Haunting Ground

Haunting Ground
Haunting Ground
HauntingGround NA PS2cover.jpg
North American box art
Developer(s) Capcom
Publisher(s) Capcom
Director(s) Kazuhiro Tsuchiya
Producer(s) Koji Nakajima
Writer(s) Makoto Ikehara
Noboru Sugimura
Composer(s) Seiko Kobuchi
Shinya Okada
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date(s)
  • JP April 21, 2005
  • PAL April 29, 2005
  • NA May 10, 2005
Genre(s) Survival horror
Mode(s) Single-player
Rating(s)

Haunting Ground, known as Demento (デメント?) in Japan, is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2 console in 2005. The game shares many similarities with Clock Tower 3.[1]

Contents

Gameplay

Fiona, the player-character, must be guided through Belli Castle, its grounds and outbuildings until she can find a way to escape. Along the way, players must solve puzzles, unlock doors and evade, hide or attempt to fight back against the castle's inhabitants. Fiona is accompanied by Hewie, a white German Shepherd dog. The two must work as a team to solve certain puzzles and outwit their pursuers.[1]

During the game, the castle's inhabitants chase and attack Fiona, and if evaded long enough will cease for a set interval. While it is possible to retaliate with kicks, Hewie's bites, or alchemically created weapons, the game's focus is on the player evading enemies long enough to find a hiding spot. The castle's staff chase Fiona individually until defeated in a boss battle, after which a different enemy will pursue Fiona.[2] Two enemies exist in addition to the castle's keepers, neither are dangerous to Fiona but can alert Fiona's pursuers to her location and cause panic. The first are small floating orbs of blue light known as Luminescents, which follow Fiona and emit a loud noise if they come into contact with her. The other enemy type are small grotesque, fetus resembling homunculi, who attach themselves to Fiona's legs while letting out a piercing yell.

Hewie joins Fiona early in the game, following different player-issued commands to perform actions like barking or growling when he detects a trap or threat. He can be commanded to stay, follow, attack, fetch and to shake hands.[1] In order to maintain a good relationship with her new companion, Fiona must issue commands to Hewie, praising or scolding him depending on whether or not he obeys. Praising or healing him when he becomes injured also maintains his interest.[3] Hewie will ignore Fiona's commands and wander off if not given enough attention, and if he is repeatedly mistreated he may even attack her. On the normal difficulty setting, Hewie can be knocked unconscious from sustaining too many injuries but can be revived. On the hard difficulty setting, he is slain after receiving the same level of injuries, causing the game to end.

When faced with certain scripted events or prolonged enemy attacks and chases, Fiona becomes fearful. If allowed to remain fearful for too long she will enter panic mode and run. Panic mode causes blurriness of the screen, saturation of the surroundings and a freeze-frame effect, and the control pad vibrates in time with Fiona's heartbeat. The player is unable to stop Fiona running and must try to prevent her from running into walls and objects. Running into scenery causes her to collapse and crawl away; at this point further damage will kill her. Hewie can only be called for help during panic mode, encouraging him to attack any pursuer and prevent Fiona from being killed. If enemies are avoided long enough panic mode ends.

Story

Characters

The player-character and protagonist of Haunting Ground is eighteen-year-old Fiona Belli, who before the start of the game was involved in a car accident that killed her parents.[4] Although Fiona is not very athletic, she makes up for this with her quick mind.[5] She rescues and befriends a white German Shepherd named Hewie.[6] Throughout her exploration of the castle, she encounters several characters: Debilitas, a large, mentally disabled man who works as the gardener for the castle; Daniella, a homunculus unable to taste, feel pain or pleasure who cooks and does the household work around the castle;[7] Riccardo, the castle's groundskeeper; and Lorenzo Aureolus Belli, who does everything in his power to help Fiona.

Plot

Fiona and Hewie

Fiona Belli awakes in a cage in the butcher's room of a castle. She has just been involved in a car accident with her parents, but her memories of this accident are vague. Noting that the cage that keeps her prisoner was left unlocked, she steps out but is startled by a large, fierce animal snarling and then running past her. She quickly begins searching for answers and a way out of the castle. Along the way, she befriends the animal that initially frightened her, who is a white German Shepherd named Hewie, and who turns out to be a valuable ally. As Fiona's predicament gets more and more disturbing, she learns that she is the carrier of the Azoth, which is what the castle's residents are after.

