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|caption2 = Although stated as "Unknown", the Magician's weak points are actually its exposed muscles.}}
 
|caption2 = Although stated as "Unknown", the Magician's weak points are actually its exposed muscles.}}
 
{{Quote|Source = The House of the Dead 4|Quote = Welcome, my [[AMS]] friends.|Attribution = The Magician to [[Kate Green]] and "[[G]]".}}
 
{{Quote|Source = The House of the Dead 4|Quote = Welcome, my [[AMS]] friends.|Attribution = The Magician to [[Kate Green]] and "[[G]]".}}
Type-0, codenamed the "'''Magician'''," (''マジシャン'') was a sentient humanoid [[creature]] with pyrokinetic and levitational powers. He was originally created in 1998 by genetic engineer [[Dr. Roy Curien]], then research director of the [[DBR Corporation]], as part of insanity-driven efforts to control life and death. The Magician ultimately betrayed his creator and was destroyed by agents of the government organization [[AMS]], but was resurrected during other biological engineering-related incidents.
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Type-0, codenamed the {{Nihongo|'''"Magician"'''|マジシャン|Majishan}}, was a sentient humanoid [[creature]] with pyrokinetic and levitational powers. He was originally created in 1998 by genetic engineer [[Dr. Roy Curien]], then research director of the [[DBR Corporation]], as part of insanity-driven efforts to control life and death. The Magician ultimately betrayed his creator and was destroyed by agents of the government organization [[AMS]], but was resurrected during other biological engineering-related incidents.
   
 
He is the final [[Bosses|boss]] of ''[[The House of the Dead (1996 video game)|The House of the Dead]]'', and has made further appearances in the main ''[[The House of the Dead (franchise)|House of the Dead]] ''series as either a boss or a bonus item. He is characterized by his sentience, fast and deceptive movement, and fire-based attacks. His [[Weak point|weak points]] are his exposed, pulsating muscles.
 
He is the final [[Bosses|boss]] of ''[[The House of the Dead (1996 video game)|The House of the Dead]]'', and has made further appearances in the main ''[[The House of the Dead (franchise)|House of the Dead]] ''series as either a boss or a bonus item. He is characterized by his sentience, fast and deceptive movement, and fire-based attacks. His [[Weak point|weak points]] are his exposed, pulsating muscles.

Revision as of 16:10, 14 September 2019


Welcome, my AMS friends.

The Magician to Kate Green and "G".[src]

Type-0, codenamed the "Magician" (マジシャン, Majishan?), was a sentient humanoid creature with pyrokinetic and levitational powers. He was originally created in 1998 by genetic engineer Dr. Roy Curien, then research director of the DBR Corporation, as part of insanity-driven efforts to control life and death. The Magician ultimately betrayed his creator and was destroyed by agents of the government organization AMS, but was resurrected during other biological engineering-related incidents.

He is the final boss of The House of the Dead, and has made further appearances in the main House of the Dead series as either a boss or a bonus item. He is characterized by his sentience, fast and deceptive movement, and fire-based attacks. His weak points are his exposed, pulsating muscles.

Biography

Creation and 1998 Curien Mansion incident

Main article: The House of the Dead (1996 video game)

Who are you? Nobody gives me instructions. I shall destroy everything.

An awakened Magician addressing Dr. Roy Curien.[src]

The Magician, alongside the Wheel of Fate, began life as a gene developed by Curien during his time as the DBR Corporation's research director. After curing his terminally-ill son Daniel, Curien obsessively pursued controlling life and death through science; the effort, funded by Caleb Goldman, produced hostile creatures and triggered staff walkouts. Curien went insane, releasing the creatures in his mansion on December 17th and 18th, 1998, but kept the Magician in incubation.

On December 20th, AMS agents Thomas Rogan and G investigated disappearances at the mansion. They battled to a research center and confronted Curien, who unleashed his "masterpiece" upon them. However, the Magician -- claiming that he obeys no inferior being -- killed Curien. Rogan and G defeated the Magician, who warned them that they "...haven't...seen...anything yet!" before exploding.

