Kagero (PSX) - Part 2

Previously, a young lady named Millenia tasked with killing anyone who enter building where she's in with various trap. One day, she's moved to king's palace to kill Deadmoon, who is suspected for conspiracy against the king. Millenia killed him but he's fake. In return, his goon manages to plant bomb in a statue. It's powerful enough to destroy the palace. Even though the bomb expert doesn't manage to pass the detonator to Deadmoon because Millenia killed him first, any fiddling on the statue will trigger the bomb to explodes. Moreover many people begin to visit the palace and the killing still continues...

The last group has failed (and died). Deadmoon getting antsy. He wants to deal with me, himself. Of course, he's not alone fighting me. He's not that brave.

With dead eyes like that and hood as dark as Emperor Palpatine, i doubt Deadmoon is good person.  

 

But i'm ready for Deadmoon and his crew as i finally obtain the Buzz Saw. You shall see how terrifyingly useful the Buzz Saw is. Sniper_laughevil02.wav

But then...

 

Oh shoot! Matia the shadow/assassin arrives at the statue. Luckily, she just comment on the detonator and back to business of killing me. If you think Ninja is annoying, then Shadow also annoying. She hides on (literally) shadow of her friend and pop out to attack me from behind. You can't do anything to harm her while she hides on shadow. Killing her friend means she can no longer hide and that's the right moment to defeat her.

 

She's about to scratch my back with her oversized fingernail weapon. But with my quick reflex, i trigger flash bomb to safe myself. On this occasion, i can experience blind on myself. I can only see 1 block ahead and can't see upper HUD and map. Also i move slower. But at least enemy also move slower and her aggressiveness is lowered by 100%.

 

Here's the demonstration of how good Buzz Saw trap is. Deadmoon himself is "volunteered" to assist me on the demonstration. As you can see Buzz Saw will push the target to farthest wall so they will go to predictable spot for trap with range of effect 1 block with pinpoint accuracy. Spike rock is good example of it and as far as i know falling rock trap is strongest trap at my disposal. At least in ceiling trap category.

 

Deadmoon may have ability to regenerate health over time but he's no match for my cunningness (and my spike rock). Julia informs to Keith about the demise of Deadmoon in the hand of the girl (Millenia). Again, Keith denies Millenia as her acquaintance.

Deadmoon is dead for real. But problem still continues. Rumor about immortality secret hidden in the statue, is spreading like wildfire in summer. More people eager to seek it. Little do the know, that the rumor is not true. They will unknowingly trigger the bomb that kill anyone insides the palace, including me and themselves. So i must kill them for self defense. It's between them or all of us!   

 

Or i can shoo them away. This old geezer eavesdropped the rumor from Statz and Blackword in a tavern. Once i encounter him, he asks my permission to let through. I say no, he go back to main door and leaves. I still have kind heart, you see. I let this one alive. Besides his health is so measly, probably not worth the effort to farm Ark from killing him.

 

Ah, here we go again with this coward behavior. I should know that Blackword who has same class with Goatbone, is expert at half-hearting their job. Either you escape or come at me stupidly bravely! Make your choice for God's sake!

 

For some reason Seetha the Guard (who's TMD clone created to become TMD bodyguard) visit this palace. I think he doesn't like the idea of me who's human, guarding the palace and he intent to show who's the best. He's immune to magnet and can suddenly teleport. But much like everyone here, he's susceptible to falling rock on his head. That's should give him a lesson and a ticket to afterlife.

I just realize that TMD has blue blood. Thus name "Red Blood" represents true humanity.

Next chapter...

 

Finally i can make use of that spike floor on throne room! The king should be proud of me. All i do is push my victim with Buzz Saw and they will get punctured on the spike floor. Or not. It's all about timing when the spike in or out. I say it's 50-50 chance. If they get passed the spike harmlessly, i have prepared spike rock on the furthest spot.

