History YMMV / HauntingGround

** [[spoiler:Old]] Lorenzo's voice. Those weird sucking noises and the closeups on his mouth!

** Lorenzo's voice. Those weird sucking noises and the closeups on his mouth!

* DracoInLeatherPants: Daniella, Riccardo and young Lorenzo often receive this treatment within the fandom. Never mind the fact all three are trying to harm, and potentially kill, a teenage girl who just lost her family and is being kept prisoner there. Likewise, some fans will invoke RonTheDeathEater on Fiona, or at least be petty and call her a whore and idiot while praising the villains.

* GameBreaker: Fiona's Texas Cowgirl costume, unlocked for simply getting Ending A, trivializes any and all encounters with stalkers barring perhaps gun-wielding Riccardo and [[spoiler:young]] Lorenzo. It grants her a pistol that nonetheless has the blast radius and raw power of a ''shotgun'', and will lay out your enemies in just a half a dozen shots in most cases. Its only real downsides are how long Fiona takes to ready each shot and that it can be somewhat difficult to avoid hitting Hewie, but otherwise, it has unlimited ammo and doesn't even require proper aiming in many situations.

** Old Lorenzo chasing after Fiona in his wheelchair in the cutscene where you first meet him, then his coughing and spluttering whenever Hewie attacks him after he's reduced to crawling along the ground after said cutscene, is as ridiculous as it sounds. The former ''could'' be creepy in its own unsettling way were it not for Fiona's rather ridiculous BigNo making it even harder to take seriously.

** Old Lorenzo's voice. Those weird sucking noises and the closeups on his mouth!

** Or how about the fact that Riccardo is [[spoiler:Fiona's uncle (who, due to cloning, also counts as her father)]] and is making it his mission in the game to [[spoiler:rape and impregnate her]]?

** [[spoiler:Young Lorenzo draining Fiona of her Azoth in his game over sequence sounds less like sucking out a young woman's life force and more like slurping down a large soda. Similarly, old Lorenzo sounds like Donald Duck choking to death on a grape.]]

** Not to mention Lorenzo ([[spoiler:Fiona's ''grandfather'']]) [[DirtyOldMan spying on Fiona as she changes at the beginning of the game]].

** [[spoiler:Young Lorenzo draining Fiona of her Azoth in his game over sequence sounds less like sucking out a young woman's life force and more like slurping down a large soda. Similarly, old Lorenzo sounds like Donald Duck choking on a grape.]]

* GameBreaker: Fiona's Texas Cowgirl costume, unlocked for simply getting Ending A, trivializes any and all encounters with stalkers barring perhaps gun-wielding Riccardo and young Lorenzo. It grants her a pistol that nonetheless has the blast radius and raw power of a ''shotgun'', and will lay out your enemies in just a half a dozen shots in most cases. Its only real downsides are how long Fiona takes to ready each shot and that it can be somewhat difficult to avoid hitting Hewie, but otherwise, it has unlimited ammo and doesn't even require proper aiming in many situations.

** [[spoiler:[[ImmortalityImmorality Aureolus Lorenzo Belli]] is a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] and the [[BigBad architect]] of the nightmare that is Belli Castle. A man obsessed with immortality and knowledge, Lorenzo conducted countless human experiments for many decades, his victims killed or turned into living corpses. As he grew older, Lorenzo decided to create two clones of himself, Riccardo and Ugo, to continue his cruel machinations if he ever expired. Mentoring Riccardo into the same evil he practiced, they performed even more experiments and together kidnapped and brainwashed a young Daniella into their slave and guinea pig, who they abused horribly. After learning that Ugo has a daughter, [[PlayerCharacter Fiona Belli]], who has an abundant gift of Azoth, which he believes is the key to immortality, Lorenzo arranged a meeting with him and his family, letting Riccardo kill them and take Fiona. Once Fiona is brought to Belli Castle, Lorenzo deceives her by helping her escape and eliminate Riccardo, luring her to him so he can personally kill her and absorb her Azoth. After relentlessly chasing and attacking her, Lorenzo, pushed to the brink of death, tries to use the last of his life force to [[TakingYouWithMe take Fiona with him]] in a desperate bid for her Azoth.]]

