Home Sweet Home – The Horror Game Made By My People!~

Hello, hello loves!~ I’m back!~ But this time I’m back with something a bit spoopy! YAY!~ This time I’ll be talking about a interesting game I found!

WARNING: IF YOU DON’T WANNA LOOK AT SPOOPY STUFF (ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, TURN AWAAAAYYYYY). You’ve been warned.

As mentioned before, I am a fan of the horror genre (despite how I look). I love horror games, movies, and mangas. I’m not easily scared either. I usually attribute this to the fact that my people (Thai people), are so damn good with horror. Yeah, if you didn’t know what kind of Asian I am…now you know. So you can imagine how hyped I was to find a game called Home Sweet Home. Home Sweet Home is a horror-adventure game made by a dev team called YGGGame in Thailand. What made it so unique and piqued my interest was that the game’s story is centered around Thai myths, superstitions, and traditions.

SYNOPSIS
Tim’s life has drastically changed since his wife disappeared mysteriously. In one night, after suffering from the sorrow for a long time, he woke up in an unknown place instead of his house. While trying to escape from this place, he was hunted by a rancorous female spirit. Can he survive? Is this place actually his house? Does it relate to the disappearance of his wife? Some dark sinister secret is hidden inside this house, and it won’t be a place of happiness as it used to be any longer.

Nope. Nope. Noooope. Bai bai now. Σ(°△°|||)︴

First, I admit I have yet to personally play this game. Though I really, really want to! You see I enjoy watching “Let’s Play” vids. Like many people, I follow and watch YouTubers like Markiplier and Jackscepiceye. However, I’m blessed to be multilingual and follow Thai YouTubers as well. I actually discovered Home Sweet Home from a video by HEARTROCKER, a Thai YouTuber and game streamer (or “game caster”, as Thai people call them). His commentary as he plays is hilarious, and a perfect example of Thai humor. Wish you could all enjoy his videos, but it’s in Thai. Anyway, I did sit through and watch the entire 5+ hour let’s play vid. His humor was the perfect thing to help me get through watching this game, because it is indeed SCARY AF. Like I said, I don’t get scared easily. This made me hella anxious, palms sweating, heart racing like crazy, and I did have some nightmares. Also I watched to watch a Thai LP because I preferred the Thai voice acting. The English one was…ehhh…awkward sounding to me.

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Home Sweet Home is incredibly detailed. I literally felt like I was back in Thailand. I’m probably most impressed by the wooden house later in the game. It legit looks like a house in the countryside. It has a ton of little details that really sell it, and I’m felt totally immersed in it. It also does such a fantastic job of building a suspenseful and creepy atmosphere. I didn’t only want to share this game because it actually scared the shit out of me though. As I said, the interesting thing about this game is that it uses alot of Thai myths, superstitions, and traditions. Which in itself, is quite amazing. As a Thai person, I was incredibly proud of this game. However, I was a bit sad that foreign audiences may miss out on details and things. So I wanted to talk about some of these little details. Thailand is still pretty unknown to many people who may only be familiar (often times only vaguely) with East Asian countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. It’ll be a bit of a cultural lesson, but it may help you appreciate this game a bit more.

A (creepy AF) Thai puppet of a Thai dancer… *sweats nervously* 〣( ºΔº )〣

As I said, it’s amazing that this game used Thai traditions, myths, and superstitions. You see, the Thai people and Thai culture does have deep and beautiful traditions. However, we’re also SUPERSTITIOUS AF. It’s built into a majority of our cultural beliefs. I admit that I’m not familiar with everything. I’m Thai, but I was born and raised Stateside. Still, I’m pretty well informed for a Thai-American (shout out to my family who sent me to Thailand every summer). As I said, Thais are hella superstitious…although it can argued that younger generations aren’t as superstitious as the older generations. Me? I’m hella superstitious and believe in alot of supernatural shit (Fun fact: I had several encounters with ghosts and shit…also why that shit usually doesn’t scare me too much.).

A hella sad and creepy spirit house

One general thing is we believe there are spirits just about everywhere. We believe there are guardian spirits ties to homes and land. It’s believed that when you go somewhere new you should give a sort of a prayer to ask for permission to stay there. If you’re going to build something or move, you must have a ceremony to show respect and ask for permission from the spirits. Not only is it for permission to build, but also for their protection. Similar ceremonies are also performed before big events and movie/drama productions. These ceremonies are meant to placate spirits, and hopefully the everything goes on smoothly. In Thailand (and a few other Southeast Asian countries), you’ll find that many places have what’s called a spirit house. It’s similar to a shrine of sorts, but for said spirits. You place offerings like food and drinks there.

