The Storyboards and Scripts of the “Shan Xi” level for Fear Effect Inferno PlayStation 2
This article [Fear Effect Inferno Playstation 2 and its prototypes: the art of video game storytelling], dedicated to revealing the secrets behind Fear Effect Inferno, has already guided you through the twists and turns of its tumultuous history, its complex characters, and the technical peculiarities of its prototype. Now let's venture into the back alleys of the “Shan Xi” level, where reality is superseded by the paranormal.
Each cutscene has its own unique Kronos Entertainment code. The first letter coincides with the level of Fear Effect Inferno, in this case “D” for “Shan Xi”. The numbers refer to the cinematics. Finally, the last letter “N” stands for “Narrative”. The Scripts and extracts making up the Storyboards are numbered in the same way, to link them to the corresponding cutscenes.
On this page, you can view the Scripts and all the Storyboards for the “Shan Xi” level in the order in which they appear in the game.
Compilation of cutscenes of the Shan Xi level for Fear Effect Inferno
Clicking on the blue cutscene link, where available, will open the Youtube video on the right at the start of the cinematic (Timecode).
Enjoy your reading!
Cutscene D055N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. cemetary – stormy day
Dark clouds loom overhead, and sheets of rain pound two gravediggers who stand a discreet distance from an open grave.
Rain kneels beside the grave, before a large clay urn, in which a low flame burns. Glas stands over her, holding an umbrella to shield her and the flame from the pouring rain.
A coffin rests on the floor of the pit and a marker has been placed at its head.
Rain places a small folded piece of paper into the flame, and it flares briefly. With her other hand, she clutches an object to her chest. She’s clearly doing her best to control her tears.
Whatever Glas is feeling, he lets no indication to the surface.
After another moment, she stands, still looking at the coffin.
A tortured sob finally chokes past her defenses. Then another. We see now that the object she’s clutching to her chest is a framed photo of Hana.
Glas hangs his head now, his hair hiding his face.
Suddenly, Rain’s head snaps up.
2)
Glas turns to face her, but she’s looking back at the grave, and continues to focus on the soaked ground.
Glas approaches and puts his hand on her shoulder.
She doesn’t move, and continues to look at the grave. A beat.
She tears herself away from the grave at last, and buries her face in Glas’ shoulder. Glas is startled by the unaccustomed contact, but warms to her and returns the embrace.
cut to:
ext. graveyard, hill - same
Deke stands behind a tree, watching, seen in silhouette, from behind.
He watches as Glas and Rain take their leave, stands a few more moments, looking at the grave.
CLOSE ON: his hand, fingers clenching, digging into the bark.
After another moment, he turns to leave.
As he walks away, we see five bloodied spots on the tree where Deke’s fingers had dug in.
1)
int. rain’s living room – later that night
Rain sits lengthwise on her couch, dressed for bed. A few candles burn in the otherwise darkened room, and a cup of hot tea steams from the coffee table. A wounded soul in a self-made cocoon.
She holds Hana’s disc in her hand, fingering it, but seemingly not yet ready to play it.
Her attention drifts to a photograph of Hana looking uncharacteristically happy and relaxed – no guns, no gear, on a sunlit hillside – the photo she held earlier at the funeral. For a moment, she allows herself to get lost in the image again.
But all she has left is the disc. With sudden resolve, she reaches over to the laptop and inserts it.
After a brief flash and a pause, Hana’s face appears as she settles back in front of the recorder she’s just started.
Hana
Hi Rain.
(a beat, as she collects herself)
Ah, if you’re seeing this –
She looks down and away, then back into the camera.
Hana
(serious)
Everything’s taken care of. You won’t have to worry about… well, about stuff anymore.
She smiles, wanly.
Hana
(continued)
Keep an eye on the boys. They’re your family now.
(beat)
…I’m sorry I can’t be there…
If she goes any further down this road, she’s going to crack… so she doesn’t.
2)
Hana
All the information you’ll need is here on the disc.
But she just can’t carry it. This is taking more out of her than she thought, and she’s almost completely drained.
She manages one more line.
Hana
…I love you.
…And that’s all she has left. She reaches forward, and a moment later, the screen blinks out.
1)
i/e. glas’ car, alley – later that night
Glas sits in his grungy ATV, parked in a seedy alley somewhere in the city. The engine’s running, lights are off, and the only sound is the patchy rain rattling off the roof.
Moving shadows of the rain running down the windshield almost take the place of the tears he’d never allow.
There’s a bottle in his hand, and he’s clearly on his way to being drunk. A laptop sits on the hump between the seats, glowing faintly. Hana’s disc is in his other hand.
He inserts the disc and takes another swig.
After a flash and a pause, Hana’s face appears on the screen, settling back from starting the recorder.
She tries to start off casually.
Hana
Well, if you’re watching this, then...
She stops herself a beat. She can’t make eye contact with the camera anymore.
Hana
…well… …then it’s done.
She steels herself back to business.
Hana
I left the estate to Rain. She needs it.
(beat)
There’s a package for you too. The information is on the disc.
(beat)
I guess I don’t worry about you as much. You’ve always been able to look out for yourself.
A beat. A deeper realization.
2)
Hana
(subdued)
Take care of Rain. This is going to be really hard on her.
She looks away, unsure of how to say what comes next. A beat.
Hana
I guess I never told you –
(struggling for the words)
how much you meant to me.
(looking up at the camera)
It’s not really how I am. I’m sorry for that.
She looks away for a moment, reflecting. Then, back to business.
Hana
Make a better life for yourself, huh? You deserve it.
She looks directly at the camera now and smiles wryly.
Hana
I’ll miss you, Glas.
She reaches forward and shuts off the camera. The screen blinks out.
Cutscene D000N (13 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. rain’s apartment, bedroom – later that night
Rain lies in bed, in the throes of what has obviously been a fitful sleep. The bedclothes are in disarray and tangled around her, and as we find her, she rolls over again in agitation. Hana’s photograph lies on the bed nearby.
The SUDDEN BUZZING of the intercom shocks her awake.
cut to:
int. rain’s apartment, living room – same
Rain presses the intercom button.
Rain
(still half-asleep)
Hello?
Glas
It’s me, Glas.
cut to:
int. rain’s apartment, door –same
Rain opens the door, and Glas is there.
Glas’ gaze falls briefly to her body, and he quickly pulls it away, uncomfortable.
Glas
Is this a bad time?
Rain
No. It’s okay.
Rain turns from the door and Glas follows her in.
cut to:
INT – RAIN’S APARTMENT, Living Room – 2 HOURS LATER
Glas and Rain sit on the floor. There are two empty wine bottles between them.
2)
Rain
I keep thinking she’ll come walking through the door.
A beat, and both sit in silence for a moment.
Rain
(suddenly angry)
Why did she have to do this? She knew who those guys were.
(beat – directly at him now)
You all did. – Why didn’t you stop her? You, Deke, Hana. You all act like you’re untouchable!
