I want to preface this Weekly Kusoge by saying that I absolutely love Tecmo’s Deception, but it is complete shit. I was inspired to try out the Deception series by community member Kerrik52. My only previous experience was watching a roommate try out 2005’s Trapt. However, upon looking at screenshots of Tecmo’s Deception, I fell in love.

Released in 1996, Tecmo’s Deception is just so PS1. While it established the foundation of the long-running series, it mostly failed spectacularly at everything it attempted. However, its King’s Field style f?irst-person perspective and boxy, pixellated graphics just feel so cozy. A lot of what it f?ailed to do was dropped by subsequent games in the series, which almost makes me feel like I won’t like them as much.

I will c??ontinue to send mixed signals throughout this article, I ass?ure you.

[caption id="attachment_394483" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Invitation to kusoge

Tecmo’s Deception starts with you, a prince, getting your idyllic life fucked over by your hilariously evil brother. You were set to marry the love of your life and take the throne of the kingdom, but that dick got jealous and frame?d you for murder. Typical little sibling.

However, you’re saved from the gallows and whisked away to the Castle of the Damned, where, in return for your assistance in resurrecting Satan, you’re given the power to exact your revenge. As a player, you’re not really given much choice in the matter, so thankfully, it just feels so good to be evil. It helps that the people visiting your castle are hapless at best and giant walking cola-douches at worst. And they’re usually at their worst.

The story is probably one of the legitimately best-executed facets of Tecmo’s Deception. Like many games of its era, there isn’t a whole lot of depth to it, but the fact that you play as a fallen ??hero doing evil stuff is pretty tantalizing. Your character isn’t really given any lines of their own, so their actions and reactions are?? largely up to your own imagination. For me, it was a lot like being an evil homeowner and trying to keep everyone off my damned lawn. Homeownership is a great fantasy for my generation.

[caption id="attachment_394484" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Get off my lawn

You’re able to customize the Castle of the Damned at a great degree of depth. You can change the corridors and room placement as much as you want to make it feel more like home. You can, but there really isn’t much point in doing so.

Home customization is among the many, many undercooked features of Tecmo’s Deception. It sounds l??ike a good idea on paper, and it s?till seems like a good idea when it’s presented to you. But then the gameplay gets applied to it, and you realize there’s no point.

You’re only ever invaded by a maximum of four intruders at a time. You deal with them by drawing them into traps that you set around the castle and activating them at the right time. However, I feel like t?he word “trap�implies a certain amount of automation, but there is none. Really, they’re spells that you set on the ground. You wait until someone steps on them, then manually activate them while the person is about five feet away. Satan should have just given you a powerful kick.

So, with the limited number of invaders and the fact that you have to be close en??ough to count an intruder’s?? nose hairs, you don’t really need a big castle. For most missions, I only used the room that intruders spawn in and the directly adjacent corridors. It actually would have been most efficient for me if I just shrank the overall footprint of the castle down as small as possible. The intruders aren’t after anything. You aren’t protecting something. They’ll just wander the castle until you choose to deal with them, so giving them less land to graze on would just expedite the process.

[caption id="attachment_394485" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Our house, our rules

Yet, you don’t really need to reach for any sort of exploit in Tecmo’s Deception. Everything is already extremely skewed in your favor from the beginning. It's unlikely you'll run out of gold or MP since it’s given to you so readily. You're eventually given the ability to upgrade your traps, and there’s?? no reason not to.

On the other hand, there’s very little reason to use most of the traps. At the start of the game, I experimented with confusion traps as a way of making it easier to kill or capture intruders, but I quickly realized that it didn’t really increase the chances of success much. Later in the game, I only used c??apture traps because they seemed most effective, and I could use the captured person as a building block for a monster.

Monsters are another great idea that was badly implemented. You collect the bodies of captured intruders and can turn them into various types of beasts who can collect experience and level up. You don’t get this ability until much later in the ??game, but it basically just removes the last threads of?? usefulness from the kill traps. With the traps, you have to lead someone into them and activate them at the right moment. Monsters you can just drop in whenever you want, as long as you have Block Orbs available.

