i felt that way about legend of dragoon. i had just as much fun playing it as ff7 but it didnt sell very well so they gave up on it and we never got to see a sequel.
For real. But I guess that is the nature of cult classics... =\ I hope the creators realize there are people who seriously have enjoyed their work over the years, .
A thing that you may not have known about Hewie is that if you hit him, whether it be intentional or unintentional and try to hide from a stalker without reassuring him with some lovin' he *will* lead your stalkers to the spot you are hiding at. I discovered this when playing Haunting Ground for the 4th or 5th time, I was in a narrow hallway and Daniella had appeared and while I was trying to hit her to distract her from hitting Hewie too much, I kept accidentally hitting Hewie instead. I went to go hide once I used an Antimony ball to gain some distance and once it wore off on her, Hewie led her to my exact location and barked at the door, where she proceeded to open it and found me. Also you don't have to wait towards the end of the game for Hewie to have precise response to your commands, all you have to do is take him to the training area at the beginning of the game and train him for a good while. Now for all you, she didn't mention that Hewie has alternate costumes too, he only gets two but each has their own abilities. I usually like sporting the black and tan Hewie on normal cause his attacks do a ridiculous amount of damage, and I use the plush toy costume on hard cause he's a defensive tank.
@@ryan2casey764 I originally thought it was a fluke as well but I tested it while getting the bad ending, Hewie will lead enemies to you if you mistreat him, it may not be all the time but he will do it.
Here's another little fun tip about Hewie that I've noticed, if you are hiding in the shadows of a corner, behind something, or if you're using the Faerie Earrings to hide in plain sight, Hewie will put his body in front of yours if your stalker gets too close to you.
Yes!! This game was SO impressive. The characters are terrifying, music and audio is phenomenal, the gameplay is unique, and the fact that there was NO LOADING TIMES between doors, is mind blowing. I will scream this into the void until I'm blue in the face. Thank you for helping spread the word, because I would die happy if they re-release or remake it.
Daniella's "Blood, Flesh, Woman" monologue might be the most intimitating speech ever heard in a video game. I would love Capcom remaking this game even more than any RE Game.
Agreed! I found a video on TH-cam of all the cutscenes, in "movie" format, and left a timestamp for that monologue because I love to come back to it. So so spooky. I know one of my friends would absolutely love Daniella, but she hasn't played the game and I want to show her the monologue, but I also want her to play/watch me play or something because I want her to understand why she's so fucking cool and scary.
After all these years Hewie's theme song still gets to me. I remember freaking out and tearing up when I thought he died after being shot by Ricardo. Like you said, he really is the best dog in videogame history so far. The fact that he actually learns what and how to do things the more you spend time teaching him blew my mind. I remember ending the game once with a proper trained Hewie and then starting a new game and noticing how unresponsive Hewie is at the begining by comparison. This bond that you build throughout the game by use of a game mechanic is amazing, specially for 2005.
@@paigetyler8529 Hehehe guess i was really young when i played it, couldn't understand any of that she was a good meat material at that time.....memories ✨
This is one of my favorite horror games. I'm glad someone remembers it. I was the weird person that bought this instead of RE4, I didn't know it became so expensive.
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the research you do for these videos. Not just for the lore, but the hidden game mechanics, secret items, and even fan reception. Your reviews are extremely thorough and the love you put into them really shows :3 Also, your commentary just Rocks! Keep up the awesome content!
I recently played through about half of this game, and I absolutely love when you are running from the maid. She commands the air around her, she is terrifying when she walks and the music that accompanies her is amazing. Just don't let her get the flaming hot poker as a weapon. Then it's even worse.
PS: if you find her tending to a fire, *leave her the hell alone!* Don't even think of trying to interact with her to see if she's gonna say anything, that's a mistake that will haunt you forever!
I just subscribed to you last night cause of your RE2: Remake reviews. Binged all your videos already too. Lol Awesome work. Thanks for the good content.
I was one of the few Europeans who bought this game on its release...I remember replaying it MULTIPLE times because I was in love with the bizarre atmosphere. Even replayed it in German to help study for my highschool exam. It's up there with the original Clock Tower imo! Still at home in my mother's basement, gathering dust...I wanna replay it now.
I don't think re4 hurt hunting ground, because HG was exclusive to the ps2, while RE4 was exclusive to the GC initially. I think it was the fact that it *looked* like another tank control horror game. People with revisionist history tend to forget people got tired of that style. That's how we got the RE4 style in the first place.
Oh yeah, too many people nowadays claim to prefer Code Veronica over RE4, which was completely the opposite in real history with majority completely sick of slow-paced walk in a mansion. RE3 and Silent Hill broke up from that by letting you explore cities, but still had horrible camera and controls.
That's not true, you can tell capcom put more marketing into re 4 than this. I never heard of this until YEARS after it was released . Re 4 also got ported to everything under the stars while this game got pushed aside.
@@tyeelkins that might be true, but Capcom also put a lot of marketing into REmake, and it still sold poorly, which led to them going in a more action-focused direction with RE4. It was a combination of factors that led to its poor sales, to be sure, one of them being that people just weren't as interested in horror games at the time.
it's also a fact that the gaming media at the time simply decided THEY didn't like tank controlls any more so brushed a lot fo good games under the rug to supoert their own narrative. PS2 had a lot of games coming out wevery month so it was damned hard to keep track of them.
I was honestly hoping you would cover this game and Rule of Rose as well and i'm glad you did (At least for Haunting Ground). The way you setup your videos and overall how you relay the information/ how it's scripted is always very entertaining and enjoyable to watch ! Only 8 minutes in so far but i know it'll be a great video ahead, keep up the amazing work : )
I'm sorry, did I just see SWAT 4 blink across my screen? I'd love to see a retrospective on THAT series, the more love that game gets the better in my book.
@@patliao556 try the third one if you get the chance. 4 was good but hammed it up a bit. Kinda has the same issue as old ghost recon games and the advanced warframe fighter that came after. Or rainbow six games for that matter. Went from tactical shooter to tacticool cinematic gaming experience with "movie tech" 007 styled gadgetry.
the scariest part of this game is that fiona's walking around without a bra, and her cup size is probably large enough for it to really hurt when she starts running
Boobs gain more muscle without a bra so itll be less inconvenient and they'll be more firm. Bras are basically a crutch, theres been a bunch of studies on it
Oh God, I know the feeling. You know how it's that time of the month and the girls get tender? Taking the stairs becomes a low key form of torture and you have to hold them to stop them from hurting so much. XD
Hewie is the best dog i love how he wanders around aimlessly like a real dog and you have call out to him several times to get his attention in the beginning.
If the crafting systems seems weird and complicated, it's because it's using the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and that shit is an endless rabbit hole that will devour your mind and regurgitate you back into the world, uneasy and afraid.
Kuon. Kuon by FromSoftware is by far the most underrated (J-horror) survival horror game ever, so underrated that it's own Wikitubia page is empty with no lore. But hey if you ask me!
I miss the stalker type horror games. I love Resident Evil & Silent Hill but the clock tower games actually put the “survival” in survival horror. Playing as a young defenseless Jennifer and being persuaded by a creepy man with giant garden sheers scared the shit out if me, the only thing you could do in most situations is either run or hide.
At least there's Alien: Isolation, which I think is sufficient because it scares the carp out of me. Very few horror games do that for me. So if you haven't tried it, I recommend it.
It really is very well done, I kind of think it could give some middle ground ps3 games cinematics a run for their money quality wise, I might be wrong and I just haven't played anything from ps3 gen in a long while but those rendered scenes were quite impressive to me.
The only one Capcom would really be able to is the fourth game, Clock Tower 3. Human Entertainment made Clock Tower 1 and 2. We don't talk about Ghost Head.. *shudder*
@@PlaystationSimmer It'd be amazing if they remade Clock Tower 1 & 2. It'd be interesting to see how they'd handle remaking them though. Would it still be sidescrolling, or more like Clock Tower 3 or Haunting Ground? Would fans be disappointed if they did make a huge change like that? Personally I'd be fine with either I think. I just want to see an updated environment etc. Plus, just imagine how horrifying they could make Scissorman. x"D
Daniella is a living doll. a earlier victim of the occupants of the castle. The mummy in her part of the game is her corpse, that's why she is disgusted of her mirror image, and dies happy.
