This shit is mondo funny.
Killer is Dead has gotta be one of Suda's most underrated games. As much as I love No More Heroes 3, this game feels like what that game should have. It's fast, fluid, and the blood/combo mechanic rewards you for being skilled at the game.
Things I like:
-Story: The story is really great. It's not as nearly as tough to get a read on the point of, like other Suda games can be, but that's actually good as it allows you to focus more on the characters without having to constantly think "What's the purpose of all of this?" My only problem is that due to the story being so simple, you clock what's happening about halfway through the game and spend the rest of it just leading up to that event. The group dynamic is fantastic and I really wish we got more time with the characters.
-Gameplay: By far the strongest part of the game. KiD is about as close as Suda ever got to replicating the feeling of effortlessly offing multiple goons at once in NMH1. The combo system really lends itself well to combat encounters, rewarding you with more blood the higher your combo gets, and that blood in turn being used for your arm or to kill a particularly troublesome group of enemies incredibly quickly. Speaking of the arm, the gun and charge cannon are fantastic weapons that really help in dealing with annoying ranged enemies or to quickly dispatch foes from afar. The drill I only ever really used if I had to, and the freeze gun is next to useless as it tends to lead to you dropping your combo more than anything. I also have to shout out the parry system, as being able to parry from any direction is such a nice feature and later being able to punish an enemy from a parry helps keep the gameplay feeling fluid.
-Side content: The side missions/challenges are great fun. There's really not much to say with them, some of the missions are great, some are pretty annoying.
-Soundtrack: This OST is filled with bangers. From Vibrations to Symphonic Razor to King of Ghost (and basically all of the boss themes). Some of the level themes are kinda whatever, but when the OST is good it's good. Also, the RIZE/Jesse and the Bones songs that were in the original release of the game were fantastic and the Nightmare Edition is worse off without them. If a mod to add them back in ever gets made, it's worth the effort. Changes the entire feel of the scenes they're in.
Things I didn't like:
-Length of the game: You can very easily beat this game, with all of the side missions, in a handful of hours. Practically everyone I've talked to that enjoys this game agrees that it's just too damned short. It leaves you wanting more, but not in a good way. It also doesn't help that the first handful of chapters in the game are extremely short. The 1st level is just a hallway, the 2nd is a group of enemies, the 3rd is a fairly short level, and the 4th is basically only a boss. At 12 levels, I'd say about half of them are good, and the other half are whatever.
-Leveling up: One issue I had with the game was with how many upgrades were vital to later levels. If you don't replay each level a couple times, you tend to end up without important upgrades. This leads to troublesome encounters that would be way better with certain upgrades.
-Dating: The dating stuff is pretty funny, but you have to do it a decent amount and they lock the weapons behind it. If it had more depth, I'd be okay with it, but as is it's pretty barebones.
What I would change:
-Increase the amount of EXP from side missions by a lot to encourage you to do them and not just repeat main story missions
-Replace the RIZE/Jesse and the Bones songs with at least new music that fits and not the lame instrumentals
-Have more filler missions to help flesh out the group a lot more
-Make the HQ a place you can walk around in and talk to the other characters
Killer is Dead has gotta be one of Suda's most underrated games. As much as I love No More Heroes 3, this game feels like what that game should have. It's fast, fluid, and the blood/combo mechanic rewards you for being skilled at the game.
Things I like:
-Story: The story is really great. It's not as nearly as tough to get a read on the point of, like other Suda games can be, but that's actually good as it allows you to focus more on the characters without having to constantly think "What's the purpose of all of this?" My only problem is that due to the story being so simple, you clock what's happening about halfway through the game and spend the rest of it just leading up to that event. The group dynamic is fantastic and I really wish we got more time with the characters.
-Gameplay: By far the strongest part of the game. KiD is about as close as Suda ever got to replicating the feeling of effortlessly offing multiple goons at once in NMH1. The combo system really lends itself well to combat encounters, rewarding you with more blood the higher your combo gets, and that blood in turn being used for your arm or to kill a particularly troublesome group of enemies incredibly quickly. Speaking of the arm, the gun and charge cannon are fantastic weapons that really help in dealing with annoying ranged enemies or to quickly dispatch foes from afar. The drill I only ever really used if I had to, and the freeze gun is next to useless as it tends to lead to you dropping your combo more than anything. I also have to shout out the parry system, as being able to parry from any direction is such a nice feature and later being able to punish an enemy from a parry helps keep the gameplay feeling fluid.
-Side content: The side missions/challenges are great fun. There's really not much to say with them, some of the missions are great, some are pretty annoying.
-Soundtrack: This OST is filled with bangers. From Vibrations to Symphonic Razor to King of Ghost (and basically all of the boss themes). Some of the level themes are kinda whatever, but when the OST is good it's good. Also, the RIZE/Jesse and the Bones songs that were in the original release of the game were fantastic and the Nightmare Edition is worse off without them. If a mod to add them back in ever gets made, it's worth the effort. Changes the entire feel of the scenes they're in.
Things I didn't like:
-Length of the game: You can very easily beat this game, with all of the side missions, in a handful of hours. Practically everyone I've talked to that enjoys this game agrees that it's just too damned short. It leaves you wanting more, but not in a good way. It also doesn't help that the first handful of chapters in the game are extremely short. The 1st level is just a hallway, the 2nd is a group of enemies, the 3rd is a fairly short level, and the 4th is basically only a boss. At 12 levels, I'd say about half of them are good, and the other half are whatever.
-Leveling up: One issue I had with the game was with how many upgrades were vital to later levels. If you don't replay each level a couple times, you tend to end up without important upgrades. This leads to troublesome encounters that would be way better with certain upgrades.
-Dating: The dating stuff is pretty funny, but you have to do it a decent amount and they lock the weapons behind it. If it had more depth, I'd be okay with it, but as is it's pretty barebones.
What I would change:
-Increase the amount of EXP from side missions by a lot to encourage you to do them and not just repeat main story missions
-Replace the RIZE/Jesse and the Bones songs with at least new music that fits and not the lame instrumentals
-Have more filler missions to help flesh out the group a lot more
-Make the HQ a place you can walk around in and talk to the other characters