Topic: Ju On/The Grudge - The Game

[BlackNMild2k1]

Got a date with Sadako and her girlfriends later today.

I guess we'll have chicken.  they'll get THE ROOSTER

ROFL

Is that anything like

yes, but with a little extra meat and hopefully condiments.

[Stogi]

*Clicks link....What the?....SPITS OUT DRINK*

[BlackNMild2k1]

*Clicks link....What the?....SPITS OUT DRINK*

There's a reason I left it as a link and didn't just post the pic
shock value.

edit:
I actually used that as a joke avatar for about a day or 2 a long time ago.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

A quick explanation of the game:

Making progress means escaping the stage, ultimately to safety.  Examine your environment to find keys/items to help you get past barriers; this includes opening lockers and drawers in addition to aiming/viewing.  You can aim, step forward, and step back.  You will encounter the "curse," and must successfully execute various QTE's to perform escape actions.  Batteries must be found to keep your flashlight active.

"If you reach the end of the stage before the batteries in your flashlight run out, the episode will end.  If you run out of batteries or you are possessed by the curse, you will be taken to the Game Over Screen.  Also, whether you complete the episode or die during the stage, any Mystery Items found will be recorded in your data.  In addition, how you move the Wii Remote while playing the game will influence your Fear Level Meter."

The game will give you a rating/comment at the end of each stage (Fear Level Meter), judging your Remote behavior.

Special items are hidden throughout the game.  Collecting them all will unlock a bonus stage.

On 2P Mode, "Panic Mode":  "By pressing certain buttons on a second Wii Remote, other players can trigger random events to further scare the main player.  Once an event is triggered, it can't be repeated for 15 seconds.  The Wii Remote will vibrate when Panic Mode has been reset and is ready to be triggered again."

I'm glad a new game is using the vibrator in a meaningful way.

[Stogi]

Holee ****! 2P mode is something I've been envisioning ever since my first girlfriend and I had the same science class and we watched this creepy as movie about spiders and how they lurk everywhere and can **** you up (no not arachnophobia). I would always tease her during the really tense moments, like the part where a spider is just about to drop down a person's back, and run my hand down her back like a spider and freak her the **** out, which of course embarrassed her, which of course maybe everyone and myself laugh. It's genius. **** going out to a scary movie or even renting one, have her play 2P unknowingly to really scare the **** out of her. Then, comfort her the rest of the night. So genius.

WHY OH WHY DID I GIVE AWAY MY WII! TELL ME GANJA FARMER TELL ME!

Pro, I need more impressions please.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Are the visuals pretty good for this?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Does the remote make that sound?
http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/thegrudge/girl2.wav

or the other sound?
http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/thegrudge/cat3.wav

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Kotaku snippet:

"I'm disappointed that I couldn't find even one thing to love about this game. I really liked the movies and I love horror games. To be fair, there even was one thing I liked: the mechanic of a second player having the ability to scare player one. However, this idea was poorly implemented in Ju-on because the images generated by pressing A repeated themselves too often."

I haven't tried 2P mode yet, but the manual shows multiple buttons on the Wii Remote can be used to trigger scares.

Freaking journalists.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I just finished Episode 1 of the game and tried out 2P mode.  Loving the atmosphere and I'm excited to share it with friends.  I've got a few (ok, a lot of) things to say about this little game.  Expect impressions in my usual categorized format later on.

For now, read up on some background material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Yamamura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringu_0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayako_Saeki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grudge
No direct story relations to the game from what I saw (except, say, character designs from The Grudge), but at least it can help you become sweethearts with Sadako-chan and Kayako-san if you're not already familiar with the film genre.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Does the remote make that sound?
http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/thegrudge/girl2.wav

or the other sound?
http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/thegrudge/cat3.wav

I've heard the Remote make the first sound.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

OK, so this is a first-generation/first-try Wii project that debuts with an asking price of $30, doesn't have a whole lot of gameplay to it (yet still satisfies a couple key things I hunger for), but the overall presentation and package come together making it enjoyable to move ahead and see what's in store (well, that's all it asks of you).  More importantly, I do want to share this with others at this MOST appropriate time of year -- set it up in a dark entertainment room with a nice sound system, make sure they're relaxed, and let them take control (and do our best not to spoil anything).  It's not much of an adventure designed to treat the gamer with gameplay and story, but its social value is pretty clear.