Where did you learn this? Everything I read over the years doesn’t mention that. Some seemed to believe she was a homunculus but later things I read said that was false and that she was simply kidnapped young and either abused to the state she is currently in and infertile or was already infertile
@@keidal3270 shes a homonculus but shes infertile, hence why shes so crazy about fiona's uterus it's implied riccardo sexually abuses her as well as just beating the shit out of her too
But the wiki and artbooks etc. tell a whole different story. About her being like this due to mental illnesses and drug and other abuse Riccardo did to her.
@@Chizuru94 either she's an artificial homonculus who can't feel pain or pleasure or joy, or she's a woman kidnapped, drugged and brainwashed into thinking she is. Either way she's somewhat of a tragic villain.
Was such an enjoyable and beautiful game..I was in high school I think when I first started playing it with my older bro..I was so in awe of the character’s beauty as well and her outfits lol
I remember as a kid watching my cousin play this game and I was genuinely fascinated by it. The castle, music, and enemies created such an amazingly bizarre and unsettling environment to let Hewie protect you in. I really wish this was remade on current consoles and wish more people would've played it.
This game is so good and definitely stands the test of time imo. Also since it wasnt mentioned in the video at all, the death scenes from traps in this game were gruesome and when a stalker killed you the screen goes black and you're just left sitting there listening to whatever they're doing to your corpse (changes per stalker) and it is, to me, the most disturbing thing about playing this game.
I appreciate not wanting to spoil games to try to encourage people to play them, but in the instances where the games are a lot older, near impossible to find/there’s a lack of accessibility, or extremely expensive (this game now runs for over $200.00!), it would be lovely if the entire story could be recapped. It’s just kind of a bummer that if I want the whole picture for Haunting Ground I have to find someone else’s summary, when it’s your fantastic telling of it that got me interested in the first place! Really love your content - your videos got us hooked on Resident Evil!
I really miss the weird decade of 1996-2006 where the weirdest mid-tier stuff would get released quietly on the PS1/PS2/Original Xbox and you would never know. The "mid-budget experimentation" game has completely fallen out of the market since.
2:25 They actually weren't competing since RE4 was meant to be a Gamecube exclusive and Haunting Grounds a PS2 exclusive. Of course the enormous success of RE4 on Gamecube changed those plans and Capcom poured a massive amount of money to get a PS2 port of RE4 ready as soon as possible. After all the Gamecube had less than 20 million units sold while the PS2 had over 100 million.
While yes, RE4 wasn't exactly taking up space on the PS2 shelf for newcomers to either games, people nonetheless had to choose for one of them to spend the time and money on. Word of mouth spread so fast about RE4 that it became people's first choice, and most who wanted to play Haunting Ground as well were probably blown away by how fun RE4 was that they kept replaying it and forgot about something that looked like a clone of what its franchise used to be.
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 Though RE4 was meant for the Gamecube so the PS2 version was quite a bit inferior. Not because the PS2 was inferior but it just was not made with that console in mind. Haunting ground was made exactly with the PS2 in mind and would have really struggled on the Gamecbue.
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 I guess so. It's just they are of such a different feel. Comparing them feels like comparing Call of Duty to Halo. Sure they are both FPS games but they have a totally different vibe.
i remember seeing ads in game stores for Haunting Ground looong ago, when I was way too young to play it lol. It always fascinated me but i eventually forgot about it lol, until a year ago! I’m not much of a horror game player (i like to watch people play them instead), but i was happy to learn about it again
The PlayStation 2 was no technological slouch. Look at Silent Hill 3, which came out way, way back in 2003 - that game, even to this damn day, has some of the BEST looking detailed character models I've seen, and it was a PS2 exclusive. The graphics are kind of dated, but the high polygon character models remain high quality.
Kasumi Ryona do you still have a ps2? If so play a non horror game on it. The most common method they used was a kind of three finger approach, where the hands had modelled thumbs & index fingers but the rest was a textured blob. Other games switched out between high & low quality models on the fly when needed (see ffx). But it was very rare for a ps2 character model to have fully modelled fingers until the end of the generation
1:44 I heard about this as well in another video. The setting of a Haunted Castle with Leon being accompanied by a female partner( maybe also with a dog?) was one of the scrapped drafts for RE4. It was instead used for this game.
So glad they didn't turn RE4 into another claustrophobic castle-walker like half of the Capcom games are, from Devil May Cry 1, 3 and 4 with its cathedral and tower, to most of their mansion-based horrors.
I did play this game back then and liked it a lot it was really fun playing a character who cannot fight, now it might be common but it wasn't back then and felt like a true horror game. The addition of a dog helper made it really amazing. I always felt it was such an underrated game
Hey Sphere Hunter and watchers, long time watcher and fan of your videos, first time commenting. I actually already played this game after it came out in 2005 when video rental stores were a booming business, before streaming and the internet became their downfall and physical copies were the only way you could get a game. I remember seeing the cover of this game on the store shelf for hire when I was looking to try out a new game on my PS2, because Fiona herself is very much eye candy, but the back cover describing the game about the mystery of her waking up in almost empty castle and being stalked by monsters sold me on wanting to try it out. As a male I felt a sense of empathy wanting to protect her character when I started to play the game as she's very timid and passive as a character, but also playing the game helped me to understand better how women and girls must feel about the horrors of being sexualized in discomfort/being made out to be oversexualized when they're not out of jealousy (e.g. Daniella) and being stalked/chased by said people when you have little to no power to fight back and made to feel absolutely defenseless. Which is what this game does very well. This helped me to empathize and understand women a bit more , but also playing the game when you dodge or hide from an enemy coming after you (like other harder modes of Resident Evil like Outbreak e.t.c.) it can be VERY satisfying that you feel like you outsmarted them. Also crafting the items like the necklace that makes Fiona invisible to enemies helps SO much in surviving close encounters with your stalkers if they don't notice you. I loved this series and I miss both Fiona and Hewie as characters, like you I hope that Capcom decides to release this game as like a remastered version in the near future! Also keep up the great work because you do a beautiful job with your series!
Scott Duncanson I love what you tooo from the game. But I want to mention that my timing sucked SO MUCH I never knew you could make an invisible necklace in those alchemy rooms
@Scotty4815 women arent the only Ones who get sexualized Though, most media has Guys built like army tanks & always with their shirts Off, why does a woman Being attractive hurt women i dont understand??
@scotty4815 i personally didnt like This game, also i felt Like the game made the Women out to both be Victims & nothing else & the men just 1-note Villains & creeps the Game felt so uninspired Because none of the Characters especially Not Fiona were interesting at all, except daniella who Should of been the main Antagonist.
I loved your take on this game, and actually bought it, I'm 2 hours in right now. enjoying it quite a lot so far, reminds me of a time where you actually checked every place to see what the character says about it. Damn I miss that. Good times. Plenty more to say, I'll edit my comment. For now just, thank you very much for your great work, and again thanks for recommending this game, little gem.
Not going to lie, I was TOTALLY ready to just hear about each of the game's plot points through your narration of the events, until you moved on to the rest of the video at 8:12. I've experienced the story of this game multiple times, and I still love hearing about it. Great video!
Been watching your videos for a while but this video made me sub to you! Great analysis of the game. I loved Haunting Ground so much and it creeped the hell out of me when I was a kid, yet I did not really think deeply on why I loved it. However, I found myself nodding every time you mentioned a merit this game has that stands out between other huge horror games. I would really love for Capcom to remaster it, it is the least thing they can do in order to reward this game. It is a hidden gem that needs more people to experience it and acknowledge its worth and level of horror. Thanks for the video and looking for more videos like this in the future! :)
Yes you are right and that game fell to a similar fate as this one being so rare and incredibly expensive to buy on Amazon. I played through both to completion and I can honestly say that both of there stories kept me very invested but Rule of Roses gameplay was terrible especially compared to HG!
