Kagero (PSX) - Part 1

Not every game is all about sunshine and rainbow like Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario Bros. There's some games with dark spice on them like Koudelka with racism. I'm looking at you, James O'Flaherty! There's also Tecmo's Kagero - Deception II (1998). 

According to Google Translate 影牢 (Kagero) means "shadow prison". There's person that move in someone's shadow and i hate them. Then there's some torture chamber which is the closest thing to prison. So i say the title accuracy is 60%, i guess? There's huge contraption on background then there's the protagonist: Millenia. From behind, that is. I have meet (and beat the heck out of) her in Warriors All Star and i'm very happy someone at Koei-Tecmo remember her.

For your disclosure: i am huge fans of Deception series. I play everyone of them. Well, except Deception 4 which is the fifth game in series because i don't own PS 3. I hope they will port it to PC. As for you who is not familiar with Deception series, i will gladly explain it to you. First, we have to go back to the first game: Tecmo's Deception.

Tecmo's Deception screenshot (taken from MobyGames)

In first game you play as a prince who's accused to a crime of killing your father, the king. But you didn't commit that. It's masterminded by your jealous brother so he can be the next king. The game looks like RPG with First Person View but it's actually not RPG. The gameplay is you walk around this 3D corridors and rooms and kill (or capture) any trespassers with indirect method: using trap such as pitfall, wall spike, or heavy weight (that you release on their head from ceiling, cartoon style). Your target is the usual RPG trope like knight, archer, warrior, or mage. Strangely you can buy things from merchant who also your victim. I take this screenshot from MobyGames because i'm no way want to play this game again even for the sake of this article. It's too tedious and sluggish for my liking. But that's acceptable because this is the very first game on series, Tecmo still trying to formulate the game's basic back in the day. So i suggest you skip this one and go straight to 2nd game if you want to get into the series that is.

At least you know that Deception series' premise is you trap persons to death and that makes you feel like sadistic bully or at least that what i feel. Not only that, but also you work for Satan in the first game. I don't mean just The Devil, no! Clearly the game address him as blatantly Satan both in the game and in the cover. I think because of that, some region ban the first game. But it's not as infamous as Grand Theft Auto where you can kill random people on street with gun, which is almost 100% realistic. Meanwhile in Deception games, you have to possess very special magic that can set and activate traps. We human don't possess such unique magic, right?

 

There's this opening CGI. It's sunny day in happy town. A circus arrive in the town! It attracts all the kids. Cirque is circus in French. So the game takes place somewhere in France?

 

Everyone is gathering around at town center where the circus takes place. Everything looks festive and nice. But suddenly this juggling clown casts a weird magic. The day darkened and everyone freeze in time except the clown and this little girl. Then there's spotlight on them. Why there's spotlight in outdoor? The strangeness doesn't stop there. The balls become purple orbs, moving toward the kid sending her to void filled with clock, pendulum, and long transparent corridor. At the end of corridor, the girl find a mansion and she go inside of it. That was like drunken dream. Spy_sf13_magic_reac05.wav      

 

Oh, wow! I haven't played this game for long time that i forget that there's CGI Cutscene from Monster Rancher and Dead or Alive in option menu. Sorry, i got distracted for a while there. On to the real game...

As i start new game, there's this prologue texts. Long long time ago, humans are barbaric, living in chaotic way. Then Timenoid (abbreviated as TMD), an immortal race with blue skin come along and fix the problem by sharing their great wisdom. Later this TMD rule over mankind, leading them in peace and prosperity.

At King's Palace...

 

There's a TMD name Yocal. She's summoned by King Eclypse (it's real not typo), who's also a TMD. He order her to use her human daughter for something. At first she declines it with excuse that the daughter is still too young thus need further education. But the king insists so she have no choice but to obey.

I like that the cutscene takes place in actual gameplay. The evidence is that spike floor keep moving in and out. I legit laughing hardly. I don't remember the spike floor is working inside the cutscene. I'm no safety and standard inspector but i'm pretty sure working spike floor within a throne room is bad. XD    

 

Innocent Girl? Not anymore. :P

 

Here's the innocent girl, Yocal's adopted daughter, the protagonist: Millenia (default name). Yocal here shows me the gist. You can skip the tutorial on how the trap works. She also inform about this blue gem/crystal that if picked up can heal me. However do note that: it only for one time use per chapter.   

