Killer7 and the Art of Indirect Horror | Ghastlycrate 

Killer 7 is a masterpiece in my eyes. So underrated and misunderstood as a game.

I knew Suda made a wrestling game, but I had NO IDEA it was about a wrestler staving off suicide.

The Russian Roulette scene is one of my favorite cutscenes in all of video games.

This game is mostly about the USA-Japan self defense treaty from WW2. This was alway suggested but was later confirmed in 2016 by SUDA himself during an interview for the upcoming rerelease of The Silver Case. Something important is that this was his first game released not just in Japan but everywhere else too, and he wanted to put a little bit of things and themes seen in his previous games. In fact, playing The Silver Case adds alot more understanding on some weird themes in Killer7, or know where that cameo is from. The Silver Case is very similar in tone, so recommended if you liked killer7.

There will not be a game like Killer7 again. In the complainers and reviewers era, if this was released as a new game, it would be bashed as pretentious and tryhard. People would demand it to be more "self-awared" and "light-hearted". People don't value pure surreal experiences and full weirdness as they did in the mid-2000s, when everyone was shamelessly "trying hard" and going all out with their artistic expression and creative liberties. That makes me grumpy and bitter.

Killer7 is...a dream. A very long dream. One both terrible and beautiful in many capacities. Ultimately, the end of the game breaks everything down. The plot is a little muddy at points because much of the original plot was deleted from the game for some reason. Much is open-ended, and it gets to the point where you have to wonder just how much of this was real. So, that's why I refer to it as a dream. Because when you finally "wake up" from it...well, maybe that's why they call it "bittersweet." This game is not to be fully understood, but it's to be fully observed. It's an incomprehensible classic, and I refuse to see it otherwise. A wild and confusing dream I want everyone to see at one point.

This was a fantastic video, and it actually helped me realize a few things I missed about its atmosphere and set pieces. Nice work!

Also the ending of this game is the best ever! It's crazy and the biggest twist ever. This game leaves you in a sense of dread.

Absolutely agree with your view of K7 being indirect horror. It’s in that way like a David Lynch film, where it’s not straight up horror, but manages to sync into your mind on a more deeper, disturbing level. Another Japanese director who did this style was Yoko Taro with Drakengard, as the game appears as a fantasy dynasty warriors meets ace combat game, but is truly a horror game when you play it more. Even Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls is another great example which sinks into your mind, as it starts off generic, but begins to turn into a fantasy nightmare. I also think Killer7 is a good example of a game with the mature rating, as the violence, sexual themes, and especially subject matter are all done in a not so generic way and is way more twisted due to its surrealism.

I feel like killer7 is a game that changed my life somehow. Like a tiny part of its insatnity got into me and never left. A truly beutiful, yet unsettling experience.

You my friend, have the rare gift of reaching whole nother levels of analysis without becoming bullshit. Not just by knowing that sweetspot of what to focus on, but by truly taking a look at things that are undefined as terms in not just vidyagames, but art in general.

I was just thinking that most of the stronger horror moments I've experienced over the years come not from deliberately crafted horror titles, but from strong sequences in other non-deliberately horror games. Maybe it's a case of horror only working in small doses at a time? Or maybe it's a Paul Veerhoven style thing, where the best violent, bloody movies are made by people who are using them incidentally to illustrate a point, rather than for the sake of simply creating a violent movie for its own inherent merit - like that, but with horror. When a developer focuses specifically on creating FEAR itself, and putting the player into a specific state through whatever means necessary, they naturally arrive at a horror setup - but ironically often when people set out to SPECIFICALLY make a horror GAME, it winds up being tropey / derivative and falls short. To paraphrase one of your lines in this video, horror definitely seems to me to hinge on an element of the unknown or unknowable, something abstract or just plain wrong.

its a crime this game isn't more widely known and thay your analysis doesn't have more views. I definitely enjoyed this analysis and it's only furthered my increasing interest in this odd gem of a game. I definitely want to play it.