I loved this like, I guess review and history on Haunting Ground. I watched a Let's Play of it, actually a few, and then tried it for myself on emulator (I'll get a physical copy one day!!!) and it's just blown me away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. This game is a gem that really needs a re-release and considering theres an influx of so many shitty horror games that this would definitely get more attention today than it did years ago. Now, just to say, I really have to say I loved how calm in one part of the video where you mention all the shit that happens in the game and then just calmly say something along the lines of "Oh, and incest, like straight up incest, not even kidding" like yeah. That definitely was something that shocked me and it makes the whole pregnancy (UNWANTED pregnancy as you so noted!) thing uber creepy, and that made one of the endings have my skin crawl. Oof... Anyway thanks for this video, and I really really really hope this game gets more attention so hopefully we get some sort of port (maybe ps4/switch/pc port?) or remaster or hell remake. (Though a remake scares me because sometimes taht can ruin the original games feel...) Edit: Also forgot to mention the outfit Fiona has isn't really that bad considering what some Japanese games (notably, more anime, cartoony games) have, and what you said about the fact she HAS NO OTHER OPTION and whatnot, is just a good point. And the fact everyone in the game is just crazy and pervy and jealous, it really makes her clothes fit into the context of the game. I'll edit this more as I go through the video, theres jsut so much to say on this game y'know?
my mom got this game in a discounted pile a few years after it came out. i was about 7 years old, and i remember laying on the living room floor watching my dad play. it was terrifying but delightful to watch my dad squeel in terror and frustration. all the themes escaped my young brain, but years later when i was brave enough to play it myself, i wondered why my parents ever let me watch. definitely not a game for children!! it's easily one of my favorites and probably will be forever
Haunting Ground Formula would definitely work now especially from experiencing how horror games evolved over the years. Terror stems from the feeling of being powerless and Haunting Ground ALWAYS made you feel the threat was real. I bought this game when I was in the 6th and own it today. I guarantee if they released a spiritual successor to this or remade it. This game would sell like candy. Personally I feel this game was ahead of its time.
This is an absolutely gorgeous game. It has incredible atmosphere, decent writing and a palpable, pervasive sense of dread throughout. You feel fear for Fi, wanting to get out of this hellscape unmolested while seeing what Riccardo is planning for her. Good shit.
1:40 The RE4 scenario contemplating a girl accompanied by a genetically-engineered dog was the famous "Castle" version, were Leon was supposed to be infected by the black fog and only publicly shown through the TGS 2002 teaser trailer. The devs never revealed who the girl was supposed to be nor if she was going to have her own, specular scenario (as in RE2) or if she was going to be controlled by the player at specific intervals. All that is known was that she was going to awaken in a laboratory beneath the castle and make her way up in order to escape. That bit when you play as Ashley (during the castle section, no less) in the released version quite probably stemmed from that scenario, as well as the dog helping Leon fighting El Gigante. I seriously hope someday we'll get to know more about that aborted prototype, as it was the only one that actually had a real scenario written: the "Hallucination \ Hookman" version recycled assets created from "Castle" but had no actual story to back it up, according to Yasuhisa Kawamura (the scenario writer of RE3 who later worked with Sugimura in fine-tuning the first non-DMC RE4 scenario and eventually stayed on the project after the latter left). Kawamura described that build as "very romantic" (I guess referring to Romanticism as an artistic movement rather than romance fiction). After his version was scrapped, Sugimura indeed donated his scenario to the "Demento \ Haunting Ground" team, who took what fit their project and discarded the rest.
This game was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm not normally a fan of the helpless run and hide horror games but this game just had such a charm and creepiness to it. Especially the design of the locations. Glad to see it getting some attention...
I wish more people talked about this gem. The atmosphere, characters and gameplay mechanics combined together makes this game such a unique horror experience. I was lucky enough to get my mitts on a copy recently, and after finishing my 1st playthrough, I just want more, more, more. The relationship between Fiona and Hewie is the most wholesome thing I’ve ever seen and it just makes me love the game so much more!
I'm so happy to see videos of people talking about how amazing this game is. I find out about this game on TH-cam (in my teen years) & I was so lucky to find this game at a Gamestop near me, & would always enjoy playing this game no matter how many times I beat it. I still remember that some people made challenges for the game for others to try & I literally wrote down the rules to participate myself. With the gameplay aspect of this game being so dayum good, the challenges were _funnnnn._ The two challenges I still remember is "Fiona the fata/s/s challenge" and the challenge was where you had to wear the cowgirl outfit & use German Shepard Hewie on hard mode with no items I think (I forget what this specific challenge was called). Hopefully there are still up & written somewhere online. If anyone finds them, _PLEASE_ try those challenges out if you have a copy of Haunting Ground, trust me they are so much fun.
Saw this in my recommend tab and decided to watch. Great video! Subscribed for more! I’m a huge Resident Evil fan and Haunting Ground has a special place in my heart just because it was the last thing Noboru Sugimura wrote before his unfortunate death.
I read this view somewhere else so I take no credit for the thought itself. They mentioned that the “sexy” unlockable outfits had a bit of symbolism. The outfits could be viewed as Fiona taking control of her sexuality for herself. A dominatrix is normally seen as sexually dominant and in control. Rather than Fiona being submissive to her captors/chasers, she takes charge and has a weapon to fight back. The cowgirl outfit could be symbolic of her being wild and free without the repressive control of others on her. (I don’t feel this one has much weight it was just part of the original view.)
Great, both you and ValkarieAurora have a video on this game and I can't watch either of them until I beat this game. I'll have to come back another time.
28:16 Speaking of DMC5 the way Fiona uses Hewie to attack her enemies sorta reminds me of how V uses his demons to attack instead of doing the fighting himself, the only difference is that shadow, griffon and nightmare don’t have an ai as complex hewie‘s and are more akin to weapons gameplay wise
20:05: fun lore fact: it's believed that Daniella suffers from split-personality disorder, from maid to the daniella who feels empty bc no azoth and wants to take it from you. Its also consistent with the fact that she's a homunculus and well if u play the game u know how they turn out rip. the wikia of Daniella has a whole section with theories of what disorders (mental and physiological) she might have, really interesting stuff
thank you so much for reviewing this game because I remember seeing this game featured on the Monthly GameInformer magazine back in the days!! I was so excited because it looked like a resident evil game or horror game similar to what resident evil gave us. I didn't know much because i was only looking at the pictures and not into more depth. I also did forget about this game as well... Thank you so much for bringing this classic back to my life lol :D
Thats the problem people Act like "certain subjects" only are for women like Being forced on, or Being followed & Attacked & watched thats a fear everone has not just women.
@@30ajgothere are universal Truths that can effect everyone i dont understand With these game they got To only try to only make it relatable To 1 group.
@@elongatedmanforever1252 You're offended that they made a horror game that "caters" to "only one group," who tends to not be the market for most video games? These fears may be somewhat universal but they do disproportionately affect women in society, so I'm not sure what you're on about.
@@PeaceLoveAndGuns dealing with being watched Or forced to do things is something that happens To men too, only the birthing Part is soley what women Go through & most women Dont get pregnant.
I’m so happy someone covered this game. Every now and then I’ll remember a game that stood out to me when I was younger and am always disappointed when I don’t see much TH-cam content on them aside from Let’s Plays. Now if someone could just do the same with Classic Creep Capers.
Lately i've been getting to know many interesting old games, through TH-cam and Twitch, that i haven't played. Haunting Grounds is one of them, and i keep seeing positive reviews about it. Good video!
I want to thank you for making such a great video. This is truly a horror gem that holds a very special place in my heart. HG is the first video game I completed from beginning to end. My older sister who passed away, gave me and my other older sibling a PS2 she no longer used as much with HG and another few games when I was 11 or 12. This was my first video console. I remember this was the only game that worked the besides God of War I. The other games weren't in good condition. I was intrigued but scared playing the game and was always restarting the game over and over from quitting all the damn time. Eventually at the age of 22, after not touching the console in years, I was cleaning the home and saw the game and thought, "Why not?" I completed the game in like a week and a half tops. Since then I've been in to games casually, but nothing compares to Haunting Ground. I am not just saying this because it was my first video game ever and because it is one of the few reminders I got from my older sister, but I really wish others would see that this is a game worth playing.
