History VideoGame / SilentHill3

** [[CarryABigStick The Maul.]] This vicious-looking mace, much like the Great Knife of ''Silent Hill 2'', is an extremely powerful melee weapon. Like [[Characters/SilentHill2 James]] and [[NightmareFuel/SilentHill2 Pyramid Head]] by the Great Knife, however, Heather is slowed by the maul; and it is equally slow to swing it or bring it down on an enemy, requiring precise timing to use effectively.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: {{Downplayed}}, the Unlimited SMG only requires that you deal the killing blow to the final boss with a melee weapon but it's a very deadly weapon. The main thing balancing its sheer power is that using it reduces your ranking at the end of the game, the more you use it, so it's no good for a 10-star run.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: {{Downplayed}}, the Unlimited SMG only requires that you deal the killing blow to the final boss with a melee weapon but it's a very deadly weapon. The main thing balancing its sheer power is that using it reduces your ranking at the end of the game, so it's no good for a 10-star run.

** The ordinary Submachine Gun. It does excellent damage, but you can only aim up and down with it after you've started firing, and it burns up a magazine's worth of ammo at about the same rate as it does in real life (that is to say, ''fast''). Also, the ammunition is even more rare than ampoules. DoubleSubverted with the Unlimited SMG earned from finishing the final boss with a melee blow; ammo is literally unlimited but using it will decrease your ranking which is very bad if you're playing to earn a high score.

** The ordinary Submachine Gun. It does excellent damage, but you can only aim up and down with it after you've started firing, and it burns up a magazine's worth of ammo at about the same rate as it does in real life (that is to say, ''fast'').

--> '''Douglas:''' No this, no that, no nothing. A paradise -- for castrated sheep, maybe. Sounds pretty boring.

-->"''You’re don’t remember? Ah, so [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/SilentHill1 Harry]]]] didn’t tell you anything''".

''[=SH1=]'' based its otherworld on hospital trauma. ''[=SH2=]'' based its otherworld on guilt and lust. The otherworld of ''[=SH3=]'' preys on typical female (and to a lesser extent, teenage) fears such as unwanted pregnancy, rape, miscarriage, and insecurity, and the story and mood of this game (like the games before it) embrace a theme related to those fears -- in this case, helplessness. The story also uses several forms of symbolism related to these themes and their associated fears to drive the story.

* StealthSequel: [[spoiler: The game hides its connections to the first game until TheReveal that Heather is actually Heather ''Mason'', Harry Mason's daughter.]]

-->"''Monsters? They look like '''monsters''' to you?''"
* WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou: [[spoiler: In the final confrontation against Claudia Wolf, Claudia takes the fetus that Heather rejected... And eats it herself, killing her in the process, but summoning the demon god for the final battle.]]

During a trip to the mall, seventeen-year-old Heather gets approached by a shady detective named Douglas who wants to talk to her about her past. Heather shuns him as a stalker and slips away... only to end up trapped within a hellish otherworld populated by grotesque monsters.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Claudia]]...though we really only feel bad because [[spoiler:Heather does]], and also because [[spoiler:she turns out to be a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ''and'' an IronWoobie all in one]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: You don't [[MysticalPregnancy grow babies in your stomach]]. Therefore it's a bit difficult to [[spoiler:throw them up or incubate them by swallowing them]]. The scene in question had more in common with a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} chestburster]] than an actual baby, [[spoiler:especially since the "baby" is just the physical manifestation of Heather's dark vision of the cult's god]]. Obviously this is RuleOfScary, since it doesn't stop the scene from being utterly horrifying.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The ordinary Submachine Gun. It does excellent damage, but you can only aim up and down with it after you've started firing, and it burns up a magazine's worth of ammo at about the same rate as it does in real life (that is to say, ''fast'').

