Killer7 SINdicate

[Krizzx]

I've stated this a few times over the years here, but I used to be a HUGE Silent Hill fan from back in the Team Silent days before Konami disbanded them. I thought the series hit rock bottom after the crappy western takes. Fuck was I wrong...

Silent Hill has been dragged to depths lower than I could have ever imagined by Neo-Konami. I had mild hopes of some kind of return to form after they announced Silent Hill F a year or so ago,but those fantasies have been ended by Silent Hill by Ascension, Short Letter and the SH2 remake(imagined). At this point, Konami has just reduced Silent Hill to a brand name that they clearly aim to use as the moniker for any horror-ish cashin they concoct.

The biggest problem with Silent Hill is that 95% of people just obsess over SH2's dramatic characters and its tropes as being what Silent Hill as a whole is about. SH2 is like the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part3(Stardust Crusaders now) was back in the day where no one knew or cared about any other arcs. Just part 3 and its memes. Its all the average fanboy seemed give a fuck about.

Every time people talked about Silent Hill, it was always "Pyramid head" or "Angela" because of her sexual abuse theme which westerns just ate up. They love anything that portrays sex negatively, and romanticize mental health issues and their inclusion in media.

The things I liked about Silent Hill is that, while everything revolved around the town, no 2 games share the same theme. SH1 was about saving your child and stopping plans of its cult, SH2 was about personal psychological trauma and guilt, SH3 was about revenge and greed, and SH4 was about obsession and delusion. The 5th "Team Silent" Silent Hill, which never got made, was going to be about "fear in the light". The other thing is what really made it special. Silent Hill, as stated by its original creators, was a Japanese take on western style horror. This is why no western made version could ever properly capture what made the games great. Its missing half of what made is special.

Ever since Team Silent was disbanded and the I.P. was whored out to different western devs and movie directors, people have just constantly tried to rehash Silent Hill 2, recycling the psychological trauma theme over and over. The worst thing to come of this is the endless recycling of Pyramid Head. This is similar to what happened to Tropico where the first game was about being an Island dictator, the second was about being a pirate, then, following the original creators losing the I.P., every game after the second has been about being an island dictator.



I've never before seen a video that so perfectly incapsulates my feelings about what happened to Pyramid head. Its almost like this was quoting my posts from the Hell's Descent forum back when that was still around. I was saying all this shit over a decade ago almost word for word. That they turned Pyramid head into Pinhead. A character that constantly has his lore and thematic presence cheapened to milk his popularity because people think he looks cool. They stick him or something like him into everything they can.

I hadn't kept up with news about it for a long time because I saw it as a dead do to the massive suckage of modern Konami, but seeing that Ito himself confirmed what I was saying years ago about Pyramid Head only supposing to have existed for James Sunderland in SH2 is a relief. All the other SH fans would echo the false claims that he was some entity that was a part of the towns history itself(even though Ito confirmed that was not the case) would just foam at the mouth at any mention or inclusion of Pyramid Head anywhere in anything. They were complete namesake fans that followed Silent Hill, not because of its content or creativity, but its brand name.

It comes as know surprised to learn that, in a now cancelled Silent Hill game that Ito tried to make a few years ago, he was going to have Pyramid Head get killed in the first scene because he hates his own creation so much do to how bastardized and overused it has become. He literally said he regrets ever having created the Pyramid Head.




This video sums up the short message and why it sucks thoroughly. He calls it a rip on Kojima's PT(which even that "I" thought was a garbage derivative knock-off), but that is giving it too much credit. This is just a cheaper Outlast knockoff. Run from unkillable pursuer enemy through narrow corridors until you collect the "key"(plot device item needed to move the story along) to end the chase sequence. Cue the injection of progressive themes and repeated trigger warning for the most shallow of garbage.


Silent Hill 2's combat trailer dropped and it was blasted for how awful it looked.



The worse thing to come of this is the confirmation that Konami has, indeed, retconned the lore of the entire franchise to make it where Silent Hill is now just a name they can glue own anything by turning it into a "phenomenon" instead of an actual location with mystical influence on its surrounding and inhabitants including the fog. Its now jus a trope they can use whenever its convenient.

When I first saw the trailer for Silent Hill f and saw how Japanese it looked(remember that Silent Hill is an actual place in the U.S. in the game world) I wondered how it was going to work. Like, maybe they would be exchange students or something.