Glas
They wouldn’t let her out any other way.
(beat)
They threatened to hurt you. To get at her. And she wasn’t going to let that happen.
(another beat)
…I guess she’s free now.
Rain processes this.
Rain
(quietly)
…but she’s alone.
Rain begins to cry in earnest, and she scrambles to her feet and runs through the bedroom to the bathroom.
INT – CONNECTED BATHROOM
Rain stands at the sink, trying to calm herself, but only getting more angry and upset as she goes.
With a sudden, swift fury, she looks up into the mirror and smashes it with her hand.
cut to:
int. living room
Glas hears the mirror break and is on his feet instantly.
3)
INT – BEDROOM
She makes her way out of the hallway from the bathroom into the bedroom, and nearly runs into Glas, who’s coming to check on her.
Glas
Are you alright?
Rain
Yes.
Her hand is bleeding, and he notices this.
Glas
You’re bleeding.
He takes her hand.
She looks suddenly up into his eyes. All the hurt, all the loneliness reflected there. A moment passes between them; a charged moment.
Glas suddenly breaks away.
Glas
I should go.
Rain moves to the open door, then turns to face him, uncertain.
Rain
(quietly)
You don’t have to go.
She makes her way to the corner of the bed, where a towel lies crumpled. She picks it up and presses it to her cut.
Glas
Should I go?
Glas
Maybe I should go.
1)
int. rain’s bedroom - night
Glas approaches Rain at the bed and sits down beside her. She’s cradling her wounded hand in the towel now, and he puts his arm around her. She leans against him.
They turn to face each other, and embrace, deeply. (Terminator 1 love scene)
fade to black
1)
int. rain’s bedroom - night
Glas makes his way over to the door.
Glas
I’ll come by tomorrow and see how you’re doing.
Rain nods, then approaches him and hugs him.
Rain
I’ll be okay.
After a moment, he turns and walks out the door.
fade to black
Cutscene D056N (4 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. rain’s apartment – later that night
Rain tosses and turns through a restless sleep, bedclothes in disarray and tangled around her, then suddenly calls out Hana’s name and startles herself awake.
Rain
Hana!
She reaches instinctively to the other space in the bed, but nobody’s there. Her hand lands instead on Hana’s photo.
She sits up in bed and looks at the photograph in the ambient city light streaming through the rain-sheeted window.
A bit of light glints off a gold ring on her finger and she looks at it more closely. She runs her finger over the pearl in its setting. This is Qin’s Pearl (from FE2), and the ring was a gift from Hana.
She climbs out of bed.
1)
int. bathroom – night
Rain opens the tap to fill the sink, and the soft sound of the falling water permeates the room, echoing the steady rain outside.
She peers into the desolate, defeated face looking back at her from the fogged, cracked mirror.
She dips her head and splashes warm water over her face, and as the water falls away, she becomes faintly aware of an encroaching whisper, intermingled with the sound of the falling water, and growing louder.
She wipes the water from her face, with increasing urgency as the whispering grows steadily louder, and clears her eyes just in time to see a blurred figure in the shattered, steamed reflection.
Someone’s watching her. The whispering is almost deafening now – a waterfall of unintelligible speech.
She spins and yelps and turns to look.
cut to:
rain’s pov: down hall toward bedroom
The whispering stops as she turns, leaving only the sounds of the rain and running faucet. No one’s there.
The faucet squeaks as she twists it shut.
She glances back at the mirror again, but nobody’s there either.
Cutscene D002N (19 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. rain’s bedroom – night
Rain approaches the figure in the corner, tentatively. With savage speed, a clawlike hand suddenly shoots out of the darkness and clamps a freezing grip over her wrist.
Rain cries out in pain and squirms in its icy clutch.
She watches in terror as the darkened figure hauls itself from the shadows.
It stands upright and drags Rain close. Long black hair hanging in clumps and knots prevents Rain from making out a face.
With superhuman strength, the creature forces Rain to her knees.
She looks up at the creature swaying slightly above her, but still can’t make anything out.
The creature tilts its head to look into Rain’s face, and the whispering resumes. Suddenly, just as the eyes connect, she realizes who she’s looking at. It’s Hana.
But her features are gray and lifeless. Her pupils are dilated; hands are claws. Numerous, small shark-like teeth fill her mouth.
Hana
(a tortured, demonic voice)
Help me, Rain.
She clutches at her more tightly. Hurting her.
Hana
(almost hissing)
The gate is in Shan Xi.
cut to:
int. rain’s bedroom – night
Rain startles awake, her scream mingling with the wail of an ambulance outside.
3)
Rain
Tell me, dammit!
Glas
I can’t.
Rain
Why?
Glas
Because I don’t know what happened! All right?
(beat)
We followed Wee Ming’s trail to Madam Chen’s… then… it all turned into… some sort of bad dream.
Rain
Take me there.
Glas
Rain, Hana’s dead! You have to face that. Nothing in Shan Xi’s going to help that.
Rain
(fiercely)
What are you afraid of, Glas?
Glas
I’m not afraid.
Rain
Then take me to Shan Xi.
- I’m going with or without you.
She waits for his response, either way.
2)
She sits up and collects herself, disentangling herself from the sheets and sitting on the edge of the bed as the siren echoes off into more distant streets.
It’s then that she notices the marks on her arm.
Still shaking, she reaches for the phone on the nightstand.
intercut with:
int. glas’ loft – continuous
Glas sits in the dark at a small, plain table amid a cavernous, but largely empty, loft. A rumpled bed isn’t far away, and he’s clearly just left it.
A cordless phone handset sitting on the table in front of him starts to ring. He looks at it, then finally picks it up after the second or third ring, almost as though he were expecting the call.
He simply clicks on the handset and puts it to his ear, without speaking.
Rain
Glas? It’s Rain.
(beat)
I just saw - …I think I saw Hana.
He moves his own arm into the city light angling through the window, and the telltale marks are there.
Glas
(beat)
You had a nightmare. That’s all.
She’s not having any of this. Not tonight.
Rain
Dammit, I saw her! She was here! She was- …She said something about a gate… in Shan Xi.
(beat)
What happened there, Glas?
Glas
I’m not gonna talk about that.
4)
Glas
(after a beat)
God dammit, fine! I’ll take you, but here’s the deal – once we’re there, you’ll do exactly as you’re told.
(beat)
I’ll need some time for – preparations.
(half to himself, half to her)
I can’t believe I let you talk me into this. It’s not gonna change anything – you know that!
Rain
Thanks.
She hangs up the phone, and he does too. A moment later, he picks it back up and dials a number.
cut to:
int. darkened room – night
Close on a ringing phone. Once, twice…
Pull back after the third ring to reveal a figure, sitting in the dark, watching it, taking a deep drag from a bottle.
He puts it back on the table and raises a cigarette. As he takes a drag, the light from the cigarette illuminates his face, just for a moment. It’s Deke.
We see his arm too, with the same bruises.
