Demento/Haunting Ground

Decided to finally get the PS2 port on PS3, only available from the Japanese store.

Looking forward to seeing if there are any differences. I imagine the load times will be faster though they were pretty fast in the PS2 version.

If anyone wants go know anything about the game in general, ask away. What I can tell you right now is you should play and if you don't you're a bad person.

There's a PS3 version? Did it ever get an English translation? Though honestly does that even matter to you, you know the game inside out anyway.

That's always a test for me, playing the game in Japanese. Means I don't really need the menu's anymore.

There's no English PS3 version sadly. The voice acting in the Japanese version is in English but none of the text so you'd have a small issue figuring out items and Hewie's commands as well as missing out on info in files.

I've played the PS2 English and Japanese versions so much that yeah, I don't need to read anything anymore. Once I'd done everything I spent untold hours speedrunning.

The PAL PS2 version should be reasonably priced. The US version, for some reason, goes for hundreds. No idea why.

Played about an hour of the PS3 version. There's a bit of slowdown and framerate issues. The camera is a combination of fixed and following in certain areas. The following one causes slowdown sometimes. Some cutscenes (uses ingame engine) stutter slightly when the camera is sweeping or moving at all really.

You'd expect an old game to run better on better hardware. Fatal Frame had faster loading on doors but had a lot of little graphical issues.

I haven't played the original HG for a while do I might load it up this weekend and do a proper comparison.

Let me know, it could be really shoddy coding behind the scenes that's causing problems. It's unique though, I cannot even find footage of the PS3 version.

There always seems to be something wrong with these old ports. RE4 had issues too.

I really wish we'd just get a good RE4 port for once. It's sad that graphically speaking the Gamecube version is still the most atmospheric. Later versions lost a lot of its grain iirc and some other graphical tricks, making it too clean. Not to mention some horrible ports.

I'm wondering if those framerate issues I mentioned in this version of HG have anything to do with the fact that I'm playing it on an HDTV.

It looks way worse which is normal due to not being designed for it. But I remember playing the PS2 version on this TV and aside from it looking bad it played fine. I've got an SDTV here so I'll hook it up later and see.

I'm playing through making notes before setting up the PS2 version. I might try running the PS3 through the AV cables to see how this looks on an SDTV.

Found some more oddities.

>Light glitch.
There is a graphical glitch that occurs near lit torches or lights. Nearby, and seeming to be at the same height, appear these little, yellow, flickering squares. Only appear on certain angles near such lights. Some vanish instantly while some remain on screen.

>Luminescent problems.
Luminescencts are these floating, blue orbs of light that chase you and explode on impact, creating noise and causing a small degree of panic.

In one part of Daniella's area, you need to lure one through a few rooms for a puzzle. But this one is getting stuck on corners or not coming through doorways unless you stay really close. Need to verify on PS2 but I don't remember them being this annoying. They actually fizzled out a few times which never happens to me on PS2.

Might be my imagination but they seem to be moving faster too.

Still noticing framerate hiccups here and there. Saw a small amount of slowdown in Daniella's fight.

Finished it.

The last cutscene for the endings had this fast zoom in that looked a little choppy, also the top of the water tower where the camera tracks you when running around which gives this rotational effect.

I'll check the PS2 version's cut-scene viewer. Dont feel like getting up to the water tower myself buy I could probably watch a playthrough instead.

The Lorenzo glitch still works in the PSN version. This is a huge skip in the last part of the game. I saw it work in a recent speedrun of the PSN version.

Any chance of some gameplay footage somewhere? Really would like to see the game in action.

Footage is extremely common. There's an endless amount if you just want to see gameplay.

Only issue is you have awful gameplay that's painful to watch or speedrunning that will seem rushed and miss out a lot of stuff. I guess if all you want is a quick look it doesn't matter.

No I mean of the PS3 version, because I looked high and low and found zero.

I'll find you some when I get home.

Going through old threads and I see I totally forgot about this one.

I never got around to setting up the PS2 version, and probably won't for a while.

Here's some footage of the PS3 version. It's the run in first place.
https://www.speedrun.com/hauntingground

The jiggle on her breasts is so delightfully over the top. Still have this game high on my list, I'll get to it eventually. Will probably be the PS2 version (PAL) though. If the PS3 version is worth it I'll get into it once I'm so familiar with the game I don't need to read anymore.

Was browsing at a shop and suddenly found this game for less than 10 bucks. Immediately bought it.

Good boy. You've been granted an extension.

