Fractured Persona – killer7 #4
We skipped a week, but now it's back in all its glory! Our killer7 analysis continues with the next chapter, Cloudman. This chapter is much shorter than Sunset, and also takes a step off the main plotline to explore another very important character in the killer7 universe. But shorter isn't always a bad thing! The animation style for the cutscenes changes dramatically in this chapter, making it one of my favorites in terms of style. It also introduces one of my favorite characters…and then subsequently kills him off.
I hope to make these articles interesting for both newcomers to the game and those who have played through multiple times. But, I have one quick warning: in order to make this as detailed and informative as possible, there will be a large amount of spoilers. So, if you aren’t worried about learning the fates of the characters or having the ending ruined for you, keep reading. If you still plan to play this game for yourself and want to experience the plot twists firsthand, stop!
Target #02 – Cloudman
“We're talkin' guys who beat off four times a day!”
This chapter opens with a live television broadcast. A man named Andrei Ulmeyda introduces himself as “a man with a plan.” He says people will come to him with salvation. Motioning to a stadium behind him, Ulmeyda says he has a feeling that something very bad is going to happen at the concert taking place inside. Because of those inside, the stadium has become a sort of epicenter for the overflowing energy. Ulmeyda begins to lose it and the stadium explodes behind him, leaving nothing but rubble and smoke. The camera pans closer to Ulmeyda's face as he challenges Garcian and the Killer 7 to find him and his new faith. His whole meaning in life is to be found by the Killer 7.
Garcian turns off the television and heads to Harman's room in the back of the trailerhouse. The man behind the locked door continues to scream. Garcian walks in on Samantha and Harman having sex, but she stops when she notices Garcian. Samantha tells Garcian not to worry about Harman because he likes playing rough. Harman awakens to talk to Garcian, and they discuss the commotion Ulmeyda is making in the south. Neither believes he is of high enough caliber to be a revolutionary. Harman stays behind on this mission as Garcian sets off to accept Ulmeyda's challenge. Before leaving, Garcian meets with Christopher on the overpass. Christopher saw the television broadcast and wonders if Ulmeyda is some sort of stalker. Garcian shrugs it off and says he's heading to Texas, because Ulmeyda was wearing a shirt labeled Texas Bronco.
On his way into InterCity, Garcian has a short conversation with a farmer on the outskirts of town. The farmer mentions that they don't get many “black folk” coming through this area, which always struck me as odd because Ulmeyda is African-American. He asks what the purpose of Garcian's visit is, guessing that he's probably there to see Ulmeyda. The farmer mentions that he sees Ulmeyda everyday in the form of posters and billboards scattered about the desert. They creep him out, but he warns Garcian to keep thoughts like that to himself if he values his life. The town is mean, and they'll do anything they can to protect Ulmeyda.
Before entering the city, Iwazaru and Travis both make separate appearances to weigh in on the situation. Iwazaru can't stand Ulmeyda or the members of his cult because of the afros they wear their hair in. Travis, on the other hand, just thinks Ulmeyda is crazy. He looks nothing like the “company president” position he's supposed to be portraying. And while Ulmeyda calls InterCity the “ideal” place to live, it's hardly perfect. The desert's raging heat sees to that.
A nearby security camera switches Garcian to Coyote, and the Killer 7 begin to investigate the town. The spirit of a deceased Ulmeyda cult member stops them on the way to the gas station, questioning their beliefs in God. Travis reveals a few more details on Ulmeyda's company. There's a rumor going around that Ulmeyda's company purchases magazines from all over the world. They call themselves the world's largest domestic trading company. Travis sees this facade for what it is, and scoffs at the idea that it's a “comprehensive company.”
The Killer 7 continue on to the gas station. A semi-truck is blocking the way, but it's easily moved by Mask and his incredible strength. Susie is revealed to be hiding in a gas pump once the truck is moved. She gives the Killer 7 the Stamina Ring item as well as expounding on some of the things she likes and dislikes. She reveals that she's mutilated tons of men over the course of her life, so much so that they can't even go out in public. With another odd piece of her story divulged, she tells the Killer 7 to leave her be and goes back into hiding.
As they continue making their way through the town, the Killer 7 find another carrier pigeon from Johnny Gagnon. While InterCity may be hailed by Ulmeyda as a perfect place to live, Johnny has dug up some interesting details that may prove otherwise. People living here often go missing. Some skip out of the city late at night, but most just plain disappear. Whole families will sometimes go missing at once. It's almost like they're all trapped in a horror story. But, those left behind in town have adapted, sometimes with surprising alacrity. Ulmeyda's company, First Life, is incredibly popular in the world market but also very competitive. Employees quit all the time due to the high stress they're subjected to. It was established three years ago, but only half of the original employees remain. The rest are recruits from all over the world, as well as recent graduates. The disappearances also contribute to the high employee turnover. The note also mentions investigations Johnny has begun on someone only referred to as “her,” but he needs more evidence before talking about it any more.
