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 SPLATTERHOUSE If you've been a gamer for any decent length of time, you're familiar with the word "Splatterhouse." It may rattle around in the back of your mind like a seductive voice whispering your greatest fears and desires, or perhaps it incites gleeful memories of the first time you ever inflicted gratuitous violence with your own hand, or maybe you've just heard it in the context of "Splatterhouse was never particularly good" (a quote from Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw that echoes a common sentiment). Regardless of your personal experience, Namco's classic Splatterhouse franchise is well-known and mostly-beloved for its pioneering role in making video games synonymous with violence. SPLATTERHOUSE (all caps according to the Xbox 360 dashboard) is a modern attempt to bring the magic of the venerable series into the new millennium. While it's nigh-impossible to attain notoriety through violence anymore, this most recent offering was still able to achieve a certain level of infamy, albeit for different reasons: An incredibly long development cycle featuring at least one semi-official cancellation announcement, a lack of unique or particularly well-done gameplay, and crippling technical issues. For all the fanfare and excitement generated by the revival of the series, it seemed it was to ultimately become a wasted effort that would most likely bring a permanent end to the franchise. ABOUT THE LP SPLATTERHOUSE was the first game of the series I ever played, and I think it's excellent. After spending decades intrigued by yet fearful of its hallowed name (even while I ripped out spines in Mortal Kombat, sliced and diced in Nightmare Creatures, and shattered craniums in Manhunt), I was finally driven to check out this latest incarnation, and like the small faction of fellow proponents who convinced me to play it in the first place, I was won over. There's no shortage of flaws which I'll be getting into as we see them, and even at their best, Splatterhouse games have never wanted to be loved by all, but there's absolutely an experience worth having buried in there, which I'll be sharing fully with anyone hungry for morbid amusement and thirsty for blood. TRIGGER WARNING Virtually all of these videos will be  due to vulgarity, profanity, violence, and nudity, which will be toned down to YouTube standards, but still, watch at your own risk.And without further ado... Let's do some loving interior decorating! ULTIMATE PLAYLIST - Every classic, remake, and bonus video of the LP in the order they were originally posted. PHASES (Playlist)              COLLECTIBLES AND ARENAS (Playlist) Journal 1-5 Journal 6-10 Journal 11-15 Journal 16-20 Photo Album Uncensored Dailymotion mirrorArena 1: West Mansion Lobby with Kaboom Dragoon Arena 2: Slaughterhouse with SamuraiFoochs Arena 3: West Observation Room with Ruebinok Arena 4: The Death Coaster with Derek Barona Arena 5: Shadow of the Wickerman with Scruffy Arena 6: West Manor Chapel with Major_JF Arena 7: Lost Islands with Kaboom Dragoon Arena 8: Heart of the Mansion with Derek Barona Arena 9: Hall of Mirrors with SamuraiFoochs Arena 10: The Killing Floor with Kaboom Dragoon MUSIC Playlist of arena songs Playlist of licensed songs in SPLATTERHOUSE Fiendly fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2013 15:32
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CLASSICS (Playlist) SPLATTERHOUSE is absolutely reverent of the original series it's based on and demands familiarity with these classics for the full experience. As such, I'm also doing Let's Plays of Arcade Splatterhouse, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti for the Famicom, and Splatterhouse 2 & 3 for the Sega Genesis. From the final video of Arcade Splatterhouse on, Kaboom Dragoon joins me for co-commentary, and Splatterhouse 3 videos are accompanied by screenshots of missed and alternate cutscenes which can be viewed by clicking the Terror Mask icon next to each video link.                      THREAD CONTRIBUTIONS DecayDJK started an LP of the TurboGrafx-16 Splatterhouse in the 2007/Casual-style LP thread and was nice enough to share it here as well by my request. Thanks Decay!  Episode 1: Stages 1 & 2 Episode 2: Stages 3 & 4 Reference Roundup - Highly informative posts by horror adorer Choco1980 well worth reading after watching their associated video: Remake Phase 2 - First Phase Findings (with alley-oop by Aces High) Remake Phase 4 - Neat Facts RE: The Meat Factory West Mansion Lobby Arena - Arena Redeemer Wanpaku Graffiti Missed Information from Kaboom Dragoon, Choco1980, SoylentG, Seyser Koze (twice), roastpork, and Drakli (we missed a lot) PalletteSwappedNinja brings to our attention the impressive Splatterhouse: Remastered project, which hopes to restore much of the remake's cut content. More information on the project is available here. "Grandma face" 2.0 from IrvingWashington  Renon Vesir blames this fanart on me. What an honor!  More from Renon Vesir  Suspicious Cook lets Dr. West sum up the game's ending 
Fiendly fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 11, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2013 15:32
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Ah, this is one of the most addicting old-school arcade games. I think the arcade games were much better than the remake.
