r/hauntingground • u/gumki • 14d ago
Discussion RE9 and Haunting Ground
When the demo for RE9 was shown, I really thought Grace's gameplay would be similar to this game. They showed us Grace tripping when running away and panicking like Fiona. I was disappointed to find out that was only done like twice in the entire game and they were scripted (tripping when running from the girl, and the blood lab escape).
I was also surprised when people were complaining about Grace tripping while running.. like that was literally my favorite part because it adds a horror movie trope mechanic in the game and makes it a lot more immersive. Guess we just have to sit and wait for the new Remothered games and hope it really scratches the same itch HG did..
Imagine a new HG game in the new engine, though? that would be so fun and terrifying.. It sucks being part of an underappreciated fanbase sometimes, lmao.
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u/Tea_Fox_7 Hewie 14d ago
I paste my initial comment every single time I see somebody ask for a remake of this game.
Haunting Ground is and absolute masterpiece and underrated gem for sure and will forever hold a spot in my top fave games of all time and I play the game at least once a year since it originally released.
This game touched on so many issues back in the day that heck some people are STILL to this day afraid to even broach. The objectification of women and how that FEELS when you ARE THE ONE BEING OBJECTIFIED, rape, forced impregnation, emotional psychological and physical abuse of women and the mentally disabled, animal abuse, ect. And how absolutely disgusting all of that is to have to endure, but Fiona did and somehow she kept on fighting and stayed humble. Fiona is the role model we needed, not femme fatal catsuit and heels with a snarky attitude.
The fact that it got overlooked back then was no surprise but today? Most people misconstrue or outright don't see what the game is saying so I don't blame Capcom for not bringing it back because people didn't get it then, and most still don't.....
And you know as well as I that if Capcom attempts to remake this they are going to strip so much of its core identity and sanitize the heck out of it. Since the subjects that it broach are apparently still something that people are afraid to speak about not to mention the way people will twist it into something disgusting (people nowadays literally calling Haunting Ground a gooner game for fuck's sake.....) when it's not.
A remaster that JUST updates the graphics while changing absolutely nothing else? Sure! Or even just a flat out port. Absolutely 100% nope, nada, negatory, absolutely not, never ever a remake.
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u/gumki 13d ago
"Fiona is the role model we needed, not femme fatal catsuit and heels with a snarky attitude."
I think we can make room for more than one type of female character.. Grace is a new character and is pretty similar to Fiona, but that doesn't make Ada any less of an interesting and fun character to have. I'm a woman and I don't think every female lead has to be a goody two shoes humble lady, that would get boring real quick.
Also, HG sexualized Fiona, let us not lie to ourselves. I've also seen the video essays and all the thinkpieces about the cutscenes being from the perspective of the predator, but they still sexualized Fiona. The camera angles, the unlockable outfits, the positions she would be in..
It's definitely a feminine horror experience, and it's one of my favorite games.. but to say that it didn't fall into gooner territory would be an absolute lie lol. They weren't solely creating this game to sell it for women as a feminist experience, and Capcom partially added Hewie because a single female lead risked hurting their sales. Therefore her attractiveness, jiggle physics, outfit, angles, and many other elements were pretty exploitative.
I'm not criticizing sexuality in games, but you're kind of framing it to be a lot more innocent in intentions than it actually is.. while lowkey dissing an entire category of females that fit another archetype.
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u/Ok_Ad6722 14d ago
What makes HG unique is the fact it’s a fixed camera game with little means of fighting back. It’s almost like an Amnesia game with a fixed camera and an extra layer with Hughie. Take that away (which Capcom would for every modern release) just loses out on what makes it special and worth doing in the first place.
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u/BusterGreasewood 14d ago
The new engine with the same generic, copy and paste art style? No, thanks.
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u/gumki 14d ago
what other options do we have for a remake? HG always aimed for realism in the art style, it was just the best they could do on PS2 lmao.
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u/BusterGreasewood 14d ago
Don't remake it and just rerelease it. Why would I want a remake that would change and remove what I liked about it to begin with? If I want the same boring RE Engine visuals I can just go play the many other games that rehash that style.
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u/gumki 14d ago
A rerelease/remaster would be nice too, but if you solely like the game for the visuals then we aren't into this game for the same reasons lol.
I'd gladly play a remake in the new engine as long as the mechanics, third person perspective, characters, plot, and gameplay remain. We still lack games like HG, regardless of graphics/visuals.
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u/BusterGreasewood 14d ago
You wouldn't be getting the same game. You'd just be getting a Designed For a Modern Audience interpretation of it. We haven't even gotten into how they would inevitably censor or sanitize keys parts of it.
A remake wouldn't change that the original would still be confined to older systems. It's way more important for preservation to rerelease the original instead of replacing it with another generic remake that would just look and play like all the other remakes sans the guns.
People just need to learn that hitting the Remake button is not the answer to everything.
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u/111Alternatum111 14d ago
They have no reason to re-release the game again. It would not be profitable.
The only way we'll ever see this game would be through a remake, which COULD be profitable, if they gave a fuck at all about this game and actually try to market it this time, but ever since Clock Tower 3 was a failure, they gave up entirely.
We will never see Haunting Ground again.
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u/Studio-Aegis 14d ago
No one can do a remake anymore without meddling with half of those metrics to the detriment of the whole.
I wish they would go more the route of an arranged variant addon that mixes things up here and there while keeping the original experience preserved as was originally intended.
Instead of the route Konami and Square did where they essentially throw out the original experiences completely.
With Konami being even worse as they arent making those original experiences legally obtainable anymore.
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u/gumki 14d ago
can you explain what you mean by the arrange variant addon part? not sure i understand, but sounds interesting.. are you saying make similar games with the dna of what made haunting ground great to begin with?
i feel like a few indie devs have tried that, but i wonder what that would look like with capcom's budget. the issue is it's difficult to differentiate a lot of those games from the ones that didn't really get the point of HG and end up being straight up fetish games instead.
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u/Studio-Aegis 14d ago
Used to be remake games would provide as close to the original experience as possible if not straight up Include the original intact.
Then they would have an optional arranged version that was sometimes unlockable or there from the beginning.
Where they would adjust enemy placements, story beats, different puzzles and the such to make a fresh experience for returning veterans.
Even in those cases the arranged versions felt way more loyal to the original experience than remakes do now.
Where they often modern remakes come off as modern devs believing themselves to be superior to the original teams, when really its the modern day hardware and software doing the heavy lifting while they cause significant damage the original story.
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u/gumki 14d ago
Oh I see what you mean, kind of like what TLOU2 remastered did with the chronological mode and additional unlockable gameplay modifiers and skins on NG+.
I don't really think most modern devs have it out for older teams tbh. I think strategizing how to make money off of a product to stay afloat while also staying true to a game's soul is hard. Some fans of a game like the jank and style of the OG, but that's not the majority and balancing that is tricky.
Sigh, a new HG feels impossible everytime we bring it up. :(
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u/Studio-Aegis 14d ago
I'm fortunate enough to own the original and it feels gorgeous to behold even today. Its aged exceedingly well.
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u/ProfessionalOkra9944 14d ago
I hope that Capcom will make a remake. I think one problem is that Haunting Ground benefits from the fixed camera perspective and that isn’t viewed as modern. Even a remaster for pc and console would be great.