Silent Hill Heaven

Since there aren't any threads yet I'll get the ball rolling. There are a lot of skeptics of this upcoming SH game. What can BoM do to get you to like it? For me it's two things:

1. Fun

BoM sounds like a little side title to me. It doesn't need a good story to make me happy. I just need it to be enjoyable to play.

2. Not Too Complicated

BoM also sounds kindof like a casual title to me. If it isn't, it needs to do something to change that image quickly, or my expectation of it will be for it to not be overly complex. I don't want some kinda online multiplayer, downloady, internet, dlc kinda game. I want something I can get into easily, play anytime, and consistantly have the same kinda fun with just like a Mario Kart game.

Primarily for the gameplay and camera to work in tandem properly.

One of the biggest problems that SH games have had is poor, poor camera controls. I've never been a big fan of isometric anything, but Bastion helped me warm up to it. If they can present all of what's happening on-screen coherently, that's all I'd really want.

People to buy it.



Eggnog - I think it's more complicated than you think it is. However, I think it's less complicated than you are fearing.

Mostly, I'm interesting in seeing where they go with the whole "book that lets you write your life" thing. It's an interesting concept, but one I never would have imagined applied to Silent Hill, so I'm pretty curious what they are going to be doing with it. I'll be buying a Vita eventually, but not anytime soon, so I'll likely wind up spoilering myself on this front when the game comes out. So I guess "what I want" would be an interesting story that does what it can with the concept it is going for. This may be a non-survival-horror spin-off, but it's still Silent Hill, right?

But, of course, when I do eventually buy it, if my friend also buys a Vita, we'll likely have a blast playing through it either way. So of course I want it to be fun.

Mostly I want it not to exist.

Typographenia wrote:Primarily for the gameplay and camera to work in tandem properly.

Definitely this. A game that plays smoothly and isn't frustrating for technical reasons.

Droo wrote:Mostly I want it not to exist.

Why? It's not hurting anyone. Aren't you writing it off a bit too early because it's a spin-off game? I mean, it's not exactly the gameplay and style I want from Silent Hill either, but Downpour seems to be delivering on that, so...

For all we know, Book of Memories will be the coolest story EVER, so let's at least wait and see what the game is like in full before we go full on negativity. :/

The monsters are going to be "returning" from previous installments, primarily, indicates to me this will go down the Homecoming route of Pyramid Head's nonsensical cameo.

The insane cancer and air screamers, for example. The insane cancer is Heather specific and the air screamer only exists as a repressed fear of Alessa's.

As for the game having a good story, since the main character is YOU, there's not much depth the story can go into since Konami knows nothing about Silent Hill players (clearly proven by this game's very existence, but I digress).

I can already tell quite confidently that a better subtitle for this game would be "Silent Hill: Cavalcade Of Stupid".

If you read/watch the interviews about this game, though, they have said that there is definitely a reason why there are recurring monsters and that the story is still a Silent Hill story and despite popular belief, it's made to fit in the canon. And this is coming from the same people who have also recently gone on record to talk about how Pyramid Head in Homecoming was a mistake and that he is exclusive to James, which is why he isn't in Downpour. They have proven that they know what they are talking about, so when they say that the recurring monsters will make sense in this story, I believe them.

Hell, for all we know, the story is about this book being used by fans to write terrible Silent Hill fanfiction. :p
(by the way, that would be the best plot twist ever)

Premise: Bad SH fanfic writers dragged into SH to be punished by monsters they shouldn't have been using in their stories while also simultaneously providing fan-service to players.

It's just so subversive it's almost genius.

Best Silent Hill game ever.

I just don't see why it has to be Silent Hill, it seems like they wanted to tack the SH name onto something completely different, like with SH4. (A game I admire somewhat, regardless) I think that Silent Hill is about a certain type of experience, and this game looks like a completely different type of experience. Maybe a good game in that regard, but why Silent Hill? (an attempt to help bolster the sale of vitas by attaching an established franchise? Could be.)

I guess what I would want from this game wouldnt be doable at this point, I would just want it to tone itself down. The concept art they showed in the gameplay trailer looks like sci-fi fantasy. A bunch of scooby-doo teens go to Silent Hill to unlock the secret magic mystery!

So I still dont know what to make of this game.

Silent Hill 4 did not have the SH name tacked on at the end, it was developed as a SH game from Day 1, you have been misinformed. Book of Memories was also designed as a Silent Hill game from Day 1, but it's clearly meant to be a small spin-off that tries to tackle a very different kind of horror. It's a small little spin-off, and as I said earlier, rather harmless. Who knows, maybe it'll prompt Vita buyers to check out HD Collection and Downpour and get into the series proper.

>.> I just want it to be fun, really, for what it is.

I'm pretty down on BoM, but maybe there is a way that could make it interesting for me...

