Anyone else heard this?

[ERROR]

Prove it. It doesn't sound anything like James, and it comes from down the hallway.

[MurphyPendleton]

if it included in the HD collection then it must be SOMETHING, they took a lot of audio out of the HD Collection, sooooo significant?

[astro]

Prove it. It doesn't sound anything like James, and it comes from down the hallway.

Conclusively proving anything in Silent Hill beyond bland details is almost impossible, least of all the obscure stuff.

It's not James as you're playing him, it's Silent Hill manipulating stuff like it always does (possibly a memory). Same deal with the dead bodies who are out of James' imagination and other similar phantom sounds relevant to James. I'm not going to be able to link you overwhelming evidence, there might not even be any that you don't need to infer, but that's how most of the stuff in Silent Hill works, it's just the most natural assumption to make because it fits perfectly into the scheme of the character and narrative and it doesn't make any sense otherwise.

[fleshbag]

don't recall ever hearing it, however it could be a sort of foreshadowing, similar to the dead man in front of the fuzzy tv screen?

[Augophthalmoses]

I've heard it in both my original PS2 copy and my Greatest Hits copy for the same system. It definitely depends upon the actions you take towards specific endings, but to what extent and which I am not positive. I want to say going for the In Water ending triggers the crying, but I'm not positive. I could have sworn I've heard it on a playthrough in which I received another ending.

And I've always thought of it as a woman crying personally. Reminded me of Mary. Also, how many people ever remember hearing Mary shout (well, kind of a volumed down shout) "James!" when first stepping up the stairwell leading to the third floor of the Lakeview Hotel?

I also tried playing that audio clip somebody linked to but it's just not playing for me despite multiple attempts at clicking the play button.

[NarooN]

Prove it. It doesn't sound anything like James, and it comes from down the hallway.

Conclusively proving anything in Silent Hill beyond bland details is almost impossible, least of all the obscure stuff.

It's not James as you're playing him, it's Silent Hill manipulating stuff like it always does (possibly a memory). Same deal with the dead bodies who are out of James' imagination and other similar phantom sounds relevant to James. I'm not going to be able to link you overwhelming evidence, there might not even be any that you don't need to infer, but that's how most of the stuff in Silent Hill works, it's just the most natural assumption to make because it fits perfectly into the scheme of the character and narrative and it doesn't make any sense otherwise.

You said it yourself, an assumption that it was James. It makes no sense to be him either way it goes. Not everything has to be tied to James, even though it's technically his own Otherworld at points.

[astro]

Prove it. It doesn't sound anything like James, and it comes from down the hallway.

Conclusively proving anything in Silent Hill beyond bland details is almost impossible, least of all the obscure stuff.

It's not James as you're playing him, it's Silent Hill manipulating stuff like it always does (possibly a memory). Same deal with the dead bodies who are out of James' imagination and other similar phantom sounds relevant to James. I'm not going to be able to link you overwhelming evidence, there might not even be any that you don't need to infer, but that's how most of the stuff in Silent Hill works, it's just the most natural assumption to make because it fits perfectly into the scheme of the character and narrative and it doesn't make any sense otherwise.

You said it yourself, an assumption that it was James. It makes no sense to be him either way it goes. Not everything has to be tied to James, even though it's technically his own Otherworld at points.

After looking around a bit I found another post explaining that it triggers when you're passing room 208, which is a repeated 'James suffering' kind of room number:

This was missed. It's James' cry, by the way, and the significance is Room #208. The cry happens when James passes by Room #208.

It's worth noting that Room #208 (Woodside Apartment) is where James encounters his "double" dead in front of the TV. Room #208 is also the room in the labyrinth, where Maria is found dead on the bed.

I faintly remember BlueCreek #208 also having some kind of visual representation of James' inner turmoil, but I don't remember what that was.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I remember. It was getting the key to the locked stairway where you find Pyramid Head, and the thing to notice is that the key is where a pillow should have been

I think there's still some James stuff that no one has really figured out, Silent Hill 2 is much more focused on characterization than the other games, I wouldn't be surprised if almost everything thought to be nothing was intended to be related to James, but just not supportable with evidence. The post I found seems pretty air-tight though, I had seen the 208 on Maria's prison door, but I was too lazy to connect it and figure out the significance.

