Haunting Ground

I searched the boards endlessly for a thread about this game. Really, I did. I thought that, with all of the Silent Hill fans here, SOMEONE would've mentioned it, due to the similarities between the two.
Well, I don't know much about it, honestly. I know it's a survival horror-ish game where a girl who wakes up after an accident in a castle, which is hers through inheritence, with a wolf run around and try to find out what the fuck is going on. It's a Capcom game, and they have this stupid, little contest where you use their awful, Flash-based site to make a shitty fansite about the game. Prize is an iPod Shuffle.
http://www.capcom.com/hgfanbuilder/
Be warned, not only is this a RAM-eating site, it seems to have been coded by monkeys.
Does anyone know anything else about this game? I seriously did not hear about it until CapcomCity made a horrible thread on it. Being what it is, that's not good information.

Oh, and here's my site:
http://www.capcom.com/hgfanbuilder/ChaoofNee/
It doesn't even fucking LOAD for me. I made that in five minutes. I want them back.

I've been keeping up on this game. It looks so exciting. It about time a new SHorror game came along that isn't RE on a boat. (Deep Fear, Carrier, Cold Fear? WTF?!) I only hope there will be better enemies latter on. That big retard looks so lame. Where's scissorman when you need em'?

this is what capcom does with acquired property:

take franchise(in this case, Clock Tower) away from original developers...give it an overly anime spin, then after it flops for being "weird", take the engine and apply it to a new "original" game.

in this case they took the running away from serial killer/big bad guy theme of clock tower, and it's fear meter from their(god fucking awful) CT3 for ps2, threw in a dog, and packaged it up in a castle with a hottie for the main lead.

i really hope it doesnt suck. it's bad enough they ruined CT, i dont want to see what could be a promising title get the shaft due to lazyness and gimmicks(OMG A DOG!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

and it's fear meter from their(god fucking awful) CT3 for ps2

---

WHOA.

Once you began the second half of the game, the quality of everything went down hill pretty quick.

However, that said, the first half of Clock Tower 3 was a stellar survival horror experience. Settings, enemies, graphics, animation, gameplay ideas, all were top notch. I was shocked at how good the first half of the game was. Then, sadly, they seemed to just give up and phone the second half in.

But, at least the first half of the game... absolutely, positively NOT god fucking awful.

The dog does the fighting for you.

I've been following this game for a while as well. However from all that I've seen my hopes are not very high.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ChaoofNee

Oh, and here's my site:
http://www.capcom.com/hgfanbuilder/ChaoofNee/
It doesn't even fucking LOAD for me. I made that in five minutes. I want them back.

---

The capcom fanbuilder sites take 24+ hours to be available after creating/editing. I made one for RE4 (big surprise I know).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shidoshi

WHOA.

Once you began the second half of the game, the quality of everything went down hill pretty quick.

However, that said, the first half of Clock Tower 3 was a stellar survival horror experience. Settings, enemies, graphics, animation, gameplay ideas, all were top notch. I was shocked at how good the first half of the game was. Then, sadly, they seemed to just give up and phone the second half in.

But, at least the first half of the game... absolutely, positively NOT god fucking awful.

---

compared to the original it was horrible.

"OMG SAVE DA GHOSTS MEMORIES AND RUN AWAY FROM ANIME STEREOTYPES O NOES"

i stand by my conclusion(seeing as im a CT whore, i played through the game in it's entirety) regarding CT3. It was a bastardization of the original property/cannon.

The one on PS1 was just as bad, it was like a scooby do episode but everyone was trying to be serious. Scissorman took like six shoots from the P.I.'s handgun and then it turns out to be the psychiatrist. WTF? And they set the whole thing in Norway, where the fuck did that come from?

Oh, and before I get anyone whining about spoilers, its been ten years since the game came out, deal with it.

Yeah... the original Clock Tower games weren't all that great. (Never played the SNES version, so can't comment on that one.) Ghost Head, or whatever US CT2 was, sucked ass. After I beat it, I seriously contemplated snapping the disc in half.

