The fourth game is a backtracky piece of shit tbh, though it did have a lot of novel ideas.
The third game is solid but ultimately is kind of the beginning for the end and bluntly the cult horror aspect of Silent Hill should have remained abandoned because it is one of the least interesting elements of the series. Refining and furthering what 2 did should have been the goal, not regressing back to 1.
Not a super fan of the perspective of the SH2 remake. James also looks different and has an older/more gruff voice I'm not a fan of.
SHf is the new mainline entry. Looks like the gods of SH spread to a new local in Japan, so they aren't confined to SH anymore (they've done this before, but usually neighboring towns; never across the world).
Townfall I think is supposed to be more of an interactive narative I think? The devs are called no-code, and aparently their interactive narative horror games before this were pretty damn good (observation which is a space sci-fi horror where you play as a space station AI trying to solve the disappearance of your crew; stories untold which is an episodic game that's a mix of adventure game genres, including text-based adventure, first-person exploration, and puzzle solving). I'm intriged by the trailer. That dudes monologue instilled a good amount of dread, and I love brutal endings in my horror media.
Ascencion is a group interactive experience by some game developers and big name movie directors. Not sure what to expect here, but it's at the bottom of my excitment ranking for everything. I'll still be there, but SH should be more of a solo experience IMO. At the very least, should be an entertaining movie all together.
They also announced the new movie from the director of the first game. It's supposed to be more psychological in nature, and it looks like the director is trying to adapt SH2 (dude goes to silent hill looking for some lost love; I assume it's going to be Sean Beans character from the first movie looking for his wife and kid?). The director confirmed that they're bringing back Pyramid head in it.
Yeah, that dev team is unproven, but I'm hoping they hired talent and put together a rag tag team of specialized people specifically for this. I'm not sure who kera (cant find anything) is, but he/she had to have put up some pretty good concept art for creatures to be hired (and they've got Ito with them) with no background. Creature and concept art from Ito himself? The trailer itself is full CGI, but it looks more AAA with detail that everything else we saw. The dude they have writing it is known for making some stellar Japanese visual novel stories (focusing on mysteries, psychological and supernatural horror; sounds perfect for Silent Hill). He may not be anyone we know huge in the US, but he's shown talent. Also, they're all Japanese based talent which any new mainline entry should be. I'm not opposed to them trying to make their own new team that specializes in SH.
I need to get me some of Ryukishi07 works. Apparently, Umineko is the highest rated visual novel of all time. Higurashi is considered to be just as good too. SUPER intrigued by this hire. This dude has the potential to make the best SH story we've seen since 2.
So, time to take a crack at dissecting the trailer for the new mainline entry and making some story guesses. My main guess is that we're seeing the origin of the games main antagonist. You can see a shot of her in early concept art from 2020, but I guess a lot has changed since then since the stick note motif is gone, the game no longer takes place somewhere with English as the main dialect, and it takes place a few decades into the past (sticky notes were made in the 1980s; this is 1960s Japan according to press release).
Starts with a girl visiting someone's grave (I'm assuming a loved one like a parent, friend, or sibling)? The grave is already covered in the fungus/plants that overtake her at the end of the trailer. I'm assuming this is ground zero and the circumstances of this persons death are pretty unsavory. That or this person was somehow involved in the occult and it's on their grave due to something they did prior to death.
It then then cuts to the girl walking through town with a bloody pipe (dripping blood and leaving a trail, so she had literally JUST killed someone). I'm assuming it's revenge for whatever happened to the person in the grave? Anyway, the fungal infection is overtaking the town as it follows her. She seems to be it's objective (meaning it's sentient; makes sense, the town always kind of is). If this is another psychological take of the town, I'm assuming it's trying to consume her due to her own mental state. Maybe due to whomever she killed (meaning it's not black and white, and the person she killed may not totally deserve it)? The grave is ground zero, but I'd guess that her that killing someone is what set off the spread of the infection. She walks through town and we get shots of the fungus overtaking an ichimatsu doll. I'm sure that's symbolism for something but could mean a bunch of things (the most obvious of which happens to the girl at the end).
Anyway, at this point, there's a bit of a jump from her walking through town and then in the tunnel. She's had a rough go so far. Her clothes are all torn and she's sporting some new injuries. She lost her sleeve, her skirt is in tatters, and both her shoes/socks are gone. She also lost her blasphemy pipe from earlier. I'm assuming she's just been trying (and failing) to outpace the infection, and it's slowly just tearing away at her until it whittles her down enough to claim her. It injures her some more, she tries to run, and the infection overtakes the entire tunnel finally claiming her.
Then we cut to night time and she's on a small boat completely overtaken by the fungal infection. IDK if matters, but she's floating past a torii. (Japanese arches usually indicative of being in or near a sacred shrine). Red torii gates are supposed to represent vital force and ward off evil spirits; IDK if it means anything here, but you know SH with its symbolism. Anyway, the girls boat at this point is saturated in the same flora that covered the grave. There are random limbs in the water. She and her boat seems to be spreading the infection to them before they even touch the boat (so she now gives off an aura of the infection).
The infection then overtakes and blossoms throughout the entire lake the same way it did the tunnel she was in. It's spread throughout her entire body at this point and she's sporting a crown of the flora. A tear goes down her face and then floor makes its way down the sides of her head, completely bisecting a frontal portion of her head off. I think it's also worth noting that the fog seems to get thicker as the flora spreads. It's present in small amounts in the beginning at the grave and the town. The tunnel she's in gets straight up saturated in the fog as it overtakes it and catches her. The lake she's in has a layer of it that gets higher and eventually goes over her head as it gets overtaken. I think the fog is generated by the flora this time around. Finally, the entire screen gets saturated by the fog and they use it to fade white and show us the new title style. Silent Hill is written in red brush strokes and we've got a weird f that I'm sure means something. I can't find much for it though. It's a letter from latin script, and that's about all I've got.
I'm not the most observant person, so I don't suppose any of you picked up on anything else?
Agreed, actually. NuJames model is also is a bit of a step down from OldJames. OldJames looks younger, has a sharp square chad jaw, and no real wrinkles. NuJames looks like a bit of a wuss. He's crying in like every shot (seriously, he's constantly in tears lmao) and he looks older. OldJames looked like he'd be capable of some serious shit. His bathroom scene set the tone in a completely different way. It was unnerving and dreamlike vs typical depressing
For anyone who wants to see them side by side: (please log in to view the image) (please log in to view the image)
Still excited and I'll get it day 1, but I don't see them translating a lot of scenes well if they already missed on the intro. There are a few other things that are off. Pyramid Head and the bubble nurses look too clean. Mess their skin up a bit.
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Oct 17th, 2022 09:45 PM