Hi, Suzi! I'm new to your channel, but I really wanted to tell you that I love your work and find you to be an incredibly competent critic. I also want to share a story of mine with you. At first, I simply stumbled upon your video on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I always contemplated buying Bloodstained, but ended up finding every excuse to spend my money elsewhere. Then your video tipped the scales and I loved all 60 hours I sunk into playing and replaying the game. My story: When I was a child, my father purchased magazine subscriptions to Playstation Magazine, " Underground, etc. and I would read every page of every one. One of the last articles I read was about an upcoming horror game to be released by Capcom called Haunting Ground, and I remember it showcasing Fiona's panic system, and advertising the revolutionary concept that her heartbeat would be reflected in the vibrations of the Dualshock 2 controller! My nine-year-old self was blown away by this information, and kept this memory stored in the back of my mind for years, until my freshman year of high school. I then discovered the wonders of TH-cam videos being able to display cutscenes from video games. I would watch these videos, and tell my friends all about this wonderful game. Again, years later, I caved into crime and played the game through an emulator. I was bursting with emotion at the chance to finally play through the story of a game I anticipated playing since childhood, and even developed a burning passion for any knowledge of alchemy due to the theme of Demento. This penchant came full circle upon discovering your review of the history and insights behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and well... here I am. So thank you . Thank you very much.
what i heard from most people who played the game or who i watched Really loved the 2 Stalker because she was the most intersing one and the most challange one because it cool seee a Boss learn your trick and somehow Give it back to you
Excellent game review! I have been looking up any old horror-survival games that came out on past consoles, you expressed your opinions succinctly and brought a lot of attention to the mechanics and gameplay rather than the story’s focus. Allowing potential new players a chance to play themselves. I’m glad you also give Hewie credit to making this game as unique and different from other titles w/ a similar theme. The way that HG has been remembered gives me hope that maybe it will be making a comeback someday in the future. There’s always potential for reviving a classic game like this. Anyways, thanks so much for making this review. I hope to try my hand at playing it someday too! :)
I did the sound design for this game. Thanks for playing!
You did a fantastic job!
We really need capcom to rerelease this game on PS5!
@@Speedo94 A remaster or remake would be swell, too.
Omg! You job is part of my childhood.
I absolutely love this game, thanks for it
Oh my god for real? That's awesome.
I feel bad for games that are good but don't do well commercially.
Tayloriscomingtosnatch yourweave!!!!! Same.
Same. I suppose we can only hope that if Art does not succeed commercially it at the very least inspires somebody -in some way.
i felt that way about legend of dragoon. i had just as much fun playing it as ff7 but it didnt sell very well so they gave up on it and we never got to see a sequel.
For real. But I guess that is the nature of cult classics... =\
I hope the creators realize there are people who seriously have enjoyed their work over the years, .
Examples are...gitaroo man, god hand, gungrave and its sequel (though it is getting another game) , and ultimate spiderman the game.
A thing that you may not have known about Hewie is that if you hit him, whether it be intentional or unintentional and try to hide from a stalker without reassuring him with some lovin' he *will* lead your stalkers to the spot you are hiding at. I discovered this when playing Haunting Ground for the 4th or 5th time, I was in a narrow hallway and Daniella had appeared and while I was trying to hit her to distract her from hitting Hewie too much, I kept accidentally hitting Hewie instead. I went to go hide once I used an Antimony ball to gain some distance and once it wore off on her, Hewie led her to my exact location and barked at the door, where she proceeded to open it and found me.
Also you don't have to wait towards the end of the game for Hewie to have precise response to your commands, all you have to do is take him to the training area at the beginning of the game and train him for a good while.
Now for all you, she didn't mention that Hewie has alternate costumes too, he only gets two but each has their own abilities. I usually like sporting the black and tan Hewie on normal cause his attacks do a ridiculous amount of damage, and I use the plush toy costume on hard cause he's a defensive tank.
I'm pretty sure that was just a coincidence. Stalker when appear will most likely go to where you are eventually.
@@ryan2casey764 I originally thought it was a fluke as well but I tested it while getting the bad ending, Hewie will lead enemies to you if you mistreat him, it may not be all the time but he will do it.
@@RoyG.BivDevoe Never heard of that before, have you got proof?
@@the-annoyinator Only my personal experience, you're just gonna have to try it out yourself.
@@the-annoyinator it's true
Here's another little fun tip about Hewie that I've noticed, if you are hiding in the shadows of a corner, behind something, or if you're using the Faerie Earrings to hide in plain sight, Hewie will put his body in front of yours if your stalker gets too close to you.
Yes!! This game was SO impressive. The characters are terrifying, music and audio is phenomenal, the gameplay is unique, and the fact that there was NO LOADING TIMES between doors, is mind blowing. I will scream this into the void until I'm blue in the face.
Thank you for helping spread the word, because I would die happy if they re-release or remake it.
And the silence if you her stalkers are near.
if they make a sequel, don't call it Haunting Ground 2, call it Haunting Grounds :D
then make ur own video
@@ArinJager1
It probably never will
Be a sequel.
Daniella's "Blood, Flesh, Woman" monologue might be the most intimitating speech ever heard in a video game. I would love Capcom remaking this game even more than any RE Game.
Agreed! I found a video on TH-cam of all the cutscenes, in "movie" format, and left a timestamp for that monologue because I love to come back to it. So so spooky. I know one of my friends would absolutely love Daniella, but she hasn't played the game and I want to show her the monologue, but I also want her to play/watch me play or something because I want her to understand why she's so fucking cool and scary.
"intimitating"
@@iim4xii129
Sry, not everybody's native language is english you know.
@@johnsmith2570
Why didnt they make her
Main antagonist??
After all these years Hewie's theme song still gets to me. I remember freaking out and tearing up when I thought he died after being shot by Ricardo. Like you said, he really is the best dog in videogame history so far. The fact that he actually learns what and how to do things the more you spend time teaching him blew my mind. I remember ending the game once with a proper trained Hewie and then starting a new game and noticing how unresponsive Hewie is at the begining by comparison. This bond that you build throughout the game by use of a game mechanic is amazing, specially for 2005.
dont ya just hate it when you accidentally summon Cthulhu
Nah, dude. I love when that happens.
Oh yeah, people are developing a video game about Cthulhu.
As one does.
I do it everyday bruh, can't start my morning without it.
I know right? Every other wednesday its geting ridiculous
Ricardo taught me the best line to pick up girls:
LET ME INTO YOUR WOMB!!!
You hear that? Thats the sound of panties dropping
Wait he actually says that !!?
@@mohammedsami7080 ye. Also hes like her dad.. or something?
@@paigetyler8529
Hehehe guess i was really young when i played it, couldn't understand any of that she was a good meat material at that time.....memories ✨
@@paigetyler8529 its her dads clone, therefore making him her uncle. That also make lorenzo her grandpa😂
This is one of my favorite horror games. I'm glad someone remembers it. I was the weird person that bought this instead of RE4, I didn't know it became so expensive.
I didnt buy either game upon release but if i had to choose it would be HG. RE4 is a joke.
zerocool I played both games and loved them. No need to hate
I wish I had the guts to play it back then
@@FredHerbert999 a joke???
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the research you do for these videos. Not just for the lore, but the hidden game mechanics, secret items, and even fan reception. Your reviews are extremely thorough and the love you put into them really shows :3
Also, your commentary just Rocks! Keep up the awesome content!
I just watched a video of yours
They need a proper remake, I would buy in a heart beat.
I recently played through about half of this game, and I absolutely love when you are running from the maid. She commands the air around her, she is terrifying when she walks and the music that accompanies her is amazing. Just don't let her get the flaming hot poker as a weapon. Then it's even worse.
I really like the way she walks fast after you. She doesn't need to run, she has all the time in the world to get to you.