[caption id="attachment_394486" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Monster problems

If you run out of Block Orbs, you can invite a merchant to your castle. Despite them being instantly aggressive once they see you, they’ll gladly open up shop if you walk up to them. You then have to kill them afterward, but somehow they’ve banked all your money. I guess if you could just buy whatever you want and then steal back your money, that would be going too far. As if Tecmo’s Deception is any stranger to pushing the margins of acceptable ga?me design.

When you really get down to it, most of your time in Tecmo’s Deception will be spent grabbing the attention of an intruder and dodging their attacks as you lead them over a trap. Enemies don’t?? have any real willpower beyond walking directly toward you, so there’s very little strategy. Later games in the series would address this by having you create combinations of traps, but that is absolutely not the case here.

And then, just to ca?p everything off, I defeated the last boss within seconds by placing a trap directly next to them. The trap activated immediately when the mission started for some reason. There was no showdown. It was just over. A brilliant way to end the game.

[caption id="attachment_394487" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

If you have to fail, fail spectacularly

Yet, for whatever reason, I loved the time I spent with Tecmo’s Deception. There’s an earnest effort to innovate beneath all its failure and I find that really endearing. There was a lot ??of ambition driving it, and it feels like the team put their full effort into all these different features before eventually realizing that the pieces weren’t fitting together. But a product eventually has to ship, and everything was hastily crammed into a box and pushed out the door.

Or, at least, that’s ho??w I interpret it. I haven’t been able to find any details on the development through intervi??ews or elsewhere.

However, the thing with failed experiments is that very few are willing to try and replicate the experience. The Deception series would continue using the foundation of Tecmo’s Deception but would excise a lot of the parts that didn’t work and fine-tune the ones that did. In doing so, it lost a lot of what makes Tecmo’s Deception truly unique.

So, the moral of the story here is: if you want to truly stand out, fail like no one has ever failed before. Fail so spectacularly that your failure is indelibly burned into the memory of every human on the planet. B??ecause, as anyone who calls themselves a pickup artist will tell you, pity is a type of love.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

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It's a trap!

Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness is being re-released on PlayStation Network next week in North America, according to the latest episode of the PlayStation Blogcast.

Ahem. Before we go any further, let me just warn you "this game contains satanic references and may be inappropriate for some individuals." Okay, now with that out of the way...

Originally released in 1996, Deception follows the exploits of a man who finds himself in the s?ervices of Satan. Charged with protecting the Castle of the Damned, players must either set traps to repel a stream of intruders from the fo??rtress' walls or allow the blighters to escape.

Deception went on to spawn a number of sequels, including the PlayStation 2's Trapt, which is also available on PSN. The most recent entry in the franchise, Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (an expansion to last year's Deception IV: Blood Ties) launched this March for PS4, PS3, and Vita.

The PS1 original will be available digitally for PS3, Vita, and PSP?? in North America next Tuesday.

PlayStation Blogcast 185: Tales of the Undead [PlayStation Blog]

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Hardcore trappers only

I really liked the original release of Deception IV. It was refreshing to see the series get another lease on life after taking a hiatus with Trapt all the way back i??n 2005, and newcomer Laegrinna fit right in.

This time around with the sorta-kind expansion The Nightmare Princess, the additions are only going to please hardcore fans of the series. Having said that, if you haven't played a Deception game in a while, this is a gre?at place to start.

Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Vita)
Developer: Tecmo Koei
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
MSRP: $49.99 (PS4)
Released: July 14, 2015

Since the core experience hasn't changed all that much, head to the original review to get a full breakdown of the main mechanics. The gist is that you'll be controlling a character that, for all intents and purposes, can't attack on their own, and must rig an elaborate combination of traps to do their dirty work for them. You'll do this by pausing the game, bringing up a menu, and placing a number of wall, ceiling, and floor traps that can be used with one another for maximum m?ayhem. For instance, you can hold an enemy in place with a beartrap, shock them with a wall taser, then drop a giant boulder on their head from the ceiling. It's glorious.

