about drama moment. I’m here to trap my enemies to death with various combination that fit to my taste. You can say that I’m heartless but Cecilia also here to blame. In some occasion, Cecilia got illusion of her little sister whenever she sees Reina. That’s Cecilia’s subconscious tries to warn her that Reina is indeed her little sister. But she keeps ignoring that for her undying loyalty to the evil queen. The story would make more sense if Cecilia was the one who got brainwashed instead of Christina. Besides if you pay attention to the first CG movie cutscene, you should know that Cecilia is Reina’s sister that got kidnapped. But I won’t blame you if you don’t pay attention at all to the story. We are here for the fun of trapping enemies to death, afterall. Right?

 

Queen Margareta is panic that the Dark Ruin is still under her enemy’s control. King Frederick sees this as opportunity to seize it for his own use. So, he orders prime minister Edgar to attack the Dark Ruin with Edgar himself along with Royal Guards. However, on Edgar’s way. Queen orders him to use prisoners instead because she thinks employing the Royal Guards to defeat Reina is huge disgrace to royal army. No matter what they send at me, they will end up dead anyway including Edgar and his adjutant Lavaan. They deserve to die especially when we know they did cruel inquisition on Sirado. Funny thing is, Edgar is died right after getting hit by the push wall with chain extension: Expander which does not do much damage on its own. I like to point out his class is Slasher which is the same class as Captain Keith in Kagero. You have to beware of this Slasher class because they can activate your trap! Much like Alchemist class. Simply put the trap that aim at any enemy and not you directly. Also plan your move/escape more carefully. Edgar in particular can push back Push Wall and its variant! How that skinny bastard able to push back wall? I have no idea. Other than just the developer throw curve ball that doesn’t make sense. I can see Titan or Mercenary class that have muscular built, able to push back wall. But Edgar also able to do that it’s just rubbish! On the other hand, Gustaf here is the latest villager that you have to defeat. He thinks by completing this mission, he can reunite with his son but not a chance. Unless he gives me address to where his son is, I can reunite both of them…in afterlife of course. :P 

 

Let’s rewind a bit to see how gruesome Lavaan meets his doom by huge Guillotine. More interesting death than Edgar, I reckon. I also like to point out that there’s abnormal status bar that show you how long the duration of the abnormal status. It’s pretty nice feature although the victim’s name is replaced with the abnormal status that currently inflicted.   

 

Albert’s health is getting worse. So, Christina and Reina decide to go on offense. Attack Hades Castle and get all the remaining Legendary Stones from Queen Margareta. It’s funny to call the enemy as intruder in “Intruder Data” on intermission while Reina in this case is clearly the intruder because she’s on the offense. Anyway, Christina will make diversion by attacking through the front gate. While Reina infiltrates the castle through jail? Wait! Why the jail has easy accessibility? That’s not how Jail supposed to be. Besides, if the jail is easy to access from outside, won’t Reina escape the jail with ease from the very first chapter?  

 

Everything goes well until Gandolph realize that Christina is only diversion so he found Reina inside the castle. Gandolph is another Hellknight. I hate him. Basically, you need to position yourself not in his clear line of path. Using stairs to obstruct his line of path. Or you can also object such as wooden barrel and this throne in throne room. I believe this is modified throne room in Kagero, with 2 thrones instead of just 1 because King Eclypse is very old bachelor. The developer also replaces the spike floor with healstone. This throne room is more sensible but also more boring to play around. Put some pushable pillars here and now that’s perfect. *chef’s kiss*

Anyway, you can tell Reina to sidewalk left or right by using L1 or R1 shoulder button. So, Reina can position himself better than solely using tank control on D-Pad. Pressing both L1 and R1 shoulder buttons will make Reina does quick turn.

New to this game is pressing L1 or R1 shoulder button twice will make Reina does Tiger Leap on either left or right side. Useful to dodge enemy’s projectile.

 

Gandolph stays alive and I have to keep retreating because he has so many health and I’m very afraid of his goddamn slash dash. This clockwork room behind the throne room is quite fun to play around. There’s huge pendulum blade called Swing Cutter right in the middle of this room. So, I can put vacuum floor (which is magnet trap for floor type) in the center and let the victim magnetized until hit by Swing Cutter. Or I can just use Buzzsaw and push the victim to the clock gear instead. It does less damage but amusing to look at. However, Baldwin the magnetman resists any magnet so I can’t use magnet against him. Thus, I use Flash Bomb instead.

