Exploring Killer is Dead - Blue Unicorns and Soft Boiled Eggs - Tarks Gauntlet

Killer is Dead, Suda51s assault of aesthetics is about... um.
Well. You tell me.
Mondo, Moon River, Mika, David, Blue Unicorns, the earth, the moon, mars, the sun, soft boiled eggs, dark matter and an assassination organization. Those are things and somehow they're all meant to work together.
It's a puzzle, but a fascinating one I implore any curious player to investigate a little more deeply and see what meaning you can uncover on your own.
0:00 - Release and Reception
5:05 - Spoilers, The Story
12:07 - Spoilers, A Possible Hidden Antagonist?
16:27 - Spoilers, Understanding Mondo
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[@TarksGauntlet]

This video once had a much longer script. Then I decided I didn't need it all so I recorded about 2/3rds of it. ...Then I kept coming back to add more. The more I continued to think about this game the more the pieces moved. I don't think I'll ever be settled on an interpretation but it's certainly a fun one to consider.

[@DuoBeard]

Oh man, Tarks, you’re an absolute genius to break this all down to the extent you’ve presented to us Thank you Tarks

[@MattPoskito]

Absolutely love this game. Played it 3 times

[@TarksGauntlet]

Did it make more sense at the end of the 3rd play? lol. I enjoy the game, but it's definitely a bit rough going before you unlock more abilities.

[@MattPoskito]

Honestly...no! After watching your video, I feel like your interpretation makes a lot of sense. I didn't put too much mental energy into deciphering the story, just enjoyed the novel situations and dialogue. "Trains are a man's passion" is a personal favourite 😅 The combat was okay but definitely got stale quickly, too much emphasis on finishers if I remember correctly

[@TarksGauntlet]

The entire train section is one of my favourite parts of the game. I just love how the train itself looks, especially the front end. It's just too bad I couldn't figure out how anything there plays into the over-arching story (Besides the part at the end with Mika)

[@chimeratcg07]

Extremely underrated game.

[@realnamesnotgiven6193]

I actually really like this game for the game play, weird story, and odd sudaness. Will replay it soon on PC. I hope my memory of it holds up.

[@gilgamesh.....]

Never heard of this game, that I can remember, but it looks like something I'd like to play.

[@BossFlight]

Thanks for the initiative to acknowledge and interpret this videogame. I also got the collector's edition for PS3 and I enjoy games like this , they feel like a creative, fresh and stylized take on telling a mythological tale. I think most of people back then might prefer or were accustomed to stereotypical black and white stories and characters, though It is heartbreaking when you see original ideas and new concepts are despised by a majority of gamers and critics (alike).

[@strain42]

I'm gonna be honest, my brain mixed up Killer is Dead with Murdered: Soul Suspect, so I immediately got VERY confused when you started explaining stuff 'cause I was like "Wow, I remember this game even less than I thought I did!"

[@GamingWithSpoons]

This game sounds nuts I like it

[@TarksGauntlet]

Suda51 in a nutshell I guess.

[@Metalkake]

I love eggs sir. but also this deep dive! Thanks for the video sir!

[@gorosbat6929]

This game has the hardest QTE button mashing section in all of gaming, my fingers were bleeding from finishing this game!

[@heretic124]

Imho Control explained the final sentence from Alan Wake - there are other worlds out there, it's not a lake = Alan's small story, it's an ocean = vast multidimensional world full of other entities, deep and vast. It also sounded cool to end a game on such sentence and maybe there was no other reason at the time. :D

[@TarksGauntlet]

This was part of the DLC I take it? If so, I never got to play it. Don't usually deal with DLCs. I have basically been taking his final line at face value due to lack of any other understanding. That he sits down to continue the story and the first thing he does to "Turn it on it's head" so to speak, was to introduce a change in location as a plot-twist that can open up new opportunities. Thought they kind of hinted at that with the massive camera rotation following his line delivery too, but then I'm really reaching for something there.

[@jessirarara]

Great break down. I had already decided I wasn't gonna get the game based on another review I watched, but yours breaking down just how convoluted the game is... it just cements that I'm right. I don't think I'd be into this game enough to want to play. Maybe watch a let's play, but not play it.

[@2bussy]

they'll love this game in a couple years just like they did with killer7 lol

[@S_Hyde]

I also got a special edition for a bargain price, maybe a year or so after it released. Sadly, I was unable to enjoy it as much as I would have liked to, though I've been wanting to play through it once more.

[@Gilluria]

Maybe Mondo likes his eggs soft boiled, because he is too hard boiled himself

[@TarksGauntlet]

One of the weirdest things in this game is that for all the times they talk about soft boiled eggs they never seem to eat them? It's always just over-hard.

[@Gilluria]

@@TarksGauntlet Maybe that's the true reason Mondo keeps Mika around. To perfect the art of egg

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

The story of this game seems to be mostly a vague retelling of *Kaguya-hime.* She was a princess of the Moon who was exiled to the Earth for some crime she had committed. While there she forms bonds with her adoptive parents and the Emperor of Japan and doesn't want to leave, but at this point she is forced to return to the Moon. Her final gift to her Emperor lover is a vial containing immortality, yet he declines to drink it because he doesn't want to spend eternity without her. The story would have made much more sense to Japanese audiences, because they would have absorbed the required reading through cultural osmosis.

[@TarksGauntlet]

While this is true that still leaves us the same symbolism to explore. Granted, sometimes the moon is just a moon, but it's worth considering "Why the moon?" And such.

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

@@TarksGauntlet The moon is remote, and beautiful, and mysterious. If you consider that unobtainability makes a character more desirable, then it makes a lot of sense to have that character represented by the moon. Similarly, Earth is tangible and relatable, making it good thematic shorthand for a POV character.

[@TarksGauntlet]

@@captainthunderbolt7541 there's a lot to work with in regards to the moon. Lunar phases, isolation, desolation etc. It's a fun symbol for semiotic analysis whatever the case. This video was mostly just an exercise in semiotics for me.

[@oyoyoyo7624]

Can’t watch this 1 yet. Comment 4 algo tho

[@OnyxJaguar]

The game? Killer is dead. Ot was it The game. Killer is Dead. Or even The game. Killer is dead?

[@TarksGauntlet]

What ever it was, I dig your blue velvet avatar.