Capcom's Most Disturbing Survival Horror | Haunting Ground (PS2)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- #gamereview #retrogaming #horrorgaming
Capcom's Haunting Ground is a forgotten survival horror classic that deserves more recognition. Fiona Belli, along with her canine companion, Hewie, must escape an old castle where they both are held captive. Fiona holds a potent power inside of her, and the castle denizens will stalk her relentlessly to attain that power. Evade pursuers, unravel the mystery, and take breaks to pet the goodest boy.
Links:
/ dungeonchill
/ dungeonchill
ko-fi.com/dungeonchill
0:00 Intro
1:01 Game info
5:33 Story setup
12:10 Visuals & sound
16:53 Gameplay
25:20 More story setup
28:10 An ode to dogs
32:29 More gameplay
36:46 Spoiler and content warning
37:41 Debilitas [spoilers]
44:36 Daniella [spoilers]
59:01 Riccardo [spoilers]
1:09:34 Lorenzo [spoilers]
1:20:58 Endings [spoilers]
1:22:24 Backstory [spoilers]
1:27:34 Secret room [spoilers]
1:28:15 Conclusion
#hauntingground #ps2
#survivalhorrorgaming #clocktower - เกม
There is something so comforting and charming about this era of graphics.
Don't forget effort. The details they put into the world put 99% of today's games to shame.
It's mainly because at that point they reached peak graphics in the Ps2 (or at least the most the could squeeze out of the system) and had to make up for it by the way of incredibly curated artistic direction. Pair that with all of the buffer effects and a good old CRT...
@@praisetheoak Strongly agree, and I'm glad both you and Dungeon Chill called this out
visual clarity, just the right amount of detail
No black and ugly feminist lesbian characters . Just pleasing aesthetics
Why is that dog one of the best looking dogs in gaming I have seen? The movement and animations, the structure and personality. Something about it truly does make it seem like a real dog. It's really impressive!
Hewie is my favorite dog character along with Dogmeat from Fallout 4 the best bois
they also used motion capture on the dogs animations so thats probably why lol
Until you hear Hewie bark haha.
The facial expressions of Fiona and movements of Hewie are better than what I have seen in most newer games. They are just realistic enough without being excessively articulated.
Absolutely. The facial animation of Daniella at the broken mirror in particular seemed brilliantly life-like to me.
oh man 2000s was an era hard to imagine w/o capcom. they utilized how cutscenes work on a linear game.
Better facial animation than these current assassin creed game 😂😂😂
Part of the reason why the animations and expressions look amazing is because they used motion capture for the dog and i would have to assume the actors!
These villains be working their azoth to capture Fiona
Fr fr no cap.
Those bullies won't bother me now
I see what you did there.
10/10, no notes. 👏👏👏
Haaaaah.
Not Debilitas. He’s too innocent.
"The ground is haunted! The ground is haunted! The couch is safe!"
The couch is haunted by proximity to the floor
@TheeDucks No no no, my mom said the couch was safe. Also we have snacks you should ask your mom if you can sleep over
@@Beeyo176 Can I join 🥺🥺
One note about the soup, there was something wrong with it. If you examine the pot Daniela is cooking, Fiona remarks something looks like pasta. But when the chasing with her starts, you can examine the pot again and it’s actually human hair.
Another thing to note: Fiona's mother has long blonde hair in the opening cinematic. Yeah....
"So Fiona is going to become a pregnant tree?" No that's Deadly Premonition.🤣
oh yeaaaaaah. honest mistake
Life is Beautiful 🙃
"Thats what i thought Zach"
How this happened without marriage, sure atheist like Charles Darwin try to do this after he was married a gorilla but never happened
@@evilcrashbandicootthetouho2753bro what
Genuinely surprised at how good the animations, specifically the facial animations, look for a game of this vintage. Creepy shit.
Ps2 games honestly had some great animation, just look at shadow of the colossus’ horse animation and FFX’s cutscenes (the og ones not the remaster lmao)
32mb of ram btw
Haunting Ground is right up there with Silent Hill 3 as the most visually impressive PS2 game, but it's also a bit of a technical marvel. I remember being pretty blown away exploring the castle with no load screens, and just the sheer variety of rooms and assets.
I do feel the name and promotion strategy held it back. It seems clear that visually the art team took inspiration from Giallo films with the European setting, saturated colors, and graphic content. And then had the brilliant idea to marry that with alchemical and body horror themes.
Such a unique and criminally underrated game, definitely an artistic triumph.
the cloth animation is crazy in those early cut scenes.
Kuon, Haunting Ground and Rule of Rose... the trinity of "holy shit that game is expensive" PS2 games.
Add God Hand to that list and it becomes a tetralogy.
Add God Hand to that list and it becomes a tetralogy.
Add God Hand to that list and it becomes a tetralogy.
Add God Hand to that list and it becomes a tetralogy.
Add God Hand to that list and it becomes a tetralogy.
Oh, also, you mentioned that you can feed onions to Hewie and that doing so will make him like you less. So, fun (or not so fun) fact: onions are actually toxic to dogs, as ingesting too much onion can lead to anemia in dogs. So you aren't just feeding it food it doesn't like when you give it onions. You are actively poisoning him.
Funny enough my fondness for this game wasn't for Fiona, but for Hewie. Years ago I was an owner of a rescued white German Sheperd myself. Blanc, my precious pup, was a foster fail.
