This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on October 5th, 2019.
Hello again, and welcome back to the PlayStation Basement!
PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of an odd or obscure game for the
original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Now, let’s go!
October has begun. PlayStation Basement will feature many
horror-related games for this month, this week’s being Kagero: Deception II, an action-strategy game from Tecmo and the
second game in the Deception series, a series that began with Tecmo’s Deception. I played Tecmo’s Deception before this game, as
using that disc with Monster Rancher
was one of the only ways to create a monster called a Magic. I found the game
very unsettling but interesting and eventually saw this game at the store. Why
was the name so different? I don’t know, but the series kept the morphing names
up with Deception III: Dark Delusion
and Trapt. Kagero: Deception II was released in Japan, North America, and
Europe on July 23rd of 1998, October 14th of 1998, and September 10th of 1999
respectively. Each entry in the Deception series is a grisly horror tale of
people having to make do with terrible circumstances and ultimately making
awful decisions, often choosing evil to gain power, love, or acceptance. Turn
out the lights, and here we go.
The cover art for Kagero:
Deception II varies considerably by region. In North America, we got
something that looks like a comic book or fantasy novel. The character designs
are a bit off, amping up sex appeal and muscles for a sword and sorcery look.
All the different colors used make the cover look garish too. The original
Japanese cover is more minimal, showing the main character, Millenia’s, back as
she enters into the darkness. The glowing blue text is strong, but the cover is
kind of cramped. The European cover looks really bland, with stripes, Japanese
text, and the main character just sort of walking towards the viewer. The
Japanese art is the strongest in my opinion, but all of them could have been
polished more.
Graphically, Kagero:
Deception II looks great. Character design and color choices, a dark and
earthy aesthetic, are strong. Textures give objects and environments a good
look that nears on PS2 quality. The animations can be stiff at times, but they
also look pretty fluid when characters take damage. The one big problem is that
the blood pools really weirdly on stairs, creating a big puddle that floats in
mid-air. You will see a lot of blood in this game, so it’s actually fairly
significant.
The sound of Kagero:
Deception II is quite good. The game goes for an epic and dark medieval
fantasy score with dramatic flourishes and the like. At points, it reminds me
of the soundtrack for Batman: The
Animated Series. There are also a number of murmuring ambient textural
pieces as well. The sound effects are very snapping and unsettling with shrieks
and cries, rumbling boulders, piercing arrows, and blasts of fire and
lightning. The sound really makes the game feel alive, though many people will
not remain alive as the game goes on.
Gameplay in Kagero:
Deception II is fun. As Millenia, a member of a strange faction of ancient
blue-skinned humanoids known as Timenoids, you are given missions by various
people to vanquish those that intrude upon a residence. There are a few
different locations you must defend as the game goes on, and the various
choices you make in the game bring about different storylines and endings. To
defend a location, you select traps and place them on the map. These can be
moved during each scenario. Enemies invade, often trying to kill you or do some
other thing that you don’t want them to do, and you are often forced to kill
them. Sometimes you can find a way around this, as the opening scenes before a
mission may show how the invaders are forced into these situations as well.
They may be trying to protect their loved ones, forced into terrible bargains
with crooked guilds, or put under a spell. It doesn’t exactly make you feel
good to put many of these folks to death. Despite this, you can put them to
death with many different tools such as boulders, flaming arrows, electric
chairs, and poisonous gases. You can also chain these weapons together to cause
tons of damage. An arrow through the chest could be followed up with a boulder
that tumbles down the stairs, knocking the character into spikes that protrude
from the wall. They probably aren’t going to feel too good after that. With the
souls of the dead, you can then create new traps based on ones you already
have. Other than the traps, MIllenia has no weapons, but those traps are pretty
strong. As long as you can keep the enemies away and watch their movements
closely, you are sure to succeed (or at least you won’t lose anyway).
Kagero: Deception II
is a really interesting game with gameplay that isn’t like much else. It
expanded upon the slower nature of the first game with its combo system and
continued the dark, multi-choice storytelling. This game is definitely not for
everyone; it’s not a happy game for sure, though not every ending is
particularly bad either. Accept the invitation to darkness if you dare.
Kagero: Deception II
receives a Good.
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