 

Meanwhile, Miguel attempts on King assassination ends up in failure because Queen Margareta calls in guard to subdue him. Even though initially it was the Queen’s plan to call the king and then Migue assassinate him. I’m not sure why the Queen change his plan. Maybe she no longer trusts Miguel or she uses him to gain King’s trust from the beginning. Just so you know that the King and the Queen are not on the same page, if you know what I mean. The King is more like mindless tyrant who order kidnapping of Burganfada people and use them as slave/labor to rebuild his kingdom as his claim. Meanwhile, The Queen is evil mastermind. Using underhanded method and conspiracy to collect the Legendary Stones so she gains more power than ever. It’s clear that The King and The Queen are not on same side. If you still doubt how bad the relation between The King and The Queen, look at the hint that they no longer share same bed or even bedroom. Something definitely goes wrong with marriage couple who no longer sleep on same bed or room.

 

After The King returns to his room or something. Christina and Reina confront The Queen for the remaining Legendary Stones. However, they’re instantly defeated with tranquilizer smoke bomb. The same bomb that I use in Lost World Jurassic Park to neutralize lots of Dinosaurs and extinguish flames.

It’s big mistake in Queen’s part to just throw our heroines to the jail. The same jail with easy accessibility that I mentioned before.

I also made mistake to be in same corridor as Hellknight. Same goes to Shogun in Kagero, you must not be in corridor with them. But Hellknight’s dash attack is worse than Shogun’s because it can cause Reina drops down. Hellknight can and will hit her again when downed and there goes 50% health lost. Whereas Shogun’s attack doesn’t make Millenia down, only small flinch. Avoid Hellknight’s dash attack at all cost! Besides, the same problem of “You can’t put and activate trap inside corridor” still persist!   

 

I love to show you how that bastard Hellknight Belstein meets his gruesome end. But I didn’t take screenshot of it. Maybe I forgot or other stupid reason. Anyway, once I killed Belstein, it’s time to kill Queen Margareta herself! Cue Killer Queen music by Queen band here. My plan is simple. Flash Bomb her then roll down Iron Ball. If she tries to walk upstairs while outside of Flash Bomb range, I push her back with Buzzsaw. There’s a chance that when Queen lies on floor, she will instantly teleport behind me. But I can move away from her attack relatively easy by simply moving forward and do zigzag. If The Queen already blinded with Flash Bomb, dodging her attack is even easier.

 

No matter where you defeat The Queen, everyone is forced into this cutscene in Generator Room. Remi, the small girl that Albert retrieved is actually Queen’s daughter. She stab’s Reina’s thigh with needle that paralyze her momentarily. Giving The Queen chance to slap Reina’s face and get 2 Legendary Stones that she has. The set of Legendary Stones is completed at the hand of The Queen. She plans to go to the past and kill Reina’s parent so she vanishes. Is this the end?

 

Suddenly, Remi paralyzes the Queen with the paralyzing needle then she proceeds to push her mother to the furnace along with herself. She sacrificed herself to help Reina because she’s vaguely nice to Remi. I say “vaguely” because there’s barely any hint of how Reina treats Remi nicely other than she’s besides Remi’s side when sleeping.  

King Frederick peeks how The Queen dies from corridor. He encounters Miguel who breaks free easily because I kill all of castle guard up to this point, in the middle of corridor. The King asks Miguel to kill Reina however Miguels stabs his throat and The King dies. Miguel already tries to murder The King yet he doesn’t aware of this outcome because he’s simply idiot. He more prioritizes Reina over Miguel which is big mistake on his part. At least, Reina, I mean me can’t kill him in corridor unlike Miguel, because of the stupid restriction of “can’t set and use trap inside corridor”.

 

Here's another branching path. Do you want to change the past or use the longevity effect on Albert. Albert plans to change the past to defeat King Frederick so I’m sure he doesn’t mind that I use The Legendary Stone set to change the past. However, Reina can’t return to this present because The Legendary Stone set broken because it falls when The Queen is being paralyzed.