 

Yocal has called this poor peasant for me to kill. He's asking whether there's TMD (Yocal) in this building. If you answer "Yes", he will asks you to call her and standing there like training dummy. If you answer "No", he will goes home and eventually escapes. Because this is my very first victim, i like him to stay. I can't make Yocal disappointed on my first job.  

 

Now on to trap setting. By pressing circle button, you bring up pause menu consists of trap setting, enemy data, and detailed map. In trap setting, you can see the room where you're in along with grids, all of objects and terrain. So detailed! There's red icon which represents Millenia while the tellow ones represents her target/enemy/victim. In this screen, you set the trap of 3 type: Ceiling which mapped on triangle button, Wall which mapped on square button, and Floor which mapped on cross button. Unlike in first game, you can make combo of trap hit. But do note that ceiling and floor trap must not be placed on the same spot. That certainly hinder your combo plan. However some trap have 3 X 3 area of effect thus they don't have to be placed in one place with other trap, to take effect. Other alternative is you force the target to move to other trap's spot. But we will talk about it later.

For now my combo is: Bear trap right on Daar's leg, smoke him with slow gas (that have 3 X 3 area of effect), and lastly shoot him with arrow from arrow slit trap. I forgot to tell you that wall type trap can't be placed on doors.   

 

On second thought, i replace the bear trap with small bomb because it deal larger damage. I want to give this poor sod quick death, you see. Man! That bomb sure looks like micro nuke. Maybe i overkill him.

 

Yocal satisfied with that poor git's death. Furthermore She praise me for the good job! Perfect genocide...of a single human. That's barely genocide. The game evaluates your job in 3 aspect: 1) Trap efficiency which is combo count and maximum damage. 2) The number of target eliminated. Note: not every enemy eager to die (or kill you), some of them try to escape your skirmish. 3) Life remaining on the end of mission. The maximum health yield 500 point but you get bonus another 500 score if you achieve flawless victory take no damage at all. The score in this game called Ark. It's no ordinary score point. Oh, no. It's currency in this game that you can spend to develop more trap!  

 

After finishing mission/chapter, you get to intermission where you can see data of your next victims, map layout, save the game, and -the most exciting of all- develop new traps! Here's the list of trap that you can develop. I suggest you develop flash bomb post haste because it's the best trap for incapacitating enemies in my opinion. It does no damage, sure. But it has 3 X 3 area of effect, can blind most enemies which makes them unable to dodge/deflect/resist other trap and because it's fast in execution most enemies unable to dodge it. Naturally, bear trap can pin down your enemy but armored enemies immune to it.  

 

You can't just develop all traps otherwise the game will be too easy. Not only it's limited to your budget but also to trap requirement. Advanced trap require certain traps unlocked. For example, this Buzz saw trap requires you to unlock Spike Wall and Chain Needle traps first. Someone on internet recommend me to prioritize developing Buzz Saw and you better do what they told because it's the best trap to relocate your victim in this game. No! Even in entire series except the first game because it's not invented yet.  

 

Here's the map of current place. The place's name remains Japanese probably because the publisher feels lazy to edit it. It says "Western Forest House", by the way. For the sake of everyone's convenience, i edit the map by adding room's number on it. Room 1 is the foyer. Room 2 is where altar and healing gem place. Also for some reason there's ditch filled with water in the middle of it. Room 3 is dull grey room filled with explosive crates and hook that swing constantly. Room 4 is torture chamber. Arguably the most fun room but i mostly fight in Room 1.

 

Daar's wife, Lilia asked Slash to search for her (late) husband in this building. Slash and i meet at the foyer (the exact room where Daar perished). He ask Daar's whereabouts.  If your answer "Don't know" he leaves. If your answer "He's killed", you make him aggro.   

 

Mega rock is powerful trap but it only drop on 1 block. However, someone on internet (same person who recommend developing Buzz Saw ASAP) inform me that rock trap will roll on slope or stairs thus it becomes heavy projectile that follow terrain and not just dumb rock falls on one spot. Heavy_positivevocalization04.wav

 

Trapt - Kagero 2 (PS2)

I really familiar with this foyer. It's my main playground. I'm really happy when it's brought back to the 4th game on PS 2: Trapt - Kagero 2. The two stairs on each side and knockable pillars. Perfect! Things that bothers me in this game: 1) Protagonist's cloth that's too sexy. 2) They disable the ability to strafe left or right even though i believe some of the shoulder buttons are unused. Another thing that Trapt brings back besides the foyer is the story. I believe Trapt's story is remake from the first game where the protagonist is falsely accused to kill the king. The differences are the protagonist is a princess instead of faceless prince and the devil is just called the fiend instead of Satan anymore. 