2000 resurrection

Main article: The House of the Dead 2

I've been waiting for this time to come. You have no future. Either I get you, or the Emperor will. Either way, your fate is in our hands.

The Magician confronting James Taylor and Gary Stewart.[src]


Just over a year after the Curien Mansion incident, the Magician was reanimated by Goldman, head of the powerful DBR Corporation, furthering Curien's incomplete research into life and death. The Magician was loyal to Goldman and the Emperor, Goldman's creature poised to rule over mankind. He ambushed AMS agents James Taylor and Gary Stewart outside of Goldman's headquarters, but was ultimately destroyed again.

2003 resurrection

Main article: The House of the Dead 4: Special

I have been waiting for this moment for some time. Now you shall have a taste of the pain that I have endured!

The Magician to Kate Green and "G".[src]

In 2003, Goldman staged a posthumous incident worldwide, wiping out most of civilization. After her partner James sacrificed himself to defeat Goldman's ultimate creation, the World, rookie AMS agent Kate Green collaborated with G to fight the incident back to its source. In an unidentified building, they found the Magician, who emerged from a large glass chamber and vowed revenge for the pain he had endured.

Upon defeat, the Magician summoned Pandora's Box, attempting to activate clones of himself; he was fatally wounded after a thrown grenade, declaring "Nothing can erase [his] pain" before exploding.

Other Appearances

The House of the Dead III and 4

The Magician appears as a bonus item: the Mini-Magician, a small golden statuette found in destructible background objects. The Mini-Magician flies about in a quick manner like him, making it more difficult to shoot; a successful shot yields 2000 points to the player's score. In III, when the item is on-screen, a high-pitched version of his line "I've been waiting for this time to come" from 2 can be heard.

Furthermore, III's attract mode shows the Magician's form in the first two games. Dr. Roy Curien also mentions him in a flashback.

The Pinball of the Dead

The Magician makes an appearance as the fifth boss in The Pinball of the Dead, and retains his appearance from 2. Similar to his appearances in previous games, the Magician will quickly attack the players using fireballs, blocking their pinball from moving. He will also rapidly teleport from one area of the screen to the next. However, unlike previous games, the player is not required to hit a specific spot on the Magician in order to damage him.

The Magician's voice is also used to alert the player when they have the opportunity to enter a boss battle. The player will hear the Magician say, "I have been waiting for this time to come", a line used before the Magician's battle in The House of the Dead 2. Also, when the player gets a game over, he will say "You have no future."

Combat

The Magician is an incredibly fast and dangerous adversary, and is rightfully considered the hardest boss in The House of the Dead series. His speed is unrivaled, he relies on pyrokinesis to attack, and possesses the ability to levitate and teleport, implying that he uses a revolutionary anti-gravity propulsion system to allow him to constantly veer from left to right at crushing speeds in order to confuse the player.

His weak points are listed as "UNKNOWN" in his first appearance and in THOTD4 Special, but are visually indicated by the unarmored parts of his body that glow red. This includes his lower right leg, upper left leg, lower right arm, upper left arm and the area around his right eye. The glowing effect is absent in the PC and Saturn ports of the first game, and his weak points are shown in G's File in THOTD2. Like other bosses, attacking these areas is crucial in disrupting the Magician's attacks.

In the first two games, he followed a specific fight pattern. In the first wave of the fight, he will hurl fireballs at the player while spinning. After doing this twice, he will form more fireballs from both hands, which are more difficult to shoot down. His fireballs can be shot down, and the Magician can be damaged as he attacks with them. He will repeat this wave until he has taken enough damage.

He will then change tactics and teleport rapidly to the left or right of the arena to puzzle the player. After three teleports in either or both directions, he will charge at the player with a fireball in his hand, and this fast attack can only be disrupted with a successful shot to one of his weak points. Five successful hits will stop the assault, and he will repeat his earlier attack wave, followed by another series of charge attacks when he takes enough damage once more.

His tactic will change again once he has taken 50% damage. In the first game, he will move to the middle of the arena and project a large group of fireballs in the air that will slowly rain down on the player, and must all be shot to avoid damage. The Magician can only be attacked as he charges the fireballs when the camera is focused on him.