This chapter gives me trauma about the bomb. This father wants the secret of TMD's immortality because he hope he can cure his  sick son with it. In my very first playthrough back then, my sympathy got the best of me and let him through leading to bomb triggered and killed all of us. I'm not sure why i didn't aware about the bomb back then. Did i skipped cutscene and hastily wanted to kill enemies soon or my English wasn't as good as now? I really have no idea. Thing for sure is, this time i won't let him go to statue and without any hint of regret i kill him.   

Gunter said that his son Thoma has some serious disease but he jauntily strolling in King's palace, treating it like kindergarten playground. When he meets me, he say "Play with me!". Sure, i can play with you. Tag! You're in big explosion, dead. Along with your mother. Demoman_laughevil05.wav

Morality is next to meaningless in this game. But if you want to feel less horrible, consider this is mercy kill. The boy has (undefined) disease, remember? Also he won't be alone in heaven. I send his parent there too.

But then on next chapter...

 

Oh, whoops! Thoma has sister, Emillia and she ask a stranger to look for her family in this palace. But don't worry, i can and will send her to heaven too.  

 

After much Ark spent, i get Quake bomb that deal no damage. But it still has its use. You will see soon enough.  

 

There's boulder already installed on room #8. Naturally, i can't place rock on upstairs as part of my usual strategy when there's still the boulder there. The only way to make it falls, is to use the quake bomb that i was talking about before, or you can use the upgrade version of it called "Catastrophe" that can activate every traps (both yours and local) in a whole room. Quake bomb also make enemies trembled within its proximity. Think of it like in Monster Hunter game where any big monster stomps the ground hard, making local earthquake that makes hunters trembling (unless they have earthquake resistance equipment). Other than that Quake bomb has no other use. As for the boulder, it's considered to be the strongest and largest version of Mega Rock. It covers 2 block wide! Anyone who happens in that stairway, surely get ROCKed really hard. :p

 

Gustave here is noble rival of (late) Hornstein and also a coward. I'm not sure what's his objective is. I think he wants to meet the king which is neither killing me nor searching the statue. Luckily he just stands there waving his arm as in "Don't kill me!" gesture like what you see in many Lightgun Shooter. My plan is quite usual: flash him, dart him with projectiles and then smash him with falling rock.

 

Emillia also asks Otto, a jobless villager but with noble heart to search for her family. Otto also do the same thing with Gustave, waving his arms and beg for my mercy. This attitude kind of annoying me, to be honest. I can cancel his idle behavior into drunken/confused with confuse gas where he walks in his facing direction for few steps. Or i can throw him with my newly-invented spring floor to the direction i want.  

On previous article, i said about forcing the target to move to other trap's spot. Spring floor is what i mean. Push/Attack Wall can do that but it's restricted to wall position. If you use those kind of floor or wall trap, you have to calculate carefully where the victim will land next. On the trap setting screen, there's gridlines that can help you with that. Personally, i like to use Buzz Saw to move enemy because it's easy to use and the reposition is easy to predict. Besides Buzz Saw deals rather large damage to target whereas the attack wall and spring floor deal minimal damage. However, Buzz Saw pushing enemy along the ground. I mean initial ground. They will fly pass downstairs if they get hit in higher ground and they will hit upstairs if they get hit in lower ground. Meanwhile, attack wall and spring floor making enemies fly pass handrail. If they get hit in higher ground the distance calculation will be altered due to height difference between the initial spot and destination spot  

 

Oh! Hahaha! This weakling feels annoyed with my trickery thus he pushing me rudely. This didn't happen before.

I killed Otto with no problem. On to Emillia. She's waiting at the eastern back entrance (Room #7). She standing still there so i make her move with confuse gas but it also hits me and i'm tripping balls. Not only my camera is blurred but also my control is inveresed.

 

I never done this before. I manage to push Emillia into giant Guillotine with Buzz Saw. It falls automatically if someone is pushed to its landing spot. That kid is surely dead with all those horrible cutting instruments.

But then...