Where was i? Oh, right. Slash. Unlike Daar, he wants to kill me. But he only armed with long sword, he can do nothing if i stay away from him while setting traps. I see he also carry buckler. I heard it's excellent for 1 on 1 fighting. But i doubt it's useful against falling pillar. :)

There's 2 pillar in this foyer and sadly you can only knock them down in 1 direction. The main idea of knocking them down is by pushing them with Press Wall trap which has range of 2 blocks.

 

Now that Slash is killed, Lilia asked Gastone and Hawk to search this building. Hawk is scared but Gastone presses on because he's fueled with vengeance for Slash. In this pause menu, you can see where your enemies are within the building. Unlike in trap set menu where you can only see them if they're in the same room as you.

Other thing that important is: who do you want to deal first? Generally you want to deal with enemy who's closest to you but in some case you want to go for other person but i will talk about it later. For now the most sensible course of action is fighting Gastone first because he's behind me but i have enough time to prepare some traps. Another reason why Flash Bomb trap is the best enemy-incapacitating trap: it has very fast cooldown. Arguably the fastest of all. So it's ready to use even when the enemy is quite close. Moreover you can use it again after activates it and blinding your enemy. When blinded, enemy has slower movement.    

 

Sometime there's empty corridor between rooms. I hate it because i can't set/activate any trap on it. You're completely defenseless within this empty corridor.  

Gastone is crusher class, buffed shirtless man that wield giant hammer. He resists push wall and can make quake with his hammer should you near him. Why would you want near him anyway unless he's blinded/confused/knocked out and you want to do that only to get away from being cornered? Crusher also has health more than 100 points which is beyond 1 layer of health bar. First layer is green color and the second one is yellow color. I believe there's anyone with more than 200 hitpoints. Thank Goodness.

 

Eventually Gastone is killed. Not by drowning on this knee-deep trench, that will be very embarrassing for someone as big as him. It just happen i kill him while he's in the trench, that's all.

 

It seems Lilia gives up on sending men to die here. However an anti-TMD group called "Red Blood" sniffing this place for this time. This is the first encounter with archer and knight.  

 

McLord here is hesitant to oppose TMD and went by himself to warn any TMD in the building, only to find a human (Millenia) here. He think to kill me but you can probably guess what happen to him next. Hint: rolling giant rock.

 

Rain and Gerald heard McLord dying scream thus they get inside this house. Rain asks why i killed him. I go with the usual answer "I have no choice". Rain understands my reply and about to leave. Wait! Come back! I need more Ark!

 

Thankfully, i can make them aggro  by hitting them with trap. Naturally, archer has projectile attack. You can try dodge her arrow with sidestep by holding down either L1 or R1 shoulder button. But note that enemy can and will change their aim when you start sidestepping.

 

She's manage to hit me but i kill her with arrow coming out of wall trap. That's big irony, for sure. she dies as she lives. Arrow shooting!

 

I have enough Ark to develop spark rod. It's area of effect is only 1 block so you have to activate it in perfect timing. But there's other use of it, i will tell that later. It seems the power of developing trap, involving Stonehenge. Now we know what those ancient druids in England are up to.   

 

Unfortunately, you only allowed to carry up to 3 traps per type. Which mean you can only carry maximum 9 traps for each chapter and only 3 of them that can be set/activated. That's quite large restriction of trap planning creativity but that's just my minor complaint.

In this trap inventory screen, you can see trap's damage power and charging time (cooldown). Sometime the differences between two trap of the same kind  is small. For example: Mega Rock and Spike Rock. The latter has damage power of 55, stronger than former by 5 points. But there's another additional value. The game said the Spike Rock last longer and can be used to hit more than one enemies. As for Mega Rock, it will be soon destroyed when hitting 1 enemy. Also Spike Rock requires research first while Mega Rock is available from get-go.

 

On next chapter, there will be 5 enemies. That means more income. Medic_cheers01.wav

Don't worry! Even though there's 5 of them, there can only be 2 of them at the time. I assume it's for player's convenience. Millenia can't deal with 5 enemies at once especially with 3 traps limitation.