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Oct 24, 2013 15:49
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Really wanted to like this game, but by the end I was hostile to the gameplay and just felt kind of skeeved out by the collectibles. I have no problem with nudity, per se, but when so much of the game is focused on rescuing a damsel in distress, getting that explicit with her sexualization on top of it just feels...desperate. Wasn't there a Playboy tie-in with her nudes as well? And the game basically ends right when I felt the characters were finally hitting a stride, even if the game itself had worn out its welcome by then.
marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 16:41
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It's an... interesting choice to make the game harder to play as you get higher combos and more blood splatters block your view.
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Oct 28, 2013 00:35
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The only thing I remember about the remake is how they decided to advertize the artwork to look shiny and out of place. You should put those up.
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Oct 28, 2013 01:19
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I really liked that game. It may not be the Holy Grail of Gaming but it was stupid fun. And you don't HAVE TO collect the pictures to get to see a nude Jennifer (but I bet you did...). What is not lovable about a game where you can actually kill an enemy with pumping your fist up his rear end? If Namco hadn't pulled the plug at a critical moment, this could have been really great with an even better sequel... any maybe a Hot Coffee mod. Hello, Jennifer...
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Nov 4, 2013 17:28
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The music in Splatterhouse 1 is great stuff. Honestly, I'd pick up the remake just to get the original games. Also, thanks for LPing the original game!
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Nov 4, 2013 17:33
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  God, this game! I spent a good two years of my life getting extremely excited for it. Then it came out and it filled me with nothing but disappointment. The only thing I can honestly say I like about this game are Jim Cummings and the art direction. Sadly, the art direction is hidden underneath bad 3D modeling and animations and blood spatters all over the screen. So really, that's more like 1.5 things I like about it. I'm glad you're doing this LP though. I never managed to finish this game out of sheer apathy and I really want to see how it concludes, even though I've heard a lot of plot threads are left dangling. The worst thing about this game, though, is that they didn't license 2x4 by Metallica as part of the soundtrack. e: Actually, it's probably a good thing that there aren't even more licensed metal songs in the game. I honestly think one of the most damning design decisions of this game is the use of licensed metal tracks over music that is properly scored and composed to fit the action. Whether you like this type of music or not, within this context it's more embarrassing than it is anything else. 
JordanKai fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Nov 4, 2013 |
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Nov 4, 2013 18:35
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Splatterhouse?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CL2AlOv-Us Oh the game. Right. Not the Portland band. I never had them for the Genesis growing up, but I did play them quite a bit through emulators. They were...fun? I remember the second one the most and being terrible at it. Ah well, looking forward to more!
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Nov 5, 2013 02:24
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Dunno if you'd call me a 'historian' of the series, but there's a couple of little bits of note in that first video: -When the Terror Mask says 'she doesn't have to die, Rick', that's a reference to the second game. The original Splatterhouse ends with Rick unsuccessful in his attempts at saving Jennifer. In the second, Rick starts having dreams about her being tortured, with the mask offering its power again in an attempt to rescue her from Hell. The mask keeps making its offer with that line, so it's actually a nice touch. -The giggling taxidermy, as noted, is a reference to the Evil Dead, a film that had a lot of influence on the series. The plot of the original is virtually the same as the movie, replacing 'Book of the Dead' with 'ancient unholy mask of evil', with a fair amount of Friday the 13th for good measure. -The boreworms will be familiar to anyone who knows about the third game. Or maybe 'infamous' is more the word. The third game has branching paths, depending on how quickly you finish each stage. In one of the paths Jennifer is attacked by boreworms. Depending on how you perform, you can either find her being eaten by the boreworm queen or playing host to a worm, which can eventually kill her, with some impressively creepy cutscenes for a 16-bit game. The game itself may be the wrong end of mediocre, but you can't say the devs didn't do their homework on the series.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:51
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I have this game, and after some research, I found out who the voice actor for the Mask was. His most famous quote was "Lets Get Dangerous!"
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Nov 5, 2013 09:54
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That must be that creepy guy in the backalley only wearing a trenchcoat, right? 
