killer7 consists in deploying, after about two weeks of continuous survey bombing, a scrap which returns the embarrassing PlayStation 2 cutscenes upscaled by the AI to their former glory (at a slightly low resolution).
“We have a small update that follows on from the main update,” the patch notes read, “in response to your valuable feedback!” The long and compact of the note is that by default, cutscenes will be at their original resolution, with the option to revert to the AI-enhanced version in the configuration tool if you want to offensively spoil Suda51’s masterpiece again.
Satirical cult classic by Suda51 killer7 was finally ported to Steam six years ago, allowing players venerable and novel alike to be amazed and absorbed by its unique brand of madness. One of the few issues with porting the game was the inclusion of cutscenes from the PlayStation 2 version of the game, which were less acute than those found on the GameCube. The latest update tried to solve this problem, not by simply replacing the FMV, but by using everyone’s favorite video modification technique: AI scaling.
For about five seconds everyone was excited at the prospect of improving the video quality, until we all started noticing the (obvious) cracks. This isn’t the first time I remember this technique causing a stir for Daft Punk Interstella 5555 returning to cinemas with a similar result Exclusive, resembling Vaseline.
So why does this keep happening? There are two likely answers: one, it’s budget-friendly. Two, and more generously, master copies, which could be “improved” in a more classic way, may have been lost over time. The good news is that the general public seems to be paying attention to the “weirdness” of these exclusives, and we’ll likely see further backlash if they are reintroduced in the future. Sometimes we’ll probably have to deal with a bit of confusion.
