Is Siren a spiritual sequel to this game?

Post by **Kupomee** » 27 Sep 2008

So, been playing Siren 2 for the first time this week and noticed more than a few similarities between Siren and Silent Hill 1.
Now I know that some of the people that did Silent Hill 1 are working on the Siren series now, don't know the specifics of that though. But if it's some of the writer's on Silent Hill that moved on to Siren, it wouldn't surprise me...

Spoilers for Siren 2 coming up!

Not that far into the game and it's Siren 2 I'm playing first, but already I noticed the civil-defense-siren-like noise for otherworld transitions, ghosts moving like the nurses and doctors in Silent Hill, and bleeding from eyes and mouth like Lisa Garland did, strange weather like fog and storms and in general the urban setting gone ghostly and wrong.
In fact, I started thinking, if this game were a sequel to Silent Hill 1 and we didn't have the information we now have from the other Silent Hill games, everything so far would fit plot-wise.

Am I horribly wrong in thinking the Siren franchise might be a storyline originally meant for Silent Hill sequels? Another direction they might have taken the series?

Mind you I don't know much about what happened with the original Team Silent members and I haven't played much of the Siren games. Just a feeling I got, thought I'd ask about it.
What I noticed that drove me to this theory was the similarity between the ghosts in Silent Hill 1 and the ones in Siren. The way the nurses and doctors move and look and the way most enemies in Silent Hill 1 look very human, as opposed to other Silent Hill games, but not to Siren...

Post by **Doo-glas** » 28 Sep 2008

you could perhaps describe them as "cousins"

except one is great and the other is a huge missed opportunity (note I haven't played the PS3 remake yet)

Post by **Mis Krist.** » 28 Sep 2008

I honestly don't see any connection between them besides similar horror game concepts being reused -- which, by the way, aren't privy to the Silent Hill series and the creators of it.

Post by **jthomp1286** » 28 Sep 2008

Agreed, see the movie Jacob's Ladder for some influences. I have heard very little of the Siren series save for the SH similarities that you have mentioned and that some former members of Team Silent are working on it. I've been meaning to get my hands on one of them.

TheRedOne · Post by **TheRedOne** » 28 Sep 2008

I have to agree with Krist on this one. The games are similar, but it's not as if Silent Hill was the first to use these ideas either.

Post by **Kupomee** » 28 Sep 2008

So does anyone know which members of Team Silent moved on to do Siren then?
Was it most of Team Silent or just two or three people?

Post by **Mis Krist.** » 28 Sep 2008

Just like, one guy.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 28 Sep 2008

Silent Hill and Siren both capitalize on general horror concepts that have existed in the social consciousness of Japan since the time of folklore. No big deal, though Siren IS god damned amazing.

Post by **Harrys_Girl** » 28 Sep 2008

The only reason I started playing Siren (mind you, I have only played the first one, thus far), was because my brother told me it was like SH.

Of course, I was skeptical and while there is a few similarities in the storyline, I found the atmosphere of Siren and SH very different. Siren has this closed-in feel that, to me SH does not. Siren has many more characters, the music and sound effects are much more... soothing. SH has the creepy music that makes shivers and goosebumps travel up and down your back, while Siren has this false sense of security in that the music is all vocal.

Post by **Fredrick2003** » 07 Oct 2008

I might give Siren another go. I rented it a couple of years ago and couldn't get anywhere.

Maybe a strategy guide is in order...

Post by **Kupomee** » 07 Oct 2008

Creepy vocals is what makes this game creepy to me.
Haven't played the first Siren yet but I already hate the voice-overs in that one.
Also noticed that Siren 2 seems to take place in an otherworld where people tend to meet their worst fears and inner demons.
But Siren has much more of those ghosts like you find in Silent Hill 3 a couple of times. More human-based ghosts haunting places like shown in the mediocre-movie "The Grudge".
Some more differences in style and story make me disagree with my first post right now, still some nice similarities.

And I agree fully with the last part of Aura's post.

Post by **MarcusMiller84** » 01 Dec 2008

I own the first Siren. I like the story and concept, but it is ridiculously hard.

Post by **Kenji** » 02 Dec 2008

I'm very much a fan of the Siren series. The first game had pretty bad voice acting (though a couple of characters had voices that grew on you, namely Shiro Miyata, Tamon Takeuchi, and Miyako Kajiro) and a difficulty curve as steep as a wall. Took me over a year to completely beat, which I did without a strategy guide to 100% completion.

It was an excellent game with an excellent storyline that required more than a little knowledge of Japanese mythology to get. The entire plot was, like the level structure of the first two games, given in pieces with you being tasked to putting it all together. Siren 2 and Siren: New Translation improve the gameplay drastically with each iteration, and now I hear the experience is top-notch (I don't have a PS3, so I can't say much about it).

Now, onto the similarities. I'm not sure how many members of the initial Team Silent transferred to Project Siren, but the obvious one is Keiichirou Toyama, SH1's director. This explains most, if not all, of the cosmetic and thematic similarities between the two games. Really, the first Siren is like a fusion of all the aspects of SH1 into a single storyline,

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including the UFO ending.

I have a hunch that if Toyama had continued to direct Silent Hill games, the series would probably resemble Siren rather closely in there being tangential connections, time loops (implied by the Next Fear opening until SH3 destroyed the looping theory), and a series of strange godlike beings that resemble a more serious version of the Chthulu Mythos. The town would probably be actually abandoned, too. Again, just a hunch.

I do recommend these games, though. They're hard (though each successive one gets more forgiving and introduces selectable diffiulties... the first one's sole difficulty is "Rape"), but once you get a third of the way through, the rewards really start to stack up.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 02 Dec 2008

Me and my boyfriend have been playing Siren (me again, him first time) and we both agree it's actually scarier than Silent Hill. Perfect chance to squeel and cling to my big strong man for protection while he sightjacks.

Post by **Actraiser** » 02 Dec 2008

Siren's storyline is also VERY disturbing....once you learn what is actually going on, it changes everything from supernatural to an almost plausible scenario. I recommend it to survival horror fanatics, but its very different in the fact that its like you're playing a Splinter Cell survival horror.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 03 Dec 2008

What do you mean? It's still blatantly supernatural. It's not like they're all high.

Post by **Actraiser** » 03 Dec 2008

I find the scenario that...

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An alien landed in the village and all the townsfolk were so hungry
that they ate "Datatsushi." That is the origin of all the freakishness in the town, the strange
cult, and ultimately the siren itself

Now true, there are a lot of supernatual elements in the game, but I find it more believeable
that it would truly happen rather than what happens in other Survival Horror games.

Post by **Kenji** » 04 Dec 2008

It really depends on your perception of

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aliens. I tend to think that there are things out there that are beyond our capacity to understand,

so, to a certain extent, I agree with you.

That said, it's extremely speculatory.

Post by **AuraTwilight** » 04 Dec 2008

Well, yea, Datatsushi is an alien, but it's also an alien from another dimension, not outer space. And considering it has godlike powers that defy the Laws of Physics, it's more like a Cthulhu-esque doom deity than some space alien.

Post by **Kenji** » 04 Dec 2008

Yup, pretty much.

From what I hear of Siren 2, the connection to the Chthulu-esque elements are even more apparent, what with where the gods in question are. If I recall, the British site even references the Chthulu Mythos directly...

Again, really interesting stuff.

One of my favorite parts is how, because of the nature of the time loops, even all the screwups you make are "official" actions the characters take. They all become ShrÃ¶edinger's cats, in a way, even the ones who technically escape.