Video Game / Siren

Come to Hanuda. But you can never leave.

... I see... you've resisted the temptation of the sirens for decades, lying here... Everlasting life means everlasting pain...

Siren is a series of Stealth-based Survival Horror video games. The series is the Spiritual Successor to the original Silent Hill, directed by Keiichirō Toyama. Through heavy use of Switching P.O.V. and Anachronic Order, each game tells the story of several people caught up in the netherworld where they are faced with a supernatural threat over the course of several days.

Unique game mechanics include "Sightjacking", the ability to see through your enemies' eyes, and thus know their patrolling and movement patterns, and the fact that enemies cannot be permanently killed, although with the extremely rare circumstances allowing for one to be physically removed from the stage.

In Siren (2003) (aka Forbidden Siren in Europe), a group of people are trapped in the mysterious mountain village of Hanuda, and swept up in a plot to resurrect/resummon an Eldritch Abomination into this universe.

The 2006 sequel, Siren 2 (Forbidden Siren 2 in Europe) takes place in an isolated island and features an entirely different cast, who must stop a pair of evil beings, sealed away long ago, from returning to this earth. One important change in the sequel is that conventional weapons — including more actual, modern firearms — are far more widespread, and one can even take them off of fallen enemies whenever they want rather than only in specific instances, though with the caveat that enemies then get whatever you left them with once they awaken. Sadly, it was never released in North America.

A remake was released on the PlayStation 3 in 2008. Siren: Blood Curse (Siren: New Translation in Japan) adds Americans to a roster that are composite expies of the original cast members in a re-imagining of the first Siren, a likely Shout-Out to Western adaptations of classic J-Horror films like Ringu/The Ring and Ju On/The Grudge.

Currently, the series consists of three games, a movie, and two manga adaptations, with the latter being serialized in 2014 with creative work done by Sony Computer Entertainment production crew veterans.

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The Siren series provides examples of:

• Abandoned Hospital:
  • The Miyata Clinic in the first game.
  • The Saiga Hospital in Blood Curse.
• Accidental Hero: By tossing a lit cigarette into a squat-style toilet in the gold mine plant, Soji Abe inadvertantly detonates the twenty-odd years worth of methane which had been building up in the pipes, destroying the pylon Mother was using to bridge the dimensions and saving the world.
• Age Without Youth: Although members of the Kajiro family (or those with their blood inside) are spared the effects of the red water and live long lives, they cannot die of natural causes and so their bodies eventually age out of human form.
• The Alcoholic: Officer Ishida in the first game. Even Winged Shibito need a drink now and then...but the last one had a bit too much kick to it.
• All There in the Manual: The Siren Maniacs books. Fortunately, fan-translations for Siren Maniacs and Siren 2 Maniacs are available online.
• Alternate Universe:
  • Certain archive items in both games show that they take place in one where the Showa Period is still ongoing, meaning that Emperor Hirohito (who in our timeline died in 1989) was still alive as of 2005.
  • The first game takes place in one, where the Shibito live in harmony with Datatsushi. Those who ingest the red water come here, and it’s unknown if you can escape from it.
  • After Mother is destroyed in the second game, all the surviving protagonists are sent to a version of their world where she never existed, save for Yorito Nagai who ends up in a completely different universe where the Yamibito are normal and humans are the dangerous monsters - or at least that's how they see it, considering the sight drives him to immediately go on a killing spree.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The final boss battle in Blood Curse is quite seizuriffic.
• Ambiguous Ending: The first game ends on a major cliffhanger: While Suda has defeated Datatsushi, it is unknown if he can leave the otherworld. Even worse, Yoriko and Tamon seem to still be stuck as well, and the game ends before they can leave. The sequel implies that escape is impossible, leaving Harumi the only survivor. Since 2 doesn’t solve this, and Blood Curse is a remake, then this becomes Left Hanging.
