Telegraph.co.uk's interview with Sam Barlow

Ten years after the original game and Harry's still searching for his daughter.

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Ryoshockwave
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Post by Ryoshockwave »

Meh, dunno if this needs a spoiler tag, but..
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
I understand why they "restarted", and their wanting to recreate Silent Hill for new fans or w/e. I just don't feel that "Shattered Memories" was entirely... useful for that. Or perhaps it was, I guess I won't know for sure until their next game.

I'm sure that Team Silent wasn't intending on making a direct sequel for Silent Hill 1, but there was enough going on with that storyline to do it. And say what you want about Silent Hill 3, but I feel it was done well for a sequel.

Anyway, Shattered Memories was meant to be a re-imagining of the original in an attempt to start new, correct? But I just feel that they've stripped away all the things that made Silent Hill great in the first place: Alessa, "The Otherworld", supernatural phenomena and, yes, even the "cult". And what did they replace it with? Honestly, not enough to really continue in the direction they are going, as far as I'm concerned.

So, yes, maybe their next game will be completely unrelated to Shattered Memories (and even go back to being "literal"). But then saying they made Shattered Memories for the sake of "restarting" would really boggle my mind...
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki »

Ryoshockwave wrote:Meh, dunno if this needs a spoiler tag, but..
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
I understand why they "restarted", and their wanting to recreate Silent Hill for new fans or w/e. I just don't feel that "Shattered Memories" was entirely... useful for that. Or perhaps it was, I guess I won't know for sure until their next game.

I'm sure that Team Silent wasn't intending on making a direct sequel for Silent Hill 1, but there was enough going on with that storyline to do it. And say what you want about Silent Hill 3, but I feel it was done well for a sequel.

Anyway, Shattered Memories was meant to be a re-imagining of the original in an attempt to start new, correct? But I just feel that they've stripped away all the things that made Silent Hill great in the first place: Alessa, "The Otherworld", supernatural phenomena and, yes, even the "cult". And what did they replace it with? Honestly, not enough to really continue in the direction they are going, as far as I'm concerned.

So, yes, maybe their next game will be completely unrelated to Shattered Memories (and even go back to being "literal"). But then saying they made Shattered Memories for the sake of "restarting" would really boggle my mind...
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
Well, they DID actually state that. -shrug-

I agree that Silent Hill should be supernatural in origin; to make it be, "OMG IT WAS ALL A DREAM/DELUSION!" would cheapen everything, even if the characters have changed as a result of their delusions. At this point, however, they can change things; they can return to a supernatural plot without the baggage of having to strictly stay within the cult storyline, and it's easier now for newer fans to come in and understand what's going on.
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Ryoshockwave
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Post by Ryoshockwave »

Yuki wrote:
Ryoshockwave wrote:Meh, dunno if this needs a spoiler tag, but..
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
I understand why they "restarted", and their wanting to recreate Silent Hill for new fans or w/e. I just don't feel that "Shattered Memories" was entirely... useful for that. Or perhaps it was, I guess I won't know for sure until their next game.

I'm sure that Team Silent wasn't intending on making a direct sequel for Silent Hill 1, but there was enough going on with that storyline to do it. And say what you want about Silent Hill 3, but I feel it was done well for a sequel.

Anyway, Shattered Memories was meant to be a re-imagining of the original in an attempt to start new, correct? But I just feel that they've stripped away all the things that made Silent Hill great in the first place: Alessa, "The Otherworld", supernatural phenomena and, yes, even the "cult". And what did they replace it with? Honestly, not enough to really continue in the direction they are going, as far as I'm concerned.

So, yes, maybe their next game will be completely unrelated to Shattered Memories (and even go back to being "literal"). But then saying they made Shattered Memories for the sake of "restarting" would really boggle my mind...
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
Well, they DID actually state that. -shrug-

I agree that Silent Hill should be supernatural in origin; to make it be, "OMG IT WAS ALL A DREAM/DELUSION!" would cheapen everything, even if the characters have changed as a result of their delusions. At this point, however, they can change things; they can return to a supernatural plot without the baggage of having to strictly stay within the cult storyline, and it's easier now for newer fans to come in and understand what's going on.
We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.
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Post by cascade88 »

AuraTwilight wrote:Guys, reading comprehension skills. They specifically said "Well, we could do a game on these other consoles, or a Wii Sequel", which means that Sequel, in this context, means "Another game on the Wii."
Even in that case, I'd be kind of worried. Another Silent Hill game (even totally unrelated to SHSM) might still carry on the gimmicky waving the Wiimote about to shake off enemies, which might imply they're taking the entire series towards a Clock Tower route, and that, to me, would really, really suck.

Standing alone, SHSM was fine with this, we got an all-new experience with the running + no weapons scheme, and kudos to the team for bringing it to us, but that doesn't mean I never want my Silent Hill protagonist(s) to weild weapons ever again.
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Restoration01
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Post by Restoration01 »

I actually missed Alessa and the Order after playing SM for awhile... :|
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki »

I wouldn't mind having some form of combat included in the next game. Not necessarily the same sort of combat we've had in the previous ones, but maybe utilizing environmental obstacles to actually permanently incapacitate the enemies.
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Post by Kenji »

Really?

We can't wait until a new game has actually been announced before getting our knickers all in a twist over how much it's gonna suck?

Well, it was pretty obvious to me that Barlow was talking about an HD port of Shattered Memories, and that a "sequel" just means "a new installment." I really don't see how there's any justification for thinking that it'll be an actual direct sequel. Let's give Konami/Climax a little credit: they know what they're doing, even if some of us don't like what that is.

As for the control issue, a lot of these exit interviews suggest that their brainstorming the controls was based entirely around the plot outline, which is why the no-combat and Nightmare chase sequences were pretty much there from the beginning and very little thought was given to doing things in a more traditional way... because the story demanded the structure we got. That's an excellent design strategy, and I expect we'll see it in the next game, which means that we might end up with a very different control scheme.

That said, I do expect the psychology element to make a return, even if we never visit another psychologist's office. They've introduced it and announced its existence to us, so they no longer have to point it out with Dr. K. In any case, it's an excellent tool with a lot of potential, so I definitely would like to see it come back in some form.
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Post by cascade88 »

Really?

We can't wait until a new game has actually been announced before getting our knickers all in a twist over how much it's gonna suck?
I didn't say the next game is going to suck. I said that if all the rest of the entries into the series feature no combat at all, that that, in my opinion, would really suck.
Nightmare chase sequences were pretty much there from the beginning and very little thought was given to doing things in a more traditional way... because the story demanded the structure we got. That's an excellent design strategy, and I expect we'll see it in the next game, which means that we might end up with a very different control scheme.
I agree, it worked well with the story we had, far better than going around and shooting things up would have, so sure, kudos to them for being innovative.

That said, for all we know, they might want to do similar things in further game. I have no proof of this, or way of knowing for sure that they would, but no one either has proof that they wouldn't. Basically, this whole scheme worked perfectly in SHSM, but I don't want every following title to play off of the same, purely psychological formula.

For the record, the reason I have any worry at all that they'll just keep on with it was the way they threw around the term "re-inventing the survival-horror genre". I take that it could have meant "No more Silent Hill cult, it's all about messing with your head, who needs weapons--endless running is scarier by far". And while plenty of people here rejoice at the thought of no more cult, and agree on the no combat bit, the cult, and supernatural elements, were part of what drew me, personally, into liking the series in the first place. I don't want to see it gone for good.

That's just my feeling though, I'm certainly not saying I'd hate the series without the cult, I'd just prefer it left in some point in the future.
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