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Thread: Sweet Home - a nice relaxing romp through an empty house

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    ServBot (Level 11) Edmond Dantes's Avatar
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    Default Sweet Home - a nice relaxing romp through an empty house

    HAHA just kidding its a horror game.

    It's kind of amazing actually--these days you can find all sorts of horror games using RPG aesthetics, such as the infamous Ao Oni... but on the NES, really only Sweet Home was doing the business. Though I've found some horror-themed visual novels for the Super Famicom (WHICH SOMEONE NEEDS TO TRANSLATE, just saying).

    So apparently Sweet Home is the meaning in my life, its the inspiration... for Resident Evil? I can kinda see it, but the funny thing is that the game in the series it most reminds me of is RE Zero on the Gamecube.

    Why? Two things:

    One, no magic boxes--instead you can switch out inventory items with others that are just lying on the floor somewhere. This leads to a design where the mansion's layout makes it easy to backtrack once you've found stuff.

    Two, it has a mechanic where you control two different parties and can switch control at any time, sort of like how in RE Zero you could switch from Rebecca to that guy whose name I forget, except its an RPG with five people (but parties can only contain a maximum of three, so one group is gonna get the short shift).

    That said I kinda thought the system worked. I was worried it would get annoying, and at times it almost did, but there are things I like about it. One is that one ability you have in battle (yeah it still has RPG style battles) is calling the other people to join in the fight.

    And.. actually, I kinda am surprised some of this game's features are even possible on the NES. That you can have two sets of avatars all the way across the mansion. Some rooms have an element like enemies you can actually see and perma-clear until all parties leave the room... so if you leave one in there, it'll never reset to its default state. How did the NES pull that off?

    Or how the call ability works--when its used, you take control of the called person/party and go to where the battle happens... so you can just kinda interrupt battles?

    There were a few weaknesses tho.

    First, with that call system... the person who responds has to touch the person who actually did the calling, so you want to make the caller whoever is at the back of the party (you have only a certain amount of time to reach the battle and it can get annoying when you're touching the other party and not understanding why you're not getting the confirmation--I eventually found out that this is why).

    Another oddity is there was one part where you have to follow someone, and for some reason this breaks the team--only whoever you currently control is playable at this bit. There are a few times where the team will split against your will but they tend to be traps of some sort, this is the only time its plot-dependent... and fortunately you don't go very far so it takes no time to get the team back together.

    I'm mentioning this because the main reason I put off playing Sweet Home (after getting interested thanks to Happy Nerd's review) is just because I was afraid it would be too mechanically complicated to keep up with, but in actuality its not very complex at all. While its an RPG, it honestly feels more like an adventure game that just happens to have random battles (and some not-so-random battles). In fact if you're familiar with RPG Maker Horror games this'll feel right at home.

    Sweet Home, even.

    Yeah I kinda walked into that one.

    One that thing... I started playing last night, and had to sleep between then and now, and the only reason it took that long was it turned out I kept missing things because when I play marathon sessions, I tend to get tunnel vision, causing me to overlook stuff. Don't be like me. Don't overlook stuff.

    Don't overlook the fact that you can reply with your own thoughts, too.

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    ServBot (Level 11) Tron 2.0's Avatar
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    I have a original copy of sweet home with the translation.I completed it a few years back definitely a interesting mix of a rpg and it being a survival horror as well.Beside it having a really creepy atmosphere set it's apart from other nes/famicom titles.Even though,it's loosely based off the movie of the same name it's still a good license game regardless.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tron 2.0 View Post
    Even though,it's loosely based off the movie of the same name it's still a good license game regardless.
    Its not loosely based; but directly based on the movie. Actually the movie and the game were released on the same day.
    And yeah its also the spiritual predecessor to the resident evil games.


    Quote Originally Posted by Edmond Dantes View Post
    you can switch out inventory items with others that are just lying on the floor somewhere. This leads to a design where the mansion's layout makes it easy to backtrack once you've found stuff.

    Two, it has a mechanic where you control two different parties and can switch control at any time, sort of like how in RE Zero you could switch from Rebecca to that guy whose name I forget, except its an RPG with five people (but parties can only contain a maximum of three, so one group is gonna get the short shift).
    Dont get too hung up with the 'call' system, that function basically lets you switch between members that arent in your party. You generally dont need this during battles, but more like when you need a specific item and its being held by someone far away.

    Once you understand how the battle system works (your 3 characters always strike first), you can level up enough in each area so that enemies rarely hit you. The real challenge about the game has to do with item management/puzzle solving.

    If you started playing last night, you soon might find that the Mansion is alot larger than it seems at first. Make sure you vaccum and photograph all the frescos for hints.
    Last edited by bb_hood; 06-30-2019 at 11:00 AM.

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    Alex (Level 15) InsaneDavid's Avatar
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    While it has been confirmed that Sweet Home was the primary influence for Resident Evil, an earlier survival horror game - War of the Dead - has always felt more like the predecessor to Resident Evil, at least to me.



    HG 101 article here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/war-of-the-dead/

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    ServBot (Level 11) Edmond Dantes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bb_hood View Post
    If you started playing last night, you soon might find that the Mansion is alot larger than it seems at first. Make sure you vaccum and photograph all the frescos for hints.
    I've beaten the game. I mentioned that I woulda finished it in one night except I started overlooking essential items and details because of a sleep-addled brain. When I woke up the next morning things became clear.

    (Mainly, the thing that got me stuck is that I didn't immediately think to check the candles the game was suddenly putting out in the late-game area--since it had been a long time since I needed them I figured the game was just doing the thing it does with other stuff like the ropes etc. and leaving dupes around for a just-in-case situation.... then I double-checked and figured out I was a moron).

    I also found that I was WAY overloaded with tonics. And I very quickly discovered the way to maximize their usefulness by using them in a battle after using call to make sure all five members are there (tho this is one of the few RPGs with no "guard/do nothing" battle command so its a bit trickier to take advantage of this, but I later realized I didn't really need to).

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    Quote Originally Posted by bb_hood View Post
    Its not loosely based; but directly based on the movie. Actually the movie and the game were released on the same day.
    And yeah its also the spiritual predecessor to the resident evil games.
    Well i said should have said following the movie very closely.Since in the game every one can survive while in the movie it wasn't the case.

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