 

Emillia turns into Yocal. Nevermind the silly transformation where she blinks back and forth between Yocal and Emillia. How she's alive after getting hit with Buzz Saw? He should be dying or lose an arm back then. Sniper_sf13_magic_reac06.wav

Anyway, Yocal reminds you that there's bomb in room #3 and don't let anyone touch the statue. Also the king won't be coming back for awhile. He waits until the situation is safe for him to come back. By that i mean until less people eager to come here. Obviously, lessen unwanted visitors is my job.

 

On one occasion there Zartus the slaver, who wield riding crop and he's depicted with some kind of Middle Eastern fashion wearing baggy trouser, fez hat and vest. That's quite bad racism. Anyway, he's there. Under the rock. Did i tell you that i like using rock trap? Because i do. Barbalos the slave can't do anything but see his master smashed by falling rock. Barbalos' class is Sentinel. I'm relieved that the slave isn't portrayed badly. He could be pro wrestling superstar with that awesome getup.    

Did i say Barbalos could be pro wrestling superstar? Because he performs flying crossbody like real goddamn pro wrestler! Bless him.

 

On other occasion i fight Bleuge the brute, who's keen on throwing hand axes and Lazaford the Buddhist, who's practically priest that able to heal himself and other. But wait! He can do more than that. He fires magic projectile that can makes me stop moving and do anything else. I'm sitting duck here.    

 

I took too many damage. Time to restart. Restarting will take me back to intermission screen where i can change my trap loudout and relocate my ark for trap research. Yes, the ark is restored to the amount last time before you start spending it for new traps. If you expect quick retry, you will be disappointed. The game wants to make sure you're really well prepared for incoming battle and i understand that.   

 

This time i'm in safe position. Hahaha! Look at that schmuck getting hit with rolling barrel! that my attack wall pushed. Heavy_laughlong02.wav  

Note: this is not brawler game.

 

Uggh. Another shadow class. This time i blind her with flash bomb and then hit her with newly-acquired rolling bomb. It's quite awesome. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav

Belkdahl there is alchemist. Noticeably thing about him is he throwing dangerous chemistry flask at me.

 

After the palace deemed secure enough, King can return to the palace. But bad news for TMDs, Red Blood discover TMD secret place (presumably where the king take refuge) that house the real secret document about TMD immortality. Because of that, i'm sent to guard the place.

That means new place to play! The name's place is left untranslated, again. It's "Underground Ruin", this time. The room where they put the immortality secret is in Room#1. It's easier to guard than Room #3 that has 2 entrance, while this room#1 only has 1 entrance from hallway #4. I usually stands my ground at room #5 because there's stairs that essential to my usual strategy "rolling rock on stairs". For entire of my life, i can't figure how do i utilize the sub-room with false roof (spiked ceiling) that adjacent to Room #8 as tempting as it may be. How do i lure enemies there besides using myself? Using buzz saw seems impossible because there's door that connected to that sub-room. Then how do i activate it? Using quake bomb or catastrophe trap maybe? What if the ceiling fall automatically if i go inside of the sub-room? In the end, i don't have enough bravery to find out. Maybe someone out there know how to utilize this spike ceiling and have fun with it.

Later...

 

Ballantine is priest that have self healing ability. But i can deny it by giving him burn status that inflict damage over time. To do so it's quite complicated. First you must hit the victim with oil vase and there's no other solution to that. You either put the vase on their head accurately or make them slip on puddle of oil by dropping the vase earlier but note that the puddle of oil has short duration before disappears. In my experience dropping the oil vase accurately tend to fail because enemy can back hop to dodge it. Thus i blind them first with flash bomb like usual before putting the oil vase. Anyway, after the victim is oiled, ignite them with any trap with fire element or explosion for example: Fire arrow trap that i use here. Then you have your victim getting burn over time.

Here's some fun fact: either getting oil vase stuck on their head or slipped on oil puddle, counts as blind.    