* BookEnds: Not only does the nightmare at the beginning give you a preview of the last area (at least, the last area before you wind up in the church, which doubles as a "Nowhere" type of area similar to the first game's, with pieces of various other places showing up inexplicably within its architecture), it happens to also be the same place that Harry ultimately wound up in during the last part of ''Silent Hill 1''. Additionally, ''Silent Hill 2'' concluded at a hotel that was just around the corner from the Lakeside Amusement Park, so all three more or less ended in the same general area.
** More specifically, all three ended with the main character getting to the other side of Toluca Lake by either walking around it or by boat, a journey which pretty much cuts them off from the rest of the town, and any help they may have.

* CallBack: The save points in ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill1 Silent Hill 1]]'' are in the form of notepads Harry finds lying around the town and the narration says that he's leaving notes of his experiences in case anyone ends up in the same situation. Towards the end of the game you find some of these notes.
** One transition to the Otherworld is also punctuated by a direct quote from the first game:

* EvilTwin: Heather is attacked by the Memory of Alessa on the merry-go-round, [[spoiler:the same place where Harry fought a possessed Cybil in [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 the first game]]]]; and the Memory of Alessa [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine uses the same weapons]] that Heather has been using throughout the game. Yes, [[OhCrap this includes]] the [[ImprovisedWeapon steel pipe]] and the [[MoreDakka submachine gun]].
** [[DarkIsNotEvil Not so much the "Evil" aspect]], though, since her reasons for trying to kill Heather are [[spoiler: to prevent the God's birth and [[MercyKill spare Heather and the world from the endless suffering]] that will come if the God is birthed]].

* MagicFeather[=/=]MockGuffin: Vincent makes a big deal out of Heather getting the Seal of Metatron, thinking it's the key to killing "God." Turns out the seal does nothing, and [[spoiler:Heather had the power to beat "God" all along]].
** Alessa ''did'' use the Seal of Metatron in the first game in a very involved ritual, and it's implied that had she not been interrupted by Harry carrying the Flauros, she would have succeeded. It's not so much that the Seal was useless; it's that Heather and Vincent didn't know the proper ritual, and that the trinket carried by Leonard was useless without it.

* MythologyGag: If you have Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 save data on the same memory card, you can get a prompt to check a certain toilet. This results in a short cutscene where [[AsideGlance Heather turns directly to the camera and tells you off]], which is a nod to James and the infamous disgusting toilet scene in Silent Hill 2. She also comments on how there's no mail, not even a letter from a dead wife, in her mailbox if you check it at her apartment, along with a few less jokey things. And there's her comment on the sturdiness of the fence on Brookhaven's roof, referring to how when James found it in the fog world it was rusty and he got shoved through by Pyramid Head.

* SchmuckBait: That door with the red light above in the subway has the lock broken, and when you check it, it spawns 3 monsters behind you while the train approaches to kill you.
** StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: However, it's the only way to advance the plot. And the dogs also count as SchmuckBait as well -- if you spend too much time dealing with the dogs on the tracks, [[HaveANiceDeath enjoy your meeting with the oncoming train.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: You explore the freakiest and longest stage in the game, the hospital, on a quest to get the Seal of Metatron. When you try to use it on Claudia, she laughs at you because the seal is a useless trinket. All the nurses you killed were for nothing.
** Not to mention that this means the hopes of Vincent and [[spoiler: Leonard]] to usurp control of the cult from Claudia and/or stop the birth of God are baseless and doomed from the start. [[spoiler:Well, until you figure out what's in Heather's necklace...]]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge[=/=][[spoiler:SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome]]: [[spoiler:Harry Mason]].