PS: if you find her tending to a fire, *leave her the hell alone!* Don't even think of trying to interact with her to see if she's gonna say anything, that's a mistake that will haunt you forever!
I just subscribed to you last night cause of your RE2: Remake reviews. Binged all your videos already too. Lol
Awesome work. Thanks for the good content.
I was one of the few Europeans who bought this game on its release...I remember replaying it MULTIPLE times because I was in love with the bizarre atmosphere. Even replayed it in German to help study for my highschool exam. It's up there with the original Clock Tower imo! Still at home in my mother's basement, gathering dust...I wanna replay it now.
Imagine a remake of this game.
Just... Imagine...
@Too CasualDX your loss.
also, also, aaalso... in VR maybe!!!???
I’d be to scare to play it because this is the peak of horror
I’ve always wanted this game. I was 12 when I discovers it I’m 21 and still want to play it :/
Why? Haunting Ground seemed ahead of most games then and has aged well. I wouldn't change anything about it.
I don't think re4 hurt hunting ground, because HG was exclusive to the ps2, while RE4 was exclusive to the GC initially. I think it was the fact that it *looked* like another tank control horror game. People with revisionist history tend to forget people got tired of that style. That's how we got the RE4 style in the first place.
Oh yeah, too many people nowadays claim to prefer Code Veronica over RE4, which was completely the opposite in real history with majority completely sick of slow-paced walk in a mansion. RE3 and Silent Hill broke up from that by letting you explore cities, but still had horrible camera and controls.
That's not true, you can tell capcom put more marketing into re 4 than this. I never heard of this until YEARS after it was released . Re 4 also got ported to everything under the stars while this game got pushed aside.
@@tyeelkins that might be true, but Capcom also put a lot of marketing into REmake, and it still sold poorly, which led to them going in a more action-focused direction with RE4. It was a combination of factors that led to its poor sales, to be sure, one of them being that people just weren't as interested in horror games at the time.
@@KasumiRINA the camera and controls aren't horrible
it's also a fact that the gaming media at the time simply decided THEY didn't like tank controlls any more so brushed a lot fo good games under the rug to supoert their own narrative.
PS2 had a lot of games coming out wevery month so it was damned hard to keep track of them.
“Hey it’s that dog!”
Terry R. Easter egg.
Hmm, I dont think meron malaking unit sa condotel na yan..
"Its that dog!"
I was honestly hoping you would cover this game and Rule of Rose as well and i'm glad you did (At least for Haunting Ground). The way you setup your videos and overall how you relay the information/ how it's scripted is always very entertaining and enjoyable to watch !
Only 8 minutes in so far but i know it'll be a great video ahead, keep up the amazing work : )
RagnarRox made a long video about Rule of Rose just a few weeks ago. It's also very good.
Both games are kind of similar.
Capcom should do a HD remake for the Haunting ground on the PS4 or PS5.
Give it to BluePoint
And release it on Steam
Agreed
Really hoping this happens
I'd love it but Capcom has probably completely forgotten about Haunting Ground with the success of Resident Evil and their Monster Hunter games.
"Fiona is not a fighter she can barely walk up a flight of stairs" till this day that line kills me lol
I'm sorry, did I just see SWAT 4 blink across my screen? I'd love to see a retrospective on THAT series, the more love that game gets the better in my book.
Cook i’ll see what I can do!
Enter and clear.. as an element. Swat 3 was better btw.
@@ChervonaLada Yeah, maybe, but 4 was the one I played, so it's the one I've got love for :P
@@patliao556 try the third one if you get the chance. 4 was good but hammed it up a bit. Kinda has the same issue as old ghost recon games and the advanced warframe fighter that came after.
Or rainbow six games for that matter. Went from tactical shooter to tacticool cinematic gaming experience with "movie tech" 007 styled gadgetry.
@@TheSphereHunter Sweet.
the scariest part of this game is that fiona's walking around without a bra, and her cup size is probably large enough for it to really hurt when she starts running
I know right? Shes a tough cookie enduring days without any bra
Never thought about that, she's one strong gal XD
Braless is better
Boobs gain more muscle without a bra so itll be less inconvenient and they'll be more firm. Bras are basically a crutch, theres been a bunch of studies on it
Oh God, I know the feeling. You know how it's that time of the month and the girls get tender? Taking the stairs becomes a low key form of torture and you have to hold them to stop them from hurting so much. XD
Hewie is the best dog i love how he wanders around aimlessly like a real dog and you have call out to him several times to get his attention in the beginning.
If the crafting systems seems weird and complicated, it's because it's using the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and that shit is an endless rabbit hole that will devour your mind and regurgitate you back into the world, uneasy and afraid.
So happy im not the only one who noticed that
I'm just waiting for the day when Suzi talks about Rule of Rose. That game also has a lot of similarities to Haunting Ground for some reason.
Most underrated survival horror game ever if you ask me.
Same for Obscure 1 and 2. Also Rule Of Rose, and Forbidden Siren.
Obscure! That is the game that ALMOST nobody is talking to. There ls a copy on Steam but is very not popular. Nitro Rad needs to review this 2 games.
@@FgyjtIngenieroEuropeo Yes! I agree, Me and My brother grew up playing this. It's so underrated.
Kuon. Kuon by FromSoftware is by far the most underrated (J-horror) survival horror game ever, so underrated that it's own Wikitubia page is empty with no lore. But hey if you ask me!
@@lovely.masochist omfg obscure was so hard, me and my best friends were SO HAPPY when we finally beat it!!!! I had rule of rose but never beat it
I miss the stalker type horror games. I love Resident Evil & Silent Hill but the clock tower games actually put the “survival” in survival horror.
Playing as a young defenseless Jennifer and being persuaded by a creepy man with giant garden sheers scared the shit out if me, the only thing you could do in most situations is either run or hide.
At least there's Alien: Isolation, which I think is sufficient because it scares the carp out of me. Very few horror games do that for me. So if you haven't tried it, I recommend it.
Check out Remothered: Tormented Fathers and it's Sequel, they're basically modern-day Clock Tower, heavily inspired.
hmm.. The Animation looks very very smooth and aged very well. some scenes look even smoother than RE4.
It really is very well done, I kind of think it could give some middle ground ps3 games cinematics a run for their money quality wise, I might be wrong and I just haven't played anything from ps3 gen in a long while but those rendered scenes were quite impressive to me.
Silent Hill 3 is one of the best looking games on ps2.
I really love this game.
Fiona and Hewie are soul mates.
I used to be so into the clock tower series. Capcom brought back dmc and mega man so I hope the give clocktower another chance someday
With the success of the new resident evil games (more survival horror rather than shoot em up) they just might!
I'd love to see a full remake of the first SNES game
They are not the owners of that series just publishers
The only one Capcom would really be able to is the fourth game, Clock Tower 3. Human Entertainment made Clock Tower 1 and 2. We don't talk about Ghost Head.. *shudder*
@@PlaystationSimmer It'd be amazing if they remade Clock Tower 1 & 2. It'd be interesting to see how they'd handle remaking them though. Would it still be sidescrolling, or more like Clock Tower 3 or Haunting Ground? Would fans be disappointed if they did make a huge change like that? Personally I'd be fine with either I think. I just want to see an updated environment etc. Plus, just imagine how horrifying they could make Scissorman. x"D
I actually liked Daniella for some reason, probably that the whole point of feeling sorry for this tragic but evil character.
Daniella is a living doll. a earlier victim of the occupants of the castle. The mummy in her part of the game is her corpse, that's why she is disgusted of her mirror image, and dies happy.
Where did you learn this? Everything I read over the years doesn’t mention that. Some seemed to believe she was a homunculus but later things I read said that was false and that she was simply kidnapped young and either abused to the state she is currently in and infertile or was already infertile
@@keidal3270 shes a homonculus but shes infertile, hence why shes so crazy about fiona's uterus
it's implied riccardo sexually abuses her as well as just beating the shit out of her too
But the wiki and artbooks etc. tell a whole different story. About her being like this due to mental illnesses and drug and other abuse Riccardo did to her.