I forgot to tell you that you can see your enemy's death in result screen. It's interesting to look at the various death diagnosis from different trap. Although Large Blast feels monotonous because it's used for death caused by many explosive trap such as Explosive crate and large bomb.

If you intend to play this game, i warn you that there's 4 endings in this game. The first branching point is in this chapter where you encounter these Red Blood members who seek for the TMD secret. Remember them well! The first branching is: whether they succeed on retrieving the TMD secret or not. If you want to succeed, simply idling or you can kill some of them but one of them must survive for their entire mission. I will talk the detail later. For now, i just be obedient killer and kill everyone like usual.

After i kill them all, Keith appears on room#7 and doing nothing. When i meet him, he's shocked and escape the place. He's depressed with the fact that Millenia (me) guards the place and killing his men. Later he's retired from duty by this huge armored man named Geizer.

This. Freaking. Bastard. I remember him well and hate him very much. Shogun class is another thing that gives me trauma playing this game besides Gunter that i let him pass to trigger the bomb. As the looks suggests, he's heavy knight. Durable and slow. However once he's lock on you on the same ground level, he will dash fast and hit you very hard like full-loaded bus with maximum nitro boost. This is humongous problem back then when i was running away in empty corridor between Room #5 and Room #7. He dash from long distance and proceed to hack me to pieces with that horrible-looking sword of his.

It will be nice if the game tells me that he can dash fast. Because that fact is bloody important! Maybe he predates Golden Knight in Clash Royale by 24 years.

 

Geizer may immune to bear trap but he's sucker with Volt Magnet trap which is upgrade version of magnet trap with addition inflicting serious damage. The key to defeat shogun is pretty simple: don't let him on the same level as you and keep your distance very far away. That confuse gas is quite unnecessary because any magnet wall trap is reliable opening trap. Maybe because i was too careful dealing with shogun.

Inferno is Pyro mage much like Volcano (in previous article) who's typical mage that shoots fireball and complete immune to any fire or explosive attack. Armored enemies take significant less damage from fire or explosive. I'm not expert on Metallurgy or Thermal Physics. I want to say that metal armor may protect the wearer from direct damage from fire and explosive. But doesn't that make them roasted from inside? Also i think fire and explosion can get inside of the armor through gaps (for example: armpit and behind knee). So it's not accurate for those armored enemies to take 90% less damage like what the game conveys.    

 

Eventually, Keith shows up and i kill him. As long as you keep your distance from him, you will be fine fighting him. That awkward death pose is caused by electricity from thunder volt which is upgrade from spark rod. He's twitching like crazy and i laugh loudly at his silly death pose.  

 

One day a TMD named Vogue comes in to test his creation Gadoha against me. Gadoha's class is drone which like cyborg droid, i guess. They have same resistance with Shogun with addition immune to gas. But, Volt magnet works well on him. Hey! I manage to utilize the swinging pendulum blade in room #3 with help from spring floor at the very entrance of this room. I never done this before. The walkthrough i read claim that Gadoha can shoot crystal projectile from distance but i never see them do that. Once Gadoha defeated, Vogue summons Gordis who has more health and more dangerous weapon: laser eyes! As long as you stay away from Gordis' line of sight, you will be fine.   

 

Red Blood have been dealt but the king wants the sacred place rigged with bombs! The king see me as threat to TMD because how powerful trapper i am. That's quite funny because in early chapter the king thought i can't turn against him because i only restricted use traps. Besides the place is already defiled with human anyway, he said. It's like the thing with Legral's bombing, you can't prevent the bomb being set at all. I feel like this is rare example of the game punishes you for doing well. At least you know that the king is not nice person.

Hey i manage to use blade pendulum again. I'm so proud of myself.

