PATREON : www.patreon.com/maraganger TWITTER : twitter.com/maraganger Easily one of my fave videos so far, just a lot of fun stuff to talk about when it comes to Suda and I may have gone a bit overboard with this one haha ! Hopefully next outing with the man will be a bit shorter but at least it will be THE SILVER CASE. 👁
I played Killer7 for the first time on PC only a couple of years ago and I was genuinely surprised with how well it aged and how much I liked it. It's genuinely like nothing I'd ever experienced before and I think it's is a prime-time example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Total banger of a vid, and the transition graphics are the *chef's kiss* aesthetically pleasing cherry on top
I love to hear your interpretation of Killer7's politics, symbolism and more on a spoiler video at some point in the future because everyone’s interpretation have always been super intriguing that adds more depth to the game's lore.
Despite the fact that I'm a fan of Suda51 and have beaten a good amount of his games, I haven't gotten around to Killer7. This video has done a great job of getting me amped to get around to it sooner rather than later, impeccable work as always!
I was directed to this channel by Adam Millard. I went to your video library, and I was immediately drawn to this one. I loved killer7 when I was in high school / university. It was a game I tried to get other people to try, but most found it too obtuse. For years, I've wanted to replay this game, but thought I couldn't since I don't have a Gamecube or a Wii on hand. I had no idea there was a PC port, so I bought it on Steam a few minutes after the part in this video where you mentioned it, and it's downloading right now. Thanks for making me aware of its existence. Also, solid video. It got you a subscriber today.
when i was a kid my dad worked in a church late at night and it was freaking huge, i would run around all alone and playing Killer7 reminded me of those big lonely spaces so much it was so freaking cool
You've seen how in some drawings, you can recognize the artstyle as characteristic of an artist? That's the human personality coming through. And the same happens with games, even if I never noticed until now. There's people putting part of their own identity in what they create and we can see and feel it
THIS VIDEO!!!!! It has to be your best so far!!! I loved every one of your transitions!! Your style just keeps growing and doesn't seem to be slowing down!! Killer 7 is such an amazing game and you made me want to play through it !
I still have my gamecube copy of this game from like a month or two after the game originally came out. I was always looking for stuff that spoke more to me rather than dropping money on what others were playing as well. video games, in my eye, have an insanely unique position to really just do whatever and it is a bit saddening with the constant push for realism instead of focusing more on a creative edge and alternate viewpoints of topics rarely touched on.
This game showed me why they call them “Cult” classics. When I played Killer 7 for the first time in my teens, it burrowed itself deeply into my skull. For example: The flourishes in between levels with the laser pointer and moon sequence thing still plays in my head sometimes when I’m anticipating a transition in my life. Like I remember clearly seeing it in my dream just before I woke up on my first day at my first job.. it was trippy man. It doesn’t even stop there lol. There’s just something so liminal and intangible about the game that is really absent in other games with more “substance”. Ya know.. whatever that means Idk why im typing all this Anyway, Incredible video!! I’m glad im not alone in my appreciation for this game and all it’s eccentricities. I hope im still kind of alone in my manic subconscious obsession with it tho lmao Just glad to see someone really gets it!
to this day i still dont believe this game exists, nevermind that it was released almost 2 decades ago Killer7 wasnt ahead of its time, Killer7 is atemporal, as any great art piece is p good video ganger ranger friend
REJECT CONFORMITY! I adore the way you describe things. It is inspiring and makes me appreciate media/art so much more for what it is and can be and the feelings that come with it. ฅ’ω’ฅ
You've described in this video why no matter how crazy the plot or devices or powers get, I will never turn my back on Kingdom Hearts. Yeah, it's goofy nonsense sometimes, but like... it reminds me every time that real life doesn't always make sense either but that I can choose to smile about it. That all I need to do is try to keep my feet underneath me and reach out to others who are scared as the tide of time sweeps us along.