Took me 3 months to get her to open up, after being abandoned by her former owner. After being despondent and scared, she eventually came up to my now 5 year old daughter. She was having a heart murmur due to being born with congenital heart disease. Blanc sensed her discomfort, tried to calm her, till Blanc decided to bark and get my attention. After rushing my daughter to the hospital, I praised and thanked Blanc. She sensed that I was grateful to her.
Weeks after my daughter's return, she became very social and never left my daughter's side. She was a constant companion, and always kept watch over her when she has her murmurs, and would instantly alert me. Blanc had the same endearing mannerisms as Hewie, especially the nuanced ear perks Hewie displays, to her light padding trot as she follows me and my daughter around my home or walks.
Sadly time wasn't on Blanc's side. She was a senior dog when I rescued her. And after being with us for a mere 4 years, she crossed the rainbow bridge at the distinguished age of 13 years. It devastated me and my daughter, but I was eternally grateful that I was blessed with a wonderful dog.
Rest in peace, Blanc. Her existence was a blessing to this world. Thank you for gave her the love, care and life she deserved.
Now _there's_ a dog that goes to heaven. I'm glad you had each other when you were both in need.
One of the most interesting thins I find about Daniella is that she says she can't feel pain or pleasure, but when she dies she screams in agony then smiles. I think she smiles because she realizes she Can feel plain, on top of her nightmare of a life being finally over of course.
The game doesn't really explain this, but it's implied that Fiona's parents were cooked for dinner. We see Debilitas chopping meat in the intro, Fiona can examine a boiling pot with what looks like really fine pasta (The description mentions it's really thin, which implies it's actually human hair...) and Fiona gets sick after tasting the soup (Probably because it was made with human meat).
As for the pursuers, the creators of the game gave more lore in the official Japanese guide: Debilitas was an experiment of a Homunculus using a dog's placenta, thus he was born deformed and with those big creepy eyes. Daniela was kidnapped and tortured, now she's brainwashed and thinks she's "incomplete" because she can't feel pain or taste food (They don't explain if she was born like this or if Lorenzo caused it)
I feel like they went pretty far in suggesting that she's some sort of homunculus. She refers to herself as "incomplete". Talks about how she was "made to be the perfect woman". Refers to Fiona as "flesh woman", etc. I'll just assume she was brainwashed into believing she's artificial.
i clicked onto this video so fast it broke all of my fingers and now I'm in the hospital for ten years
Just ten? Cute. I shattered my whole hand and doubled your feeble time. 20 YEARS
Just 20? I lost my whole arm for this video. My doctor said I don't have much time to live now 😢
If it were 9 years u could be the new big boss
Atleast it ain't ten years in the joint
The thumbnail is from a r34 manga.
Awww, you didn't mention Hewie's stuffed animal outfit, when he wears it he becomes a defensive tank. Able to take as many power hits and general attacks with ease, the downside is that he does less damage than his black and tan German shepherd outfit and his standard white shepherd look. Another upside is that he looks very cute in it.❤
Owned a copy of Haunting Ground years ago...sold it for $100, thinking I was making some money. Man, I was dumb.
You poor soul. If you needed the money, I fully understand.
@@kyrauniversal That's the thing! I didn't. Not any more than anyone else, anyway. I was just young and dumb and saw dollar signs. Very dumb!
@@Sisren86 Full on Fallout: New Vegas. "That was pretty dumb, huh?"
Dont feel bad man, i found a copy for 20 bucks about 15 years ago and thought "this game wont be worth anything". Luckily i havent sold my fatal frame and silent hill collection lol
Nah it's dumb the prices people pay for physical copies of games, when emulators exist...
The interesting thing about Debilitas and Daniella is that they're enemies you can feel sympathy for. I do wish you could not kill Daniella as well, but she's probably better off, since she seems beyond fixing.
Would be cool if she could be restored to normal humanity and just join human society.
What was immediately apparent to me when I first played this was how Daniella is obsessed with Fiona as she has a womb. SPOILER:
Lacking one herself she takes the glass to Fiona so she can hopefully become "complete" (if she catches Fiona when at full panic).
I feel like Hewie might have been one of Lorenzo's experiments. You find Hewie tied to a tree instead of in one the animal cages.
He also quickly he learns to follow Fiona's orders within hours, if not minutes. Where as normal dog training would take daily reinforcement of basic commands.
You find a journal later in the game from Ricardo that Hewie is a break in...I always figured he might've been a resident of a nearby town whose owner might've disappeared near the castle. He's apparently a thorn in Ricardo's side regardless as Ricardo mentions constantly trying to trap or unalive the dog on many occasions but the dog eludes him frequently.
I always headcanoned that Ricardo would catch Hewie and Debilitus would try and "play" with the dog and the dog would flee, leaving Ricardo to trap the poor dog againand again.
Eh, depends on the dog breed tbh
@@creakimoi2958bro this isnt tiktok, just say kill or at least "destroy"
@@creakimoi2958 "kill" the word you're looking for is "kill"
I used to train service dogs. A dog knows and understands a command with less than 10 repetitions correctly marked. After that it's finding their (and your) motivation. If a dog enjoys training you are doing it correctly and it can be near instantaneous performance of tasks.
If the dog doesn't enjoy training it's not gonna enjoy its tasks and isn't going to want to perform them in training or in actuality.
I had a great dane who literally dragged me around the parking lot but after 4 45 minute training sessions with an hour rest in between, my good girl Oreo was heeling with the best of them.
My dumbass thought that Rule of rose and Haunting grounds were the same game
My mind thinks they're both the same, though I know they're not
Probably because both games had female accompanied by dog as a protagonists.
Lmao same
oh shit, same.
