I rediscovered my liking to Top-down shooter game when I played Operation Carnage 2 years ago. Then I’m fond with playing with traps in Deception series including Kagero. What if someone make game by combining those elements: Top-Down shooter and trap? Will the game become super liked by me? What do you know? There’s game called Trap Gunner (1998) on Playstation 1. It’s developed by Racyd and published by Atlus which you know them as developer of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei. Peculiar!
Impressive title screen. I like the static effect on the TV screen along the title. “Trap&Gun action is written in the top center” to further convince me what the game is all about. I’m sold with the unique idea but I want to check the option menu first before fall head first to the game.
The option is pretty complex. There’s various setting option here in separate screen which predates standard of nowadays game. In System option, the difficulty setting is set to “Easy” by default. I turn it to “Normal” and hopefully the game won’t bite me by doing this. Spoiler: It bites me quite hard. Here’s the Versus option but I just leave every setting here in default so I can feel the experience that’s closest to the default. One thing that troubles me is there’s no controller configuration so I don’t know the control scheme or change it.
I pick the Tutorial on main menu and it leads me to step-by-step tutorial videos. I was expecting practice course which is quite common in many PS 1 games. But the videos are useful and informative although the video quality is not great. Lesson #9 video informs me that I can make enemy fall into a series of trap akin to Kagero. I can tell that I like this game.
Here's the casts which differs by their stats, weapon and traps that they have. From left to right: 1) Van Raily, your typical anime protagonist with weird hair. 2) John Bishous, the muscle man. 3) Tico, the cute female character that somehow works for FBI according to the anime opening in which FBI word flies on her introduction. 4) Lou Richie, the serious female character that have some muscular arms. 5) Abdoll Relin who is weird freak. Perhaps his design is based on Japanese clown or theater actor. 6) Lastly Tenrou Ugetsu the ninja. Right of the bat, I choose the ninja because why not?
My first mission is at museum and defeat John Bishous. According to his biodata, he’s 35 years old which is not far from my age. I kind of sympathize to him.
So that’s me on upper camera. Maybe the game feels better if the screen split vertically instead of horizontally like this but this is fine enough. I mentioned before that I didn’t know the control scheme but luckily there’s controller indicator on the left center. “Square” button to set the trap. “Triangle” button to toggle “careful walk”. “Cross” button to detonate remote bomb that unfortunately I don’t have. Lastly “Circle” button to use my gun but in Tenrou’s case: he throws kunai.
As you can see, I put 2 mines on my left and right, which is quite clever plan in my opinion.
Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav. He just run into the mine and the second mine also explodes. But, wait! I’m getting damage from my mine too! Lesson learned: don’t be near mines even for luring the prey.
I prepare some trap for him. But he prepares the special weapon called “UNIT” which can be obtained in item spawning spot called “PODS”. I have to say this in front that I bloody hate this UNIT weapon. It will launch explosive orb that slowly track you and suddenly drop on you. Since Tenrou has fast movement speed, he can outrun the orb if the place is big enough. You might think that UNIT does not so bad. Well, on its own that may be true. But the orb makes you panic so you run throughout the map hoping that it will expire but you will forget to check your surrounding for enemy’s trap and get hit or it will hit you when you’re in the middle of disarming the trap. I will talk about trap disarming later. For now, I say that just to confirm that there’s a way to negate trap. There’s sure way to avoid the explosive orb and that’s by standing below catwalk/bridge but it will destroy the terrain in process.
The gun or kunai part is quite good though. The aim has some degree of autocorrect so your aim is not strict to 8 main directions. Tenrou has kunai while John has wide-spread shotgun. Kunai has 7 ammo limits before reloading which is done by pressing the fire button when the ammo count is zero. Besides it has bigger ammo count, kunai also fast in projectile speed and rate so I think that’s the reason why I win in this shooting contest. If I were close to John, he will get the upper hand though because I think his shotgun is stronger in close range.
