Home Sweet Home (Game) (2024)

Home Sweet Home is a single-player, first-person survival horror and puzzle video game developed by Thai developer Yggdrazil Group. The game features horror elements drawn from Thai folklore, offering a unique and chilling experience. Released on September 27, 2017, Home Sweet Home is available on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.

Key Visuals[]

Trailers[]

Synopsis[]

Tim's beloved wife, Jane, has gone missing. Turning to alcohol, Tim becomes depressed and barely interacts with the outside world. One night, he wakes up in a strange place and experiences a supernatural vision similar to what Jane described before her disappearance. Seeing Jane in this strange world, filled with the ghostly lore of Tim's homeland, spurs him to venture further into these terrifying places. But why does Jane warn him to stay away? Good and evil forces are at work in this realm, and Tim must try to save Jane before it's too late for both of them.As Tim navigates through this unfamiliar, nightmarish environment, he encounters supernatural entities and uncovers disturbing truths. The narrative, heavily inspired by Thai folklore and horror traditions, creates a chilling atmosphere that immerses players in the story.

Characters[]

Episode I[]

Chapter 1: The Nightmare Begins[]

The main character, Tim, who has been troubled by thoughts of his missing wife, Jane, wakes up when he hears her voice calling him. However, when he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a dirty, dust-filled room that appears to be a university dormitory. Startled and eager to escape, Tim navigates through the messy rooms and hallways, eventually picking up a flashlight. As he senses someone on the stairs, he gives chase and discovers a woman standing with her back turned on the ground floor. When she grotesquely twists her head nearly 180 degrees to face him, revealing her ghastly, bloodied appearance, she screams. Tim barely manages to dodge her as she charges at him with a cutter knife. After a series of harrowing encounters, he replaces a fuse and opens a locked iron door to finally escape the dormitory.

This chapter serves primarily as a tutorial, providing on-screen notifications about movement controls, action keys, and item collection. It also introduces players to future gameplay mechanics, such as the appearance of the ghostly entity, Belle, emerging from a blood-stained wall. Players learn that they can escape Belle by hiding in lockers at the right moment, understand the range at which Belle can detect Tim, and practice button actions. Notably, the game begins in Belle's room, where a picture frame featuring Belle and Shane sits on a desk. Under the bed is a red thread, a recurring element throughout the game, leading from this room to an unknown destination.

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home(My Happy Home)[]

When Tim pushed through the white wooden door, evading the woman, he found himself in the storage room under the stairs of his house. He looked back, but the messy dormitory from earlier had vanished, replaced by a cluttered storage space. Relieved, Tim began to explore his house. On his home phone, there was a message from his friend 'Dew' asking how he was doing. As Tim looked through Jane's notes and letters, he noticed strange red threads tied around various objects, including the windows in her room. He then experienced a vision of Jane, possibly a memory from her past while she was writing a novel. Afterward, a red thread extended from Jane's room, and Tim followed it. The thread led him back to the storage room under the stairs. Suddenly, upon hearing Jane's scream, Tim was pulled back into a dark, mysterious space.

According to Jane's diary entry dated October 27, 2012, Tim bought their house to commemorate their first wedding anniversary. The main entrance is a sliding glass door that resembles a veranda in the living room. However, red threads are tightly bound to the doors and windows. Additionally, although it does not affect the game's progression, every time Tim moves around on the second floor, the photo frame of the couple in the living room on the first floor keeps falling over.

Chapter 3: Deep Into the Shadow[]

Tim opens his eyes and finds himself in an old wooden building in the middle of the night. The radio broadcasts news about the police tracking the leader of a theft gang. The building is dirty and filled with all kinds of junk, resembling a den of thugs. As Tim looks out the window, he hears the distant howling of an animal, possibly a wolf or a wild dog. When he peers outside from the first-floor fence, he notices a red light moving slowly between the trees in the distance.^[1]

Suddenly, an enormous, ugly hand begins to destroy the building. Tim narrowly avoids the monster and makes his way to a police station. At the station, he hears news that the gang leader has died and discovers a clue to Preta's identity. As he continues to evade Preta's interference, he eventually finds Jane in a large room with a cracked ceiling and several tables. Jane warns Tim, "Don't follow me," before shouting and running away. Preta reappears, disrupting Tim's pursuit.

Preta only attacks with its palms when Tim moves within the range of its red eye light, and it cannot see anything outside that range, so Tim must move carefully. Additionally, Preta clears the tables at regular intervals, making the situation increasingly difficult as time passes. To defeat Preta, Tim must find a key, unlock a cupboard, safely retrieve food, and offer it at the central altar. Once the offering is made, Preta disappears and never returns.

Chapter 4: Hopeless Circle[]

When Tim returned home, he found the house in disarray, with the lights off and objects scattered everywhere. While searching for clues on the first and second floors, he encountered strange phenomena, such as unknown sounds and a picture frame repeatedly falling over. Upon entering Jane's room, he heard her say, "There's something in the corner of my room." A recollection of the past played out, and immediately after, a black shape vanished outside the room with a wicked sound. Eventually, Tim discovered blood in the bathroom on the second floor. As he dipped his foot into the pool of blood, he was absorbed into it as if being sucked in.

In this chapter, there is a notable event. When you approach the TV in the living room and wait, the screen suddenly turns on, and a countdown begins, displaying numbers from 100 to 99, 98, and 97 amid static. The countdown starts slowly and then gradually accelerates but stops at 13, continuously flashing the number 13 before ending. Despite the ominous countdown, there are no shocking scenes or character deaths akin to the 'Ring' series. This countdown screen is a video file located in the game's folder. Additionally, similar to Chapter 2, the couple's picture frame in the living room on the first floor repeatedly falls over whenever Tim walks upstairs.