Cutscene D057N (23 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. glas’ loft – the next morning
Glas is carrying a military duffel bag over his shoulder and is about to head out when a knock at the door stops him. He drops the bag against the wall and opens the door.
An attractive Asian woman, with shoulder length dark hair, and a tattoo just visible where her sweater parts from her skirt, stands on the landing.
He stops cold. This is the last person he expected to see today.
Glas
You!
Nile
Hello Glas.
Glas
What do you want?
Nile
I wanted to see you.
Glas
Why?
Nile
Can I come in?
He doesn’t answer, doesn’t move.
Nile
They know you’re after the key.
This stops him cold. He knows who she’s talking about.
A beat.
Glas
(simply – not an accusation)
So they sent you.
2)
Nile
They don’t know I’m here.
Glas
Bullshit.
Nile
Please, Roy.
He steps back, allowing her inside, but still keeps them at the door. She enters and steps to the side. He closes the door.
Nile
I missed you.
Nile
I know I’ve made some bad calls …about us. …and I don’t expect you to forgive me.
Nile
I love you, Roy. I guess I haven’t given you much reason to believe that, but it’s true. We were good together.
He walks out to the table, where his laptop is open, leaving her alone, and closes the laptop on the table. On the laptop screen was a frozen image of Hana.
Glas
It was too late for all that the day you decided the shop was more important than we were.
She moves to join him where he stands, at the table, and faces him.
Nile
You know I didn’t have a choice.
Glas
Sure you did. You just made the wrong one.
She makes her way over to the bed.
Nile
It’s an impossible dream, Roy. You know that as well as I do.
She sits down on the edge.
3)
Nile
People like us don’t get normal lives.
He leaves his coffee on the counter, and moves to sit down beside her, but doesn’t face her.
Nile
But that doesn’t mean we can’t…
She touches his hand.
Nile
…still make the time we have together…
She leans in for a kiss, tentatively.
Nile
…good.
She kisses him. Soon his old feelings take over and he reciprocates and takes her into a deep embrace.
fade out.
fade up.
int. glas’ loft – day
Glas and Nile lie in bed, naked, silent. After a moment, he gets up without speaking.
He begins to pull on his gear.
Nile
Don’t go to Shan Xi, Glas.
She’s not worth it.
4)
Glas
I don’t have a choice.
He pulls on another piece of gear.
Glas
I need your help, Nile. I need the key.
She sits up in bed.
Nile
Even if I could help you with that, I wouldn’t. You know what’s on the other side.
He looks back at her, there on the bed, naked and beautiful, for a moment, then takes the laptop from the counter and stuffs it in the duffel.
Glas
Nothing I haven’t seen before.
He picks up the duffel and heads toward the door.
Nile
Be careful, Roy. I’ll try to cover you.
He glances back her way. He opens the door.
Glas
You do that.
He steps out, closing it behind him.
She remains in bed for a moment longer, then stands and makes her way to her own bag without attempting to cover herself, and picks up a small communicator.
Nile
(into communicator)
It’s on. Proceed as planned.
She touches her belly.
fade out.
Cutscene D058N (18 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
fade in:
long shot – shan xi
We track with Glas’ ATV, as the distant rooftops of Shan Xi rise over the horizon.
Intercut with:
Details of the city
Deep shadows entwine with pale shafts of fading light, drifting across the ruined rooftops of the broken city of Shan Xi as the dark threat of a massive storm bears down.
Few buildings remain intact, or even recognizable as what they might once have been, but the signs of lives lived and lost in this place are everywhere, strewn about and crushed beneath the rubble.
cut to:
ext. rooftop – shan xi – day
A silhouetted figure (Deke) leans against a broken stone protrusion on one of these rooftops as the wind rises and the light fades.
He peers off into the distance as a plume of dust rises from the old road.
He lifts a bottle and downs a snort of whisky.
cut to:
i/e. glas’ atv – day
Glas maneuvers the vehicle expertly through the rubble-choked streets, and Rain sits beside him as the broken hulks of the now unrecognizable city rise before them.
Rain fingers the pearl ring on her finger.
Rain
…so you never heard from Deke?
Glas
Nope.
2)
Rain
I wonder if he’s okay.
Glas
Deke is never okay.
Glas swerves the ATV around a massive chunk of broken stone, and suddenly, they find themselves facing a gaping chasm, torn across the land and the road.
Glas swings the vehicle around and pulls to a stop.
cut to:
ext. ravine edge - day
He and Rain climb out.
Glas
Guess this is as far as we go.
He makes his way around to the back of the truck, opens it, and starts prepping the gear.
Rain rounds the hood and heads over to the ravine edge for a closer look.
She peers down into the blackness of the abyss; its bottom far out of view. Far down in its depths, a few faintly glowing wisps of spirit-smoke writhe among themselves.
The forms suddenly disappear en masse, like snakes diving back into their holes.
Rain continues to watch, to see if they return, but they appear to be gone.
All of a sudden, the mass of spirit smoke erupts out of the chasm wall just beneath her feet and arcs up toward her face. Instinctively, she puts up her hands to ward it off, and to her surprise as much as anyone’s, the pearl on her ring flashes brilliantly and a strange force shoves the being away.
Rain
Glas? Something’s here.
Glas turns to see Rain backing away from the ravine edge.
3)
Suddenly, the thing erupts out of the ground behind her, and before she can do a thing, shoves her hard. Her ring flashes, but she’s already off-balance - her foot slips off the edge and she screams as she tumbles into the blackness below.
Glas comes running.
Glas
Rain!
But it’s too late. She’s gone.
He peers into the darkness, cursing himself.
Glas
Shit.
A figure rises behind him.
He senses it. His eyes shift. He wheels around and unloads the clip into it, but the bullets just disperse the smoke for a moment before it coalesces back into its form.
1)
ext. ravine edge - day
Glas pulls the rocket launcher out of the back of the ATV, and turns around with it equipped.
Cutscene D031N (3 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. courtyard - day
Glas passes between the statues, as he gets a few feet in, he hears a scream form behind him.
He turns to see the spirits veer away from an invisible barrier, screaming angrily.
The spirits stay outside the barrier and scream as they hover around outside the toad area, then fly away.
Cutscene D003N (1 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. courtyard - day
Glas pulls the double doors open and steps through to the gloom beyond.
fade out.
1)
fade in:
ext. shan xi – day
From Camera D004L, pull out to reveal spirits, high overhead, running themselves repeatedly into a stone precipice on the rooftop.
It cracks and falls, thundering down over the threshold, blocking the door.
The spirits bank away and shoot off into the distance.
1)
int. vomit area – day
Glas steps off the bottom of the ladder and peers through the oppressive darkness. The stench down here is appalling.
He is barely able to make out the angles of this room, shifted unnaturally by whatever massive force tore this place apart, but through the gloom, he spots what just might be a human form, slumped in the corner.
Tentatively, he moves closer. The form is that of a heavyset man, and he appears to be breathing, alone among the rotting corpses.