I think rule of rose is a weaker game than haunting grounds despite its ambition
Beating the game on hard you get another skin for Hewie where he looks like a giant stuffed plushy which makes him not take any damage!! It's super cute! You also get Fiona's frog costume this way which makes her no stamina from back stepping!! Another thing to note, if Hewie gets hit by the enemies too much, he will become afraid of them and whine and cower when they're around. It's really sad 😢
That statue during the final chase sequence is the real final boss. I had to restart that part so many times just because Fiona wouldn't put the statue up and burning crisp man would come and hug her.
Seems to me like Haunting Ground was to RE4 as Dragon's Dogma was to Skyrim. Great games overshadowed by games that also great, but more easily accessible. And perhaps more revenue for adverts.
It doesn't help that the premise of Haunting Ground is literally a rejected prototype of RE4. Capcom had already chosen their champion.
@@Sisren86Yeah, I think Devil May Cry 1, Resident Evil 4, and Haunting Ground were all one singular game at some point. At the very least, all the assets got divvied up; all three games have castles, Hewie is both the dog in Haunting Ground and the dog who helps Leon fight the Gigante (as well as the base model for the plaga dogs), and the Hookman got retrofitted into being the basic enemies in Devil May Cry. You can see a lot of the assets and themes of all three of those games in the Hookman Demo footage (as well as the first generation of the haunted dolls from Resident Evil 8). And God knows what else was pulled out and put into The Evil Within/Psychobreak.
Ironic that Dragons dogma got a sequel before Skyrim did 😅
@@TheDrLeviathanFiona also looks a lot like Ashley.
@@ugottme Oh my God, right? Let's hope TES6 isn't as bad of a successor as DD2.
"Survival Horror Dog Training Simulator"? Ok, I'm listening
- find fantastic new channel that makes exactly what I want to see
- watch almost all videos on the channel in 2 weeks
- wait for more great content
- ?????
-I'm sure there will be profit
Keep yo the great work
-use a tired meme format
maybe the real profit were all the friends we made along the way.
@@donovanfaust3227 oh man, you sure showed him! Now everyone will know that he's using an older meme! Surely, he will never forget this Day
Hopefully Dungeon Chill doesn't mind but another great channel s Grim Beard, if you haven't seen him already. He's a bit eccentric for some people but great videos
@Serbokrat Grimbeard, Mandalore, and Dungeon Chill are my perfecta trifecta
last time i was this early the baroque video hadn't been mutilated by the youtube police
Same
Real
Fact
wait a second... i reconize that pfp
@@Dragonwarrior125 probably from twitter, i imagine
Man.. the Daniella boss fight is incredible. So stylistic and unnerving to an impossible degree.
I'm amazed that the dog didn't end up being like a reincarnated childhood best friend or something. He really was just a dog.
The best boi.
That would be Brown form Rule of Rose
I like how the thumbnail is the most wholesome image.
Amazing vid of a pretty obscure game. I remember mostly Daniella and how disturbing she was with her mechanical movements and that creepy smile she gave. Also, there is a cutscene after the dinner in the kitchen where you see Daniella tasting the soup and there is blond hair falling from the tasting spoon, implying that Daniella fed Fiona a meal made from her mother's flesh.
Daniella could've just eat one of Fiona's hairs (take it from diner chair or pillow). We aren't even sure car crash was near castle, they could been targeted in other city. And if it isn't a case, I doubt Daniella left castle and dragged corpse whole way back, its not like residents of castle are starving to result to cannibalism.
1:27:06 Haunting Ground is, more than likely, referring to the fact the enemies are stalking her on estate grounds. Or one of the many other definitions of haunt, as a verb.
To inhabit, referring to the azoth or enemies at the castle.
To make uneasy, referring to the enemies that follow Fiona.
To stay, remain, or habituate, referring to the long life of the enemies, them rarely (if ever) truly leaving the castle.
As a noun, it could be using the definition of "a place where one can typically be found or a habitation." Each enemy has their own 'zone' so to speak. Or "a lair or feeding place of animals," considering they're effectively trying to feed on Fiona's azoth.
Or a play on "hunting grounds" and someone thought it was clever to change it to haunting grounds.
It's also a near-synonym of "Resident Evil" lol
that fiona azoth got the whole bloodline acting unwise
51:44 Not to mention that there's an extinct species (of boney fish? Dunkleosteus?) chilling right past the window.
I was obsessed with this game for the longest time, but had no idea that there even was a portrait of young Lorenzo in Fionas room
When Daniella first breaks the mirror with her head I thought she was going to lick the glass shard and it was super tense. Then she licks it in the boss fight and it was so much worse to watch a second time around. Very cool.
Dude, this is actually crazy. At my school, someone just did a presentation on Hauting Ground, like, *yesterday.* I found it really interesting and was going to look into video essays on it, and then in my notifications boom this video was there. So crazy lol
A presentation of an old video game? I did one on Kingdom Come in a class about depiction of the middle ages in modern media. Went well.
Like, yesterday? So was it on Friday or not?
thousands of dollars in student debt well spent
Duh. That person is clearly dungeon chill.
Huh, like, college/uni? Or highschool or something?
I don’t know what it is about Hewie’s theme, but it made me start crying immediately. God damn.
It’s the one track in the game that isn’t creepy or basically shouting “run!” at you. Fitting for the one character who is truly Fiona’s ally.