 

So, Reina goes back to the past when Miguel and his gangs arrive to kidnap her step family. The family house only has 2 rooms and 1 healstone. Because there’s only 1 healstone (that provide full heal for 1 time use) for this chapter, I recommend you to carry either Vampire Rock (Mega Rock + Cursed emblem) or Vampire Wall (Push Wall + Cursed emblem) to heal yourself when necessary and conserve the healstone. I forget to tell you this basic information. Looking at either enemy or trap in different height can be challenging. You can hold L2 to lock Reina’s position and look around with D-Pad. You can also hold R2 to lock Reina’s look at the nearest enemy.

 

I like to keep the fight in this room which is called shed. There are 2 stairs that I can roll Rock downstairs and that’s enough reason for me to stay in this room. I can also throw anyone on that thresher machine that deal good damage. Anyway, Miguel. Yes. He’s quite push over compared to enemies that I fight in Hades Castle. Especially Hellknight and other armored enemies that have massive defense power or immunity to blast bomb and arrow slit type trap. Basically, you can hit Miguel with any trap to deal damage. But keep in mind that he runs fast and immune to anger or summon ring effect. I may forget to mention anger abnormal status but there’s not much into it. Except, it makes victim run angrily at you and forget that they have ranged attack or magic.

With the kidnapper gang wiped out, Reina and her step family are safe. But there’s barely any celebration for our Reina as she leaves while saying “There can only be 1 Reina exists in this time”. She can’t go back to her time thus she leaves wandering alone randomly and never visit her step family again. You may think that Reina’s victory here doesn’t solve the problem because The King and The Queen still alive in this past timeline. But I think this is good enough to solve the problem because it only matters of time Alendar royal family will start crumbling because The King and The Queen are against each other. The kidnapper’s gang soon dismissed because soon or later Christina will break from her brainwash and Cupido most likely support Christina against The Queen. Maybe they will join Albert resistance group as well. That leaves Queen’s guard led by Cecilia the only meaningful threat.

 

Back to the present timeline, Miguel has pinned down Christina but he starts vanishing from hand to head. It’s definitely caused by Reina has killed Miguel in past timeline. 

 

All the bad guys are dead but the good guys can’t celebrate the victory. Albert is dead because of the side effect of trap magic, leaving Christina crying. Meanwhile, Reina walks among the mist. Suddenly, she remembers her childhood memory where her big sister is kidnapped. She realizes that Cecilia is her big sister but it’s too late now. Then she keels over and die. The cause of her death is debatable whether because of time paradox where there can only exist 1 Reina in same timeline or because of side effect of the trap magic. Her hands slowly fade away which means it’s because of time paradox. But why it takes so long like past an hour or so and not immediately when this timeline’s Reina is within proximity of our Reina?    

 

So, that’s the Ending no. 1. There are 4 endings altogether and they all sucks. No matter what ending you choose, Reina ends up dead anyway. At least there’s no ending that is controversial like in Kagero where Millenia has incest relation to the point she has baby or she becomes Devil’s servant. The endings are bad but the reward is pretty good. For ending no 1, I get Hell Emblem which can be made into 10 new traps! That’s more than just 1 new trap. Given that using Hell emblem to make new trap is very expensive but it’s very worth it. What kind of trap that Hell emblem create? It’s basically Devilish and the damage the trap inflicts ignore victim’s defense power. Remember Evil Stomp, Evil Kick, or Evil Upper? Those are basically included in Hell Emblem! Evil Stomp is Mega Rock + Hell emblem. Evil Kick is Push Wall + Hell emblem. Evil Upper is Spring Floor + Hell emblem. For other combination with Hell emblem, I let you figure it out yourself.

Anyway, don’t leave just yet! You sit there really tight because we’re going to other endings.

To achieve ending no 2 is quite easy. Choose to travel to the past and let Reina killed by Miguel in the past. The kidnapping resumes and there are 2 Core Stones exist in this timeline. Christina retrieves 1 from dead Reina. While The Queen retrieves the other from kidnapped Reina. The Queen is happy to obtain the Core Stone but her expression turns to horrified as Cecilia presents her with another Core stone and two of them make magic link. Then, small blackhole appears and absorbs everyone and/or everything. Back to the present timeline, both Miguel and Christina start vanishing. Then the cutscene cut to ancient Alendar glyph. The end.

