Grasshopper Manufacture

Killer 7: Beta Story Scenes

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This is not really a “story scene”, but in the beta version the “death scene” (when a character loses all of its energy) was different from the final one, in which we can only see the face of the character in b/w.

Here’s the beta:

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And here’s the final version:

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The scene below, in which a man is on a chair with a sort of experimental mind-helmet on his head, can be seen in the original concept trailer, but in the final game we never see a scene like this one. How was this related to the original Killer 7 story? I dont have any clue, but it’s interesting to notice that in Target 02 – Cloudman there’s a billboard with a drawing that reminds me of this beta scene.

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Here’s the billboard from the last area of the Cloudman chapter:

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In the early trailers we can see various scenes in which the Killer7 are killing a lot of Heaven Smiles, as Con shooting from a staircase or Harman near many bleeding corpses. While these scenes could have just created for scenic purpose, we can still wonder if they were meant to be used for the removed Bank Heist mission (as we have seen in the Beta Levels section) in which the Killer 7 had to kill many Heaven Smiles that invaded the place.

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An image with Dan that reflect himself in a mirror as Garcian was released before the game was complete, but in the final version we never see a scene like this. This image could have been created just to tease the gamers about the relationship of those characters, but it could have had some more deeper meaning in the original K7 plot.

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The intro cutscene in Target 0 – Angel had less colors / was darker in the beta version: it was changed to a blue tone in the final game. During the development of Killer 7 the colors of the world were changed many times to find the best ones.

Beta version:

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Final version:

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Even the intro cutscene of Chapter 03 – Encounter was different in the beta version: we can notice that Curti’s clothes had a different color and there’s a glass of wine in the final game.

Beta version:

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Final version:

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The most interesting beta story scenes are the ones from the original / removed mission in which Dan had to kill Curtis in Seattle. In the “Hand in Killer 7” book there’s a part of the “complete” timeline in which we can read some informations that are somewhat related to these removed cutscenes:

[1973] Harman Smith lost his chess game against Kun Lan. As part of his loss, Harman promised to give Kun Lan control over the major cities of the west coast of the United States of America.

Harman began the process by sending DAN SMITH to Curtis Blackburn in Seattle, to destroy the small gangs there and establish Blackburn’s control.

CHRISTOPHER MILLS, as a young boy, became Blackburn’s informant and entered the world of underground society.

[ 1975 ] Blackburn ended his role as Dan Smith’s mentor.  On a basketball court, Curtis shot Dan to death.  GARCIAN SMITH recovered Dan’s corpse, and he obtained the power to resurrect the dead.

Those moments are never shown in the final game and even in the beta version the story was different from the “complete” timeline that we can read in the “Hand in Killer 7”.  We can somehow rebuild what happened in the beta Seattle between Dan and Curtis thanks to beta screens, videos and from the “Killer 7 Prototype” pages that are in the “Hand in Killer 7” book.

Keep in mind that all these scenes were completely removed from the final game and they dont even fit with the final  Killer 7 storyline.

Garcian is in a car with Mills and they meet / take Dan on the road.

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Dan gets on the car with Mills and they talk about something (we’ll try to translate these japanese dialogues as soon as possible).

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Someone shots to Dan.. but he stop the bullet with his hand?

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Dan and Mills arrive to the building in which Curtis is hiding:

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Dans gets off the car and enters in the parking garage of the building (Temple Horizon?) to reach the upper floors:

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In the meantime it seems that Sundance Shot is in the same building.. with a corpse on a chair (?)

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Something goes wrong and Mills’s car explode (?) while Dan is entering the garage.

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Dan enters the building from the garage:

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Dan reach the upper floor and enters in the meeting room where he finds Curtis. They talk about something (if you can translate these japanese dialogues leave a message below!).

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Curtis shots to Dan and kills him. Dan is now dead with blood on the floor of the meeting room.

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Garcian recovers Dan’s corpse, and he obtains the power to resurrect the dead. In the meantime an helicopter approachs the building.

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This could have been the helicopter that Curtis was meant to use to escape from the building.

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Then Harman arrives on the roof with Samantha

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Garcian brings Dan’s corpse to the roof, while Harman recharges his Sniper Rifle.

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Harman shots to.. who / what?

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It’s not clear, but maybe Harman shots down the helicopter in which Curtis was escaping… now Curtis is back on the roof.. or at least his bleeding half.

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Dan is now fully resurrected and he’s ready to have his revenge on Curtis:

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Dan shots to Curtis. Now only Curtis head remains and Dan crush it to the ground. This is his revenge. End of the beta mission in Seattle.

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This unknown corridor with doors was seen in a scene from the concept trailer and in other beta screenshots, but it’s not in the final game. It was probably used just to show the characters in an interior scenario.

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It’s interesting to notice that the same corridor with Dan was shown in 2 different colors and one of them have the same colors as the corridor in which we see young-Harman in the original concept trailer

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In the final intro cutscene from Target 00 – Angel, Dan shots to a Red Gunner that was transformed in an Heaven Smile. That scene evolved from the initial concept trailer, in which Dan shots to the early design of Linda Vermillion, then he shots to a human-alike Heaven Smile, then to a Third Generation Heaven Smile. I dont have any idea about why Dan had to shot to Linda Vermillion in the original scene.

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Killer 7 – Beta Story Scenes Analisys COMPLETE.

>> Continue to: Killer 7 – Beta Gameplay

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Killer 7 Development & Beta Analysis

Killer 7 Development & Beta Analysis

Killer 7 is an adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Capcom for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was released in 2005 but it was first announced in 2002 as one of the original “Capcom 5” games. In 3 years of development the game changed a lot from its original concept trailer and when Killer 7 was finally released many  parts of the story were removed.

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Article written by monokoma

[Before reading this article, keep in mind that i’m italian and i’m not used to write so much in english. I’m sorry if there are errors and weird uses of the english language: if you have some corrections to make, you can send me an email and i’m going to fix the article. Thanks for your help!]

The game was written and directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, a man with his own peculiar way to create a dreaming and symbolic narrative, often associated to film directors like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Many people don’t get his style, but some gamers fell in love with his digital storytelling.