Silent Hill Community • View topic - What I think should happen with Silent Hill

I doubt many of you are ready for this, because it's totally going to be against many many Silent Hill fans' way of thinking about the games, but I feel like it needs to be said, and I don't mind whipping out my nuts and saying it to the world. With my nuts out. So, ready? Ready for this? It'll blow your mind.

Stop making games that try to use the same feel as SH1 and start making more games like SHSM and BoM. You simply cannot capture that same feel anymore because it's been done to death. The series needs innovations that don't tie the creators' hands behind their backs, and they need to STOP CATERING TO FANS and making mass-produced same-feeling games with the only positive aspect being a different story each time. Make the gameplay reflect the purpose of the game, make the narrative reflect the purpose of the game, and stop trying to appease fans by making a game that "feels like the classics", because all that does is piss a lot of whiny people off and hurt the game's potential as a whole.

I think Book of Memories is going to change the world of Silent Hill forever, because it's different. And I honestly prefer different to facepalmingly cliche rehashed ideas that just aren't scary or interesting anymore.

Discuss.

I believe innovation is key here. Instead of emulating a formula that worked once upon a time, developers have (rightly) chosen to branch off and try new things while staying true to the "feel" of silent hill.

Climax truly blew me away with Shattered Memories. It defied nearly every single convention of gaming and horror gaming (no boss fight, cant kill enemies, no weapons, interactive storytelling) while somehow managing to maintain that Silent Hill feel. I was at first questioning the decision to remake the rirst game, br the final events of the tame proved to me the writers in charge knew full and well how to spin one damn fine yarn.

Downpour well...do i really need to explain how many things that game got right? Lol.

Like you said, it's important to remember that times change, people change, and so do the games that are made. We can only hope the game is good.

I think I'll copy what I wrote in another thread.

Some fans often say that new devs don't know what the series is about...how can a fan know what the series is about?

I mean, what did people who played 1 think when 2 came out and was completely different from 1? Dud they think that SH is not about that?
It's obvious that TS tried something different with each new game, well except maybe 3 because that one was a sequel to 1. Each SH game (yes, even TS ones) has a different feel to it, they have different atmosphere, scares, themes etc. You can't really compare them and say that SH is about that or that...because they're just so different.

Some people said that they see SH as an anthology series and I think that's the best way to see it. Each game gives you a new story in the fictional town called SH. Each SH game has its flaws and good stuff, not even TS games are flawless. There's nothing wrong with hating a certain game or loving a certain game.

Those are all personal opinions, because not everyone will like what the new SH game will offer. Some may like what they got in 3 scare wise, story wise, atmosphere wise, some may not, They might prefer something like in SH 4 for example.

Categorizing the games like this:

TS games
Western games

is not really good in my opinion. It's the best to look at each game individually, to see its flaws and what's good about it. If you don't like what the game has to offer, OK. There's probably some other SH game you might like more, maybe it has the stuff that better suit your tastes.

I remember that some people were surprised by the choices of other people in "Rank the series" thread. People arrange the games differently. That thread is a good example why I think that TS games and Western games is a really bad categorizing.

I completely agree with you crowbar, I think that they should try to make more new stuff, not try to make them feel like older games to please the fans.

^ I think SHSM would have been a MUCH bigger success and a much better game without the limitations put on it by making a rehash of SH1.

No fooling, I think they just used the "reimagining of the first game" for marketing reasons.

captain crowbar wrote:^ I think SHSM would have been a MUCH bigger success and a much better game without the limitations put on it by making a rehash of SH1.

No fooling, I think they just used the "reimagining of the first game" for marketing reasons.

I look at that differently.

Shattered Memories showed that you can take the basic story and characters and make something with a completely different feel, atmosphere, gameplay, story etc.

It certainly is some form of innovation. It showed that you can take old ideas and create something new, new gameplay, new ways to tell the story, to show the symbolism etc.

Some people may not like what it did differently, it has its flaws, but there are also people who appreciate how it did stuff differently and don't really mind the flaws it has that much.

^ I agree with that line of thinking. It's just that it was inevitably going to be compared to 1, and that hurt it. But they successfully used the skeletal structure of the story to make another game with next to no similarties, which in part shows how great and purely entertaining from a story standpoint the idea of a man searching for his lost daughter in a surreal atmosphere is. Why Silent Hill does what it does is irrelevant. I didn't mind the non-cult stuff at all.

