Silent Hill Community • View topic - Is Shattered Memories a "main series" game?

Ok, guys, now you can tell if I am totally out of my mind!

This idea came into my mind during discussions when sometimes I'm almost alone in an idea. I think the miscommunication may be due to a different views of the game. Even with Tomm saying again and again that this game is a re-imaging of SH1, I disagree. And as even he already change his own idea about the game by fans influence, we have some freedom to think about re-cathegorize the game, after all these years.

I see this game almost like another kind of game using Silent Hill as background. I mean, if Hazbro made a version of "Clue" with Silent Hill, we don't have a new sequel of SH... I see SHSM like Book of Memories, a parallel production. I think the fact that you move your character the same way as previous SH it's not enough to made it a Silent Hill horror survival game. I'm not questioning the quality of the game, and maybe even improving it by given it's correct credit.

So what, should I call for dr. K. for me?

gustavopi wrote: Even with Tomm saying again and again that this game is a re-imaging of SH1, I disagree. And as even he already change his own idea about the game by fans influence,

This is most certainly not true.

If I think of MGS Ac!d as a main MGS game (yes I do) and Half Life Opposing Force a main Half Life game (it had non-canon elements, like the Race X xenians) then I consider SHSM a main Silent Hill game.

Tomm wrote:
gustavopi wrote: Even with Tomm saying again and again that this game is a re-imaging of SH1, I disagree. And as even he already change his own idea about the game by fans influence,

This is most certainly not true.

Well, I may got the wrong idea, but I see an interview in youtube and also read this one in SilentHillMemories:

Gamer Grenade: Ah yes, I was going to ask about Dahlia. I imagine that out of all the characters in Shattered Memories, she’s probably invoking the most questions. I was going to ask – is Dahlia supposed to be Cheryl’s mother? She’ll talk about knowing Cheryl and Harry, but is always very resistant to talk about their history, which implies something bad happened. Then there’s that one point where you walk in on Dahlia and she’s much older, and it’s almost like the timelines match up. But then when you get to the end of the game, and see who is presumably Cheryl’s mother, it doesn’t look like Dahlia. I was going to ask – is Dahlia Cheryl’s projection of her mother? I assume the answer will be something like ‘It could be, maybe.’

Hulett: That actually surprised me. We weren’t really ever thinking along those lines. As soon as people begin the game, they begin this whole ‘Cheryl’s in love with her father, and she’s projecting herself as her mother.’

Gamer Grenade: That was my thought too, actually.

Hulett: I guess it’s valid since so many people feel that way…

I assume you left open your own idea about the game as so many people think that way...

I don't get why some people dispute the fact that this game is Silent Hill, reimagined. The games share the same primary concept: Harry's daughter is missing and he must find her. Each game goes in very different directions in terms of why she is missing and what is behind her disappearance. In both games, the Papa Wolf idea is more obvious to the player but of secondary importance to what is going on in the bigger picture.

I've made the comparison to Stephen King's twin novels, Desperation and The Regulators, which do essentially the same thing with their shared characters, situation and antagonist, yet the characters themselves are sometimes completely different, and each book has an entirely different focus (In one, the characters rely on the implied assistance of God to battle a body-stealing demon in a remote location, in the other, a demon by the same name creates an alternate reality and traps the characters with it, and the characters never rely on divine intervention).

Reading those two books will leave one perfectly understanding what is going on with this Silent Hill reimagining.

I can't remember the interview, this was quite along time ago though. But I remember fans being in an uproar over Tomm or someone else saying something about SM continuing from 1's bad ending...

But I don't think that's what he meant. I think what he meant was that the game is a "sequel" to the bad ending not in storyline but how the story is presented. I'm under the impression that besides thought forms there's not a real immaterial outside supernatural force present in Shattered Memories.

I would say SM continues down it's own canon and path.

Silent Hill 2 was kind of a reimagining of the original. The creators have mentioned that some of the concepts and personality traits of the characters are directly based off of those from the original Silent Hill. All the characters in SH2 can be mapped to those from the original.

I think the term "reimagining" has people thinking too much. But if you can take Shattered Memories and rename and remodel all the main characters and forget that this version of the town exists in Midwest, I think fewer people will argue that this isn't a "main series" Silent Hill game.

I reserve judgement on Book of Memories because it's not out yet. A lot of the previews out there call this a spin-off, but I believe Tomm Hulett and Jeremy Blaustein have gone on record stating that the story takes place in the mainstream Silent Hill universe. At the very least, its relevance to the series will match that of Origins, in my opinion.

Xuchilbara wrote:I can't remember the interview, this was quite along time ago though. But I remember fans being in an uproar over Tomm or someone else saying something about SM continuing from 1's bad ending...

But I don't think that's what he meant. I think what he meant was that the game is a "sequel" to the bad ending not in storyline but how the story is presented. I'm under the impression that besides thought forms there's not a real immaterial outside supernatural force present in Shattered Memories.

I would say SM continues down it's own canon and path.

Yeah, it was mainly fans misinterpreting what Tomm was getting at. While I can recall the exact words he more or less stated that the game can fit into the main storyline canon just as much as the other titles via fans looking at the story in their own way. He merely used the "sequel to SH1's bad ending" idea as an example of how you could theorize your own version of how the story fits into the main series. It wasn't not an outright confirmation that this was indeed the true intent of the story.

