PixlBit

Well it took awhile but this is part one of my trap games blog series. It's really hard to even call this a genre because it kind of died before it even got a chance to get going. And I'm sure there are games I will  miss, plus I want to focus on games I have actually played. So this time I will be talking about Tecmos' Deception series in particular Kagero Deception 2.

 

Tecmo back in the late 90's had the muse apparently and was pushing out a lot of new games that were pretty ground breaking at the time. Deception and Monster Rancher being the main two that come to mind. Kagero Deception 2 is kind of hard to label. I think the best description would be to call it a strategy action rpg. You play as Millinia, a young woman who was raised by an immortal race of beings called the timenoids. They maintain this immortality by feeding on human souls. And its Millinias' job to acquire these souls.

 

Millinias' prey consists of some innocent and not so innocent folks who are lured the large mansion that Millinia calls home. The mansion is also Millinias' weapon. Millinia has no direct attacks other that to shove. This does no damage but can be used to push an aggressive enemy away or push an unaware enemy into a trap. Each room has various hazards that can be used to create Rube Goldberg machine style combos with your traps.

 

Traps are broken up into three categories. Floor traps, wall traps, and ceiling traps. There are various traps in each category and new traps can be purchased and older traps upgraded with the experience you gain from kills. Ceiling traps range from a large vase that falls on an enemies head leaving them blind and vulnerable too a large boulder. Wall traps can be a section of wall that pushes an enemy or a poison narrow slot. Floor traps can be a classic floor spike or the always hilarious catapult that send an enemy flying. These are just a few examples there are many more.

 

You can set three traps to each room, one of each kind. The strategy of this game is figuring out the best place to set the traps and this can require some trial and error experimenting. Also you have to manually set off the traps which can be tricky when you are often the bait and attempting to lead an ax swinging mercenary to his doom. It requires timing to to pull off a combo. After a trap is sprung there is a cool down period before it can be activated again but you can always lead them to another room and try again. I should also mention that you can be hit by your own traps so you have to make sure your clear of them before you set it off.

 

There is also some ethical choices you get to make as you play through the story that can lead to 4 different endings. Basically there are a few folks who you can can choose not to kill which will actually send some much more dangerous enemies your way. The other easter egg is a bonus trap featuring Suezo the one eyed yellow monster from Monster Rancher. This game can be hard and is far from perfect but still very enjoyable. The flexability of the trap system and pulling off a combo can be a real thrill and this combined with the multiple ending gives the game a pretty good amount of replay value.

 

The Deception series got two more sequels, Deception 3 on the PS1 and Trapt for the PS2. Unfortunately the series appears to be abandoned at this point which is a shame because it had a lot of potential and with today’s hardware it could have been something really special. I feel like this this play mechanic is something that could be worked to into a lot of different games and needs another look. In part two I will be talking about a game that proves this point by moving traps into two player vs arena style action. It is a lesser known little gem called Trap Gunner. Till then peace.