How naive I was. After seeing the retcon they did to the lore in SH: TheShort Message, its clear that this is going to be the premise for Silent hill f and that The Short Message was just released to establish this as the new lore of the Silent Hill franchise.


Silent Hill f is going to be shit with a big budget...

[Iwazaru]

Personally, I loved all four Team Silent games (I revisited SH4 some years ago and enjoyed it very much despite a thing or two that raised my brows), and I really liked Shattered Memories when I played it (and I wish Barlow had a chance to make a similar game instead of those indie FMV adventures he now makes). I did not consider other games to be that much "awful" as well - I thought Origins was ~decent as a fanfic, and even Homecoming had some positive qualities (kinda... but admittedly I never finished it as I dropped it after some point).

I was never much interested in Downpour though, it felt like Alan Wake spinoff or something like that. Instead, I honestly thought that Cry of Fear did a much better job of "silent hill inspired game" despite it being so much emo.



I hated the official movie though (mostly because they omitted the tragedy of Lisa, overall it was dumbed down popcorn release and lacked depth of game it was based on) and I never watched the trashy sequel of it. On the other hand, I still have warm feelings about an amateur made "No Escape" which was perhaps the most grimdark.




As for recent Silent Hill announcements/releases...
I think Silent Hill 2 Remake is just not needed at all, and I don't like what I see from trailers so far. Ascension is some questionable shit I would not touch. Short Letter seemed ~okay for what it is (perhaps? I don't want to watch video you've posted, at least not yet, so I can only take a guess), but people will obviously hate it for the Silent Hill name attached to it. Silent Hill F still looks promising to me as a potentially interesting horror game, despite of whether or not it would be a fit for Silent Hill name. Maybe because my most intense years of being in Silent Hill fandom were mid-2000s, I stopped caring about "legacy" long ago (hell, I'm even not offended by weird spinoff games for arcades/mobiles anymore). Thing is, I don't care about current fanbase either - those guys came after me and I never understood them so whatever (also because it was Russian fandom I was a part of, I just can't relate to modern Western SH fans at all - they are too alienating with stuff I don't resonate with). In 99% I don't bother to watch or read any Silent Hill related "content" like YouTube videos because it will only led to facepalm from me (whether it would be some crazy ass theory discussion or some biased attempt to do a series retrospective). Silent Hill is one of things I grew up with, and it really influenced me back in days, so it's just inside me and I'mnot in need of anything outside about it. You may say it's just an arrogance of "og fan" but thats how it is for me.

Silent Hill f is going to be shit with a big budget...

My initial impression was a horror adventure / visual novel similar to Spirit Hunter NG (whose graphic artist supposedly works on F) or Shin Hayarigami.
They still haven't released an actual in-game trailer, so it's a mystery for now. But you might be right with pessimistic anticipation, of course.



In any case, I want people to support Toyama and his new game, Slitterhead. It is not going to be a horror game like Silent Hill or Siren (and most likely it will be pretty rough and under-budgeted), but after watching all the videos they've made (mostly talking about this or that with other cool people like Jinji Ito or Hideaki Itsuno), I can feel that they are perhaps one of few remaining creators I can really trust with their sincere vision. And it really makes me sad when 99% people on gaming news sites react so much on recent Konami's Silent Hill necro-announcements, but do not care about Toyama's attempt to make a new game aftery leaving Soyny. Well, gaymers as they are.

As for Bloober Team (who are doing SH2 Remake) - I never got interested in Medium (which was their attempt to make Silent Hill alike game), even though I was ~ok about Observer (maybe most nice thing they created, idk). For me, much more important horror games of the recent years were Alisa, Tormented Souls and Signalis. Alisa is like Resident Evil 1 homage, Signalis always felt like a Fear Effect mutation to me (kinda) and Tormented Souls had a significant influence from both RE and SH.

[WesleySnipes]

Personally, I loved all four Team Silent games (I revisited SH4 some years ago and enjoyed it very much despite a thing or two that raised my brows), and I really liked Shattered Memories when I played it (and I wish Barlow had a chance to make a similar game instead of those indie FMV adventures he now makes). I did not consider other games to be that much "awful" as well - I thought Origins was ~decent as a fanfic, and even Homecoming had some positive qualities (kinda... but admittedly I never finished it as I dropped it after some point).

I was never much interested in Downpour though, it felt like Alan Wake spinoff or something like that. Instead, I honestly thought that Cry of Fear did a much better job of "silent hill inspired game" despite it being so much emo.