I never expected Killer7 would almost make soil my pants at several points. A masterpiece game!

Interesting that i was unsettled by soooo many things in killer 7, the weird atmospheres and visuals it produced, all the things that made it seem like a dream sequence at times, the insanely creepy enemies and actually i was almost never afraid because you felt actually powerful and cool using all the smiths, specially Dan and mask de smith

Another RU-vidr, supergreatfriend, did a great deep dive series for Killer7, cross-referencing it w/ its original outline (a book by the game dev entitled "Hand In Killer7") & its secondary docs (the comics, the game manual--which actually adds to and sometimes contradicts the narrative of the game itself). That said, supergreatfriend gave the best & technically most accurate summary of Killer7 I've ever heard. To paraphrase: "George Washington [Harman] fights a Buddhist Demon [Kun Lan] forever."

I'd definetly say this game is scary mostly due to how unfamiliar and uncanny it is. First time i played it i was amazed pretty much the entire time, knowning there was more than meets the eye due to reviews and lps, i was contantly analyzing every minor detail of the game, trying to piece everything together, yet at the same time dreading what the awnser might turn out to be. The first time i beat Killer7, despite already knowing the ending, was the first time in my life i've ever cried while playing a video game. It was all right there, every death, every conflict, every idea, all ends finally tied up. Garcian's final lines are so oversaturated nowadays: "It wasn't me." You hear it all the time in movies and such, and even then, it has SO MUCH IMPACT. You can really feel the melancholy, the sheer helplesness of the character in the way he says it. It's such a fucking beautiful game, and yet it's so hard to really pinpoint why that is. Playing it again later, it's hard to imagine it's the same game with how utterly fucking stupid it is, stupidly awesome in way only a madman could dream of. Strange how this game explores the same themes of xenophobia as Silent Hill and other titles like that, while being in a completly diferent genre.

One of my all time favorite games. It's story is like unnerving inherent truth wrapped in a veil of madness. From story to gameplay to execution and presentation, there's nothing like it. Suda's best that he still hasn't topped. May the Lord smile and the Devil have mercy.

Killer7 is what I wish to make one day in a game. Something that is so great it can make someone who is detached from this world feel something real. This shit is on steam man. It is a good version. Get it.

This game is a masterpiece way ahead of its time.

Replaying through the game again after 11 years. Not only does it hold up, it confirms why it’s in my top 3 games of all time in the first place.

You've perfectly described why Killer7 is such a masterpiece. It's probably my favorite game of all time. There will never be anything like it again.

3:37 When i experienced this i knew i was in for an amazing ride. One of my favourite starts to a game alongside Saya no Uta

Great video! First time I finished Killer7 was 12 years ago. Second time I finished Killer7 was 2 hours ago. I enjoyed it again so much and it really is a shame that almost nobody knows it. Such a unique game, especially today, when the videogameworld is filled with more of the same, over and over again. Would love to see a story analysis video!

Killer 7 is available on Steam!!!

you couldn't have analyzed it any better. damn this video is an absolute pleasure to watch. keep it up! !

this is my 7th favorite artpiece in existence. a masterful part of storytelling as a whole and not much has been able to stack up to it.

Overall, great video, and I'm glad to see Killer7 represented. A small piece of constructive feedback: consider using a simple compressor plugin on your audio track (there's probably one built-in to software like Final Cut and Premiere). There are certain points in the video where your voice trails off and becomes difficult to hear, some words are inaudible. A compressor reduces the difference between high and low volume, "squashing" your audio track somewhat to produce a more consistent output. You might also look into "side-chain compression" or "auto-ducking," which could systemically reduce the volume of the "background audio track" whenever your "speaking track" is active. Keep up the great work!