Glas
Hey!
No response. He moves a little closer. A few flies buzz around the man’s head and the putrid stench overwhelms the hot, wet air.
Glas
Hey, can you hear me?
Without warning, the creature snaps his head up and vomits a putrid mixture of rancid innards and maggots into Glas’ face.
Glas stumbles backward, reeling in shock, and lands amid a pile of decomposing corpses.
He scrambles back to his feet, feeling his own gorge rising, but fights it back. The creature in the corner is gone.
2)
As he stands, angrily wiping the repulsive residue off his face and clothes, a fresh glob drops onto his shoulder.
Glas looks up, and there, just a few inches above his head, floating prone, is his attacker.
From this vantage, he can clearly see now that this creature has long since left the world of the living – his corpse has bloated with decay, most of his hair, along with much of his scalp, has fallen off. The eyes have rolled back, leaving only a dead gray space, and his slack, distorted mouth still foams from the attack.
Whatever fascination Glas might have felt at the utter vileness of this being is suddenly broken when the creature snatches at him with a distended hand.
1)
int. shan xi vomit area - day
Glas wipes the sweat of his forehead, relieved.
But behind Glas in the background, another floating corpse floats into view from above.
Glas senses the corpse behind him, and in a stylized motion, pulls his guns and blasts the corpse apart.
Glas walks a step.
REVERSE ANGLE ON: GLAS’ FACE, FROM CORPSE’S POV
Glas approaches warily.
Fifteen more corpses shamble in from the darkness behind him along with wisps of spirit smoke.
Glas wheels and fires wildly, but the corpses overwhelm him and lift him into the air as he flails about as if he is being crucified; then smoke jets into his mouth and nose.
SPIRIT’S POV
…as the spirit spirals above his outstretched body, then dives viciously into his screaming mouth.
fade out
1)
fade up:
ext. ravine floor - day
Rain twitches for a moment and then her eyes open.
From her vantage point on the ravine floor, the walls of the chasm loom above her.
She’s bruised and sore, but otherwise, miraculously, unharmed.
She struggles to her feet, painfully, and looks around.
Rain
Glas?
No answer.
Rain
(shouts)
Glas?
Her voice echoes off the walls.
Suddenly, she finds herself very conscious of everything else in this place that might be listening.
Cutscene D008N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. ravine, outside ruin - day
Rain steps toward the door and stops – a few tendrils of spirit smoke writhe out from beneath it and begin to coil past her feet.
Her ring begins to glow brightly and she notices this.
The spirits slip past and behind her.
She wheels just as they dive into a corpse, which stumbles to its feet, tumbles toward her, and locks her shoulders in a meaty, decomposing grip.
She’s completely unarmed, and in a near panic, claws at the thing’s face, and as she does, the ring flashes brilliantly, sending a bolt of energy through the creature’s head, blowing it clean off.
The lifeless, headless corpse drops hard to its knees and falls over at her feet.
1)
int. ruin - day
A trickle of falling debris alerts Rain, and she stops and looks around, seconds before the floor gives way and she tumbles through to the level below.
Cutscene D009N (10 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
i/e. door to chasm – day
Rain struggles to open the large metal door, but with each attempt, it budges a little bit but doesn’t open. Each time she shoves at it as well, a thin trickle of dust sifts down from somewhere above.
As her frustration mounts, she begins to kick the door, and again, with each hit, it opens a little more and a bit more dust falls.
After a few more kicks, frustration takes over fully and she gives it all she has – a flying jump kick straight through it.
That does it – the door crashes open and she stumbles through into the open crevasse beyond.
cut to:
ext. chasm - day
She lands on a ledge just outside the door, but the periodic sift of debris from above has grown steady now, and as she looks up, she sees to her horror that the rock face above her has begun to crumble.
She starts to move to scramble out of its way, but it’s already too late, and just as a few tons of rock are about to slam down over her, she puts up her hands in an instinctive gesture of protection.
It works.
The ring flashes brilliantly once more, and a shimmering sphere pulses outward around her, vaporizing the falling rocks.
It takes Rain a moment to realize that she hasn’t just been mashed, but after a moment, she rises out of her huddle and looks around. Aside from a few small bits of debris, the rocks have vanished.
A massive chunk of debris spans the chasm, creating a de facto bridge. She tests it nervously with her foot. Everything falls apart around here – why should this be any exception?
But it holds, so far at least, and she really hasn’t got a choice.
Cutscene D038N (1 extract making up the Storyboard)
1)
EXT. chasm - DAY
Rain pulls open the door and enters.
1)
int. fire room
Rain steps onto a precarious metal catwalk skirting the perimeter of a cavernous industrial ruin.
Cautiously, she peers over its edge into the bottomless abyss.
SPIRIT’S POV – FROM FAR BELOW
We float through the depths, past looming towers of ruined machinery. Suddenly, we sweep upward, and Rain comes into view – it’s seen her.
We streak upward toward her now with ferocious speed, and at the last second, she dives aside. We spiral around and at the door.
cut to:
The door slamming
Rain rushes back and tries to haul it open, but it’s jammed shut.
1)
int. fire area
Rain comes up short as she reaches the end of the catwalk, opening over a churning vortex of spirit stuff.
She looks behind her, and it’s as though the gates of hell have opened up and come after her – an army of spirits and corpses.
She looks over the edge into the vortex, then around for other options.
Nowhere else to go, and she couldn’t possibly fight the army coming after her.
She jumps into the flashing, churning void.
Cutscene D042N (2 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
fade in
int. lower feng shui
Rain awakens on the floor of a strange room, festooned with symbols and surrounded by noisy wooden rollers displaying more symbols – the Feng Shui, from FE1.
She looks around as she climbs back to her feet. No visible exits. Electric arcs leap occasionally between the spinning rollers.
Five other rollers stand separate from the others, not spinning.
A strange device stands in the center of the room.
Cutscene D012N (14 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
INT. lower feng shui
With a wooden thunk, the six concentric rings comprising the central floor begin to rotate, slowly at first, but gaining speed.
The electric arcs shooting across the floor grow in intensity and the buzz and crackle swells to a crescendo.
Rain looks around nervously, but can’t see that anyplace is safer than the one she’s in, so she stays put.
Suddenly, the center platform lurches into motion, and Rain stumbles to keep her footing, It rises away, past camera.
cut to:
int. upper feng shui
WIDE ON the platform from above – it’s tremendous, and broken into two uneven pieces, each supported by a few of the columns we saw below.
PUSH IN ON Rain, rising into view with her column, which locks into place with an enormous earthy boom.
Rain regains her footing and peers around her new surroundings.
A lonely chair, table and mirror stand at what would be the center of the platform, were it intact, about 20 feet from her present position.
A few spirits sense her presence and dive in for an attack and she readies her ring. She manages to get a shot off, blowing one of them apart, before another one streaks in from behind with tremendous force and plunges through her back and chest.