@@Chizuru94 either she's an artificial homonculus who can't feel pain or pleasure or joy, or she's a woman kidnapped, drugged and brainwashed into thinking she is. Either way she's somewhat of a tragic villain.
This game on RE engine would look siiiiiiick
Was such an enjoyable and beautiful game..I was in high school I think when I first started playing it with my older bro..I was so in awe of the character’s beauty as well and her outfits lol
I remember as a kid watching my cousin play this game and I was genuinely fascinated by it. The castle, music, and enemies created such an amazingly bizarre and unsettling environment to let Hewie protect you in. I really wish this was remade on current consoles and wish more people would've played it.
then make ur own vid lucy
This game is so good and definitely stands the test of time imo. Also since it wasnt mentioned in the video at all, the death scenes from traps in this game were gruesome and when a stalker killed you the screen goes black and you're just left sitting there listening to whatever they're doing to your corpse (changes per stalker) and it is, to me, the most disturbing thing about playing this game.
"He looks "excited" to see fiona"
I literally spit water everywhere laughing.
I fell of my seat when she said that
I did a triple backflip and landed with perfect execution when I heard that. Literally
@@nobody2021 10/10
cringe
I appreciate not wanting to spoil games to try to encourage people to play them, but in the instances where the games are a lot older, near impossible to find/there’s a lack of accessibility, or extremely expensive (this game now runs for over $200.00!), it would be lovely if the entire story could be recapped. It’s just kind of a bummer that if I want the whole picture for Haunting Ground I have to find someone else’s summary, when it’s your fantastic telling of it that got me interested in the first place!
Really love your content - your videos got us hooked on Resident Evil!
I really miss the weird decade of 1996-2006 where the weirdest mid-tier stuff would get released quietly on the PS1/PS2/Original Xbox and you would never know. The "mid-budget experimentation" game has completely fallen out of the market since.
2:25
They actually weren't competing since RE4 was meant to be a Gamecube exclusive and Haunting Grounds a PS2 exclusive. Of course the enormous success of RE4 on Gamecube changed those plans and Capcom poured a massive amount of money to get a PS2 port of RE4 ready as soon as possible. After all the Gamecube had less than 20 million units sold while the PS2 had over 100 million.
Spot on. Too many younger gamers who don't understand the time.
While yes, RE4 wasn't exactly taking up space on the PS2 shelf for newcomers to either games, people nonetheless had to choose for one of them to spend the time and money on. Word of mouth spread so fast about RE4 that it became people's first choice, and most who wanted to play Haunting Ground as well were probably blown away by how fun RE4 was that they kept replaying it and forgot about something that looked like a clone of what its franchise used to be.
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 Though RE4 was meant for the Gamecube so the PS2 version was quite a bit inferior. Not because the PS2 was inferior but it just was not made with that console in mind. Haunting ground was made exactly with the PS2 in mind and would have really struggled on the Gamecbue.
@@MrMarinus18 But that wasn't my point. I wasn't even referring to the PS2 port. I was talking about how they competed DESPITE their seperate consoles
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 I guess so.
It's just they are of such a different feel. Comparing them feels like comparing Call of Duty to Halo. Sure they are both FPS games but they have a totally different vibe.
i remember seeing ads in game stores for Haunting Ground looong ago, when I was way too young to play it lol. It always fascinated me but i eventually forgot about it lol, until a year ago! I’m not much of a horror game player (i like to watch people play them instead), but i was happy to learn about it again
the character models are insanely impressive for the time. not many ps2 characters had 5 fingers
Lifesizemortal they’re not that uncommon in horror games of that era
Huh? All PS2 games had full fingers and 3D faces, it's PS1 that had blocky stump arms and flat faces.
The PlayStation 2 was no technological slouch. Look at Silent Hill 3, which came out way, way back in 2003 - that game, even to this damn day, has some of the BEST looking detailed character models I've seen, and it was a PS2 exclusive. The graphics are kind of dated, but the high polygon character models remain high quality.
Kasumi Ryona do you still have a ps2? If so play a non horror game on it. The most common method they used was a kind of three finger approach, where the hands had modelled thumbs & index fingers but the rest was a textured blob. Other games switched out between high & low quality models on the fly when needed (see ffx). But it was very rare for a ps2 character model to have fully modelled fingers until the end of the generation
Hahaha 5 fingers ?!
I'm surprised that Capcom never revisited this series, even for a remastered port. At least Cammy got a costume for Fiona in Street Fighter V.
Nice pfp
1:44 I heard about this as well in another video. The setting of a Haunted Castle with Leon being accompanied by a female partner( maybe also with a dog?) was one of the scrapped drafts for RE4. It was instead used for this game.
fiona should be in resident evil they could say shes the girl that survive that crazy catsle
So glad they didn't turn RE4 into another claustrophobic castle-walker like half of the Capcom games are, from Devil May Cry 1, 3 and 4 with its cathedral and tower, to most of their mansion-based horrors.
@@KasumiRINA Yeah, in RE4 the castle setting is only sandwiched between a rural village and an island military base.
I did play this game back then and liked it a lot it was really fun playing a character who cannot fight, now it might be common but it wasn't back then and felt like a true horror game. The addition of a dog helper made it really amazing. I always felt it was such an underrated game
1:07 "or as known in japan"
me: HUNTINGU GROUNDUUU ?
her: dominto
ah man
Demento
Hahaha... seems a lot of people missed your joke... gave me a chuckle.
ハンチングラウンド
@colten bennion I missed it.
Fiona's outfit looks adorable on your thumbnail character. ☺️ (Also - great video!)
Hey Sphere Hunter and watchers, long time watcher and fan of your videos, first time commenting. I actually already played this game after it came out in 2005 when video rental stores were a booming business, before streaming and the internet became their downfall and physical copies were the only way you could get a game. I remember seeing the cover of this game on the store shelf for hire when I was looking to try out a new game on my PS2, because Fiona herself is very much eye candy, but the back cover describing the game about the mystery of her waking up in almost empty castle and being stalked by monsters sold me on wanting to try it out. As a male I felt a sense of empathy wanting to protect her character when I started to play the game as she's very timid and passive as a character, but also playing the game helped me to understand better how women and girls must feel about the horrors of being sexualized in discomfort/being made out to be oversexualized when they're not out of jealousy (e.g. Daniella) and being stalked/chased by said people when you have little to no power to fight back and made to feel absolutely defenseless. Which is what this game does very well. This helped me to empathize and understand women a bit more , but also playing the game when you dodge or hide from an enemy coming after you (like other harder modes of Resident Evil like Outbreak e.t.c.) it can be VERY satisfying that you feel like you outsmarted them. Also crafting the items like the necklace that makes Fiona invisible to enemies helps SO much in surviving close encounters with your stalkers if they don't notice you. I loved this series and I miss both Fiona and Hewie as characters, like you I hope that Capcom decides to release this game as like a remastered version in the near future! Also keep up the great work because you do a beautiful job with your series!
Scott Duncanson I love what you tooo from the game. But I want to mention that my timing sucked SO MUCH I never knew you could make an invisible necklace in those alchemy rooms
@Scotty4815
women arent the only
Ones who get sexualized
Though, most media has
Guys built like army tanks
& always with their shirts
Off, why does a woman
Being attractive hurt women
i dont understand??
@scotty4815
i personally didnt like
This game, also i felt
Like the game made the
Women out to both be
Victims & nothing else
& the men just 1-note
Villains & creeps the
Game felt so uninspired
Because none of the
Characters especially
Not Fiona were interesting
at all, except daniella who
Should of been the main
Antagonist.
I loved your take on this game, and actually bought it, I'm 2 hours in right now. enjoying it quite a lot so far, reminds me of a time where you actually checked every place to see what the character says about it. Damn I miss that. Good times. Plenty more to say, I'll edit my comment.
For now just, thank you very much for your great work, and again thanks for recommending this game, little gem.