Here's the explanation. After defeating all enemies in chapter 11, Albert explains that the Core Stone has such potent power that if there are 2 of it, it can destroy the world. So, yes. Albert already warned us that 2 Core Stone rendezvous can make blackhole and everyone die.

 

But don’t wallow in fear and sad there, because the reward for this ending no 2 is Killer Top! It’s wall trap that summon huge spinning top that knock away anyone in its path. Initially, it travels straight ahead from the wall that it summons. When it makes contact to other wall, it will run along the wall like enemies in Rockford. It’s probably best used in small room with less area that not adjacent to walls and you have to use it as hit-and-run tactic. Once you activate it, you better move on to other room otherwise you may get hit by Killer Top too. Overall, it’s fun trap for hit-and-run tactic.  

 

If you choose to use The Legendary Stone set to increase Albert’s lifetime, you fight Miguel and other in Castle Hades. Even though you have more room to play around or escape, you have to be more careful to fight this version of Miguel because he has the cannon unlike his past counterpart. I finish him by throwing him at the huge fan named killer wall which very resembles the stage fatality in Mortal Kombat 4.

 

By using the power of The Legendary Stone set, Albert backs to healthy until he can discover fairy dust that can cure the stupid heart attack. But when he’s about to use the cure to Reina, it’s already too late. She dies in bed while smiling like Marco did. So, this is supposed to be the “best” ending? So, the game prefers you to move on from the past and keep fighting for the present instead of changing the past. I think successfully changing the past is the best ending because past Reina and her step family survive.

 

The reward for saving Albert is Barracuda which is *groan* vase type trap. But I manage use it on Hans and he runs in panic toward switch that make prop pillar falls down on Ellena, his wife. So funny. Do you know that episode of Mr. Bean where his head stuck on turkey? The effect of Barracuda is similar to what happen with Mr. Bean in that episode.

 

If you choose to take aside to Cecilia’s master which is Queen Margareta herself, eventually you get the opportunity to kill The King by yourself. Unlike the others, King Frederick will run away from you and eventually stop while waving hand. While running away, he occasionally trips himself. His behavior makes you feel like Jason Voorhees, which is very entertaining. From his death line here, we know that The King is misogynistic and greedy bastard. He’s totally unlikeable with no hint of either charisma or intelligence. I don’t feel bad killing him. 

 

Eventually, you have to defeat The Queen because Reina wants The Legendary Stone Set to change the past and makes thing better at least to her. The Queen baits her with bedroom key where the rest of Legendary Stones kept but only pulling Reina toward the furnace. Miraculously, Reina survives but The Core Stone destroyed inside the furnace. The Queen tries to retrieve it only burning herself to death. Reina sad that not only she fails to collect all The Legendary Stones to make things better but also, she soon dies in vain. Christina cheers her up and tells her that she can still do something good like rebuild this kingdom while she still alive. So, Christina and Reina along with Remi that captured by Christina, leave the castle. There’s no CG cutscene for this ending. The story just abruptly ends here. Maybe the game teaches you not to be greedy on avenge Reina’s family and still wanting The Legendary Stone set. However, the ending feels not as punishing because there’s no CG cutscene that shows that Reina dies.

Anyway, the reward for achieving that ending is Teleporter. It’s set on ceiling and this UFO will warp you to the point where the Teleporter is set from whenever spot you currently are. That sounds handy since the teleporter works instantly. But there’s one time that I still got hit by Miguel’s cannonball even though visually Reina is already in the teleporter’s spot. Apparently, her hitbox takes time to follow where Reina is, which is quite stupid.  

 

If you daft enough (like me) to finish all of 100 levels of Expert mode, you get this Zero ring that makes trap’s charge time into 1 seconds despite the name. Even so it’s broken because you can reuse the trap over and over again because of the very fast charge time. But if you use same trap over and over again, you gain 0 ark. You only gain ark for each trap use once. I think you also get 0 ark penalty even though you use the same trap in different spot in a room.