Her body is hurled forward like a rag-doll by the force of the unexpected hit, and she lands in a heap, unconscious or dead, near the chair.
The impact knocks the ring from her hand, and it tumbles and rolls with a hollow sound toward the chair, where it comes to rest.
A few spirits circle triumphantly over their new prize. The place is swarming with them.
Fade out
Cutscene D052N (11 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
Fade up
EXT. Shan Xi, rooftop near madam chen’s - day
CLOSE ON DEKE as he tosses a few more pills into his mouth.
PULL BACK as he chases them with a gulp of whiskey.
The earth shudders suddenly (as the Feng Shui turns on), and he stumbles slightly, but he shrugs it off – probably just the shakes – another shot’ll help.
Deke stumbles across the rooftop toward the ruined skeleton of Madam Chen’s Black Inn, expending some effort to keep everything in focus.
From Deke’s point of view, it suddenly appears as though the brothel is back in its pristine state, as it was so many years ago. Almost. Another step – he glances away, and when he looks back, it’s back to its shattered, burned reality.
He’s terrified, and the drugs and whisky help less and less with each step.
He reaches the edge of the rooftop a block away from the Inn and peers down at the alley below. It sways precariously in his view, but he keeps his balance and clambers down a fire escape toward the alleyway.
cut to:
ext. Beneath the fire escape - day
Deke drops from the rickety cast-iron fire escape to the alley fifteen feet below.
As he lands hard and stands back up straight, a few of the scattered corpses behind him groan and begin to crawl to their feet.
Cutscene D039N (1 extract making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. outside ballroom - day
Deke pulls the Banquet Hall doors open and enters.
Cutscene D050N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. ballroom - day
Deke steps inside and closes the door behind him.
He doesn’t want any more of those things following him, so he grabs a folded wooden chair leaning against a nearby column and wedges it against the door.
Deke
That oughta holdem out.
He steps back, satisfied.
As he watches, however, the column from which he just took the chair begins to shift, then with a tremendous stony crash, the whole thing comes down and lands in a pile of dust and rubble against the door.
The other column, weakened by the impact, now shifts and crashes over the first, damn near burying the door.
Deke just watches the whole thing, helpless to stop it. Then…
Deke
Now that’s Australian for doorstop.
He turns from the mound of rubble that was once a door just in time to see a few spirits and corpses pass through several small holes in the outer wall. Probably investigating the noise.
Each separates from the others and streaks toward one of the smorgasbord of corpses strewn about the room.
Deke watches this all unfold, arms hanging by his side in a sort of ‘why does this always happen to me’ pose of resignation.
The corpses begin to struggle to their feet.
Deke
Bloody hell.
Cutscene D013N (9 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. ballroom – day
Deke stands, looking around for more, pretty pleased with himself, and maybe a little surprised that he’s still alive.
Deke
Pansies.
Glas comes out to the edge of the balcony overhead, from an open door opposite the spirit threshold. Deke sees him up there.
Deke
Ya missed all the fun, mate!
Glas stares straight through Deke, but something’s clearly wrong.
Deke
S’matter ya donger? Y’been drinkin’ with the flies again?
Glas’ answer comes without warning as he suddenly pukes a black stream of energy at him.
Deke dives out of the way.
He stands back up, pissed.
1)
Deke
Hey! It’s me, mate!
Glas gears up for another shot.
Deke
(to himself)
Gotta stop mixin’ me booze an’ bennies.
Deke dodges another blast, a little more adroitly, now that he knows it’s coming.
Glas now begins to float from the balcony down toward the floor, a feat which Deke observes with some concern.
Deke
Don’t remember you bein’ so light on yer feet, mate.
Glas floats a little closer, and this is about as close as Deke wants to get.
Deke
(to himself)
Aright, screw this twinkletoes crap – I’m outta here.
Deke opens the door and runs out.
Cutscene D015N (5 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. toad garden – day
Deke keeps running, inside the garden.
Glas crosses the threshold into the garden as well.
CLOSE ON GLAS gearing up for a massive shot.
A swarm of dark energy erupts from his mouth and streaks toward the back of Deke’s skull.
Just as it seems it might strike home, Deke dives left through the archway and into the darkness, and the energy mass passes by and slams into the archway.
The ensuing shock causes a torrent of rubble to fall in behind Deke.
Glas, in the meantime, suddenly starts twitching and convulsing. Within moments, Glas stands rigid, back arched and head thrown back as he’s nearly lifted off the ground by the force ripping the possessing spirit from his body. The spirit suddenly erupts skyward and blasts apart above him.
Glas slumps to the earth and falls unconscious.
Fade out
Cutscene D043N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
Fade up
ext. outside madam chen’s – day
Deke comes running around a corner and stops short at a wall dead ahead of him.
He looks up and realizes he’s seen it before. These are the massive double doors leading into Madam Chen’s, pristine and perfect.
He closes his eyes, then reopens them, but nothing’s changed.
He reaches tentatively toward the door – maybe by touch he’ll be able to tell what’s really true.
CLOSE ON Deke’s hand, two fingers just about to touch the door, shaking now, hesitating, getting closer…
Then at the last moment, he jerks his hand away.
OUT TO Deke, taking a couple steps back, then abruptly turning to the right and running.
cut to:
ext. alley – day
Deke rounds the corner from the right. A gaping hole has been torn out of the building and the earth, and Deke suddenly finds himself at its edge. He scrabbles desperately against the crumbling earth, but it’s too late, and he tumbles into the last place he ever wanted to go.
Cut to:
int. steam room – day
Deke lands hard, but on his feet, on the tiled floor of the steam room, and as he straightens up, notices shadows moving in the gloomy depths.
A female corpse stumbles out of the darkness toward him.
Cutscene D017N (20 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. madam chen’s Main floor – dark day
Deke steps out of the elevator into the darkness of the main floor, clean and perfect, as it was so many years ago. Off in the gloom, he barely spots the form of a barely dressed woman as she darts around the corner and out of sight.
Whore
(whispering)
Deke…
His curiosity, among other things, aroused, he moves to follow.
He rounds the corner into the dining area, but nobody’s there. He makes his way to the center of the room. There’s more light here, and standing within it, he can no longer see the walls in the blackness beyond.
An attractive woman; the one he saw a moment ago, steps out of the darkness toward him.
She circles him seductively, touching him lightly as she goes.
A few more whispering voices now reach his hearing.
Whores
(whispering)
Deke… we’ve waited so long for you…
More whores emerge from the blackness into this now unnaturally concentrated sphere of light, and they circle him, touching him, whispering in his ear, brushing their lips against his face… arms, hands, eyes… never a full view of any one person, just impression after impression.
It’s working. Despite his terror of this place, he is still Deke after all, and he’s a bit drunk, a bit stoned, and getting turned on.
As if on cue, the whores suddenly step back, surrounding him in a perfect circle, leaving an opening before him.
A new voice comes out of the darkness; cool, powerful, and dangerous.