The city's obsession with Ulmeyda becomes readibly apparent as the Killer 7 continue their investigation. The entire city is filled with propaganda bearing Ulmeyda's image. He's even had special figurines of himself in different occupational outfits produced. Whoever collects all these figurines gets a chance to meet Ulmeyda face to face. The Cult Member's spirit makes frequent appearances, but much of his speech is garbled nonsense phrases. He believes miracles lie somewhere between the truth and fiction. The Cult Member also tells the Killer 7 not to believe anyone, not even God. Travis is the only person they should trust. These interesting thoughts are soon followed by one that's more ambiguous: “God and pigeons are one.”
The group finds all but one of the figurines waiting for them in the diner's toy machine. The last one, a special edition given away in an auction by Ulmeyda himself, is found in a house in the residential district. A man's bloody silhouette appears on one wall near the figurine. After finding the figurine, the Cult Member's spirit makes one more important appearance. He tells the Killer 7 that he killed the man who won the special figurine, but could never find the prize. “The world is full of mysteries,” he finishes, pondering if maybe the man's soul hid the figurine from him.
Julia Kisugi, the assassin who was killed in the first part of the Sunset chapter, also makes an appearance. She details the life of an assassin, and laments that she was never living the way she wanted to. Being a hired killer gives you a small amount of freedom for the large amount they eventually take away from you. Her life was never her own. The Killer 7 freed her from that life the moment they killed her.
On their way to confronting Ulmeyda, the Killer 7 come into contact with two more residents of InterCity in the pharmacy and post office. A woman behind the counter at the drug store mistakes the Killer 7 for reporters. She appreciates the fact that Ulmeyda has helped the city flourish the way it has, but the “creeps with the weird smile” bother her. The city is big on tradition, so it's hard for them to accept newcomers. The post office acts as a gateway to a mountain path. The path leads up to First Life headquarters and Ulmeyda. An employee of the post office stops the Killer 7 as they pass through. He says he knows Ulmeyda and calls him a good man, but makes it clear to the assassins that he isn't part of the cult. It turns out that Ulmeyda actually worked at the post office before becoming head of First Life, but didn't really stand out. The post office worker says Ulmeyda was just lucky. As he remembers Ulmeyda's emergence, the worker works himself up to anger. He says Ulmeyda is a fake and that he only got that position by selling the town away…selling their souls away.
The Killer 7 make their way out of the post office and up the mountain path. Travis is waiting for them with more information on First Life. The company's profile is “the world's largest catalog retailer group.” They expand on this by also describing themselves as a “specialized revolutionary global distribution organization.” Travis says all these words don't add up to much, and that they don't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He appears further up the mountain to tell them more about the company's policies. The pamphlet they put out contains one hundred facts, comprised of ninety three lies and seven truths. And even the truths don't provide any answers. Just like every other corporation, First Life is built on lies.
Ulmeyda himself has hints of genius despite his lowly origins. He distracts the populace with smoke and mirrors while swooping down to clutch their hearts and minds with his claws. First Life has grown dramatically into a winning trading company that can purchase goods from all over the world. It is a truly gigantic organization. Unfortunately, Ulmeyda recognizes the genius brewing below his surface. The passage to First Life is only opened by answering a series of questions about the propaganda billboards that line the path up the mountain. They show Ulmeyda in a variety of situations, but all imply that First Life is on the verge of a global economic takeover.
Upon entering the first part of the First Life building, the Killer 7 encounter a road block. The security guard denies them access until a voice on the intercom relays an emergency message from Ulmeyda himself. The message says to let Mr. Smith into the building. The security guard complies, but also confides in the Killer 7 before they leave. He says the First Life corporation is very secretive, and most of the employees don't have any idea what goes on in there.
The Killer 7 finally reach the main building of the First Life corporation. But, upon stepping through the door, it's revealed to only be a huge disguise. The building itself was only a huge cardboard cutout, and it falls over to reveal an endless expanse of flat land desert with only a small trailer idling nearby. Inside the trailer's control room sits Ulmeyda, wearing what seems to be a simple astronaut's suit. He welcomes the Killer 7 into the room. His propaganda begins immediately as he describes InterCity as a paradise, a completely autonomous region that is the model of peace. First Life Inc., on the other hand, doesn't exist. They only produce and run commercials. People really do only judge books by their covers, so all they had to do was make people think they were an extremely successful company and it became so.
