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I realize now that some of you will still be playing Psychonauts because I messed up the schedule. If that’s the case I do apologize but for those who finished early we will be starting up our next season of Game Club tomorrow, something spooky to get you ready for Halloween….

Our buddy and yours Derek Alexander not only did a great review of this rare and unique title but will also be joining us as guest host once again to discuss our play through. If you have no idea what any of this is, check out the FAQ below:

Game Club Schedule

*Denotes podcast show for this Game Play Point

When can I tune in for the live podcast recordings for Game Club?

We record the podcast live in front of a Justin.tv audience here around 10 AM PST every Sunday. However, we tend to change that schedule a bit so check out our twitter where we will post updates before the show goes live.

What’s that… live Game Play points as well?

That’s right! I will try to play through some of the game live on Fangamer’s Justin.tv channel. I’ll send out a note on twitter beforehand to let people know when.

Where can I find a copy of the game?

This one is gonna be tough as you will basically have to emulate it as it never came out in the USA. Generally we like to play a legit copy of the game but since there isn’t one available and the one that is would be Japanese, we are making an exception.

That said, you are going to be on your own for getting a copy of the game and a means to play it. You are all smart people that I’m sure know to play an old Nintendo game on one of your many electronic devices.

What I will do to help you along is post a link to the translation patch and my favorite site for tools of this nature. I will say that getting the game was easy, finding an application for the Mac to patch it was tougher, I used JIPS as all the other one’s listed before it didn’t work or weren’t Mac compatible. All you windows folks should have an easier time.

And one last reminder no posts asking where to get a copy of the game! Cuz I’ll just delete anyway.

I originally played this back when I knew someone writing an FAQ for it that was never published, a few years ago now. I’ve not played it all the way through, but I do know it is solid and legitimately creepy. I’ve been waiting to get a famicom cartridge, that’s usually my hang-up with games like this and why I haven’t played it through yet. However, while I do have a few games I want to get through I will try to participate in this one because hey – it’s famicom and Halloween, two things I think are mad ill (because they are).

So yeah, I know a lot of folks read these game club topics and may not post or play along. Regardless, I encourage you to give this one a go because it’s a progenitor and formative of many similar titles and retains its own unique flavour even now. There’s often a very narrow-banded outlook on the NES/famicom and Sweet Home defies some of these presumed conventions and presents an experience all its own.

I will definitely be playing along with this!

Ever since that Halloween review spree Derek did, I’ve been dying to play this and the “D” series for Halloween, Sweet Home being the sort of scary story I read to myself, and D/Enemy Zero being the game me and my friends would play to get our scare on. The latter isn’t going to happen this year, as I barely have any time for Halloween and me and my friends are all in an awkward situation in that we don’t actually have anywhere to hang out right now – we all live at home where it’s either too small, has an adolescent teenager with school the next day, or a home which would perfectly accommodate all of us but that friend doesn’t seem to like inviting people to his house. Most of my friends just ain’t into games like I am though

Also, this game club is the perfect excuse to get my laptop connected to my TV, so I can play all my imports on a proper screen with a gamepad. I was going to do it for Psychonauts, but I was too late to the party for me to complete it on time unfortunately. I’m wanting to buy a physical copy so I can give myself some peace of mind on the whole pirating issue, so any help with that would be greatly appreciated! I am aware that it doesn’t really make things more legal, but employing the same mentality to that of Mother 3 where you buy the game to support the series sits well with me as a respectful contribution to the people behind the game as apposed to outright illegall downloading.

Oh man, I’ve had this game on my ‘to-play’ pile for a while. I’ve heard good things about it, especially about how great it was for its time. Theoretically, this game was what inspired the creators of Resident Evil to make their survival horror series. I don’t know if I’ll be able to play along, but for those who have the time and are on the fence, I’d highly suggest at least giving it a try.

I always forget — was Tomato responsible (or at least, partly responsible) for this game’s translation patch?

I’m probably confused with some other game, quite probably Famicom Detective Club.

Doesn’t say anything on Mato’s wiki page about Sweet Home

I actually had the same problem. I was just going to use save states…. just as soon as I can find an emulator on mac that both has them and runs this game.

And yeah, it’s frustrating but it’s our first trip into any form of necessary emulation so hopefully we get these things figured out. Otherwise… it may be our last trip this direction.