The character depth is also crazy in this game. Take Curtis, who you mentioned as the most despicable character, for example: **SPOILERS BELOW** *SPOILERS BELOW* Curtis is a horrible person who will kill any number of people without any problems, but so are many people in this game. Curtis also might very well be raping young girls. That's horrible, but here's the deal: In Curtis' story the killer7 is hired by the government to take him out under the guise of him being a kidnapper. The reality is that Curtis was a major player in a government run organ farm that used child body parts(from kidnapped children) to create Smiles. At some point during his work he grew to love the children he had living in his house and when it affected his work another worker in the kidnapping ring(Pedro Montana) started picking up his slack...and his share of money. This pushed Curtis into killing Pedro(and family). Knowing that his time with the organ trafficking business was up because of this he decided to go all-in on his love for the children he had kidnapped and fight against the system that was trying to harvest organs from them. The killer7 was essentially hired by the organ trafficking ring(the government) to get rid of someone who was trying to end the organ trafficking. Its almost certain that Curtis wasn't doing any of this for any sort of moral reason and he was likely simultaneously raising and raping these children, but had he succeeded in tearing down the organ trafficking that went on thru the US government's immigration department, he might have not only saved the lives of all of those children, but also of the many more people who may have been killed by the Smiles produced from their body parts.

ADORED your DKC video and was curious what you'd follow up with. Did not expect Killer 7!!! Great taste.

Today i finish Killer7 , and i need videos to understand the complete story, the narrative and atmosphere are incredible and i just love it

amazing review and i totally agree with Masafumi Takada as one of the top compossers in the industry, i hope he returns to NMH 3, i like some of Yamaoka tracks in NMH 2 but it's inferior to Takada's work

7:04 holy shit that was slick

I’m a little late to the party.. Hell yeah killer 7 rocks and in my opinion is one of the best games ever made! Just subscribed to the channel dude!

This is a great video man, good work on it! You deserve more subs

I saw this video fairly recently, and it was one of the main reasons I wanted it and bought it on steam. Thanks for a great video to get people to play a great game!

i loved that game..i traded my gamecube and like 15 games for a gram of coke back in the day.. i regret that

Best game ever combined with being the most underrated game of all time!

oh man the very first seconds of the video got me SO HYPE

Very good description, and I know how hard it must be to describe that game. o_* Still one of my favorite games of all times.

My brother used to play this and it used to scare the heck out of me lol

the fact that orphan organ harvests HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE and people REALLY DO THE THINGS WITHIN THE GAME make it more than a game. it is a Lesson for the children and adults in the next generation.

this was and is my all time favorite. i always hoped theyd come up with killer8 at some point

The smiles seems like a mod for a re4 monster

A flawed master piece. I think it's worth note give you talk about how the world is fracture more as the story goes one, that that world achieve peace through division/isolation between most countries

GO out and buy the PC port you will not regret it

I hate that I sold my copy of Killer7 and my gamecube some years ago

You know that you're bad at puzzles when you can't figure out these puzzles the first time. Like me

Sweet video, also what was the song that was playing in the background at the very end of the video??

I need this game on The Switch.

Capcom or Suda should bring back this game, idc if remake or part2 of this game, idc if is bad or good. I want people to know this game very well

Excellent review

My absolute favourite!

Is this actually a good game? I tried it as a kid but felt the gameplay wasnt enough to keep me into it, but everything I've heard about the story since then sounds like it would be right up my alley. Not sure if I should play it or just watch all the cutscenes.

what is the anime at 5:48?

This game isn't scary. It's very weird that you feel this way about it. It's dark. But it's a dark comedy. ...Do Adult Swim shows scare you? I mean, they can be scary too, if drugs are involved. Seriously, I'm not trolling. Don't smoke and watch This House Has People In It or any of the more bizarre Adult Swim stuff. Probably the same goes for Killer 7. But, sober, Killer 7 is hilarious and cool and astonishing. Never felt dread for a second when playing it.

have you played flower sun and rain on ds?

yea, i like the game too

I thought emir wasthe main character not harmen

What's the game footage at 9:30?

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oddworld was not scary though, easy,

rad, sucks this channels kinda dead tho