Horror Games Megathread

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al-azad: May 28, 2009

My favorite subversion in REmake was the hallway where the dogs jump through the window but the first time through the windows just crack a little.

I had to set the original Silent Hill aside for a while after you get the radio because the framing of the monster ambush is completely unexpected. Jump scare done right.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 01:25

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# ? Jun 2, 2024 21:24

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

Johnny Joestar posted:

mention of camera angles can't go without mentioning That Thing in silent hill 4 since it was a topic earlier

What is That Thing?

# ? Sep 24, 2018 01:25

Johnny Joestar: Oct 21, 2010; Don't shoot him?

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Len posted:

What is That Thing?

there's a long hallway in the hospital area with a bunch of rooms branching off of it which might be semi-randomized, i forget, but they all have a variety of weird and subtly creepy stuff in them. one room has a camera angle aimed right at henry as he enters through the door, and if the player takes a few steps forward it snaps to show what's in front of him and it's a loving giant and hosed-up looking version of eileen's head with crazy-looking eyes filling up half the room and staring up close right at henry. eileen being the woman you're going to the hospital to save.

it's really goddamn disconcerting and everyone i've seen who talks about it seems to feel the same

# ? Sep 24, 2018 01:33

Yardbomb: Jul 11, 2011; What's with the eh... bretonnian dance, sir?

Johnny Joestar posted:

That Thing in Silent Hill 4

I've seen so many people shout when the camera snaps in that room because it's such a brick to the face surprise. :allears:

# ? Sep 24, 2018 01:41

Johnny Joestar: Oct 21, 2010; Don't shoot him?

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it's great because it's not even really a jumpscare or anything, just effective use of the camera

# ? Sep 24, 2018 01:42

discworld is all I read: Apr 7, 2009; DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?

Also speaking of Fatal Frame and giving players a safe space that is gradually taken away, Fatal Frame 3 did an excellent job of that. The setup is that instead of an actual spooky location, the person is haunted in a dream mansion that houses some past memories and recreates it (allowing for some wonderful layout fuckery) and in-between these nightmares, the main character walks around her apartment to find notes or pet a cat and as the game progresses, spooks from within the dream world start to seep over into reality. It starts out subtly but becomes more 'in your face' as the game progresses.

Fatal Frame 5 did something similar where there was a centralized base and they have an almost 'Night Trap'-esque mechanic where you cycle through security cameras in the building to see where spooky poo poo is going down. Honestly the entire Fatal Frame series is great, though it got pretty skeezy by the time it hit the Wii (especially with the remake of 2 where they increased the bust size of the teen twins and made them overtly sexualized) and they're worth a play through if only to see the constantly hosed up rituals necessary to plug the million portals to hell that apparently litter Japan.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 03:52

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

discworld is all I read posted:

Also speaking of Fatal Frame and giving players a safe space that is gradually taken away, Fatal Frame 3 did an excellent job of that. The setup is that instead of an actual spooky location, the person is haunted in a dream mansion that houses some past memories and recreates it (allowing for some wonderful layout fuckery) and in-between these nightmares, the main character walks around her apartment to find notes or pet a cat and as the game progresses, spooks from within the dream world start to seep over into reality. It starts out subtly but becomes more 'in your face' as the game progresses.

Fatal Frame 5 did something similar where there was a centralized base and they have an almost 'Night Trap'-esque mechanic where you cycle through security cameras in the building to see where spooky poo poo is going down. Honestly the entire Fatal Frame series is great, though it got pretty skeezy by the time it hit the Wii (especially with the remake of 2 where they increased the bust size of the teen twins and made them overtly sexualized) and they're worth a play through if only to see the constantly hosed up rituals necessary to plug the million portals to hell that apparently litter Japan.

Fatal Frame is a series that I'm so disappointed in for being ruined. The first games are what started my friends and I playing video games every Thursday evening together: they were just too spooky to play alone. As the series progresses though, the games just got worse and worse, being more silly than scary, and without logic. In FF5, for example, the particular haunted location is a mountain that the protagonists have to actually travel to, frequently. Until maybe three quarters of the way into the game, there's really no reason they should be returning to the haunted mountain, but they do anyway. I'm the previous games, the settings of the games were prisons, and to escape the main characters had to discover what went wrong to create these places and fix it. In 5, they just...kinda end up helping because.

Also the multiple characters thing was a really bad choice. Wasn't good when they started doing it in 3, wasn't good when they did it in 4 and 5 either.

Oh yeah and the final boss of 4 can be taken out with a single charged attack, then you need to play a piano minigame. So anticlimactic.