Remakes of this, Rule of Rose and Clocktower 3 would keep me happy forever!!
and Kuon by FromSoftware
Absolutely want this as a remake, Rule of Rose and I'm screaming for a sequel to Alien Isolation.
Not going to lie, I was TOTALLY ready to just hear about each of the game's plot points through your narration of the events, until you moved on to the rest of the video at 8:12.
I've experienced the story of this game multiple times, and I still love hearing about it. Great video!
5:28 - "He looks... excited" - I can clearly see that.
One of my favorite games of all time. I remember doing so many playthroughs when I was younger to unlock everything.
Been watching your videos for a while but this video made me sub to you! Great analysis of the game. I loved Haunting Ground so much and it creeped the hell out of me when I was a kid, yet I did not really think deeply on why I loved it. However, I found myself nodding every time you mentioned a merit this game has that stands out between other huge horror games. I would really love for Capcom to remaster it, it is the least thing they can do in order to reward this game. It is a hidden gem that needs more people to experience it and acknowledge its worth and level of horror. Thanks for the video and looking for more videos like this in the future! :)
I must say you have sold this to me: bought a copy in amazon. Can't wait to have it.
Hope you enjoyed it greatly, too :D
22:25 also these two enemies (the balls and the smol thingies) actually alert the stalkers bc of their noise. Tbh I love how much stuff this game has
No excuses, i'm watching this now
This reminds me of rule of rose (i think its called that)
Yes you are right and that game fell to a similar fate as this one being so rare and incredibly expensive to buy on Amazon. I played through both to completion and I can honestly say that both of there stories kept me very invested but Rule of Roses gameplay was terrible especially compared to HG!
Also yay video game dogs! Haha! Brown was cool too but Hewie is still my favorite!
When you hit the Like button simply cause you've been waiting excitedly.
I loved this like, I guess review and history on Haunting Ground. I watched a Let's Play of it, actually a few, and then tried it for myself on emulator (I'll get a physical copy one day!!!) and it's just blown me away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
This game is a gem that really needs a re-release and considering theres an influx of so many shitty horror games that this would definitely get more attention today than it did years ago.
Now, just to say, I really have to say I loved how calm in one part of the video where you mention all the shit that happens in the game and then just calmly say something along the lines of "Oh, and incest, like straight up incest, not even kidding" like yeah. That definitely was something that shocked me and it makes the whole pregnancy (UNWANTED pregnancy as you so noted!) thing uber creepy, and that made one of the endings have my skin crawl. Oof...
Anyway thanks for this video, and I really really really hope this game gets more attention so hopefully we get some sort of port (maybe ps4/switch/pc port?) or remaster or hell remake.
(Though a remake scares me because sometimes taht can ruin the original games feel...)
Edit: Also forgot to mention the outfit Fiona has isn't really that bad considering what some Japanese games (notably, more anime, cartoony games) have, and what you said about the fact she HAS NO OTHER OPTION and whatnot, is just a good point. And the fact everyone in the game is just crazy and pervy and jealous, it really makes her clothes fit into the context of the game. I'll edit this more as I go through the video, theres jsut so much to say on this game y'know?
Well said
my mom got this game in a discounted pile a few years after it came out. i was about 7 years old, and i remember laying on the living room floor watching my dad play. it was terrifying but delightful to watch my dad squeel in terror and frustration. all the themes escaped my young brain, but years later when i was brave enough to play it myself, i wondered why my parents ever let me watch. definitely not a game for children!! it's easily one of my favorites and probably will be forever
I love fiona's outfit. it's probable my second favorite outfit in gaming. first being yuna's ffx-2 outfit
is it me or fiona's face is similar to the re5 jill. that's just a coincidence right?
It's not just face, also body build and hairstyle.
@@KasumiRINA I've only just noticed that
@@KasumiRINA
Hi kasumi reyona 👋
Possibly not. Another example is Vanessa Schneider in P.N.03, who looks strikingly like Jill Valentine from REmake.
No, it's not a coincidence. They reused the same face model from RE1 Remake for both Fiona and RE5 Jill.
Haunting Ground Formula would definitely work now especially from experiencing how horror games evolved over the years. Terror stems from the feeling of being powerless and Haunting Ground ALWAYS made you feel the threat was real. I bought this game when I was in the 6th and own it today. I guarantee if they released a spiritual successor to this or remade it. This game would sell like candy. Personally I feel this game was ahead of its time.
This is an absolutely gorgeous game. It has incredible atmosphere, decent writing and a palpable, pervasive sense of dread throughout. You feel fear for Fi, wanting to get out of this hellscape unmolested while seeing what Riccardo is planning for her. Good shit.
1:40 The RE4 scenario contemplating a girl accompanied by a genetically-engineered dog was the famous "Castle" version, were Leon was supposed to be infected by the black fog and only publicly shown through the TGS 2002 teaser trailer. The devs never revealed who the girl was supposed to be nor if she was going to have her own, specular scenario (as in RE2) or if she was going to be controlled by the player at specific intervals. All that is known was that she was going to awaken in a laboratory beneath the castle and make her way up in order to escape. That bit when you play as Ashley (during the castle section, no less) in the released version quite probably stemmed from that scenario, as well as the dog helping Leon fighting El Gigante. I seriously hope someday we'll get to know more about that aborted prototype, as it was the only one that actually had a real scenario written: the "Hallucination \ Hookman" version recycled assets created from "Castle" but had no actual story to back it up, according to Yasuhisa Kawamura (the scenario writer of RE3 who later worked with Sugimura in fine-tuning the first non-DMC RE4 scenario and eventually stayed on the project after the latter left). Kawamura described that build as "very romantic" (I guess referring to Romanticism as an artistic movement rather than romance fiction). After his version was scrapped, Sugimura indeed donated his scenario to the "Demento \ Haunting Ground" team, who took what fit their project and discarded the rest.
Awwww that doggo!
Hi doggie
I gotta say I appreciate your channel it made me go back and play a lot of my old games "Parasite Eve" included.
So Thank You
This game was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm not normally a fan of the helpless run and hide horror games but this game just had such a charm and creepiness to it. Especially the design of the locations.
Glad to see it getting some attention...
I wish more people talked about this gem. The atmosphere, characters and gameplay mechanics combined together makes this game such a unique horror experience. I was lucky enough to get my mitts on a copy recently, and after finishing my 1st playthrough, I just want more, more, more. The relationship between Fiona and Hewie is the most wholesome thing I’ve ever seen and it just makes me love the game so much more!
I'm so happy to see videos of people talking about how amazing this game is. I find out about this game on TH-cam (in my teen years) & I was so lucky to find this game at a Gamestop near me, & would always enjoy playing this game no matter how many times I beat it. I still remember that some people made challenges for the game for others to try & I literally wrote down the rules to participate myself. With the gameplay aspect of this game being so dayum good, the challenges were _funnnnn._
The two challenges I still remember is "Fiona the fata/s/s challenge" and the challenge was where you had to wear the cowgirl outfit & use German Shepard Hewie on hard mode with no items I think (I forget what this specific challenge was called). Hopefully there are still up & written somewhere online. If anyone finds them, _PLEASE_ try those challenges out if you have a copy of Haunting Ground, trust me they are so much fun.
Saw this in my recommend tab and decided to watch. Great video! Subscribed for more!
I’m a huge Resident Evil fan and Haunting Ground has a special place in my heart just because it was the last thing Noboru Sugimura wrote before his unfortunate death.
Yay, im glad the Clocktower Saga is not forgotten
Thanks Sphere Hunter
The Shellder in Slowbro ́s Tail I love clock tower and hunting grounds. It really bothers me that they didn’t do well
@@SHODAN-TriOptimum Yep
Haunting Ground is a masterpiece of a game who else agrees with me?
I agree!!!
Agree!!
Valkyrie Aurora sure does
Hell yeah needs to be up on the psn store
It looks that way but I never had the chance to pick it up when it was released. I could try looking for it now but it might be hard to find it
Azoth! Wheres my Azoth!? Theres nowhere to run Fiona!
Is it me or does Fiona favor Jill Vallentine?