Sniper_jeers08.wav. I’m hit with force trap which makes me flung haplessly in one direction. The Kagero/Deception 2’s analogy of this trap is: it is in form of smash floor but with effect of Buzzsaw that throw opponent to farthest wall.
But two can play that game, I can also deploy force trap. However, I set mine on his flying path. Demoman_specialcompleted04.wav
With few more kunai on his body, he’s defeated. Spy_DominationSoldier02.wav
Much like in fighting game, there’s before and after fight dialogue. Can’t escape the crossing fate, huh?
Next target is Tico and she’s just 16 years old. But I still kill her just for my mission. Nothing personal.
Tico’s weapon is firecracker. Imagine if you’re professional assassin getting hit by a firecracker. How humiliating! :C
Setting the force trap is quite tricky because I need to adjust my facing to direction where the trap wants me to throw the target. By the way, to change trap press L1 or R1. Sadly, there’s no automatic rotation selection. So, if you press L1 when you currently select the most left trap on your arsenal, you selection is stuck that’s also occurs when you press R1 when you currently select the most right trap. Meanwhile L2 or R2 button to change camera direction.
I’m stuck on trap hole! Wiggling the d-pad seems make it faster to get out of the trap. However, the UNIT’s explosive orb is already on my head. Scout_paincrticialdeath01.wav
As far as I know, each character has 3 types of traps. Bomb is not initially in Tenrou’s ninja bag. For some reason, I have it. As I try to use it, it immediately explodes and injuring both me and Tico. Later on, I learn that bomb will only explode if triggered by explosion from other traps. It won’t detonate on its own. I think the bomb is bad.
Finally, I get my ninja hand on UNIT weapon. It takes quite long time to activate the special weapon. Basically, who ready the UNIT weapon first is the winner. UNIT weapon deals the most damage in entire game.
And I won with the most annoying weapon in the game. But I don’t care! Cm_demo_gamewon_06.mp3
Tico’s last words are she likes ice cream. Tenrou feels sad for a bit but suddenly self-destruction on Tico’s body is activated! He is shocked as much as I am. So, Tico is robot, after all.
I thought my next mission is the usual eliminate target but no. It’s bonus stage kind of thing. I have to disarm all of the trap in this area. Naturally, this bonus stage wants you to practice your trap disarm skill. This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the trap disarming. By holding the “triangle” button, your character walks slower but can reveal hidden traps within character’s searching range. I assume since Tenrou is ninja with heightened sense, his searching range is the biggest. Approaching hostile’s trap while in search mode, will initiate trap disarming instead of detonate it. Trap disarm works by pressing correct button within limited time. If the timer is zero or you press wrong button in consequence, the trap will detonate instead! Enemy can interrupt your trap disarming process by shooting and will immediately activate the trap. Sounds tedious, doesn’t it? So, is it worth it to disarm traps? Kind of. Not only you can secure the area from extra threat (besides from you enemy’s direct attack), but also you get some health boost upon successful trap disarm. My only explanation why the characters get some heal after disarming a trap, it’s because they’re so happy doing it and success. Trap disarm is the only heal that you can get besides from healing item that randomly spawn at the item spawner point. Basically, by putting trap for your enemy, you will give them opportunity to heal them but as I’ve said before that interrupting their trap disarm will detonate the trap. This game is freaking complex!
Next showdown is against the
main protagonist: Van Raily. Demoman_battlecry07.wav
The fight didn’t go well in my favor. I blame this slope that forces me to move trap below. If I try to disarm it, Van shoots me. I try to dodge it, by moving upward but the slope makes my move slow and I end up getting shot by Van in the backside!
But I can use the slope for my benefit. Van keep walking up while I chuck lots of kunai on his behind. How the tables have turned.
I can do the same trick when I’m in high ground too! I try to do spicier to fight Van but this is very efficient way to do it. Why bother? Besides there’s lots of slope around here. Might as well as exploit them to my advantage.