The first enemy is Debilitas, a large, mentally disabled man. Debilitas chases Fiona around the castle and is stopped by Riccardo. Fiona meets Riccardo and Daniella and finds letters and memos given to her by a man named Lorenzo who wants her to escape the castle. Fiona and Hewie are chased by Debilitas to the chapel. The way in which the player ultimately deals with Debilitas influences the outcome of the endings.

Soon after Fiona has rid herself of Debilitas, her new enemy, Daniella, is reintroduced to the game after her short appearance in the game's early scenes. Daniella becomes jealous that Fiona can smell, taste, touch or "experience pleasure". This foreshadows her later intimation, immediately before her boss battle, that she cannot engage in sexual intercourse. Daniella wields a large shard of broken glass (unless the player approaches Daniella while she is kneeling near a fire place which then replaces the glass with a hot poker; this deals twice as much damage).

After Daniella is killed when she is impaled with a large shard of broken glass from the ceiling, the third villain is reintroduced, Riccardo, who wields a flintlock pistol. For a majority of the game Riccardo keeps his face hidden under a hood. Riccardo reveals his face and his plot to Fiona after cornering her in the woods. He has the same face as Fiona's father, Ugo, and reveals that they are clones and that he is now the original. Riccardo murdered Ugo after attempting to kill him in the car crash as revenge for leaving the castle and marrying Ayla, Fiona's mother. He plans to use Fiona (by means of her womb and use of her Azoth) to help him be reborn so that he may live forever. Hewie rescues Fiona and assists in their escape from the tower in which Riccardo is killed.

The final boss of the game is Lorenzo, who menaces Fiona in several different forms. The player first meets Lorenzo as an old, crippled man. He tells Fiona how Riccardo was always the problem child, and that he created both Riccardo and Ugo in attempts to find a body with Azoth he could use. Ugo had the Azoth but left the castle to marry Ayla. Now that he knows Fiona is finally his, he can take the Azoth she inherited from Ugo. He rids himself of his wheelchair and crawls on the floor in order to chase Fiona. After crushing the elder Lorenzo in a machine, Fiona encounters a resurrected, youthful Lorenzo; the Azoth (that he acquired from Riccardo's body after his fall from the water tower, a scene you can witness in hard mode) allows him mastery over his own aging process, as well as the ability to teleport. Fiona eventually, with the help of Hewie, causes Lorenzo to fall into a pit of lava. Immediately after defeating young Lorenzo, the castle begins to shake and collapse, and Lorenzo returns a final time as a flaming skeletal version of his former self. He chases Fiona, but in the midst of the chase, a statue falls on Fiona and nearly kills her. Lorenzo finally dies as she and Hewie escape the castle.

Development

On September 24, 2004, developers debuted Haunting Ground under its Japanese name Demento at the Tokyo Game Show after launching a teaser page on the Capcom website two days prior.[8][9] While the text was in Japanese only, the English translation of the teaser page read: "One person awakes / Continuation of a nightmare / An unknown place / Fraught with insanity."[8] Capcom released Haunting Ground in Japan on April 21, 2005, in Europe on April 29, 2005, and in North America on May 10, 2005.[10]

Reception

 Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 73%[11]
Metacritic 67/100[12]
Review scores
Publication Score
1UP.com C+[13]
Eurogamer 7/10[14]
GamePro 3/5 stars[15]
Game Revolution C-[16]
GameSpot 7.2/10[17]
IGN 7.7/10[18]

The game received mixed to positive reviews, with a GameRankings aggregate of 73%,[11] and Metacritic giving a score of 67 out of 100.[12]

IGN wrote "Haunting Ground's combination of high-end presentation, disturbing sexuality, and psychological mindjobbing makes it one of the most interesting games of the last couple of months"[18] and selected it as the "Game of the Month" for May 2005.[19]

The graphics, character models and environments were praised as detailed. 1UP.com called the mansion areas "some of the most detailed, lavish 3D environments Capcom has ever produced"[1][13][16] and GamePro described the visuals as "stark but appealing".[15] Critics enjoyed the addition of Hewie. Just Adventure called him "adorable" and "an asset of the utmost value",[1] and 1Up named him "one of the best-implemented efforts" of including a dog in a video game.[13] GameSpot noted that Hewie, despite being well-trained, occasionally did not obey orders.[17]