About one hour in, really surprised by how 'gamey' it is, in a fantastic way I mean. Lots of subtle mechanics though I admit to not really using them yet against the pursuing hunchback. I like that you can push doors open and also close them to eliminate your trace (I assume it makes you harder to find?).

Just fell down from somewhere when the ground collapsed beneath my feet. Ran off in a panic past a ton of doors to shake the guy, now going to backtrack to see what I missed. Overall a good experience. Uses the same engine as RE4 I believe, right?

>Lots of subtle mechanics though
There's a few things the game never mentions, at least from what I remember. I don't want to spoil anything with a shitload of tips unless you want them.

>doors
It won't eliminate your trace, which in this game is more about sound and distance. Like if you run into a room and he didnt see you do it but wasn't far behind, chances are he'll still enter and search even if you close the door.

Closing is good if you have time because they can't smash through doors like you can with tackle or kick; they have to go through their same animation every time.

>collapsed ground
This is a trap and there are more around the game. For this one, there are ways to bait him onto the broken part so he falls instead.

I don't want to spoil too much and a lot of stuff that would be really useful to know might not become apparent until your next playthrough. Getting chased constantly can be a pain. Try to limit noise, but there are also scripted appearances you can do nothing about.

This is one of those classic old school games that won't do a thing to help you.

>Re4
From what I've heard, they share a few assets.

That's fine, I'm just having fun exploring the mechanics as they are right now! I haven't been discovered yet outside of scripted appearances so far from what I can tell, then again I haven't been playing very long. DOOM3 is just too addicting.

I really enjoy the game's music and art-style I have to say. Good stuff. The oldsk00l 'tap tap tap' of the walking animation will get old fast I fear though.

Cool.

Well if you have any issues let me know.

It was funny, I was actually stuck for a bit in the 'eye room' because I couldn't figure out what to do, haven't had that in a long while.

>DOOM3 is just too addicting.
People hate on it left and right, but it is secretly one of the best horror shooters of all time. Maybe it's just me, but it is still one of the scariest games I've played. It is literally an expertly built haunted house, with some badass guns to defend yourself. Crank that difficulty up and it's straight up survival horror.
My only issue is the gun sounds are ass, straight up. The pistol and shotguns sound worse than cap guns.

Off topic but have you or anyone you know played Alone In The Dark(2008)
I have only found one guy on youtube that enjoys what it does so expertly like I do.
That game is my Chaos Legion. I have been meaning to do a replay, I will make I topic if anyone's interested.

>eye room
And you loved it didn't you?

There's more to come boy, and I'm going to enjoy your struggles.

How are you finding Hewie?

>Alone In The Dark
I'm aware of the series. I've only ever seen a few videos of the early games which looked something like old RE if I remember correctly.

Make a topic on the 2008 one. I never knew it existed. It must be good if you can compare to my Chaos Legion obsession. Gimme some details and I'll look into it.

> Doom 3
Not sure what it is, but the gunsounds are fine for me, they took some getting used to but they sound pretty futuristic and not too over the top. Shotgun is really good I feel, feels like a nuclear bomb going off.
Game looks so gorgeous with some mods added to it. Combat is stellar too.

> Alone in the Dark
I was initially really excited for it thanks to its inventory system which was unlike anything I had seen until then. It felt and looked like the first 'real' next-generation title using the new hardware for new and innovative ideas. I played the demo and was througouly put off at the time sadly. By all means make a topic, I might give it another shot!

Played more until just after the first boss fight, which was pretty interesting. I ended up absolutely murdering the bastard, laid down some mines, a bomb, kicked him real good when Hewie did his charge attack. If I ever see him again in NG+ he's going to be in for a dark time with me kicking his ass.

Also managed to 'kill' him temporarily using a bookcase which was pretty sweet. Not sure for how long that would have lasted. I just reached a room where the water is rising.

You can give gameplay tips up until this point if you want, would enjoy it!

Seeing as you're going pretty well, I feel it would be best to wait until you finish. There's a lot of little things you probably won't learn until you replay.

As for NG+, you like unlockables boy? Because you be getting unlockables.

I forgot about this. Did you finish it?

Sadly, no. I beat the guy that you throw off the lighthouse and couldn't get back into the mood to finish it. I really want to like it, but I don't right now. Not sure why but I really have to force myself to get into it. Am I far from the end still? If not then I might finish it up.

What aren't you liking?

You're more than halfway. Could still take a while depending on how long you take to deal with each stalker.