1,2, and to a lesser extent 3, were quite good.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 04:19

Blockhouse: Sep 7, 2014; You Win!

I saw the Silent Hill 4 thing at 3 AM in the morning while pretending to be asleep so I was playing the Xbox in my dark bedroom

That's the last time I did that!

# ? Sep 24, 2018 04:31

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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Fatal Frame 3 was really spooky and I never finished it

# ? Sep 24, 2018 04:56

discworld is all I read: Apr 7, 2009; DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?

Tired Moritz posted:

Fatal Frame 3 was really spooky and I never finished it

I felt like a person's enjoyment of 3 hinged a bit on having played 1 and 2. Revisiting Himuro Mansion as Miku and realizing that you were heading towards inevitable disasters or suddenly being thrust back into the cursed village of 2 by heading through another door was great, but I feel that sense of confusion and unease wouldn't work as well if it was all new. But still an overall enjoyable outing, and even the ending bit I thought was a super cool setting ending down into the depths.

Morpheus posted:

Fatal Frame is a series that I'm so disappointed in for being ruined. The first games are what started my friends and I playing video games every Thursday evening together: they were just too spooky to play alone. As the series progresses though, the games just got worse and worse, being more silly than scary, and without logic. In FF5, for example, the particular haunted location is a mountain that the protagonists have to actually travel to, frequently. Until maybe three quarters of the way into the game, there's really no reason they should be returning to the haunted mountain, but they do anyway. I'm the previous games, the settings of the games were prisons, and to escape the main characters had to discover what went wrong to create these places and fix it. In 5, they just...kinda end up helping because.

Also the multiple characters thing was a really bad choice. Wasn't good when they started doing it in 3, wasn't good when they did it in 4 and 5 either.

Oh yeah and the final boss of 4 can be taken out with a single charged attack, then you need to play a piano minigame. So anticlimactic.

1,2, and to a lesser extent 3, were quite good.

I don't know; I enjoyed the mountain setting in 5 and while it did have some issues trying to explain why people kept going back there, it wasn't any worse than the cycle of repetition in Fatal Frame 2's plot ("Oh poo poo, where's my sister->Sweet, found my sister and now it's time to leave spook town->poo poo, my sister ran off again and now I gotta find her" rinse and repeat four or five more times). I will definitely agree that 4 was probably the worst in the series (though I never did play that weird off shoot game for the 3DS); it had way too much backtracking, too little variety in it's ghosts (especially after fighting a slightly different nurse ghost for the sixth time), and the plot was just a meandering mess that ran out of steam super early. I still had some fun with it and it still seemed to have somewhat more consistency in quality than Silent Hill or Resident Evil. Also I think I always appreciated the utter helplessness that the games conveyed; ages of suffering and torment that your protag was just going on a ride experiencing, kinda like SH 4 in that respect.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 05:14

Cardiovorax: Jun 5, 2011; I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

The worst thing I can really think of saying about the early Fatal Frame games is that they're slow. As in, your player character feels like they're moving through molasses. Seriously, it's obnoxious. It takes ages to get anywhere.

Otherwise, though? They're still good and creepy games. Fatal Frame 2 is at the high end of what PS2 games were capable of graphically and it still looks very pretty even today. Incredible atmosphere and the gameplay is pretty fun. I'd say that the series has aged very well, because it made effective and thoughtful use of what it had rather than relying on visual or gameplay gimmicks. It's as playable today as it was the year it was released, and I don't really see that changing in the future.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 09:08

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Wait what's FF4, I thought there was only 1-3 then the WiiU game :psyduck:

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:00

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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Sakurazuka posted:

Wait what's FF4, I thought there was only 1-3 then the WiiU game

all i know about this game is that hot dude playable character and that discworld stopped their LP of it because it was bad

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:10

thebardyspoon: Jun 30, 2005

Which Fatal Frame would be the best to get as the standout of the series (I assume there's probably a bunch of dissent on this point but generally there's probably one)? It was a series I always meant to get into but never did and I want to rectify that this October I think.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:11

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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Definitely Fatal Frame 2.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:14

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

2 is probably the overall best but 1-3 are all worth playing and I'm probably going to play the WiiU version for more than 10 minutes next month so I can have an actual opinion on it.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:14

FirstAidKite: Nov 8, 2009

Sakurazuka posted:

Wait what's FF4, I thought there was only 1-3 then the WiiU game

4 IIRC was made by a slightly different team than usual and was a wii game about you going around taking photos of ghosts who died of some illness that makes you forget stuff and also makes your face all blurry and then the usual failed ritual stuff comes about and you can also play as a detective who fights ghosts by shining a flashlight on them that has a special lens mounted to it

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:15

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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Fatal Frame 1 is the spookiest though. Those rituals are hosed up.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:17

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

I'm getting vague memories of the untranslated Wii game now that was apparently so because of how broken it was.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:17

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

FF4 was weird in that your ghostly opponents are fairly modern. Like you're fighting spectral doctors in surgical gear and stuff.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 13:30

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; This does not make sense when, again, aggregate indicia also indicate improvements. The belief that things are worse is false. It remains false.

