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How can you call yourself a Silent Hill fan and still make one of the dumbest arguments in Silent Hill fandom? I'm referring to the " Pyramid Head only makes sense in SH2 " argument. Obviously someone is forgetting SH3. In that game it is pointed out that not everyone who goes to Silent Hill gets monsters based on their sins or trauma. The town itself chooses what monsters you may face. That's why one of the overlooked creatures from SH2 was a return and more prominent creature in SH3. So you're argument is invalid.
Wonderful video! As noted by the previous reply, the audio cuts out around 47:19, right as you're about to explain what happens in the conclusion of Silent Hill Shattered Memories, made the follow up discussion a little disjointed, especially since I was listening more than watching.
RIP SBFP. I’ll always remember them. It isn’t that great when their content separately, as themselves, wasn’t as good or memorable than when they were as a group.
This is how I discovered Rhythm Heaven Fever and Ghost Squad, such addicting games. I played this game on PCSX2 with HD texture pack though because I couldn't play it on my Wii at the time.
28:00 my favorite part about the whole God of War Ragnarok 'hint system' is that it was only included due to DarkSydePhil, since during a GDC the developers showed an example of a player that struggled with a puzzle in the 2018 God of War which was a clip of DSP
I'm not sure the devs can even be blamed for downpour. Konami was ordering them making changes they didn't want and that's got to suck. Can't say what it would be if they would have gotten to make what they wanted.
@@Hiihtopipa my hope is that Konami is a different company, now, than 10 years ago. By the end of the Silent Hill run, last time around, Konami seemed to be more interested in mobile gaming and pachinko than anything else. However, I think Capcom and Square-Enix's revival as well as the rise of FromSoft may have some people with Konami aware of just how much power they are wielding in their IP's. It would also explain the sudden release of Suikoden 1 and 2 in remaster which kind of came out of nowhere. I also wouldn't be surprised if Castlevania's success as a show may have triggered some stirring at the company, too. It's all only speculation, for now, but I am optimistically skeptic after RE's Revival. That series was only in marginally better state before RE7 and RE2 Remake. Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Corps were not that long ago.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the secret ending for Silent Hill downpour it doesn’t change much but really shows at the very least the love the developers had for the series over Konami
@@FourEyesFive well considering it was a secret ending that was absolutely unnecessary to be made i can't really see how it would be ill intended, to me it was a pretty cute gesture
To this day, I still remember fondly Shattered Memories. It was truly shocking playing it as a kid on a PSP, but the story, atmosphere and main mechanic are worth the experience. Thanks for making this analysis. It's important to give proper criticism and praise when it's due.
I absolutely loved Shattered Memories, so it pleases me to see this video calling it the best of the Western Silent Hill games. I've played it through... four, maybe give times (on the Wii), and it's only a matter of time before I play it again.
And Maria/Mary sound like they have a vibrator left on full power 24/7, the original actress was great at switching between sweet sickly Mary to tempting Maria while still keeping the same voice just changing the tone. The new voice acting? May as well just be the exact same person which misses the point
That's a nostalgia blinded opinion, obviously. I've been listening to the new voice acting and the only ones whom I have problems with were Maria (sorta) and Eddie. Baker had truly great moments here and there. Like, the way he read his lines to Maria at the prison were of a genuinely scared and confused person. His particular "No...I'd never..." line at the Angela's "boss" scene also sent chills down my spine. While, I'd say, in the original va James's "That's why I did it, honey!" line killed the moment for me with how fake it sounded. Also Angela sounded like a drunk middle-aged woman and I disliked it as well. Even though I had no problems with the original va, I can see the negatives. Why people decide to be less objective, I have no idea. The "new" voice acting isn't bad, like at all. It's just not the same.
@@smart.but.stupid Nostalgia blinded, hm? Ok. We'll look at it objectively: "That's why I did it honey!" "how fake it sounded" ...Because it was fake. You removed it from its context. He is literally supposed to sound fake in that moment. He didn't know if he believed himself, he is putting up a persona(James is supposed to be all about struggling with persona and fantasy) and then says something different a moment later. The full quote is: "That's why I did it honey! I just couldn't watch you suffer... No, that's not true.... *voice becomes shakey*... the truth is... I hated you. I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back". A statement which is also not entirely true, but there is truth in. If you think it sounded fake, that means that the actor did his job and an attempt to correct that is an error of judgement. Do you remember the scene at all? "No I'd never" Baker actually messes up this line by changing its tone. James is meant to be defensive to a prickly degree. OG James says it with the sense that he's offended Angela said that. Remember that this is suppose to be the same James that reacts with anger everytime someone suggests he is wrong or did something wrong. He snaps at Laura for contradicting his timeline and he insists "I'M NOT LIKE YOU" when Angela suggests they are similar. As if, how dare she suggest he have some buried issue he refuses to address. Troy says it generically(if decently) sad because he lacks direction. Why is he downbeat suddenly in this scene? Doesn't he have a persona to aggressively preserve for himself? Angela does sound like a drunk woman. In fact, the cinematography of the game WANTS you to notice how weird she speaks. Notice how when she says "LoOSsT??", we get a close up on her face. That's the director showing us that her manner of speech and cadence are wrong and alien. We see, fully rendered in CG how far and unnaturally she contorted her face to say that and the cinematography tells us that this is significant. That's why the scene is actually more awkward when the monotone new voice says lost more calmly while Angela's facial expressions and body language remain exaggerated. It doesn't fit anymore and it starts coming off like a Godzilla dub. "Maria(sorta)". Maria(absolutely). She delivers the worst performance in Silent Hill history. Not only is she monotone and Illfit pitchwise, sounding way too old for James, she lacks all of the range the original actress had. New Mary/Maria no longer distinguishes her performance between the two personalities. She barely distinguishes between moods. She also suffers from what a lot of bad performances trying to sound professional suffer from: inappropriate breathiness. At times where she needs to be dramatic, she is so unable to emote that she relies on exaggerated breaths between lines. She uses this to mess up the most emotional line in the game: "James, you made me happy", killing the emotional climax of the ending. OG Mary/Maria gave the best performance whereas the new one gave the worst. She's not just some character who's lines can be messed up like that and still expect the story to work as well. Her performance is the one that is supposed to ground the story to a human level. I'm suppose to feel things when she says stuff. Shouldn't I feel angry when Maria emotionally manipulates me or shouts at me? Should I feel an uncanny disturbance when Maria uses Mary's memorys in the cell(she's REAL bad in this scene)? Should I feel the full weight of the tragedy when Maria reads the letter? With the new voice, that is all a no. When you actually look at it objectively, the new voices are miles worse. That's not to say the old ones are perfect, but the new ones are a hatchet job that don't fit the game or mood. The old voices are worth improving upon, but the examples you gave were just not problems and in fact, you removed them from the contexts that justified why they were the way they were. Meaning, you were criticizing the wrong stuff through the wrong lense. All of this is ignoring the horrible reverb and awful mixing unique to HD collection. From the lesser performances to the awful mixing, it may be one of the more embarrassing "professional" voice jobs of its caliber. I cannot believe they got a good actor like Troy Baker and then gave him no direction and had him come out with one of his worse performances. Such weird casting too. "We need Troy Baker to put on a deep, breathy voice to play... the infamously meek James Sunderland". Like, what? A real issue old voices had was that they could sometimes slur their words("you said your wife was dead, vrriight?") or lack intensity(James). The issue is that HD voices not only lacked intensity, they lacked range the originals had, making the originals still preferable. Nostalgia is completely aside. The new voices are outright inferior in possibly every way. Just because something is old and flawed, that doesn't make the new thing inherently better at all. They have to actually try. They thought they could just hire professional voice actors and sleepwalk the whole thing the whole thing and get something better. Whoops. There's still hope for the remake, though. Voices in that sounded fine in the trailer thus far, if different in its own way.
@@eddie142 even though it had to sound fake, it doesn't mean it had to sound like from a cheap soap-opera or smth. In the new dub it also did sound "fake" in that sense, as in James reassuring Mary (and himself) he did this in an altruistic attempt, but it doesn't at least make me cringe. And what about the next part? "The truth is...I hated you!" sounds just as bad in the OG dub, you don't really feel anything in his voice besides that they actor is desperately Trying to sound convincing.
I feel like people forget that most of Higurashi was just girls putting on edgy scary faces and laughing maniacally while covered in blood, and that Umineko really goes off the rails. I love Ryukishi's work but let's not act like he's created some deep and subtle psychological horror, he's made a bunch of campy over the top melodrama. GOOD campy and over the top melodrama, but still. He's a good idea if you wanna have a good story for the game, but I dunno about FITTING. Also don't forget it's being developed by Neobards.
@@ElectricBarrierhave you actually played the games or just watched the anime because if the second then I gotta say you’re wrong because that shit cuts a lot
Ryukishi07 is merely competent at writing psychological horror mystery. Calling any of his work "AMAZING" is going too far. But even then, he's has yet to prove if he could write a competent story to a Silent Hill game. No one has done it since Silent Hill 3.
Bruh shattered memories was so bad that the video had to mute itself 💀 I consider all these games like alternative realities to the mainline silent hill games
Homecoming could have worked. There was a dark tone to the suburbs that was unique but it dropped the ball in so many areas. Alex being the reason for Josh's death and the cult kidnapping everyone around him TWICE and leaving him alone was incredulous.
Keep in mind the development of HomeComing went into disarray when The Collective originally helmed the production…but got into a merger with other companies.
Shattered Memories was such a fun and unique experience for me as a kid. It was interesting watching my enemies change around me according to my choices, and having no choice but to run from them. The story was also really interesting. If anyone is interested in giving it a shot, and has the equipment to do so, I'd highly recommend you do.
For the record, Team Silent did have early development on Silent Hill 5 before it was scrapped early, and to make it all the more agonizing, it was supposed to be in the same vein as Silent Hill 2.
Sorry for my late comment, but I would have enjoyed that, for sure. I think the whole fanbase is *still* wanting another SH game that: "A seemingly-generic protagonist is mysteriously called to Silent Hill, and must discover the truth while avoiding/confronting 'monsters' that are living metaphors for the protagonist's traumas. Big jaw-dropping twist at the end" I feel like 2 is the only one to actually do this. Shattered Memories tried, but isn't technically an example, depending on your interpretation. I hope we get to enjoy that kind of "dark adventure" once more before the End.