Yeah…uh…you can stay over there…

Bad shit happen? Illness? Probably the work of unhappy spirits. Also a fun fact: Thai people all have a nickname. It could be a contraction of the person’s real name. Often times, it seems hella random and has nothing to do with your real name. Often times it’s an animal, flowers, color, food, number, activity, etc. Take me for example. My real name is Thitaree, but my Thai nickname is Mint (pronounced “Min”). My sister’s nickname is Mo, which comes from “Tang-Mo” (Watermelon). The reason for nicknames is because of the belief that evil spirits are looking to spirit away and control children (specifically newborns). It’s believed that nicknames confuse the spirits and can keep the child safe. This is something you may miss in the English version of Home Sweet Home. You see, Tim’s name comes from “I-Tim” (pronounced “Aye-tim”)…which is Thai for “Ice Cream”.

ฉิบหาย!!! Translation: AW FUCK!!!＼(º □ º l|l)/

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist (Theravada Buddhist to be exact). It’s like 98-99 point something percent. Alot of the religious, spiritual, and superstitious beliefs are interwoven into the Thai culture and way of life. There’s always one (or several) Buddhist temples near by. Karma and making merit are also huge things as well. The story of this horror game is driven mainly by a vengeful spirit. However, that’s not the only thing you have to look out for. You’ll find other types of spirits that again go along with the idea of karma and superstitious beliefs. One thing you’ll notice is the “Preta”. That’s the sanskrit name of a supernatural type of creature. In Thai we call it a เปรต/Pret (The “et” is pronounced like “ate”, so say it like “Prate”). These types of creatures show up in alot of mythology in other countries as well, and they’re typically referred to as “hungry ghosts”. In regards to Thai beliefs, Prets are people who have committed the sin against filial piety. Family is big, and you’re supposed to show utmost respect to your parents. People who talk back and hurt their parents are believed to end up as Prets after they die. Prets are believed to be as thin beings that are as tall as trees. Their hands and feet are extremely large, referring to the physical pain they may have done to their parents. Their mouths are the size of the top of a needle. They’re fated to wander the earth (basically purgatory) forever hungry, unable to satisfy their hunger or quench their thirst.

There’s a whole ton of stuff going on in this game and it’s really great! I also laughed at a small detail in the police station. There’s a name on a desk that references General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the military junta that’s currently serving as the Thai Prime Minister. Again, there’s alot of great little details in this game. And it’s only the first episode! Last I checked, the second one is about to come out soon. I’m hella excited because I want to know more about the story. I just find it a shame that the non-Thai audiences miss out on some really amazing detail. Who knows. Maybe I’ll do another post continuing on more of the stuff going on in this game because there’s way too much stuff for one post. Have you played or heard of the game? Whatcha think?~ Maybe one day if I’m free and my internet isn’t shitty, I’ll play this for you guys~ I’ve been trying to get the BAYOG boys to play this for ages! Let them know you want it to happen because we need more of this:

This is where Kenny kills Minty…. Love you bruh~
RIP Minty ╮(︶▽︶)╭ #IRegretNothing

 

 

EDIT 11/5/18:
I should also note that this game is very much like a Thai horror movie. There are alot of details that are very similar to well known Thai horror movies. If you’re interested in that kind of stuff like the Preta lore or stuff magic related things, check out some of my Thai horror movie posts. Similar to this game, there may be alot of little things that may go unnoticed by non-Thais. However, I do make little notes at the bottom of my post to explain a few things. That being said, feel free to ask me any questions you may have! I’m always happy to help!

–4bia/Phobia |I’ll have a post on this with notes soon.
–Phobia 2 [LINK]|I recommend this one if you were interested in the Pret lore.
–Pee Mak [LINK]|I put some notes about several other kinds of Thai ghosts and beliefs as well.

EDIT:
I do plan on doing a detailed breakdown and discussion of the little details. You can find the first post [HERE]. Let me know what questions you want to ask!~

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LET’S BE FRIENDS!~ (つ✧ω✧)つ

Hihi! I’m Minty! I’m Thai-American~ เป็นคนไทยค่ะ~ ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักนะคะ~
I’m BAYOG’s hella basic Asian chick, Real People Stuffs expert, and boba addict. I fangirl and blog about music, live action movies/dramas, and manga/webtoons~ When I’m not blogging, I’m usually writing/singing Thai-English covers~

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