Haunting Ground

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Haunting Ground

Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 1
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Aspect ratio	16:9 / 4:3
Native resolution	480i (SDTV) 480p (EDTV)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date	^JPN April 21, 2005 ^EUR April 29, 2005 ^NA May 10, 2005
Genre(s)	Survival Horror
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature PEGI: 16+ CERO: 18+ OFLC: MA15+
Media	1 DVD-ROM

Haunting Ground known in Japan as Demento (デメント) is a survival horror video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 1 and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2 games console in 2005. It was originally designed to be part of the Clock Tower series of video games, but this was scrapped early into its development.^{[citation needed]} The game shares many similarities with Clock Tower 3.^[1]

1 Gameplay
2 Story
- 2.1 Endings
3 Characters
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Fiona, the player-character, must be guided through Castle Belli, its surrounding grounds and outbuildings until she can find a way to escape. Along the way, players must solve puzzles, unlock doors and evade, hide or attempt to fight back against the castle's inhabitants. Fiona is accompanied by Hewie, a white German Shepherd Dog. The two must work as a team to solve certain puzzles and to outwit their pursuers.^[1]

During the game, the castle's inhabitants chase and attack Fiona, and if evaded long enough will cease for a set interval. While it is possible to retaliate with kicks, Hewie's bites or alchemically created weapons, the game's focus is on the player evading enemies long enough to find a hiding spot. The castle's staff chase Fiona individually until defeated in a boss battle, after which a different enemy will pursue Fiona.^[2] Two enemies exist in addition to the castle's keepers, neither are dangerous to Fiona but can alert Fiona's pursuers to her location and cause panic. The first are small floating orbs of blue light known as Luminescents, which follow Fiona and emit a loud noise if they come into contact with her. The other enemy type are fetus-like disfigured homunculi, who attach themselves to Fiona's legs while letting out a piercing yell.

Hewie joins Fiona early in the game, following different player-issued commands to perform actions like barking or growling when he detects a trap or threat. He can be commanded to stay, follow, attack, fetch and to shake hands.^[1] In order to maintain a good relationship with her new companion, Fiona must issue commands to Hewie, praising or scolding him depending on whether or not he obeys. Playing shake hands or healing him when he becomes injured also maintains his interest.^[3] Hewie will ignore Fiona's commands and wander off if not given enough attention, if repeatedly mistreated he may even attack her. On easier difficulty settings, Hewie can be knocked unconscious from sustaining too many injuries but can be revived. On the hard difficulty setting, he is slain after receiving the same level of injuries, causing the game to end.

When faced with certain scripted events or prolonged enemy attacks and chases, Fiona becomes fearful. If allowed to remain fearful for too long she will enter panic mode and run. Panic mode causes blurriness of the screen, saturation of the surroundings and a freeze-frame effect, and the control pad vibrates in the effect of Fiona's heartbeat. The player is unable to stop Fiona running and must try to prevent her from running into walls and objects. Running into scenery causes her to collapse and crawl away, at this point any attack results in a game over. Hewie can only be called for help during panic mode, encouraging him to attack any pursuer and prevent Fiona from being killed. If enemies are avoided long enough panic mode ends.

[edit] Story

Fiona Belli has somehow found herself in a strange castle, which appears to be somewhere in northern Italy or perhaps Switzerland. She has just been involved in a car accident; her memories of this accident, however, are vague and incomplete. When she awakes, she finds herself in some sort of large butcher's room. Noting that the cage that keeps her prisoner was left unlocked, she steps out but is startled by a large, fierce animal snarling and then running past her. She quickly begins searching for some answers and a way out of the castle. Along the way, she befriends the large animal that initially frightened her, who happens to be a white German Shepherd named Hewie and who turns out to be a valuable ally. As Fiona's predicament gets more and more disturbing, she learns that she is the carrier of the Azoth, which is what the castle's residents are after.

The first enemy is Debilitas, who thinks Fiona is a big doll. Debilitas chases Fiona around the Castle and is stopped by Riccardo. Fiona meets Riccardo and Daniella and finds letters and memos given to her by a man named Lorenzo who wants her to escape the Castle. Fiona and Hewie are chased by Debilitas to the Chapel. The way in which the player ultimately eliminates Debilitas influences the outcome of the endings.

Soon after Fiona has rid herself of Debilitas, her new enemy, Daniella is brought back into the game after her short appearance in the games first scenes. Daniella becomes jealous that Fiona can smell, taste, touch or "experience pleasure" which she later suggests means she cannot engage in sexual intercourse during the scene leading up to her boss fight. Daniella wields a large shard of broken glass (unless the player approaches Daniella while she is kneeling near a fire place which then replaces the glass with a hot poker which deals double the damage).