Thank you so much for using the Matt and Pat clip, and referencing them. They still mean so much to me, and every time I see someone use that clip, it makes me so happy. This was a fantastic video!
love seeing their fans in the wild. they were such a huge part of my life sometimes i forget some people don’t see a game and think of them like we do lol
Origins was the first SH i played, wanted to keep chronological like everything i play. It's a solid game, Travis is an interesting protagonist(if only they focused on him more), the puzzles are some of the best in horror games and the soundtrack is great, Hole in the Sky and Shot Down in Flames are iconic to the series. If it wasn't for the long-ass maps, easy as hell combat and the plot not knowing what it is, it would've been a great SH game. Shattered Memories i beat it in one sitting by how interested i was in the story, besides SH2 is the best plot in the series. The atmosphere is incredible, not pressing any button to read something and actually reading yourself till this day isn't something you find normally. The psychological part could've worked better on modern days, but it was interesting at least at the time. Also the soundtrack sticks with you a lot, the cover of Always On My Mind, the main theme Acceptence, the intro song When You're Gone and the ending song Hell Frozen Rain just makes the game iconic. Homecoming i tried to like. The first minutes i was playing and enjoying the atmosphere, but when i did a weak-weak-strong combo on a nurse i stopped and laughed for 10 fucking minutes. At least the game is good looking (sometimes) and the bosses are fun to fight, but the combat is shit, the story tries but it's shit and the PC port is unacceptable. At least Alex's Theme, This Sacred Line and One More Soul to the Call are great songs as always. Downpour is underrated as fuck. Though it's unfinished (a common Konami thing), at the state post-patch, it's really enjoyable. Murphy has a interesting background, the idea of choices could've been good if it wasn't a illusion and the puzzles compared to Homecoming are god tier. Also it took mechanics from past western SH games, like the puzzles and improvised weapons from Origins, the exploration and chases from SM, and (kinda of) the combat from Homecoming and the use of tools for advancing. The soundtrack was decent, though without Akira Yamaoka it had decent OST. But the only one it comes to mind is Silent Hill by Korn, the intro theme.
The reason shattered memories was able to have so much variable scenarios is because of the magic of the wii. Essentially last gen games were able to be published as triple A games. Dev costs were probably clearly lower to be able to create all of these scenarios. Something possible with old school games but impossible with modern triple A development where a hair particle takes as much compute power as a whole character in old tech. Remember when ff7 had optional characters with their own set of animations and side story? You think a modern ff game would waste time render and programming a 2 whole characters with the possibility that a lot of players will never even see them?
Woot woot, was literally scrolling the wall thinking "man I wish there was more boulder punch to watch" as I've been binge watching the silent Hill reviews
No, they did not. They did a crap job. Shattered Memories should've been called "Shittered Memories", because the only memory I have of that game is of PURE SHIT😂
@@shinbakihanma2749 you have got to chill out dude, ALL of your comments are about how absolutely garbage you think these games are. Opinions differing from your own about video games are so innocuous yet you act like these games have personally murdered your entire family.
I work with the a tech artist at Vatra Games i asked a lot of questions about this project. And he told me a lot of info about this. Most game devs here in Czech republic are recycled from studio to studio. For example most of us worked in 2 or 3 common studios. He told me the team had different plans for this title and they where forced to change some elements because of some western leadership. He also said that he really like working in this project cause he is a massive horror fun even tho it didnt turn as they expected.
Guessing this is actually a team effort with one "face" like most YT channels these days. Nothing wrong with that but it's kinda become kayfabe to pretend one dude randomly makes shit that happens to be good.
I will say I genuinely have a lot of faith in No Code to make a good Silent Hill. Stories Untold was a great experience and the Devs even have some of their roots in Alien Isolation. I think they'll do a good job. I'm not a fan of Bloober all too much but I think they'll do alright on the remake. It probably won't be amazing but I think it'll be a pretty decent remake
Yeah, I’m really confident No Code can deliver. Stories Untold was great, and Observation is legitimately one of my favorite games I’ve discovered over the past couple years or so. It’s criminally overlooked. The moment I heard they were doing a Silent Hill game, I was instantly sold.
Bloober make what a stupid person thinks smart games are like. They are shallow games with ugly themes and do edgy shocking things for the sake of being edgy & shocking. They do not understand psychological horror, and their remake of SH2 is gonna suck shit.
I really liked Downpour for what it does. After Homecoming and hearing the awful dev process for Downpour, I really applaud them for what they were able to accomplish. You say a lot of the bad and good that I agree with, but I really like Murphy as a character. He's banal and doesn't really stand out that much, and it really shows in his design and the way he interacts with things. He's very resourceful in a sense that he knows how to tinker with electronics and can scavenge the environment for tools and weapons. I also like how insecure he gets. I think out of SH 1 - 3, only 3 has a protagonist whose personality really shows. You're not sure what to make of James, but you can say that Heather's a rebellious teen with an attitude. Murphy comes across that way for me. Downpour was far from perfect, it's launch was truly awful. I think it deserves it's mediocre status but there's really something about downpour that I like for me. I do wish they used the prison/criminal element more though. Even silent 2 used James' depression in it's gameplay in both story beats and interactables.
I really liked Downpour. The enemy types were trash sadly but exploring Silent Hill in this game for the first time was really really good tbh. I had the feeling, that the game had more open world than the other titles. The atmosphere sometimes gave me chills. I remember one sidequest in a random basement where I almost shat myself.
I'm glad I got to play it, even if it was much later after its initial release. I feel like this may have even enhanced my experience, as I may not have understood a lot of the subtext when I was younger. The final "psych eval" was spot on for me, but maybe it was just generic, haha.
The thing that Team Silent nailed so well was that early 00s Japanese vibe, no other Silent Hill game will ever feel the same. Even if Team Silent got brought back together by some miracle it still wouldn't be the same as it was.
I still can't get over how in Shattered Memories for the Wii, the snow particles cast real time shadows from your flashlight. That's some high-tech, next-gen, ray tracing beater stuff. On the Wii.
SM is incredibly well programmed but the shadows aren't using ray tracing. I think the particle effect is being duplicated, perspective corrected and made transparent. If you look carefully the shadows in SM have a weird depth to them. My favorite programming trick is the use of high res textures when you zoom in
You don't need raytracing for that. Just copy the particle layer black with transparency and distort it. Thje wii is very low res so any abnormality from that is gonnabe very hard to see. Also "real time shadows" already were a thing in Doom 3 on the XBOX. Its a last gen thing by the time of the wii.
@@eightcoins4401 I'm not saying it's using "ray tracing" i'm saying it's more impressive to me that that. I know real time shadows is a pretty standard thing even before DOOM 3 (Silent Hill 2 had them in 2001). But how many games have you seen, even today, that do this effect with PARTICLES? You see the environments and 3D models doing that and sometimes the foliage and rarely the grass. But never the particles. It's the only game i ever saw doing that. And it's on the Wii.
I don't begrudge Shattered Memories existence, however, I do wish we had gotten Cold Heart instead. I'm surprised it didn't come up during the Shattered Memories section.
My favorite quote about Downpour was from Twin Perfect "Oh I know the button, R2 I think." "Ah no, R2 is for accidentally hucking your weapon into a ditch." 🤣
Tomm "did" attempt to rewrite the entire script of the game. Mary herself confirmed this at a panel, that "he had it all ready, but Konami wouldn't let him do it". This was presumably to cut costs from reanimating the FOV sequences with new lip-syncing and such. ruclips.net/video/2-J88aDDg70/видео.html If you've played the HD collection side-by-side with the original versions, some lines have been changed in ways that affect how you view the characters. Heather - who never really swore - gets given curse words just for the sake of it, as one example. The man thought the original voice acting was "shit," and that his recastings made the Born of a Wish scenario "playable". He even thought the monster designs in SH2 were terrible and that Pyramid Head left no real impact on the story - indicating that if given the chance, he'd even have "fixed" the monster designs. Timestamped source: ruclips.net/video/TxYkNUyBhS4/видео.html I get that some people feel bad on Tomm's behalf, but please, don't handwave away his awful influence on the modern games. He's definitely responsible for the way the SH:HD collection released, and I will never forgive that.
You're right, he's definitely responsible for the dozens of bugs he listed, sent to the guys above him, and then found again unchanged after coming back from family leave. Gamerz™ love to find a single person to blame for the choices of corporations, letting the naked profit-seeking off the hook for the ways it ruins games. The Grate Debate's look back on the whole situation is far more realistic & nuanced than one guy - who was definitively an outsider in a VERY insular & stubborn corporate culture of Konami - purposefully ruined all your toys on purpose to piss you off. Get a fuckin grip, bud, and step into the real world for 2 seconds; recognize that being the face of a game's marketing does not imbue that individual with all power. Especially when that individual has to answer to stodgy salarymen who don't view a game beyond a product.
my greatest pet peeve with Homecoming is that the story had a lot of potential riding on it. the plot twist drops with the grace of a dry anvil, the character's are flatter than a 2x4, and the cult stuff bogs down the story. there were so many moments that could've worked if they developed the main characters in a way that makes us legitimately care about them while also toning down on the cult stuff. the awkwardness that we felt when Alex walks into town is enough to make us feel uneasy and i wish that sense of unease could be carried throughout the rest of the game. there's also the moment where he accidentally kills Joshua. it could've been an excellent plot twist that reveals the truly vile nature of our main protagonist, making us feel revolted with him. but there's not enough moments in the story where we get to actually understand Joshua and who he is as a character. he's flat and boring. a one dimensional child with a one dimensional relationship with his brother. there should've been more moments where we get to see the two of them interacting with each other. moments where we see them bonding with each other over very human things with the conflict caused by their parents finding a way to seep in divide the two. it'd have made their final moment together more impactful if we understood why they (and in turn the audience) should care about each other. it could've been one of the most interesting Silent Hill stories but sadly the writing team didn't find a way to make it work.
Except all those moments do exist in the game. What do you want? A few 50 minute long flashback cutscenes which interrupt the flow of the game? Or an overwhelming number of diary or journal entries to read for the back story. Stop bitching for bitchings sake. It was a decent story, the characters were mysterious and gray, the graphics still hold up, the music is great, the art design is amazing, the gameplay had some good ideas specially the ability to be able to dodge but it needed more polish. That's my only complaint for the game. The gameplay mechanics were alright but not polished enough.
@@titlasagna2172 I'm not asking for the game to become fucking BioShock. Calm the fuck down. Also, the game uses flashbacks anyways. No reason not to improve those scenes they show. It seems more like you're loving the game for the sake of it because you're adamantly ignoring all of its major shortcomings. Projecting much ain't ya?
@@frostsoul4199 no you can't you imbecile? You didn't objectively counter any of my arguments with any solid points. Instead got butthurt and misused the word projecting and embarrassed yourself. Take your pills and go to sleep kid.
"We still have the original." No we don't. For almost any of them. They're hard to come by. I saw a ps2 copy of SH3 for sale for $200 at my local comic con a few weeks ago.