With the Japanese title, I can sort of see how the game is about fighting insanity. Fiona not only has to fight off these unhinged beings but she always seems close to losing her own insanity in every cut scene. And that's why Hewie fits the theme very well. The dog helps to stabilize Fiona and even calms her down enough at the very end to help her insert the key into the lock to finally help her escape. I guess the English title is there because there is a grounds and it is haunted by all these monsters, but you can't read into it as much as the Japanese title.
I swear, the damn ps2 catalog has just way too many solid games hidden in there. Every time i go looking i manage to find one or seven more hidden gems I've never even heard of
I think the whole "don't want to play as a female lead" I think they were trying to say they were uncertain people wanted to play a HELPLESS female lead which Fiona REALLY was for the most part (as smart and skilled as she was, she wasn't gonna pull a magnum and blow the attackers away) all those examples you mentioned ESPECIALLY from Resident Evil are more action girls who can equip themselves with heavy weaponry to defend themselves...
Sounds like that's what happened. As opposed to the video's, "My wife's boyfriend told me the developers were pee pee poo poo misogynists."
@@lucascoval828 sadly that word gets thrown around too much far too casually, doesn't it?
The interesting thing is that horror games with children as protagonists are pretty popular, like little nightmares, where the point is literally to emphasize helplessness! I also think Fiona is kinda like Cinderella, they may not be your "strong woman" stereotype but they certainly are really brave and smart, and can be relatable to us regardless of gender since not everyone is a super fighter. And ladies who like being feminine and soft aren't weaker nor deserve to be objectified, I think the game can be cathartic to girls with trauma/fears relating to misogyny.
@@brazilianpunk that's silly, if you need a particular genre of game to feel cathartic for your life's problems then you're missing the point of games...
I actually like that Fiona is a “weak female protagonist” as it truly makes the game scary that we are at a severe disadvantage to our pursuers and
could be murdered or worse at any given moment. Also it makes her so realistic that she would be more focused on escaping and avoiding conflict as it’s her best chance at survival and not go in guns and blazing.
I just really emphasize with her as I would most definitely be like in if I was in that situation and there’s no shame in saying that.
Also forget to mention that she can fight them back physically, it’s just not the best thing to do as it makes her exhausted and kinda just waste time.
The true horror is how much a copy of this game costs...
Jesus Christ
Edit: I know that yar har fiddle dee dee is an option but the entire point is that Capcom has not done a good job letting ordinary people play it openly.
emulation 4 da win
Right? When he said “if you want to play the game,” my first thought was “if I got $700 on me to spare, sure.”
I got incredibly lucky back in 2014, and picked up my copy for $70. As a 17 year old, that was a ton of money, lol.
thats for soys, chads emulate
@@j.2512
I think the actual problem is that there's no physical way to enjoy these things anymore...
YES!!! Waking up to a Haunting Ground video from you is the perfect start to my weekend.
"Hey, it's that dog!"
Before you even stated "PS2 is peak graphics," I was already thinking "Games from this era look fantastic, we never needed to focus on graphics as much as we did moving forward."
yeah but the 6th generation is when big capital (hebrews) got involved and turned it into Hollywood 2.0 with all the corporate crap and politics that involves.
Art direction > graphics
@@j.2512bro is really nazi posting. seriously, not even trying to hide your insanity. shame
Fun fact: my wife once thought 'I'm going to get two PS2 games for my husband's birthday'
It was Shadow of memories and Haunting Grounds...
Two unique experiences that were dripping with atmosphere...
She knows what up. She knows what's good when she sees it.
You spelt mum wrong
your wife and your husband? what?
@@armytrainer read again and you figure it out 😂
@@SandwichGlitch bro wot
13:41 The background music cant get anymore mid 2000s than this. Absolutely love it.
Another great Haunting Ground video, but another that doesn't talk about the fun/creepy NG+ journals or the fact that Dibilitas now worships Fiona. I still enjoyed it though!
It’s a shame no one talks much about the journals because they flesh Fiona out (the most heartbreaking one is after the Daniella boss fight where she laments having to kill in order to survive), as well the warm fuzzies you get from Hewie’s entries being worth playing on hard mode (fun fact: later in the game if your relationship with Hewie is at its strongest, he’ll say that he and Fiona are soul mates).
I love watching tens of different reviewes of the same game I'm never gonna play, because you always find something new. Like this time I understand Daniela's character much better since never before I have hear "I am not complete" line and it makes a lot more sense now.
Haunting Ground was my favorite horror game because it delved into the real trauma that is psychosexual horror...sexual stalking, male entitlement to feminine bodies
and it gave me my favorite villain of all time in Daniela. She terrified me.
So serial-rapists, then?
@@lucascoval828 Not sure I understand your question but let me attempt to elaborate on what I mean and why I love it.
as a person born afab I was surrounded by people who felt they were entitled to me and i was taught early on that I was the problem regarding that treatment. When I would try and tell my mother what was happening she told me that I was a liar at first...later it became "that's what happens to girls like you"
When I was 11 I had a fully developed "woman's body" and people would tell my dad he could take me to Vegas the way I looked. I hated wearing bras and so I refused but that was whorish according to my grandmother. That same year my whole class felt me up because a girl decided she was gonna out me for stuffing my bra only to come to the horror that I was wearing none.
Fiona's nightmare for one night was my entire childhood and adulthood and that stays with me even now.