This attack is slightly altered in The House of the Dead 2 where he hovers in mid-air and sends the fireballs straight at the player. He throws slightly fewer fireballs and they are scattered around the middle, but to compensate for those factors, this attack is faster as these fireballs don't slowly drift to the ground like they did in the House of the Dead. Furthermore, the Magician is vulnerable the entire time. He will repeat this attack until he is defeated.

In both games, the Magician's teleportation is represented by differently colored after images of him. Blue was his standard attack of throwing fireballs from a distance, while red warned the player that he would engage in his dreaded charge attack. THOTD2 added white when he engaged in his final attack, but could regularly be seen throughout the battle depending on the player's performance and difficulty level. The Magician is invulnerable while teleporting.

The House of the Dead 4: Special

In Special, the Magician is shown to have energy surging on his weak points instead of them pulsating, and is shown to be more powerful than his previous incarnations. He also bears a purple aura. Before actually emerging to battle the AMS agents, the Magician launches a salvo of fireballs at them from within his incubation chamber. This triggers a quick time event in which the players have to shoot all of the fireballs down to avoid taking damage. The Magician emerges after the attack's conclusion, regardless of the player's success or failure in deflecting it.

After diminishing the Magician's health, he will summon and attempt to open Pandora's Box. The player is given the chance to stop it with a grenade. If the player fails in stopping the Magician from opening the box, he will proceed to release numerous clones of himself from incubation, showing that the Magician had cloned himself. laughing evilly, implying that he will attack and overwhelm the AMS agents and then all of humanity with his clones, resulting in the Bad Ending. This ending also implies that the Magician is indeed Curien's original Magician, which had been resurrected.In the Good Ending, the Magician is fatally wounded by a grenade and succumbs to a violent explosion once more. With his final breath, he has time to utter one final monologue - "Nothing can erase my pain".

However, after his demise, Thornheart appears at the Magician's incubation chamber. Upon entering the chamber, he remarks, "So, Pandora's box has been closed... that is if there is any hope left, the Wheel of Fate cannot be stopped."

The Magician is now able to teleport in any direction on the screen. He will alternate between throwing fireballs with one hand, both hands, and his dreaded charge attack without warning. Unlike before, multiple shots on the Magician are required to disrupt this attack. At 50% health, he will gather several fireballs in his hands and attack in one of two ways: He will either charge at the player or throw the fireballs into the air to home in on the player. He will continue this until he is defeated once more.

Quotes

The House of the Dead

Quote Audio
"Who are you? Nobody gives me instructions. I shall destroy everything."
"You... haven't... seen.... anything... yet!!"

The House of the Dead 2

Quote Audio
"I've been waiting for this time to come. You have no future. Either I get you or the Emperor will. Either way, your fate is in our hands."

The House of the Dead 4: Special

Quote Audio
"Welcome, my AMS friends."
"I have been waiting for this moment for some time. Now you shall have a taste of the pain that I have endured!"
(Before final grenade quick-time event) "This is the end..."
(Death) "Nothing can erase my pain..."