For example though, the color red probably represents something. Red squares for saving, red Pyramid Head, red Maria and a red baby carriage in an empty pool surrounded by Lying Figures. The baby carriage in the empty pool could be eluding to Mary and James wanting to have kids, or James not wanting to have kids and it being an issue in their relationship. The coins could be different aspects of James' past feelings or something similar when they were on vacation, etc. None of this can really be supported with solid evidence, but it doesn't mean it's pointless to speculate about if think you have a pretty good grasp on the intentions of Team Silent and the characters they were trying to form. The cult influence and parameters set in Silent Hill 2, in my opinion anyway, are more of an ingenious framing device for implicit characterization, I think Team Silent knew there was something to telling a story without words. Not to say we should just believe whatever we want, like discussions about whether Silent Hill exists in an alternate universe seem to devolve into semantic twists on tiny amounts of evidence contradicted by other evidence, but with some things it's okay to take small leaps of faith.

[EliphasLevi]

I heard it too, It sounded like James, I think it was suppose to represent him after he killed Mary, him sobbing in regret and worried about the unknown, but you know Silent hill it's so open to interpretations, I heard it on the HD Collection.

[astro]

I just came across this area in the HD collection and noticed something pretty strange that I've never seen before. The pictures next to the suitcase on the bed are of Mary, Laura, Eddie, Lying Figures and a couple of them are too dark to make out but they're have the vague shape of the Maria boss before you finish it off or Abstract Daddy-esque creatures. It seems like something I should've noticed before, but maybe the textures were cleaned up in HD.

Anyone else see this?

[Noname6]

For some reason, and I have absolutely no proof, I always thought that the sobbing man was symbolic of James' guilt. I wouldn't say that it is literally James, but it is James' underlining guilt manifesting itself.

Just like in the apartments with the creepy whisper, which had a relation to James' tedious life of taking care of his sick wife. The sobbing seems to have some kind of symbolic meaning towards James.

That's what I think anyway.

[Devoured]

I suppose it's possible, the flashback James has of Mary at the hospital was obviously not at the hotel (...yeah), so the crying isn't necesarilly related to it either. It's such a small little detail that nothing or no one's ever gonna prove either way, so any and all theories are hereby null and void in advance...

Personally I'd prefer it if it was unrelated, the series, especially 2/3/4, has always made it seem like 'troublesome' items and the like are sort of 'honored' by the Otherworld and become tools needed to work its smelly holes and whatnot, or sometimes just randomly slip through because they're related to some sort of traumatic event, strong or 'related' enough to act out without a reason. So if you're ever stuck, just remember : it's always the shady-looking suitcase in the room full of bulletholes that will contain nothing but a rusty old key tied to some perv's pube that opens the rectal door to Lovecraftian madness, never a hot fudge sundae with a shiny keycard to the sauna on the bottom that James has to work his way through...

[NF11121]

[TheCrazy]

I never heard that, I really need to play SH2 again. But it doesn't sound like James. Ambiguity is something so pefect that makes everything clear.

[astro]

I don't think it has to sound like James to be James. I mean, not LITERALLY James, but it's expressive of him.

[Q. Valintyne]

Has anyone ever questioned Guy Cihi about this? Even though it appears with the new voices as well, he's bound to know something about the reason it was recorded.

[SvarteVinter]

Now that the video is posted I do remember hearing this as a younger player, but with the release of the HDC I've played through it 4 times by now and haven't heard it once. It's kind of the same thing as the whisper in the Blue Creek Apartments, I've heard it every playthrough and it's supposed to be random so it's not that scary anymore. I remember playing it awhile back and having the hair stand up on my neck hearing it, beforehand I would hope not to. Also with the crash and scream in the prison restroom, I haven't heard it once and it saddens me. Getting off topic here but my most disappointment lies in the lack of foghorns descending to the strange museum after the stint in the historical society. It's probably my favorite non-music audio in the entire game, or, at least was. It's been replaced with three our four out of place footsteps of a Lying Figure. The fuck?

[NarooN]

I've never heard that before, ever. Very interesting, thanks for the vid.

And yeah, Guy would most likely know more about that. We should get Guy to register over here and come chill with us, now that I think about it.

[astro]

No offense to the Guy, but it doesn't sound like he knows a whole lot about the game from what I heard in the interview with him.

[Q. Valintyne]

Oh he knows everything.



More importantly, he'd know if he recorded a voiceover... regardless of his knowledge of the series' bullshit.

[PureBlackAura]

Oh he knows everything.



More importantly, he'd know if he recorded a voiceover... regardless of his knowledge of the series' bullshit.

Lol exactly man Guy is amazing

Has anyone ever questioned Guy Cihi about this? Even though it appears with the new voices as well, he's bound to know something about the reason it was recorded.

Just asked him and awaiting his response then I'll post in here