• Anachronic Order: The games are comprised of several missions experienced by multiple protagonists, often out of order, accompanied by various flashbacks and Apocalyptic Logs delivered through the archive items. Some missions have optional sub-objectives you can complete to unlock new missions, although these can be a bit obtuse.
• Ancestral Weapon: The Uryen (宇理炎) figurines (also Artifacts of Power) and the Kajiro family katana Homuranagi in the first game.
• Anti-Frustration Features
  • While the first game is notoriously difficult with no hand-holding, it does offer a few features to grant the player some relief:
    • When escorting Harumi Yomoda in the school, she can be ordered to hide in closets while the player goes ahead to clear the area before returning to collect her. She is also immune to firearms, as the bullets will not register a hit on Harumi.
    • Not all Secondary Objective Keys are required to complete the game. There are some missions that can still be completed even if you missed an important key item in past levels.
    • No matter how much noise your companion makes, with their voice or footsteps, nearby enemies will remain undisturbed.
  • The second game goes even further to offer more helpful features to alleviate the intense difficulty of the first game, while still making the second game reasonably challenging:
    • A pulsating sound will occur whenever an enemy is nearby, giving the player an opportunity to hide and plan ahead.
    • Upon collecting a Secondary Objective Key or Archive Item, they will not disappear from your inventory if you die.
    • The Stage Select feature, which had to be unlocked after completing a certain amount of levels in the first game, is available right away.
• Anvil on Head:
  • In the first game, it's more specifically an ECG monitor on the head of a Shibito. Of course, with him being a Shibito, it's best to proceed with the mission before he gets better.
  • Blood Curse lets you drop a neon sign from the second floor on a Shibito early in the game.
• Arch-Enemy: Otoshigo and Mother.
• Arranged Marriage: Jun Kajiro was adopted and raised by the Kajiro family so that should the ritual to sacrifice Miyako fail, he could marry Ayako Kajiro and continue the family line.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: In the first ending for Siren, and in a bonus level in the second, Kyoya Suda rocks out to a heavy metal song called "The Buster" while running about exterminating Shibito with all the weapons he's got.
• Backtracking: In the first Siren, justified in that Hanuda is a small village and is isolated in a Dark World. Thus, most of the main cast will go through the exact same areas previously visited — albeit with different objectives in mind and often from another approach. Once missions are completed, alternate objectives of varying difficulty are unlocked for them, which, when completed, add connecting details to the cast's story and unlock paths that move the game closer to its true ending.
  • In Blood Curse, in addition to the above, justified in the second half of the game due to it being the second loop; everyone starts where they originally did, and must go to where they're meant to go, which often means going back through the same areas.
• Barrier Warrior: Sort of. In the second game, evolved Yamibito can only be attacked from behind.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Akira in the first game and his expy Seigo in Blood Curse both stick their shotguns in their mouths and shoot themselves in an attempt to escape the Shibito curse. It doesn't work for either of them.
• Big Damn Heroes: *Home run!* *Home run!* "Professor! It's no time to be playing happy families! Come on!". Perhaps subverted, in that he may not have been in any danger at the time, and might not have cared if he was.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In 1, Datatsushi is dead, Hanuda is destroyed (along with the Shibito) and the threat of Datatsushi's revival is ended. Unfortunately, most of the cast is dead, or pretty poor off. Suda is trapped in the dimension the Shibito come from, but he's well armed, nigh-impossible to kill, and dead-set on protecting the world. The only other survivor is Harumi, who manages to make it out traumatized, but alive.
  • In 2, the threats of Mother and Otoshigo are ended and the island is purified - but only four characters make it out. Ikuko and Mamoru make it out alive, back in the real world and Yorito is stuck in the land of the Yamibito - only he doesn't take it as well as Suda did in the first game, and the poor man loses his mind at the sight of it. Abe also manages to live in the Golden Ending, and since the new timeline results in the girl he was accused of murdering never being born in the first place, he gets his own happy ending as well.