Trivia

  • With three major appearances, the Magician is to date most recurring boss in the main House of the Dead series.
  • The Magician's behavior and appearance are an allusion to Lucifer in the Bible, as both had betrayed their respective masters and became obsessed with a desire for destruction. Its demonic appearance may also allude to the Magician's synonymy with evil.
  • The Magician shares similarities with classical western dragons, owing to its pyrokinetic abilities, how its body is made up of thick armored scales, and that it possesses horns.
  • The Magician's concept art, as seen in THOTD's Sega Saturn manual seems to suggest that that it is some sort of android or synthetic being. It is also shown that the Magician was originally designated "Type B-1".
  • The Magician's overall design appears to be incomplete. Its left bicep, right forearm, left thigh, right shin and both ankles are exposed musculature as opposed to the uniform gray plating seen on the rest of its body. The right side of its face features a patch of seemingly skinned flesh as well. These exposed areas were blackish-red in the first game, pulsated red in the second game, and sparked with pink electricity in The House of the Dead 4: Special.
    • The Magician's appearance in THOTD2 features red scarring and pulsating red tentacles spewing out of various wounds in its body, implying it had not fully healed from its defeat in the first game. When it is next seen, the Magician has been healed of these injuries, but remains incomplete.
  • Even though the Magician's weak points were determined in The House of the Dead 2, they are unknown to the PDA in The House of the Dead 4: Special. This appears to be for the purpose of challenging new players to figure out what it is for themselves. Of course, in-universe, it could be simply because the Magician was heavily altered in design in this incarnation, and the PDA failed to recognize the weak points due to the extensive modification. Either that, or the PDA uses Kate's profile (which is probable given that Kate correctly identified Justice's weak point) instead of G's (the latter of which should have the new Magician's weak points determined but would not have identified Justice's weak point).
  • The final bosses of the first four THOTD games appear to embody primal elements of nature: The Magician uses fire, the Emperor uses magnetism, the Wheel of Fate uses electricity, and The World uses ice.
  • The Magician was to be included in the second series of House of the Dead action figures by Palisades. However, the line was cancelled before production.
  • The only time the Magician is called by its name is in The House of the Dead 2 when playing alone as Gary, and by Curien in the flashbacks in The House of the Dead III.
  • The Magician is the only final boss in the first four THOTD games whose weak point is not on the chest and also having multiple weak points (right side of its face, upper left arm, lower right arm, upper left leg and lower right leg).
  • There's a graphical glitch of Magician in THOTD2. If the players are not injured by the Magician, the Magician's hallucinating movements will turn into white instead of red or blue ,and automatically fix if the Magician successfuly hit the players.

Gallery

The House of the Dead

Concept Art

Official Art

Data

Screenshots

The House of the Dead 2

Official Art

Data

Screenshots

The House of the Dead 4: Special

Other Media

veHouse of the dead 1content
Characters
Thomas RoganGDr. CurienSophie RichardsDBR researchers
Creatures
SamNeilCyrilKageoBourbonEbitanRobertSimonGilmoreHarrisSamsonBentleyBurnerRubinDrakeMoodyParlorKenfisSaruzouDevilonBouereMurrerNameTaranKage
Bosses
ChariotHangedmanHermitMagician
Chapters
TragedyRevengeTruthThe house of the dead
Other pages
Lore (AMSBioReactorCurien MansionDBR CorporationThe House of the Dead Sub-Story)
Game modes (Boss ModeSaturn Mode)
Prototypes (The House of DeadSega Saturn prototype)
Guidebooks (The House of the Dead Dennou Shinan: Dr. Curien no Houkoku ShoThe House of the Dead Official Guide)
Action figuresThe House of the Dead: RemakeThe House of the Dead 1 & 2 Music CollectionUnused content
veHotd2logocontent
Characters
James TaylorGary StewartAmy CrystalHarry HarrisCaleb GoldmanGThomas RoganCivilians
Creatures
DavidSteveJohnnyKageoRandyEbitanBobMaxMickeyRyanKeithGregoryKenRickyPatrickPeterLanceFranklinEricMoowlDevilonBouereMurrerBuyoMofish
Bosses
JudgmentHierophantTowerStrengthMagicianEmperor
Chapters
A PreludeMuddyDarknessDespairDawnOriginal Sin
Spin-offs
English of the DeadThe Pinball of the DeadThe Typing of the Dead (Featuring Rakuten Minna no Shushoku Katsudou Nikki) • Zombie Da: Flick of the Dead
Other pages
Lore (AMSCityCaleb Goldman's headquarters)
Game modes (Boss ModeOriginal ModeTraining Mode)
Guidebooks (The House of the Dead 2 G's FileThe House of the Dead 2 Perfect Guide)
2 & 3 ReturnAction figuresOriginal SoundtrackThe House of the Dead 1 & 2 Music CollectionOriginal Sin prototypeUnused content
veHotd4spcontent
Characters
Kate GreenGThornheart
Creatures
David • Stones • Laban • Kageo • Jimmy • Kevin • Mackey • Charles • Costello • Bain • Constantin • Ebitan • Roses
Bosses
JusticeMagician
Chapters
Chapter 1Chapter 2
Other pages
Lore (AMSAMS PDA)
The House of the Dead 4