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Nov 5, 2013 12:13
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Oh my mistake, it was 3 that frustrated me the most. Bore worms 
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Nov 5, 2013 18:37
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Oh neat, how'd this LP escape my notice for so long? I'm like many others in this thread in that I've always been interested in the series but absolutely rear end when it came to playing it. A megathread is a good idea. Will we be seeing all the games, or just whatever is on the disc? I've played through the bizarro Japan-only Super-Deformed NES game but that's about it. Also, as a bonafied horror scholar, it warms the cockles of my heart to have you pointing out the references the games make, as there's a lot of them throughout.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:59
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Dammit, I missed Halloween! That was the whole point in starting the thread when I did... Also, I have a pet peeve for LPs that go more than a week between the first update and the second, so apologies for that as well.JordanKai posted:e: Actually, it's probably a good thing that there aren't even more licensed metal songs in the game. There were more at one point. A few bands were confirmed for inclusion, then failed to appear in the finished game when it was released years later. Might have been someone spilling some beans before actually getting the licenses, but I like to think they lost the rights before they could finish the game. Axe Master posted:Splatterhouse?! I love this band, and that incredible album cover will be covering Jen's shame at some point. Kaboom Dragoon posted:The game itself may be the wrong end of mediocre, but you can't say the devs didn't do their homework on the series. That's one of the things I liked a lot about the game, the fact that it really is a love letter to its base material. That's mostly why I'm doing it the honor of also playing the classics (that and I've always wanted to see them LPed and missed the archived ones). Definitely keep posting references as they come up, they're awesome! Choco1980 posted:Oh neat, how'd this LP escape my notice for so long? I'm like many others in this thread in that I've always been interested in the series but absolutely rear end when it came to playing it. A megathread is a good idea. Will we be seeing all the games, or just whatever is on the disc? I've played through the bizarro Japan-only Super-Deformed NES game but that's about it. Probably gonna do Wanpaku Graffiti just because it's short and easy to record and emulate. I might even stream it, haven't decided, but I guess we'll all find out soon enough. I'm also looking for some help pointing out the avalanche of horror references in the game since I'm bound to miss some, so feel free to jump in with any that elude me!
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Nov 6, 2013 19:43
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You know, if I thought Youtube would let you do so, I'd say to leave the nudity in. Not because "hurr hurr tits," but because of principle. Yes, it's pointless, shoehorned nekkid lady, but I personally have always felt that one should thumb one's nose at censorship whenever possible. Especially when the game is about gratuitous, over the top gore for the sake of gore, at which point nudity (with or without purpose) seems like something to not worry about. Just my view on it.
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Nov 7, 2013 18:58
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azren posted:You know, if I thought Youtube would let you do so, I'd say to leave the nudity in. Not because "hurr hurr tits," but because of principle. Yes, it's pointless, shoehorned nekkid lady, but I personally have always felt that one should thumb one's nose at censorship whenever possible. Especially when the game is about gratuitous, over the top gore for the sake of gore, at which point nudity (with or without purpose) seems like something to not worry about. Just my view on it. It's a complicated issue for me. I agree with you completely, as I am a person who lost my loving mind over the censorship of Manhunt 2 even though that game is complete garbage (didn't know that at the time the censorship was going down, but it doesn't factor in), and even though I shake my head in disgust every time those cartoon boobs are shoved in my face, I do it with a smile on my face over the sheer gall and silliness of even including such a feature in the game. I considered playing the game on a run that had already collected all the photos so we wouldn't be subjected to them at all, but I decided that would detract from what the developers intended, so I'm trying to make the best of the censorship by jamming in more horror and music references while still appeasing the fickle YouTube gods (and doing a little bit of decontamination on the game, cause seriously...) Also, I've run into another notorious problem with the game while recording the next episode: sound glitches. Hopefully I'll have at least all of the dialogue recorded after a second run so I can mix it together, but it's still a bastard and a half.
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Nov 7, 2013 20:14
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Gideon020 posted:I have this game, and after some research, I found out who the voice actor for the Mask was. His most famous quote was "Lets Get Dangerous!" I would have thought it was "Oh bother..." I imagine Jim Cummings (why are we spoiling this actor again?) had a blast with the game after all the kid friendly entertainment he's done.
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Nov 7, 2013 20:58
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azren posted:You know, if I thought Youtube would let you do so, I'd say to leave the nudity in. Not because "hurr hurr tits," but because of principle. Yes, it's pointless, shoehorned nekkid lady, but I personally have always felt that one should thumb one's nose at censorship whenever possible. Especially when the game is about gratuitous, over the top gore for the sake of gore, at which point nudity (with or without purpose) seems like something to not worry about. Just my view on it.