Not only King's men but also remaining of Red Blood want me dead. It goes without saying that they're motivated with revenge for those Red Blood members that i killed. Here's simple and fun combo in furnace (room #2). Push the victim who's in the middle of the ditch, with Buzz Saw and soon they will fall to pit fall. Demoman_positivevocalization01.wav  

Eventually, The King order Yocal to kill Millenia, the very adopted daughter of her. Yocal secretly care for Millenia like her own daughter. Apparently being TMD makes them fertile so they can't have real kid on their own. Anyway, The King gives Yocal some relief. She's allowed to have the best knights to kill Millenia in her stead. So in this chapter, i fight 3 knight who's lead by *groan* a shogun. But volt magnet helps me a lot and also this Volt Rock that i just researched. Usually, Shogun takes less damage from falling rock although i think it's still powerful trap. Even more powerful when the rock has electric element! However it costs a lot of ark to research it.

 

The knights are failed and now Yocal herself wants to kill me. My reply is hitting her with Buzz Saw that lead to Iron Maiden. She should be proud of me...or not.

 

Great! Another Shogun. [Gigantic Sarcasm]

With Yocal's failure (and demise), The King become very impatient to kill me. He along with Priest Dusk (the king's chancellor) leads his personal bodyguards to hunt down me in Western Forest House where i take shelter there. He accuses me of being possessed by wicked spirit that makes me commit manslaughter. Of course, the story is lie, cover up the truth that i'm King's secret assassin.  

 

Ok, i admit. The part of Priest Dusk's story "Millenia being possessed with wicked spirit" probably correct if by "possessed" he means controlled and by "wicked spirit"  he means me the player. If i were not so good at controlling Millenia, she would die long time ago and killed only few people. By the sad look of Millenia's face, i say she only has slight idea what she's doing thus she may be innocent all this time. It's me who's evil.

Joke aside, now that i have buzz saw i can get to kill victim better. Like this. I push Bloodhorn with buzz saw into lumber saw to create magnificent combo! I was hoping he get hit by swinging pendulum but it requires very precise timing. 

Here's what i mean about another use of Spark Rod. It can create line of electricity between it and any local electric trap (for example: this electric chair or Volt wall in room # 5 in underground ruin) thus extending the range effect of it. Spark Rod has stronger version Thunder Volt and Judgement is the strongest version. The latter may have cool name, but i think it's not worth your Ark because it's less accurate in my opinion probably because it has longest startup timing. These lightning rod trap can also deliver electric damage through water in ditch. But for some reason it's not working in furnace (room #2) in underground ruin. Although the damage is light, but i give the game some credit for this "electricity run through water" mechanism. It's scientifically real!

 

After all of King's bodyguard dead, Priest Dusk shows up reluctantly after being forced to fight by the king himself. The priest become test subject of Lava Vase but i'm disappointed with how little damage it does if compared to Mega Rock. I say the weakness of this game is in Ceiling trap excluding Rock traps. Nothing in ceiling trap can beat the mightiness of rock traps. Some of the ceiling traps can alter the AI of enemy like confused gas, or basin (classic Japanese humor) that make enemies chasing you angrily. There's damage variant of gas and vase trap which is Heat Breath and Lava Vase, respectively. But they're too weak compared to Rock.

 

Anyway, with everyone fail miserably and dead. The king getting very angry and decide to kill me by himself. This is the first time i show you how King Eclypse looks like. So far i show him behind the camera like Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget show.

 

I forgot that King Eclypse can shoot slash wave from his sword Anime style. It hurts me badly and makes me flying like paper through wind blow. He also has the biggest health of all enemies: 200 hitpoints! Plus he has health regeneration ability. At this point i have to ditch using flash bomb because it deals 0 damage and i have to maximize my damage potential. But it's simple to do, all i need to do is replace flash bomb as opening trap with thunder volt. Other than that, i continue my usual strategy. So my trap plan becomes: Thunder Volt -> Buzz Saw -> Rolling rock on stair. Iron Ball is the 3rd variant of Mega Rock. It deals bigger damage, can bounce on wall, and make the king flying on impact. Engineer_taunts04.wav   

 

On his dying breath, King Eclypse says line like "Look what you have done? It's all your fault". With that the country become chaotic again. The second in command of Red Blood: Leopold (who's also brother of Lombard's that i dunk him in ditch in furnace) starts rebellion against TMD. Later he's killed on his anti TMD campaign. Bad ending.

