Sophie Richards

"Thank you!"

- Sophie in the Good ending.

Sophie Richards is the tritagonist in the first The House of the Dead. She was a researcher of the DBR Corporation, and the fiancé of Thomas Rogan during the events of the Curien Mansion incident.

While the player's performance would determine her survival in the first game, canonically she survived, married, and had a daughter with Rogan, whom they named Lisa Rogan.

The House of the Dead
Working as a researcher for the DBR Corporation under Curien, Sophie was engaged to AMS agent Thomas Rogan and acquainted with his partner, "G". Rogan and the AMS began secretly monitoring Curien's inhumane "Bio-Reactor" project, which was to remove the barrier between life and death and cure his ailing son.

On December 18th, 1998, Curien went mad and unleashed his creations upon the DBR research team. Sophie left Rogan an urgent phone call, who then arrived with "G" at Curien's mansion. They found her playing dead on the front courtyard until help had arrived. The Hangedman, one of Curien's creations, captured Sophie and flew her back to the mansion.

The AMS agents fought their way inside, eventually hearing Sophie's cries for help from inside one room. The trio reunited, only to be ambushed by the Chariot, who mortally wounded Sophie; Rogan and "G" defeated him. She passes out shortly afterward, much to Rogan's grief. Sophie urged the agents to defeat Curien and prevent a disaster.

After subduing Curien and his magnum opus, the Magician, Rogan bid Sophie a heartbroken farewell before taking his leave.

The player's score and the number of continues used determine Sophie's fate. The Neutral Ending simply has the player look back at the mansion, leaving players to assume that Sophie had died. The Bad Ending takes the player back inside the mansion, where Sophie is shown as a reanimated zombie. In the game's canonical Good Ending, Sophie is instead shown miraculously alive and well, running toward the screen exclaiming "Thank you!"

The House of the Dead III
After the events of the first game, Sophie married Rogan and gave birth to their daughter, Lisa.

By 2019, civilization had collapsed after a 2003 outbreak staged by Curien's financier, Caleb Goldman. Hoping to find the source of humanity's downfall, a now-retired Rogan led a team of military commandos into the EFI Research Facility. His team was overwhelmed by the undead, and Rogan went missing. Sophie worried for his safety; her daughter promised to find Rogan and bring him home.

While Sophie never appears, she is mentioned by Lisa, who claims that Rogan always put work ahead of his family; it is implied that Lisa has a much closer relationship with her mother.

Trivia

 * Sophie's zombie state is slightly altered in the Sega Saturn console port. In the original arcade version, she had a tint of paleness to her complexion and her eyes were completely white with something (presumably blood) dripping down her mouth. In the console port, her eyes have pupils with bags under them and her skin has a green tint.