Tecmo’s Deception had a novel enough concept: you played the evil guardian of a castle, setting traps around the place to thwart would-be trespassers. Kagero: Deception II, possibly as a tip of the hat to Tomb Raider, hands the guardian role to a voluptuous young lady, but otherwise the idea is the same, and just as devious.
It is a disappointment on the graphics front. The scenery is thoroughly boring, most rooms little more than four walls, the characters a bit more detailed but stiffly animated, and even the trap effects are lackluster, no Final Fantasy VII-scale explosions here. The audio is nothing special either: the music is slow and sinister, fitting but hardly something to dance to, and the sound effects are mostly functional, telling you when a trap is ready or an enemy is creeping up. Linger too long in one room and the constant clatter of automated traps might drive you mad.
But here is the thing: after the first couple of stages you will not be thinking about graphics or sound at all, because this game is FUN. There is a perverse pleasure in torturing unsuspecting intruders with spike walls, land mines and dozens of other nasty surprises. You do not have to be a sadist to enjoy it, just a strategist, and ideally a good one, because your victims are not standing politely under that suspended rock. They are chasing you with sizeable weapons, and if you do not place your traps right and give them time to arm, there is nothing between you and a very angry swordsman.
The depth is in the chain reactions. You can set one trap each on the floor, walls and ceiling of a room and trigger any of them at a button press, so with the right timing you can combo them, pinning a victim in a bear trap to line up an arrow slit, or using sliding walls and spring floors to knock people into stationary traps. There is even a combo meter, in keeping with the era’s habit of making every genre a little more like Street Fighter. The possibilities for devious snares are endless.
Kagero is no audiovisual marvel, but it is an absolute blast to play. About the only thing missing is a two-player competitive mode, maybe in Deception III. Even without it, this offers a solo player endless hours of gleefully nasty entertainment.
A PlayStation and the disc.
