Nerd Mentality

End Boss 2006, Day 30: ??? (Killer 7)

Posted June 30th 2006 by J Edison Thomas.

With a game as complex and bizarre as Killer7, the truth can be hard to find. The game itself is, after all, a search for the truth behind the terrorist organization Heaven Smile, the political warfare between Japan and the United States, and the mysterious Smith Syndicate itself. The story is intentionally open-ended and thus is difficult to deduce even after wading through the symbolism and insanity. But if the game is a search for truth, then the main villian must be a lie, or the shroud of that truth. In this case, that villian is Emir Parkreiner. Of course, if you don't already know the truth, you'd be best to find it for yourself by playing through Killer7 rather than reading on.

Born in 1942, Emir Parkreiner was born to two dysfunctional parents, both of whom he would soon kill at the tender age of ten. As an adolescent he attended Coburn Elementary School, an establishment with the twin duties of rigging the U.S. presidential election and training children to become cold-blooded assassins for a Japanese conspiracy organization, and there Emir found strength in his talents. Under the wing of the school's principal, Harman Smith, he became an assassin like no other.

Nearly sixty years later, with six of the Killer7 killed at the hands of invincible black Heaven Smile in a mission to Coburn Elementary's gymnasium, it is up to Garcian Smith – the "cleaner" of the group who until their last battle could resurrect any Killer7 persona that had fallen in battle – to finally unravel the mystery behind Emir Parkreiner and his crimes. Heading back to the Union Hotel, he finds himself wrapped up in an enigma: that the six other assassins of the Seven had actually met their respective demises 55 years ago in this very hotel.

Walking through the hotel and finding blood stains on the walls, Garcian is met with Deadzone-style flashes of insight that reveal the deaths of his six partners, as the killer whistles "What Child Is This?" idly to himself. Kevin, Con, Mask, Kaede, Coyote, and Dan Smith all met the same fate on the same night in the hotel, at the hands of the same serial killer.

And then it's the truth. When Garcian encountering two mysterious men in a suite of the hotel, one of them drops the bomb.

 

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Harman Smith, I'm the man you saw in your past. Do you remember, the incident where six people were murdered in this hotel? You must have seen it yourself, because you were the killer. The assassin, Emir Parkreiner, was the ace of aces. Who would have thought the killer was a mere 13 year-old? It was a deliberate crime, targeted toward the Smith Alliance. It consisted of seven members but the leader wasn't included in the seven. Later investigations found his dead body inside a safe of a school. The investigative unit called them "the Killer Seven". But the whole affair was never made public, not because this was "an aberration" from society, but because it involved national security issues, unfortunately a curse brought upon you by old tradition. You, Emir, are an assassin controlled by the government. Someone is watching your every move, from the second when I first took you in on that roof. You were one of the very few assassins with class. But you were out of control. Still, there was something venerable about you. And then it occurred to me, you were no longer a mortal being. Within you, ever so quietly, evil had opened its eyes."

 

So tangled in the events of the past, Garcian finds that when he reaches the roof of the Union Hotel to confront his past, Emir Parkreiner is still there as he was in 1955, when he climbed to the rooftop after completing his mission of destroying the Smith Syndicate. Confronted by young Emir, Garcian fires a bullet into his Third Eye, and the shot signals another flashback. There he watches as Emir closes his Third Eye, lifts his golden gun to his mouth – the same golden gun he'd used to murder the Killer7 and the same gun that saved Garcian from the same fate as his partners against the invincible black Heaven Smile – and fires a shot through his head.

Suddenly alone and covered in blood, Garcian, whimpering in denial of his identity, takes the last step to confronting the truth. He opens his case, which he previously had used to revive the personas of his fallen comrades, and finds inside: revolvers, pistols, knives and grenade launchers. The weapons of the Killer7, who he himself murdered in 1955 as a young boy before committing suicide and resurrecting as Garcian Smith. Ever since then the Smith Syndicate have been reincarnated in the psyche of Emir, now Garcian, to protect himself from realizing the truth of his past identity and horrific crimes.

With one of the most compelling storylines to hit the world of video game narrative, no writeup can really do this story – or this end boss character – justice. If you yourself want to confront the truth of Emir Parkreiner and his Killer7 personas, you'd be best to find this game and experience the story for yourself.

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