Chapter 5: Cursed Blood of Lust[]

This is the longest and most time-consuming chapter in the game. Players must explore various spaces by navigating between three or more buildings, such as the engineering college, art college, and dormitory, encountering numerous hidden elements and enemies along the way. The chapter features a notable abundance of blood in various locations, as suggested by its title.

Tim regains consciousness in a room dripping with blood and opens the door to find an alleyway connecting the exit of the dormitory to the engineering college building. When Tim spots Jane running on the first floor of the university building, he chases after her, but upon opening the door, Belle comes running, screaming. Tim hides in a locker and emerges in a different space, another university building, where he sees Jane running away from the other side of a locked door. He retrieves a rusty key from the door and heads to the third-floor chemistry lab to remove the rust.

Instructions on how to remove rust are written on the blackboard in the chemistry room. Here, players must obtain oxalic acid, the crucial ingredient. Tim retrieves the key from the lab table and goes to the adjacent classroom to get the acid from a locked cupboard. Once the rust is removed, Tim must avoid Belle and the ghost, return to the second floor, and open the door, only to see Jane disappearing down a passageway leading to another building. A card key is required to open the locked door. A sign next to the door reads, "Students who need a card key, please come to the second floor." However, the elevator has no power. Tim goes to the electric room at the end of the hallway, where a red light is on, and activates the knife switch to start the elevator, but Belle appears in the hallway.

Despite the note indicating the card key is on the second floor, there are two ways to obtain it. The standard method is to retrieve a new card from the office computer on the second floor. Alternatively, players can go to the fourth floor and pick up Cherry's card key from in front of the blood-stained locker. With the card key, Tim enters the next building, where he finds a note explaining the ghosts and how to use incense among the rooms guarded by the spirits. After avoiding Belle and the ghost, Tim arrives at a utility room covered in blood. Reading a newspaper article on a chair, he learns that this was the site where Preta's body was discovered. Opening the door reveals the dormitory building from Chapter 1.

To escape the dormitory, Tim must pass through a door sealed with three amulets, each connected to a red thread leading to a hidden candle in different rooms. Players learn that all future amulets can be released by extinguishing the candles. After escaping Belle, Tim finds himself in the art college building. A lock on the door to the next hallway requires a password, which can be found by combining three pieces of drawing paper in the lightbox in the spacious practice room. Belle appears again, and Tim must avoid her by entering the far corner room, changing the scene to the fourth floor of the engineering college. Taking the elevator to the third floor, Tim finally encounters Jane again.

Jane discovers Tim and runs into the auditorium on the third floor, locking the door behind her. The auditorium door is sealed with three talismans, and the candles needed to unlock them are scattered throughout the building. Players must now find these candles while avoiding Belle. Two new gameplay features are introduced: If Belle touches a water curtain soaked in holy water, she is temporarily incapacitated. Additionally, the 'Phee Lak Son' ghost helps the Tim move quickly by serving as a warp device.^[2] When Tim touches the skull with the amulet, a black hand covers his eyes and transports him to another place. After moving through this ordeal, Tim follows the red thread to unlock three amulets and heads to the third-floor auditorium for a final battle with Belle.

Inside the auditorium, there is a bottle of holy water and a hacksaw. When Tim starts cutting the rebar wrapped around the door with the hacksaw, Belle appears. She emerges from one of three bloodstains on the map and is temporarily incapacitated when hit by a curtain of holy water triggered by a trap. Although players can hide behind cabinets or objects and saw the rebar when Belle is far away, it is quicker to saw continuously, neutralize Belle with holy water, and resume sawing. However, the number of traps in the auditorium is limited, so it is strategic to incapacitate Belle with traps farther from the door initially and use traps near the door when the sawing is nearly complete.

After cutting the rebar and passing through the bloody hallway, poltergeist phenomena hinder Tim's movement. Opening the door reveals a messy third-floor corridor.^[3] As Tim evades Belle's pursuit and reaches the broadcasting room door, Belle catches up and strikes him with her cutter knife. Tim collapses, but Belle's attention is drawn to Shane's body, who committed suicide by hanging himself.^[4] Seeing Shane, Belle drops her cutter knife and falls to her knees, sobbing. After traversing a seemingly endless passage of dark corridors, Tim finally returns home.

Chapter 6: Dead End[]

The house Tim returned to for the third time was more chaotic than ever. Tim discovers Jane's last diary fragment, which states that she obtained a dagger from an 'Novice Monk' and hid it away. Jane mentions doing this secretly because her husband was not superstitious. Tim retrieves a ladder from the kitchen and opens a box on the dresser in his room. His vision turns white, and he finds himself reflected in someone’s past experience. Notably, there is no dagger in the box, only the scabbard.^[5]

In a dark wooden building, a woman holding a candle and a dagger walks slowly. Given the circumstances, this woman must be the missing Jane. Thunder rumbles outside, and wooden mannequins dressed in traditional Thai clothing are sparsely placed inside the building. Jane, observing the hallway and rooms, enters a particular room and looks behind her. There, a real woman, not a mannequin, stands in traditional Thai clothing, glaring at her. Jane desperately tries to escape but finds herself trapped in a room with a door that won't open, while the woman in traditional attire continues to glare. The scene ends when someone suddenly grabs Jane from behind and pulls her away.

References[]