Well, I probably won’t have any time to play tonight, but I did find a copy (that already had the English patch applied, it’s fairly easy to find using Google) and I tried saving and closing the emulator and I don’t seem to have any saving troubles. Unfortunately, that won’t help anyone using a Mac, since I’m using VirtuaNES, which seems to only be Windows compatible :/

Sweet Home isn’t on ’Mato’s list of translations, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t him.

http://matotree.com/translations/

I presume the garden is where we stop, which made this quite a short point. But quite a great intro to the game, too.

It’s really astounding seeing certain elements that this game created and how they went on to be used by Capcom and others later on. Simple stuff like the door opening animations, to how it almost seems like this game was trying to do Quick Time Events far before its time. Super cool.

I wish there was a bit more story in this GPP, but we’ll get there. I’m excited for it, this is a surprisingly solid game. There’s far too much convenience in a JRPG of its age.

I actually started playing this in May but had to put it on hold during finals, this is as good an excuse as any to pick it back up.

The things I remember most from earlier this year are the excellent pacing and music. You can make good, tangible progress with every play session, and the random battles don’t feel like speed bumps for once. The score makes great use of its modest number of tracks, with moderate-to-high-tension overworld themes, pumping battle music, and a slow, eerie piece for the paintings. Looking forward to hearing more thoughts!

All right, so I just finished watching part 3/5 of Sweet Home, the movie on youtube. I wouldn’t quite put the movie in the same category as Evil Dead, but I still find it lame and not scary at all. I’m losing interest rather quickly. Can anyone tell me how well the game holds up to the movie? Will I find the game as boring as I find that the movie is?

I finished the May frescoes (fifth story) last night and this is where the story hook is for me. There was a lot of debate on the podcast about whether or not Lady Mamiya accidentally killing her child was a very effective hook or not. I think it is a great set-up, but what got me was fresco 4-4 which states that Lady Mamiya outright killed another child to serve as her own kid's playmate... And then when you are collecting the May frescoes you find a room full of children's skeletons and a diary page that implies that she has been tossing these kids in the incinerator and this is confirmed shortly after in a fairly creepy scene. At this point, I can’t wait to play more because I want to know more.

Alright, so I cleared this tonight. I enjoyed this game immensely, probably the best time I’ve had with a game club since Shadow of the Colossus. It was a fresh experience… I’ve been meaning to play this game for a long time but my hang up is always that I prefer to own a cartridge and play through it that way. I think I understand enough about the game from this playthrough, however, that I will purchase a Famicom cart down the road (rather than repro).

I didn’t actually draw a map. I should have just hooked my computer up to the TV for this one and had a better drawing space but I took a few pages of notes. In spite of this, I did chase my tail now and then when I forgot where certain items were.

The narrative really peaks at the fourth and fifth sets of frescoes game and while it stays interesting, it could have developed more. The frescoes seem to follow a 1 exposition to 2 hint system, generally. I have recorded 24 frescoes, so I am pretty sure I was correct when I surmised that each fresco is in a set of three. Recall the first number is month, the second is day. There are 8 months of frescoes in the game (January through August) and 3 frescoes to each month. But anyways, I’m being overly pedantic.

So yeah, I agree with Omni in his criticism of the story. There was a lot of depth that could have been given especially to Ichirou. The fact that it's a famicom game isn't a super valid excuse, either, as more relevant dialog could have been used in the stead of others. However, when it's there it's really well done and I actually didn't mind the talk about Takashi and all of the other flavour text brings this sucker together. So I just want more about the Mamiyas, really. So really, I think the frescoes should have been more of a vehicle for story and maybe the more esoteric hints about the mansion itself (like the armor in the first week). Stuff about where to find items should have been in blood scrawls, notes, etc predominately.

That said, I do like how information is conveyed in this game. Most of it is easily put together, but some is quite cryptic. I may have had the most trouble with the various blue statues, especially the one you have to push back into the fountain to get the Tool, if I recall correctly.

I was very wary about leaving tools behind at the start of the game, much less worried as it progressed. It was a simple matter to go back and get anything, although this is the only time random battles got under my skin – trekking back to get the tool I left in the spot I figured would be its only use. However, the game is pretty kind with its tool placement and I had no major issues here. As long as you keep on top of it, item management was very manageable.

The final area, I enjoyed it. I kind of wish I did it all stealth like, looking back. Once I realized those ghost swirls didn't respawn if folks were in the room I just hid some bros and let others get captured. Once all of the swirls were gone, it was simple to make your way to Lady Mamiya. If the game wasn't so generous with hints up until this point, this would be a really difficult fight. But even the order of the items is spelled out for you. I kind of would have liked to collect this information in the form of clues around the mansion, but whatever - the way its pulled off is pretty effective storywise. The praying would have frustrated me against Mamiya if I hadn't tried busting out some prayer attacks from my full prayer gauges early in the battle. It says "NOT NEEDED" or something if it is not time to pray, so I tried to pray after every dialog change and after using every item, ha ha.