When the clock strikes 5:00 PM, Ulmeyda signals that the work day is over and says that they may be just in time to meet “today's lucky guy.” A line of cult members exits the trailer slowly, but Ulmeyda tells the Killer 7 not to be alarmed; these are good citizens, not Heaven Smile. The last cult member to exit is a teenage boy named Clemence. Ulmeyda snatches him immediately to congratulate him, and Clemence can't believe he had the good fortune of being chosen. Ulmeyda calms him down, saying that his job has only just begun. A rocket-propelled automobile pulls up, and Ulmeyda says that this is Clemence's new job. He tells the boy to take it for a spin, but yells an ominous warning after him as he speeds off: “Don't drive yourself to death!”
Multiple screens expand from the trailer, all showing Clemence's face in the car as he reaches top speed. While he seems to be enjoying himself immensely, the speed at which he is traveling is enough to kill him. Ulmeyda says there's only two endings to this story for Clemence: either he dies happy speeding across the desert, or he makes it to the finish line. If Clemence finishes, he wins. As the boy continues his deadly race through the flat land, Ulmeyda changes the subject to himself. He infected himself with a plethora of deadly viruses. This spurred him on in research of these diseases, and time after time he created vaccines and other medication to combat them. But, the one disease he is afraid of is Heaven Smile. He asks the Killer 7 to kill him if he ever becomes infected because they're the only ones that seem to know how.
The United States military descends on Ulmeyda's position, capturing him and infecting his body with the Heaven Smile virus. A man named General Lynch from the United States Emergency Counter-Measure Defense Department thanks the assassins for their cooperation in capturing Ulmeyda. InterCity is much more important than it seemed to be, because it serves as a vital instrument for determining the country's safety standards. Before they have the chance to destroy Ulmeyda, his new powers awaken. He can't control his sadistic urges to kill those around him, and he transforms into a new form. His blood rains down on the military personnel and kills them almost instantly. The Killer 7 chase him down through a series of connected ambulances and destroy him. His laughter echoes across the desert as his body disappears, and his blood once again rains from the sky.
Clemence finishes his race across the desert and, having survived, is poised to take Ulmeyda's position in InterCity. Ulmeyda's blood doesn't harm him, and paints the white rocket car a crimson color. Clemence recognizes the taste of Ulmeyda's blood. Ulmeyda's spirit appears to Clemence and grants him the power he once had. He says Clemence must stand strong and take the big risks to succeed in life. Clemence promises Ulmeyda that their way of life will continue and hails Ulmeyda as InterCity's messiah.
Cloudman – Complete
This side story in the killer7 universe is slightly more complex than the last few chapters. The plot of the game begins to take an odd turn starting with Cloudman, and continues this trend on towards the conclusion. Andrei Ulmeyda is probably my favorite character in the game, and his influence spreads a bit from this chapter, even though he met with a rather tragic end.
Cloudman brings a bit of the supernatural elements from the first chapter back into play. Ulmeyda is seen by his followers as a God, and they follow his words as if he really was one. He sits high atop the mountain overlooking InterCity and passes down his directions to his followers. The city itself has flourished under Ulmeyda's rule, but it seems rather odd that the United States government would let him have such a high level of control inside of the country. Later on in the chapter, you find out that the military was using it as a microcosm of defense throughout the entire nation. Were they experimenting with the Heaven Smile virus? Or were they just letting Ulmeyda control a small portion of Texas to appease his self-important personality? Ulmeyda's company First Life was on the verge of breaking out on the global economic scene, so maybe they provided him a bit too much leeway in the department.
Another question that was raised that remains unanswered in this chapter is the state of Ulmeyda's rise to power. Once just a lowly, unskilled worker at the local post office, he became the head of the world's most successful trading organization. What changed? His coworker spoke of Ulmeyda as someone who stayed in the background because he wasn't very good at his job. Where did the sudden genius come from to run a corporation? He somehow managed to learn a great deal in a very short span of time. Add to that his change in personality from shy office worker to charismatic cult leader and you're left with a huge hole in the time line that needs to be plugged.
The last interesting theme in this chapter is the role of corporations and advertisement in today's world. Advertisement is a huge business in our time, with companies paying millions and almost billions of dollars to run short ads during popular television programs. Ulmeyda's company was fake. It did nothing but run commercials. But because people were so easily swayed by promises of utopia and financial success, they invested heavily in Ulmeyda's “vision.” It's almost as if an outside force was giving Ulmeyda the tools to work with in order to craft his own success. Who or what could this mysterious force be? The questions and their subsequent answers only become harder and harder to understand as killer7 rushes on. Be sure to check back next week for some surprising revelations!