After Fiona kills Daniella by impaling her with a large shard of glass broken from the ceiling, the third villain is re-introduced, Riccardo. For a majority of the game Riccardo keeps his face hidden under a hood and wields a hand gun. Riccardo reveals his face and his plot to Fiona after cornering her in the woods. He has the same face as Fiona's father, Ugo, and reveals that they are clones and that he is now the original. Riccardo murdered Ugo after attempting to kill him in the car crash as revenge for leaving the castle and marrying Ayla, Fiona's mother. He plans to use Fiona (by means of her womb and use of her Azoth) to help him be reborn so that he may live forever. Hewie rescues Fiona (unless the player's bond with Hewie is weak and results in one of the game's several endings) and assists in their escape from the tower in which Riccardo keeps Fiona imprisoned.

The final boss of the game is Lorenzo, who takes on Fiona in several different forms. The player first meets Lorenzo as an old, crippled man. He tells Fiona how Riccardo was always the problem child, and that he created both Riccardo and Ugo in attempts to find a body with an azoth he could use. Ugo had the Azoth but left the castle to marry Ayla. Now that he knows Fiona is finally his, he can take the azoth she inherited from Ugo. He rids himself of his wheelchair and crawls on the floor in order to chase Fiona. After crushing the elder Lorenzo in a machine, Lorenzo returns to Fiona looking just like her father. He then shows his ability to use azoth to control his age thus living forever. Now at a much more youthful version of himself, he has the ability to teleport. Fiona eventually, with the help of Hewie, causes Lorenzo to fall into a pit of lava. Soon after defeating young Lorenzo, the castle begins to shake and collapse, Lorenzo returns a final time as a flaming skeletal version of his former self and chases Fiona as she attempts to escape the castle.

[edit] Endings

Ending A - "Fortes Fortuna Juvat" - Fiona struggles to get the key into the lock. Hewie calms her fears and she manages to unlock the door. However, Hewie begins barking which catches Fiona's attention. From the double doors, Debilitas comes out with hedge clippers. In a tense and awkward moment, Fiona and Debilitas stare at each other. Debilitas simply bows to Fiona. With that, she and Hewie walk into the darkness of the forest. Debilitas looks at the overgrown trees in the garden and begins clipping the trees. To get this ending, the player must defeat Debilitas using the chandelier. This does not kill Debilitas, but rather causes him to retreat and thus no longer pose a threat for Fiona during the remainder of the game.

"Fortes Fortuna Juvat" is Latin for "Fortune Favors The Brave"

Ending B - "Ignis Aurum Probat" - similar to Ending A, except that Debilitas does not appear. As Fiona is opening the gate out to the forest, she stares at the castle for a few moments, before turning and following Hewie into the forest. To get this ending, the player must have Fiona kill Debilitas, either by using Hewie or repeatedly attacking him with several explosive chemicals and minerals she encounters.

"Ignis Aurum Probat" is Latin for "Fire Tests Gold".

Ending C - "Dona Nobis Pacem" - similar to Ending A, except there is no Debilitas and there is a special scene at the end. Lorenzo calls out to Fiona not to go and falls down the stairs, loathing the fact that she has left. To get this ending, the game must be completed once. Debilitas must be defeated with the chandelier. Then, Fiona must go visit Debilitas in his hut, where he will give her a key to one of the locked bathroom stalls, which reveals a hidden cellar. In that cellar, Fiona finds the key to the castle's main gate.

"Dona Nobis Pacem" is Latin for "Give Us Peace".

Ending D - "Tu Fui, Ego Eris" - Fiona wakes up in a glass box where Riccardo taunts her and says she belongs to him. She screams in her frustration. The scene cuts to her castle bedroom, where Riccardo enters the room and tenderly strokes a sleeping Fiona's head and bulging stomach, as she is now heavily pregnant. As he walks away, she wakes, gives a faint smile, and issues a hollow laugh, presumably having gone insane from her ordeals. To obtain this ending, Fiona must have a weak relationship with Hewie. Hewie does not recover from Riccardo's gun attack in the Chaos Forest level, and hence does not rescue Fiona, thus ending the game. This could also be achieved by not getting Hewie in the first place, thus leaving him to die.

"Tu Fui, Ego Eris" is Latin for "What You Are, I Was. What I Am, You Will Be".

[edit] Characters

Fiona and Hewie

Fiona Belli (voiced by: Cornelia Hayes O'Herlighy) is the eighteen-year old player character of Haunting Ground. She had only recently moved away from her parents to attend college and was visiting with them when the car accident occurred. Her mother Ayla was killed instantly in the wreck, and while her father Ugo survived the initial crash, he was almost immediately murdered by a man with a knife before he could even get out of the driver's seat. Although Fiona is not very athletic, she makes this up with her quick mind. She rarely shows emotions and appears more mature than her actual age suggests.^[4]

Hewie(voiced by: Rars and Dietgart), a four year old White German Shepherd, soon joins Fiona on her quest. Hewie becomes attached to Fiona after she saves him from cruel captivity in the early stages of the game. He seems healthy and was apparently well cared for at one time. Hewie is fiercely loyal and will not hesitate to attack Fiona's pursuers when trained correctly. He is her only hope of escaping the castle alive.^[4]

