Many PC game players probably are very fond of the game mode (3D tower defense) of Orcs Must Die! series – torture and kill the enemy with a variety of traps. In fact, it thoroughly imitated the earliest and most successful trap simulation video game Kagero/Deception series, made by the well-known game company Tecmo from Japan – producer and publisher of many popular video game series, such as: Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Fatal Frame.

Kagero/Deception is a series of strategy-RPG type of  trap simulation video games developed by Tecmo. The design of this game series is extremely unique and subtle. You mission is to develop and make use of a variety of artful but bloody traps (3 types: ceiling traps, wall traps, and floor traps) to lure and kill the enemy while escaping from enemies’ kill. The whole series has released a total of 6 works so far on PlayStation 1 (3), PlayStation 2 (1), PlayStation 3 (1) and PlayStation 4 (1), as follows (AppNee can only provide everyone the ROMs for the first five games, of which I myself like the 蒼魔灯 best):

English Game	Japanese Name	Chinese Name	Year	Console
Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation to Darkness (Kokumeikan)	刻命館 (こくめいかん)	刻命馆	1996	PS1
Kagero: Deception II (Kagero: Kokumeikan Shinsho)	影牢 〜刻命館 真章〜 (かげろう こくめいかん・しんしょう)	影牢 ～刻命馆 真章～	1998
Deception III: Dark Delusion (Soumatou)	蒼魔灯 (そうまとう)	苍魔灯	1999
Trapt (Kagero II: Dark Illusion)	影牢II -Dark illusion- (かげろうツー ダークイリュージョン)	影牢2：暗黑幻影-	2005	PS2
Deception IV: Blood Ties (Kagero: Dark Side Princess)	影牢 ～ダークサイド プリンセス～	影牢4：暗面公主	2014	PS3
Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (Kagero: Another Princess)	影牢 ～もう1人のプリンセス～	影牢4：恶梦公主	2015	PS4

Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation to Darkness (Kokumeikan) is the earliest work of Kagero/Deception series. It enjoys fans players’ consistent high praise all the time due to its original and fresh subject, game mode and multi-branch, multi-ending game plot. Moreover, it also lay the groundwork for any subsequent 3D trap simulation games, and established its leadership in this kind of games.

Kagero: Deception II (Kagero: Kokumeikan Shinsho) is second unorthodox sequel in Kagero series. It is equivalent to an enhanced edition with unofficial biography nature of predecessor, which not only inherited the merits of the former work, but also did much improvement and perfection to them. Plus, starting from this work, ‘Kagero’ became the official name of the whole series.

As the third work of this series that came out in the expectation of many fans players, Deception III: Dark Delusion (Soumatou) likewise inherited the advantages of the first two works, and made further improvement and consummation. For example, its game system became more complex, attached emblem properties to traps, and so on. In addition, the background music in this work is excellent and unique. The sad but unobjectionable melody interprets the game characters and plot to the point.

After Kagero landed on PlayStation 2 platform, the large charge of traps combo attacks, graphics, and sound effects in Trapt (Kagero II: Dark Illusion) are all better than the predecessors on PlayStation 1 console, and have a qualitative leap. But in AppNee’s opinion, it is not as outstanding and successful as Deception III: Dark Delusion. To make matters worse, Trapt started to get this series of game some gaudy.

In sum, this series of video games has remarkable creativity and simple operation, but requires players to use brains more than to take actions. BTW, the whole series comes with strongly bloody scenes and gloomy world outlook. For example, some pitfalls are in fact the instruments of torture in ancient time, such as: iron maiden, electric chair, iron saw, scaffold, etc. Therefore, it is only suitable for adult players over 18 years old to play.

[description placeholder for Deception IV: Blood Ties]

// Fan Made Demo Videos //

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ka3ogGEuCk

// Use Instructions //

For Deception IV: Blood Ties:

First of all, do make sure your computer hardware configuration is high enough. Otherwise, the gameplay must be painful – extremely slow!

1. Run rpcs3, file/boot SELF/ELF
2. Load ‘EBOOT.BIN’ file in “PS3_GAME\USRDIR”
3. Load ‘rpcs3’ under “PS3_UPDATE”
4. File/intall fireware
5. Right click on game – boot
6. Wait, wait and wait
7. Enjoy the game

// Download URLs //

Game	Region	Emulator	ROM	Size
PlayStation 1
Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation to Darkness	US	ePSXe, pSX		180 MB
Kagero: Deception II				310 MB
Deception III: Dark Delusion				374 MB
PlayStation 2
Trapt	US	PCSX2		746 MB
PlayStation 3
Deception IV: Blood Ties	US	RPCS3		1.95 GB

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