Yeah but the PC versions are really easy to get working well, can even make them wide screen. The first one you can very easily emulate. So yeah we kinda do still have them.
@@eightcoins4401 RUclips deleted my comment so I'll be more coy this time: I'm not talking about buying second hand copies of the PC versions, there are other methods. For one, 4 is on GOG and the others can be acquired digitally through other means. If you're talking pounds you're probably talking about PAL copies, which yeah probably do go for less, but NTSC copies for for about 200 or more for EACH of the 4 Team Silent games on PS1/2. Without a modded or PAL console someone in the americas can't play those. Luckily, there are alternatives there, too.
Really refreshing to hear someone talk to so postively about Origins whilst still deconstructing its fault. I really love Origins and feel like the developers understood what made Silent Hill work atleast for me haha
A lot of the plot criticisms about Origins are also vastly inflated. The pre renderer cutscenes at the end are jarring because they came from the original disastrous build but if you read the notes the plot makes sense
What kinda bothers me is that people talking about Origins alot of the time treat it like its supposed to be a main title. Even tho its an intentionally low budget spin off.
Shattered Memories is a masterpiece, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I played the game 3 times at different points in my life... As a kid, as a teenager and recently as an adult... And I cannot compare it to any other game, but instead, I compare it to The Little Prince, perhaps my favorite book. Every playthrough my answers changed. I discovered things I haven't seen before either because the playthrough was different or because the game is simply so densely packed with things, but even more, there were things that were subtle and mature... I played and saw those things in my playthrough as a kid, but I wouldn't understand what they added to the story until I played it again a couple of years ago. I know I'll have to give the game another go years from now and have yet another entirely new experience. The game changed a bit every time I played it, but what really makes it a masterpiece for me is how changed I was every time I played the game... The game really played with me as much as I played with it, the devs achieved what they set out to do.
Clocktower has always been an obscure IP outside of Japan and people who look at survival horror history. Every game released in the west sold terribly so is really expensive second hand nowadays. Clocktower 2 (no number in the west, psx) usually goes for 100€ish Clocktower 3 starts at 80€ Haunting Ground (spiritual sucessor so im counting it) usually goes for 120€ish
I was surprised when discussing dialogue of homecoming, there was no mention of the greasiest quote in the entire series. “How bout I slap you then kill you?” It’s been a while but I believe this is when you ask some trucker guy for a gun or something.
i remember my friends dad having and early copy of silent hill 1 from japan when we were kids... the enemies were much different on release. in the version we had the little penguins creatures were actually kind of like zombie toddlers with knifes. it was really strange but i see why it got taken out.
I really liked Downpour. It didn't try to fit film's fans like Homecoming did. Instead of giving us Pyramidhead once again, Vavra decided to introduce a new character who was kinda similar when it comes to his purpose in the story. Also the world was much more grim, more depressing and it was very Silent Hill-like. Murphy wasn't a very deep character but still had more charisma than Alex or Henry from SH4. The story was decent and side quests were fun. I don't understand the hate it received.
For me it was the monster designs. They weren't scary or unique in any way whatsoever. They were just humans with various things added to their faces and that was it. That and the Korn song. What a stupid choice.
Tom Hewlet did nothing wrong. He tried his best and the only reason the western Silent Hill games resemble the originals even remotely is probably due to him. He didn't have as much control as people think he did and he's DEFINITELY not responsible for them being bad.
For some reason gamers really love to blame devs and directors who are actually passionate about their work instead of the out of touch corporate higher ups demanding that said people polish turds.
Genuinely could not care less about that SH2 remake - even the little snippets they've shown off so far have convinced me thoroughly that Bloober absolutely does not have what it takes to recapture even a bit of the reserved, subtle and nuanced atmosphere that defined the original. Not to mention that the cinematography in the cutscenes so far screams of modern overdramatization - gotta make everything as loud and overt and as black-and-white as possible or the numbnuts that we assume make up our audience might not get it, right? Seriously though, why Bloober? Practically nobody in the survival horror community likes what those guys do. Baffling choice, but that's Konami for you. As for the other projects... I mean, there's nothing to actually go off of as yet. I suppose the trypophobia-inducing imagery in that trailer for f made my skin crawl, so maybe that one could be something? Honestly reminded me more of Siren than SH so far, but who knows.
@Chandler Burse Sorry in advance for the wall of text - me am no good at being succinct: I think the problem with discussing the quality of most walking sims is down to the fact that you really can't break that subgenre down very well in game design terms - their strengths and weaknesses are really more similiar to those of movies than videogames and most people that participate in such discussions get hung up on the gameplay aspects. Layers of Fear in my mind was a visually amazing game that pretended to have something deep to say when in reality it was a jumpscare-fest with a simple, straightforward story and pretty iffy pacing. Not terrible, but also not good. For the record, I am definitely not a fan of walking sims myself, but using that descriptor as a blanket explanation for what makes a game bad is just plain lazy. The issue with them making the next SH is that they have exactly zero experience making a game like SH. Nothing they have ever done was built on any of the design complexities that make a survival horror game - one of the most intricate genres in all of gaming. You wouldn't hire, say, a chef to fix your heater, right? They might well be capable of doing the job, but nothing about their qualifications says that they're the recommended go-to. Add to that the fact that good SH games in particular were about subtlety and substance and they've made mostly jumpscare games with pretentious storytelling and yeah... maybe hire a different chef to fix that heater, at least. Now that I think about it, this situation is pretty similiar to how horror is treated in most forms of media - horror is used as a blanket term to descibe dozens upon dozens of _extremely_ disparate experiences. Hostel is nothing like Rosemary's Baby, is nothing like Get Out, is nothing like It Follows, is nothing like The Exorcist etc.
The reason Konami outsourced Silent Hill is because the games were selling terribly. If a game studio (like Team Silent) isn't delivering, there's pressure to bring in someone else who will hopefully turn the series in around. Silent Hill 2 bombed in Japan. Silent Hill 3 flopped in Japan. Silent Hill 4 had no competition and bombed harder than previous titles. Because Silent Hill was a floundering series, Konami wanted to make some money from it because it did find some success outside Japan, but they weren't inclined to spend a lot of money, so the contracts went to whichever studios were willing to endure their conditions -- conditions like "You have 9 months to make SH Origins."
@@mancubusvoid4503 In this case not really. Its a series with a cult following, but even for horror games its not really mainstream. It never got the level of sucess resident evil as an ip does, not even in the west. All of the original japanese team games got a certain amount of weirdness to them, which is never gonna have mainstream appeal.
It sounds like the Tod Howard situation: people cant meme a corporate committee of ceos who make the real, financial decisions but they can meme the face man presented inaccurately as the lone genius auteur in a garage
Also recommend grabbing the 07th-Mod Patch, it adds a bunch of things from the console releases and are mostly toggleable like Widescreen, Full Japanese VA, New Sprite Option with Lipsync, Drawn Backgrounds, a bunch of CG Art (CGs are the fullscreen images that show for certain events), and an ADV Textbox (Textbox at the bottom, shows the name of the speaker) The vanilla Steam version doesn't have any of that, it's 4:3, no VA, backgrounds are photos that have gone through a bunch of filters, no CGs (outside of one that was added for ch6), and NVL Textbox only (Textbox fills the whole screen and doesn't show the name of the speaker)
Simple truth is team silent is no more. That doesn't mean we'll never get a great silent hill game again. But it won't be the same. We'll never quite go back to that same foggy town
When I played Homecoming, one of the Order members fell off the scaffolding in front of me where the camera was angled in such a way that the limbs flailed for a second obscured the screen and I genuinely screamed because it looked like some sort of monster before I realized it was just a guy in a suit, so I shot him with the laser pistol.
10:07 "Off the top of my head, I can't really think of a game that really benefits from weapon durability." I can think of two very good examples: 1. It's integral to the economic balance of the Shadow Tower series. 2. In Way of the Samurai 3 (I can't speak for the other titles) if you stress a weapon too much it will permanently break a durability bar, of which you can have multiple. This is typically only a minor blow to meta-progression due to the upgrade system and the likelihood of there being better base weapons to work off of, but it still forces the player to consider their weapon when using it both offensively and defensively.
@@RedSpade37 Enjoy. It's a classic From Software action dungeon crawler RPG with a heavy horror atmosphere on PS1. There's also a second one on PS2 with a fan translation called Shadow Tower Abyss. It's iffy to get working on emulator just right, but classic FromSoft fans often hail it (and King's Field 4) as their best pre-Souls RPG.
I can't lie, I laughed at the way you pronounced "Ryukishi" and "Higurashi" lmao. Personally, I am insanely excited for SHf because Ryukishi is the greatest writer I've ever come across. Higurashi is amazing (my profile picture is from a character there) but Umineko is even better and genuinely the greatest artistic achievement of humanity in my humble opinion. He is more than a great fit for a Silent Hill series as he is a master of suspense, despite his visual novels not being horror in the traditional "scary" type of sense.
No Silent Hill media created post-SH4 is part of my own Silent Hill head canon. As much as I love Akira's work-my channel is testament to that-I don't even enjoy the music of the Western titles, at least not the songs with vocals, though I did do an instrumental cover of "You're Not Here". I'm dreading the Silent Hill 2 remake, especially if they futz with the music.
@@A_RUclips_Commenter what about it? It's a playable teaser. Teasers are in no way representative of the final product, so we have no way of knowing if silent hills would have been good or not. pt is not about Silent Hill, it's to give us a general idea of how silent hills could be if it was a full game. But it is not part of the series
I remember playing Silent Hill 0rigins a lot as a kid on my PSP. I always had a soft spot for it. I never knew that Sam Barlow wrote it though! I guess it’s because I played it before he became known for his more recent games: Her Story, Telling Lies, and Immortality. Speaking of which, I’d love to see you talk about them. The first two aren’t horror games, per se, but you could classify the third one as such, and arguments could be made that they fit under the adventure game umbrella.
Climax has definitely been my favorite western SH dev even if the games they did do were still a bit wonky in places. They had the biggest amount of heart.