How's this my fault as King's said? Millenia is obedient assassin. Let's be honest, the traps are self defense weapon. If you don't attack her and let Millenia alone, she won't kill anyone including the king himself. It's not like she's actively seeks her victim like deranged serial killer. If only the king has more trust to Millenia, he's spared from miserable fate of getting hit by electric rod, buzz saw, and rolling iron ball.

 

Anyway, getting that bad ending rewards you with Evil Kick trap and it's freaking awesome. So those muscular men think can handle push wall, how about huge demon kick right in their arse? Fantastic!

There's 4 ending in total and each ending gives you bonus trap as reward. But you need to spend some ark before you can have them. The bonus trap is recorded through new game + so there's another reason to run new game + besides trying new route of trap research. I will show you 2 other endings and their reward.  

 

If you let TMD secret discovered by Red Blood. It will revealed some dark secret! TMDs need human sacrifice to obtain and prolong their immortality! In order to get those human sacrifice, TMDs secretly abduct some humans. This revelation surely cause uprising among humans. TMD's reign is shaking.

 

If you let TMD secret discovered, The king will antagonize for not doing your job well. He manages to escape with his bodyguards and Priest Dusk before Red Blood attacks the palace. He prefer dealing with me than the Red Blood but you can guess what happens to him later.

Fighting King Eclypse and his group is easier in this place than in Western Forest House because there's more spacious room and more local trap. Here's my reliable combo in room#5 : Flash Bomb -> Buzz Saw -> Volt Wall (local trap) -> Iron Ball (rolling from upstairs). I should replace Flash Bomb with Thunder Volt for maximum damage output but that combo is already powerful  enough to defeat the king.

Besides fighting King Eclypse and his group in better place, the 2nd bombing plan doesn't occur in this route. So the game rewards your laziness, which is weird. But i guess letting the secret discovered means you still have humanity left on you or have bravery to take human's side. That's deed that deserve some reward, i think.

 

The king is dead, but that doesn't mean the problem is over. Some Red Blood members pursuit the king. After telling Lombard that i kill him, he is grateful but he wants to kill me to avenge his friend's death. I guess he and his group want to die so i grant them their sweet release. Ok. Sweet release is a lie. It's gruesome as usual. Like Lombard himself here. He's dead in pool of liquid metal. Sadly he won't give us thumb up like Arnold Schwarzenegger does in Terminator 2. Any enemy thrown in this ankle-deep pool have their health reduced over time as long as they're on it. The damage is relatively low, but it adds variety on your victim's death. There's 2 stairs on each side of the liquid metal pool. You can't use push wall on wall besides the stair to push enemies into the pool. They will be stopped with invisible wall. So push wall is no go. Thus you have to send them flying into the pool instead by using attack wall or spring floor.     

 

I want to show you the effectiveness of Laser Arrow here. It's arrow trap type with electric element. Those knights can't deflect them so it's fine to use this trap as opening and they take full damage of it. Also i discovered that the projectile can fly through enemies! Astounding!

Anyway, the next branching point is the chapter where Keith shows up after your regular killing. Kill him or let him hit you until near death. This time, i kill him.

 

The final victim is Yocal who's much easier enemy than the King. Yocal has some confession in her dying breath. She killed Millenia's parent and kidnapped Millenia in order to make her loyal assassin like up this moment. She also has some parental feeling toward Millenia. She prefer die at Millenia's hand than watch Millenia die because of aging. Finally, Yocal relieves Millenia from her duty guarding this ruins. 

 

Millenia then left the place, wandering somewhere while killing some human on her journey. Maybe she's doing it for self defense. What's the fate of the country? Is it become chaotic again like in bad ending? I'm not sure. The game focus on Millenia as opposed to bad ending where the game ignore what Millenia does next instead focus on the country's fate. I think this is neutral ending.