* ThatOneBoss: Every boss in the game has to be defeated in a specific manner and it's easy if you know what you're doing. But if you want to get items before you defeat them, things get difficult. The best example (and the only one which doesn't involve getting items off the boss) is the last chase with [[spoiler:Lorenzo's burning corpse]] and the damn statue! The part is so hard that players believe the statue is the real final boss.

** Some people believe that Fiona's parents ending up near the castle with her in the car that evening was a horrible ContrivedCoincidence that lead to tragedy for all of them, while others believe that they had their own ulterior motives, and planned on using her for her Azoth too. [[spoiler:The lyrics of "Endless Zero" very heavily imply that they, or at the very least Ayla, wanted Fiona's Azoth.]]
** Daniella's crying ([[TearsOfBlood and weeping bloody tears at that]]) before her [[spoiler:boss fight]] could either be seen as her being driven insane in failing to kill Fiona time and time again, or a desperate plea to Fiona to [[spoiler:[[DeathSeeker end her miserable life, having given up in wanting to become human and thus has no desire to continue living as a broken being]]]]. Daniella making no attempt to [[spoiler:stop the falling glass shard from piercing her heart after her boss fight seems to suggest that Daniella cornered Fiona in the stargazing room not to kill her, [[SuicideByCop but to force Fiona to kill Daniella]]]].

* CatharsisFactor: Ending C, obtained by beating the game once and ensuring Debilitas lives in his boss fight has Fiona succeed in [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere escaping the castle early]]. With the added bonus of seeing [[spoiler:Lorenzo [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments tumble down the castle stairs]] in a feeble attempt to chase after her]].

** [[spoiler:[[ImmortalityImmorality Aureolus Lorenzo Belli]] is a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] and the [[BigBad architect]] of the nightmare of Belli Castle. A man obsessed with immortality and knowledge, Lorenzo conducted countless human experiments for many decades, his victims killed or turned into living corpses. As he grew older, Lorenzo decided to create two clones of himself, Riccardo and Ugo, to continue his cruel machinations if he ever expires. Mentoring Riccardo into the same evil he practices, they performed even more experiments and together kidnapped and brainwash a young Daniella into their slave and guinea pig who they abuse horribly. After learning that Ugo has a daughter, [[PlayerCharacter Fiona Belli]], who has an abundant gift of Azoth, which he believes is the key to immortality, Lorenzo arranged a meeting with him and his family, letting Riccardo kill them and take Fiona. Once Fiona is brought to Belli Castle, Lorenzo deceives her by helping her escape and eliminate Riccardo, luring her to him so he could personally kill her and absorb her Azoth. After relentlessly chasing and attacking her, Lorenzo, pushed to the brink of death, tried to use the last of his life force to [[TakingYouWithMe take Fiona with him]] in a desperate bid for her Azoth.]]
** [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy Aureolus Riccardo Belli]] is the third stalker and Fiona's EvilUncle. An imperfect clone of Lorenzo, Riccardo kills his brother, Ugo, and his sister-in-law by causing a car crash, both out of rage and envy for Ugo being a better clone than him. Hated by his father for his disobedience since childhood and his inability to understand emotions, Riccardo works as the castle's keeper and captures any animal he can find to extract their [[LifeEnergy Azoth]]. Riccardo was responsible for Debilitas, a simple-minded homunculus he had created using a dog's placenta. Not only cruel to animals, Riccardo also beats his father's maid, Daniella, whenever he has the chance. Despite following his father's orders, Riccardo secretly wants to usurp his position by [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping]] and impregnating Fiona, his niece, so she can give birth to a perfect version of him, and succeeds in doing so in Ending D. If Fiona is killed by Riccardo, he [[ILoveTheDead takes the opportunity to rape her corpse]].]]
* CultClassic: The game was largely ignored on release, partially due to [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 another big Capcom title]] overshadowing it. Over the years it's gained a cult following and considered a worthwhile and interesting survival horror game in its own right.