Hewie, or a similar dog, makes a cameo appearance in the game Resident Evil 4, also by Capcom. Early in your adventure, Leon S. Kennedy encounters a white dog caught in a bear trap. If you choose to free the dog, he will later help to distract the El Gigante in the village.^[5]

Debilitas (voiced by: Lex Lang and Clement Von Frankenstein) is the castle's gardener and handyman. Upon encountering Fiona walking in Castle Belli, he is compelled to chase after her. Despite his hulking size and massive strength, he has the mental capacity of a young child. He can only seem to understand simple language and is only heard speaking short, garbled phrases ("My dolly", "Where is you!" and the rarely heard "My little pink meat pie!"). He plays with dolls, and believes that Fiona is also a big doll. His origins are unclear, but he may be one of Lorenzo's failed "creations"; when Fiona enters the medical room whilst being chased by Riccardo or Daniella, an image of a large and muscular person is shown (possibly a diagram of Debilitas). Debilitas is easily outwitted by Fiona, but he is persistent and powerful. He harasses Fiona and Hewie for quite a while until all three of them enter the Chapel, after which Fiona is forced to fight him. The battle has two outcomes; Fiona can either drop a large chandelier on top of him, or can wear his health down thus killing him. Debilitas is last seen in Ending A, staring at Fiona before she leaves the castle, he bows to her, no longer meaning any harm.^[4]

Daniella (voiced by: Moira Quirk) cooks and does the household work around the castle. She appears to be around her late twenties and is stunningly beautiful, but her movements are machine-like and her behavior is unnerving. She is eventually revealed to be a homunculus, a man-made human. Initially, Daniella seems unemotional, but to Fiona's despair, she notices that she's prone to erratic mood swings and maniacal laughter. Daniella appears to be schizophrenic, alternating between intentions of murder to ignoring Fiona altogether in order to clean parts of the mansion. Despite her beauty, she hates looking at herself in the mirror, and will start shrieking at the sight of her reflection. Daniella chases after Fiona out of jealousy that Fiona can bear children and possess the Azoth, which Daniella believes will make herself human, and "complete". Out of all the stalkers, she is the physically weakest and easiest to outrun (disregarding the limited amount of evasion points), but is also the cruelest; she attacks Fiona with either a hot fire poker or a broken piece of glass, and if she can't find Fiona, she has a tendency to attack Hewie. Her end comes when Fiona and Hewie enter a domed area, and face her in a boss fight. A mirror is revealed beneath her and, at the sight of her reflection, she screams at such a high pitch that the glass above her shatters, bringing a huge shard down upon her, piercing her through her abdominal area. With the last of her energy, she smiles, suggesting either that she wanted to die and had gotten her wish, or that she experienced pain for the first time, and felt that it was close enough to emotion to make her happy before she died.^[4]

Riccardo (voiced by: Greg Ellis) is the castle's grounds-keeper. He claims to be a great alchemist and believes that nothing can kill him. A monk-like figure, it initially appears that he is the person in charge of the castle when in actuality he is just another servant. Riccardo is searching for Fiona's Azoth because he needs it to be reborn. Lorenzo created two clones: Ugo Belli and Riccardo Belli, but only Ugo was given the Azoth. Riccardo failed in getting the Azoth from Ugo, but realized that Ugo's daughter Fiona had the Azoth from her father's traits. Unlike the other stalkers, he seems to have no intentions of killing Fiona, instead merely punching, slapping and kicking her. However, if Fiona gets too close to him during a chase he may get carried away and shoot her to death with his gun. He is clever and persistent and will frighten her by firing his gun in the air. The real danger in dealing with Riccardo is that he can shoot and seriously injure Hewie, leaving Fiona to fend for herself. Riccardo can finally get his Azoth if Fiona mistreats Hewie, and Hewie does not come to save her. In Ending D, he impregnates Fiona, and is last seen feeling his baby as she sleeps. ^[4].

Lorenzo (voiced by: Robin Atjub Downes as Young/Middle aged and old Lorenzo is voiced by Enn Reitel) , a shadowy figure in the background for most of the game, does everything in his power to help Fiona. Little is known about him initially except that he is extremely old. Once Fiona defeats Debilitas, Daniella, and Riccardo, she meets Lorenzo, who reveals his true intentions--he needs the Azoth to attain immortality, and was helping Fiona in order to bring her closer to him. His true name is Aureolus Lorenzo Belli. Lorenzo is endlessly persistent and will not cease pursuit, returning to life each time Fiona attempts to kill him. The first time Lorenzo returns he is much younger (looking similar to Riccardo and Ugo), and during the final battle is pushed into a pit of fire. As Fiona and Hewie begin to leave the castle, Lorenzo returns one last time as a flaming skeletal figure and begins pursuit once again. Eventually he succumbs to the flames and dies for good.^[4]