Silent Hill series

Another random question: is the significance of the alarm in SH2 known? It seems to control Pyramid Head somehow, as he stops attacking James when he hears it, and it sounds at the first Otherworld shift, too.

Like the fog, nurses, dogs, and out-of-place hospital elements that appear in nearly every game in the franchise, the siren is a holdover from Alessa Gillespie, back when she had some measure of control over the power behind Silent Hill. It appears in multiple games to mark the transition from Misty World to Other World and back. Its exact significance is ambiguous, but it has been theorized to represent the sirens of the fire trucks racing to her house; similarly, the fog itself has been theorized to represent the smoke from the fire that burned her alive.

Alessa is gone, but elements of her psyche are forever imprinted on the nightmares people encounter in Silent Hill. Those elements may manifest in different forms depending on the perception of the people who encounter them, molding with the nightmare of whomever's psyche is being explored, but they are ever-present nonetheless.

edited 28th Oct '14 8:45:53 AM by TobiasDrake

The Misty World is not the Otherworld though. The Misty World seems to be sort of a blank slate for people to be effected differently by different people. The Otherworld is specifically a construct of whoever makes it and relates pretty much only to them. I forget who made it in 3 but Walter makes it in 4 and the monsters there all relate solely to him.

edited 2nd Nov '14 9:50:28 AM by Nikkolas

I'm guessing the misty world is what everyone sees when they're in a neutral state of mind - the monsters are still tailored to the individual regardless, otherwise we'd always see dogs and pterodactyls and demonic children running around. The other worlds seem to be a sort of fever pitch for the emotions or psychosis of whoever's presently suffering in Silent Hill but otherwise not an entirely separate entity. Other worlds do seem to be specific to the individual, but they're not necessarily cut off from the misty world, or even other people's other worlds (we get a glimpse of Angela's by her own admission near the end of 2, and I'm betting Eddy's is the meat locker-esque area that serves as his arena.)

Everyone than gets some Alessa-fueled baddies mixed in with their own custom order monsters because nurses.

You know, the hospitals in Silent Hill seem, for lack of a better term, rather inhumane. Is this an effect of the town's power, or is this one town just sixty years behind the rest of the country in medical care for some reason?

Wasn't the Otherworld in SH3 a combination of Claudia's and Heather/Alessa's? Or was it also Claudia's vision of Paradise created by her God? I recall Vincent criticizing her for that very thing, her belief that such a hellish world could be the work of the god that he worshiped and adored.

It always creeped me out that Vincent said that he adored The Order's God. Ew. And that was before I saw what She looked like.

Anyway.

One issue I've had with the more recent games (namely, Downpour and Shattered Memories, but mostly Downpour as its set in the main series universe) is that they've been trying too hard to make the Otherworld different from the "standard" blood and rust (which was primarily due to Alessa's influence - SH 2 has some differences, and while Walter's has rust, seems more focused on blood and flesh - like a warped view on a womb). Unfortunately, the attempts to make a different Otherworld resulted in over the top examples which were, more importantly, not scary.

edited 13th May '15 8:25:25 PM by SilentColossus

Oh yeah. I was amazed when I played Shattered Memories and realized that I was more scared of the normal world than the otherworld. It was like, all the weird surreal shit happened in the normal world, so I was always on edge trying to make sense of it all, and then the otherworld sections were basically fun little breaks from the tension. XD

I also think they need to drop the punisher figure. That was James' shtick. So no Pyramid Head - or the Pyramid Head expies of Origins and Downpour. Its become to much of a tired trope in this franchise since Origins (and Homecoming lifting most things from the film). They just need to avoid the punisher entirely, I think.

edited 15th May '15 5:58:57 PM by SilentColossus

Only kinda sorta relevant but the official Silent Hill Chanteuse Mary Elizabeth McGlynn has apparently lent her pipes to the end credits song of another horror game and it's rather lovely

edited 10th Jun '15 1:52:07 PM by LE0Night

...We have too many Silent Hill threads apparently.

Podcast analyzing P.T. stuff.

I'm linking to it because it makes me sad about P.T. and I want you all to feel my pain.

Seriously, I still can't believe that Konami canned the new game just because they wanted the company name to be more associated with their games instead of the creators.

On another note, this is old, but what say you on Troy Baker's comments in regards to Guy Cihi being replaced by him? This is what he said:

"I'm sure that if Silent Hill was my big game and I did it 10 years ago and I saw how successful it was, I would want more money too," Baker said. "Actually, I don't know if I would be that way because I'd just be happy that I was a part of a successful franchise. The thing that I have learned, especially with the Japanese companies, is that you never ever speak out. You never bash your employers. You never bash the people who gave you a huge leg up no matter what they've done or what you feel that they've done."