** Hewie could probably count, for being the main protection against the stalkers and in gameplay-wise, making the game original.

* GameBreaker: Fiona's Texas Cowgirl costume, unlocked for simply getting the game's A ending, trivializes any and all encounters with stalkers barring perhaps gun wielding Riccardo and young Lorenzo. It grants her a pistol that nonetheless has the blast radius and raw power of a ''shotgun'', and will lay out your enemies in just a half a dozen shots in most cases. It's only real downsides are how long Fiona takes to ready each shot and that it can be somewhat difficult to avoid hitting Hewie, but otherwise, it has unlimited ammo and doesn't even require proper aiming in many situations.
* GoodBadBugs: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAEsxBtloVQ This video ]] shows you how to trigger a glitch with the golden candlestick, which enables a series of other glitches. Such as making [[spoiler: Lorenzo]] invisible when he pursues Fiona, and also allows you to skip two of the boss battles against him, making it useful for speedruns (seen at 2:55). However, one of the doors, which you can usually open, will be locked while the glitch is active.

* MemeticMutation: [[PreAsskickingOneLiner It's cleaning time.]]
** Let me into your womb!
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:When Riccardo shoots Hewie in the forest, and uses him as bait for Fiona to come to his aid. If that wasn't when he what crossed it, then Riccardo raping Fiona in Ending D was what did it!]]

** [[spoiler:Young Lorenzo draining Fiona of her Azoth in his game over sequence sounds less like sucking out a young woman's life force and more like slurping down a large soda.]]

** Lorenzo's voice. Those weird sucking noises!

* ThatOneBoss: Every boss in the game has to be defeated in a specific manner and it's easy if you know what you're doing. But if you want to get items before you defeat them, things get difficult. But the best example (and the only one which doesn't involve getting items off the boss) is the last chase with [[spoiler:Lorenzo's burning corpse]] and the damn statue! The part is so hard that players believe the statue is the real final boss.
* VindicatedByHistory: The game didn't sell particularly well on release, partly because it was massively overshadowed by Capcom's own ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' that released the same year. It also was met with lukewarm critical reviews, with the general sentiment being that it had a well-crafted atmosphere and impressive visuals but didn't do much to stand out from other japanese horror games. Over time the game has become more well-regarded by survival horror fans as a worthwhile entry in the genre, and you won't find many people trying to argue it doesn't hold its own with unique mechanics and narrative elements, such as the psychosexual narrative surrounding Fiona and the gameplay and story implementation of Hewie.

** Fiona. The poor girl looks like she's going to cry in most cutscenes she's in involving the stalkers. [[spoiler:Doesn't help that her parents were killed by a man who not only looks like her father, but also intends to rape her, and the castle that could kill her with death traps turns out to be hers!]]