I'd say FF1 because FF2 is so repetitive, and because of the sexualization of the characters, and because the plot "twist" didn't work.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 14:03

Morpheus: Apr 18, 2008; My favourite little monsters

FF1 has issues with it that get ironed out later though - for one, the game is dark as gently caress. And, yeah sure it contributes to a spooky atmosphere but it also makes it drat near impossible to see where you're going, and this is while playing it in a dark room on a CRT. Also the ammo system is kind of annoying - instead of having infinite amounts of the weak ammo with you at all times, you need to restock it at save points, which can become tiring. There was also one or two things about it I remember not quite liking, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember specifics. Maybe the way the first-person camera controlled?

# ? Sep 24, 2018 14:46

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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Wasn't there a chapter in Fatal Frame 1 where you're walking on boards over water and there's like a ghost flying at you constantly and the camera sucks and aaaaah

# ? Sep 24, 2018 15:06

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; This does not make sense when, again, aggregate indicia also indicate improvements. The belief that things are worse is false. It remains false.

Tired Moritz posted:

Wasn't there a chapter in Fatal Frame 1 where you're walking on boards over water and there's like a ghost flying at you constantly and the camera sucks and aaaaah

I love that room, it's one of the places that the nastiest of the random encounter ghosts, the monk, can appear.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 15:23

DrSnakeLaser: Sep 6, 2011

Tired Moritz posted:

Fatal Frame 1 is the spookiest though. Those rituals are hosed up.

The rituals are brutal, but unlike the ones in 5 and 3 the sacrifice is allowed to die, whether that makes it better or not is probably a personal choice :smith:

I played very little of 4 and didn't enjoy it much, probably because the person who owned the copy was gushing about Suda 51's involvement and how fresh his ideas were for the series. Yeah, mannequins and a creepy hospital, pushing the boat out there. :rolleyes:

Discendo Vox posted:

I love that room, it's one of the places that the nastiest of the random encounter ghosts, the monk, can appear.

I hate that loving guy even now.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 15:38

Ineffiable: Feb 16, 2008; Some say that his politics are terrifying, and that he once punched a horse to the ground...

What makes the monk annoying to deal with?

I really should sit down and play some ff1 one day.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 15:41

Cardiovorax: Jun 5, 2011; I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

Personal taste varies, but on the whole, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly is usually either named as the top title in the series or at least as sharing first place with whatever other title someone liked best. The plot is repetitive, but the gameplay itself, the ghosts and the puzzles aren't. All Gods' Village is in my opinion the best game locale because it gives you space to run around outside and explore more than just one big, claustrophobic mansion. It feels more like a place where people actually lived once.

Also, I think the Kusabi is probably the spookiest of the sacrifice spirits.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 15:53

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

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talking about spooky japanese games, I wonder if Twilight Syndrome will ever be translated.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:09

goferchan: Feb 8, 2004; It's 2006. I am taking 276 yeti furs from the goodies hoard.

How's the original version of Siren versus the PS3 remake? I've only got a PS4 so I can't play the latter right now but I'm wondering if I'm better off holding out for the PS3 version, it seems like it was pretty well-reviewed

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:16

thebardyspoon: Jun 30, 2005

Cardiovorax posted:

Personal taste varies, but on the whole, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly is usually either named as the top title in the series or at least as sharing first place with whatever other title someone liked best. The plot is repetitive, but the gameplay itself, the ghosts and the puzzles aren't. All Gods' Village is in my opinion the best game locale because it gives you space to run around outside and explore more than just one big, claustrophobic mansion. It feels more like a place where people actually lived once.

Also, I think the Kusabi is probably the spookiest of the sacrifice spirits.

Thanks for the answers folks, I think I'll go with 2 since that seems to be the consensus. The PSN version is fine right?

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:23

FirstAidKite: Nov 8, 2009

How was the Fatal Frame 2 wii remake anyway? Or was it more of a port?

I know it had a few new endings but idk if anything else was changed or if it added in that one ending that was xbox exclusive.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:28

Danaru: Jun 5, 2012; 何 ??

