Well, that was something all right. When I started Killer is Dead, I took copious notes, certain that the characters and plot would yield plenty of interesting commentary. I stopped somewhere around the fourth mission, because nothing I was doing made a damned bit of sense.
The game has some very striking imagery, like the time Mondo took a trip through his memories and all the principle actors were these onyx mannequins. Or when he was rescued from a near-fatal attack by a shimmering unicorn. Or the way the moon could be white, purple, or red, in response to the plot. And there's a part of me that thinks there might be some deep and impenetrable symbolism at work. That these images are revealing something about the human condition, even if their prosaic meaning borders on nonsense.
But another, more persuasive part of me thinks that maybe Killer is Dead is, in fact, nonsense to its core. Don't get me wrong, it's imaginative nonsense. It's nonsense that clearly has a lot of artistry and wit behind it. But if upwards of 3/4ths the dialogue was replaced by the Beatles' "Come Together" on a loop, I don't think any significant meaning would be lost.
The story, near as I can tell, is that it is sometime in the future and cyborgs exist. One type of cyborg is called "wires" and they don't have any personality or will of their own. And all the wires (or at least, all the ones you encounter) are controlled by a guy who forcibly took over the moon - because people live there, but in, like, regular looking mansions and not any sort of sci-fi dome or enclosure - and who now has his sights set on earth. Stopping him is the job of a government agency staffed by 4 people and which apparently has the mandate to accept assassination contracts given to them by private citizens, but only if the target is probably a monster, cyborg, or, in one case, a rogue locomotive with consciousness and free will. The newest hire at this government agency is Mondo Zappa, a grim-faced stoic who loves soft-boiled eggs, rescuing orphans, and going on creepy "dates" that mostly involve discreet staring, inappropriate gift giving, and fuzzily shot softcore sex scenes. Mondo is the brother of the guy who took over the moon, but he forgot until the second-to-last mission.
Killer is Dead's plot is at its best when it ignores its own continuity and embraces an episodic structure. When Mondo's boss gets hit by a train mid-mission, appearing dead for several minutes, only to return at the end with his cyborg parts upgraded from silver to gold, that is a pretty effective moment. The game becomes like a cheesy workplace comedy set in a seedy assassination bureau. When it attempts to tie that in with Mondo's mysterious past by revealing that the orphan he rescued was mind-controlled into pushing the boss in front of the train by a dream-controlling psychic entity who has also been manipulating Mondo's dreams and dancing around his suppressed memories, then it becomes an exercise in tedium. The world-building and characterization are not strong enough to support a mystery. When you have a character who can sprout 14 additional arms and wield a pistol in each, any answer will suffice for any question. It's not like its going to contradict some well-established logic.
Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about Killer is Dead's main campaign. It has the virtue of being short, I'll give it that. And there were some amusing and affecting moments. But it didn't really earn its surrealism, and it wasn't anywhere near clever enough to cheat. Perhaps it's gone over my head, though. Maybe I'm divorced enough from the Japanese action game scene specifically, and the broader Japanese culture more generally that I'm missing out on some allusions, subtext, and idioms. Perhaps Killer is Dead is a mutation of a mutation of a cliche that became a joke. That feels plausible, but I'm not about to do the weeks of research necessary to find out.
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