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Nov 8, 2013 13:21
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Something Something American Conservative Values, something something Wet fart noise. Seriously though, I looked up the pics
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Nov 8, 2013 18:13
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I used to love this series when I was a kid. I remember having a dream about the remake being announced, and the next day they started going public about it. And then they started to show it off in screenshots, and it was just all downhill from there. I'm not quite as much of a historian as I'm sure others may be, but it is kinda interesting and odd to see some of the call backs they are making to the original 3 so far. I never played the 2010 one because I'm not paying retail for this, but I'll for sure be following this thread to see where the game goes.
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Nov 9, 2013 21:03
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It took me a moment to realize, but when watching the video it feels like the pictures are sort of a nod to horror movies as well. Especially horror movies from the 80s or so, which had softcore scenes and things interlaced in them. If you think of it in that context, the pictures are in sync with all of the other horror nods.
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Nov 10, 2013 00:55
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DeliciousCookie posted:It took me a moment to realize, but when watching the video it feels like the pictures are sort of a nod to horror movies as well. Especially horror movies from the 80s or so, which had softcore scenes and things interlaced in them. If you think of it in that context, the pictures are in sync with all of the other horror nods. The fist one is a blatant nod since it appears to be a shower scene, which has basically been "Oh, your contract says you do nudity? Good." since the 80's. To this day they toss in shower scenes in b-horror movies for T&A. Being a reference doesn't absolve it of being skeezy though.
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Nov 10, 2013 02:56
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Jennifer WAS Miss Splatterhouse in Playboy... Maybe they were going for a PLAYSTATION EYE minigame, using these photos and having a different "splatter" in mind... that should have been the Japan exclusive DLC...
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Nov 12, 2013 17:34
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I gotta say, kinda glad now I never picked this game up after all despite being stoked for some splatterin' of houses back in the day, but I'm even MORE glad to see an LP of it... Not gonna bother mirroring the sentiments of the pointless boob shots, but I did wanna say that the West Manor (mansion? What do they call this place?) comes close to good character in what I've seen so far. The stairwell was a really nice touch and I think if they'd put more effort into the designs they could have had an evil lair that'd been alot more fun than just a Spencer Mansion affair with more zombie Billy Basses on the wall. Makes me wonder if the zombies are half students West's nabbed and half contractors who built all that poo poo only to "mysteriously vanish" after putting in the sliding portcullises and hidden passages.
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Nov 12, 2013 18:54
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This game's one of my favorite games ever (the only one which I bothered to get all the achievments in fact). While it got it's flaws is pure and unadultered fun, the arena rooms are specially fun to pass again and again. The story was also pretty awesome for the genre and the voice work is just phenomenal. To this day I'm still bummed that we'll never get a sequel  That being said, I don't get why are so many people bothered by Jen's pictures, they're just collectibles (I've only saw again once since I got them all) that fit perfectly with the 'retro' tone of the game.
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Nov 12, 2013 19:41
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UPDATE: Here's a long-overdue update! The next phase of the remake will be posted this weekend with the remainder of this game to follow shortly thereafter. Lotish posted:I would have thought it was "Oh bother..." And I know him best for saying "Bring me the HEDGEHOG!" Jim Cummings (no need to spoiler him, I said his name in the first video...) was a guest at my local convention last year and I'm only now finding that out or I'd have gone. The only guest confirmed so far for next year's con? Doug Walker, the loving Nostalgia Critic...
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Nov 14, 2013 18:30
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Something's been bugging me about rick's sprite, and it finally hit me this video: In the original game, the mask appears to be sitting upside down from typical design. Weird.
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Nov 15, 2013 01:44
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Choco1980 posted:Something's been bugging me about rick's sprite, and it finally hit me this video: In the original game, the mask appears to be sitting upside down from typical design. Weird. Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning a bit about the mask. The look of it's actually been revised over the series: in earlier versions of the game and concept art, Rick is Jason Voorhees. There are no ifs or buts about it, Rick is meant to be Jason: I know it, you know it, dogs know it. Remember, this was back in the days when you could (usually) get away with this stuff without the threat of lawyers banging on your door. When the game came over to the West and started gaining momentum, however, they decided to make the 'homage' a little less obvious. The TG16 port started the trend by turning the mask a fetching shade of maroon. Since then, across all regions, the mask has become less of a hockey mask and more of a weird bone mask that just happens to look exactly like a hockey mask, plausible deniability and all that.