Hell yeah, Kingdom Hearts' such a good series ! I don't get why folks get caught up about the lore not making sense or anything. I'd rather have the story be fun than everything making sense all the time. B)
I played Killer 7 waaaaay back when it was first released and it's an all time favourite of mine Thank you for talking about it because it needs to be talked about more
I've been meaning to get back to killer7 for a while. On the handsome man level xD Think this video's given me an extra push. Great game, great video. Thank you :)
this vid... was SO GOOOOOOD!! so many subtle touches to the writing that make it such a well paced vid. like clear pacebreaker moments highlighting we are done with a section. little moments to breathe or just chuckle, all with stylish editing flair. so many touches that make this work so well as a youtube vid... loved it, the passion was clear
Awesome analysis on such a crazy cool game! I came across this channel and video looking for an analysis on Killer7 and you were able to put in so much more than just a typical overview on the game and it’s messages. Keep on with your style! Your video inspires me to be able to talk about the games I love like this and I like knowing there are people out there who are passionate about games and appreciate them as I tend to do. I can’t wait to explore more of suda51’s work and continue to branch out!
Loved the video! (and your other videos as well, that Yume Nikki one was awesome!) I helped do QA work on the Steam version of the game. It was my first experience with Killer7 and it was truly special experience. I'm really happy with the way the port turned out and that a lot more people can experience the game now. It's definitely one of those games where you play it through once and you never really forget anything about it because it's so memorable. Games like Killer7 really helped solidify my love for video games. Again, awesome video. :)
Aw thank you and especially for your QA work on the game ! Defo fun to revisit it since the Gamecube version was so long ago, though the memories of my first experience never faded haha ! :>
As one who is making a unique fanfic, suda51, yoko taro and kodaka, nomura and kojima are my main reasons i love unique games especially the kill the past series, danganronpa, drakengard and nier.
Glad I finally got a straightforward definition for what is "kill the past" contained in a fucking baller vid dude. You seriously put into words what I love about Suda's work (ok im an NMH fan). Like Jesus, the russian roulette track is the kinda shit I'd DREAM of scoring something to, I fuck so hard with high stakes shit paired with dance music, like the playful dissonance is so fucking good. But also Masafumi Takada is kinda incapable of missing and I fucked with that same tension he brought to Danganronpa. But like overall your take on style and substance being one and the same like, you ever know something in your artistic heart but you can't piece it all together or properly word it til someone fucking says it?? Yeah I had that moment. Gotta get back to my playthrough of Killer7 now. I started it and ended up dropping it between life being busy and not all the way clicking with it (though definitely enjoyed my time) but oh man it's a priority now.
Bruh, once you started talking about how you started to focus more on the "technical" side of things and that started to make gaming less fun to you, I feel you. I used to play The Division and TD2 like that. Min-maxing, worrying about builds, how to run missions as fast as possible, yada yada. But that kind of killed the experience of it for me and subsequently, most other games. A year after putting the game down I went back and just casually played through it again and began to notice the detailed environments, climactic set piece moments, small easter eggs sprinkled throughout, the ridiculous amount of world interaction, stellar ambient music, etc. I started engaging with the core mechanics more and realized how much I was missing out on by just focusing on "perfection." And now I literally can't go back. I play all games just to have a good time now and that's why I typically avoid anything PvP. It warps your mind into the "git gud, scrub" mindset and takes away so much.
I’ve known about this game for a couple years now, but never got around to playing it. I finally did a few weeks ago and I just beat it today, and just wow. I’ve been unable to stop thinking about it, like genuinely every part of the game was so interesting, I don’t think I’ve played a game that has captured me more than killer 7 did
Speedrunning and minmaxing is what I do to kill time, now, a game that's successful in terms of world buiding and atmosphere, that's something special.
Awesome video ♥️ I'm glad that Killer7 finally got the recognition it deserves in recent years. Played it back in 2007 on the GameCube when my brother gave it to me since he didn't understood what it was about and didn't like it and I'm really thankful he did.
As someone who actually gave a chance to Killer7 back in 05/06 (I still have my original gamecube copy!), hearing someone describe those people as the "nichest, coolest of gamers" warms my heart like you have no idea. Fuck yeah the game was awesome, and still is! Sadly, I couldn't never convince anyone else to jump in, lol.
"the daily things, like this and that and what is what." You just threw that in there. With reckless abandon. This is why I'm subscribed. And the KILLER CONTENT!