I think a good analogy is that Silent Hill has turned into the Batman franchise. Team Silent laid the foundations, but now it's up to other people to take up the helm and do their own thing with it. I'm waiting for someone to do to Silent Hill what Christopher Nolan did to Batman; come along and completely reinvent the series and take the Silent Hill rule book and discard it completely.

Maybe, just maybe then I would gain some respect for the post-TS works. I think that Shattered Memories was a step in the right direction, but they need to go one step further.

You just can't rely on the past glories to sustain the series anymore.

Noname6 wrote:I think a good analogy is that Silent Hill has turned into the Batman franchise.

This is exactly what I had in mind in my argument over at the "Devil's advocate" thread. Batman has been reinterpreted quite a bit over the years and Batman has managed to stay relevant for everyone with its many iterations.

I think Silent Hill could do this if it melded familiar with new. Shattered Memories was a modern masterpiece, in my opinion. I wish it would have been marketed better and (possibly) released on the PS3 and 360. It was released on a system that had no Silent Hills before it (Wii), but it was also released on two systems that were close to the end of their lifespan (PSP and PS2).

I want a game very similar to SM. The psych profile was just... awesome. That was the biggest selling point to me personally.

I think that the psychological profiling in Shattered Memories was channeling Silent Hill 2 too much. After all, Silent Hill 2 established the cliche of the protagonist having some sort of psychological trauma and the player's actions impacting which ending you get in the game.

The thing is, Silent Hill doesn't need to have a protagonist that's fucked up. That sort of thing only works well once, but when it shows up time and time again in Homecoming, Shattered Memories, and so on it is just cheapening it. I'm not saying that Silent Hill can't be psychological. Hell, the whole series works on a psychological level to frighten the player, but trying to repeat Silent Hill 2's critical success by delivering a similar toned story heavy on psychological symbolism is one of the biggest problems that I have with the games that have come out since The Room.

With that said, Shattered Memories is far from being a masterpiece. I think that it is a good game, but like I said it was still pandering to fan's expectations. We were already psychologically profiled in Silent Hill 2. Why would we need to be again? Harry, Heather, and Henry weren't messed up or had issues, so why does every new Silent Hill protagonist have to be harboring some kind of deep, dark secret like James?

I'm sorry, but Shattered Memories was so boring to me (completely disregarding its ties to SH1). It'd be what would make me give up on the series if they decided to continue in that direction. I honestly thing DP is the best direction they can take at the moment because it's a good balance so far of what it needs to appease the market and what's expected of it from long-term fans. I'd like to see more games that focus on the pantheon again too. The only thing I really, really wish the series would do is sever ties with the old games and just do its own thing. I honestly think that the more they embrace it as their own thing, the more it'll start to resemble the similar feelings present in the old games.

I would like SH to be more adult.

I also think Owaku is more of a contributor than Yamaoka. Sound simply doesn't make a good game.

Xuchilbara wrote:I would like SH to be more adult.

Oh god, "You named my tits, remember?". No more of that shit, PLEASE.

Mercury wrote:
Xuchilbara wrote:I would like SH to be more adult.
Oh god, "You named my tits, remember?". No more of that shit, PLEASE.

I hate to sound like one of THOSE fans but I do like the fact that 2 had a mature storyline and put sex in there w/o being immature. 3 did as well, 4 I haven't an opinion on. But I loved how at least 1-3 had a certain sense of maturity.

I'm guess i'm one of the few that appreciated what SM was on paper, but hated what happened with it's execution....it's storyline and exploration aspects were great and the small little touches at the end of the game concerning the objects under the water (as you were swimming) were nicelt done. But the mental profile felt like a gimmic, and the otherworld sections were not even remotely terrifying or scary at all...it was annoying and irritating, and it's the one SH game that i play the least.

Having said that tho, it is different from past titles and i appreciate how unique it is, i just didn't like how everything came together outside of the storyline. The series can survive as long as they continue to innovate the series, which can be difficult, because you want the series to remain a disturbing, terrifying, headtrip experience without it turning into RE.

I just think the dev's just have to be creative...look to past games for inspiration, but don't try to recreate them. I like that each entry can have new characters and new storylines but each entry doesn't have to be brutally terrifying or disturbing...it can be incredibly different in how SH4 was with it's bizarre atmosphere and unique storyline.

Downpour was definitely a step in the right direction...it stood it's own ground in almost just about every category, but especially in it's atmosphere..i was really impressed with how the game very impressively held it's own compared to past titles and if the series continues on this trend, i think SH will continue to strive,...maybe not as well as other big titles, but i think for what SH is now and what is expected of it, i think there's still a market and audience for it for them not to change up the basic formula too much..