Next target is the clownish freak: Abdoll Relin. I don’t think Tenrou and Abdoll have coherent dialogue but I can tell that their brain has same wavelength.
If you press fire button when enemy is nearby, your character will do melee attack instead. The game said that each character has stronger melee attack than the other. Van does kick. John and Abdoll do punch. While Tenrou does some cool flip sword slash which has long range and I assume does bigger damage. So my pick is not busted.
Good thing, opponent insist on walking on slope here too so I can get lots of free shot.
I was careless and let Abdoll get the UNIT weapon but in the end, I manage to kill him fair and square with my throwing kunai. There’s a way to cancel the UNIT weapon: shoot the UNIT user before the orb fall on your head which can be easily said than done. What if the user surrounds themselves with trap before launching the orb? Exactly.
Turns out Abdoll is not human, unshockingly. As typical mutant, Abdoll melt as his life’s gone.
Next mission is another bonus stage where I have to collect all of ancient monster’s blood sample in this map. Wait! What?
Surely, the mission is tougher than it sounds. This place is rigged with poison gas traps! Once I trigger one, the other also come off!
Did I mention that I hate slope? Because I really mean it. I can’t approach the trap at the top of the slope because my searching walk is weaker than the slope’s slipperiness. So, I’m forced to take the other way round that naturally waste my time. Did I tell you that the bonus stage has time limit? Because it does! Eventually, I manage to succeed in this mission. The blood samples are located in each corner. There are lots of traps, boxes, and laser turrets in this place. It sucks!
Next target is the femme fatale: Lou Riche. My employer wants this spy dead for some reason.
The factory level introduces you with conveyor belts because of course factory level in any Japanese game, must contain conveyor belts. Lou Richie is about to shoot the last projectile of UNIT. Meanwhile, I place myself in corner securing all entry points with mine and I have full ammo on UNIT which is 3. Once I manage to avoid her UNIT projectile, I will return to this safe corner and launch my UNIT. Solid plan.
She took all the mines and I can finish her off with several kunai! Sniper_DominationSpy01.wav
My next target is Elg who’s mentioned few times on Tenrou’s dialogue. So, we’re on the boss fight already?
Where did you get that remote bomb trap? I didn’t see it in your biodata. Cheater! Anyway, unexpectedly fighting against Elg is my mirror match! Instead of throwing kunai, he throws shuriken. Some part of this ninja house can turn into slope that I can exploit for my back shooting.
Everything goes well until he has UNIT weapon. God, I hate that blasted weapon. I manage to avoid it by standing below the catwalk but none of us can pass through it again after destroyed. It’s kind of baffling because we’re both ninja supposed to have high athletic capability. We should be able to jump over 1 destroyed block of catwalk, right?
My heath is running low but I will use the same trick against Lou which is locate myself in corner, set trap in some entry points, and launch UNIT weapon. It works! :)
Suddenly, there’s wall of texts upon defeating Elg…
Shocking twist although it’s typical ones! Elg is Tenrou’s father. It seems Tengen Ugetsu/Elg is betrayed by people of his village because of power and he turned evil on that point.
It was almost a divine technique.
Tenrou turned around and avoided his father’s attack.
For he knew it was coming. Then…”Hyaa!”
With one stroke of his katana, he finished his father.
“My father died long ago…” Tenrou said.
“How did…How did you become so strong?”
Those were the last words of Elg.
It’s very impressive that Tenrou can cut his father precisely in middle. I want to argue that ninja don’t use katana and use ninjatō (which is slightly shorter than katana) instead. But ninjatō’s existence is historically debatable so I let that slip off. This seems to be the end of Tenrou’s murderous quest but surprise! Surprise! Elg is not the final boss although there’s example of final boss is mirror match like in Taito’s Violence Fight.
