Killer7 Just Got A Substantial Quality-of-life Update – You Read That Correctly

Honey, wake up. A new update just dropped for the PC version of Killer7. But this isn’t just housekeeping, it actually makes some substantial quality-of-life improvements.

Getting Killer7 on PC back in 2018 was important in its own right. Previously, it was only available on PS2 and GameCube, and the game is just too weird and important to languish on those consoles. The port was decent. More than just a lazy transplant, it allowed the graphics to run in higher resolutions and widescreen. There were some drawbacks, however.

One of the biggest issues has now been addressed: the FMV cutscenes have been remastered based on the GameCube originals. Previously, they were jarringly compressed. You’d go from the clean cell-shade visuals to anime that looks like it was taken from 2006’s YouTube. Want to see a comparison? Here’s the header image versus a screenshot I took of a similar frame from the pre-update version.

That’s the good stuff, right there. But that’s not all. Here, have some bulletpoints:

• more reload animations now use 60fps
• added MSAA support (it can be enabled in the config tool)
• added framerate limiter support (it can be configured in the config tool)
• upscaled more fonts
• upscaled more textures
• added BC7 texture support
• enabled DPI awareness to allow proper 4K resolutions (please disable custom DPI overrides!)

No, wait, it doesn’t end there. Have some more:

• junctions can now be selected faster when using the mouse
• it’s now possible to select all skills in the TV menu when using the mouse
• Kess Bloodysunday’s cutscenes are now skippable
• replaced fixed Xbox button references with dynamic button glyphs
• – properly displays customized buttons
• – added support for keyboard and mouse buttons
• removed references to the “Memory Card” when saving or loading
• the config tool now checks for incorrect duplicate bindings
• added DualShock 4 & DualSense support

Like I said, substantial. Upscaled fonts, increased framerate for some animations, upscaled textures, proper 4K resolution; this basically upgrades Killer7 from a decent port to a Hella Remaster. I’m reinstalling it right now.

If you’ve never played Killer7, then you’ve never played anything like it. It was the game that essentially put Suda51 on the map for a lot of Westerners. It features a strikingly terrific artstyle, a vague, nebulous plot (don’t listen to anyone who says it makes sense), and a whole lot of blood. It’s the most game thing to get released in the ‘00s. When you think about it, it’s kind of shocking that it exists at all.

Killer7 is available right now on PC. Hopefully this signifies that we might finally get a port to modern consoles.