** [[ImmortalityImmorality Aureolus Lorenzo Belli]] is a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] and the [[BigBad architect]] of the nightmare of Belli Castle. A man obsessed with immortality and knowledge, Lorenzo conducted countless human experiments for many decades, his victims killed or turned into living corpses. As he grew older, Lorenzo decided to create two clones of himself, Riccardo and Ugo, to continue his cruel machinations if he ever expires. Mentoring Riccardo into the same evil he practices, they performed even more experiments and together kidnapped and brainwash a young Daniella into their slave and guinea pig who they abuse horribly. After learning that Ugo has a daughter, [[PlayerCharacter Fiona Belli]], who has an abundant gift of Azoth, which he believes is the key to immortality, Lorenzo arranged a meeting with him and his family, letting Riccardo kill them and take Fiona. Once Fiona is brought to Belli Castle, Lorenzo deceives her by helping her escape and eliminate Riccardo, luring her to him so he could personally kill her and absorb her Azoth. After relentlessly chasing and attacking her, Lorenzo, pushed to the brink of death, tried to use the last of his life force to [[TakingYouWithMe take Fiona with him]] in a desperate bid for her Azoth.
** [[AxCrazy Aureolus Riccardo Belli]] is the third stalker and Fiona's EvilUncle. An imperfect clone of Lorenzo, Riccardo kills his brother, Ugo, and his sister-in-law by causing a car crash, both out of rage and envy for Ugo being a better clone than him. Hated by his father for his disobedience since childhood and his inability to understand emotions, Riccardo works as the castle's keeper and captures any animal he can find to extract their [[LifeEnergy Azoth]]. Riccardo was responsible for Debilitas, a simple-minded homunculus he had created using a dog's placenta. Not only cruel to animals, Riccardo also beats his father's maid, Daniella, whenever he has the chance. Despite following his father's orders, Riccardo secretly wants to usurp his position by [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping]] and impregnating Fiona, his niece, so she can give birth to a perfect version of him, and succeeds in doing so in Ending D. If Fiona is killed by Riccardo, he [[ILoveTheDead takes the opportunity to rape her corpse]].

** [[spoiler:[[ImmortalityImmorality Aureolus Lorenzo Belli]] is a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] and the [[BigBad architect]] of the nightmare of Belli Castle. A man obsessed with immortality and knowledge, Lorenzo conducted countless human experiments for many decades, his victims killed or turned into living corpses. As he grew older, Lorenzo decided to create two clones of himself, Riccardo and Ugo, to continue his cruel machinations if he ever expires. Mentoring Riccardo into the same evil he practices, they performed even more experiments and together kidnapped and brainwash a young Daniella into their slave and guinea pig who they abuse horribly. After learning that Ugo has a daughter, [[PlayerCharacter Fiona Belli]], who has an abundant gift of Azoth, which he believes is the key to immortality, Lorenzo arranged a meeting with him and his family, letting Riccardo kill them and take Fiona. Once Fiona is brought to Belli Castle, Lorenzo deceives her by helping her escape and eliminate Riccardo, luring her to him so he could personally kill her and absorb her Azoth. After relentlessly chasing and attacking her, Lorenzo, pushed to the brink of death, tried to use the last of his life force to [[TakingYouWithMe take Fiona with him]] in a desperate bid for her Azoth]].

** [[ImmortalityImmorality Aureolus Lorenzo Belli]] is a [[MadScientist mad alchemist]] and the [[BigBad architect]] of the nightmare of Belli Castle. A man obsessed with immortality and knowledge, Lorenzo conducted countless human experiments for many decades, his victims killed or turned into living corpses. As he grew older, Lorenzo decided to create two clones of himself, Riccardo and Ugo, to continue his cruel machinations if he ever expires. Mentoring Riccardo into the same evil he practices, they performed even more experiments and together kidnapped and brainwash a young Daniella into their slave and guinea pig who they abuse horribly. After learning that Ugo has a daughter, [[PlayerCharacter Fiona Belli]], who has an abundant gift of Azoth, which he believes is the key to immortality, Lorenzo arranged a meeting with him and his family, letting Riccardo kill them and take Fiona. Once Fiona is brought to Belli Castle, Lorenzo deceives her by helping her escape and eliminate Riccardo, luring her to him so he could personally kill her and absorb her Azoth. After relentlessly chasing and attacking her, Lorenzo, pushed to the brink of death, tried to use the last of his life force to [[TakingYouWithMe take Fiona with him]] in a desperate bid for her Azoth.

* EvilIsSexy: [[spoiler:Lorenzo's incarnation as a young man has a surprising number of fangirls due to being a very handsome man with an attractive voice.]]

* VindicatedByHistory: The game didn't sell particularly well on release, partly because it was massively overshadowed by Capcom's own VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 that released the same year. It also was met with lukewarm critical reviews, with the general sentiment being that it had a well-crafted atmosphere and impressive visuals but didn't do much to stand out from other japanese horror games. Over time the game has become more well-regarded by survival horror fans as a worthwhile entry in the genre, and you won't find many people trying to argue it doesn't hold its own with unique mechanics and narrative elements, such as the psychosexual narrative surrounding Fiona and the gameplay and story implementation of Hewie.