Great video! While I myself actually really enjoyed Killer7's gameplay, I feel that of all of Suda's games it's the one that can be most easily done outside of gaming as a medium. What I mean is that I honestly feel that Killer7 could've just been a manga or something like Kurayami Dance without anything being lost in the transition. To be honest I guess that's probably what I would've preferred since to do this day I'm still sad about all of Killer7's cut content and the fact that we missed out on getting a Kevin (my favorite of the Smiths) chapter. I just I just have to hope Suda one day makes good on his Killer7 Director's Cut promise.
Oh yeah that's defo something I'm looking forward to. I remember him saying he was planning on it but who knows right, especially after he said the same thing about a PS2 remaster of Flower, Sun and Rain. ; w ;
I've wanted to play this game since its release and just never got around to it, even the steam version I just never picked up despite realing liking the No More Heroes games. Also I really resonate with the section about what you value in gaming (story and aethetics) over particular mechanics or sheer competition. As I've gotten older I've realized I value that sort of "experience" that a story driven game provides that multiplayer big numbers go up games can't generally provide (and really aren't trying to tbf)
This video is seriously awesome, really reflects everything Suda is all about better than a lot of videos i’ve seen on the site. amazing presentation and expertly written. love love love this. kill the past!
You are a G for making this! Everything you said ties up perfectly what drives people like me, you, and any other fan of niche video games to play games for drive to find something cool, unique, underrated or deserving of more attention for the risks and decisions they make to move the video game industry forward. Suda and Grasshopper are one of thoses teams that are actively wanting to fulfiill those roles and bring in new experiences to gamers alike so they can provide experiences like no other. While major publishing companies with downright stupid businness ethics and ways of thinking like EA or Kadokawa have brought down Suda before, he himself doesn't look upon those memories with sadness but as fuel to renew and learn from his mistakes and past to move on forward and look at those moments as lessons to be himself again and create experiences that are again solely his and everyone else at Grasshopper's own vision on video games. Also 25th Ward is pure kino
It's kinda funny, but the first time I played killer 7, I was like... 15. I eventually grew into the title. At first just taking the stylish, very unique way the game plays and looks. Then, as I grew, slowly understaning the actual game. It grew on me, pun intended, and influenced A LOT of my preferences in style and design. 10 years later, I still like it
loved the bit about style v substance. there's definitely work out there whose presentational finesse exceeds its thematic depth, but there's an awful lot of art where style IS substance; their idiosyncrasies being more than just a cool way to present the story but an intrinsic part of how it's told and that fits suda's whole oeuvre to a T. even the genuinely "style over substance" stuff that's flashy because it's cool has its place, imo. you can admire the craftsmanship and ogle the cool aesthetics even if the things it has to say won't exactly change your life. great vid! thinking about stuff owns.
Aw hell yeah, thank you ! ; w ; I defo agree with you, there's too much of a concern in big gaming spheres as to makes a game really ""worth it"" as a whole package and idk. Just vibing with the aesthetic can be more than enough. B)
Another slam dunk with this one, Mara. I think I'll have to watch it again to fully take it in, finally getting around to crossing Killer7 off my backlog would help a lot as well. Something that came to mind when you were discussing the philosophy and realities of STYLE over SUBSTANCE is the consumer concept of BANG for your BUCK (Boomer rant incoming). I remember pretty much throughout the 2000's and early 2010's, there was a massive push for games designed with bang for your buck concepts in mind. I remember FFXII being lauded as having a 200 hour minimum playtime and the phrase "replayability" was almost compulsory in just about every game review in a magazine in that time, not to mention the cultural phenomenon that GTA was becoming. With Killer7 releasing in June of 2005, a few months prior to the release of the Xbox 360 as well as being at the tail end of the PS2 generation, Killer7 could not have released at a worse time in terms of consumer reception; gaming was getting expensive and only the most seasoned, curious and adventurous of gamers would have dared to take a chance on Killer7, assuming they had the money to do in the first place! I think that regardless of the success that cult-classic games like these have, either critical, commercial or even technical, there will *always* be an audience and a market for them. I still hold on to the hope that I'll see a GOD HAND sequel someday or even a revival of light-gun games like time crisis and point blank. Anyway, brilliant video Mara, I could not have a greater inspiration for clearing out my backlog😁
Oh yeah I totally get what you mean. There was such a huge push for games to last longer and longer in those years which eventually bled out into nowadays where games are practically forced to be 60+ hours otherwise they're deemed as lesser, whatever that means. But thank you so much though, I'm so glad you vibed with the vid ! B)
Idk how i remembered the cassette info for the dual lock system. I definitely remember having to write down all the key info from the cassettes for the terminal later lmao
Amazing video as usual, I really wanna play Killer7 now. Funnily enough, my first interaction with Suda51's work was with Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day, did you play that one ? I loved it to bits honestly.