3)
flash to:
int. madam Chen’s main floor – same
The whores circle, a little faster, press a little harder.
Madam Chen
You never belonged with the living, Deke.
flash to:
int. deke’s apartment – night
CLOSE ON Deke’s arm, from his point of view, as he begins to drive the blade into his flesh. Slowly.
MEDIUM ON Deke - He watches in stoned fascination as the blood begins to well around the blade, and still he continues to cut, without reaction or expression. Not a suicide attempt. Just an attempt to feel something. Anything.
flash to:
int. madam Chen’s main floor – same
She’s still working on him, seducing him, and he’s beginning to submit. The guns come down… slowly, as if they’re growing heavier by the moment.
Madam Chen
You belong here.
Madam Chen moves in now and begins to circle him. Caressing him – his face, his neck… The demon whores move back to give her room.
Madam Chen
…in Hell…
She circles behind him, dragging claws across his throat, sensually.
Madam Chen
…with me…
His whole body sags and he bows his head, almost like a samurai readying himself to accept the fatal blow. The whores move in with a muted shriek of anticipation.
2)
Madam Chen
(still in darkness)
Hello Deke.
At the sound of her voice, everything changes. The room suddenly reverts to its rotted and decrepit form. The whores now appear in their true form as well – grotesque demons.
Madam Chen laughs as she steps forward into the opening in the circle.
Deke suddenly realizes the depth of the trap into which he’s fallen.
Madam Chen
Welcome back.
In a flash, Deke’s pistols are in his hand and he’s drawing a bead on her. She doesn’t even acknowledge the act.
Madam Chen
I missed you – while you were so busy pretending to live.
The demon whores begin to circle him, spiraling in - touching him, razor claws against flesh, but no pain – not yet. Almost as if seducing him again, but this time into death. Deke watches Madam Chen, to the exclusion of all of this.
Madam Chen
I looked forward to our little visits.
The sound of her voice is hypnotic.
Madam Chen
In the nightmares. Little tokens of my affection. Where you could feel alive.
(beat)
You’re dead to the rest.
flash to:
int. deke’s apartment – night
Deke sits alone in the dark, an empty bottle rolling away on the floor. His knife is in his hand, and he plays with it idly.
4)
Suddenly, Deke wheels to face her and steps back, leveling the shot pistols into her and firing repeatedly.
OTS: DEKE FIRING at Madam Chen – the shots should be ripping her apart, but don’t seem to have any effect.
OUT TO: A WIDE SHOT OF THE ROOM – He’s alone in it, firing at nothing.
BACK TO: OTS: Deke unloading into Madam Chen. She laughs.
BACK OUT TO: WIDE SHOT – Deke alone, blasting into the vacant darkness.
MEDIUM FRONTAL ON: DEKE – Still firing, but he realizes it’s having no effect. He slows, then stops, then lets his arms fall to his sides.
PUSH IN ON HIS FACE – as he closes his eyes.
pull back out to:
int. outside madam chen’s bedroom – dark
He opens his eyes again, and he’s now standing outside Madam Chen’s bedroom door.
He reaches for the door, just as he did so many years ago, and steps into the room where he died.
Cutscene D044N (5 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. madam chen’s bedroom – dark
Deke steps into Madam Chen’s bedroom, just as it was the night he died (and in a shot identical to that in which he died).
Madam Chen is there.
Madam Chen
Want to play a little before you die?
Suddenly, everything shifts – the walls fade, and suddenly he’s in an entirely different place.
With a sudden, savage slash, she rips her own head from her shoulders and hurls it toward him.
She stretches out her hands to the sides, parallel to the floor, claws facing opposite walls. A black mist snakes out in tendrils towards the walls, which have faces imbedded within. Several heads morph out of the walls(at least 5). Three of the heads are Hana, Rain, and Glas. The black mist becomes thicker, more like a swirling miasma.
1)
int. madam chen’s playroom
Madam Chen screams in rage and everything whites out.
flash to:
int. madam Chen’s bedroom – dark day
Suddenly, we’re back in Madam Chen’s bedroom, and Deke is right in front of her.
She screams again, and with a single, vicious move, hauls him right up against her, eye to eye.
cut to:
int. madam chen’s dining room – dark day
FROM A LOW ANGLE, we catch Deke, as he crashes through the stained glass doors from the bedroom.
Deke hits the ground in the dining room, impaling himself on a Dragon Statue – just like before, only this time, the spike breaks off as he hits it and remains embedded in his head. He screams out in pain and blacks out, but does not die.
1)
Fade up
int. madam Chen’s dining room – dark day
Deke awakens and struggles to his feet, the stone spike still embedded in his skull. He reaches unsteadily for the spike and when his hand actually hits something solid, he yells in pain and yanks his hand away.
A voice starts to whisper, somewhere in the kitchen, and Deke stares around wildly, skittish and terrified.
More and more voices start up, building to a cacophony of unintelligible demonic speech.
As it reaches its crescendo, voices start to come clear – one of them he knows.
Demon Hana (o.s.)
You killed me Deke.
He clutches at his ears and stumbles, and begins to see human forms – demon whores – emerging from the darkness.
Cutscene D019N (5 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. torture room
Deke approaches the grindstone, and at the moment he gets within reach, Madam Chen steps into frame behind him. With deliberation, she presses one talon against his waist, and another against the back of his neck, and forces him over.
She slowly presses his head closer and closer to the spinning grindstone, almost oblivious to his desperate struggling.
Sparks fly from the spike as it makes contact with the grindstone, with a sound like nails on a chalkboard.
Madam Chen
(whispering into his ear with a cruel sensuality)
Don’t stop now Deke. I want to feel you fight.
The grindstone continues to eat away at the spike, and his face is getting close.
Just as his own flesh makes contact, we CUT TO
DEKE, standing in the center of the room, clawing at his face, screaming, his face perfectly intact – no spike.
Cutscene D020N (7 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. dressing room
Deke makes his way toward the partition and then around to the back. Hana’s blue whore outfit from FE1 hangs over the edge.
He touches the bra hanging on the partition and a key falls out, in slow motion, and lands on the floor with a forlorn, lonely sound. Return to normal speed when the key settles.
He squats to pick it up, and just as his hand touches the key, he becomes aware of whispering voices – hundreds of them, just at the edge of his perception.
CLOSE ON his face. A shadow passes somewhere behind.
CLOSER. A voice, in his ear now – Madam Chen’s; the master seductress.
Madam Chen
(whispering, seductive)
She’s waiting for you, Deke. Here …with me.
(hardly more than a breath)
…in hell.
Everything falls silent. The whispers – everything.
A beat, on Deke’s face.
Then, suddenly, he’s on his feet.
Cutscene D021N (12 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. meat locker
Deke steps through the freezer door into the darkened meat locker.
Chunks of dessicated, decomposed meat hang from a few of the hooks throughout the room, barely recognizable in the dim light filtering through the open door.
Deke steps further in, hardly looking around; answering the call.