My favourite part of Fatal Frame 2 (ending spoilers, come back later bardyspoon) after the events of the game, the village is destroyed and the abyss is totalled by a lake forming due to a dam. Turns out that was an option the whole time! Sorry kids!

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:29

Bonaventure: Jun 23, 2005; by sebmojo

goferchan posted:

How's the original version of Siren versus the PS3 remake? I've only got a PS4 so I can't play the latter right now but I'm wondering if I'm better off holding out for the PS3 version, it seems like it was pretty well-reviewed

The Siren remake is pretty bad, honestly. It's like a parody of "here's the dumbed-down American remake of a Japanese horror film, including all the cast being Americans." Certain things are better, simply because they have to be -- the original Siren is a tremendously janky game with adversarial gameplay decisions designed to frustrate the player and obscure progress. So it's a more streamlined experience, but it loses a lot of what made the original Siren worth suffering through.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:30

FirstAidKite: Nov 8, 2009

Danaru posted:

My favourite part of Fatal Frame 2 (ending spoilers, come back later bardyspoon) after the events of the game, the village is destroyed and the abyss is totalled by a lake forming due to a dam. Turns out that was an option the whole time! Sorry kids!

Wouldn't that have just resulted in a big ol' haunted lake if nobody did anything?

On another note, what's everyone's favorite from software horror title? Shadow Tower got pretty spooky and so did the King's Field games, especially the first King's Field when you get to the final floor for the first time and it is such a different compared to the previous 4 floors.

They also made that one game they made Kuon where I think you played an exorcist going through a haunted mansion or something like that, but I don't know much about that game other than "it exists"

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:41

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

The Upper Cathedral Ward in Bloodborne still scares the poo poo out of me

# ? Sep 24, 2018 16:48

Cardiovorax: Jun 5, 2011; I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

FirstAidKite posted:

They also made that one game they made Kuon where I think you played an exorcist going through a haunted mansion or something like that, but I don't know much about that game other than "it exists"

I've watched a few videos of that one. Imagine "Resident Evil: Medieval Fantasy Japan edition." Instead of guns, you get spells. It does that Resident Evil 2 thing where there are multiple concurrent scenarios with different main characters that run into each other every so often. When you add it all up, the result is actually a pretty good and creepy game. B-grade on the whole, but good B-grade. If you want something that's just really different and gives a genuine "Kaidan" feel, that is to say the traditional Japanese way of telling ghost stories, then this is a good game for you.

Also, you'll never guess who the bad guy is and you'll probably laugh when you find out.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 17:01

FirstAidKite: Nov 8, 2009

Cardiovorax posted:

Also, you'll never guess who the bad guy is and you'll probably laugh when you find out.

Well come on, don't leave me hanging

# ? Sep 24, 2018 17:08

Yardbomb: Jul 11, 2011; What's with the eh... bretonnian dance, sir?

It's Nobunaga, it's always Nobunaga.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 17:09

Cardiovorax: Jun 5, 2011; I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

FirstAidKite posted:

Well come on, don't leave me hanging

Alright, here's the Kuon ending spoiler, don't read if you still want to play it: evil singing silkworms. No, really, I'm not kidding. They're really evil silkworm twins and they live on an evil mulberry tree. That's what's eating everyone. Somehow. Here's the evil silkworm song.

# ? Sep 24, 2018 17:12

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# ? Jun 2, 2024 21:24

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Bonaventure posted:

This may not help your enjoyment of it, but that is Henry's characterization: he's utterly passive and an observer of others' lives without having much of one of his own. This is underlined by the way that his neighbors talk about him, his hobby of photography, and the player is encouraged to participate in it with the peephole into Eileen's apartment. This is why he is suitable for the final role in the ritual, the "Receiver of Wisdom" who comes to a full understanding of everything before presumably being sacrificed himself -- this also makes him a counterpart to the upside-down journalist dude (Giver of Wisdom) who gathered and imparts that information and closed out the last cycle of the ritual.

You're not wrong, but this is an interminable horror cliche: the obsessive voyeur who has no life of his own. It's used to give a protagonist motivation when they have no real stake in the situation otherwise. Good stories in this mode are about the obsession, are about why the protagonist doesn't buy a bus ticket out of town and leave the matter to the authorities. That's neither necessary or fruitful in Henry's case, because he's trapped in a hellworld he can't escape.

It's still possible to do it well, but Henry's characterization is pretty far from the level of, say, Blow Up or The Ninth Gate.

Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Sep 24, 2018

# ? Sep 24, 2018 18:40

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