It's kind of late but I tell you about how ark scoring system works anyway. I think it goes like this: [Total Damage] x [Ark Multiplier factor]. Total damage is self-explanatory. I think you can’t get more Ark with total damage exceeds victim’s HP. Total damage inflicted is also determined by victim’s defense power. Regarding Ark Multiplier factor. Much like damage inflicted, each trap has their own ark multiplier. Naturally, there are more than 1 ark multiplier involved within trap combo. The formula of combined ark multiplier goes something like this: (1st ark multiplier x 2nd ark multiplier x … last ark multiplier). Here’s the simple example. If I hit a victim with Spring Floor (6 damage and x1.3 ark multiplier) and then Mega Rock (60 damage and x1.0 ark multiplier), the calculation roughly will go like this = (6 + 60) x (1 x 1.3) = 85 ark points. I think the last result is rounded down. But maybe rounded up, I could be wrong. However, there are extra ark multipliers such as: 1) Aerial, when you hit the victim while in mid-air. 2) Counter Hit, when you hit victim as they’re about to hit you or you can say while they’re in the middle of attacking animation. 3) Double Hit, when you hit 2 victims all at once. 4) Core Hit, if you hit the victim very accurately on the spot, without aim correction. In Kagero, it’s called Bullseye hit. 5) Rapid Chain combo, if your trap combo has very short delay between trap activation. 6) Finisher, if your trap deal damage just enough to kill the victim. So, the game rewards you with accurate kill instead of overkill. Some trap that deals multiple damage has ark rate multiplier less than x1 such as Killer Wall (the huge fan like that stage fatality in MK 4) and Chain Needle, which results in smaller total of ark score. If you don’t care much about ark score and more focus on damage like me, you will probably ignore this ark multiplier penalty.

So, what else that I want to say? The rings into customization. There are: 1) Auto, which makes trap works automatically without your button press. 2) Timer, which activated with delay after you press the button. Maybe it’s meant for hit and run tactic. 3) Damage, which boost damage power of trap by 20%. 4) Charge, which decrease trap’s charge time by 33%. 5) Summon, which can summon enemy into trap’s location. This potentially increase trap’s accuracy. 6) Lastly Zero, which I mentioned before. Making charge time into 1 second. Then the special traps: 1) Banana Peel acquired if you finish the game once. 2) Tombstone that you can drop hard on victim. You will obtain it if you finish the game 4 times. It has Ark Multiplier x2.0 and it pins down the victim which makes it hard to follow it up with other traps. So, it’s meant for finisher. Then there’s Delta Horse trap which is triangular-prism shaped platform that’s meant to hurt victim’s region. Yes, it’s “Adult” instrument. I have little information on how to acquire it and I still struggle to get it. If I can acquire this stupid trap, I will master all the achievements on Retroachievement for this game. If you somehow know how to obtain it, feel free to let me know. I’m very grateful if you do so. By the way, all special traps can't be customized with anything including rings and orbs. Which quite let down. I think I will wrap things up.

 

Tecmo’s Deception 3 (1999-2000) is trap em up game for the beginner and also for the veteran of the series at the same time. Does the statement not make sense? Let me break it down slowly. The game is for beginner because it has decent tutorial, more detailed user interface, and milder tone. What I mean about last one is the protagonist is tragic heroine instead of expressionless cold-blooded murderer like Millenia in Kagero. Because the tone is milder, I like to request this game on some Streamer on twitch including TheGameWanderer_. As for why I said the game is for the veteran. Overall, enemies are more aggressive and dodge more often. On to that later. I go with good thing first because that’s the shorter part that I can think of, not because I hate the game like in other review. Don’t get it wrong, I still love this game. Ok, let’s review the good and the bad thing about this game in more detail.

The good part. The new ceiling trap type: Pendulum Blade is so useful. Not as powerful as Mega Rock but it has more reach and ability to force move enemy. It’s way better than gas trap. Back in Kagero, Pendulum Blade only exists as local trap. In this game I can deploy it myself. The music is more apparent and generally good. No more wailing sounds of the haunted as music. The special traps are all good including the nefarious Barracuda. The trap making is more in interesting form. It’s customization of base, emblem, ring, and orbs. Gone is the tech tree system which is more jarring and more complicated. The result of trap making can be useful, less useful or for novelty. The protagonist is tragic heroine which makes the game more approachable by beginners. There are more local traps in this game. Maybe with the inclusion with switch activation, the game now allows more local traps besides the one that works periodically/automatically. Then there's side dodge move which is pretty useful to dodge enemy's attack.   