  • In Blood Curse, it's the same deal as the first game. Kaiko and Amana are dead, Hanuda is once again destroyed, and the rest of the cast is dead, but things are slightly better- Howard manages to live, and returns to the village to exact revenge upon the Shibito and rid the world of them once and for all. He's also not stuck in their dimension, and the game ends on a montage of him butchering the village and saving the world. Sam, on the other hand, is stuck in the past, and must act on the Stable Time Loop that brings Howard to the village in the first place.
• Black Dude Dies First: Sol in Blood Curse. Twice, actually, thanks to the time rewind.
• Black Speech: With some exceptions, the Shibito in the original game constantly mutter and sing to themselves in words that can't quite be made out. Averted in the second and third games, where the Yamibito/Shibito speak English or Japanese, depending on your settings.
• Blessed with Suck: Psychic Powers seem to be a bad thing for whoever has them, either because of their nature or the character's situation.
  • In the first game, Miyako Kajiro's strong powers indicate that she's an even better "bride" for Datatsushi than the other Miyako Kajiros Hisako's been sacrificing over the centuries. Risa Onda has a telepathic link to her twin sister who has been transformed into a Shibito. When they end up fully connecting mentally, Risa turns into one as well.
  • In the second, Takeaki Misawa's ability to sense the supernatural is driving him insane, and Akiko and Ikuko's powers come from their being Unawakened Doves due to their pregnant mothers absorbing the essence of Doves who dissolved in the sun. As Akiko uses her powers to channel the memories of Kanae, a deceased avatar of the Big Bad, Kanae's essence pulls a Grand Theft Me, stealing and transforming her body. Ikuko's powers caused her to be ostracized by her peers while growing up, and it's heavily implied that she awakened as a Dove due to the events.
  • The third game's Miyako is an Expy of the first, however her powers derive from being a blood descendant of the elder gods from another dimension who used to be worshipped in the region before Manaism took over. Her entire bloodline has been used as a tool by the Mana cult, either as sacrifices or living relics, and she's the only one left.
  • The reason you're able to heal rapidly and sightjack people in the first and third games? You've been exposed to the red water, and you're slowly mutating.
• Blind Seer:
  • In the first game, the blind Miyako Kajiro is able to use her psychic abilities to see through peoples' eyes, and can apparently see peoples' auras. Averted with the version of Miyako in "Blood Curse".
  • In the second, Shu Mikami, stricken with blindness due to childhood trauma (no need for spoilers, as it's the first scenario), finds himself able to Sightjack his seeing-eye dog (and others) when he gets to Yamajima island.
• Blood Bath:
  • The red water being analogous to blood, Naoko Mihama mistakenly gets the idea that bathing in it would make one young and beautiful a la Elizabeth Bathory. The red water actually turns anyone who interacts with it into a Shibito, but the liquid does technically grant special healing properties.
  • The Shibito are compelled to periodically enter and re-enter the sea of red water around Hanuda on a regular basis, so they can further mutate.
• Blood Is the New Black: The red water forces blood out of the system through the eyes, so the Shibito have bloody clothes and faces.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Siren Maniacs speculates that Datatsushi and its mentality are so alien that we don't know if it approves or disapproves of the village's worship and sacrifice of Miyako Kajiros, like Hisako believes it does. It may not even be remotely aware of it. Likewise it may not have any control over the existence and transformation of the half- or full Shibito; it may just be a thing that happens which the villagers place religious significance upon. The only thing we can say for certain about Datatsushi is that it's not too hot on being eaten alive.
• Body Horror:
  • The evolved forms of Dog, Spider, and Winged Shibito in the first game, and the evolved forms of the Yamibito in the second. The spider, maggot and fly Shibito in the third.
  • Honorable mention goes to the Shibito Brains, the Onda Twins near the end, and Eiji Nagoshi's evolved Shibito form — which is literally a Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong; Yukie in Blood Curse.