I totally agree that it was great on paper, but I just can't appreciate it largely outside of that. I try to, but as a game it feels empty and it gets really annoying to me after a certain point. The storyline isn't bad to me, but it's something that isn't very impressive after the first playthrough; it's not a story that will stick with you as compared to other entries. The total separation of the story from the town and its power completely killed it for me tbh. I understand that it was an experiment, but that's all that it felt like to me. This is why if the series went in this direction, all we would have are a bunch of experiments that are flat in execution and no solid games as we have with DP. The series is finding its own ground and it's finally in a good place as is.

Xuchilbara wrote:I would like SH to be more adult.

I also think Owaku is more of a contributor than Yamaoka. Sound simply doesn't make a good game.

I could not disagree stronger.

Sound is an extremely important element to Silent Hill. It is one of those things that the series relies on in order to frighten and disturb the player. You can say what you want about his music, but Yamaoka was perfect at using sound in Silent Hill to scare the player. He knew when to use it and how to use it effectively in order to create a foreboding feeling of dread while exploring areas in the dark. It is an important trick in that bag of tricks I was talking about. As for him being more important than Owaku or Ito for that matter. Well, creating games is a collaborative effort. It's hard to say who is more important than the other, since each individual game designer brings his or her own unique style to the mix which contributes to the whole.

Yamaoka did stick around longer than the others, so of course he can't carry the weight of the series on his shoulders alone. But to say that his sound design is unimportant, imagine Silent Hill 1-4 without it. Hell, Silent Hill 1 wouldn't have been half as frightening as it was without Yamaoka's dissonant industrial score.

Newest Alone in the Dark had awesome soundtrack, but the game itself is not so good, so yeah, sound does not make a good game.

She probably means sound alone doesn't make a SH game. Which is true. No single element alone makes Silent Hill what it is. It's a dozen or two numerous factors that come together to make a SH experience on top of the neverending subjectivity that accommodates the varied, frenzied fanbase.. Besides, Akira is a music composer plain and simple. You can tell he wasn't really cut out (nor did he really enjoy being restrained by) being the role of being a producer.

Augophthalmoses wrote:She probably means sound alone doesn't make a SH game. Which is true. No single element alone makes Silent Hill what it is. It's a dozen or two numerous factors that come together to make a SH experience on top of the neverending subjectivity that accommodates the varied, frenzied fanbase.. Besides, Akira is a music composer plain and simple. You can tell he wasn't really cut out (nor did he really enjoy being restrained by) being the role of being a producer.

I never said that sound alone is what makes Silent Hill what it is. I am only saying that sound is a very important key element to Silent Hill because without it you couldn't bring any of those environments to life. It simply wouldn't be half as effective. Think of the moments in Silent Hill where there is no sound; that is using sound in unique and clever ways in order to create a feeling of isolation within the game. Walking around in the dark with only the sounds of your footsteps, but then when one of the audio tracks kicks in with a sampled machine sound it creates an entirely different feeling. It definitely takes me to another place, which is what these games are most successful at doing.

I don't see how that isn't important to the atmosphere of the game. Maybe I am a bit biased since I am into audio production and understand the effectiveness of sound, but the way I see it is that Silent Hill is an immersive horror experience first and a game second.

Noname6 wrote:
Xuchilbara wrote:I would like SH to be more adult.

I also think Owaku is more of a contributor than Yamaoka. Sound simply doesn't make a good game.

I could not disagree stronger.

Sound is an extremely important element to Silent Hill. It is one of those things that the series relies on in order to frighten and disturb the player. You can say what you want about his music, but Yamaoka was perfect at using sound in Silent Hill to scare the player. He knew when to use it and how to use it effectively in order to create a foreboding feeling of dread while exploring areas in the dark. It is an important trick in that bag of tricks I was talking about. As for him being more important than Owaku or Ito for that matter. Well, creating games is a collaborative effort. It's hard to say who is more important than the other, since each individual game designer brings his or her own unique style to the mix which contributes to the whole.

Yamaoka did stick around longer than the others, so of course he can't carry the weight of the series on his shoulders alone. But to say that his sound design is unimportant, imagine Silent Hill 1-4 without it. Hell, Silent Hill 1 wouldn't have been half as frightening as it was without Yamaoka's dissonant industrial score.

Yamaoka cut a lot of corners sampling from copyright free music. While sound is important there would be no STORY with out Owaku and therefore Owaku is more valuable than Yamaoka. (And Toyama.) As Homecoming proved, having a good music composer doesn't equal a GOOD Silent Hill game.

What I think should happen with Silent Hill

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