You can also look at their stats. But truth be told, i don't look at them diligently. That's how professional ignorance i am. Those stats are important to look. HP is obviously how many health point do they have. Defense is the their defense power. Atk-S is the attack power of their melee attack. Atk-L is the attack power of their projectile. Speed is their movement speed. Agility is probability measure of how evasive they're. But i'm not sure how it works. Is it evasion percentage? I don't know.

Saki the fighter doesn't take the problem seriously. She think that Gerald and Rain is doing hanky-panky somewhere in the house. The closest thing that she predict is they're in same room, dead! I like how stupid naive she is.

 

Yes this is the very room that i was talking about. I'm not sure how Grand 'Or stupidly walk into the spear wall. You can see released slow gas behind him, suggesting that he has been hit by slow gas first before hitting the spear wall. I believe the slow gas doesn't alter the enemy's AI unlike flash bomb or confuse gas (that i haven't invented yet). This screenshot may proves the otherwise. Even though from the picture he's in the gap between the spears, he's in fact getting stabbed real good like shish-kebab.     

 

Meanwhile Jackal and Raddlefuss has been hit by small nuke. Remember those explosive crates that i talked about? I trigger it to explode by simply nudging it with Attack Wall (which is stronger version of Press Wall that capable of throwing enemies to 4 blocks away). Apparently nuke has been invented in this era and it's store in humble wooden crates.  

Suddenly Julia recognize me as Millenia and she hurriedly escapes to report to their leader named Keith. Naturally, i get less income. Soldier_negativevocalization04.wav  

But i can still kill the rest of her crew. As polite housekeeper, i offer this guest a seat...on electric chair! Soldier_laughlong02.wav

 

Yocal is happy with my work and now she wants me to guard the castle while King Eclypse take refuge elsewhere because there's anti TMD conspiracy going on.  

 

Here's castle's map. This time, the place's name is translated. Now that the place is bigger, the game kindly gives you 3 magic loons (the healing gem). They are in room #2 (fountain room), room #6 (foyer), and room #8. On every my playthrough, i never get to fight in room #1 (western back entrance) even though it's filled with interesting local trap. Mostly, i fight in room #4 (Throne room with that spike floor), room #8, or room #3. Especially room #3, because it's very important. I will tell the reason later.      

 

King Eclypse suspects 2 person with high authority: Hornstein and Deadmoon and he summons them for me to assassinate. Actually Deadmoon is the one who manage the TMD resistance group "Red Blood" but he's not doing it for the good of humanity. He wants the secret of TMD's immortality. Most likely, when he get the secret (either bribed by TMD or obtained from their dead body) he won't hesitate to make Red Blood as scapegoat. Or he wants to rule the land after TMDs are entirely eradicated. Anyway, Hornstein will stay at the main entrance and Deadmoon will walk to chamber room. I will encounter him there.

Hagane? Like that robot ninja in bleak future?

Suddenly, a ninja appears behind Deadmoon. I kill him with the combination of Flash Bomb, Triple Arrow from side wall, and Spike Rock. Naturally door entrance is bottleneck area that can pinpoint the enemy's position, making any trap with 1 block range more accurate to use. However, that door is 2 block wide. You can alter enemy's movement with your position. Enemies tend to move toward you directly unless there's local trap between you and they. Anyway, the ninja runs to other room. I will get him.  

 

This ninja is super annoying, he can make himself disappear even in the map on pause menu. But that's not all. You can predict most enemy's movement. They will come after you from room's entrance thus you can focus your trap on the related entrance, right? But that's not ninja does. Once he arrive at the door, he simply vanish. After some time he will appears in random spot in the room. I'm not sure how i can trigger him to come back from whatever mysterious pcoket dimension where he's hiding. Maybe if i face and walk away from entrance where he's last seen as if i want to run away, he will appears. So you have to prepare traps somewhere in the middle of room instead in door's entrance as usual. Ninja also immune to flash bomb and gas trap. On the bright side he has small hitpoints and i manage to hit the crafty sod with Spark Rod. That must be shocking for him. :)

As for Hornstein, he will move to me once i kill Deadmoon. But as you can see he runs away when he saw. He also refuse to get inside the room where i am. He likes to open and immediately close the door, walking back and forth in the empty corridor. The only way to kill him is to use arrow-shooting trap on the wall on the other side of the door. I notice he has big health because he's fat. Because i'm also fat i wish fat is proportional to hitpoints, occurs in real life.   