• Bolivian Army Ending:
  • Harumi is the only true survivor of the catastrophe. Everyone else is either a Shibito, a Shibito permanently tac-nuked by one of the Uryens or the Homuranagi, or trapped in the same temporal dimension as the Shibito with no way back home.
  • At the end of the second game, Private Yorito Nagai is swept into what seems to be an alternate dimension populated entirely by Yamibito. The sight drives him insane, and he starts shooting wildly as we fade to credits.
  • In Blood Curse, Howard and Sam are the only survivors. However, the former is still in Hanuda, intent on fulfilling his promise to destroy the village; while the latter is dropped in the real world in 1972, the year Hanuda vanished, which allows him to draw Howard to the area and secure the time loop.
• Booze-Based Buff: Inverted. Officer Ishida's drunkness is suggested to have made him way more susceptible to the effects of the red water, to the point that he turned into a half-Shibito while the stuff was still forming in the middle of the night, shot his superior and started wandering around before any other Hanuda citizens.
• Bottomless Magazines: In the second game, as Ichiko Yagura is taken over by Otoshigo, she has periods of murderous insanity, wherein she (somehow) gets a machine pistol with infinite ammo. Yorito Nagai also gets a machine gun with infinite ammo for the battle against Otoshigo. Shibito in general also have infinite reserve ammunition for any guns they have, which allows for a roundabout (but slow, very dangerous and counterproductive) manner in which to replenish your own ammo in the second game.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Owing to Hanuda's remote location and the strict gun laws Japan has in reality, most of the guns available in the first game are ancient cast-offs from before World War I; it's only in the second game, with protagonists who are part of Japan's military, where the player starts to get access to more recent hardware (and "recent" in this case still means weapons adopted in The '80s, about twenty years before the game's setting).
• Brick Joke: In the first game, you have the option of removing a specific Shibito from Tamon's first stage early on Day One by knocking him into a well. One of Kei's secondary objectives way later on Day Three takes him down that same well, and if you knocked the Shibito down it, he'll still be down there to greet you.
• Burn the Witch!: The villagers of Yamajima island believed that Kanae was some sort of evil being whose presence would lead to misery and destruction. They were right.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Yoriko Anno in the first game is inept and oblivious, constantly getting herself into trouble. The only reason she came to Hanuda was because she had a crush on Professor Takeuchi, and he has no patience for her. Unlike most of the other characters, Yoriko being berated and left behind, then getting herself lost and chased by Shibito, is generally played for laughs. Even her reactions to Akira shooting himself and then, as a Shibito, shooting her are so abrupt as to be comical. As seen in the final unlockable cutscene, when she finally catches up to the professor in the heart of the nest, she's lost her glasses and manages to fall through a hole in the floor, and in the ending she interrupts the professor's long-awaited reunion with his parents — hitting them over the head with a baseball bat (they're admittedly partly Shibito-fied at this point) and dragging the professor out of his first moment of happiness in decades. This is all used as comic relief.
  • Shigeru Fujita in the second game has had a lifetime of bad luck. Ostracized by the people of Yamajima for wanting to leave, he tries to fulfill his dream of becoming a police officer — only to face a string of demotions and pay cuts (he's back working as a beat cop at 52), with his dedication to his job driving his family away and causing his daughter to hate him. He returns to Yamajima in search of a missing woman... and then two Eldritch Abominations awaken and force him into the netherworld, where he gets killed by the adorable schoolgirl he thought he was saving. And even then he doesn't get to die, coming back to life as a monster. The freedom of death is probably the best thing that happens to him.
• Call-Forward: In the ReBIRTH manga, the fake Wikipedia article for the disaster where Reiko Takato's baby died implies that it was caused by Mother from Siren 2.
• Came Back Wrong: When the ritual to restore Datatsushi failed, it pulled Hanuda into the Netherworld, and caused a landslide. The people trapped within the landslide awakened as Shibito (due likely to the presence of red water in the mud), but trapped in the landslide, they couldn't immerse themselves in red water properly and evolve into full Shibito. So, they spent twenty-seven years as Type 4s, rotting away, all while cognizant of their fate. "Eternal life brings eternal pain" indeed.