On to bad things. Enemies have too much health, more aggressive, more immunity to certain traps, and dodge more often. Even, some of them felt unfair. Even single rock drop doesn’t kill villager! On contrary to Kagero, where any villager can be killed with single rock drop. Later enemies who are armored, are completely immune to arrow which is quite awful because arrow is the only reliable damage dealer for wall trap. The game also hides information that some enemy able to parry projectile even though there’s clear space to put enemy’s ability separated from biodata unlike in Kagero. Even Kagero warns me about some enemies can parry projectile with vague hint “Protected against arrow”. Also, in Kagero I can bypass enemy parry with Volt Laser which I got in late chapters. But it fits because around those chapters, armored enemies and those who’s able to parry projectile, more likely to appear. Meanwhile in Deception 3, Volt Javelin (Arrow Slit + Thunder emblem) is not Volt Laser, so enemy can parry it and armored enemy is immune to it. What resemble with Volt Laser is Hell Laser (Arrow Slit + Hell emblem) which is New Game+ thing. Moreover, In Kagero I can use Buzzsaw if enemy don’t parry it even though it deals small damage. But that doesn’t matter because I use Buzzsaw only as starting attack. Meanwhile, in Deception 3 it just sets on stone that armored enemies can’t be hit with any arrow including Buzzsaw. The projectiles just deflected harmlessly on their armor. Then there’s Dark Mage, I mean Darkwitch that can instantly cast blindness on you as soon as she sees you. the enemies take lots of punishment especially Hellknight who has defense power 38. If you don’t use Mega Rock or anything that deal huge damage, against Hellknight, you are doing it incorrectly. Not to mention Hellknight can parry anything including Hellfire bomb! So, you have to weaken him first with Confusion Gas or Flash Bomb. Also, sometime Hellknight refuse to appear from door even though he clearly opens the door first and instead teleport to the center of room. Although that means his teleportation can be predicted easily. Because of how resistant enemies in this game, especially in later chapter. Many traps in player’s disposal feels too weak. Maybe, the game encourages the player to use local trap more often which has higher attack power and/or ark rate multiplier, instead on solely rely on portable trap. The health indicator for the player looks stupid and hard to decipher. I know for sure that the more part on health emblem lost the less damage you have. But it’s hard to see how much % of it compared to simple health bar. There’s no happy end for Reina. Whatever ending you aim, she always ends up dead. The AI just set on stone that the enemies just want to murder you. No one is sensible enough to run for exit when dying. Only The King who has different AI. He constantly run away or shoot ice magic if Reina is too close too him. Then there’s the stupid cinematic escape. I know Christina who is one of enemies that did cinematic escape, switch to Reina’s side. But that doesn’t justify the cinematic escape which make certain enemies disappear from the game immediately. Next is the capped Dreak income, which prevent me get bigger amount of Dreak. No matter how wonderful my work done. The important flaw is the camera. It’s positioned too low. Maybe, it’s meant for player too look farther. But to me, I can’t see well the position of my trap because it’s obscured by Reina herself or the adjacent floors! I mean sure I can use the free camera mode with L2 Button that also makes Reina can’t move. Using the free camera mode too often to adjust my sight is too jarring. Back in Kagero, the trap button HUD in right corner will blink if enemy is within the proximity of the trap. But in Deception 3, that friendly feature is gone! Someone claims that the Rock trap drop slower compared to Kagero. Since, I like to roll it down the stairs. I can’t confirm that but I feel like I have to forward that opinion. The game like to hold player’s hand. You can’t make trap immediately until Marco tells you, you can do it. On contrary in Kagero, you can develop trap in chapter 1 as long as you have the ark. Same goes to carry your previous traps in New Game+. You have to wait until the chapter that brat says that you can make trap. On the bright side, you carry previously owned Dreak from the get go in New Game+. Another example of handholding is: the basic trap given to you as you make progress on chapter instead of developing them by yourself.