Tru' dat. I mean, the whole "Rooders" thing in CT3 was ridiculous, but the cutscenes were still pretty cool because they were directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shidoshi

Yeah... the original Clock Tower games weren't all that great. (Never played the SNES version, so can't comment on that one.) Ghost Head, or whatever US CT2 was, sucked ass. After I beat it, I seriously contemplated snapping the disc in half.

---

Did you have to do a review of it? Can't see why you'd play a game you didn't like all the way through if you didn't.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ChaoofNee

I searched the boards endlessly for a thread about this game. Really, I did.

---

no you didn't.

CT2(psx, technically the third in the series since the Sfam version was the original) was god fucking awful.

but the first one, with it's serial killer theme, and massive amounts of endings(btw, it wasnt the pshychiatrist. it was the twin brother(11yr old child) of the original killer...if you're gonna ruin it, then at least put the effort into the subject to know what the hell is going on omgroflfanboy+3. lol), and random spots where the killer appears made it an actual scary game, cmopletely fresh in the face of all the "me too" zombie titles/horror junk that was coming out after RE.

that and the fact that you weren't some super badass gun toting merc made it that much more personal. you were a limp wristed professor's aide(or if you chose jennifer, you were the 16yr old survivor from teh first title) running away from a fucking psycho that could kill you at the drop of a hat. that alone added more in game tension than any stupid dog through window formula bullshit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rumpy

Did you have to do a review of it? Can't see why you'd play a game you didn't like all the way through if you didn't.

---

I was in Japan, and it was one of the few games I had access to. So, at those times that I was really bored, I played it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by g0zen

Tru' dat. I mean, the whole "Rooders" thing in CT3 was ridiculous, but the cutscenes were still pretty cool because they were directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale).

---

I think the main problem with CT3 - well, except for how it went down in quality in the second half - was that it had some great ideas that just didn't have enough effort put into them. The whole "make the spirits happy so they will be at peace" was a good idea, just way too simplistic to really work well. It ended up usually being "find random item just laying around somewhere, and try to see if that will make them go away."

My other real problem was that the hiding and the tension meter were better developed in CT3, I thought, but hiding was still a joke. You could be in the room with the creature, they could technically see you get into your hiding place, but then they wouldn't know where you were.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

(btw, it wasnt the pshychiatrist. it was the twin brother(11yr old child) of the original killer...if you're gonna ruin it, then at least put the effort into the subject to know what the hell is going on omgroflfanboy+3. lol).

---

Well, in the ending I got it was the psychiatrist. Anyway, even if it was the brother that still doesn't explain how he took a clip of 9mm hollow points at ten feet from the P.I.'s beretta. That motherfucker would have to be Jason Vorhees or the Predator to take that and not even flinch.

here's how it works(short version):

the twins were hellspawn due to the family's constant cultworship(and a heavy dose of inbreeding), this explains how it(being a "monster") can take multiple shots from a handgun.

the psychiatrist in your ending actually is the "copycat" scissorman in the game(the real one still being there as per norm) due to his overwhelmeing involvement in the serial killer case(he got mind fucked by getting to deep into the case). so you never really know which one is which during the playthrough as Helen until the end.

with jennifer the copycat is the first guy you run into outside of the office(who has an extreme fetish for younger women). he has a hardcore affliction for jennifer and decides to go apeshit crazy and kill everyone who could possibly take her so called "love" away from him.

either way, in both scenerios there are two scissormen, mimicking the duality of the protagonists(and in of itself, mimicking the duality of the twin's nature).

even at it's base, the story for the initial CT series(super fam version and first psx version) were thrown completely out the fucking window for the third one.

shidoshi: the main problem with CT3 isnt the gameplay, it's the story. we all knew capcom was going to shit all over the fear engine they've developed, so at the very LEAST i was hoping for a continuation of the CT1 mythos(which they tried to do, but instead chose to pick and choose names from the original series, then pull a Uwe Boll and just shit all over it with their own anime inspired garbage).

What i got was a simplisticly horrible game, with god awful enemies, a generic "fear" meter, and a 16 yr old super magical girl that could fire plasma arrows to kill legendary UNDEAD serial killers. :thumbsdown:
























but at least it was better than that garbage 2nd title that came out on the psx. "japanese schoolgirl + necklace = john wayne gunslinger" does not a good game make(let alone going all resident evil with the zombies, and poltergiest with the floating dinner plates n shit)

This game looks great. I've very interested.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ashen Victor

no you didn't.