GAMEPLAY

Only the Wii Remote is used for control:  IR pointer determines aiming/turning, B-trigger walks forward, and Dpad-Down walk backward (still facing forward; there is no quick-turn function).  To get this out of the way quickly, the IR pointer control is the area that stinks the most.  It's 1st-gen Wii launch game IR pointer quality -- think Red Steel and Elebits.  The flashlight aim is vulnerable to "infinite spinning" when you point off-screen, and the bounding box feels large.  When you WALK, the flashlight cursor is fixed at the center of the screen and your turning speed is reduced, so no crazy character spins when walking.  Controls are jarring, for the most part, after spending so much time on Metroid and Conduit (where I FLY), but it can be forgiven -- Ju-On is not an action game, and the pace/interactivity don't demand quick & precise aim; I suppose it helps ensure that an everyday person can maintain their aim/view without the camera bouncing around too much to their discomfort (aside from the infinite spinning).  Additionally, having lightning-quick mouse-look twitch reflexes would make NO DAMN SENSE when you're just playing the role of an unlucky nobody trapped in a dark compound with only a flashlight (fixed-aim flashlights that aren't strapped to your head already don't make sense).  The Wii Remote represents the flashlight and occasionally other objects, such as a cell phone, so this title has no business being on other platforms, eyetoys ice creams or not.  There are no options for adjusting controls.

You start the game off by picking your gender (sorry Ferny, no 3rd option), and your astrological sign, which get factored into your Fear Level rating at the end of each episode.  Inside the stages, you walk and look around, finding keys/switches that enable you to get past "locked" "doors" and lead you to the stage's exit.  I've encountered mild backtracking within big rooms in Episode 1 (such is the case when "unlock" switches and corresponding exits are put on opposite ends of a video game room), but no backtracking across entire sets of rooms (Zelda, Metroid, RE).  General interactions involve looking around at objects, opening doors/containers, and picking up items (that shine/sparkle in survival horror fashion).  To my disappointment, there was nothing to read -- no literature, backstory, or written clues for anything that would normally help me become attached to the game's world/atmosphere.  Apparently there are no Plant 42 formulas to mix and no big mysteries to be solved (just pickup yo ass and get the hell out).  Clues for mild puzzles were purely visual ("it lit up!  must be suspicious and important!").

Battery life depletes over time, unaffected by your other actions.  Pick up additional batteries to automatically extend light life (via stacking); no in-game changing/opening involved.  Changing your Wii Remote batteries has no effect.  D-batteries do not fit inside Wii Remotes.  I usually had enough battery life to look at everything inside a room and advance just in time to find a new battery.  When the juice runs out, it's Game Over (confirmed; "YOU'RE DINNER").

There is NO COMBAT.  The player has no functionality for fighting, and I didn't see any suitable objects included in the stage that would make for effective weaponry against split ends and dryness.  When you run into "Monster MILF," visual cues pop-up for motion actions; successfully perform the QTE to escape her mating calls; failure is an instant Game Over (not confirmed, as i'm just not mentally prepared to accept her feelings, she seems kinda rough).

I'll follow-up with Visuals, Audio, Atmosphere, and 2P Mode later.  For some reason, I haven't been mentally organizing my thoughts in a bulleted format.

[ShyGuy]

I am intrigued by this game, but I think Silent Hill will be my second horror game of the fall.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It's a novelty I wish came out on Wii earlier on, to help set a better precedent for Wii horror gaming and offset the obvious library bias created by that early batch of light-gun games.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Are the visuals pretty good for this?

VISUALS

The visuals are pretty good, actually.  One of the things that struck me was how sound the direction was, showing a balanced sense of detail between the environment and the "characters;" both components look appealing, they fit well together, and when I see both, I don't get the feeling that one is significantly lacking compared to the other.  But it should be noted, the game design is far more concerned with drawing a dark, lonesome environment rather than occupying the environment with people/enemies/creatures/etc, stuff that's more critical to actual action/adventure games.  Ju-On's characters only appear briefly, but they do their job well.  They don't seem to suffer from obvious texture bluriness or low-polyness; they look freaky and you just accept them right away.  Animations are good: the characters have freaky movements/behaviors and the environmental objects open/crash/etc. convincingly enough; I haven't seen anything glitchy or grossly unrefined yet.

Episode 1 takes place in a rundown factory that's already shown in preview screenshots.  It IMMEDIATELY reminded me of my favorite parts of the Resident Evil Remake:  surfaces were filthy/rusty/grimey/flaky, nowhere looked safe, and the setting was all-around unpleasant.  Different objects were piled and pseudo-randomly laid about to form non-linear walkway barriers, and did a reasonable job of preventing the floorspace from feeling empty.  At a glance, the overall style and level of detail is more comparable to Umbrella Chronicles than House of the Dead: Overkill.

Now the flashlight adds a nice spice to the environments, and looks properly implemented.  It gets the two essential elements right:  1) it projects a bright "spot" image onto surfaces that distorts/stretches based on the angle of those surfaces; and 2) it causes objects to cast dynamic shadows based on the direction of the source.  I believe the only other Wii games to properly apply the flashlight effect have been Fragile (flashlight) and The Conduit (All Seeing Eye), RE4 and Umbrella Chronicles didn't; the only time I recall it was used on GameCube was in Rebel Strike's disco room.  Ju-On's flashlight spot is bright in the main circle and becomes gradually dark at the edges without being pixelated; everything outside the spot appropriately appears near-black, unless the room is meant to have other light sources.  Object shadows display some pixelation, but you can tell anti-aliasing processes have softened them.  Shadows are cast by major objects/furniture, and are projected onto typical walls and floors.  The game doesn't go as far as using self-shadowing on those objects.  And before I forget, in a realistic twist, the light spot's intensity gets weaker with distance; nice little detail (and I suspect they're not using high quality flashlights anyway).  Where it's dark, it's DARK, which is good cuz our eyes shouldn't be picking up those details anyway, and prevents the game from conspicuously showing washed-out visuals where the color palette is limited.