But of course a lot of people took this the wrong way and assumed it was meant to be fact. I know TwinPerfect did when they presented their Shattered Memories review.

I always considered it a main series game, don't see why it shouldn't be really.

There is no problem in think about Shattered Memories position inside Silent Hill. I was reading posts above and remembering Tomm talking about SM just before release date. Not every time that we meant something, this thing is exactly as our intention (did I make myself understood?). Creating a game or writing a book got long creative process, and it is not totally predictable. There is a lot of people thinking about being a "re-imaging" around the web, and if is not, than the main series is not the place of SM because...

REVEAL SPOILER

The city got no influence, nobody got superpowers and there is no "real" otherworld.

No other game from the main series is like this.

I think Tomm's intention were changing the creative process of making a new Silent Hill game, think outside the box. And he did it - in my opinion... I still think the game deserves to be in another category, but I'm not sure.

And its never that simple. There's actually nothing to confirm that ANY of the game feature a true supernatural element since they are all told through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it. We only get a second-hand point of view.

That said, I see Shattered Memories as a re-imagining of the past events from a Cheryl who transcends one reality. If she's truly a God-form who can never die, but exists in an endless cycle then SM is a glimpse of another one of those cycles, where the God's attachment to her human host's memories has led her to try to 'correct' the tragic events of Cheryl's life.

Problem is, you just can't do that. The game results in a meta-commentary on the player vs immersion vs expectation vs canon, etc etc.

Shattered Memories actually outsmarts its own canon.

Shattered Memories is a main series game, but it exists in it's own universe...completely disconnected from the original storyline. It's just the 1st story told from a different angle with a bit of a twist....people are just over analyzing. Even outside of realizing it's a re-imaging, after you play the entire game, you'll realize there is no way it can connect the original canon universe.

You can't connect this to the original universe because there is no supernatural element, the characters are completely different...etc, any attemp to even try a connection is extremely reaching.

I like to see Shattered Memories as an alternate universe that exists because of Silent Hill's odd nature. I dunno, it's such a good game that I like to think of it as belonging to the series proper, and even having a canon existence.

Pyramid_Heart wrote:Shattered Memories actually outsmarts its own canon.

That's probably true.

I think to put this game as a main series game is just another marketing mistake of Konami. This game may be in the border or outside. It's a short game that could be an excellent spin-off, rare in the market. But instead, they betrayed the expectations of fans talking about a return to old and good horror, the horror that fans deserve... Why just not to say the true: - we like to do a new experience with Silent Hill, to think outside of the box...

They should correct by making another one like this!

How did they betrayed the fans? Besides, Shattered Memories was certainly innovative, it thought outside of the box.

I enjoyed it a great deal more than several of the "old, good horror" titles in the series.

Maybe no one else deserved it, but I sure as hell did. <3

Pyramid_Heart wrote:That said, I see Shattered Memories as a re-imagining of the past events from a Cheryl who transcends one reality. If she's truly a God-form who can never die, but exists in an endless cycle then SM is a glimpse of another one of those cycles, where the God's attachment to her human host's memories has led her to try to 'correct' the tragic events of Cheryl's life.

Problem is, you just can't do that. The game results in a meta-commentary on the player vs immersion vs expectation vs canon, etc etc.

Shattered Memories actually outsmarts its own canon.

interesting

Pyramid_Heart wrote:And its never that simple. There's actually nothing to confirm that ANY of the game feature a true supernatural element since they are all told through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it. We only get a second-hand point of view.

That said, I see Shattered Memories as a re-imagining of the past events from a Cheryl who transcends one reality. If she's truly a God-form who can never die, but exists in an endless cycle then SM is a glimpse of another one of those cycles, where the God's attachment to her human host's memories has led her to try to 'correct' the tragic events of Cheryl's life.

Problem is, you just can't do that. The game results in a meta-commentary on the player vs immersion vs expectation vs canon, etc etc.

Shattered Memories actually outsmarts its own canon.

This is interesting.

gustavopi wrote:
Pyramid_Heart wrote:Shattered Memories actually outsmarts its own canon.

That's probably true.

I think to put this game as a main series game is just another marketing mistake of Konami. This game may be in the border or outside. It's a short game that could be an excellent spin-off, rare in the market. But instead, they betrayed the expectations of fans talking about a return to old and good horror, the horror that fans deserve... Why just not to say the true: - we like to do a new experience with Silent Hill, to think outside of the box...

They should correct by making another one like this!

I do not think the game betrayed anyone. I wouldn't want to exclude a game like this from the Silent Hill grouping.

I encourage out of the box thinking for a series, and it revitalized my interest in Silent Hill generally. Shattered Memories provided a much more engrossing experience than Silent HIll 2 did. Between SHSM and SH2, SHSM is my favorite.

what wrote:I enjoyed it a great deal more than several of the "old, good horror" titles in the series.

Maybe no one else deserved it, but I sure as hell did. <3

I think I actually like SHSM better than Silent Hill 2.

I don't think you're doing a fair comparison, games evolve over time. Even so, SH2 is still a more completed package, there is more game to play. The concept is always a meter of opinion. IMO Shattered Memories is a hell of a game, an evolution and a great new experience, but some flesh is missing in the skeleton. Also there isn't one single "extra" in the package.

Nothing to do with the discussion, but playing this game in PS2 seams a more powerful videogame, some PS 2.5...

Is Shattered Memories a "main series" game?

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