There could be some kind of 4th wall breaking meta-textual theme to the game where it is more about playing you, the player and fan of silent hill, and intends to screw with your perceptions through some sort of sleight of hand things.

Sort of think of what Shattered Memories did. Its sets you up to expect a re-imagined/remake of Silent Hill 1... and then goes in a totally different direction, and then there's the final twist that causes you to re-examine everything you played through to see things in a whole new light.

Or in the case of another game where Metal Gear Solid 2's placing of the character of Raiden as a person controlled and ordered around to fulfill objectives in a created simulation by non-human AI is a clever allegory to the Metal Gear solid fan who idolizes Solid Snake, has memories of Shadow Moses and wants to repeat the experience, and is controlling an avatar, listening to fake people in a game give him objectives as the purpose of the game, created by a group of developers who might be unknown to him.

Similarly, maybe there could be some similar story device to this game that will make it more than what it's appearing to be. Then the 'gamey' elements we hate and the monster cameos may just be a sideshow, when the purpose of the game is all along to play upon the 'memories' that fans had of the previous games... hence the theme of memories, reuse of monsters, and more emphasized gamey elements, and on the social-ness of the Silent Hill fan community through co-op.

So maybe along those lines the like Cheryl in Shattered Memories, Book of Memories is relative of what is taking place in our minds with our memories of Silent Hill as a gaming experience, but now it's something 'invading' us that we hold more physically and interact with more (particularly emphasized by a portable device with touch.)

If something very clever like that is what's going on with BoM, then I'll definitely reconsider it.

Monster wrote:completely different, like with SH4.

If you think SH4 is "completely different" from the other games, I don't know what to tell you.

As for the (completely silly) "returning monsters" problem - here's an alternate explanation:

Monsters are manifestation of the protagonist.
This game's protagonist is you.
What monsters do you think of when you think Silent Hill?
Bam! Done.

This aspect of Silent Hill has been way overblown by fans as it isn't even true in the original 4 games for every single monster. It's loosely true in SH1, true of most of SH2, and then magically it's a blanket thing that every game MUST STICK TO OR ELSE. It's far more applied in SM and Downpour than it was in SH3 or 4.

I just want it to be fun. I have no qualms with this game; the majority of Silent Hill games aren't going down this route, and I quite like the universe and monsters, so this hopefully will just be a fun little romp through the SH world.

PyramidFace wrote:

Monster wrote:completely different, like with SH4.

If you think SH4 is "completely different" from the other games, I don't know what to tell you.
.

Switch from 3D to 2D controls. More focus on combat. Not once running around the town. Much of the game not being in Silent Hill. Limited item management. Ghosts. Portals. Charge attacks. Not being abale to go into a menu to equip things or use items. Fewer puzzles. No otherworld, at least not like the other games. Different structure of redoing levels. More unkillable enemies. Only one boss. More focus on meele weapons. A room that heals you. Less focus on maps. No flashlight or radio. A multi-hour escort where the person with you can't die, can be cursed, and can use weapons. Silver bullets. Can't use directional buttons for movement. A lot less 'get this item to unlock this to get this to use on that to get etc.' gameplay, which to me is what makes a game a survial horror game, therefore... Not a survival horror game. No UFO ending. So different that people thought it wasn't originally intended to be a SH game. Less American horror style. Watching people do mundane things. First person portions. Much of main plot told through memos.

The list goes on and on and on. Silent hill 4 was way, way different from the previous games.

PyramidFace wrote:This aspect of Silent Hill has been way overblown by fans as it isn't even true in the original 4 games for every single monster. It's loosely true in SH1, true of most of SH2, and then magically it's a blanket thing that every game MUST STICK TO OR ELSE. It's far more applied in SM and Downpour than it was in SH3 or 4.

That's sorta true, yeah. I'd say that the monsters in SH1 all have their roots in Alessa, but none of them are even remotely obvious without outside sources, as we'd never know what she had been afraid of or what her favorite books were otherwise. But in Silent Hill 3 and 4, I still can't figure out exactly how some of the monsters are relevant to any of the characters. That being said, it IS an aspect of the games that is really cool, and one of our favorites, so that's why we push it so much.

Still, this isn't the first instance of recurring monsters, and I'm not just talking about Pyramid Head either. Creepers went on to be in more games than SH1. The Closer in SH3 was in SH2 with a different name. There are a few instances of this, and it's implied that these monsters were taken in by the town and no longer just relevant to their origin. So, this can still make sense.

I've been saying for years now that the Otherworld is a sponge that reuses material if it can cut corners, due to it's communal, archetypal nature. And I see no problem with, "Hey, this Book that effects memories and rewrites people's histories is TOTES MAKING THE OTHERWORLD GLITCH THE FUCK OUT AND BURP OUT EVURAYTHAAAAAAAANG"