The door begins to close, then latches shut, and as the last shard of light shrinks to nothing, the whispering begins.
Louder now, than it’s been before. And Deke suddenly recognizes where it’s coming from – the chunks of meat hanging here have arms now, and legs – human forms, swaying slightly in an unfelt breeze.
He takes a step back, and bumps into something. He turns, and the mutilated corpse of a man is there, hanging on a hook. The bloody thing looks straight into Deke’s eyes. If the creature has a mouth, Deke can’t make it out amid the gloom and the rot. The voice isn’t so much heard as felt in Deke’s head.
Man
Remember me? You should. You took your time on me.
The head drops, then slowly looks up to face Deke again.
Deke recoils suddenly, and stumbles over a putrid bit of funk.
He lands hard on his knees, and a small hand reaches out and gently lands on his shoulder.
Girl
Remember me?
It’s a little girl. Maybe nine. Or, at least, her bloody, burnt remains.
Girl
I was in the school bus beside the car.
2)
She looks straight into his eyes.
The sound of an explosion rips through the room, and the sound of a suddenly raging fire begins – metal warping, glass cracking in the heat, faint screams of other victims.
Girl
I tried to get out. But there was blood in my eyes. I couldn’t see.
The fire starts slowly at her feet, but crawls quickly up the mangled flesh.
Girl
And then I was on fire.
The flames engulf her now in a roaring pyre, but her eyes remain focused on his.
Amid the sudden illumination, he sees others; many others – mangled, mutilated, torn and dead. All his.
In a near panic, he runs back to the door through which he entered, but it won’t open.
He turns, desperately, like a cornered animal. There’s another door here, slightly cracked, a pale blue light filtering from beyond.
The voices cry out to him now in a cacophony, pleading for his attention.
He makes it to the door, avoiding their reaching arms, and the blue light washes out past him as he yanks it open.
He stumbles through the door into the blinding light and it slams shut behind us, leaving us alone in darkness and silence.
cut to black
Cutscene D046N (2 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
Fade up
ext. toad temple – day
Fade onto a blinding white light.
CLOSE ON Glas’ face, as his eyes flutter open, then immediately squint as a narrow patch of sunlight that’s managed to break through the looming clouds falls over his face.
He struggles to his feet, confused and disoriented, but no longer possessed. This is clearly the Glas we know.
1)
int. ballroom - day
The column breaks suddenly at its weakest point, and shifts. It holds steady for a moment longer, then tips slowly, but with inexorable force, toward the balcony.
The shock of the impact is tremendous, and dislodges debris all around the room, but enough of it remains unbroken and leaning against the balcony that Glas may now climb it to the upper level.
It’s a steep climb, but he makes his way to the top and the balcony.
1)
i/e. broken-open hallway – dark day
Glas notices the fire escape across the alley and a storey below him. He can make it, probably.
He steps back, starts to run toward it, then suddenly stops, changes his mind, steps back a little further this time, runs at it again, and this time jumps into open space.
LOW ANGLE from the alley – we see him fly over.
CLOSE ON Glas landing hard on the fire escape. It shifts with the impact, but remains attached to the building.
The window frame leading inside from here has been crushed open – the frame open to the floor, so he can simply walk inside, and he does.
cut to:
int. madam chen’s upper hallway – dark day
CLOSE ON Glas’ foot, as it touches down on the rotting carpet inside. The moment it lands, everything shifts.
He looks around him, startled, and suddenly the hallway is in perfect condition. The window through which he just entered in perfect condition. The furniture, decorations – all as he remembered it.
Glas looks around. Strange. But he has a job to do, and he steps forward and further in.
1)
int. lounge – dark
Glas steps through into the lounge, and the door closes behind him. It’s dark in here, and deserted. He can barely make out the details.
The only sound is a persistent drip. Nearby.
Glas looks down at its source, and there, lying in a pool of blood, is a severed human arm.
Instinctively, he reaches for his own arm, and pulls his hand back in horror as he realizes that the arm on the ground is his.
He freaks out completely, clutching the bloody stump, screaming and stumbling backward against the door.
The room brightens slightly, revealing shapes that had been watching from the darkness - Demon Whores. They move in now for an attack.
Cutscene D025N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. meat locker
The meat locker is as it was so many years ago – cold and filled with ordinary, non-human cuts of meat. The hum of a fan fills the air.
Something catches his eye, away in the back of the room. Something hanging that isn’t a side of beef.
He makes his way through, pushing frozen slabs of meat out of the way.
As he moves through the room, voices intermingle now with the sound of the fan, subtly, just beneath his awareness.
Then he reaches it. There, hanging on a hook, is his own body, missing its arm. Just as he was.
All the nightmares he’s been suffering for so many years – about the meat locker… about hell – suddenly it all makes sense.
He drops to one knee, clutching the bloody stump of his arm.
A beat, as he absorbs the sudden realization.
Glas
…I was in hell.
This is a man who never believed in anything after death. Death was the end – that’s it. But now he remembers – he was there. And he came back.
He reaches for the stump of his arm, almost reflexively, but it’s back. His arm is whole again.
He struggles to his feet, eyes still closed.
He opens his eyes and the corpse is gone. The voices, and even the hum of the fan, silent. The meat locker is in its filthy, dark state – as it really is.
He’s beaten the illusion and he knows it.
He approaches the butcher room door.
Cutscene D053N (5 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. butcher room
The room is lit by an unearthly blue glow emanating from a pit torn out of the center of the floor.
Glas closes the door behind him and turns to see Deke, cowering in a corner, mumbling to himself.
He’s shocked to see him, having no memory of having seen him here before.
Glas
Deke!
He starts to make his way around the edge of the room toward his friend, cautiously avoiding the pit.
Deke remains huddled, seemingly unaware of Glas, muttering incomprehensibly.
Glas
Deke! We gotta find Rain and get outta here!
Deke’s muttering mingles with the screams emanating from the pit, but a few words are clear.
Deke
(mutters something, barely intelligible)
2)
Glas puts a hand on Deke’s shoulder.
Cut to:
deke’s pov
Glas, from Deke’s perspective, is the crazed, possessed being who nearly blew him apart before, now towering over him.
cut to
Glas’ pov
Deke cowers, looking up at him in abject terror.
Glas
Deke? You okay?
cut to:
deke’s pov
Glas’ hideous, demonic form looms over him, preparing to strike.
The voices, accusing, surrounding him, fill the room, mixing with the screams from below into an unintelligible din. And the pain of the spike is overwhelming.
He explodes toward the looming figure with all the strength he has, shoving him across the room.
He struggles to his feet.
Cut to gameplay.
Cutscene D033N (14 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. butcher room
Possessed Glas, on his back, struggles to get back to his feet, and Deke comes piling over him from offscreen, and gets his hands around his throat.
cut to:
GLAS AND DEKE, rolling on the ground near the pit, only now Glas is in his normal form, and Deke, still crazed, is otherwise intact and spike-free.