I believe Millenia later get Isekai'ed to other world and her journey continues in Koei-Tecmo's Warriors All-Star (2017).

The reward for neutral ending is Magic Sac and it's horrible! It will encase victim with magic bubble. Once they're in bubble, they're stuck and i can't follow it up with other attack. The bloody bubble deflect the arrow i shot! Also you can't use this trap as initial trap because enemies can dodge it. The only use of this trap that i can think of, is: it's to seal enemies so they can't work together with their allies temporarily or to give you chance to escape or set another trap. However sacrificing one (or even 2) out of 3 trap just to seal enemy off is not worthy. I already have flash bomb or magnet trap to disable enemies. So why bother? Also i have to tell you that, you can't set another trap of the same type while the previous one still takes effect and this bubble takes quite forever to vanish.

Maybe this is punishment for you to choose being neither good nor evil.  

On to next ending. You have to let Keith hurts you. He is slasher class. He also can shoot slash wave like the king plus he can move behind me very fast. I have to admire Millenia's durability. She can take lots of hit. I mean look at this. Millenia's head should be separated with that mean slash through her neck.

It's revealed that Millenia is Keith's sister. Keith can't bring himself to kill Millenia and make agreement to run away from this country with her. After this you carry on with the missions like usual.

 

Wow! I did it! I throw Yocal to fire pit on furnace by using smash floor which is strong version of spring floor. If you use Buzz Saw, you only throw her on smokestack part of the fire pit not inside of it. Yocal has enough life force to say good luck to me while burning in fire pit. God bless her.  

 

After killing Yocal, Millenia retreats to Western Forest House and kill refugees there. It is self defense, all right? They attack her first besides the building is clearly not theirs. Keith meet again with Millenia and they flee together out of this screwed up country. It's good ending but somehow my memory tells me this is not healthy outcome.

 

Oh! Yipes! The ending is too "good". Millenia and Keith living together somewhere peaceful and later have a baby. It's incest ending.

 

So what's the reward for getting this ending? You get Ardebaran helmet. It's function like vase type trap but much stronger. Also judging by this moment where i use it for initial trap, this trap is more accurate. Victim who wear this horrible helmet will be blinded and receive hefty damage. It's pretty good reward.

As tempting as it is to show you 1 last ending, but i have to stop otherwise the article will be too long but i will tell you how to get it. It's simple but quite tedious: kill everyone and let no one escape. The ending is: A devil take an interest on Millenia. He make her TMD and take her as his aide. It's evil ending, obviously. For your supreme evilness, you will be rewarded with Evil Uppercut which is like Evil Kick but set on floor, if i remember correctly.

This evil ending is canon of the first game Tecmo's Deception. In the first game, the protagonist will be supervised by blue-skin evil lady named Astarte. If you put that name in character's naming screen, you activate cheat where you start the game with 2,800 Ark. Then there's Ardebaran helmet trap. In the first game, the protagonist must defeat the previous owner of the mansion name Ardebaran who wear that same scary helmet. Clearly Tecmo intend to make this game, a prequel to first game in timeline. I admire how thoughtful they are when making this game.

If you can't tell already, i fancy Tecmo's Kagero - Deception II (1998) very much. Back in golden era of Sony Playstation 1, there's plenty 3rd person view shooter but then here comes the innovative Kagero. If you're still new, you probably need get used to not able to attack your enemies directly like any 3rd person shooter games. You have to predict your enemy position to use the trap accurately. Most enemies going straight at your position, other want to run for exit or the bomb's location, and the rest are going back and forth in doorway. You can argue that the enemies are monotonous and i can see why. As long as you don't get to close to them, you will do just fine practically. But things get tricky when you fight mages and TMD clones. They have certain element immunity. Some of them floating so they can't be affected with pit fall. Those TMD clone can suddenly teleport near you. While Volt Mage can conjure lightning strike above your head, i reckon it's impossible to dodge that. Then there's Ninja and Assassin/Shadow that refuse to come in through door like normal person. They are hard to predict where they will appear. In later chapters, the game hides data of some enemies in intermission screen. You can only see it when they appear in battle. The example of those enemies are: King Eclypse, Priest Dusk, and Yocal. In profile section in Enemy Data, there's essential info about their resistance or immunity to certain trap. Or sometime a tidbit of background story or their feeling/motive/characteristic. As if the game reminds you that you about to kill characters with story and personality and not just mindless virtual people. Which can be off putting.