Aw hell yeah, hope you'll enjoy if you go through it eventually ! Also yeah, I do know Short Peace, it was defo a weird experience at first but it really warmed up to me after a couple of play sessions. Even though I'm kinda bad at Bit Trip Runner-esque games. ; w ;
@@maraganger you make really good points about wierd gamer elitism tho, why do games have to "fit in"? People feeling like that is shitty already why we gotta do that to our art
OOO there it goes, another ball, knocked right out of the park! I've only heard so much about Killer 7, with me knowing a little more about Suda's other games, but without a doubt, almost every time I've heard people discuss Suda's work they boil him down to that crazy and nonsensical game dev, who also has horny elements in his projects. Projects that tend to have abrasive controls and or ways you can interact with them. I find that boiling Suda, and anybody's work down like that, and even comparing a game dev's work to a movie director 's work is reductive in a way that's destructive. Not always of course, but in some situations it can be. I get it, labels are easy to slap onto things so people can get a quick parse on something, however I feel that it is cruel to games in a sense. I don't necessarily think people mean it this way, but by constantly comparing games to movies, as if you're comparing apples to apples, you create this situation where games as well as the people who work on them are in the shadow of other media,. Pushing this idea that they aren't as valuable, or that their craft shouldn't be respected as much. By being so reductive too it leads to the creation of semi or completely false identity issues, which is something I think that the souls series has to an extent. People constantly say the souls games are difficult, which yes they can be, but by constantly just labeling the soul series as that, and if that is all you hear about that series, then you'll end up getting this false impression that souls games are the hardest games in existence. That pushes people who may actually love what the souls games, but in this context, Suda's games have to offer. And that stinks. I really appreciate how you talked about Killer 7, to be honest, you've won me over and now I have to eventually find time to play through it lmao Speaking of which, Style over substance! I totally agree with you, I feel like this post is a lot more retrospective than I thought it was going to be but oh well. I feel like people have such an old relationship with how they view art from any media. It feels like one extreme or the other, that something is perfect or worth your time, or something is flawed and not worth your time. And I just wish more people would open up to the fact that things you love can be flawed. Something can have awful or rough pacing, but have moments that generally touch your heart and bring you joy. Even if that feeling may be fleeting, or small in comparison to the issues you may have with the whole, the fact that the experience touched you, or moved you, made you excited, I think that should be cherished more. I also find it really cool that games like Killer 7, Golden Eye 64, and etc are games that have been popular, of course by varying degrees, but have had a boost or a resurgence in the past few decades due to PC ports! Really nice stuff.
One of my biggest issues with the NMH series is the first one DOES have a lot of substance; a lot of commentary on Travis as an avatar for video game players. Then in all three sequels, it tosses that commentary aside for "Haha Travis is Anime Deadpool isnt he cool?" Its sucks.
Yeaaah, it defo could've been handled better. I recall Suda stating that he didn't want to continue the series and wanted to leave it at that after 1 but y'know, capitalism do be a thing.
I don’t think it tossed aside substance at all, just had a different focus on its themes. 2 seems that way at first but I think it’s about the effects capitalism has on art, TSA is a look through Suda’s mind on his creations and game development as well as what it means to be away from what defines you for so long, and 3 is about hero culture and what defines a hero, as well as the idea of paradise in death, friendship, memories, and is perhaps the most kill the past entry in the quadrilogy. Even 3 integrated it’s themes into the gameplay with how the side missions are all to help the people of Santa Destroy, rather than like 1 where it’s mostly to get him to the assassination missions. Even the VN Segments are him being a good person, and it feels like the series has him grow from a terrible, selfish asshole to a person with a family and friends who can call himself a hero now.