So before you get confused, The Nightmare Princess is an all-new SKU that includes everything in the original package on top of another story with 10??0 quests, a new character with a different moveset, and a "Studio" mode so you can create your own scenarios. The extra campaign is easily the new draw, and I have to say, newcomer Velguirie holds her own here. Her tale runs concurrently with Laegrinna's and doesn't feel tacked-on in the slightest.

100 new quests also isn't really anything to shake a stick at either, though it must be said that ther?e's only a few new zones (which are rather small), as some quests re-use old areas from the base game. The second campaign does stand up on its own, and even playing both stories back to back, they didn't overstay their individual welcomes. Velguirie's big gimmick is that she can kick enemies now -- something no other protagonist was able to do in the history ??of the franchise.

But it's important to put things into perspective here. She can't just karate-kick bad guys into oblivion with flashy combos. It's a simple timed kick on a cooldown that can be used to tactically slot foes into position for traps (or stomp them on the ground), which are still going to do the real legwork here. It's not a game-changer, but ag??ain, the story, bonus traps, and the new character design themselves are enough to carry another playthrough. Yep, I said bonus traps, including a deadly toilet, a bolt of lightning, a wardrobe that eats armor, and sticky flooring. At this point there are so many trap combos at your disposal that you're only limited by your imagination. 

You'll get to test your inner demon plenty with the Studio mode, the other big addition in Nightmare Princess. Here, you can create enemies with various custom parts and name them, placing each creation inside an existing arena. You can craft fun scenarios like battling the entire Justice League, and even download or upload them online for all to see. It's not as expansive as I would have liked, but the fact that you can download new missions every so often is a breakthrough for the series. Keep in mind that your fun is also going to be limited by how many actual part??s you have, which are unlocked by completing both campaigns.

Here's the bad news for those of you who already bought the original. While the new story is enjoyable and the Studio is fun to mess around with, you aren't getting a substantial new expansion to pour over for weeks here. Think of it more like a hefty DLC package. In other words, unless you absolutely love Deception, it probably isn't a good idea to shell out $50 for Nightmare Princess.

It's a really weird thing for Koei Tecmo to do, as it could have easily provided an "upgrade" for say, $20, and then released a package?? version on the side. As it stands, you either have to go all or nothing. At the very least, there is the added bonus of being able to import your old save data, so you don't have to complete the original campaign all over again to reap the?? unlock benefits.

Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess is in a really weird spot, but here's the rub -- as a Deception enthusiast, I was more than happy enough to take Velguirie's story for a spin, and I found myself beating the original game again as well as creating a few levels in the Studio. Just know exactly what you're getting into with Nightmare and make an informed decision.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Let me show you

When Deception: The Nightmare Princess was announced, a wave of confusion crept up on every Deception IV owner. Is it DLC? Is an an expansion? Well, it's?? a weird combo! I just got my hands on a US copy of the game this week and I've been poking around, so I can help answer some burning ??questions.

Right now, Nightmare Princess is being released on PS3, PS4, and Vita in the west, but only the PS4 edition will be physical -- it will retail for $50. It is not a digital "upgrade," it's a whole new game and SKU. The main draw of the updated game is an all-new 100-quest storyline with newcomer Velguirie ??(who can kick and stomp enemies with a physical attack), as well as a "Deception Studio" mode that allows you to create your own characters and scenarios to share and download online.

In addition to those updates, it will ship with the full original storyline featuring Laegrinna, the heroine of the original, a??nd you can even import your old game by loading up your Cross-Save data if you wish. There's also a bunch of tidbits like more traps, a few new levels (one is featured in the video above, which also details the Deception Studio process), and cameos from past series protagonists in Velguirie's campaign.

My review won't hit until launch in July, but for now you can use this information to make an info??rmed decision.