On the technical end of things, the framerate is inconsistent.  Majority of normal gameplay moves at 30fps, but sometimes tries to jump to 60fps at "emptier" locations; I would've preferred it was locked to 30 and kept stable.  When control is taken away from you, such as cutscenes, the visuals display at 60fps, cruelly getting your hopes up.  The inconsistency was noticeable, but it did not distract or interfere with gameplay since movement is gosh darn slow.

Game appears to use Progressive Scan.  Haven't confirmed yet.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

AUDIO

The game sounds all-around good for the few things it concentrates on; it doesn't seem to make attempts at speech or catchy background music (don't think they belong here).  I don't hear any vocals from the playable character, and Episode 1 didn't have background music.  Included was an assortment of environmental sound effects for your exploration moments, accompanied by horror-themed musical notes of dread during the scares.  If the silence wasn't loud enough, then you're treated to little ambient noises instead.  It sounds like you should be alone, but haha... ha.  The audio samples didn't sound awful or misused, Ju-On/Grudge franchise sounds make their cameos, and the Wii Remote speaker was also used at some point.

It doesn't say so on the game box, but Ju-On DOES support Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound.  Footsteps and other discomforting noises LOVE to traverse your blind spots, and I love them for doing so.  Directional quality is reasonably accurate.  I particularly like the audio design in this game, and it makes me confident it'll be put to good use when I get a chance to share it.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Finished Episode 2 last night... Kayako-san... ehehehehehe.... =D  =D  D=  D=  DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD=  AUGH!


ATMOSPHERE

The visuals and audio work well to produce haunted settings to good effect, whether it's a dark and DIRTY environment, or a dark and CLEAN environment.  Earlier, I mentioned how Episode 1 reminds me of the REmake; well it felt GREAT like those icky REmake environments, but better.  Going from the icky detailed pre-rendered backdrops to icky detailed 3D first-person environments is a welcomed difference, as it makes simple exploration a joy and hightens the dynamics of what you can and can't see.  The lack of a 3rd person avatar is also a cheap way of drawing your attention exclusively to the environment.  Taking that one step further is the flashlight:  the closest thing to a safe haven would be the area lit by my flashlight (the **** I can see, and isn't trying to GET ME).  Everywhere else was a dark blind spot wrapped around me where I could expect unpleasant things to be hiding at any moment, waiting for me to turn (a neat observation:  if your TV is the only place you can see the flashlight shine, then the rest of the room you're physically sitting in joins with the game's dark spots when the lights are off).  It's a simple way to tease players who might get overly conscious of their 6 o'clock (or even 3 or 9 o'clock).  And thankfully, because the game isn't ON-RAILS, I could move about at my usual "exploration pace," which gives my imagination time to run wild and chew at my comfort level.

[Stratos]

IGN gave it a 2.5

Seems really harsh to me.

[BlackNMild2k1]

IGN gave it a 2.5

Seems really harsh to me.

It's because it isn't the type of game that they want it to be.
My guess, without even reading the review, is that they aren't judging the game for what it is, but instead for what it isn't and should've been.

[Stratos]

He said the graphics were terrible. From what I've seen and from what people have said here they look good.

[vudu]

Amazon's Gold Box deal is Ju-On for $17.99.  Expires in 1 hour, 45 minutes or while supplies last.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Here is a video that shows how Ju-On is supposed to be enjoyed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkRBfCDzwyQ

I would probably get this if I could get my mom to play it.

[jakeOSX]

NinGurl69 *huggles did i a great job of describing this game, so i'll not repeat.

the game is fun, looks great. its hard. i played in a dark house with only the TV on for light. which equates to almost just the flashlight in the game. i suspect a few of the people who didn't like it played it in the middle of the day. oh and IGN's rating is criminal. i am starting to think that most of the reviewers at IGN don't actually like video games.

[BwrJim!]

really?  they were reacting to surround sound  ..

Still though, I want to try and play this with my wife on a dark friday night (shes the type who is a bleeding heart and very very very very very scarefull.   If I can get her to do it.  I will record it for everyone.      Just this morning before we got up.. I went..   AHHHH and shook her real quick and she screamed.   Prime material if you ask me.


ehehehhehehe..   

[Stratos]

Either your wife is a really good sport or your going to be calling her your EX soon with that type of behavior

[BwrJim!]

We're together forever, and you know what I mentioned it and she didnt give me that typically hell no type of response..   first, she wants to actually play a FPS modern warfare and now she didnt flinch at this..   i hope it last..