 

Plot twist! The Deadmoon that i killed, is fake. But i doubt he's stupid enough to go right  into King's trap. He's bastard that want immortality and power over the kingdom. He must be careful and cunning git.   

The Deadmoon sent a group to the King's palace but not from Red Blood. He has some hired men on his disposal. Luckily, the game shows me this cutscene so i know their plan. Ricard the thief will lure me out and together with Aria the fighter, they will beat me up. While Legral doing something? Who's Legral anyway?

Legral is bomber and he's also immune to gas and flash bomb. Maybe i should use bear trap to immobilize him and ditch the flash bomb. But i fond of it, very much. 

No way, bud! Chasing my prey is not my modus operandi. My prey is the one chasing me and fall to my trap. by the way, this is the fountain room (room #2) and that door lead to room #5 where Aria standing by.  

Oh shoot! I forget fighter can perform flying kick at me from distance. I should be farther from the door. I miss with my traps. Time to run!

 

Eventually i killed them. Now to deal with Legral. He's miraculously appears from room #3 . I ambush him in room #8. I stab him spike wall as soon as he enters this room. After pushed with spike wall, i hit him with spark rod right through his sorry arse. Then i relase spike rock that doesn't hit him because he's 1 block away from it. Time to set another trap plan. 

 

It's not hard to escape from his as he's in dying status that makes him move slower (even slower that blinded enemy). I could smash him with spike rock at the door entrance but i already kill many people with falling rock so many time. So what's the fun of that? I will kill him with pillar instead. Apparently, Legral main attack is throwing poison gas grenade. Medic_niceshot02.wav

 

Oh, i see. He set a bomb when i was fighting Richard and Aria. Luckily, i killed him before he give detonator to Deadmoon. Spy_quest_complete_easy_05.mp3

Meanwhile back at the Western Forest House...

 

Julia back with Keith but the place is empty as i moved to King's Palace. Julia says that Keith have some relation with Millenia but he interrupt her speak. I sense another plot twist.   

 

Obviously, the problem doesn't stop there. There's more victim "visitor" come to this palace. Turns out, Hornstein though not pure good person he adopted many orphans (probably victim of war) and with him dead they seek revenge! Voodoo class here is pretty much healer. She can heal herself and her ally. As long as she's not given chance to heal her teammate that has big health pool, she's not big threat.  

 

I find another solution against armored enemies. They may immune to bear trap but they're *sucker* to magnet. Strangely enough, other enemies with light armor or even unarmored also susceptible to magnet wall trap. It's another good trap to make opening.

Another good news is i manage to hit both Lordred (the knight) and Delfina with 1 spike rock, thanks to magnet wall. As they say "To kill 2 birds with 1 stone". Although i only kill Delfina in this moment.     

 

I think Diva's class is Psychopath, maybe? Think of him like Voldo in Soul Calibur series. He wield claw on each hand. He can also perform lunging attack. However, he doesn't manage to put scratch on my health. Although the visual in this moment suggest the otherwise. But i miss him with the small bomb. Usually i complaint about finicky hit detection but in this case it's benefit to me so i won't.

Then...

 

That's kind of suggestive, Volcano. :X

Deadmoon sends another group this time their objective is to kill Millenia and take TMD's document regarding secret of immortality that's said hidden in (topless) woman statue in room #3. The secret document is a lie. What's actually hidden the statue is bomb that Legral set. Its detonator isn't necessarily required to detonate the bomb. Any tampering on the statue will trigger the bomb to explode. This is why i told you room #3 is important. If any enemy come to that room and touch the statue, the bomb will explode and instant game over! You must prioritize any enemy who goes to room #3 at all cost!

 

Goatbone here is tasked as bait/distraction. He doesn't put up much of fight. He behaves like Hornstein so he dies like that fat coward, getting hit by multiple projectiles from wall. Unfortunately, Goatbone and Mucro the ninja appears at the same time. But because Goatbone only back and forth at the doorway, i can focus on killing Mucro first. It's quite coincidence that Mucro is killed with Spark Rod like Hagane.  

 

Oh no! I'm poisoned. I should know from enemy data that Claire is no ordinary archer. She use poisonous arrow instead of normal one like real archer. I was panic that Claire is so close to the statue but her AI is focus on killing me instead of go to the statue. Thank goodness. Other than that i can deal with the rest of the group pretty easily.    

But the problem doesn't stop there. There's more to come, in next part!