I think mostly the chases. It's probably a lot easier when you're more familiar with the game, but most of the time I was still wandering around on where to go next, getting lost and wondering how to solve a puzzle, only to constantly have to run away and hide. At first it was exciting, but now I just groan the second the chaser appears, as it means I have to waste more time.

How many more stalkers are there left?

Two, and they're shorter areas.

That's a common complaint and even I felt the same first time I played. Felt like I couldn't progress without them showing up.

There are things you might be doing that triggers them. Any noise will do it. Close a door and kick it open repeatedly will summon one for example. Running makes a bit of noise too.

Some areas they haunt at all times but I've forgotten which.

If you hadn't noticed, you can hide behind doors. These are better than actual hiding places due to being plentiful and easy to just stand behind. As long as you don't have the stalker like 5 steps behind you, you should be safe. They usually run right by, but you don't want to stay there as there's a chance they'll come back that way and see you.

Knew about the door trick. But I did tend to 'stay' in that place, and run around a lot when they weren't around. Running attracts them? But yeah the first run was insanely frustrating and not a lot of fun for me.

> shorter areas
Felt that the light-house was already quite short.

When you replay and know all the tricks it's much better. I can beat the whole game in under 1:20. Less if I use the large skip glitch which skips the majority of the two final areas.

Did you finish it?

Now that PCSX2 has a build that's supposed to have perfect emulation for Haunting Ground, I'm going to start this today or tomorrow.

The only other horror game I beat so far is Fatal Frame 1, which I loved so I'm really looking forward to playing this. Does it offer replay value in terms of difficulties, unlockables, endings etc, or just mechanics to experiment with?

>Does it offer replay value in terms of difficulties, unlockables, endings etc
Yes.

Modes, costumes, unlockable equipment, endings, play-types.

Play types are a sort of ranking. Not like letter rankings. They're titles. For example, if you maintain max friendship with Hewie you get Top Breeder. If you find 75% of items you get Treasure Hunter. There are 11 play types and some unlock equipment. Some are stupid like Late Bloomer, which requires you to spend 20 hours in game. Good thing this one doesn't have a reward.

Nice, I'm glad to hear that. I'm going to play some God Hand now and then start this. Also worth noting that it looks amazing upscaled, the art style is timeless IMO.

Started this yesterday, got to the start of the 2nd night, where the creepy lady with the purple-ish hair chases you. It's great so far.

I love how the progression and exploration are somewhat open and let you find stuff pretty freely. The castle is also well designed with how the areas/shortcuts you unlock are interconnected. I guess this is nothing new, and FF1 also had those shortcuts in a very well designed mansion (Progression here is less linear it seems though), but this is my 2nd horror game after FF1 so I thought it was worth praising. I also enjoyed the usage of Hewie for puzzles and finding stuff.

At first avoid Debilitas was pretty challenging and I died a few times, but after a while I found some ways to deal with him.

Aside from hiding inside closets/doors, I found that you can also hide behind doors, and when the AI is looking at a different direction, run away from them to make them lose track of you.

You can also let Hewie bite the AI and run away. At one point I commanded him to attack the purple lady when he was behind her back, and then instead of biting her arm or leg, he jumped on her back and it seems he staggered her for a longer time compared to when in front of her.

On top of that, you can also use items to stun the AI - when Debilitas was very close to me, I dropped Magnesia on the floor, which exploded and stunned him for a moment. Running and doing the push attack was also useful. Both gave me some life saving breathing room until I managed to make him lose track of me or until I got to a hiding spot.

All those mechanics combined together create a very fun game of evasion and out smarting your pursuer, and it plays well into the horror atmosphere as well.

>I guess this is nothing new, and FF1 also had those shortcuts in a very well designed mansion
They really are fantastic locations.

>and when the AI is looking at a different direction, run away from them to make them lose track of you.
They can hear your running footsteps better than your walking ones. They have to be pretty close to hear you walking.
So if you hide behind a door and they pass by, walk away first, then run.

One common strategy for Deb when he first appears is to run all the way back down the hall, to the hall entrance door and hide behind that. He'll run right past in most cases. Sometimes he'll stop and scratch his balls (actually does this) and you can walk back into the hallway without him noticing.

They can possibly be attracted by any noise you make. Running, kicking stuff. You can kick open doors if they open in the direction you're kicking. Note that when going into crouching, Fiona steps back and lowers, this creates a sound they can hear if really close. I was behind a door once and Deb was right there on the other side. I crouched and his head instantly turned toward the door.