I hated the official movie though (mostly because they omitted the tragedy of Lisa, overall it was dumbed down popcorn release and lacked depth of game it was based on) and I never watched the trashy sequel of it. On the other hand, I still have warm feelings about an amateur made "No Escape" which was perhaps the most grimdark.




As for recent Silent Hill announcements/releases...
I think Silent Hill 2 Remake is just not needed at all, and I don't like what I see from trailers so far. Ascension is some questionable shit I would not touch. Short Letter seemed ~okay for what it is (perhaps? I don't want to watch video you've posted, at least not yet, so I can only take a guess), but people will obviously hate it for the Silent Hill name attached to it. Silent Hill F still looks promising to me as a potentially interesting horror game, despite of whether or not it would be a fit for Silent Hill name. Maybe because my most intense years of being in Silent Hill fandom were mid-2000s, I stopped caring about "legacy" long ago (hell, I'm even not offended by weird spinoff games for arcades/mobiles anymore). Thing is, I don't care about current fanbase either - those guys came after me and I never understood them so whatever (also because it was Russian fandom I was a part of, I just can't relate to modern Western SH fans at all - they are too alienating with stuff I don't resonate with). In 99% I don't bother to watch or read any Silent Hill related "content" like YouTube videos because it will only led to facepalm from me (whether it would be some crazy ass theory discussion or some biased attempt to do a series retrospective). Silent Hill is one of things I grew up with, and it really influenced me back in days, so it's just inside me and I'mnot in need of anything outside about it. You may say it's just an arrogance of "og fan" but thats how it is for me.

Silent Hill f is going to be shit with a big budget...

My initial impression was a horror adventure / visual novel similar to Spirit Hunter NG (whose graphic artist supposedly works on F) or Shin Hayarigami.
They still haven't released an actual in-game trailer, so it's a mystery for now. But you might be right with pessimistic anticipation, of course.



In any case, I want people to support Toyama and his new game, Slitterhead. It is not going to be a horror game like Silent Hill or Siren (and most likely it will be pretty rough and under-budgeted), but after watching all the videos they've made (mostly talking about this or that with other cool people like Jinji Ito or Hideaki Itsuno), I can feel that they are perhaps one of few remaining creators I can really trust with their sincere vision. And it really makes me sad when 99% people on gaming news sites react so much on recent Konami's Silent Hill necro-announcements, but do not care about Toyama's attempt to make a new game aftery leaving Soyny. Well, gaymers as they are.

As for Bloober Team (who are doing SH2 Remake) - I never got interested in Medium (which was their attempt to make Silent Hill alike game), even though I was ~ok about Observer (maybe most nice thing they created, idk). For me, much more important horror games of the recent years were Alisa, Tormented Souls and Signalis. Alisa is like Resident Evil 1 homage, Signalis always felt like a Fear Effect mutation to me (kinda) and Tormented Souls had a significant influence from both RE and SH.

You could not mention a single one of these games without mentioning all the shouting, ranting, and rage that still burns. We did have a great game industry that produced a lot of great games, a lot of fun, exciting games, and at least had a concept of quality control. That was almost ten years ago. What the heck happened in the interim?

P.S. I don't take this personally, by the way, since I know that this is not just about me (or anyone else involved in the post at least), it's about you, the fans. Of course I feel like an outsider at this point since you are bashing games you like, and I don't have an axe to grind there, that is fine

[staffyboi]

Let's not forget something crucial here. Let's spare a thought for all them hard-working single mums out there.

While we're chatting about the twisted world of Silent Hill, there are single mums out there giving it all to provide for their kids. They're juggling jobs, bills, and all sorts, all on their own. And yet, do they get the recognition they deserve? No, not nearly enough, if you ask me.

They're the ones facing their own kind of monsters every day, whether it's the dread of an empty fridge or the fear of not being able to make ends meet.

Next time you bung Silent Hill into the tray or any other game for that matter, just remember to tip your hat to all them single mums out there. Proper heroes.

[Horny Dept. CEO]

Silent Hill SEX PARTY = GOOD

[jake]

holy shit lol!

[cj_iwakura]

I'm excited for F, personally, but only because of Ryukishi07.

[AngelheadedHipster]

I'm excited for F, personally, but only because of Ryukishi07.

Me too. Which is why I expect that one, specifically, to get cancelled.

[Iwazaru]

I'm excited for F, personally, but only because of Ryukishi07.

And I was excited because art director previously worked on Spirit Hunter: NG.