Glas makes a desperate move to break the lock and manages to throw him – he gets his throat clear again, but Deke hangs on and they both go over, into the pit.
cut to:
int. pit
CONTINUOUS SHOT
LOW ANGLE ON Glas and Deke as they tumble into the hole and toward us, still locked in combat.
TRACK WITH THEM as they tumble past.
HIGH ANGLE ON the vortex, Glas and Deke plunging away from us toward it.
Glas and Deke disappear into the vortex.
cut to:
ext. upper feng shui
CLOSE ON the ground, as Glas and Deke slam down.
Deke lands unconscious, and Glas slams down on top of him, still conscious, bounces off, and rolls off toward the edge.
His hand goes over and his face bangs against the floor, then his foot and his leg, then the rest of him.
He manages to get a grip with the remaining hand on what at first seems like it might be a root, but it’s a human arm – the entire underside of this massive platform is supported by writhing, struggling human bodies.
The arm he’s just grabbed grips him with a superhuman strength. He can’t do much but hang there and hope the arm doesn’t let go.
He looks around desperately for some sort of salvation, and there, lying on a platform below him and perhaps 20 feet away, is Rain, unconscious as well, or dead – he can’t tell from here.
2)
Glas
Rain!
Nothing.
Glas
Rain! It’s Glas!
cut to:
close on rain
She stirs briefly, eyes still closed.
Rain
(in her sleep)
Glas…
Glas
(distant, a voice on the wind)
Rain! Wake up!
She stirs again, then suddenly snaps awake as she realizes what she’s hearing.
She clambers fast to her feet and looks around to see Glas, hanging over the edge of one of the nearby platforms as it bobs slowly in space.
Rain
(shouting)
Glas! Hang on! I’ll find a way to get you down!
Nearby, she notices, at the center of the platform she’s on, is a large full-length mirror, a small plush chair, a small table, upturned, and a small red ruby lying beside it on the floor.
A corpse, one of the thousands holding this platform up, climbs over the edge toward her with a groan. She tries to ready her ring, and realizes to her horror that it isn’t there. She looks around desperately for it, but the corpse is coming fast now and she’ll have to deal with that first.
Cutscene D027N (5 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. upper feng shui, main platform
Rain crouches to flip the small table upright, then takes the ruby from the floor beside it and places it at the center of the table top.
As she does, the ruby erupts into flame, and she takes a few steps back.
Glas shouts from his precarious position nearby.
Glas
(shouting)
Good idea! This place needed a little tidying up! Don’t suppose you could hurry it up.
Rain looks at him sharply.
Rain
(shouting back)
I’m open for suggestions.
Glas
(loud, but not shouting)
Throwin’ a rope wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Rain
(shouting back)
Oh, hold on – I’ll just run down to the surplus store and pick up that fifty feet of rope!
She turns back to face the table and chair.
Cutscene D035N (3 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. feng shui, main platform
Rain places Hana’s photo in the ruby flame, and watches as it burns.
The reflection of the flame in the nearby mirror catches her eye, as the mirror begins to shimmer slightly.
She turns back to the photograph in time to see the flame creep across and obliterate the last reminders of her friend.
1)
ext. upper feng shui, main platform
Rain peers into the mirror, and Hana’s gravestone is reflected there, standing forlornly in the graveyard.
Inscribed on the stone are a dragon (the year Hana was born), her birth date and the date of her death.
Rain’s own reflection is barely visible – just a hint.
Cutscene D059N (1 extract making up the Storyboard)
1)
int. upper feng shui, main platform
Rain sits down at the chair, and as she does, a swirl of energy surrounds the table and seems to carry it into her view.
Cut to puzzle gameplay.
Cutscene D036N (8 extracts making up the Storyboard)
1)
ext. upper feng shui, main platform
The Feng Shui grinds into life as the massive platforms begin to move back together.
The torrent of screams that had filled this place fall silent now, as the bodies supporting the platforms begin to melt back into the supporting structure.
This includes, however, the body restraining Glas, and Glas begins pawing at the air and the platform edge as the last bits of the arm holding his seem about to disappear, a massive arm reaches over the edge and hauls him up to safety. It’s Deke.
Deke hauls Glas back to his feet, and it’s clear that he’s back to his senses.
The platforms reconnect, and the pair run to join Rain as she stands from the chair.
Glas and Rain collapse into an embrace. Deke stands a bit off to the side, arms by his side.
Rain notices this after a second and runs over and gives him a big hug as well, which he returns uncomfortably.
The mirror, nearby, shimmers as the reflected image changes.
Cutscene D040N (0 extract making up the Storyboard)
1)
GAME OVER FOR LEVEL
You can download the 52 Shan Xi level Scripts for Fear Effect Inferno PlayStation 2 below
The 214 Scripts and 1597 extracts making up the Storyboards constitute the admirable scenario of Fear Effect Inferno PlayStation 2. These conceptual materials are spread across 4 levels and brief revisit of one of them. Reading and examining them are excellent ways of soaking up the game's special atmosphere and projecting yourself into the work of Kronos Digital Entertainment. Here are the other documents, assigned by level, dedicated to FEI's Storyboards and Scripts.
We'd like to thank the team at Kronos Digital Entertainment (Mobygames link to Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix) involved in the Fear Effect Inferno project for their efforts in bringing a new, exciting episode to PlayStation 2. We can only feel sorry for them that they couldn't follow through on their desires and creations!
Special thanks to:
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LemonHaze (from Team Wulinshu) for digging through the game files and creating the “Fixes”
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Benedikt Scheffer for creating the Fear Effect Inferno PS2 Cover
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Vince proofreading the english articles
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Hicks proofreading the french articles
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fred_derf who wrote the introduction for the main page
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La Rétrogamerie for their help with writing some articles, especially the Walkthroughs
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Didier Chanfray (Art Director at No Cliché) for his explanations about the Storyboards
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Joan Igawa (Character Texture Artist at Kronos Digital Entertainment) for her kind replies to my questions
Similar prototypes (Unreleased): Agartha (DC) - Emulateur officiel Megadrive (DC) - Castlevania Resurrection (DC) - Half Life (DC) - Dalforce XOP (DC) - Flinstone (DC) - 4 x 4 Evolution PAL (DC) - Ring : L'Anneau des Nibelungen (DC) - Ecco 2 (DC) - Kyskrew (DC) - Propeller Arena (DC) - Geist Force (DC) - Scud Race Tech Demo Dreamcast - Shenmue 2 US (DC) - The Red Star (XBOX) - Heaven's Drive ( version japonaise de Burnout 1) pour PS2 - Jekyll and Hyde (DC) - The Grinch Jap (DC) - Worms Pinball (DC) - Quake 3 Arena version japonaise (DC) - Vectorman PS2 - Fear Effect Inferno PS2
Feel free to have a look at the "other Unreleased games" I found" For the more curious among you, I created a "List of all the unreleased games of the Dreamcast".