• Clear My Name: In the second game, Abe Soji is falsely accused of the murder of Ryuko Tagawa. It turns out that Ryuko, an avatar of Mother who had abandoned her mission, was killed by one who had not.
• Closed Circle: In the first game, once Hanuda is drawn into the Other World, it's surrounded by a vast, seemingly endless sea of red water, not to mention being trapped in a different plane of existence. Not much chance of escaping under those circumstances. And, indeed, even though multiple characters survive, only Harumi manages to actually get out.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: Averted most of the time in Siren 1, which leads to many cases of Guide Dang It!. Sometimes, the camera angle will change and attempt to help you. Keyword: attempt...
• Continuity Nod:
  • In Siren 2, Takeaki Misawa was the soldier who was part of the military rescue force that responded to the Hanuda disaster after the events of Siren and was the one to rescue Harumi Yomoda.
  • Shu Mikami's father Ryuhei was an acquaintance of Tamon Takeuchi's father, Omito.
• Cool Old Guy: Local hunter Akira Shimura takes down Shibito with his marksmanship skill and even comes to the rescue of Yoriko Anno in one of his missions. Before flipping out and eating his own rifle in the face of Cosmic Horror, he even knew about Hisako Yao's true identity and that she was somehow responsible for Hanuda's transdimensional shift.
• Cool Teacher: Reiko Takato and Principal Eiji Nagoshi both tried to cheer Harumi up after the death of her parents by taking her class on a field trip and arranging a stargazing night for her at the school (which goes terribly wrong).
  • After the ritual fails in the prologue, Reiko goes full Action Survivor in order to save Harumi, even after becoming a Shibito.
  • Ultimately subverted with Nagoshi, who becomes a Shibito within the first couple hours and then evolves into a Shibito Brain before the first day is over. Siren Maniacs also hints that there may be a severely-repressed perverted side to him that came out after he was Shibitofied, which adds a disturbing element to his single-minded pursuit of Harumi.
• The Corruption: Otoshigo's method for getting onto land involves taking over the corpse of a drowning victim (Ichiko Yagura, in this case), and gradually transforming them into a suitable body for itself. Unlike a case of Grand Theft Me, Ichiko comes to the surface a few times, but is apparently driven murderously insane by the process.
• Creepy Crosses: The Mana Cross, a variant which looks similar to the Eastern Orthodox depiction of the cross, is unique to Hanuda and can be found in a number of places throughout the village. It's actually patterned on the wooden planks the villagers placed Datatsushi on, when the alien crash-landed on Earth in 684 AD and the starving villagers began to butcher and eat him. When Christianity later arrived in Japan, that made for convenient camouflage. In addition to being the symbol of the cult, the crosses are a source of spiritual/magical power, as Mrs. Takato accidentally discovers when she lights the candles under the stone crosses in her second mission in Karuwari — after several other characters have pushed and activated the crosses in their own missions — releasing the glowing Kiruden which then empower the Kajiros' Ancestral Weapon the Homurangi, turning it against the cult and allowing it to permanently kill shibito.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Played with a bit. Although Datatsushi's not a "hero", he was sacrificed upon the Mana Cross, proving the savior of the ancient village.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • Due to her feeding upon Datatsushi, Hisako Yao, anyone descended from her (i.e. the Kajiros), or anyone with the Kajiros' blood in their veins (eventually Kyoya Suda and Yoriko Anno) are "cursed" to never become Shibito. They also apparently age extremely slowly (in Yao's case, not at all), and if the fate of the previous Miyako Kajiro (under the clinic) is any indication, take more than twenty-seven years to starve to death. From the perspective of the townspeople, this means they get to live long, miserable lives with no chance whatsoever of being united with their God. From just about anyone else's perspective...