The post What’s new in Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess? appeared first on Destructoid.

More than 180 traps

I really liked Deception IV, and I'm so down for more later this year once The Nightmare Princess hits. On arrival, it'll sport the "Deception Studio" mode, whi??ch allows you to create characters to maim and kill. You can alter their appearance, outfit, name, ??background, and statline. Playing Quest Mode will net you more customization pieces.

New stages in Nightmare Princess include an?cient ruins, a refinery, a sch??ool, a hospital, an amusement park, and a castle. It'll drop on July 14 in the US and July 17 in Europe on PS3, PS4, and Vita.

The post Create your own character to kill with Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess’ studio appeared first on Destructoid.

Love that goofy 'slide' sound at 1:47

Deadly toilets, nut shots, kendo athlete statues, goofy playground slides -- you'll see it all in this new trailer for Deception IV: Another Princess.

It's not just silliness ??abound in the video though, as you'll see plenty of new traps, menus, locations, quests (that menu at 0:45 looks massive), and characters. It'll arrive in March in Japan, hopefully? selling enough for a localization.

The post This Deception IV: Another Princess trailer is probably the best thing I’ve seen all year appeared first on Destructoid.

Gimme

Deception IV: Another Princess sounds amazing. The core game was already packed in with stuff to do, but the upcoming expansion is adding a ton of stuff as well as an all-new hero. Legacy fans have a lot to be excited about, as classic traps and characters are returning, including ones from previous Deception games and Trapt.

The "Deception Studio" editor mode is actually more in-depth than I thought, since you can use traps and objects you've obtained to create your own enemies and even name them. In essence, you can craft custom quests o??f your own design.

Finally, our new protagonist can physically attack enemies for the first time in the franchise's history -- pushing them into traps or stomping them on the ground. It's set to rel??ease in March in Japan on the PS3, PS4, and Vita, and if a localization is announced, it will shoot up to one of my most anticipated titles of 2015.

Zaregoto [Livedoor via Siliconera]

The post Deception IV: Another Princess’ editor mode gets new details, legacy traps appeared first on Destructoid.

Badass bidet

We already knew a bit about the upcoming Deception IV: Another Princess expansion/re-release, inclu??ding the addition of new traps, a new protagonist, and a quest mode, but seeing it in action is something else entirely.

In addition to new screens showing off the heroine Valgyrie, there's also a tease with the main character (which seems to be Laegrinna dressed in Deception II garb), a few of the new traps (toilet trap is the hi?ghlight?), and the quest mode menu.

A localization can't come soon enough.

Deception IV [AGB]

The post First Deception IV: Another ?Prince??ss screens show toilet trap appeared first on Destructoid.

Appease the Goddesses of Humiliation, Elaboration, and Sadism

Deception IV is a unique release, mainly due to the fact that there aren't many trap-setting games on the market in general.

Because of that, it's often hard for people to acclimate if they've never played a past entry before (Trapt is on the PS??N, by the way) -- so here are some t?ips to help you along.

General tips:

• Every piece of damage you do contributes to each discipline -- elaboration, sadism, and humiliation. Think of Elaboration traps more as "setups" for other gadgets, as they tend to do miniscule damage, but position the target accordingly. Sadist traps are basically your major damage dealers, like arrows, buzzsaws, and the like. Humiliation is a unique discipline because those traps are kind of a mix of the other two schools.

  As a general rule, most players will probably want to min-max Sadism, so you have heavy traps to deal with some of the harder foes in the game. Play the game the way you want to play it, but if you're having trouble, consider using more damage traps so you can earn more Sadist XP and unlock better ones.

• Use line of sight to your advantage, especially with NPCs that can't jump or ninja-flip over walls. If you get a trap ready behind a wall, the enemy will often take the shortest path towards your character -- leaving them open to well-placed combo openers.

  Re-position your combos if a jumping enemy doesn't seem to quite fit into your master plan. Bait them into jumping right into a combo opener like a bear trap or a lethal lance.