* SelfImposedChallenge: An optional cutscene will start an encounter with Daniella and have her replace her glass shard for a fire poker. Daniella gains much more health, will start permanently sprinting (at such a pace that it's no longer possible to close doors on her), and almost all her attacks will knock Fiona down or outright kill her. Apart from a marginal change to her loot drops, there's no reason to trigger this cutscene other than the player wanting a greater challenge.

** Daniella's crying ([[TearsOfBlood and weeping bloody tears at that]]) before her [[spoiler: boss fight]] could either be seen as her being driven insane in failing to kill Fiona time and time again, or a desperate plea to Fiona to [[spoiler: [[DeathSeeker end her miserable life, having given up in wanting to become human and thus has no desire to continue living as a broken being]]]]. Daniella making no attempt to [[spoiler: stop the falling glass shard from piercing her heart after her boss fight seems to suggest that Daniella cornered Fiona in the stargazing room not to kill her, [[SuicideByCop but to force Fiona to kill Daniella]]]].
** In the worst ending, it's generally believed that [[spoiler: Hewie died]] because his bond with Fiona wasn't strong enough to help him pull himself together and rescue her. But since your bond with Hewie has to be as weak as possible to get this ending, it's possible that he [[spoiler: survived and just decided that she wasn't worth the trouble of helping]].
* AntiClimaxBoss: Given that most of the bosses are [[PuzzleBoss Puzzle Bosses]], most of them become this once you know what to do. However, [[spoiler: Riccardo]] takes the cake; it's possible to beat him in ''seconds'', assuming you don't beat him up for items first.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The chase themes for the nightmare fuel factor, particularly Innocent Freak. Last Debilitas for the boss music.
* CatharsisFactor: Ending C, obtained by beating the game once and ensuring Debilitas lives in his boss fight has Fiona succeed in [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere escaping the castle early.]] With the added bonus of seeing [[spoiler: Lorenzo [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments tumble down the castle stairs]] in a feeble attempt to chase after her]].

** Or how about the fact that Riccardo is [[spoiler: Fiona's uncle (who, due to cloning, also counts as her father)]] and is making it his mission in the game to [[spoiler: rape and impregnate her]]?

* TheWoobie: Fiona. The poor girl looks like she's going to cry in most cutscenes she's in involving the stalkers. [[spoiler:Doesn't help that her parents were killed by a man who not only looks like her father, but also intends to rape her, and the castle that could kill her with death traps turns out to be hers!]]

** Debilitas too, considering he doesn't really know what he's doing is wrong.

** Old Lorenzo chasing after Fiona in his wheelchair, coughing and spluttering whenever Hewie attacks, is as ridiculous as it sounds.

* NightmareRetardant: The failed homunculi. While they are arguably creepy in their own right, some of them just look (and sound) stupid.

* SelfImposedChallenge: An optional cutscene will start an encounter with Daniella and have her replace her glass shard for a fire poker. Daniella gains much more health, will start permanently sprinting (at such a pace it's no longer possible to close doors on her), and all almost her attacks will knock Fiona down or outright kill her. Apart from a marginal change to her loot drops, there's no reason to trigger this cutscene other than the player wanting a greater challenge.

* SelfImposedChallenge: An optional cutscene will have start an encounter with Daniella and have her replace her glass shard for a fire poker. Daniella gains much more health, will start permanently sprinting (at such a pace it's no longer possible to close doors on her), and all almost her attacks will knock Fiona down or outright kill her. Apart from a marginal change to her loot drops, there's no reason to trigger this cutscene other than the player wanting a greater challenge.

** Young Lorenzo draining Fiona of her Azoth in his game over sequence sounds less like sucking out a young woman's life force and more like slurping down a large soda.