  • According to the supplemental material, it's not as good as it sounds from a non-Shibito perspective, either. What happened to all the Kajiros who didn't get sacrificed? They gradually lost their human figure. There's a rather literal family reunion nobody wants to join somewhere under their household.
  • In the second game, Sightjacking is said to actually be a curse from Otoshigo and Mother, permitting them to view all that transpires on the island.
  • Blood Curse has Howard Wright, who is armed with the Homuranagi and Uryen—part of his new arsenal to destroy Hanuda and the Shibito. The problem? He might be doing it forever.
• Dead All Along: Ichiko, who drowned in a ship accident and is now being taken over by an Eldritch Abomination from beneath the sea. The game lets you know that the sole survivor of the accident was a female student and lures you into believing that student was Ichiko... only to reveal later that it was in fact her best friend.
• Death of a Child: Played straight and averted: Miyako and Tomoko (both 14) die — the former ends up as a sacrifice in a ritual (although she lives on in spirit) and the latter becomes a Shibito). It is also possible to watch them die in-game after taking too much damage. However, ten-year-old Harumi is never shown dying when a Shibito discovers her, and she is the only character from the first game to actually escape Hanuda.
• Detect Evil:
  • In the first game, the Shimura and Takeuchi families have a quality of awareness that makes them immune to the fog which keeps other villagers from noticing strange things.
  • In 2, Takeaki Misawa's instincts are sharp enough to pick out avatars of Mother (Yuri), or people under the power of Otoshigo (Ichiko). It's implied that this is due to his brief exposure to the darkness in Hanuda, where he was the one to pull Harumi out of the ruins at the end — along with a vision of hands reaching up toward him that shook him severely.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • In the first game, Kyoya Suda either incinerates the Datatsushi with the Sword Uryen, or decapitates the Eldritch Abomination with the Homuranagi and sets off the collapse of everything around him in the Dark World. In Blood Curse, Howard does both.
  • In the second game, Yorito Nagai kills Otoshigo by weakening it with bullets, causing it to crash into a fuel tank, then setting it ablaze by hitting it with an electric lightbulb attached to a generator. Mamoru, Ikuko, and Kanae (formerly Akiko) arm themselves with the YamiNaki shards to fight Mother. Kanae stabs herself, weakening Mother through their connection, and Ikuko uses her powers to freeze Mother, allowing Mamoru to strike, sending her to the ground, where Ikuko can hit her. Finally, Mamoru lands the finishing blow, and the threat of Mother is gone forever.
• Doing In the Wizard: Inverted. Despite all its occult imagery, there were no actual supernatural elements in the first game; all the phenemenon were caused by an alien, and the Shibito aren't even real zombies. The villains of the sequel however are primordial deities of darkness, and the enemies are explicitly undead.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Harumi's intro in the website mentions that she had a dream about the dangers awaiting her.
• Dysfunctional Family:
  • The Maedas, Tomoko and her parents. Downplayed, as Tomoko ran away in a bout of teenage angst after she caught her parents reading her diary. Although in the end they're harmoniously reunited... as Shibito.
  • The Monroes in the third game, though Sam and Bella are able to set aside their differences in the interests of protecting Bella, even when one of them has turned into a Shibito.
• Eldritch Abomination: Datatsushi from the first game. Mother and Otoshigo from the second. Not the same species, despite some misconceptions. Datatsushi is an alien who crash-landed on Earth in the 7th Century AD and became worshiped as a god by the starving people of Hanuda — after they first tried to eat him. Mother and Otoshigo are primordial beings of darkness who were sealed away in the netherworld aeons ago, when God introduced light into the world. Also Kaiko in Blood Curse.
• The End... Or Is It?: At the end of Siren 2, Ikuko and Mamoru seem to have been shunted to a world free of Mother's influence...but then Ikuko shields her eyes from the light, just like one of Mother's avatars would, as the music turns somewhat menacing and a slight hint of an evil smile starts to creep onto her face.
• Enemy Civil War: Mother and Otoshigo in Siren 2. As a result, the Yambito and Shibito will choose to attack each other before attacking the characters.