Great video, you made me really interested in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't know that any of the Western releases were good at all but now I wish I didn't get spoiled on the ending through this video, though I'm not blaming you of course, I didn't know I'd end up wanting to play one of these games myself, so I didn't care 😭
You definitely missed out by emulating Shattered Memories, I understand WHY you did because Silent Hill games cost the soul of your firstborn son on ebay, but I'm really glad I got lucky and was able to get a copy before I would have had to sell a testicle to afford it. Because the use of the speaker on the Wiimote is genius, it's used for your phone as well as for some of the more unsettling sound effects like ghostly voices or the screams of the monsters in the chase sequences. It intentionally utilizes the dogshit quality of the remote's speaker to enhance the creep factor. Now THAT’S an understanding of console hardware. Shattered Memories is my personal REAL Silent Hill 4, I fucking love it. Also it's weird revisiting Shattered Memories and hearing Kirk Thornton voicing Harry, after literal years of only hearing him as the voice of Shadow in Sonic BOOM and Sonic Forces. Makes me imagine an interpretation where Shadow's heroic story arc in Sonic Adventure 2 is revealed to be Maria's dying vision, when in reality he's a shortsighted edgy dick like how the modern Sonic stories portray him.
In europe wii copies are ridicolously cheap still. Also homebrew got a solution for playing the games on og hardware without having to pay scalper prices. You can figure it otu i think.
The hold that silent hill origins had on us when were in grade school. Halloween day on my school we were given the task to make a Halloween booth for the 6th graders, expectations were high as we were the *grown ups* of the grade school building, kids wanted to be afraid so we thought of playing Silent Hill origins, problem was we had no idea how to make the kids watch us as we all didn't know how to possibly connect our psp to a tv or something, well one of the older brothers of my classmate knew how. Halloween day came and we setup a classroom as our booth, lower grades would pay 5 bucks to sit and watch us play Silent hill origins, they had popcorns and drinks, the game constantly kept disconnecting from the tv (i think the usb connector was probably loose) but the kids LOVED it we had like 300 bucks and won the halloween booth contest, as much as it was a pain in the ass to play, we ALL enjoyed it, it's funny looking back at it now because that was probably the main reason why i love streaming games now, it's so much more fun to play games while chatting with tons of people who are also enjoying the game you play.
Being a huge Silent Hill fan from the beginning and having Silent Hill tattoos, I have to say the 1st 4 are unmatched, the 1st game for me despite its graphics is definitely the most creepy and oppressive feeling, the environments and the unhinged music make it a once in a lifetime experience, the 2nd game added emotion into the fold, the immense depressed feeling and the feeling of massive guilt, each character carried this immense guilt, I don't have much to say about 3, it's like a mix of 1 and 2, 4 for me refreshed the series, the game felt very dark and evil and the story was an absolute mindfuck, Walter was interesting as an unhinged psychotic character, I loved 4, as for the western games, I wouldn't count any of them as a failure, shattered memories was interesting and something different, I feel Origins tried to hard to emulate and follow the first game, I like some of the monster designs like the giant roadkill taunting Travis as he is a trucker and that harness ghost thing, this game feels like a chore to get through though, Homecoming was alright, good monster design but I felt it was riding too much on the movies coat tails, the story was interesting and the bosses were great, Downpour I feel is better than Homecoming, the monsters weren't that great, I liked the side quests, the chase sections not so much, I feel it could've been the best western Silent Hill title if they had more time with it, the Monocle man being left out as a boss sucks, anyway great video man👍 I thoroughly enjoyed it
I think how badly the graphics aged actually helps SH1. Even 2 doesnt feel as atmospheric and uncanny. Though it imo also has the best fog in the whole series. I get its literally just the fov unrendering things but it feels more like thick fog than the "real fog effect" they added to the games after it.
I highly recommend the Super Best Friends Play LPs of all of these western Silent Hill games. They perfectly demonstrate what complete disasters they are.
Shattered memories was the only western dev Silent Hill game to make me cry. My buddy and I stayed up all night, taking turns on running from monsters and making decisions together. When we got to the end, we were both blown away, especially as big fans of Silent Hill 1-3. It was such a good game! I really enjoy shattered memories as a take of the Bad End of SH1. I enjoyed the reimagining of the characters and the human emotion the game has. It really sucks that team Climax didn't get to take on Homecoming and Downpour, the worst games of the series.
Murphy getting arrested for a lame crime is actually a really important detail, which you’re dismissing. Him going to prison was literally so he could get to Napier. He picked a crime that wouldn’t hurt other people, because he wants to believe he’s still a good person, but had to make sure it was something that would get him locked up in prison, as opposed to a short jail sentence. He also needed to make sure he’d be locked up long enough to pull the strings to get in the same prison and cell block as Napier. Frank Coleridge even remarks that Murphy is not like the murderers and rapists he’s in with, and is super surprised that he’s in that prison. I get not liking the execution, but dismissing a conscious and well thought-out choice for the sake of an awkward bit seems disingenuous. Not that Downpour is a great game, far from it. But this plot line was the most interesting part of the game for a lot of people, and probably one of the best non-team Silent plots to come out of the franchise. Anyway, great video otherwise! Love your stuff as always!
I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the first game was released, all the way back in 1999. Homecoming got me out of the franchise for many years when I played it upon release. To the point that I only played Downpour 2 years ago. With that said, I replayed Homecoming last month, and surprisingly I really enjoyed it.
One series that DID see tons of success by being pushed to western audiences was Advance Wars. Originally Nintendo Wars, it was withheld from western audiences because Nintendo thought Americans wouldn't "get" turn-based strategy. Then Game Boy Wars Advance released here, rebranded as Advance Wars because we never got Game Boy Wars, and was met with MASSIVELY higher popularity in the west than it ever had in Japan. So much so that it made Nintendo rethink their entire perception of western gamers and release Fire Emblem here as well. It got to the point that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin wasn't even released in Japan at all until much later, and the Advance Wars Reboot Camp remake was done by a western studio. Though, it should be noted that Downpour, Origins, and Shattered Memories weren't made by western developers: Downpour was by Czech studio Vatra Games and the other two were by British developers Climax Studios.
35:44 ...That's literally a part of therapy, it is professional as it's one of many types of therapy. This one is called rough / shock therapy, serves as a hard wake up call to slap some senses or realization to your face. And in fact, SH:SM *DID NOT* lose those crucial factors like The Orders, Alessa, and many things. We're playing as a grown-up Cheryl that's imagining Harry as he travels throughout her memories, as a matter a fact, conjoined memories between hers and Alessa's. Notice her mother's name is Dahlia? It isn't a coincidence. And notice how for whatever reason Lisa exists in "Cheryl's" memory, when Harry did not survive the car accident?
Glad you made this. Just finished SH2 a day ago. I want to play all of the games eventually but I realize as time has went on that the Western games aren't the best.
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How can you call yourself a Silent Hill fan and still make one of the dumbest arguments in Silent Hill fandom? I'm referring to the " Pyramid Head only makes sense in SH2 " argument. Obviously someone is forgetting SH3. In that game it is pointed out that not everyone who goes to Silent Hill gets monsters based on their sins or trauma. The town itself chooses what monsters you may face. That's why one of the overlooked creatures from SH2 was a return and more prominent creature in SH3. So you're argument is invalid.
@@derrickemerine1040 Literally every Silent Hill fan disagrees with you
Sound cuts out near 48 minute mark 👍
Wonderful video! As noted by the previous reply, the audio cuts out around 47:19, right as you're about to explain what happens in the conclusion of Silent Hill Shattered Memories, made the follow up discussion a little disjointed, especially since I was listening more than watching.
42:28 no sound ?
Matt throwing that fire axe is literally all i remember from Downpour. Iconic
I don't hate Downpour as much as most people but that fire axe throw was the single best thing this game has given the world
@@grygoo2680 amen hallelujah
I saw the intro and I unconsciously channelled Pat's laughter through me.
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?
RIP SBFP. I’ll always remember them. It isn’t that great when their content separately, as themselves, wasn’t as good or memorable than when they were as a group.
The PS3/360 era was crazy for most Japanese devs like Capcom, Square Enix etc. Glad they found their footing in the PS4/X1 era.
Too bad the west lost itself.
@@BoulderPunch yea now japanese games are better
@@anaveragegamer359 Not really
Sonic team devolved though
@@morkgin2459 sonic team nevwr recovered from last decade
Western silent hill games trapped us in the cycles of guilt harder than any of their protagonists have
Savage
You'll be fine as long as you invest Brousoff in your legs
It took a big fat Devin Shatsky on the series
They're still riding that wagon till the wheels fell off today.
@@D0NU75 My legs are ok.
Shattered memories is a banger. The Wii has a vast library of hidden gems. Buy one for $10 and put an SD card in and wander into the fog of piracy
I agree. It’s actually a really really good game. And even if it’s not an “original” silent hill, I still view it as such.
This is how I discovered Rhythm Heaven Fever and Ghost Squad, such addicting games. I played this game on PCSX2 with HD texture pack though because I couldn't play it on my Wii at the time.
28:00 my favorite part about the whole God of War Ragnarok 'hint system' is that it was only included due to DarkSydePhil, since during a GDC the developers showed an example of a player that struggled with a puzzle in the 2018 God of War which was a clip of DSP
Dudes legacy is only to make games worse.
I got so irritated with that hint system. Don't even let me mess around with the puzzle before blurting out the solution.
lmao really? 🤣 , I guess that explains why I don't like modern games ack ack ack
I'm not sure the devs can even be blamed for downpour. Konami was ordering them making changes they didn't want and that's got to suck. Can't say what it would be if they would have gotten to make what they wanted.
Same thing happened to Homecoming.
@@CabezasDePescado dang, that's sad and doesn't wake confidence in me about the new projects in the works.
I actually like Downpowr, conceptually.
@@denkerbosu3551 nothing wrong with that!
@@Hiihtopipa my hope is that Konami is a different company, now, than 10 years ago. By the end of the Silent Hill run, last time around, Konami seemed to be more interested in mobile gaming and pachinko than anything else. However, I think Capcom and Square-Enix's revival as well as the rise of FromSoft may have some people with Konami aware of just how much power they are wielding in their IP's. It would also explain the sudden release of Suikoden 1 and 2 in remaster which kind of came out of nowhere. I also wouldn't be surprised if Castlevania's success as a show may have triggered some stirring at the company, too. It's all only speculation, for now, but I am optimistically skeptic after RE's Revival. That series was only in marginally better state before RE7 and RE2 Remake. Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Corps were not that long ago.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the secret ending for Silent Hill downpour it doesn’t change much but really shows at the very least the love the developers had for the series over Konami
No it didn’t. It was just ripped models from the HD Collection. If anything it wasn’t more evidence how unworthy they were.
@@FourEyesFive well considering it was a secret ending that was absolutely unnecessary to be made i can't really see how it would be ill intended, to me it was a pretty cute gesture
@@AlynRapi a cute gesture is a lot different from “shows the love they had for the series”
@@FourEyesFive but aren't cute gestures meant to be for the things you love?
@@AlynRapi not when they’re boring cop outs like some ripped models repeating a passive animation. And some with sleeves.