• Speaking of openers, a really good early-game combo is as follows: start off with a bear trap one square away from a wall, then suck the enemy into the wall with the lethal lance. Place a spike ceiling trap there, and then initiate a pendulum guillotine to swing in any direction, followed by dropping a boulder on their heads. You can put this combo on stairs to give yourself even more leeway with boulders.

• Take lots of different traps -- don't just min-max with all ceiling, floor, or wall types. Having said that, ceiling traps are one of the most diverse categories in the game, as they can go practically anywhere with very little setup needed.

• Almost no one is immune to the wall spikes you get early in the game (lethal lance). Use this to your advantage, and set up traps that enemies otherwise resist (like boulders or guillotines) -- once they're stunned or open to attack, they're vulnerable.

• Periodically go back into your trap selection screen and see what your maximum (equipped) trap allotment is. It could increase randomly after a series of levels and you might not have noticed it.

• In order to create and download quests, you need to finish at least one mission in Mission Mode -- you don't have to beat the story to unlock it.

The post Very Quick Tips: Deception IV: Blood Ties appeared first on Destructoid.

Bloody great

The Deception franchise is a? series I wish more ??people were aware of. Although the concept of a character that can't physically defend themselves isn't typically a popular go-to mechanic, this survival horror-like idea is turned on its head with the existence of deadly traps.

There's something soothing about setting up a ridiculously elaborate Goldbergian machine and unleashing it upon your foes that's insanely satisfying, and Deception IV is no exception. In fact, it ?may be the best and bloodiest entry yet.

Deception IV: Blood Ties (PS3 [reviewed], Vita)
Developer: Tecmo Koei
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
Release: March 25, 2014
Price: $59.99 (PS3) / $39.99 (Vita)

Blood Ties has little in the way of setup and nuance. In short, you play the role of Laegrinna, the "daughter" of the devil, whose sole purpose is to collect 12 artifacts and resurrect her father to create hell on Earth. She's not alone in this endeavor, as three demonic goddesses are at her side, representing elaboration, sadism, and humiliation. As usual, Deception foll?ows the occult theme to the letter, offering up demonic and holy imagery galore, with Tecmo Koei's signature style mixed in.

This time around however Tecmo has opted to not record an English voice track, which makes it less cheesy on the whole and much easier to watch. The Japanese audio throughout makes for a better experience, albeit a more niche one if anime openings aren't your thing. The story is straightforward with almost no twists or turns along the way?, but the macabre pre??sentation and the chuckle-inducing writing helps draw you in. Make no mistake though, the story is mostly a delivery system for the gameplay, which is where the real meat of the game lies.

That demonic trio I mentioned earlier? They're conveniently color-coded as blue, red, and yellow respectively, representing the three "schools" of traps you can use. Elaborate traps tend to set up other types, sadist traps do the bulk of your damage, and humiliation is basically a mix of the two. If you know what you're doing you can jump right in and skip the tutorial, but most people will want to re-acclimate -- especially since Deception games are few and far between.

For the uninitiate??d, what you're essentially doing is "rigging" various rooms with traps in a grid-like fashion from a giant arsenal of deadly tools ranging from anything to vases that drop from the sky to blind foes to simple arrow launchers to giant boulders that can roll down inclined surfaces. Note that this game doesn't take place all in real-time, as you'll pause the action momentarily to place said contraptions -- but once you put them down, the game will remember their locations within a level so you don't have to set them again.