"But the fact that he's talking about residuals being in video games shows you just how out of the loop he is because residuals don't happen. They don't exist."

"Don't think for a second that I don't wish that I had a fraction of a penny for every unit sold of Call of Duty: Black Ops or Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3 that we're finishing up right now. I would love to see that. But that's not how the system works right now.

"So it's not that Konami wasn't willing to pay them, he (Guy) wanted residuals, he wanted non-existent money that he felt that he was owed. So Konami has no fault in this whatsoever. And they wanted to use him again. Guy was the one who was outspoken about it and said that unless this happens he wouldn't do it, so he forced Konami's hand. So if anybody wants to blame anybody for why they chose new voices, they can go back to the original James and he's the one to blame." *

Considering how Cihi is a god to the Silent Hill fanbase, this angered a lot of them.

edited 10th Aug '15 9:39:05 AM by LDragon2

It's old. Like, really old. Didn't Modern Warfare 3 come out in 2011? Why would you bring it up?

Probably because Baker's statement is actually old news.

That's what I'm saying. It's old news. Specifically, four year old news. The news will be going to kindergarten next year.

And ultimately, I think Baker's statement bears out, since Guy Cihi has acted (not appeared as himself, acted) in exactly one other thing, while Troy Baker is one of the most employed performers in a very competitive field. There really wasn't much to discuss four years ago when his statements were made, let alone now, seeing as history has already proven Baker right.

I thought that most of the fandom was on Guy Cihi's side. That man is indeed an idol to many of them. Troy Baker's comments got him a lot of hate for apparently disrespecting Cihi, and a lot of people dislike the new voice actors for not being on par with the originals, despite them being more professional and well known.

Guy Cihi is apparently one of the best voice actors ever if the SH fandom is to be believed. He is also extremely passionate about the series and knows a lot about the business side of things. So is it any wonder how, even now, people are still angry at Troy Baker and the others?

edited 10th Aug '15 6:36:47 PM by LDragon2

So again, what are your guys' thoughts on Guy Cihi? Is he really the best voice actor that the series has had?

I listened to both the original voice recording and the updated version.

I know I'm new to the fandom, but the original recording verges on Dull Surprise a billion times. The new voice cast sound significantly more like characters and more involved in what's going on rather than so... passive.

And, honestly, when I saw a video discussing it and they played a few clips of the new recording and it sounded relativly good, but the video guys acted so shocked and appalled on the verge of 'RUINED 5EVER', I did a spit take.

The only character I'd say is worse off in the new recording is the crazy kind-of over weight guy. Never can remember his name. Never cared for him anyway. But he sounded a lot crazier in the original.

Apparently, the voice acting in the original version was done like that on purpose so as to add the level of awkwardness and mystique to the tone of the game, as well as to reflect the characters' personalities. Even now Guy Cihi is still beloved and worshipped by many in the fandom for his performance. Troy Baker's comments on the situation led many to hate him for apparently blaming Guy Cihi for a lot of things.

Heck, some are even calling Baker an untalented hack due to his comments towards Cihi and his performance.

If 'awkwardness' was their intention, it worked, it sounded like a really bad 'early age of video games' acting job. I didn't realize it could have been intentional until you said something and, honestly, I still kind of feel like it didn't work and sounds awful.

To quote the Narm Charm entry on the game's YMMV section:

"To fans, the awkward voice acting from the original releases made the characters much more believable as ordinary people. The new voice acting was so poorly received not because it was bad, but because it was too good; to wit, it sounded much more slickly dramatic and professionally acted, which fans believe undercut the verisimilitude of the game's story. Troy Baker, for instance, does an outstanding job voicing numerous gruff, badass characters, but James Sunderland is a decidedly non-badass Classical Anti-Hero and the "gravelly tough-guy" voice doesn't suit him."

I mean, I think it makes everything sound slightly off, which to me made it slightly creepier.

Yeah, like playing off the weirder elements felt natural in that awkward "That was weird but I've got too much on my plate to worry about that" way.

Baker's James especially sounds very anime-esque and artificial to me.

I mean, I do think Baker had a point.

I think it's worth debating whether things should be the way they are, but. Cihi had an expectation that simply wasn't the case.

I would side with the fans if they ACTUALLY explained why the new voice cast was bad.

Instead, I'm just seeing 'fans' whining about Konami changing a thing.

And besides other then that one voice actor we really don't know what happened to the other VA's.