I love how Harry Mason in Shattered Memories is basically an Anti-Maria.
To this day, I still remember fondly Shattered Memories. It was truly shocking playing it as a kid on a PSP, but the story, atmosphere and main mechanic are worth the experience.
Thanks for making this analysis. It's important to give proper criticism and praise when it's due.
Just recently beat the game on my trusty PSP, might do it again
I absolutely loved Shattered Memories, so it pleases me to see this video calling it the best of the Western Silent Hill games. I've played it through... four, maybe give times (on the Wii), and it's only a matter of time before I play it again.
Troy Baker's performance in Silent Hill 2 makes it seem like James is constantly in the middle of taking a fat poo.
Makes me so exited for the silent hill 2 remake *Sarcasm Intensifies*😢
And Maria/Mary sound like they have a vibrator left on full power 24/7, the original actress was great at switching between sweet sickly Mary to tempting Maria while still keeping the same voice just changing the tone. The new voice acting? May as well just be the exact same person which misses the point
That's a nostalgia blinded opinion, obviously.
I've been listening to the new voice acting and the only ones whom I have problems with were Maria (sorta) and Eddie.
Baker had truly great moments here and there. Like, the way he read his lines to Maria at the prison were of a genuinely scared and confused person. His particular "No...I'd never..." line at the Angela's "boss" scene also sent chills down my spine. While, I'd say, in the original va James's "That's why I did it, honey!" line killed the moment for me with how fake it sounded.
Also Angela sounded like a drunk middle-aged woman and I disliked it as well. Even though I had no problems with the original va, I can see the negatives.
Why people decide to be less objective, I have no idea. The "new" voice acting isn't bad, like at all. It's just not the same.
@@smart.but.stupid
Nostalgia blinded, hm? Ok. We'll look at it objectively:
"That's why I did it honey!"
"how fake it sounded"
...Because it was fake. You removed it from its context. He is literally supposed to sound fake in that moment. He didn't know if he believed himself, he is putting up a persona(James is supposed to be all about struggling with persona and fantasy) and then says something different a moment later.
The full quote is: "That's why I did it honey! I just couldn't watch you suffer... No, that's not true.... *voice becomes shakey*... the truth is... I hated you. I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back". A statement which is also not entirely true, but there is truth in.
If you think it sounded fake, that means that the actor did his job and an attempt to correct that is an error of judgement.
Do you remember the scene at all?
"No I'd never"
Baker actually messes up this line by changing its tone. James is meant to be defensive to a prickly degree. OG James says it with the sense that he's offended Angela said that. Remember that this is suppose to be the same James that reacts with anger everytime someone suggests he is wrong or did something wrong.
He snaps at Laura for contradicting his timeline and he insists "I'M NOT LIKE YOU" when Angela suggests they are similar. As if, how dare she suggest he have some buried issue he refuses to address.
Troy says it generically(if decently) sad because he lacks direction. Why is he downbeat suddenly in this scene? Doesn't he have a persona to aggressively preserve for himself?
Angela does sound like a drunk woman. In fact, the cinematography of the game WANTS you to notice how weird she speaks. Notice how when she says "LoOSsT??", we get a close up on her face. That's the director showing us that her manner of speech and cadence are wrong and alien. We see, fully rendered in CG how far and unnaturally she contorted her face to say that and the cinematography tells us that this is significant. That's why the scene is actually more awkward when the monotone new voice says lost more calmly while Angela's facial expressions and body language remain exaggerated. It doesn't fit anymore and it starts coming off like a Godzilla dub.
"Maria(sorta)". Maria(absolutely). She delivers the worst performance in Silent Hill history. Not only is she monotone and Illfit pitchwise, sounding way too old for James, she lacks all of the range the original actress had. New Mary/Maria no longer distinguishes her performance between the two personalities. She barely distinguishes between moods. She also suffers from what a lot of bad performances trying to sound professional suffer from: inappropriate breathiness.
At times where she needs to be dramatic, she is so unable to emote that she relies on exaggerated breaths between lines. She uses this to mess up the most emotional line in the game: "James, you made me happy", killing the emotional climax of the ending.
OG Mary/Maria gave the best performance whereas the new one gave the worst. She's not just some character who's lines can be messed up like that and still expect the story to work as well. Her performance is the one that is supposed to ground the story to a human level.
I'm suppose to feel things when she says stuff. Shouldn't I feel angry when Maria emotionally manipulates me or shouts at me? Should I feel an uncanny disturbance when Maria uses Mary's memorys in the cell(she's REAL bad in this scene)? Should I feel the full weight of the tragedy when Maria reads the letter?
With the new voice, that is all a no.
When you actually look at it objectively, the new voices are miles worse. That's not to say the old ones are perfect, but the new ones are a hatchet job that don't fit the game or mood.
The old voices are worth improving upon, but the examples you gave were just not problems and in fact, you removed them from the contexts that justified why they were the way they were. Meaning, you were criticizing the wrong stuff through the wrong lense.
All of this is ignoring the horrible reverb and awful mixing unique to HD collection. From the lesser performances to the awful mixing, it may be one of the more embarrassing "professional" voice jobs of its caliber. I cannot believe they got a good actor like Troy Baker and then gave him no direction and had him come out with one of his worse performances. Such weird casting too. "We need Troy Baker to put on a deep, breathy voice to play... the infamously meek James Sunderland". Like, what?
A real issue old voices had was that they could sometimes slur their words("you said your wife was dead, vrriight?") or lack intensity(James).
The issue is that HD voices not only lacked intensity, they lacked range the originals had, making the originals still preferable. Nostalgia is completely aside. The new voices are outright inferior in possibly every way. Just because something is old and flawed, that doesn't make the new thing inherently better at all. They have to actually try. They thought they could just hire professional voice actors and sleepwalk the whole thing the whole thing and get something better. Whoops.
There's still hope for the remake, though. Voices in that sounded fine in the trailer thus far, if different in its own way.
@@eddie142 even though it had to sound fake, it doesn't mean it had to sound like from a cheap soap-opera or smth. In the new dub it also did sound "fake" in that sense, as in James reassuring Mary (and himself) he did this in an altruistic attempt, but it doesn't at least make me cringe.
And what about the next part? "The truth is...I hated you!" sounds just as bad in the OG dub, you don't really feel anything in his voice besides that they actor is desperately Trying to sound convincing.
Ryukishi07 is an amazing psychological horror mystery writer, people are really understating how great of a fit he is for this.
We will see, is hard to be excited over the revival given the context.
I feel like people forget that most of Higurashi was just girls putting on edgy scary faces and laughing maniacally while covered in blood, and that Umineko really goes off the rails. I love Ryukishi's work but let's not act like he's created some deep and subtle psychological horror, he's made a bunch of campy over the top melodrama. GOOD campy and over the top melodrama, but still. He's a good idea if you wanna have a good story for the game, but I dunno about FITTING.
Also don't forget it's being developed by Neobards.
Ive never heard of this man.
@@ElectricBarrierhave you actually played the games or just watched the anime because if the second then I gotta say you’re wrong because that shit cuts a lot
Ryukishi07 is merely competent at writing psychological horror mystery. Calling any of his work "AMAZING" is going too far. But even then, he's has yet to prove if he could write a competent story to a Silent Hill game. No one has done it since Silent Hill 3.
Oh no!! I think there's an audio editing error at 47:30 ? I was so invested! Do you have a script for what you say around that part?
Thank you I thought I was crazy lol 😅
Bruh shattered memories was so bad that the video had to mute itself 💀 I consider all these games like alternative realities to the mainline silent hill games
audio cuts out for me too, loving the video otherwise
@@mrkappa1232ain’t no way you dissed Shattered Memories
Ditto
I am not sure if you already know, but the audio cuts out completely at around 47:30 until about 48:12
It still does even 9 months later
@@jamberry9795 its muted because of copyright.
Homecoming could have worked. There was a dark tone to the suburbs that was unique but it dropped the ball in so many areas. Alex being the reason for Josh's death and the cult kidnapping everyone around him TWICE and leaving him alone was incredulous.
Keep in mind the development of HomeComing went into disarray when The Collective originally helmed the production…but got into a merger with other companies.
Shattered Memories was such a fun and unique experience for me as a kid. It was interesting watching my enemies change around me according to my choices, and having no choice but to run from them. The story was also really interesting. If anyone is interested in giving it a shot, and has the equipment to do so, I'd highly recommend you do.
For the record, Team Silent did have early development on Silent Hill 5 before it was scrapped early, and to make it all the more agonizing, it was supposed to be in the same vein as Silent Hill 2.
Sorry for my late comment, but I would have enjoyed that, for sure.
I think the whole fanbase is *still* wanting another SH game that:
"A seemingly-generic protagonist is mysteriously called to Silent Hill, and must discover the truth while avoiding/confronting 'monsters' that are living metaphors for the protagonist's traumas. Big jaw-dropping twist at the end"
I feel like 2 is the only one to actually do this. Shattered Memories tried, but isn't technically an example, depending on your interpretation.
I hope we get to enjoy that kind of "dark adventure" once more before the End.
there was never such team as "team silent" stop romanticizing konami's infernal internal teams.
@@hollyc5417you never existed, stop romanticizing the idea of it
This comment made me sad
@@hollyc5417get laid
*sees axe being thrown* I understood that reference.
Thank you so much for using the Matt and Pat clip, and referencing them. They still mean so much to me, and every time I see someone use that clip, it makes me so happy. This was a fantastic video!
The thrown axe is what ended Their friendship.
It’s true, it’s where the curse began.
I SCROLLED DOWN FOR THIS I WAS EXPECTING TO HEAR THEIR VOICES WHEN THE AXE WENT FLYING
🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻
love seeing their fans in the wild. they were such a huge part of my life sometimes i forget some people don’t see a game and think of them like we do lol
Origins was the first SH i played, wanted to keep chronological like everything i play. It's a solid game, Travis is an interesting protagonist(if only they focused on him more), the puzzles are some of the best in horror games and the soundtrack is great, Hole in the Sky and Shot Down in Flames are iconic to the series. If it wasn't for the long-ass maps, easy as hell combat and the plot not knowing what it is, it would've been a great SH game.
Shattered Memories i beat it in one sitting by how interested i was in the story, besides SH2 is the best plot in the series. The atmosphere is incredible, not pressing any button to read something and actually reading yourself till this day isn't something you find normally. The psychological part could've worked better on modern days, but it was interesting at least at the time. Also the soundtrack sticks with you a lot, the cover of Always On My Mind, the main theme Acceptence, the intro song When You're Gone and the ending song Hell Frozen Rain just makes the game iconic.