There’s Stilb standing menacingly. My screen isn’t halved for this boss fight, which is nice. What’s not nice how the fight goes. This entire room is full of laser turrets, and missile launchers that aggressively bring hostility toward me. Moreover, Stilb himself is not idle. He either shoots 3 fast homing projectile or launches UNIT’s projectile! Spy_jeers04.wav
Doing damage race with Stilb by using kunai, is terrible idea. My kunai does so little, compared to his homing projectiles. Melee also no good because his punch is more powerful than my katana. The only way to succeed in this boss fight is by picking stuff at PODS. There are 2 of them: one is in north left and the other is in south left. They’re marked with blue “ + ” icon on radar. To reach there, I must go through barrage of laser. The turrets fire in certain period, so I have to time it right to go through them safely. But Stilb can and will disturb me with his annoying projectile.
There are some boxes on the entrance that contain health refill or speed up item. Look at how far the homing projectile’s reach! It flies to the edge of the level and it moves very fast! Spy_sf13_magic_reac05.wav
There’s clear way that leads to south PODS but it’s obstructed by this wall! At least in default camera, that is. Or you can navigate it by looking at the map/radar. I just realize that the nuclear icon one the right of the timer is to indicate that what PODS produces at the time. Nuclear means UNIT weapon. Diamond means invincibility power up (that funnily doesn’t protect you from UNIT’s projectile). Cross means health refill item and etc. But the thing is there are 2 PODS so I’m not sure which one that marked on the HUD and as far as I know it alternates between the 2 PODS.
After several attempts…
Duh! I was stupid. Why I let those turrets active when I can destroy them? Turns out my projectile can reach entire level so I can destroy those damned turrets off screen. It’s kind of not easy though as I have to dodge Stilb’s homing projectiles and UNIT projectile. One thing that I don’t like with the shoot’s part is the manual reload mechanism. I have to press the fire button to reload when ammo count reaches 0 and the reload animation takes quite long time. I wish I can just reload manually anytime. More often than not when I catch the enemy defenseless for attack, I end up must reload the weapon first because I forget to reload and they either get away to safety or attack me first.
Even with the turrets gone, fighting Stilb is still tedious thanks to his reliable homing projectiles.
You have some options to put serious damage on Stilb. One of them is using UNIT weapon but the timing is pretty strict to launch it. Probably the best timing is when Stilb is in the middle of charging his own UNIT and you have to be far enough from him. The other timing is when you have dodged all of 3 homing projectiles of his first. Don’t do it when the homing projectiles are still around like me here. Unless you are confident that the terrain will cover you from them. Stilb is defenseless while charging his UNIT weapon, so you can attack him to interrupt the UNIT’s launch.
The other option is to use the poison gas trap. Because the gas cloud that it produces is 3 X 3 area, you do not have to set it right next to Stilb. Quite convenience.
At long last, Stilb becomes shinning, shrinking, then dead. Meanwhile Tenrou vanishes from the level with smoke bomb. Typical ninja.
Poor Tenrou. He no longer has place where he belongs. Wait! There’s more epilogue than these texts…
There’s no way he can have a peaceful life.
If killing is his fate, then he shall accept it.
His hands shall be stained with blood on behalf of others.
“…That may be the only thing that I can do.”
Tenrou disappeared into the darkness.
“To live in darkness and to die in darkness…”
Not the cheerful or glorious ending for hero who defeat -presumably- evil villains. But that’s true ninja’s life, I guess. Although with that bright custom, Tenrou can’t blend well in darkness.
Then the credit rolls with some catchy anime background slide. I wonder if I can unlock this lady by finishing the game. She looks awesome. On the other slide, her hair become white and she pose with Van Raily. So, is she Van Raily’s relative much like Elg with Tenrou?
Oh, wait! There’s more epilogue text after credit roll!
Tenrou started to hunt down the remaining members of Gain.
“Other people shouldn’t stain their hands.
I will take care of it. This is my duty.
Tenrou fights.
He fights to prevent dreadful things to happen, like what happened to his father.
He will fight until his katana breaks.
He will fight until he dies.
