game news Before Resident Evil, there was Sweet Home, the NES horror RPG game
A lost mansion in the middle of a forest, a team of five come to unravel the secrets of the bleak building, narrow corridors, deadly traps and monstrous creatures that haunt the place… Does that remind you of anything? Long before the first Resident Evil and Spencer’s stay, there was the Sweet Home and Mamiya’s Shop. The two games made by Capcom have a common story that we will tell you about. Snuggle in a plaid by the fire and, above all, beware of what moves in the dark.
index
- turn based horror
- From Mamiya to Mikami
turn based horror
In January 1989, a horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and produced by Jozo Itami was shown in Japanese cinemas. its name ? Beautiful house. It tells the story of a television crew who entered the mansion of the deceased painter Ichiro Miya. Before disappearing, the latter was hiding precious paintings that the small group was determined to find. Unfortunately, young filmmakers will encounter particularly aggressive supernatural entities.
In December 1989, an adaptation of the video game Sweet Home by Capcom arrived. Tokoro Fujiwara, known for his work on Ghosts’n Goblins and Bionic Commando, is in charge of the project. He decided to make a horror role-playing game based on the mechanics of this genre With a top view camera, random battles (which take place in first person view), limited turn-based inventory, and teammates with distinct abilities. In addition, five endings are available depending on how many survivors are left when the adventure ends.
With its visually haunted mansion (at the time), its narrow corridors, traps, monsters, multiple must-read documents, heroes with specific abilities and door openings made in a personal perspective, Sweet Home necessarily reminds us of Capcom’s future survival horror Which will arrive in 1996 with Resident Evil. Which is totally normal: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine’s adventure, at the base, was planned as a spiritual sequel to Sweet Home.
From Mamiya to Mikami
While the Sweet Home Squad is on a mission to find Ichirō Mamiya’s paintings, another tormented artist is invited to the Devil’s Building: Shinji Mikami. At the beginning of the ’90s, the young developer from Capcom was a long way from imagining that he would be interested in one of the most memorable horror series of the decade. As Tokoro Fujiwara, who is used to video game adaptations of Disney movies, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Aladdin, or Goof Troop (Goofy), you’ve noticed. The latter, impressed by the quality of the game designer’s productions, offers the young developer to develop a terrifying title for PlayStation. The project sells it asspiritual sequelFrom Sweet Home. Shinji Mikami agrees, although he’s not a fan of horror movies. What interests him is elsewhere: Fujiwara promises him that he can be bold in this venture, and that he doesn’t have to worry about future sales of the product.
This is how the great story of Resident Evil begins. Shinji Mikami draws various elements of the Sweet Home (a group trapped in a gloomy building) while relieving the others (the fantastic dimension, ghosts). It keeps the door openings in the first person perspective to hide loading times, while removing the fact that the player is always accompanied by minions. aim for realism, It’s ditching the RPG aspect in favor of something more direct. Initially believed to be an FPS game, Resident Evil includes the pre-calculated 3D settings in which the heroes evolve. A technique I used successfully in Alone in the Dark a few years ago. In total, about thirty artists have been working for more than two years to meet Mikami’s many requirements.
While Capcom was believed to sell only 150,000, Resident Evil became the first PlayStation game to reach 1 million copies sold in Japan. A complete success that would propel Mikami to the upper echelons of Capcom. Sweet Home, for its part, will not return to the cinema or to the world of video games. May he rest in peace.
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