Flowery monsters?

Everything we know - and don't know, I guess - about all those Silent Hill rumours.

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jdnation
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Flowery monsters?

Post by jdnation »

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Going off the Ito concept art, alongside his cherry blossom creature, the environment itself looks tree-like.

The post it notes resemble leaves that you see growing on vine-covered walls.
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Could also be similar to corral or fungi.
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The Last of Us had their creature designs as people reclaimed by nature with fungi growing out of them. But whereas Last of Us went for a more zombie-ish rotting approach, Masahiro Ito has a more ghostly elegant approach that is closer to something like Japanese Yokai.

Ito's design philosophy in previous games tends to have a consistency. SH1 were things Alessa was afraid of. SH2 has a very leathery texture and the feeling that creatures are people trapped within their clothing or an object and can't get out. Also a kind of sex-appeal. SH3 was Heather sharing some of those same fears as Alessa, but also things of body image and pregnancy and pain.

The cherry blossom monster and environment here may be a clue to whatever new design consistency he might come up with.

It would be interesting if the motif were trees and flowers and nature. You can certainly find some typical scary plants like cacti or venus fly taps, but it'd be more interesting to take more common beautiful plants and make them horrific. In a similar way of tying sex appeal in SH2, a different aesthetic of beauty can also be worked into something both inviting and deadly to disturb the viewer. And well, plants and fruit can also be visually alluring and 'sexual.'

My guess is that we will see more creatures tied to flora and contrasted with environments of human waste.

This might also come from the old SH5 idea of horror in sunlight. More brighter environments with surreal colors. It makes sense that there be plants or a more out-doorsy appearence, or bringing the outside - inside.

The idea of trees and branches also ties in with my idea that the meta-theme of the game may have to do with commentary on the internet and social media and surveillance. The web interpreted within the otherworld as a giant branching thing.

If a person is also the sum of their thoughts, then branches and leaves and petals sprouting out of you can be a literal expression of oneself. The 'I hate myself' girl image perhaps is meant to evoke that idea, that there is a whole jumble of thoughts within us and something always grows out of them.

Flowers also carry mythical and religious significances... perfect for followers of a certain cult making drugs from a certain flower...
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/F ... ology.html

A radical new idea of creature design and the otherworld may be what could put Silent Hill back in the spotlight again.

Also, perhaps a new means of combat and puzzles? Something involving fire or water? And also, health items? :idea: ?

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MistahJ
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by MistahJ »

I really like your ideas here! I wonder if a possible Otherworld transition could be light being let into a previously dim or dark area, and then the Cherry Blossom monster appearing/nature spreading. This would make the player fear sunlight as it would usher in a transition to the Otherworld. Also, speaking of nature themes, I noticed that in the other image of the Cherry Blossom monster that the way she's positioned makes it seem like she sways as she walks, which would fit her being based off a tree. I like your idea of using fire or water; I think it would be fitting if we had to burn things since plants and paper (like the post it notes) are super flammable. It would be interesting if they subverted expectations later and introduced plants/creatures that thrive in the dark too.
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jdnation
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by jdnation »

Yeah I get the impression that the sakura leaves on the head and hands and maybe beneath the clothing are always moving as if being blown by the wind, but there is no wind around. So they more resemble a swarm of bees.

Only fly in the ointment of this idea is that this creature seems like a one-off for a new playable teaser that is not necessarily part of any one of the multuple projects.

So that could also mean that this is the only creature Ito designed for this if P.T. is any indication.

And we don't know if Ito worked on any of the other games.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by Droo »

If they're going for a nature motif with this one, maybe have it set in the past before the town industrialized?

Although the glasses girl doesn't look like she'd be from that time era.
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The Adversary
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by The Adversary »

>Flowers also carry mythical and religious significances... perfect for followers of a certain cult making drugs from a certain flower...<
Not just White Claudia. The Acacia plant is also heavily referenced in Silent Hill 2, particularly in regards to the resurrection ritual.

Acacia

A genus of evergreen trees of the mimosa tribe of the pea family. Its tiny flowers are yellow or white and grow in clusters. Common varieties include the "gum tree".

The Acacia Tree is a potent symbol in many religions across the World. In Christianity it represents eternal life and morality.