The traps are varied from best to useless. I have said before that Buzz Saw is extremely useful. Rock traps are bloody powerful. Don't forget to deploy them on stair to make them rolling down. Arrow traps are basically good. Triple arrow fires 3 arrows consecutively and Chain needles fires 5 needle. The former deal 26 damage for each projectile. While the latter deals 23 damage for each projectile. So chain needles deal more damage (23 X 5 = 115) compare to triple arrows (25 X 3 = 75), right? Mathematically, yes. But practically, no. It's not explained in the game that needles are weaker than arrow. Not in raw power but -let's say- in physical penetration power. So most enemies who's armored even the light armored, take smaller damage from needles compared from arrows. So what's the use of those needles if not for bigger damage output? They're useful to build combo hit count that lead to bigger income, ultimately. Or for precision/accuracy cause. I think Triple arrows trap is the strongest multi projectile traps. While chain needles trap is in point of diminishing return. Although it's still important to envelop better/stronger trap. Magnet wall/floor and flash bomb is great trap for opening. Sadly there's useless traps for example: lift floor that's also in prequel. The floor will rise up to ceiling smashing victim against ceiling. But it deals small damage especially to armored enemies. Then there's the upgraded version: rising floor that throw victim to ceiling and then fall hardly on the spot. But that also deal little damage even the fall damage too. Logically, heavy armored enemies should take big damage when fall. The heavier they are the harder they fall, right? With minimum damage power capability and inability to move victim to other spot, it's pretty useless to invest arks for lift and rising floor trap. There's huge fan ceiling as local trap. Maybe to utilize it we need those traps. But i never tested it yet. Then there's Catastrophe and Quake Bomb that deal no damage but can make enemies shaking and will activate other traps. I only use them for removing boulder. On to local traps. Pillars are easy to use yet powerful. Topple them with push wall and done! Explosive crate and barrel also require push wall and easy to use. Boulder is tedious because you need either Quake Bomb or Catastrophe but it's the strongest version of rock and luckily it always positioned above stairs so it's very worth the effort to use. Iron maiden, volt wall, electric chair, and lumber saw also easy to use. Throw victim into them by using Buzz Saw and voila! Works wonderfully! Some local trap need strict timing like spike floor, blade pendulum and hook. The latter is hard to use because it moves too fast and it's small. Enemies are not stupid to chase you and move in onto these local traps. They will move around those traps.

The music is atmospheric. Most of the time, it's close to eerie ambience. Another occasion, the music is spirit-lifting like battle theme in JRPG. Speaking of ambience, wailing sound of agony can be heard in cutscene although the trapping action doesn't start yet. Is it from ghost of the previous victims, or Millenia's guilty imagination? I let you decide. The graphic probably look bit obsolete for its time. The story is -no doubt- dark. There's no good person in this game. Maybe Keith who fights (and kills) for the independence of humans, can be considered close to good guy. Ok, correction. Gunter and his family are good persons. Throughout the story, there's conspiracy everywhere. Some humans are greedy for the immortality secret. While TMDs plan to murder anyone who's threat to their authority.  

The conclusion is: i really like this game. But is it recommended? Depends. If you can get behind the concept of attacking indirectly someone in the game, not firing gun or swinging sword etc. Go for it! If you don't mind grim dark setting. Also go for it! This game is creative and innovative. More peoples should play this game. But they should be someone with healthy mind. I don't want this game to be blamed for making anyone sociopath or something like that. X(