When Daniela says her words to Fiona (btw props to that actress cuz she was amazing) I heard my mother's vitriol speaking to me because i realized that my mother hated that i was a girl...when she remarried, my stepfather "saw the way I looked at him" and felt that was good enough for him also to be entitled to me and my mother hated me for it. I was competition to her and worse she saw herself as Cinderella and me...her child...as the wicked stepmother or stepsisters...it was a time
Haunting Ground gave me a way to vent that frustration of my upbringing and I will cherish it. It's also beautifully made and Daniela is well written and quite terrifying in her behavior...how she always knows where fiona was, how she couldn't be deterred or reasoned with...
and she's also the story of how women sometimes see other women as competition
But also the whole game was basically...the experience growing up "a girl" is one that you are taught from the cradle sex is something men to and sex is something done to girls/women...something to be endured...which is partly why I felt that Fiona's lack of actions and much of her experience is told through her expression was fairly accurate to the experiences of girls.
This game is near and dear to me not just as a game but as a means of telling a woman's story and it was pretty surprising to get that from a team of men to that degree.
It was also freaky to realize that you, the player, are also in a much more minor way objectifying Fiona as well...because in reality...we all objectify people in one fashion or another and I just felt it was great commentary and to learn it was accidental is actually quite interesting to me.
Here for comments.
love this, looking for critical examinations of this plot and how most of the "villains" (Debilitus, Daniela) are fellow victims
@@creakimoi2958 You lost me at you as the player objectifying Fiona. Unless you mean as a game character you literally controll as a action figure, but you do that with all game characters so I honestly don't get your point.
29:20 Yep, that's a white shepherd. I once had the pleasure of looking after one for a couple of days, and it was extremely amusing. Stubborn as a mule, he would absolutely prioritize getting comfy over my wishes. Yet, he was being smart about it so I didn't even particularly mind. Such amazingly good boy.
Damn dude you're getting pretty close to 100k. You absolutely deserve it, and more.
Haunting Ground is my favorite game of all time, I'm so happy it's getting the attention it deserves nowadays.
I hope it gets a remaster!
@chattychatotchannel the way id cop this game so fast if it did, i no longer own a ps2 and the original copies of this game can go up to $200 💀 like i wanna play this game but im not willing to buy a ps2 and a game that is worth my ps5
New dungeon chill on a classic Capcom horror game, let’s go!!
Zoe is so precious! I had a chihuahua/maltese mix growing up called Portia who looked a lot like Zoe, and she truly was too pure for this world.
Man they really nailed making a bunch of creeps
Also the way you talk about dogs is the way I talk about cats. Truly pets have us trapped with their perfection.
heeey SQH pfp
No matter how many videos I watch on this game they all kick ass
I recall that the death scenes for some of the traps are actually so graphic that GDQ requires you to outright reset/quit the game if you accidently trigger then during a run.
GDQ have been a laughing stock for a long while
18:57 the combo of him throwing up his arms, fionia quickly turning around, and you saying “run away!” cracked me up real good😂😂
I love your videos. Thank you for making them and thanks to all the patrons that keep on supporting you ( enabling you to make more of these videos I love ).
Ah yes, the game where I accidentally got the best ending because I refused to let the dog get hurt....
Everytime I see your videos in my feed, because of purple corner on thumbnail I'm always thinking "When youtube managed to implement DLC feature?"
The game clearly has a lot of thoughts as it tries to convey these themes of life and fertility. I'm curious how Hewie is meant to tie into it though, thematically.
I suppose it's to do the the "master/servant" relationship throughout the game? You sort of travel up the hierarchy of the household as you trade antagonists. Maybe Hewie is meant to place Fiona into that hierarchy by putting something "beneath" her?
Would be interested in a video essay breaking the game down, given that I'm not playing it myself.
I always thought that fiona and hewie are both seen as lesser than, or simply just resources, and yet they forge a gentle friendship that triumphs over all. Judging by the song Endless zero, Fiona always was treated as a resource of azoth even by her own parents, but at the end, we hear hewie's theme, showing us that at the end, she found a true friend and is able to be who she is as a person free from secret manipulation
something i really appreciate from you as an essayist is that you never pull this reactionary anti-sex "ooo icky routine" that i feel so many otherwise serious essayists do, even though it risks monetization. it really sours me when i watch someone that treats these aspects as cons against the game (any game!!) or a reason its lower brow or to be disregarded. with haunting grounds themes and INTENT, of wanting to make you feel PERSUED, feeling WEAK and OBJECTIFIED, it feels especially grating when i see it brought as a critique against it. even the trashier aspects like the costumes are deeply charming!
i imagine you have a very full plate, and its certainly a more recent title, but have you checked out REMOTHERED and its sequel? its got some kusoge quality but underneath is an incredibly thorny bonkers modern giallo, with some genuinely beautiful moments. when i first played i had a bad feeling about where the twist was going, but then it pulled the rug out from me and beat me with it. highly recommend!
Ohhhh my gosh. I love this channel. Haunting Ground is one of my absolute favorites 😍 Thank you, DC!!!
For the algorithm! Also, thank you so much for doing longer videos than a lot of Tubers. Really appreciate it!
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!
This was the first survival horror game I ever played as a kid, 8 years old to be exact, and I was blown away by the fact you could die in gruesome ways. I was so lucky to find this game for $8 at gamestop. The only reason i got it was because it had a dog on the cover and looking in the back it seemed like a game with a lot of mystery. This game introduced me to such an interesting concept, like I really didn't think games could be super scary at the time, and as an adult, while I find the dialogue and acting to be a little bit chessy at times, the atmosphere still hits and the mechanics are suprinsigly ahead of it's time. Like the AI for the stalkers are pretty advanced and there are no loading screens. The music and sound design is very cool and I really like the designs of characters and the settings.
I wish Capcom would re-release this game as it really is a survival horror game that needs more love.