---

In his defense, is WAS called Demento back then.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shidoshi

WHOA.

Once you began the second half of the game, the quality of everything went down hill pretty quick.

However, that said, the first half of Clock Tower 3 was a stellar survival horror experience. Settings, enemies, graphics, animation, gameplay ideas, all were top notch. I was shocked at how good the first half of the game was. Then, sadly, they seemed to just give up and phone the second half in.

But, at least the first half of the game... absolutely, positively NOT god fucking awful.

---

I agree 100%, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that thought this. First half of CT 3 was GREAT. The Sledgehammer and Acid guy bosses were awesome. As soon as the axe guy showed up the game started sucking hard and didn't stop until the end. That final boss was as gay a boss as I've ever seen in a game and Scissorman/woman...don't get me started on how lame they were.

CT1 was amusing, and CT2 had it's good and bad points.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

take franchise(in this case, Clock Tower) away from original developers...give it an overly anime spin, then after it flops for being "weird", take the engine and apply it to a new "original" game.

---

I'm fairly sure the developer is the same as for CT 1 & 2.

Developer list:

Haunting Ground = Capcom
CT3 dev = SunSoft(published by Capcom)
CT1,2(psx) = Human Entertainment
CT(sfam) = Human Entertainment

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dolemite

I agree 100%, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that thought this. First half of CT 3 was GREAT. The Sledgehammer and Acid guy bosses were awesome. As soon as the axe guy showed up the game started sucking hard and didn't stop until the end. That final boss was as gay a boss as I've ever seen in a game and Scissorman/woman...don't get me started on how lame they were.

---

Yeah, those twins sucked, and because they were both in the hospital level you ended up having to run from them the most. Anyway, even then the cutscenes were still badass. The music was pretty good too, and it helped that they picked my favorite Chopin piece.

As I said before, I picked this up as part of the TRU $10 sale.

So far... not liking it. It totally feels like a Clock Tower game, including the panic feature, hiding places, and whatnot. The atmosphere so far has been great, and damn does Fiona have a nice rack on her. *heh*

Two big problems with the game, though. First, it has that "Resident Evil camera" going on, and that just doesn't cut it anymore, especially after just getting done playing RE4. There are too many times when I desperately want to see what is in front of me, but the camera isn't set up that way, and there's no free look option at all. It's not a super huge deal, but the game would piss me off less if the camera at least tried to stay hovering behind you when you moved around, instead of being pre-set in "dramatic" positions.

That's nowhere near the worst part of this game, though. Hewie, the dog, is. It's a very novel idea, and one I give them credit for. But here's the problem. You know how those "babysitting" portions of games can be annoying? Well, make that the entire game, make a babysat character far more independant than Yorda AND give you no "drag her around by the hand" option, and then base most of the gameplay around requiring you to make use of that character. Hewie (at least so far) does whatever the hell he wants, I have to keep stopping and calling him so that he'll follow me, and it is taking four times longer to do everything that I want to do than it would take without him.

At least with Ico, Yorda could trapse around and play on her own or whatnot while I got shit done, and then I could go and get her to the next location. In Haunting Ground, I have to have Hewie there to do a lot of things, and he often decides to come when he damn well feels like it. It feels like those times when you're playing a two-player co-op game with somebody, but they're a mental retard when it comes to video games, and you just want to choke the shit out of them because of how frustrated you're getting.

I'm going to keep trying to give it a chance, but so far I can't play it for a long time before I quit the game in frustration. It reminds me of one of the things I hate about Japanese game developers - they'll often times come up with this "great new system" for a game, and it ends up being something that just works like total ass, but they don't care because they obviously know more than the player because they're a game developer.

'doshi, did you do the peanut butter trick yet? I hear after you do that the dog stays pretty close to the girl.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by g0zen

'doshi, did you do the peanut butter trick yet? I hear after you do that the dog stays pretty close to the girl.

---

... :|

Thanks for the impressions, shidoshi. Let us know how this 'peanut butter' trick works.