Homecoming i tried to like. The first minutes i was playing and enjoying the atmosphere, but when i did a weak-weak-strong combo on a nurse i stopped and laughed for 10 fucking minutes. At least the game is good looking (sometimes) and the bosses are fun to fight, but the combat is shit, the story tries but it's shit and the PC port is unacceptable. At least Alex's Theme, This Sacred Line and One More Soul to the Call are great songs as always.
Downpour is underrated as fuck. Though it's unfinished (a common Konami thing), at the state post-patch, it's really enjoyable. Murphy has a interesting background, the idea of choices could've been good if it wasn't a illusion and the puzzles compared to Homecoming are god tier.
Also it took mechanics from past western SH games, like the puzzles and improvised weapons from Origins, the exploration and chases from SM, and (kinda of) the combat from Homecoming and the use of tools for advancing.
The soundtrack was decent, though without Akira Yamaoka it had decent OST. But the only one it comes to mind is Silent Hill by Korn, the intro theme.
I love that the most memorable things of the games you mention are the songs. I do that to lol
The reason shattered memories was able to have so much variable scenarios is because of the magic of the wii. Essentially last gen games were able to be published as triple A games. Dev costs were probably clearly lower to be able to create all of these scenarios. Something possible with old school games but impossible with modern triple A development where a hair particle takes as much compute power as a whole character in old tech. Remember when ff7 had optional characters with their own set of animations and side story? You think a modern ff game would waste time render and programming a 2 whole characters with the possibility that a lot of players will never even see them?
The "rendering each hair" type of thing wasnt a thing during the WII era though
Last Gen? Bro Wii is retro.
Woot woot, was literally scrolling the wall thinking "man I wish there was more boulder punch to watch" as I've been binge watching the silent Hill reviews
Boulder punching? Are you talking about Chris Redfield? Wait a second.
As a fan of SBFP I am glad the legacy of throwing the axe has lasted for so long. Thanks!
Press RT to toss.
"The train guy was drunk!"
ruclips.net/video/5eit_8wIf60/видео.html
Man, they really did a good job with Shattered Memories
No, they did not. They did a crap job. Shattered Memories should've been called "Shittered Memories", because the only memory I have of that game is of PURE SHIT😂
@@shinbakihanma2749
It's great for PSP, but to each their own
It certainly had its issues but you're right it was a good, interesting game
@@shinbakihanma2749 and your name should be shit Baka Hanma because that’s a bad take
@@shinbakihanma2749 you have got to chill out dude, ALL of your comments are about how absolutely garbage you think these games are. Opinions differing from your own about video games are so innocuous yet you act like these games have personally murdered your entire family.
I work with the a tech artist at Vatra Games i asked a lot of questions about this project. And he told me a lot of info about this. Most game devs here in Czech republic are recycled from studio to studio. For example most of us worked in 2 or 3 common studios. He told me the team had different plans for this title and they where forced to change some elements because of some western leadership. He also said that he really like working in this project cause he is a massive horror fun even tho it didnt turn as they expected.
How do you put out so many videos every two weeks or so? I love it. Keep up brother.
Almost like it's his job
He punches a boulder and a video comes out
Guessing this is actually a team effort with one "face" like most YT channels these days.
Nothing wrong with that but it's kinda become kayfabe to pretend one dude randomly makes shit that happens to be good.
I will say I genuinely have a lot of faith in No Code to make a good Silent Hill. Stories Untold was a great experience and the Devs even have some of their roots in Alien Isolation. I think they'll do a good job. I'm not a fan of Bloober all too much but I think they'll do alright on the remake. It probably won't be amazing but I think it'll be a pretty decent remake
Yeah, I’m really confident No Code can deliver. Stories Untold was great, and Observation is legitimately one of my favorite games I’ve discovered over the past couple years or so. It’s criminally overlooked. The moment I heard they were doing a Silent Hill game, I was instantly sold.
Bloober make what a stupid person thinks smart games are like. They are shallow games with ugly themes and do edgy shocking things for the sake of being edgy & shocking. They do not understand psychological horror, and their remake of SH2 is gonna suck shit.
47:30 till 48:14 is dead air
I really liked Downpour for what it does. After Homecoming and hearing the awful dev process for Downpour, I really applaud them for what they were able to accomplish. You say a lot of the bad and good that I agree with, but I really like Murphy as a character. He's banal and doesn't really stand out that much, and it really shows in his design and the way he interacts with things. He's very resourceful in a sense that he knows how to tinker with electronics and can scavenge the environment for tools and weapons. I also like how insecure he gets. I think out of SH 1 - 3, only 3 has a protagonist whose personality really shows. You're not sure what to make of James, but you can say that Heather's a rebellious teen with an attitude. Murphy comes across that way for me.
Downpour was far from perfect, it's launch was truly awful. I think it deserves it's mediocre status but there's really something about downpour that I like for me. I do wish they used the prison/criminal element more though. Even silent 2 used James' depression in it's gameplay in both story beats and interactables.
I really liked Downpour. The enemy types were trash sadly but exploring Silent Hill in this game for the first time was really really good tbh.
I had the feeling, that the game had more open world than the other titles.
The atmosphere sometimes gave me chills. I remember one sidequest in a random basement where I almost shat myself.
Shattered Memories will remain as one of my favorite gaming experiences ever, with one of the most memorable endings ever.
I'm glad I got to play it, even if it was much later after its initial release. I feel like this may have even enhanced my experience, as I may not have understood a lot of the subtext when I was younger.
The final "psych eval" was spot on for me, but maybe it was just generic, haha.
@47:31 The sound cuts out.
@48:15 The sound returns.
The thing that Team Silent nailed so well was that early 00s Japanese vibe, no other Silent Hill game will ever feel the same. Even if Team Silent got brought back together by some miracle it still wouldn't be the same as it was.
I still can't get over how in Shattered Memories for the Wii, the snow particles cast real time shadows from your flashlight.
That's some high-tech, next-gen, ray tracing beater stuff. On the Wii.
SM is incredibly well programmed but the shadows aren't using ray tracing. I think the particle effect is being duplicated, perspective corrected and made transparent. If you look carefully the shadows in SM have a weird depth to them.
My favorite programming trick is the use of high res textures when you zoom in
You don't need raytracing for that. Just copy the particle layer black with transparency and distort it.
Thje wii is very low res so any abnormality from that is gonnabe very hard to see.
Also "real time shadows" already were a thing in Doom 3 on the XBOX. Its a last gen thing by the time of the wii.
@@eightcoins4401 I'm not saying it's using "ray tracing" i'm saying it's more impressive to me that that. I know real time shadows is a pretty standard thing even before DOOM 3 (Silent Hill 2 had them in 2001). But how many games have you seen, even today, that do this effect with PARTICLES? You see the environments and 3D models doing that and sometimes the foliage and rarely the grass. But never the particles. It's the only game i ever saw doing that. And it's on the Wii.
I don't begrudge Shattered Memories existence, however, I do wish we had gotten Cold Heart instead. I'm surprised it didn't come up during the Shattered Memories section.
The legacy of the axe toss lives on.
My favorite quote about Downpour was from Twin Perfect
"Oh I know the button, R2 I think."
"Ah no, R2 is for accidentally hucking your weapon into a ditch." 🤣
Those videos were great, hilarious and ahead of their time. I hope the channel revives when the new garbage comes out.
Isn’t Twin Perfect in a weird situation when they delve into Twin Peaks…!?
Tomm "did" attempt to rewrite the entire script of the game. Mary herself confirmed this at a panel, that "he had it all ready, but Konami wouldn't let him do it". This was presumably to cut costs from reanimating the FOV sequences with new lip-syncing and such.
ruclips.net/video/2-J88aDDg70/видео.html
If you've played the HD collection side-by-side with the original versions, some lines have been changed in ways that affect how you view the characters. Heather - who never really swore - gets given curse words just for the sake of it, as one example. The man thought the original voice acting was "shit," and that his recastings made the Born of a Wish scenario "playable". He even thought the monster designs in SH2 were terrible and that Pyramid Head left no real impact on the story - indicating that if given the chance, he'd even have "fixed" the monster designs.
Timestamped source: ruclips.net/video/TxYkNUyBhS4/видео.html
I get that some people feel bad on Tomm's behalf, but please, don't handwave away his awful influence on the modern games. He's definitely responsible for the way the SH:HD collection released, and I will never forgive that.
You're right, he's definitely responsible for the dozens of bugs he listed, sent to the guys above him, and then found again unchanged after coming back from family leave.
Gamerz™ love to find a single person to blame for the choices of corporations, letting the naked profit-seeking off the hook for the ways it ruins games. The Grate Debate's look back on the whole situation is far more realistic & nuanced than one guy - who was definitively an outsider in a VERY insular & stubborn corporate culture of Konami - purposefully ruined all your toys on purpose to piss you off.
Get a fuckin grip, bud, and step into the real world for 2 seconds; recognize that being the face of a game's marketing does not imbue that individual with all power. Especially when that individual has to answer to stodgy salarymen who don't view a game beyond a product.
Downpour...
axe toss...
chasm...
Memories of friendship long gone, but not forgotten...
Never forget, we will always have the memories of how they were our Best Friends.
@@monkatagg1466 One was nice, and the other one was less nice.
my greatest pet peeve with Homecoming is that the story had a lot of potential riding on it. the plot twist drops with the grace of a dry anvil, the character's are flatter than a 2x4, and the cult stuff bogs down the story. there were so many moments that could've worked if they developed the main characters in a way that makes us legitimately care about them while also toning down on the cult stuff. the awkwardness that we felt when Alex walks into town is enough to make us feel uneasy and i wish that sense of unease could be carried throughout the rest of the game. there's also the moment where he accidentally kills Joshua. it could've been an excellent plot twist that reveals the truly vile nature of our main protagonist, making us feel revolted with him. but there's not enough moments in the story where we get to actually understand Joshua and who he is as a character. he's flat and boring. a one dimensional child with a one dimensional relationship with his brother. there should've been more moments where we get to see the two of them interacting with each other. moments where we see them bonding with each other over very human things with the conflict caused by their parents finding a way to seep in divide the two. it'd have made their final moment together more impactful if we understood why they (and in turn the audience) should care about each other. it could've been one of the most interesting Silent Hill stories but sadly the writing team didn't find a way to make it work.
Except all those moments do exist in the game. What do you want? A few 50 minute long flashback cutscenes which interrupt the flow of the game? Or an overwhelming number of diary or journal entries to read for the back story. Stop bitching for bitchings sake. It was a decent story, the characters were mysterious and gray, the graphics still hold up, the music is great, the art design is amazing, the gameplay had some good ideas specially the ability to be able to dodge but it needed more polish. That's my only complaint for the game. The gameplay mechanics were alright but not polished enough.