Her wiki page actually compares her to Jill valentine from re5 to be exact
I read this view somewhere else so I take no credit for the thought itself. They mentioned that the “sexy” unlockable outfits had a bit of symbolism. The outfits could be viewed as Fiona taking control of her sexuality for herself. A dominatrix is normally seen as sexually dominant and in control. Rather than Fiona being submissive to her captors/chasers, she takes charge and has a weapon to fight back.
The cowgirl outfit could be symbolic of her being wild and free without the repressive control of others on her. (I don’t feel this one has much weight it was just part of the original view.)
Great, both you and ValkarieAurora have a video on this game and I can't watch either of them until I beat this game. I'll have to come back another time.
If you want to watch without spoilers all story talk ends at 8:13
Love your videos! Keep up the great work!
@Sebastian Antonio I had to watch some of my favorite youtubers before I had to save Ashley.
@Sebastian Antonio Thank you sir. Hopefully Ashley won't say my name 1,000 times annoyingly if I have to save her from something.
@Sebastian Antonio Noooooooooo
28:16
Speaking of DMC5 the way Fiona uses Hewie to attack her enemies sorta reminds me of how V uses his demons to attack instead of doing the fighting himself, the only difference is that shadow, griffon and nightmare don’t have an ai as complex hewie‘s and are more akin to weapons gameplay wise
You toggled between summoned Legions and DCM-like combat in Chaos Legion. It was an earlier game IIRK.
20:05: fun lore fact: it's believed that Daniella suffers from split-personality disorder, from maid to the daniella who feels empty bc no azoth and wants to take it from you. Its also consistent with the fact that she's a homunculus and well if u play the game u know how they turn out rip. the wikia of Daniella has a whole section with theories of what disorders (mental and physiological) she might have, really interesting stuff
I wish you explained the whole story all the way to the end. It sounds interesting
Mahdi Bakhshoudeh
You can look up the full story on wiki or watch a playthrough! It’s really great!
Whatsausername?respondpls Already did but I really like the way she tells the story!
Whats interesting about it??
Its just a bunch of people
Want to get fiona cause
She got some immortal
Stuff in her, also the clone
Guys exist.
Capcom should remastered Dino Crisis and Hunting Ground.
Haunting
Yes!!!
Me after REmake 2 and 3: i-.... I don't know...
@@myers5059 The re2 remake was actually really good but I would say the re3 remake is lacking
@@theredmarker7216 both cut alot of good shit out
😎 00.44am, what the hell!!
that explaines why i didn't see it when i got to bed at 12:30 am XD
I bought this game for 16 bucks used at Gamestop in 2011. I've yet to play it.
sidewaydriver I don’t think you realize how much it’s worth now
Aaaaah I'll Buy It At A High Price
ReviewingWithAMask Not only if you need cash but you also need guts to buy that game
@@ReviewingWithAMask
I can never not read that in The Merchant's voice :)
@@ReviewingWithAMask Heh Heh Heh Thank ya
thank you so much for reviewing this game because I remember seeing this game featured on the Monthly GameInformer magazine back in the days!! I was so excited because it looked like a resident evil game or horror game similar to what resident evil gave us. I didn't know much because i was only looking at the pictures and not into more depth. I also did forget about this game as well... Thank you so much for bringing this classic back to my life lol :D
"Are all Capcom games in a shared universe?"
I mean, the fictional Republic of Borginia exists in both Ace Attorney and Dino Crisis. So...*maybe*?
New vid!!!!!! Btw, out of curiosity, when are you going to do the Code Veronica Retrospective?
The part where you discuss the horror themes so effectively used for women... because they're so real, so common. Wow, yeah. I love your work.
I know. That’s probably why I don’t get why it’s scary. Seems like a very long of hide n seek.
Thats the problem people
Act like "certain subjects"
only are for women like
Being forced on, or
Being followed &
Attacked & watched
thats a fear everone
has not just women.
@@30ajgothere are
universal Truths that can effect everyone i dont understand
With these game they got
To only try to only make it relatable To 1 group.
@@elongatedmanforever1252 You're offended that they made a horror game that "caters" to "only one group," who tends to not be the market for most video games? These fears may be somewhat universal but they do disproportionately affect women in society, so I'm not sure what you're on about.
@@PeaceLoveAndGuns
dealing with being watched
Or forced to do things
is something that happens
To men too, only the birthing
Part is soley what women
Go through & most women
Dont get pregnant.
Great game. Love Hewie
Edit: haha that SALTATIO easter egg is great!
I’m so happy someone covered this game. Every now and then I’ll remember a game that stood out to me when I was younger and am always disappointed when I don’t see much TH-cam content on them aside from Let’s Plays.
Now if someone could just do the same with Classic Creep Capers.
Lately i've been getting to know many interesting old games, through TH-cam and Twitch, that i haven't played.
Haunting Grounds is one of them, and i keep seeing positive reviews about it.
Good video!
Who thinks a modern day Clock Tower reboot or remake would be cool?
"That was close" 😊 i love your way of narrating like this. You're mazin'
*sigh* I love Haunting Ground since I finished it once back then
I want to thank you for making such a great video. This is truly a horror gem that holds a very special place in my heart.
HG is the first video game I completed from beginning to end. My older sister who passed away, gave me and my other older sibling a PS2 she no longer used as much with HG and another few games when I was 11 or 12. This was my first video console.
I remember this was the only game that worked the besides God of War I. The other games weren't in good condition.
I was intrigued but scared playing the game and was always restarting the game over and over from quitting all the damn time. Eventually at the age of 22, after not touching the console in years, I was cleaning the home and saw the game and thought, "Why not?" I completed the game in like a week and a half tops. Since then I've been in to games casually, but nothing compares to Haunting Ground.
I am not just saying this because it was my first video game ever and because it is one of the few reminders I got from my older sister, but I really wish others would see that this is a game worth playing.
Hi, Suzi! I'm new to your channel, but I really wanted to tell you that I love your work and find you to be an incredibly competent critic. I also want to share a story of mine with you.
At first, I simply stumbled upon your video on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I always contemplated buying Bloodstained, but ended up finding every excuse to spend my money elsewhere. Then your video tipped the scales and I loved all 60 hours I sunk into playing and replaying the game.
My story:
When I was a child, my father purchased magazine subscriptions to Playstation Magazine, " Underground, etc. and I would read every page of every one. One of the last articles I read was about an upcoming horror game to be released by Capcom called Haunting Ground, and I remember it showcasing Fiona's panic system, and advertising the revolutionary concept that her heartbeat would be reflected in the vibrations of the Dualshock 2 controller! My nine-year-old self was blown away by this information, and kept this memory stored in the back of my mind for years, until my freshman year of high school. I then discovered the wonders of TH-cam videos being able to display cutscenes from video games. I would watch these videos, and tell my friends all about this wonderful game. Again, years later, I caved into crime and played the game through an emulator. I was bursting with emotion at the chance to finally play through the story of a game I anticipated playing since childhood, and even developed a burning passion for any knowledge of alchemy due to the theme of Demento. This penchant came full circle upon discovering your review of the history and insights behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and well... here I am. So thank you . Thank you very much.
It actually looks really good ! I'm pretty impressed by the dog :p
06:12 "Ah, Wesker, I see you also appear in this game, what a coinkidinky"
what i heard from most people who played the game or who i watched Really loved the 2 Stalker because she was the most intersing one and the most challange one
because it cool seee a Boss learn your trick and somehow Give it back to you
She was kind of the only
interesting character in
The game.
I did that note thingy in a Silent Hill game and actually cracked the puzzle during a lesson at school.
Excellent game review! I have been looking up any old horror-survival games that came out on past consoles, you expressed your opinions succinctly and brought a lot of attention to the mechanics and gameplay rather than the story’s focus. Allowing potential new players a chance to play themselves. I’m glad you also give Hewie credit to making this game as unique and different from other titles w/ a similar theme.
The way that HG has been remembered gives me hope that maybe it will be making a comeback someday in the future. There’s always potential for reviving a classic game like this.
Anyways, thanks so much for making this review. I hope to try my hand at playing it someday too! :)