Kagero: Deception II (1998)

by Tecmo, Virgin Interactive Entertainment (Europe) Ltd.

Genres:Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Strategy

Themes:Action, Fantasy, Horror

Game modes:Single player

Story:Shifting the viewpoint to third-person and the emphasis to trap combos, Kagero: Deception II formed the foundation of current Deception titles and would be built upon in future titles, coming out two years after its predecessor. In it, players assume the role of Millennia, a young girl being used as a puppet and guard for a race known as Timenoids (or TMD, as the game abbreviates their race's name), who are like humans except immortal, and whose power is desired by the humans whose lives they govern. Millennia finds herself in the middle of the war between her own race and her captors, with her chosen side dictated by the player. One of the endings to the game heavily implies that Kagero is a prequel to Tecmo's Deception, and that Millennia will grow up to become Astarte from the first game; this interpretation is supported by the fact that naming the main character in Kagero "Astarte" lets you start with a hefty sum of extra Ark (the game's currency). However, Tecmo has not made it clear if that ending is canon. The change in how traps functioned gave this game a much more strategic edge than the first game, with traps able to interact with one another in long strings that could be likened to Rube Goldberg set-ups, just much more lethal and involving other people. Instead of using items such as medicinal herbs, healing was accomplished via glowing blue crystals called "loons" which could only be touched once before breaking, never to be used again in a given chapter. Trap improvement was conducted by using the points earned after successfully killing each invader, called Ark, and by following a somewhat logical "tree"—improving an Arrow Slit after a Lightning Rod was created could make a Laser Arrow, for instance. Six secret traps (one of which depicted Suezo, a popular monster from Tecmo's own Monster Rancher titles) could be unlocked in future replays by completing the game and achieving all four endings in the game, as well. Traps, when constructed, could be used as often as the player liked, but required a recharge time between uses in any given level. Game saves are one block in size.Show more

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@RyudoTenjin

February 06, 2025

One of the best PS1 games I ever played. You play as Millennia, a girl who was kidnapped at young age and raised by an immortal (Not really immortal, more like ageless) alien-like race called The Timenoids. They taught you how to use traps to defend yourself (and attack foes) and use you as a bodyguard to do their dirty work: Killing the adventurers who come to seek for the TMD's immortality secret. So the game puts you into different places you gotta protect while swarming you with different kinds of enemies who will try to get to the TMD secret. Some of the enemies will attack you, some others are just curious villagers. They'll get more dangerous the more levels you pass. To protect the secrets you got a lot of traps to use divided into three categories: Floor traps, ceiling traps, and wall traps. Every enemy you kill, specially if you do it with "combos" gets you "Arks" which is the game's currency so you can get new traps. To get combos it's pretty simple: To give you an example... You put a magnet in the wall which will attract the enemy, then the moment they touch the wall you activate a beat trap in the floor that will give you some time while they try to get out so you activate a ceiling trap, an Iron Ball, that will go down a stair to finally getting attracted by the magnet and hit the enemy that was also trapped in the bear trap. The game let you use your imagination and tools of destruction as you please, and rewards you for creativity. You can't defend in any other way, just using the traps. Millennia can't punch, got no weapon, anything. The moment you get close combat with your enemies if you got no traps set near you you'll have to run to another room where you already setted up traps beforehand. (You can move and put more traps but there's a limit of active traps per room, and activation takes some time you'll be running away from your enemies). A pretty unique game.

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Kagero: Deception II (1998)