@@titlasagna2172 I'm not asking for the game to become fucking BioShock. Calm the fuck down. Also, the game uses flashbacks anyways. No reason not to improve those scenes they show. It seems more like you're loving the game for the sake of it because you're adamantly ignoring all of its major shortcomings. Projecting much ain't ya?
Do you even know the meaning of the word projecting? Are you on the spectrum or smth?
@@titlasagna2172 i should be the one asking you that question.
@@frostsoul4199 no you can't you imbecile? You didn't objectively counter any of my arguments with any solid points. Instead got butthurt and misused the word projecting and embarrassed yourself. Take your pills and go to sleep kid.
"We still have the original." No we don't. For almost any of them. They're hard to come by. I saw a ps2 copy of SH3 for sale for $200 at my local comic con a few weeks ago.
Yeah but the PC versions are really easy to get working well, can even make them wide screen. The first one you can very easily emulate. So yeah we kinda do still have them.
@@ElectricBarrier I think he proved me wrong in the video right after I posted this and I was to busy to delete it at the time.
@@ElectricBarrier The pc version of 2 actually is way rarer than the ps2 version.
I always see copies of PS2 SH3 pop up on ebay for 30-40€ Its very much not a rare game.
@@eightcoins4401 RUclips deleted my comment so I'll be more coy this time: I'm not talking about buying second hand copies of the PC versions, there are other methods. For one, 4 is on GOG and the others can be acquired digitally through other means.
If you're talking pounds you're probably talking about PAL copies, which yeah probably do go for less, but NTSC copies for for about 200 or more for EACH of the 4 Team Silent games on PS1/2. Without a modded or PAL console someone in the americas can't play those. Luckily, there are alternatives there, too.
You're in for a trip when you check out "when they cry" lol Waiting for your take on it.
i cannot express the feeling of triumph/joy i feel whenever i hear yuri lowenthall’s voice in a game when i don’t expect it
Really refreshing to hear someone talk to so postively about Origins whilst still deconstructing its fault. I really love Origins and feel like the developers understood what made Silent Hill work atleast for me haha
A lot of the plot criticisms about Origins are also vastly inflated. The pre renderer cutscenes at the end are jarring because they came from the original disastrous build but if you read the notes the plot makes sense
What kinda bothers me is that people talking about Origins alot of the time treat it like its supposed to be a main title. Even tho its an intentionally low budget spin off.
47:29 Did anyone mention the sound going out?
Always loved that intro track in Origins, total shame it cuts off so abruptly. One of my favorite Yamaoka pieces
Shattered Memories is a masterpiece, and I mean that wholeheartedly.
I played the game 3 times at different points in my life... As a kid, as a teenager and recently as an adult... And I cannot compare it to any other game, but instead, I compare it to The Little Prince, perhaps my favorite book.
Every playthrough my answers changed. I discovered things I haven't seen before either because the playthrough was different or because the game is simply so densely packed with things, but even more, there were things that were subtle and mature... I played and saw those things in my playthrough as a kid, but I wouldn't understand what they added to the story until I played it again a couple of years ago.
I know I'll have to give the game another go years from now and have yet another entirely new experience.
The game changed a bit every time I played it, but what really makes it a masterpiece for me is how changed I was every time I played the game... The game really played with me as much as I played with it, the devs achieved what they set out to do.
I love how you mention that Shattered Memories did run away from enemies before Amnesia. Clock Tower series exist since 1995.
Clocktower has always been an obscure IP outside of Japan and people who look at survival horror history.
Every game released in the west sold terribly so is really expensive second hand nowadays.
Clocktower 2 (no number in the west, psx) usually goes for 100€ish
Clocktower 3 starts at 80€
Haunting Ground (spiritual sucessor so im counting it) usually goes for 120€ish
The audio cuts out around 47:30 for about a minute. I guess the soundtrack section used was copyright claimed or something?
Yeah, it's silent there for me, too...
I was surprised when discussing dialogue of homecoming, there was no mention of the greasiest quote in the entire series. “How bout I slap you then kill you?” It’s been a while but I believe this is when you ask some trucker guy for a gun or something.
I liked Homecoming...well at leat some parts. Scarlet was one of the best bosses in the universe, on the hard difficulty she was a pain in the ass.
i remember my friends dad having and early copy of silent hill 1 from japan when we were kids... the enemies were much different on release. in the version we had the little penguins creatures were actually kind of like zombie toddlers with knifes. it was really strange but i see why it got taken out.
Anybody else have sound cut out at 47:29? It comes back minutes later but yeah, jarring.
I really liked Downpour. It didn't try to fit film's fans like Homecoming did. Instead of giving us Pyramidhead once again, Vavra decided to introduce a new character who was kinda similar when it comes to his purpose in the story. Also the world was much more grim, more depressing and it was very Silent Hill-like. Murphy wasn't a very deep character but still had more charisma than Alex or Henry from SH4. The story was decent and side quests were fun. I don't understand the hate it received.
For me it was the monster designs. They weren't scary or unique in any way whatsoever. They were just humans with various things added to their faces and that was it. That and the Korn song. What a stupid choice.
@@heiscatnow Yeah, monsters design was very poor, with this I agree.
missing audio at 48 mins
It was probably removed due to a copyright claim
Tom Hewlet did nothing wrong. He tried his best and the only reason the western Silent Hill games resemble the originals even remotely is probably due to him. He didn't have as much control as people think he did and he's DEFINITELY not responsible for them being bad.
For some reason gamers really love to blame devs and directors who are actually passionate about their work instead of the out of touch corporate higher ups demanding that said people polish turds.
Genuinely could not care less about that SH2 remake - even the little snippets they've shown off so far have convinced me thoroughly that Bloober absolutely does not have what it takes to recapture even a bit of the reserved, subtle and nuanced atmosphere that defined the original. Not to mention that the cinematography in the cutscenes so far screams of modern overdramatization - gotta make everything as loud and overt and as black-and-white as possible or the numbnuts that we assume make up our audience might not get it, right?
Seriously though, why Bloober? Practically nobody in the survival horror community likes what those guys do. Baffling choice, but that's Konami for you.
As for the other projects... I mean, there's nothing to actually go off of as yet. I suppose the trypophobia-inducing imagery in that trailer for f made my skin crawl, so maybe that one could be something? Honestly reminded me more of Siren than SH so far, but who knows.
@Chandler Burse Sorry in advance for the wall of text - me am no good at being succinct:
I think the problem with discussing the quality of most walking sims is down to the fact that you really can't break that subgenre down very well in game design terms - their strengths and weaknesses are really more similiar to those of movies than videogames and most people that participate in such discussions get hung up on the gameplay aspects.
Layers of Fear in my mind was a visually amazing game that pretended to have something deep to say when in reality it was a jumpscare-fest with a simple, straightforward story and pretty iffy pacing. Not terrible, but also not good.
For the record, I am definitely not a fan of walking sims myself, but using that descriptor as a blanket explanation for what makes a game bad is just plain lazy.
The issue with them making the next SH is that they have exactly zero experience making a game like SH. Nothing they have ever done was built on any of the design complexities that make a survival horror game - one of the most intricate genres in all of gaming.
You wouldn't hire, say, a chef to fix your heater, right? They might well be capable of doing the job, but nothing about their qualifications says that they're the recommended go-to.
Add to that the fact that good SH games in particular were about subtlety and substance and they've made mostly jumpscare games with pretentious storytelling and yeah... maybe hire a different chef to fix that heater, at least.
Now that I think about it, this situation is pretty similiar to how horror is treated in most forms of media - horror is used as a blanket term to descibe dozens upon dozens of _extremely_ disparate experiences.
Hostel is nothing like Rosemary's Baby, is nothing like Get Out, is nothing like It Follows, is nothing like The Exorcist etc.
I already stopped caring when i heard it was bloober team. Im not interested in playing a mascot horror version of SH.
20:26 Red Letter Media, what a great quote ! Good video man !
The reason Konami outsourced Silent Hill is because the games were selling terribly. If a game studio (like Team Silent) isn't delivering, there's pressure to bring in someone else who will hopefully turn the series in around. Silent Hill 2 bombed in Japan. Silent Hill 3 flopped in Japan. Silent Hill 4 had no competition and bombed harder than previous titles. Because Silent Hill was a floundering series, Konami wanted to make some money from it because it did find some success outside Japan, but they weren't inclined to spend a lot of money, so the contracts went to whichever studios were willing to endure their conditions -- conditions like "You have 9 months to make SH Origins."
A genuine shame. Konami shooting itself on the foot as usual
@@mancubusvoid4503 Shooting itself? Maybe, but i don't really blame them tbh. In retrospect, Konami not having much faith in the series makes sense
@@mancubusvoid4503 In this case not really. Its a series with a cult following, but even for horror games its not really mainstream.
It never got the level of sucess resident evil as an ip does, not even in the west.
All of the original japanese team games got a certain amount of weirdness to them, which is never gonna have mainstream appeal.
It sounds like the Tod Howard situation: people cant meme a corporate committee of ceos who make the real, financial decisions but they can meme the face man presented inaccurately as the lone genius auteur in a garage
just so everyone knows, the first chapter of Higurashi is permanently available for free on steam
Thank you! Always passed it over as visual novel trash before.
@@Louis-wp3fq I thought the same, but everyone's hype about whose the writer behind SH F got me into it.
Btw it starts slow so hang in there
Also recommend grabbing the 07th-Mod Patch, it adds a bunch of things from the console releases and are mostly toggleable like Widescreen, Full Japanese VA, New Sprite Option with Lipsync, Drawn Backgrounds, a bunch of CG Art (CGs are the fullscreen images that show for certain events), and an ADV Textbox (Textbox at the bottom, shows the name of the speaker)
The vanilla Steam version doesn't have any of that, it's 4:3, no VA, backgrounds are photos that have gone through a bunch of filters, no CGs (outside of one that was added for ch6), and NVL Textbox only (Textbox fills the whole screen and doesn't show the name of the speaker)
Man this video is awesome. Great content my friend 😁
Simple truth is team silent is no more. That doesn't mean we'll never get a great silent hill game again. But it won't be the same. We'll never quite go back to that same foggy town
1:00:38 I have been looking for the name of this sound for about 7 years. Thank you so much.
When I played Homecoming, one of the Order members fell off the scaffolding in front of me where the camera was angled in such a way that the limbs flailed for a second obscured the screen and I genuinely screamed because it looked like some sort of monster before I realized it was just a guy in a suit, so I shot him with the laser pistol.
10:07 "Off the top of my head, I can't really think of a game that really benefits from weapon durability."