• Enemy Summoner: Shibito howl in order to alert each other of when they spot humans.
• Epic Hail: Harumi over the school PA system: "Mrs. Takato! Help! Mrs. Takato!" Loud enough that Prof. Takeuchi hears from the water tower across town.
• Escort Mission: All three games feature a number of missions where you must lead and protect another character, which often involves hiding them someplace safe while you try to engineer a distraction that lets them slip through undetected.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Somewhat averted in 2. They still try to kill you, but Yamibito will go for Shibito first and vice versa.
• Evil Laugh: The Shibito like to laugh. A lot.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The pylon, or Spider's Thread, in the second game.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner:
  Takeaki Misawa: Nice shot.
• Fairytale Motifs: Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid plays a significant role in the second game.
• False Camera Effects: There's plenty of static and film grain all the way through.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: Numerous. Becoming a Shibito and mutating into a monster (even as the red water makes you believe you're living in paradise), refusing to become a Shibito and being buried under a mudslide for decades, living through the disaster without becoming a Shibito but being trapped in the other world, being slowly possessed by one of the ancient evils from the second game and used to do their bidding.
• Fighting from the Inside: The manga, with is ability to show more story than the game does, demonstrates several examples of people trying to resist their Shibito instincts as they transform.
• Flash Back: Much of the backstory of the characters and main villain is shown through flashback cutscenes.
• The Flatwoods Monster: Archive file #25, titled The Gojaku Giant, in Siren: Blood Curse tells of the arrival of a 9-foot tall alien on August 25th, 1856, near Mount Gojaku. It tried to communicate with the locals, but its foul smell knocked out anyone near it. The accompanying drawing is of the Flatwoods Monster re-envisioned by 19th Century Japanese art standards.
• Flawed Prototype: The earliest Doves/Offshoots Mother created and sent out to our world, namely Kanae (Offshoot A) and the unnamed Offshoots B and B', shook off most of her control and developed human feelings and sentiments. She managed to correct this error by the time she made Yuri Kishida, who is closer to her in personality and power.
• The Fog of Ages: Hisako Yao, in the first game, has been alive for so long that she occasionally forgets who she really is, and her mission to revive Datatsushi. That's why she helps the protagonists in the early parts of the game. Twenty-seven years ago, posing as the servant of the Kajiros, she felt sorry for their daughter (also named "Miyako"), the next destined Bride of Datatsushi. So, Hisako tried to rescue her... from Hisako. Ditto on Amana in Blood Curse.
• Foreshadowing: In Blood Curse Archive 1 is a much-copied version of Bella's notebook (Archive 11). Note the letters on the cover, the occasional spiders in the upper corner and at one point a face that corresponds to the goth girl on the lower corner. They even kept the purple borders, and an approximation of the wire on the spine.
• Fountain of Youth: Naoko Mihama misinterprets an offhand remark from Akira Shimura and a fairy tale from a random book she found, which lead her to believe that bathing in the red water will make her eternally young and beautiful. Since Dog Shibito can't talk, we can't ask her what she thinks of how it turned out.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Used in the first 20 seconds of Blood Curse; as Howard runs away, he WILL be shot at least once, but will brush it off. And then he gets shot again in a cutscene and it's a One-Hit KO.
  • Shibito/Yamibito in gameplay are hyperfocused on killing the player/companions upon seeing them until losing sight, in cutscenes however Shibito/Yamibito sometimes ignore/taunt characters instead of outright trying to kill them right away.
  • One cutscene in Siren 2 shows an Evolved Yamibito being lit by a flashlight and no reacting, in actual gameplay merely shinning the flashlight on any Yamibito for a second causes them to enter a stunned state briefly.
• Gender Incompetence: Compared to the men, the women have more limited climbing abilities, cannot use rifles as they lack animations for them, and need males to help them get to certain areas when being escorted. These limitations also transfer to the ladies when the player is in control of them and can make a stage that was literally just played as a male much harder. Not even the evil female shibitos are spared from this as they share the same limitations as the human girls.
