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Reader review by JoeTheDestroyer
October 31, 2012
The original residence of evil
Before Jill and Chris crossed the threshold into the zombie-infested Spencer Estate, Japanese gamers crept into the similarly sinister Mamiya Mansion. It was there that five treasure seekers cracked open the house's long-shut front doors and crept into its decaying frame in search of several lost frescoes. What they anticipated was a slightly risky venture, where their only concern involved avoiding unstable areas of the house. However, they came to understand what was truly at stake when the front door slammed behind them. They realized then that Mamiya Mansion was never abandoned, as the former lady of the house, now an insidious phantom, appeared to foretell their grisly demises. So the quintet, with no means of egress, pushed into the depths of the house to unravel the mystery behind its ghostly phenomena.
Despite its genre and innocent-sounding moniker, Sweet Home isn't a sword-swinging epic of an RPG or a silly boo-scare game similar to those on Atari 2600. This is the game that gave birth to many modern survival/horror concepts while defying contemporary RPG elements, especially those pertaining to healing. When the going gets tough, you don't pad back to the nearest inn to sleep off mortal wounds or cast a healing spell. Instead, only potions found throughout the mansion restore health, and they're finite in number. Also, you can't farm them from enemies or rack up gold to buy more, as encounters give you naught but experience. In other worse, this game really emphasizes the first part of survival/horror.
On top of that, it demands tight party management. Despite having five characters total, you can only form a party of up to three. If you're thinking you'll outwit the system and leave the other two behind, think again. Since each character brought a different personal item to the bash, you'll have to boogie with each of them at various points throughout your quest. Asuka, for instance, brought her prized vacuum cleaner, which can clear broken glass or clean dirty frescoes to help reveal clues. You also have Kazuo, who's lighter is handy for burning impeding ropes. Even without their special tools, it's highly recommended you keep all five characters as close together as possible. This is especially so since your overall item capacity is extremely limited, allowing for each investigator to carry up to two items in addition to their personal object and equipped weapon.
Don't think for a second that you'll rarely fill up your inventory, or that Capcom is going to let you solve every puzzle using only the five initial tools. You'll find as you advance that you'll have to balance your inventory wisely, keeping with you a decent stock of consumable items (potions and wooden planks for cross gaps) and special tools like a mallet for destroying boulders or a flashlight for eliminating shadowy barriers. If you happen upon a new item that you need and your inventory is full, then you'll have to swap one in your current stock with the new one, but the real killer is remembering where you left certain items. I remember at one point losing a pair of gloves that I needed to navigate a patch of thorns without taking damage. I drove myself nuts scouring the house for them, but wound up pushing through the thorns without them. Every painful drop in my party's HP taught me to keep better track of my junk.
While the micromanagement aspect is engaging, it's not the main attraction. The best part about Sweet Home is its uncompromising stance on death. When a character's HP hits zero, they aren't injured, knocked unconscious, or "swooned..."
You can't toss a Phoenix Down on your comrade, cast a life spell on her, or rush to the nearest church to pay a priest to resurrect her. Instead, you have to leave her blood-soaked corpse in the middle of the hallway and carry on with your quest.
Once I understood the permanence of death within Sweet Home, the game's tension factor took a sharp increase. I dreaded every step I took, thinking at any second I would be thrown into a random encounter against a gruesome assailant. Though I knew it would come eventually, I still feared the moment an undead maniac with a curved blade would attempt to lop my head off. I also cringed at the notions of being engulfed by a clew of poisonous worms, torn apart by a hellhound, or spirited away by a specter. Even though the 8-bit sprites representing these creatures were not at all terrifying, they inspired many lurid scenarios that played out in my horror-hungry mind, leaving me on edge.
More than a gory death, I feared that a battle, any battle, would disturb the delicate balance I worked hard to maintain. For instance, I fretted that my character Taro would lose most of his HP and that I would have to spend a potion prematurely. I worried about my characters like they were my virtual children trapped in Lamberto Bava's rendition of Home Alone.
...and honestly, I loved the game for it. After all, what's a horror story with characters you have no stake in?
Unfortunately, the dread that I relished soon dissipated as I made a grievous discovery. As if invoking the spirit of id Software, Sweet Home allowed me to save any time outside of combat. Deep within the region of my brain that exploits loopholes and flaws, gears began to turn. I escorted my entourage to a sector of the mansion with weaker enemies that still bestowed decent enough experience, saved, and then picked a fight with every monstrosity I could. If things worked out in my favor with little to no HP lost, I saved. If the situation grew too hairy for my liking, I reset the game and reloaded. Thanks to constant grinding and unlimited saves, there was rarely a moment when I didn't overpower my opponents. You might advise that I not game the system, but how couldn't I? If the developers are going to make it that simple, then I'm damn well going to take advantage of it.
Regardless of Sweet Home's lacking challenge factor, the game still won my heart. As a lover of all things horror, from films to literature, playing an NES game that was as brutal as some of my favorite '80s fright flicks was a treat. I also respect Sweet Home, mostly because of its legacy. Remember, it helped kickstart the same survival/horror party that provided me with experiences I'll never forget: outrunning Tyrants with Claire, avoiding Kirie's killing touch, or watching helplessly as Pyramidhead closed the gap between himself and Maria while I was trapped in an elevator. This game, along with a few others, inspired a genre that was only a dream for horror fans like myself ages ago. Thank you, Capcom, for helping make our nightmares come true.
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