... you got this as an 8 year old?
@@ImGonnaFudgeThatFish yup! scared the shit out of me. i guess i didn't care much for the blood and gore warning as me and other kids my age would be playing mortal kombat, but ohh boy, did it surprise me how a game could be scary. the funny thing is i would watch horror movies, but they weren't super scary ones like child's play (saw did get me a bit on edge sometimes). but i know i freaked out when you get killed by the first stalker (still kinda do) so i didn't play it for a long while after that happened, and then when me(or my sister) went to load up the game again, we stopped playing again after we encountered and got killed in the first death trap (the room with the eyes and the dolls). after that, i think we actually played through up until the encounter with the maid cuz she was tricky. we eventually did finish it sometime after that as we got interested in the story. but yeah, haunting ground was the earliest exposure to a horror game, and damn, does it still hold up
Technically they did rerelease it - as a Japan exclusive ps3 eshop download in 2015.
When I was a kid, "Haunting Grounds" was just the nickname for the place where you hung out growing up.
There's also an interesting theory about Fiona's parents out there; where it's theorised that, they too, were interested in using Fiona as an ingredient for eternal life. I'm not sure how true it is, but it adds another layer to her back story, and a level of intrigue to the parents and their motivations - would the father have really just left because he fell in love? Or would he have left with a woman he believed would sire him the perfect ingredients? Was the mother really ignorant to the father's background? Or was she also interested in Alchemy and eternal life?
It'd be nice if this game was remastered and rereleased, it deserves another shot, and is one of the few games where the cheesecake is entirely thematically appropriate (not that I'm one to care too much either way).
Where can i look more into this?
@@whitegarden. I apologise, I remember seeing a video discussing it, but I don't remember who released the video, nor does searching "Haunting Ground Parents Theory" bring up a video that looks immediately relevant. I'm afraid you'll have to hunt around for the discussion on it.
I just thought it was a rather intriguing theory, that only adds a bit more oomph to Fiona's backstory - being seen as an object by everyone, parents included, but now being freed of all of them, and having someone (Huey) who loves her for her.
I THINK I remember reading about this on a different video. I THINK it's the Haunting Ground video by Tangomushi. Someone in the comments was talking about a song in the game--the ending theme, I believe, if it's the one with lyrics--and how the song had some lyrics that could be interpreted as either the mother or father (can't remember which parent) possibly having ulterior motives for Fiona.
But take this with a HUGE grain of salt. I could be misremembering completely, though I do remember a comment referencing a song and Fiona's parents not being completely innocent. It might not be the video I was referencing and may have been a different video completely.
The theory mainly comes from the lyrics to the credits song 'Endless Zero" which seems to have a conversation between Fiona's parents Ugo and Ayla. You can find the full lyrics online, but here's the section with the conversation:
(Ugo) The wondrous Azoth!
(Ayla) A baby
(Ugo) This isn't something common
(Ayla) It's just for us
(Ugo) Are you for real?
(Ayla) Our baby, Ah
(Ugo) But we can't let them come through
(Ayla) For me
(Ugo) They seek her Azoth
(Ayla) I'm thirsty
(Ugo) Is there something wrong?
(Ayla) For immortality
(Ugo) So for her, come on, so marry me?
(Ayla) And trust everything!
Watch what you wish for. If this was rereleased, it would be entirely censored of everything that makes it an effective psychological horror game. The allusions to erotic themes being that it almost entirely centers on Fiona and reproduction basically guarantee it could not be rereleased today. At least I wouldn't trust any studio to do it faithfully.
Another classic that's brutally underrated and another great review! Great work as always man, thank you for shining a light on these gems
Just want to say I love you channel bro. Discovered it recently by chance and love the throwbacks to all these classic consoles from my youth. Love the presentation and style of your content, keep up the good work. Chur!
Oh hell yeah, I just found your channel a few days ago from the Baroque vid so to get a new beast of video so soon is awesome.
In regards to Daniella's backstory and motivation: I prefer to think that she's one of the experiments like Debilitas, created by Riccardo.
I can't say for certain what he was thinking when making Debilitas, but he might've been intended to be a clone that just didn't work for one reason or another. It's clear that clones need to be birthed, and not all babies are made equally, even without the introduction of Alchemy/supernatural elements, so... that's that. But Riccardo didn't use a woman for the experiments, he used machinery -- hence all the Homunculi strewn about the relevant part of the castle that houses the machines. It's easy to imagine Debilitas was in one of them but unlike all the other Homunculi, turned out sentient. It was a failure, but still progression of Riccardo's work.
So then, he decided to use women, and in his ambition, decided he wouldn't simply use a woman, he'd create one (more on this in a bit). That's Daniella, but because she's a Homunculus -- an artificial human -- she's infertile and incapable of giving birth. Further than that, I always assumed she wasn't simply infertile, she was born without a womb altogether; in the one cutscene Fiona is asleep, she pats on Fiona's abdomen, presumably where the womb is. It makes sense to me that Daniella is fixated on the womb just like all the male characters are. They want to impregnate Fiona, and Daniella wants to be "complete." After all, how else is she going to be complete as a woman without being able to give birth? This is why I believe Riccardo created her and abuses her so violently, because he resents the fact she can't give birth, so he can't successfully clone himself, so he beats her up, and because she's been traumatized and because she has no emotions -- likely hinting at the fact that, not only does she not have a womb, she doesn't even have Azoth to begin with, which is essentially the soul -- she can only accept the fact that she is useless. So useless, in fact, that Debilitas doesn't even acknowledge her existence, not even as a doll.
That does raise the question: why not use some other random woman? Why not experiment with women? Why resort to machinery and cloning until it all magically works? Why waste so much time and energy and resources with animals and botched Homunculi for who knows how long? Azoth is present in all living things, after all... so, in theory, it should've worked, but it didn't. And you don't just resort to machines when, by all logic, you should've just used a woman in the first place. Well, logically, Riccardo MUST HAVE used women at first, and that also didn't work.
It's not just the Azoth at play, it's also genetics. Fiona is directly blood-related to Riccardo. Taking the clones thing out of this for a second, Riccardo and Ugo are effectively twin brothers. So Riccardo can't just impregnate anyone to clone himself, they HAVE to be blood-related, so he HAS to use Fiona. The fact that she has a "high concentration of Azoth" matters little. That does make her a great text subject for any ruthless Alchemist's goals, but the fact that she is Ugo's daughter is what makes her ideal. Simply cloning and creating a woman doesn't work, because Daniella was incomplete, because she's artificial, because she's infertile or has no womb.
So that's why I don't believe Daniella was just some random woman that was kidnapped and brainwashed into servitude. It just doesn't line up with Riccardo's goals, the mechanics of Alchemy, and the themes of pregnancy, birth, rebirth, and immortality (the so-called "knowledge," which is the ultimate goal of Alchemy, which is to become a perfect all-knowing being).
In addition to all this, consider all the other Homunculi that just either stand around muttering to themselves and don't do anything. Azoth is essentially the soul, and it's clear to me that they don't have it. They range from stationary, catatonic, or insane, or mentally-handicapped. Daniella may be sentient, but she's just as insane and unstable, but not so much that she can't act as a good servant. Debilitas works as a grounds keeper, too, so it's clear they can be competent. Just not, you know... good enough for Riccardo's goals.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts it was interesting to read!
@@typical_snowflake Thank you for acknowledging me, it's very validating! I don't get that often.
They actually did mentioned a couple of official answers after the game came out. Daniella apparently is an actual human and the reason Debilitas never interacts with her is because she scares him.
As for Riccardo, I always got the impression that he was just incompetent at alchemy and that there was a high likelihood that his plan was doomed to start from the beginning. My interpretation differs from the video, but to me it seemed like Riccardo was trying to hijack Lorenzo’s plot starting with the car crash and he almost messed everything up to begin with since his way of capturing Fiona had a very high chance of killing her to start with.
@@fakename120 Aw. Well, I'm glad to have an official answer, even if it's less interesting. Thank you for sharing. Is there a citation?
I also agree with that idea about Riccardo being inept. It's possible he was running out of time and got impatient, but who knows what was going on before the plot started.
@@forgot7en I don’t have a citation, so I can’t actually confirm that information. Most of the wikis and the tvtropes page for Haunting Ground list this as having been said by the creators of the game, along with a dog’s placenta apparently being what was used to create Debilitas.
Thanks for making these videos. I can really appreciate some chill in my week.
I'm a pretty high-stress individual.😬
Years ago, I found Haunting Ground at a flea market and bought it for 5€ - it's still my most valuable flea market find EVER. It will also forever be one of my most cherished gaming experiences.
Really enjoying the selection of games you cover, and appreciate feeling like I have a better understanding of their stories compared to other channels. Keep up the good work man.🎉
Such a thoughtful, thorough, and entertaining analysis!
Thank you!
Rogue Galaxy... Damn I didn't expect to ever hear that name in a TH-cam video. It sometimes feels like the game is entirely forgotten.
I wouldn't have know about this game if not for high-school hotbox sessions.
Cant remember the name but the fuckin dog with a battle axe lol.
It deserved to be forgotten for not being dark cloud 3!
Also I literally just started up my third attempt at a playthrough this year, I keep getting bounced off of it for some reason. . .
When I used to play Tera Online I named my character Kisalah. You wouldn't believe how many times I got into a detailed discussion about that masterpiece by the cult fanbase it has when they recognized the name, good times.
i wanna play that game but goddamn the ai allies are so dumb, i spend all my items reviving them after every battle
I really was looking forward to playing rogue galaxy but man its just boring and not very good. Extremely samey dungeons, really confusing mini game, the ally AI is stupid, and tbh i dont care for THIS many allies considering none of them are very interesting as characters or as supports. Aside from looking cool its just kind of mid
Excellent video. When I was a kid, the cover of this game always caught my eye at the video store my family always went to. Almost twenty years later I finally decided to play it when youtube recommended your video and I loved it.
Just finished the video and thank you so much for covering this. It was more terrifying then any other review of Haunting Grounds I've ever seen. Fantastically well done! 😃
With Haunting Ground being covered, Rule of Rose is only a matter of time.
I do hope Cold Fear gets covered or Parasite Eve as well
All my friends hated Parasite Eve. I to this day think it’s Squaresoft’s masterpiece. Exploration tank controls are irritating, but I’ll take that combat system any day of the week.
Watching this as a Haunting Ground speedrunner is hilarious. I'd forgotten a bunch of the game, as well as how casual players might play through it xD (Example: dropping the chandelier on Debi is the fastest way through the fight, so Ending A is the faster category and Ending B has no category. Also, it's significantly faster to get Debi to break the pulleys himself; he can one-shot them if you bait out an attack right next to them)
EDIT
Also, there is no Ending D speedrun category because the community basically said "... no, we are not making Dog Abuse a speedrun category".