* TheUnfought: Valtiel never directly interacts with Heather (unless she dies, anyway). He just watches. And turns that valve at the Otherworld hospital. And dangles a nurse atop an inferno in Nowhere, as seen in the page picture. Subverted in that he's not actually an enemy, but a protector and aid to Heather and/or the cult's god.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Claudia. Of course, just how "well" her intentions are depends on who you ask. She says that [[NoPlaceForMeThere she doesn't expect to be a part of Paradise]], since she spilled too much blood to be worthy of it.
** Further supported when you read her diary, lamenting all of the evil and suffering in the world, and her desire to help end it. She readily admits that what she did was horrible, but [[IDidWhatIHadToDo she did it for the greater good.]]
* WhamLine: You spend the first two games guiltlessly slaughtering hundreds of monsters and suddenly Vincent drops this little gem on you:

** He claims it's a joke but [[FridgeHorror who knows?]]

[[quoteright:226:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_183.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:226:One girl versus a mad, mad world.]]

* StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: [[spoiler:The climactic showdown between Heather and Claudia near the end]]. Yielding to the urge to do so, or hesitating too long, results in a NonStandardGameOver.

Whereas ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' featured a story divorced from ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'', ''Silent Hill 3'' -- the third game in Konami's ''Franchise/SilentHill'' franchise -- [[spoiler:picks up 17 years after the events of the first game]].

''[=SH1=]'' based its otherworld on hospital trauma. ''[=SH2=]'' based its otherworld on guilt and lust. The otherworld of ''[=SH3=]'' preys on typical female (and to a lesser extent, teenage) fears such as unwanted pregnancy, rape, miscarriage, and insecurity, and the story and mood of this game (like the games before it) embrace a theme related to those fears -- in this case, helplessness. The story also uses several forms of symbolism related to these themes and their associated fears to drive the story. That symbolism makes sense when players discover [[spoiler:Heather has become the unwilling carrier of ''the fetus of the cult's God'']] and notice the heavy imagery symbolism in all the game's monsters, used in similar fashion to Silent Hill 2's monsters.

!! ''Silent Hill 3'' contains examples of the following tropes:

-->'''Harry:''' It's being invaded by the Otherworld. By a world of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life...

-->[[OldSaveBonus "Who would even think of doing something so disgusting?"]][[note]][[WhatTheHellPlayer Said while looking directly at the player.]][[/note]]

* EvilTwin: Heather is attacked by Alessa's Memory on the merry-go-round, [[spoiler:the same place where Harry fought a possessed Cybil in Silent Hill 1]], and Alessa's Memory uses the same weapons that Heather has been using throughout the game. Yes, [[OhCrap this includes]] the [[ImprovisedWeapon steel pipe]] and the [[MoreDakka submachine gun]].
** Not so much the "Evil" aspect though as her reasons for trying to kill Heather are [[spoiler: to prevent the God's birth and spare Heather and the world from the endless suffering that will come if the God is birthed]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: You don't grow babies in your stomach. Therefore it's a bit difficult to [[spoiler:throw them up or incubate them by swallowing them]]. The scene in question had more in common with a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} chestburster]] than an actual baby, [[spoiler:especially since the "baby" is just the physical manifestation of Heather's dark vision of the cult's god]]. Obviously this is RuleOfScary, since it doesn't stop the scene from being utterly horrifying.

* CallBack: The save points in Silent Hill 1 are in the form of notepads Harry finds lying around the town and the narration says that he's leaving notes of his experiences in case anyone ends up in the same situation. Towards the end of the game you find some of these notes.

* TheUnfought: Valtiel never directly interacts with Heather (unless she dies, anyway). He just watches. And turns that valve at the Otherworld hospital. And dangles a nurse atop an inferno in Nowhere, as seen in the page picture. Subverted in that he's not actually an enemy, but a protector and aid to Heather and/or the cult's god.

-->'''--Vincent'''

* SequelHook: One that didn’t make it into the game proper. [[Spoiler: After defeating God and breaking down over her father’s death, Heather stands up and begins to walk away but shortly after looks back with a concerned expression on her face. This was supposed to be because she hears a baby crying, implying that God has been reborn into another host. The cry was ultimately removed from the final game, however WordOfGod states that Heather does still hear it, just in her head, which is why she briefly turns back.]] This will likely never be explored further however, making it also a case of AbortedArc.