GamePro stated: "Despite a few fresh ideas, Haunting Ground is no classic. The thin story relies too often on cliché and titillation, the villains aren't terribly frightening, and the gameplay becomes too predictable too quickly. Ultimately, this is Resident Evil Lite with a dog."[15]

Fiona and Hewie would later appear in Joe the Condor's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Aya (2005-07-18). "Haunting Ground Review". Just Adventure. http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/HauntingGround/HG.shtm. Retrieved 2007-04-25. 
  2. ^ Reiter, Chris (2005-06-30). "Haunting Ground PS2 Review". Gaming Target. http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=4425. Retrieved 2007-05-02. 
  3. ^ W, Karl (2005-05-14). "Haunting Ground Review". palgn.com.au. http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=2181. Retrieved 2007-04-21. 
  4. ^ Capcom Production Studio 1. Haunting Ground. (Capcom). PlayStation 2. (2005-05-10) "Riccardo: I am Riccardo, keeper of the castle. So sorry to hear about your accident. Your parents... As Master Ugo and Mistress Ayla are both deceased, you, Miss Fiona are the sole surviving heir of Belli Castle."
  5. ^ BradyGames, (2005). Haunting Ground Official Strategy Guide. BradyGames. pp. 18–23. ISBN 0-7440-0525-6. 
  6. ^ Capcom Production Studio 1. Haunting Ground. (Capcom). PlayStation 2. (2005-05-10) "Fiona: Thank you. You saved me. Come here... Come on, boy. What's your name? Hewie? So you're Hewie!"
  7. ^ Capcom Production Studio 1. Haunting Ground. (Capcom). PlayStation 2. (2005-05-10) "Daniella: My creator said he made me the perfect woman... But I cannot taste or experience pleasure. Or feel pain. / Fiona: ...Thanks for the meal. / Daniella: I am not complete."
  8. ^ a b Niizumi, Hirohiko (September 22, 2004). "Capcom opens teaser site for mystery game". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/demento/news.html?sid=6108191&mode=news. Retrieved July 17, 2010. 
  9. ^ Torres, Riccardo (September 25, 2004). "Demento First Look". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/demento/news.html?sid=6108833&mode=previews. Retrieved July 17, 2010. 
  10. ^ "Haunting Ground for PlayStation 2". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/demento/similar.html?mode=versions. Retrieved July 17, 2010. 
  11. ^ a b "Haunting Ground Reviews". Game Rankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/924655.asp. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
  12. ^ a b "Haunting Ground (PS2:2005) Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/hauntingground?q=Haunting%20Ground. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
  13. ^ a b c 1UP staff (May 9, 2005). "Haunting Ground Review from 1UP.com". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3140240&did=1. Retrieved July 31, 2010. 
  14. ^ Reed, Kristan (April 28, 2005). "Haunting Ground PlayStation 2 Review". EuroGamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_hauntingground_ps2. Retrieved July 30, 2010. 
  15. ^ a b c Ouroboros (May 11, 2005). "Haunting Ground Review from GamePro". GamePro. http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/45226/haunting-ground/. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  16. ^ a b JP_Hurh (June 1, 2005). "Haunting Ground Review for the PS2". Game Revolution. http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/ps2/haunting-ground. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  17. ^ a b Massimilla, Bethany (May 25, 2005). "Haunting Ground Review for PlayStation 2 - Page 2". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/demento/review.html?page=2. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 
  18. ^ a b Dunham, Jeremy. "Haunting Ground". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/620/620764p2.html. Retrieved July 30, 2010. 
  19. ^ IGN staff (May 31, 2005). "Game of the Month: May 2005". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/620/620694p1.html. Retrieved July 30, 2010. 
  20. ^ Eighting. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. (Capcom). PlayStation 2. (2010-01-29) "Hewie: Woof, woof! / Fiona: Yaaargh! / Debilitas: Ya-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha...Hungh? *Woosh!* / Debilitas: Uh...uh...uh! / Joe the Condor: Take cover, ma'am! / Fiona: Huh? What?"

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