The ending itself is what you can expect from the period, I suppose, but the final scene got an audible "WHAT?" from me, ha ha ha.

The only other thing I want to touch on is party order. I had a pretty boring set-up of Lighter/+Kit and Camera/Vacuum/Key. This seemed to work very well for me, and I kept the Pills with my “fresco team” the whole way through the game due to the prevalence of curses and poison. The Pills were the only replacement item I bothered with, and they were invaluable.

Anyhow, I had a great time with this game club. Mad kudos for the choice. I wouldn’t say I was ever “scared” but it is an atmospheric game with a lot of flair. I would say I was more drawn in. And that works for me. Maybe I’ll watch the movie sometime, too.

There are a lot of little tricks with spirits. I usually only sent one party into those rooms at one time. If they are the spirits that track you, they only follow the active party iirc (the same for onscreen enemies, in fact). So in large rooms with these spirits I would toggle between my guys and keep the spirits away by forcing them towards another party.

In some rooms where there is a bridge to pass under or a door leads under a ceiling to another chamber in the same room you can hide out there and the spirit should not be able to get you.

Furthermore, I found that there is often a set amount of these spirits. If they are in a set amount, it’s sometimes prudent to leave one party in the room and cause another party to get captured multiple times until the spirits are gone. As long as there is a character remaining in a room, they shouldn’t respawn (as long as there is only a set amount in the first place). Very useful, actually pretty cheesy, in one scene in particular.

I didn’t mind the spirits and even used them to my advantage. Instead of looking for an item to deal with one of the collapsing rooms near the veranda, for instance, I merely sent one character in there and let a spirit pick him/her up after the fact.

Anyways, I watched the movie last night. It was silly, but pretty fun. It adds some depth to the characters, and while it follows a very predictable formula it certainly has its moments. At the very least I now know the very nebulously named “TOOL” item from the game is very likely the Amulet that Yamamura uses throughout the movie. It has a similar shape and all, and it only makes sense. So this is what I’m going to presume, anyways.

Really glad you enjoyed it, looking forward to hearing other people’s thoughts. I for one, having not played a Nintendo game through to completion in at least.. gosh 15 years? I say it on the podcast but it was the only NES game I could probably come back to and play today.

Some brief thoughts on the game now that I’ve finished it, and watched the movie:

• The story was great. In contrast with the movie, it is a great example of how to draw out a story. I was literally shouting profanities at my TV today once everything began to unfold.

• For an NES-era game, it was super slick to control. It made me realise that some of the best games don’t require more than two buttons and a directional pad.

• While all the puzzles were really smart and explained most of the time, there were some that were just a little too vague or not there at all. From memory, the part where you push the statue into the fountain had a very vague fresco attached to it. There was also no mention of the hidden gloves.

• And following from that, some things did bring the game back down to NES-standards. Example being the whole sequence to getting past the servant, where you have to consolidate the jewels into one persons inventory, put them at the front of the party, use the jewels which seem to do nothing, _and_ pray. A bit too much of a mechanical pain for someone who wants to go through the game without an FAQ, in my opinion. There were also points where you just couldn’t continue if you got yourself into such a situation. While these problems were likely to be intentional (trapping you on a platform without any wood to get you off), there was one in particular which was a bit too problematic, although I kind of enjoyed it in the end when I found the solution. You see, near the end of the game there is a fresco that you must observe, in a room with an inactive sand pit. To activate the sand pit you have to find the clue in the fresco. Problem was was that I have my camera and vacuum in one team, and the rest in the other, and it just so happened that the key, lighter, and +kit holders were stuck in this room with an inactive sand pit. So to get them out, I had to search the mansion for a spare camera, then send my vacuum down with the trapped teammates and activate the quick sand. Then, I had the cameraman pull them all out with a rope. Most of the time spent on this was actually discovering that the fresco activated the trap. In the end I liked how I sort of made the game harder for myself because it expected me to have had at least one of the two people require to observe the fresco, and eventually solving the problem was more rewarding than having to start over from the beginning again. I can see why people would find this frustrating though.

• The “ghouls” scared the pants off of me

In conclusion, the good outweighs the bad, and much of the bad, clunky NES-style problems actually sort of contribute to the game and scenario in a positive way anyway.

Now time to listen to the podcast!