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Nov 15, 2013 03:19
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning a bit about the mask. The look of it's actually been revised over the series: in earlier versions of the game and concept art, Rick is Jason Voorhees. There are no ifs or buts about it, Rick is meant to be Jason: I know it, you know it, dogs know it. Remember, this was back in the days when you could (usually) get away with this stuff without the threat of lawyers banging on your door. When the game came over to the West and started gaining momentum, however, they decided to make the 'homage' a little less obvious. The TG16 port started the trend by turning the mask a fetching shade of maroon. Since then, across all regions, the mask has become less of a hockey mask and more of a weird bone mask that just happens to look exactly like a hockey mask, plausible deniability and all that. On one version the mask is red iirc
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Nov 15, 2013 03:29
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning a bit about the mask. The look of it's actually been revised over the series: in earlier versions of the game and concept art, Rick is Jason Voorhees. There are no ifs or buts about it, Rick is meant to be Jason: I know it, you know it, dogs know it. Remember, this was back in the days when you could (usually) get away with this stuff without the threat of lawyers banging on your door. When the game came over to the West and started gaining momentum, however, they decided to make the 'homage' a little less obvious. The TG16 port started the trend by turning the mask a fetching shade of maroon. Since then, across all regions, the mask has become less of a hockey mask and more of a weird bone mask that just happens to look exactly like a hockey mask, plausible deniability and all that. I believe there are similar reasons for why the series' antagonist is never explicitly called Herbert West. To the best of my knowledge, he is only ever called Dr. West in the first game, is replaced by a different doctor in the second game (which is around the time the Namco legal department would have had to concern themselves with copyright infringement), and is finally given the obviously referential but clearly different first name of Henry in the remake. I personally would have thought Re-Animator was too obscure to warrant such efforts (and it would have to be the film causing the issue as the original story by H. P. Lovecraft is in the public domain), but there's a Japanese strategy game called Operation Darkness that changed a character's name from Herbert West to Herbert East for the American release, so there must be someone holding that name hostage.
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Nov 15, 2013 14:12
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It could just as easily been a joke homage, along the lines of the strange misspelled credits in the original Castlevania. Note that in the remake they make several other lovecraft references already, confirming that West operates out of Miskatonic over in Arkham. However, they also make note that he's apparently basically immortal, and has been professor at MU several times in the past century alone. Could they be suggesting the possession style of reincarnation that was most typified by Charles Ward in Lovecraft's works, but seen several other times as well?
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Nov 15, 2013 18:20
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UPDATE: Should be viewable in ~10 minutes.
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Nov 17, 2013 18:53
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It still throws me off that Jim Cummings is the main voice actor here. Lorewalker Cho whyyyyyyy
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Nov 17, 2013 20:17
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1stGear posted:It still throws me off that Jim Cummings is the main voice actor here. Lorewalker Cho whyyyyyyy Another titan machine! Come friends, we must KICK SOME rear end!
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Nov 17, 2013 21:01
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Really glad to see you're still updating this, I was a big fan of the series growing up but lost interest in the 2010 game before it even came out. Loving all the random horror trivia as well.
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Nov 18, 2013 01:26
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Watching this LP almost makes me want to pick the game up again, but remembering how tedious it was keeps me from doing so. Seconding the appreciation for the inclusion of all the trivia, keep updating the damned thing!
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Nov 18, 2013 02:01
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I'm surprised about how limiting the player to upgrading only after the first stage was over seems; I mean it's fine to maybe be handicapped for the first half of the first stage, but some of the fights that you are forced into (especially near the start) weren't really tutorials so much as just aggravating it seems. I'm wondering though, you might have explained it and I missed it, but does the healing move cost blood? Or can you only do it at low health? I also can't quite tell what student would look at the house of Dr. West and go, 'Yeah, that seems like the place I want to go.'
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Nov 18, 2013 02:08
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Niggurath posted:I'm surprised about how limiting the player to upgrading only after the first stage was over seems; I mean it's fine to maybe be handicapped for the first half of the first stage, but some of the fights that you are forced into (especially near the start) weren't really tutorials so much as just aggravating it seems. I'm wondering though, you might have explained it and I missed it, but does the healing move cost blood? Or can you only do it at low health? The healing move costs an unit of blood. The first stage is easy and you can get around perfectly well without upgrades on your first run, is a bitch to do on harder difficulties though.
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Nov 18, 2013 04:14
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