I can think of two very good examples:
1. It's integral to the economic balance of the Shadow Tower series.
2. In Way of the Samurai 3 (I can't speak for the other titles) if you stress a weapon too much it will permanently break a durability bar, of which you can have multiple. This is typically only a minor blow to meta-progression due to the upgrade system and the likelihood of there being better base weapons to work off of, but it still forces the player to consider their weapon when using it both offensively and defensively.
I've never heard of Shadow Tower... going to check that out! Thanks for the info!
@@RedSpade37 Enjoy. It's a classic From Software action dungeon crawler RPG with a heavy horror atmosphere on PS1.
There's also a second one on PS2 with a fan translation called Shadow Tower Abyss. It's iffy to get working on emulator just right, but classic FromSoft fans often hail it (and King's Field 4) as their best pre-Souls RPG.
Also Dead Rising, even if most players end up just using the one-handed chainsaw with the skill books.
I can't lie, I laughed at the way you pronounced "Ryukishi" and "Higurashi" lmao. Personally, I am insanely excited for SHf because Ryukishi is the greatest writer I've ever come across. Higurashi is amazing (my profile picture is from a character there) but Umineko is even better and genuinely the greatest artistic achievement of humanity in my humble opinion. He is more than a great fit for a Silent Hill series as he is a master of suspense, despite his visual novels not being horror in the traditional "scary" type of sense.
Shattered Memories truly was something special. Would love to see more games like it.
No Silent Hill media created post-SH4 is part of my own Silent Hill head canon. As much as I love Akira's work-my channel is testament to that-I don't even enjoy the music of the Western titles, at least not the songs with vocals, though I did do an instrumental cover of "You're Not Here". I'm dreading the Silent Hill 2 remake, especially if they futz with the music.
What about P.T. ?
@@A_RUclips_Commenter what about it? It's a playable teaser. Teasers are in no way representative of the final product, so we have no way of knowing if silent hills would have been good or not. pt is not about Silent Hill, it's to give us a general idea of how silent hills could be if it was a full game. But it is not part of the series
@@AydarBMSTU Yeah, there is no way of knowing how that was intended to fit into the SH canon, or if it was meant to at all.
I remember playing Silent Hill 0rigins a lot as a kid on my PSP. I always had a soft spot for it. I never knew that Sam Barlow wrote it though! I guess it’s because I played it before he became known for his more recent games: Her Story, Telling Lies, and Immortality. Speaking of which, I’d love to see you talk about them. The first two aren’t horror games, per se, but you could classify the third one as such, and arguments could be made that they fit under the adventure game umbrella.
I thought Downpour was the best one of the western games
What happened with the audio during shattered memories ending revelation?
Climax has definitely been my favorite western SH dev even if the games they did do were still a bit wonky in places. They had the biggest amount of heart.
If Konami had stayed with Climax for it's Silent Hill's games, they could have improved more and made better and excellent games.
Great video, you made me really interested in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't know that any of the Western releases were good at all but now I wish I didn't get spoiled on the ending through this video, though I'm not blaming you of course, I didn't know I'd end up wanting to play one of these games myself, so I didn't care 😭
You definitely missed out by emulating Shattered Memories, I understand WHY you did because Silent Hill games cost the soul of your firstborn son on ebay, but I'm really glad I got lucky and was able to get a copy before I would have had to sell a testicle to afford it.
Because the use of the speaker on the Wiimote is genius, it's used for your phone as well as for some of the more unsettling sound effects like ghostly voices or the screams of the monsters in the chase sequences. It intentionally utilizes the dogshit quality of the remote's speaker to enhance the creep factor. Now THAT’S an understanding of console hardware. Shattered Memories is my personal REAL Silent Hill 4, I fucking love it.
Also it's weird revisiting Shattered Memories and hearing Kirk Thornton voicing Harry, after literal years of only hearing him as the voice of Shadow in Sonic BOOM and Sonic Forces. Makes me imagine an interpretation where Shadow's heroic story arc in Sonic Adventure 2 is revealed to be Maria's dying vision, when in reality he's a shortsighted edgy dick like how the modern Sonic stories portray him.
In europe wii copies are ridicolously cheap still.
Also homebrew got a solution for playing the games on og hardware without having to pay scalper prices. You can figure it otu i think.
The hold that silent hill origins had on us when were in grade school.
Halloween day on my school we were given the task to make a Halloween booth for the 6th graders, expectations were high as we were the *grown ups* of the grade school building, kids wanted to be afraid so we thought of playing Silent Hill origins, problem was we had no idea how to make the kids watch us as we all didn't know how to possibly connect our psp to a tv or something, well one of the older brothers of my classmate knew how.
Halloween day came and we setup a classroom as our booth, lower grades would pay 5 bucks to sit and watch us play Silent hill origins, they had popcorns and drinks, the game constantly kept disconnecting from the tv (i think the usb connector was probably loose) but the kids LOVED it
we had like 300 bucks and won the halloween booth contest, as much as it was a pain in the ass to play, we ALL enjoyed it, it's funny looking back at it now because that was probably the main reason why i love streaming games now, it's so much more fun to play games while chatting with tons of people who are also enjoying the game you play.
Shattered Memories is so good, everything you said about it is on point.
Heyheyyy glad someone found my comparison videos useful
Being a huge Silent Hill fan from the beginning and having Silent Hill tattoos, I have to say the 1st 4 are unmatched, the 1st game for me despite its graphics is definitely the most creepy and oppressive feeling, the environments and the unhinged music make it a once in a lifetime experience, the 2nd game added emotion into the fold, the immense depressed feeling and the feeling of massive guilt, each character carried this immense guilt, I don't have much to say about 3, it's like a mix of 1 and 2, 4 for me refreshed the series, the game felt very dark and evil and the story was an absolute mindfuck, Walter was interesting as an unhinged psychotic character, I loved 4, as for the western games, I wouldn't count any of them as a failure, shattered memories was interesting and something different, I feel Origins tried to hard to emulate and follow the first game, I like some of the monster designs like the giant roadkill taunting Travis as he is a trucker and that harness ghost thing, this game feels like a chore to get through though, Homecoming was alright, good monster design but I felt it was riding too much on the movies coat tails, the story was interesting and the bosses were great, Downpour I feel is better than Homecoming, the monsters weren't that great, I liked the side quests, the chase sections not so much, I feel it could've been the best western Silent Hill title if they had more time with it, the Monocle man being left out as a boss sucks, anyway great video man👍 I thoroughly enjoyed it
I think how badly the graphics aged actually helps SH1. Even 2 doesnt feel as atmospheric and uncanny. Though it imo also has the best fog in the whole series. I get its literally just the fov unrendering things but it feels more like thick fog than the "real fog effect" they added to the games after it.
Appreciate that you started with a SBFP reference
I thought Downpour was the worst, I actually enjoyed playing Homecoming.
Eagerly awaiting your Higurashi -When They Cry- review now.
I highly recommend the Super Best Friends Play LPs of all of these western Silent Hill games.
They perfectly demonstrate what complete disasters they are.
They aren’t all disasters
loved shattered memories. homecoming could have been a lot better but the boss designs were amazing. downpour was ok
Another banger full of great content and tons of research, great job!
This video made me miss Super Best Friends
Even more. 😥
1:04:00 exactly. hearing those tracks from the Team Silent era only made me wish I were playing those games instead of this one.
47:30 Oh, this part is muted
Shattered memories was the only western dev Silent Hill game to make me cry. My buddy and I stayed up all night, taking turns on running from monsters and making decisions together. When we got to the end, we were both blown away, especially as big fans of Silent Hill 1-3. It was such a good game! I really enjoy shattered memories as a take of the Bad End of SH1. I enjoyed the reimagining of the characters and the human emotion the game has.
It really sucks that team Climax didn't get to take on Homecoming and Downpour, the worst games of the series.
The cop car in downpour made me shake my head in confusion.
The song at the start of origins plays out in full if you walk and don’t run
Murphy getting arrested for a lame crime is actually a really important detail, which you’re dismissing. Him going to prison was literally so he could get to Napier. He picked a crime that wouldn’t hurt other people, because he wants to believe he’s still a good person, but had to make sure it was something that would get him locked up in prison, as opposed to a short jail sentence. He also needed to make sure he’d be locked up long enough to pull the strings to get in the same prison and cell block as Napier. Frank Coleridge even remarks that Murphy is not like the murderers and rapists he’s in with, and is super surprised that he’s in that prison.
I get not liking the execution, but dismissing a conscious and well thought-out choice for the sake of an awkward bit seems disingenuous. Not that Downpour is a great game, far from it. But this plot line was the most interesting part of the game for a lot of people, and probably one of the best non-team Silent plots to come out of the franchise.
Anyway, great video otherwise! Love your stuff as always!
I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the first game was released, all the way back in 1999.
Homecoming got me out of the franchise for many years when I played it upon release. To the point that I only played Downpour 2 years ago.
With that said, I replayed Homecoming last month, and surprisingly I really enjoyed it.
I don't know what's going on here, both on my phone and PS5 RUclips apps, the sound to this video cuts off at the 47:30 min mark.
Yeah same here
Perfect use of the RLM clip
At 47:29 - 48:12 no audio
One series that DID see tons of success by being pushed to western audiences was Advance Wars. Originally Nintendo Wars, it was withheld from western audiences because Nintendo thought Americans wouldn't "get" turn-based strategy. Then Game Boy Wars Advance released here, rebranded as Advance Wars because we never got Game Boy Wars, and was met with MASSIVELY higher popularity in the west than it ever had in Japan. So much so that it made Nintendo rethink their entire perception of western gamers and release Fire Emblem here as well. It got to the point that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin wasn't even released in Japan at all until much later, and the Advance Wars Reboot Camp remake was done by a western studio. Though, it should be noted that Downpour, Origins, and Shattered Memories weren't made by western developers: Downpour was by Czech studio Vatra Games and the other two were by British developers Climax Studios.
35:44 ...That's literally a part of therapy, it is professional as it's one of many types of therapy. This one is called rough / shock therapy, serves as a hard wake up call to slap some senses or realization to your face.
And in fact, SH:SM *DID NOT* lose those crucial factors like The Orders, Alessa, and many things. We're playing as a grown-up Cheryl that's imagining Harry as he travels throughout her memories, as a matter a fact, conjoined memories between hers and Alessa's. Notice her mother's name is Dahlia? It isn't a coincidence. And notice how for whatever reason Lisa exists in "Cheryl's" memory, when Harry did not survive the car accident?
Glad you made this. Just finished SH2 a day ago. I want to play all of the games eventually but I realize as time has went on that the Western games aren't the best.
47:26 voice cuts off😊