MORE EDITS
Funny story about the water tower; Riccardo is coded to vanish as soon as you switch screens, and coded to appear when you cross *specific* trigger points. All you have to do to make him leave is backtrack to the previous screen and he effs off. And the final area is hilarious in the speedrun, because you skip the *entire thing*, including the Old Lorenzo fight, and so straight to the staff puzzle and the Young Lorenzo fight with zero pursuers. This is because the trigger for the candlestick explosion cutscene *only* requires Fiona to be being "chased", but for some reason this includes by *any* "creature", not just stalkers. Since you can find a Lumi in a vase before "activating" old Lorenzo, you can activate the candlestick explosion scene with it instead. This can lead to some rather entertaining sequence breaking (and can softlock you at one point), but in the speedrun it's used to just blitz from the water tower straight to the end of the game since *for some reason* the Sun Door is unlocked and you don't need Old Lorenzo's key to get through it when Old Lorenzo isn't an "active" stalker.
EVEN MORE EDITS (because I keep thinking of more as I watch)
It's also implied that his original plan was to use Riccardo and Daniella to make a child he could harvest Azoth from after Ugo ran off with Ayla, which didn't work due to Daniella's infertility and *possibly* Riccardo being terrible at alchemy in comparison (this is the "wet method" he's talking about during the color puzzle, whereas the "dry method" was the cloning he did to make Ugo and Riccardo). Debilitas was Riccardo's failed attempt at alchemy, and Daniella was a failed experiment of Lorenzo's that was kidnapped *probably* as a baby that was born infertile (since it's never confirmed that she's a homunculus, but it *is* confirmed that she isn't a mechanical doll like she believes, and it's likely that she isn't a homunculus). Also, you are almost right about Debilitas; he's a failed *homunculus* created by Riccardo, not a clone.
ON THE ENDING
The *only* requirement for Ending A and B is Debilitas' fate. It has nothing do to with the dog level outside of not having it Ending D levels of low (In the speedrun, you only give Hewie basic "good boys" at one specific part, and generally end with a D rank on him, nor do you actually bandage Hewie in the forest, and you still get rescued by Hewie and get Ending A). What triggers Ending D is having having Dog Level E at the time of the forest *and then* not finding Hewie before the cliff scene. It is theoretically possible to end the game with the worse possible Dog Level, because the only requirements for Hewie to show up at the water tower is having a Dog Level at or above D *or* finding and bandaging Hewie in the forest.
That is a whole lot of awesome info that a casual player would never know. I'm interested in speedruns, and I love how runners completely break games open. It's great stuff.
This is the most comprehensive video ive seen on haunting ground and ive watched many. Also the only one to even mention the disturbing game over audio. Well done sir!
thank you for this video! Another HG video to add to my HG playlist! :D
This game looks like a masterpiece! This and Silent Hill 3 put most modern games to shame in terms of art direction. There was a quote I heard about Ray Harryhausen effects that I think can relate to these visuals. I'm paraphrasing but it went something like "modern effects are more realistic, but not necessarily more believable."
That's how I feel looking at some of thse old games you cover. It's their personality that make them work despite the dated technology there were made with. In fact, that date technology married with the personality wielding it is what makes these older games just as worth checking out as new stuff.
I like how Lorenzo turns into a NuMetal bass player lookin' dude.
Voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.
I'm nearly positive the best ending featuring debilitas with the gardening scissors is a callback to the clock tower enemy wielding also comically large scissors
Recently found your channel recently and I really like your videos. I am really happy to see you cover this hidden gem.
Maybe Capcom wasn't scared of using a female protag, but more scared of a *helpless* female protag. A lot of the examples you listed were in games where you fight back. There's a difference between gamers being a badass gunning down horrors, and being a scared young woman just trying to survive.
Fiona looks a little too much like blonde Jill in RE5, or rather blonde Jill in RE5 looks a little too much like Fiona
Not to mention Spencer's wheelchair-bound appearance being similar to Old Lorenzo. Though Haunting Ground does owe its existence to Resident Evil, so I guess it's only fair it takes some inspiration from Haunting Ground back.
Fuck, I didn't notice that before, now I can't unsee it.
I thought she looked like Ashley but as soon as I read re5 jill everything fell into place wow
This game’s story was built on the discarded story elements of RE4 (the fog/hookman version) and iirc, Fiona was a rejected Ashley design
I actually have this game, one of the rarest PS2 games apparently.
A game Ive always been curious about but could never find a copy of. Very glad you covered it! Also, I appreciate the Galerians music usage.
I've had memories of this game since I was young, but never could remember much about it besides the intro cinematic. This game has been in my mind for such a long time and I could never remember what the name actually was. Besides the clear great production value and analysis, you've scratched an annoying brain itch I've had for many years, so thank you for covering games like these. :)
You and Ragnarox cover just...the fuckin BEST games man. Your baroque video had me captivated. 😅
A LOT more Dungeon Connoisseurs!! You’re really growing!!! ( I always weirdly look forward to Churm Slurm)
Me and my friend would play Haunting Ground ALL the time, beat it several times too, it was a blast 🙂 so glad you’re covering it!
i was lucky enough to buy a ps2 copy of this game in 2011 at a random GameStop for $12 at 11 years old - scariest game i had ever played! as an adult it’s even scarier because i fully understand the themes and story
Ever thought of looking through the Fatal Frame series? It’s my all time favourite horror series on the PS2!
Fatal Frame 2 is my favorite horror game, so yes, definitely want to cover Fatal Frame at some point!
Please keep it up man, I love your videos
Saturday morning Dungeon Chill videos are always a fine sight. Cheers~❤