>he jumped on her back
It does, and they can't hit him like they can if he bites their hands.
What you want to do is tell him to stay. You'll hear him start growling. Lure the chase past him and expose their back then tell him to go.

>stunning the AI
You can actually knock them out too or make them run away after they take enough damage.

>Running and doing the push attack was also useful
You can also do the push instantly from a backstep. Backstep has iframes too.

I'm impressed, there really are lots of mechanics to experiment and toy around with.

I'm past deb now (The Chandelier fell on him), I went to his cabin/room and he gave me a key.

After that the purple hair lady chased after me after opening a door with the Saturn key. I saved and will continue from that point tomorrow.

Did you also play Clock Tower 3? It's also on my huge backlog, and Haunting Ground is considered some sort of a spiritual successor to it.

>CT3
Yes but nowhere near as good in my opinion.

You run, hide, trigger traps, and have panic mode like in HG. You can't hurt the stalkers though. You can briefly stun them by throwing holy water in their face. You have limited uses and it must be refilled. That's it.

There are spirits that you can save by bringing an item related to them.

The boss fights are trash. They don't use the same mechanics. You basically become Sailor Moon and get a magic bow.

It's still worth playing though. Decent game but doesn't have the mechanics or replay value HG has.
I still did a few runs. Got all the costumes.

I'll definitely give CT3 a try one day.

Kept playing for 2.5 more hours. For some reason I do things at a snail's pace, they take much longer than they should. Perhaps I just need to concentrate more but I'm really enjoying it so I don't mind.

I'm at the mansion, still being stalked by the purple haired lady. In one cutscene she got mad in front of a mirror so I thought mirrors could be useful during chases, but they didn't seem to do anything.

I also experimented some more with the AI - I made sure Hewie will mostly attack from the back, and I used that time for backsteps > push attacks, telling Hewie to stay, running away for a bit and then telling him again to attack from behind the back.

At one time when I had low stamina I actually used the regular kick 3 times (after fighting her for a while) and I knocked her out, and then ran away and kept exploring. getting an item drop after a knock out is nice.

I also tried walking and not just running like you have suggested, and it also seemed to be useful. One time I was able to avoid the initial confrontation just by walking away when the music started playing.

I also liked the bomb you can throw to paralyze the chaser for a short while, though I played bad afterwards and I got myself killed.

Another thing I noticed is that if the chaser opens up a door when you are close to that door, you will be knocked down from it. I actually tried to do that to the chaser but failed, But I assume that it's possible with the right timing.

I'm really impressed with the amount of mechanics on offer, even though I still learn the game and don't have enough knowledge yet I still find different ways to deal and play around with the AI. I can already see myself replaying it just to experiment more and find more stuff, especially with all the unlockables I heard it has.

The level design is still great and I'm enjoying the exploration as well of course. Belli castle, at least so far, is a very well designed location.

>mirrors
They only work on her. She goes nuts around her own reflection.

>knock out items
You can get an item every time you knock them out I think. Or at least a few times.

>kicking doors at chasers
I think so, but don't remember.

>replay
Once you know everything it's fun to speedrun which leads to many new strategies. I ran this game for years.

I imagined a mirror will cause her to go nuts, but I don't think I actually managed to get her to look at a mirror during a chase.

I thought she just had to pass near them.

I've seen her close doors behind her too. It's possible she could block you off from Hewie.

Finished this. Overall I loved it, but The whole Lorenzo part was a letdown IMO. It wasn't bad (Except for the stupid final section), but I found old Lorenzo to be underwhelming, and young Lorenzo wasn't as fun to fight as the previous stalkers IMO.

While not necessarily now (That final chapter did leave a bit sour taste), I'm looking forward to replaying it on hard mode as well as trying to get some unlockables and finding more items. I'm also gonna play the mini game in the secret room. Between all this and the title rankings there's lots of replay value here.

>old and young Lorenzo
Yeah before them stalkers had more to them like various traps and quirks (using dolls to distract Deb, his speed upgrade once you get the Reflector, Daniella's mirrors, changing her weapon later (and she starts running) closing doors on Hewie), Riccardo's invisibility. Their areas were longer and more detailed. Lorenzos were very straightforward and short segments.

>stupid final section
Earthquake and fire Lorenzo?

Yes this section. the worst offender was the button mashing to lift the falling statue.

The game is great throughout, but ends with a disappointing final part. I got ending A and I did like it though.