I've been working my way through the European version of Gregory Horror Show for PS2. It's a very special game, for sure. If I understand it correctly, it's based on a Japanese (card/)board game that also became a CGI TV show. For some peculiar reason it was released in Europe first and then Japan a few MONTHS later. Peculiar because it's developed in Japan by Capcom, Production Studio 3 to be exact.
Anyway, the game puts you in the role of a boy or a girl (you get to choose). The story begins with your character getting lost in a dark, misty forest at night. You end up at a hotel, where the hotel owner Gregory gives you a room. You realize you're stuck in the hotel, there's no way out. Well OK, there is ONE way. Death appears (he's wearing a hat with the Swedish flag, yey!) and tells you that if you collect the souls of all the guests in the hotel, he will show you the way out.
And that's where the game starts. What immediately catches your eye is the graphical style. Every character looks to be made out of blocks and covered with very simple and stylized textures. A unique look, similar to the gamecube game Cubivore. Not impressive technically, but the art makes up for it.
So on with the game, what do you actually do to collect these souls?! Well, different things. This is a game about patience, about paying attention, about sneaking around and be smart. You can hide behind pillars, walls and look through keyholes. Time is always moving, just as the characters living in the hotel. In order to catch their souls, you have to achieve different tasks. Sometimes you need to find them a special item, other times it's as simple as putting a banana peel on the hall floor. There are also situations when you need to be in the right place at the right time.
To find out exactly HOW to grab their souls, you need to spy. Look through keyholes to listen to conversations between hotel guests, and you're bound to catch some hot gossip about the character you're currently trying to rob. Then you only need to use your head to put pieces together and find the solution.
About the characters, they are of the "different" kind. There's the owner Gregory who looks like a mouse and has a tendency to read porn novels in the store room. You also got Catherine the nurse, a purple lizard carrying a gigantic syringe. Not to mention the hypochondriac mummy dog with a big sword stuck in his head that he strangely doesn't seem to notice. Bizarre doesn't even cut it.
Once you have attained a soul, the character who once owned will furiously hunt you as soon as they see you. If you leave the room, they'll be right behind you. If they manage to catch you, you'll have to suffer through their "horror show". With no way of escaping you will be tortured in various, original ways. I bet you can't figure out what Nurse Catherine wants to do with you, for example.
These horror shows will drain your life meter drastically. To be more precise, this meter actually represents your sanity. It's constantly dropping as time moves along, but there are ways to regain sanity too. You can read books to remind you of the world outside the hotel, or consume herbs of different colors (Capcom, that's incredibly original!). You can also go to your room and sleep.
Every character has their own routines during days and nights, and by observing these routines you'll know where to go and when (similar to Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, for example). Your most useful ally is the map though. It will always show where all the characters are, making it possible to plan your routes and avoid upset hotel guests.
The controls are fairly easy to get into. By pressing the square button you can knock on doors, while triangle will make you hide behind corners and peep through keyholes. The inventory system is similar to Resident Evil. You can carry a limited number of items, which can be stored in your own room.
The game isn't very long, took me perhaps 6-7 hours to complete. It's possible to play through it a second time at higher difficulties, but I'm not sure if that will unlock anything. The game isn't too hard to play, but I felt some of the tasks you have to complete in order to achieve the souls didn't make much sense. Maybe things become more clear if you listen to every conversation...if you have the patience. Although it's not too time-consuming most of the times.
All in all, an entertaining game that feels fresh on many levels. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoy spying on people, putting clues together to solve problems or just to play original games with bizarre horror atmospheres.
7/10 !!