In ancient Egypt it represented purity and rebirth, while in ancient Babylonia it was thought of as the tree of the Goddess Ishtar and was a symbol of Life.

It was also a holy tree to the Ancient Jews who built the sacred Ark of the Covenenant [sic] from it and for whom it signified a peaceful death and a release from grief.


The acacia plant/flower is also used to make the white chrism, one of the components to perform the resurrection ritual.

So if we're talking about a vegetative world, we could get some more cult fodder, at least in regards to rebirth or metempsychosis.

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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by Jonipoon »

I suggest this topic to be moved to the Silent Hill f forum.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by leftshoe18 »

I really don't think Sakura is Silent Hill F though. The former has text messaging and post-it notes in it and the latter is set in the 1960's before either of those things existed.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by The Adversary »

It could certainly be both, though. Could contain two separate stories intertwined by 60 years.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by Droo »

I'm inclined to leave this here since it's still unknown whether the images we saw were for f.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by The Adversary »

I posted this on Discord so it's probably worth mentioning here.

After rewatching the trailer, I had the thought that Silent Hill can spread to other parts of the world via the earth itself, and that's what the creeping flora is. Because initially the girl is walking with the pipe, and then the town becomes more absorbed and she's without the pipe and in different clothes, though moving in the same way.

Sure, could be different people—which is another thought, that one story takes place 60 years later—or it could be "being invaded by the Otherworld," as Harry posits.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by MistahJ »

I'm thinking the Sakura concept is The Short Message and that it's definitely connected to Silent Hill f, just from different time periods and locations. I'm not sure why they haven't shown us TSM yet, hoping it's a Halloween surprise or something soon.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by NanayaShiki »

MistahJ wrote: 20 Oct 2022 I'm thinking the Sakura concept is The Short Message and that it's definitely connected to Silent Hill f, just from different time periods and locations. I'm not sure why they haven't shown us TSM yet, hoping it's a Halloween surprise or something soon.
Only reason I'm not fully on board with that is the Masahiro Ito thing. He was directly connected to the year old Sakura leaks but SHf has someone else attached as monster designer. It's possible Ito would be on board for JUST whatever Sakura is, I suppose. But I don't see why they wouldn't go forward with that now if that was the case. This was the time to go all in.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by MistahJ »

NanayaShiki wrote: 20 Oct 2022
MistahJ wrote: 20 Oct 2022 I'm thinking the Sakura concept is The Short Message and that it's definitely connected to Silent Hill f, just from different time periods and locations. I'm not sure why they haven't shown us TSM yet, hoping it's a Halloween surprise or something soon.
Only reason I'm not fully on board with that is the Masahiro Ito thing. He was directly connected to the year old Sakura leaks but SHf has someone else attached as monster designer. It's possible Ito would be on board for JUST whatever Sakura is, I suppose. But I don't see why they wouldn't go forward with that now if that was the case. This was the time to go all in.
I was thinking that he designed just the one monster for a concept and because he became more involved with the SH2 REmake they had someone else take his flower idea and kind of run with it with creature designs of their own. But honestly it's really hard to tell what could have happened. I'm hoping it wasn't just scrapped altogether.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by Jonipoon »

Time will tell how Sakura and F are related, but basically everything we saw in the trailer looked like the examples shown above. You even had instances of the much disputed trypophobia.

https://i.postimg.cc/qBL9vZ3b/1.png

Mod edit: hidden the pic to avoid triggering trypophobia. Please be sensitive to other people's phobias!
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jdnation
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by jdnation »

Relooking at the leaked images, they don't seem to fit in with F.

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For one thing, English text all over the place and the areas don't seem indicative of the 1960s Japan. Nor does the flowers over the body resemble the sort of decaying growth from F.

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Whatever Ito designed this for, it is either for Ascension or The Short Note.
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Re: Flowery monsters?

Post by NanayaShiki »

I don't think it's Ascension. No Code are very much doing their own thing and that's a full game. We know Sakura was meant to be a short PT-style teaser for the announcement of the series returning. It's possible it's been repurposed/evolved into whatever "The Short Message" was but it's also possibly cancelled.
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