I said before that the tone is milder but that’s only for the protagonist who’s pretty much innocent and she kill either for self defense or to oppose evilness. The truth is there are also dark and “adult” element as you expected from Tecmo who isn’t shy to show out violence and “adult” thing. To be honest, I learn about SM first time from this game. One of enemy is secretly SM and that makes me shiver. Then there’s reference to “Red Light District”. In one chapter, Reina fails to save her friend from the same country of Burganfada. Miguel claims that he already sent her to Red Light District. Then obviously, there’s issue of slavery and racism. It’s shown in how the King and Sirado hate Burganfadan and they justify it with nationalism which is wrong. Next is misogynism, hinted by King’s and Miguel’s dialogue. And of course, there are bloods. Funny thing is: when Miguel killed Rosetta, Cupido, or King Frederick. Those moments happen without blood for some reason. Maybe Miguel’s knife is sentient and like to drink the blood from its victim. 

Deception 3 (1999-2000) is more advanced from Kagero but also more jarring. I feel like the previous game Kagero has feeling of “Developer do their best despite the limitation” and it’s more friendly to play because the enemy AI is neither too aggressive or too smart. It doesn’t make sense in real life but it’s necessary in game context. On the bright side, Deception 3 is the first game in series with Voice Acting. Even though the voice acting is only in CG movies and not for entire game. Only 7 characters with VA: Reina, Marco, Miguel, Albert, Queen Margareta, Christina, and Cecilia. I notice in credit roll that there’s Emiko Hagiwara who also provide voice acting for “adult” anime in Sweet Home: H na Oneesan wa Suki desu ka? as Morobashi Kyoko the housewife and Discipline as Otokawa Saori. Since, there’s no specific which role that the VA assigned for. I’m guessing Emiko Hagiwara acts as either Queen Margareta or Cecilia. Also, there’s name Fumihiko Tachiki who’s known to provide voice acting in Bleach as Zaraki Kenpachi, Case Closed/Detective Conan as Vodka and Neon Genesis Evangelion as Gendo Ikari. I’m 100% sure, Mr. Fumihiko act as Miguel with delinquent accent and rugged voice.

Anyway, in summary. I can recommend you to play Deception 3 because of milder tone on protagonist, Pendulum blade, more apparent story branching points, and more various local traps also the prospect of killing Gendo Ikari indirectly. Even though I still prefer Kagero. But then I can’t really hate game with cheeky reference to Classic Doom. Someone in developer team must be avid fans of Doom. They come up with idea “How about we put wall texture in Doom for Push Wall” as cheeky reference and they did it! Side note: I know the bad news about ID Software. It sucks!

I think that’s it for me. But there’s second opinion from TheGameWanderer_. He specifically like blue chamber in Castle Hue where there’s spiked water wheel that he can use it to cheese the game. He even made full automation on using the water wheel. So, here’s his opinion:

 

“It's a clever tactical game that relies on the careful and creative utility of your environment, traps, and abilities at your disposal. But unlike your typical action game, your character relies solely on the traps you set in order to protect yourself and succeed in a chapter. For the most part, there's enough variety wherein you need to rethink your strategy until you get to a point where one or two solutions work for all of them. This is true until you reach the last few chapters wherein there is a big difficulty spike. I spent more time and effort retrying the last chapters than I did for 2/3 of the game, and while that may just be indicative of a game getting progressively hard, it wasn't. There was no gradual difficulty progression. The game just drops a couple of frustratingly hard hitting and high HP enemies near the end (Note: Hellknight) and calls it a day. But putting aside the terrible difficulty spike, the game can be quite a drag midway because like I mentioned, you can get away with 1 or 2 strategies from the start of the game up to 2/3 of the game which made the mid-parts, well, mid and repetitive.

I do appreciate how much traps there are and how much you can upgrade them. Each type of trap has its own strengths, and to explore what these strengths are is this game's biggest strength. There is a certain satisfaction in realizing how a certain trap will synergize with your other traps and the surroundings of a particular map, not to mention the crafty villainous-like sensation of feeling like you've set up the most elaborate trap to defeat your enemies the way some mustache-twirling villain would be scheming to defeat their rival. Overall, it's an alright game, I give it a 3/5. It could have benefited from being a bit shorter if some parts were going to be repetitive, and they could have eased you in towards the end if the harder enemies near the end were a bit more balanced and fairer.”