How did you feel when the game ended?

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

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eeks
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by eeks »

I thought that Harry was an extremely promiscuous jerkwad and a terrible father. :P
Incidentally, I hated my friends for sitting next to me and forcing me to choose all the sexual options on my first play-through.

I was actually really content with the storyline, just discontent with the nightmare sections (except for the Nowhere part - loved that long fall and the swimming section) and how short the game was. I think I completed it in six hours or less. The twist wasn't mindblowing, but the story was handled well in my opinion.

So I can safely say I was happy with the game.

I felt absolutely derpy holding the wiimote up to my ear, though.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by AuraTwilight »

You an change the options so that the phonecalls come from your television instead of the wiimote, eeks. I didn't realize that on my first playthrough either.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by WelcomeToNowhere »

It was sad. Very sad and Bawww-worthy, of course.

But at the same time, I was rather disappointed with the loose ends and incongruities.

Plus, even when the psych answers were diametrically different, the gameplay wasn't THAT different. I was just expecting... something else, I guess.

I also didn't like that you couldn't just walk up to something and examine it with A or X. I felt like a fucking moron just standing around waiting for Harry to notice something and comment on it.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by AuraTwilight »

But at the same time, I was rather disappointed with the loose ends and incongruities.
Wait, what are you referring to, here?
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Yuki
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by Yuki »

WelcomeToNowhere wrote:It was sad. Very sad and Bawww-worthy, of course.

But at the same time, I was rather disappointed with the loose ends and incongruities.

Plus, even when the psych answers were diametrically different, the gameplay wasn't THAT different. I was just expecting... something else, I guess.

I also didn't like that you couldn't just walk up to something and examine it with A or X. I felt like a fucking moron just standing around waiting for Harry to notice something and comment on it.
I second the questions about loose ends and incongruities, because as far as I can remember--and I just played through it today--the narrative's pretty tight.

As for examining objects, did you know that zooming in makes him comment faster? You zoom in, keep the camera steady, and it takes maybe 3 seconds or so before he comments.
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wonder's boy
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by wonder's boy »

It took me until after the second therapy session to realize you could zoom to make him comment faster. After that, I was zoomin' in on just about everything from posters to lumps on the ground.

The loose ends did leave me feeling a little disappointed, as I was expecting a lot more to be explained at the end than was. I realize it may have been a little illogical to expect some of the questions lingering from the first parts of the game to be concretely explained by the ending. I just couldn't help but want more concrete evidence to back up my theories, though forming my own theories and beliefs on what those loose ends really meant was almost half the fun after completing the game the first time. I believe the open-endedness was a part of what made the story so personal for me. I was able to arrive at all these conclusions on what certain parts meant to Cheryl's past and her psyche and problems, which greatly satisfied that part of me that loves to theorize.

On the incongruities, I agree about being disappointed. This disappointment wasn't inhibiting in major ways, though, as I often found them to go in line with how bizarre a person's mind can be when going through therapy, especially if they're as disturbed as Cheryl.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by WelcomeToNowhere »

@AuraTwilight: I mean, you never find out anything about Dahlia, like which one is real; you never REALLY know anything about Lisa, like is she an actual person or just a memory on a videotape?

And who was sending all those texts to Harry from United Fruitcaekz, and does that make the UFO ending canon?

Was Harry really a man-slut? A drunk? An abuse-victim? An alien abductee?

And what was Cheryl Heather Mason's deal? Who WAS she, really?

You don't get any real answers to any of them. And that's a little annoying.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by stopped_clock »

^As for what Harry was, well that depends on what you make him through your style of gameplay, all those possibilities are valid depending on which ending you got, you might as well say that SH2 has loose ends because
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
we never know whether James killed himself, left with Maria, left with Laura or did a little necromancy.
Regarding Cheryl, you find out an awful lot about her if you just pay attention, in fact, you get a large chunk of her life story delivered through various methods throughout the game.

It seems that when you say that there are loose ends what you actually mean is that you want everything spelled out for you and nothing left open to interpretation, which really isn't the Silent Hill way. Can you imagine how much it would have sucked if at the end Dr K gave a ten minute exposition speech to explain to you what you'd just experienced in baby-terms?
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by AuraTwilight »

I mean, you never find out anything about Dahlia, like which one is real; you never REALLY know anything about Lisa, like is she an actual person or just a memory on a videotape?
Depending on the ending you get, Cheryl walks outside of the clinic to see the real Dahlia (who's visible in most of the ending videotapes and a locket anyway).
And who was sending all those texts to Harry from United Fruitcaekz, and does that make the UFO ending canon?
You can't be serious. It's the Joke Ending.
Was Harry really a man-slut? A drunk? An abuse-victim? An alien abductee?

And what was Cheryl Heather Mason's deal? Who WAS she, really?
The whole game is about who Cheryl really is and information's sort of crammed down your throat. Harry is intended to be a different person depending on how you play the game, it's just that either way he's not the ideal Cheryl made him out to be.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by Yuki »

WelcomeToNowhere wrote:@AuraTwilight: I mean, you never find out anything about Dahlia, like which one is real; you never REALLY know anything about Lisa, like is she an actual person or just a memory on a videotape?
Those aren't loose ends; those are all up to interpretation and were done so purposefully. At least, in Lisa's case; Dahlia isn't a loose end. You see the real Dahlia in multiple endings, as well as in a memento.
A loose end would be more along the lines of a plotline that wasn't resolved, not something that we're supposed to interpret. The most popular theory seems to be that Lisa was just a construct Cheryl's psyche created to manifest her guilt, just as Harry had guilt for Lisa's death despite it not being his fault.
WelcomeToNowhere wrote: And who was sending all those texts to Harry from United Fruitcaekz, and does that make the UFO ending canon?
The UFO ending is a joke ending. The United Fruitcaekz... well, look at it. UF. Almost UFO. It's all a joke.
WelcomeToNowhere wrote: Was Harry really a man-slut? A drunk? An abuse-victim? An alien abductee?
It depends on your playthrough. Silent Hill games have multiple endings; if you think they're loose ends, then each and every Silent Hill game has loose ends except the first (whose ending is resolved in 3.)
WelcomeToNowhere wrote: And what was Cheryl Heather Mason's deal? Who WAS she, really?

You don't get any real answers to any of them. And that's a little annoying.
Cheryl Heather Mason is precisely that: Cheryl Heather Mason. Her father died when she was seven years old, and as a result she led an unstable life. She held a strong dislike for her mother and a strong affinity for older men, going so far as to seem cold toward guys her age. She eventually began stealing from the mall and became unbalanced, possibly even killing a security guard who tried to stop her. She then wound up completely denying that her father had died, which is why she's in Kaufmann's office.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by CreEPy pAYPhonE »

^ That is just another reason that I so dislike SHSM. The story seems so fucking cliche to me. I mean, no matter what ending you get it's still all basically the same.
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
The main character is actually dead (oh no, we've never seen that before).
It's all an illusion, or a lie or whatever you want to call it because it's not real no matter how you look at it (Holy shit, they really M. Night Shamalyned my ass with that one).
And lastly, the main character is crazy/sad/unstable/whatever because her daddy died when she was young (DAMN, they just won't stop with the twist endings, I think my head's gonna fucking explode).
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
On a sidenote: You would think, based on how many times it's done in hollywood (and ,now, Silent Hill, it would seem), that there would be thousands more unstable people in the world [then there actually are] because they lost a parent at a young age. . . .No offense to anyone who has lost a parent. If you have, then you truly have my condolences.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by alone in the town »

If there's one thing I love, it's when someone oversimplifies a complex work and criticizes the result they invented, as if someone could not possibly do that to every story ever written.

A dad trying to save his daughter? Crazy cults? How many millions of times has that been done? Man, the first Silent Hill fucking blows.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by KoRn_Child »

alone in the town wrote:If there's one thing I love, it's when someone oversimplifies a complex work and criticizes the result they invented, as if someone could not possibly do that to every story ever written.

A dad trying to save his daughter? Crazy cults? How many millions of times has that been done? Man, the first Silent Hill fucking blows.

Agreed. Any piece of fiction can be boiled down to its basic elements and sound lame.


Anyway, my reaction to the ending: Seeing Harry walk in while Dr. K was talking to me confused the hell out of me. It wasn't until Dr. K addressed me as "Cheryl" that I realized what was going on. I was stunned. The revelation about Harry's death completely blindsided me, and seeing Cheryl face her father's memory was heartbreaking. Watching Harry freeze up and shatter into pieces was one of the most emotional moments I've ever experienced in a game. I felt sad not only for Cheryl, but also for Harry (well, Cheryl's mental reconstruction of him, at least). The ending left me floored. I was completely satisfied and even a little bit heartbroken.

Then I got kicked back to the main menu. No video game has ever made me cry. But I'll be damned if seeing that menu screen immediately after watching the ending didn't come close.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by CreEPy pAYPhonE »

alone in the town wrote:If there's one thing I love, it's when someone oversimplifies a complex work and criticizes the result they invented, as if someone could not possibly do that to every story ever written.

A dad trying to save his daughter? Crazy cults? How many millions of times has that been done? Man, the first Silent Hill fucking blows.
Indeed. How about some originality. It's that simple.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by alone in the town »

CreEPy pAYPhonE wrote:
alone in the town wrote:If there's one thing I love, it's when someone oversimplifies a complex work and criticizes the result they invented, as if someone could not possibly do that to every story ever written.

A dad trying to save his daughter? Crazy cults? How many millions of times has that been done? Man, the first Silent Hill fucking blows.
Indeed. How about some originality. It's that simple.
If there's a workable story idea, someone's already used it in some fashion. Guaranteed.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by LSSJGamer »

"Well that download to my PSP was well worth the $29.99 I payed for it about 6 hours ago..... now to play the game again to watch Lisa change clothes."
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by _Drake_ »

I cried. I cried tears so manly sad, that the universe tore itself open and for a moment, I was crying side by side with Kenshiro, Roah, and Toki from Fist of the North Star.

Seriously though, I cried. I did not see the ending coming, at all. Yes, there were hints but they were expertly done in a way which alluded to it but did not out right state it. I don't care how "Unoriginal" it was, everything has been done if you boil it down to the bare-bones simplicity.

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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by SH3girl32 »

I was confused like always. Like I said in another thread, this game was a mind-fuck. You think one thing, then you learn another. Hard to say though cuz not everyone gets the same endings. I always get the same one, but for ha ha's, I tried to get others when I changed my answers from the beginning. (I'm sure everyone has obviously done that as well) I felt sad cuz of the song to be completely honest. My ending results from my 1st play through actually sounded like me, but after that, it was different. Strange.
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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by Ghost »

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Re: How did you feel when the game ended?

Post by jeremyjh »

This and 2 were the only ending where I was shocked beyond believe the IMO one of the top reasons to play this game is to see the ending cut scene after going through it all.
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