I’ll get things started with some impressions of my own. This month I’ve been playing Sweet Home on the Famicom:
For those who don’t know, this is a horror puzzle RPG from Capcom, which only released in Japan. It was a licensed title, based on a Japanese horror movie of the same name. It would later go on to serve as the inspiration for the original Biohazard/Resident Evil.
I’ve been forcing myself to play this game without a guide, which means creating a map as I go of the mansion you’re exploring, making notes of what items are where, and writing down the various clues you find.
As you can see, my maps are crude, but effective. The beer is phenomenal. Some of the ways this inspired Resident Evil are very clear: The setting, the item management (each of your 5 characters can only carry two items, plus a unique item only they can carry/use), the use of diaries and notes found around the mansion to tell the plot… It’s quite impressive for a Famicom title, and well worth a play through if you like old RPGs. The battle system is pretty straight forward and the difficulty is pretty low, as long as you’re paying attention to which character has what item, and keeping track of where you’re going.
I’m also playing The Evil Within 2 on the PS4:
(What, more pumpkin beer?!?)
Being a newish game, I’ll be light on spoilers, but I’m enjoying the heck out of this so far. They’ve made the game a bit more open, and really embraced a “Last of Us” style approach to combat and stealth. I’m playing on “Nightmare” difficulty (Hard), and each encounter is intense as resources are low, and enemies hit HARD. I’m about 10 minutes away from putting some more time into this one, so more impressions to follow.
Also, I noticed this in an early flashback that the protagonist Sebastian has:
