| Sweet Home | |
|---|---|
The poster for the Sweet Home film, which was also used on the box cover of the game |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Distributor(s) | Capcom |
| Producer(s) | Juzo Itami |
| Composer(s) | Junko Tamiya |
| Platform(s) | Family Computer |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Survival horror role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Family Computer cartridge (Physical) |
Sweet Home (スウィートホーム Suīto Hōmu) is a survival horror role-playing video game that was released for the Famicom in 1989. It features several elements of role-playing video games. Sweet Home was developed and published by Capcom and the game was never released outside Japan. The game is related to the Japanese horror film of the same name.
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Throughout the game, Sweet Home follows a team of five people who venture into the deserted mansion of the deceased Ichirō Mamiya to photograph and restore his frescoes. Upon entering the house, the door locks behind them and the group discovers that the mansion is haunted by Lady Mamiya, among other creatures. The player guides the five characters, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses, around the mansion, trying to escape.
The game features randomly encountered battles which the controlled character or party of characters must fight or run away from. If a character dies in battle, he or she cannot be revived throughout the course of the game. The five characters have a specific skill that is necessary to complete the game, although items that serve the same purpose can be found if one of the characters dies. For example, should Akiko (the team's nurse) die, the team may find Pill Bottles which can be used to heal ailments. Depending on how the player ends the game, there are a total of five different endings the player may receive.
The characters have names in kanji and katakana. Within the video game the names are in hiragana.
There was also a film released in 1989. It was produced by Itami Productions and distributed by Toho. In an interview, with Capcom game designer Shinji Mikami, it was stated that the game was licensed from the movie. The game and the film were released simultaneously on the same year. Sweet Home's trailer is both an advertisement for the movie, and a sales pitch for the game, as it includes footage from both.
The film and video game versions both contain duplicate copies of very specific images and things, such as the fresco, the skull statue, and the tool, which look exactly the same in both the film and the game. The facial appearance of the character portraits in the game mirrors the look of the actors in the movie.
According to the game credits, the producer for the game is Juzo Itami, who acted in the film.
Though it was a role-playing video game, Sweet Home served as the main inspiration for the seminal survival horror game Resident Evil,[1] which was originally intended to be a remake of Sweet Home.[2] The first Resident Evil borrowed many elements from Sweet Home, including the mansion setting, the puzzles, the item inventory management, the emphasis on survival, and even the "door" loading screen.[1][3] Other influences include solving a variety of puzzles using items stored in a limited inventory,[1][4] while battling or escaping from horrifying creatures, which could lead to permanent death for any of the characters, thus creating tension and an emphasis on survival.[1]
It was also the first attempt at creating a "scary" and frightening atmosphere within a game, through its "gruesome" story, ambient and tense orchestration, gory presentation, and "creepy" cut scenes.[4] The game's creators attempted at creating a scary and frightening storyline within a video game, mainly told through diary entries left behind fifty years before the events of the game.[5] Resident Evil also borrowed various other elements from the game,[3] including the use of scattered notes as storytelling mechanics, multiple endings depending on how many characters survive, backtracking to previous locations in order to solve puzzles later on, the use of save rooms to store items when the player's inventory is full,[4] the use of death animations,[5] dual character paths, limited item management, individual character items such as a lockpick or lighter, story told through diary entries and frescos, emphasis on atmosphere, and brutal horrific imagery. The latter prevented its release in the Western world, though its influence would be felt through Resident Evil.[2] Some thus consider Sweet Home the "first survival horror game."[4][6]
In 2010 K. Thor Jensen of UGO ranked Sweet Home as one of the eleven best survival horror games.[7]