Tenrou’s narration may sounds cool but he wouldn’t fight alone if he didn’t kill other character who also have problem with this evil organization Gain, like Van Raily, Lou Richie, Tico, and John Bishous. I’m not sure I can tell the same with Abdoll Relin. He looks like created to kill everyone. Suddenly Tenrou is deemed big fool in my judgement because of that. But then he can only trust himself and his katana. Such is ninja’s life.
Then we’re presented with time assessment. I know Tekken 3 does this too but I prefer score points assessment. Just my personal preference. -_-
Racyd‘s Trap Gunner (1998) is curious case, mixing trap setting into top-down shooter and make it PvP game. Personally, I don’t like PvP game but I can like this game. I really love the aesthetic of this game. TV screen for game menu and mission briefing. Also the cast killing each other, reminds me of Namco’s The Outfoxies, which hopefully I will review someday. Review on 2 main parts of the game: 1) The shooting is quite fine. The shooting aim has auto-correction on some degree. But the annoying part is the manual reload. I can’t reload my weapon if the ammo count isn’t zero yet and the reload animation take quite long time. I think the button for remote detonation (cross) can be also functioned as manual reload button because not everyone has remote control bomb including Tenrou. It will be like in Medal of Honor where operate function (open door etc.) also function as manual reload. It’s kind of strange but it works quite well. 2) The trapping is pretty good but I wish there’s more trap variation than just explosive. I want Mega Rock falls on my victim’s head or flash my victim’s eyes with flash bomb like in Kagero. The cast is well varied by initial traps they have, damage reduction capability, weapons, move speed, etc. I think John Bishous has the most damage reduction capability but his shotgun only good for close range. Van Raily has handgun with 4 ammo capability while Lou has submachine gun. Tico shoot firecracker while Abdoll fires spore or whatever thing that mutant fires. Personally, I like picking Tenrou but unfortunately, he doesn’t have handy remote control bomb. Melee attack can push enemy a bit so you can move them into your trap that hopefully safe on hit, for example: trap hole. I wish I can use the melee attack to break the item container instead of relying on ranged attack, saving me from wasting ammo that eventually leads to reload animation that takes so much time. The complexity of the gameplay is just enough for me. But making the difficulty to normal is too much for me. I should just leave it at easy difficulty. The game gets too hard for me from the fight with Van Raily where the cpu opponent is so quick at disarming the trap flawlessly and love to exploit using UNIT weapon. Speaking of which, it breaks the gameplay badly. It’s just too strong. The UNIT user can do whatever they want as their victim is busy with the deadly homing orb and probably ends up fall into trap. Although when carry UNIT, the user can only do melee attack while the homing orb is in the playfield. The only way to balance UNIT weapon that I can come up with is: make the ammo to 1 instead of 3 as it is. Also add more special weapon that’s more balanced, like flamethrower or rocket launcher. The sound effect is on standard of PS 1 game. The explosion sound is crisply loud. The graphic is kind of too blocky/polygonal but since the game’s camera is far. The graphic quality is acceptable. The story and presentation are top notch. Although the mirror match is reskin of your character, it’s supported by solid motive and story. Not to mention there’s anime opening. Also, there’s standard epilogue and after credit roll epilogue! I really don’t expect post-credit epilogue. It’s wonderful surprise. But maybe some of you will disagree with my opinion on the ending because you prefer CGI (even the quality is cheap) scene rather than just still image with wall of text. I can’t judge you for that.
Trap Gunner (1998) is almost fantastic game despite it makes combination that I love: top-down shooter and trapping. Maybe I will like the game more if it’s not on versus format. Just pure player versus mob or boss enemy. But the game will be resemble Loaded (1995) on PS 1. Things that destroy my fun are UNIT weapon and ramps although I can use them for my advantage. The best that I can do for this game is giving it an A Recommendation. It's quite wonderful as it is. If you want to play the game, set the difficulty to easy for your own sake. Or play it with two players. It’s quite better than playing with mean CPU opponent.