Where Deception IV really shines is the sheer variety of traps on offer, as the humiliation tree in particular tends to go over-the-top with its stable of zany choices. It's really strange at first to set up a rake for someone to hit their face with, Looney Tunes-style, so that they can get impaled on a giant bed of bloody spikes, but you'll quickly get used to how much power Deception offers to play the way you wan??t. You only start with the ability to setup a trio of traps in tandem, but eventually you'll unlock more, to the point ??where the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

For instance, you can setup a combo to fling someone onto a specific block by way of a pendulum-swung guillotine, then spring a bear trap to lock them in place. You can then use a moving wall to "push" them into another spot, and drop a vase on their head. As they're wandering around aimlessly, you can pop another trap that hits a flimsy column, cau?sing it to come down smash?ing on their head, at which point you'll finish them off with a giant Indiana Jones-style boulder for extra measure -- the latter of which can be directed by placing spring board traps that come from underneath the ground.

You'll have four themed? worlds to play around in, all of which have their own environmental traps that help mix up your combo creation even more -- I'm talking anything from tiny flying blimps with missiles to arcane artifacts that s?hoot magic bullets. I wish there was at least one more arena included, but all four are packed to the gills with personality. Enemies won't just sit idly by though as you hack them to bits -- many of them have the ability to jump, sneak up behind you, dodge traps, or nullify certain types entirely with bulky armor.

Often times three enemies appear at a time, sometimes with abilities that complement each other, like fire and ice magic that can burn you for damage over time and freeze you, respectively. You can use the "Devil's Eye" mechanic to learn more about each enemy (including a miniature backstory), but for the most part you'll need to rely on your wits and master every type of trap. Abilities like dodging and dashing make Deception IV more action-oriented than in the past, and offer even more customization elements for Laegrinna. So long as you can deal with pausing the action occasional??ly to put traps down, you'll enjoy yourself.

I've often said that I'll take smooth gameplay over cutting-edge visuals any day, and Deception IV embodies that philosophy perfectly. Deception IV features a consistent framerate, and the animations are flawless??. It's not a technical marvel by any means even on the PlayStation 3, but it works, and that's what's important.

After you're done with the roughly 10-hour campaign, there's so much you can do in Deception IV it's almost overwhelming. There's a free battle mode that lets you run wild with any enemies or areas you choose, allowing you to practice combos to your heart's content and check out any environmental traps you might have missed. There's also 100 challenge missions on offer, which range from "kill this enemy within this time limit" to "complete these specific trap requirements." Although some are less inspired than others, they go by rather quickly and will challenge even the most learned of Deception veterans.

Then you have the Quest Creation mode, which lets you pick your own areas, enemies, and objectives, ??then test them out and post them online. Likewise, you can download other creations and try them out. I should also mention that there are plenty of unlockables, including new traps and costumes -- all included in the base game without DLC. Well done, Tecmo Koei.

If the idea of setting up methodical, creative puzzles sounds like a good time, you'll love Deception IV. It's easily the most packed game in the series, and with its optional tutorials, it's even a great first stop for genre newcomers. After many years of lying dormant with the franchise Tecmo Koei has once again showed us that they still have it, and I for one wouldn't mind seeing more Deception games in my lifetime.

The post Review: Deception IV: Blood Ties appeared first on Destructoid.

All Nightmare Long

Want to get an idea of what the gameplay is like in Deception IV? Watch t??hese trailers to see how exactly the trap setting mechanic works. It's not very action oriented, with more of an emphasis on the strategic placement ??of traps for fun and profit.

It may not be for everyone, but I've been waiting years for a Deception follow-up, so expect a full review sometime next week.

The post These new Decept??ion IV trailers are ??sufficiently absurd appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming to PS3 and Vita

Tecmo Koei has dropped the official date for Deception IV: Blood Ties for North America this morning: March 25, 2014. This follow-up to the PlayStation classic Tecmo's Deception is coming to PS3 and Vita -- traps and deaths and all -- comes with full Cross Play an?d Cross Save support between the two platforms.?? Yes.

The Vita h??as some touch screen functions to set and activate traps, while the PS3 ve?rsion will let you upload combos or challenge other players' combos online. 

I don't know about you, but I am sooooooo ready to play this game. I love this series (Kagero, Trapt) so much. This sits near the top of my anticipated game list for ear?ly 2014.

We have a huge gallery of images from Deception IV to check out. 

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