YMMV / Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars

• Demonic Spiders: The mutated wolves, hogs, and deer are the bane of any early playthrough. They're fast, hit hard, soak up tons of damage, and will absolutely wreck you in a head-on fight. The best you can do is dodge and hope you can aim fast enough. The radioactive rabbits and birds that roam the main parts of the town also qualify. Not only are they fast enough to overtake you when you're walking, but can rapidly catch up the second you let go of the run button. Their models are small, they take a surprising amount of damage, and their radiation has a large Area of Effect that leaves a poison side effect. This is a huge problem when you're trying to aim a gun accurately. It gets especially tedious when a couple gang up on you at the same time. If anything, it's better just to minimize losses and run away whenever possible. The severity is lessened somewhat when you've stocked up enough weapons and anti-radiation pills, but even then, they're still Goddamned Bats at best.
• Difficulty Spike: While it's possible - and even advisable - to run away from most fights in the early part of the game, you'll reach a part where Analise has to fight a mutant bear. And if you try to run, the game will stop you from leaving the area with the excuse that she doesn't want to lure it to a more populated area. This is the point where you have to get the combat mechanics down well enough to survive an encounter with a much stronger enemy.
• Funny Moments:
  • If you go to Slim's house, you'll find him standing on his front porch, frozen mid-stretch, wearing a pink bathrobe. If you grab the item he's holding, your character will disgustedly demand to know why it's wet.
  • When you first go to the hotel, you can find a man frozen in the middle of taking a piss. And yes, the urine is frozen mid-stream as well.
  • There are quite a few Maverick D. Moose inspirational poster parodies seen throughout the town, each ending with a dark joke:
    Maverick D. Moose: MAVERICK SAYS: Be Nice To Your Parents! BECAUSE ONE DAY THEY WILL BOTH BE DEAD. And you will be all alone.
    Maverick D. Moose: MAVERICK SAYS: Wash Your Hands Before Meals! OR YOU MIGHT GET VERY SICK. And poop violently until you die.
    Maverick D. Moose: MAVERICK SAYS: Kiss Someone You Love! UNLESS THEY'RE UNDERAGED. Maybe don't do that, please.
  • The Mechanic is a mysterious, Creepy Awesome entity wearing a blood red overcoat and a gas mask. He's there to remind you of your objectives. But according to his interactions in Frontier Fighters, he's also an anime fan. He loves an in-game anime called Magical Girl Pretty Pilots and wants their trading cards. If you give him one, he'll have some choice words:
    The Mechanic: This will make a fine addition to my collection.
  • When you go to Moss's office, he'll react with disgust to one detail: Someone replaced his awesome homemade cookies with those cheap, cruddy ones from Buy Alright. He'll also sadly note that there's no coffee creamer... or pudding.
• Moment of Awesome: Analise single-handedly takes out a mutant bear that was chasing her down. If you do this with certain weapons, it's possible to make Analise do a backflip kick to dish out extra damage.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Unlike the movie, living in a "Groundhog Day" Loop isn't played for laughs. You're being hunted by mutated and/or radioactive wild animals, and you're going to remember every grisly death. Special mention goes to the mutant bear monster Analise has to fight in her first chapter.
  • Looking through Moss's medical record, which reveals the night terrors he's been suffering are actually memories of an alien abduction.
  • The realization that alien abductions and other paranormal events have been going on in Silver Falls for decades, but few can only remember them consciously.
  • When Analise gets rid of the second orb, time starts flowing again nearby. This causes the girl who was frozen in the middle of the street to be run over by a car, and her mangled body is still there.
  • The mutated animals have had their skins replaced with red, fleshy masses with mushroom-like tumors sprouting everywhere.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • The first part of the game has you play as Sheriff Moss Brook as he responds to a report the middle of the night. Duke Jones found his livestock mysteriously mutilated and drained of blood, and he's been seeing lights out in the fields. Moss shows up, but nobody's home. After searching the property and reading Duke's journal, Moss goes to the back fence overlooking the fields... and then he sees a light out there. It's never said exactly who that was, but by the next time you get information about Moss, it's revealed that he was abducted and returned with no memory of what happened.
  • At least some of the townsfolk know there's something going on, but are trying to keep it under wraps. Arnalt has been investigating past events on his own, and has multiple video feeds set up for him to watch in his bedroom. He instructs Holt on how to take the next step in solving the mystery, but he's clearly leery about divulging details about his past. When Helen was frozen, she was secretly researching an event that happened in the 90s. The biggest one is Bull Brandish, who was frozen in middle of breaking into the sheriff's office and looking through old files about his grandpa, Bill being the victim of a supposed animal attack. He's also looking into the deaths of Johan Baconsmith and Eli Goodwin, who were killed by what's assumed to be a cougar after leaving the Pancake Mansion. Karn Delance was the only witness, but his glassblowing protective gear prevented him from getting a clear look. The fact that Bull did this instead of merely asking says a lot about how little he trusts people in town.
  • The idea that your memories aren't necessarily real, and all the questions that raises. How did you get those memories? Why are they different from those of other people? Are you living in an alternate timeline? Is everyone just gaslighting you?
  • Maverick D. Moose is the iconic mascot of Silver Falls. You can find him slumped over outside behind the hospital, in possession of the power fuse for Dodger's house. What and why he was there remains a mystery.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: While the main story of 3 Down Stars is interesting enough, it's practically guaranteed that you'll spend more time in Frontier Fighters Mode. It lets you take on missions with optional equipment loads with stat upgrades, offers complex customization and unlockable skills, and forces you to master the combat mechanics.
• Special Effect Failure: Even with the limited draw distance on the 3DS, some details leave much to be desired. Trees will appear as green placeholder blobs until you get enough close to them, and textures of distant objects can flicker in and out of existence.