• Gone Horribly Right: Archive Item 001 in the first game explains that Datatsushi only crashed in Hanuda after rituals were performed in the hopes of ending the drought. Whether the two events were actually linked is ambiguous, but either way, from the villagers' perspective, they got the nourishment they prayed for... along with a centuries-long curse.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop:
  • Implied to be happening in the original game; see Mind Screw.
  • Hits halfway through the second game.
  • Also hits partway through the third game.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In Siren 1, players are often required to pick up items or fulfill sub-objectives (which the game doesn't tell you) in earlier stages for use in later ones. Sometimes, the game will give you a hint, but these are vague at best.
  • In one of the first missions of the game, you're required to pick up a radio, visit the well, pull up the bucket, put the radio in the bucket, hide, wait for a Shibito to inspect the radio, and shoot the Shibito down the well just so that the Shibito isn't there to kill someone else in a later stage. Also, you only get this hint (which consists of an extremely vague clue: "Search the Yoshimura house and well") if you decide to revisit this stage for some reason, not on the stage where you actually need it.
  • In one of the other first missions, you need to look for a number on the wall of a house, go to a tape recorder, rewind the tape until it reaches that number, listen to the numbers that are said on the tape, use those numbers to unlock a shed door, get a face towel, and put the face towel in the freezer. In a later mission, you need to take the same face towel, place it under a piggy bank, wait for the towel to melt so that the piggy bank falls and causes a distraction, kill the Shibito it attracts, and then get an I.D. badge. Yeah...
  • The first game is literally a case of Guide Dang It!, as the instruction manual offered slightly more concise clues about accomplishing the alternate objectives.
• Haunted Castle: The entire village of Hanuda as a whole in the first game, but especially relevant to the abandoned house at Tabori where a few characters have their own missions taking place there.
• Hero of Another Story: Siren Maniacs mentions that Naoko Mihama's film crew got dragged into the otherworld as well, and likely had some (almost certainly ill-fated) adventures.
• Heroes Love Dogs: The games' two blind characters have guide dogs. Miyako's only friend growing up was her dog Kereb, and she is the only Kajiro who wants to stop Datatsushi's return. Shu in the second game is less heroic in general but is central to the game's backstory. He take it hard when Tsukasa sacrifices herself to push him out from under a collapsing shack. It turns out Tsukasa is still alive, and she later joins forces with dim but brave Soji, and the two of them eventually makes it out of the netherworld together.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the first game, Reiko Takato takes herself out blowing up a truck's fuel tank to save Harumi from a Shibito, then saves her a second time even as a Shibito from Eiji Nagoshi. Also, after pretty much doing a Riverdance on the Moral Event Horizon several times Shiro Miyata frees the Onda sisters and a whole bunch of other people trapped in Shibito state by powering the Shield Uryen with his own lifeforce.
• Hide Your Children: The American release of the first game raises Kyoya Suda's age from sixteen to eighteen, and Miyako Kajiro and Tomoko Maeda's ages from fourteen to seventeen.
• Hijacked by Jesus:
  • In the first and third games thanks to centuries of rewriting and outside influences Datatsushi and Kaiko take on more conventional forms in the archives, resembling Shinto gods or Buddhas. One story actually fuses the former with Hiruko, and speculates on how a sea deity could get worshipped in the mountains.
  • Another mistaken case in Blood Curse where an Archive mentions that the local shift from worshipping gods from another dimension to Manaism (which focuses around a deity, Kaiko, sacrificing itself to save Hanuda) may indicate the influence of an outside religious influence (implicitly Christianity). Nope! It's based around a rather tasty crash-landing alien..
• Hive Mind:
  • In the first game, the Shibito are mentally linked on some level, and since all the main characters (save Miyako Kajiro and Harumi Yomoda) are slowly transforming into Shibito, they're linked, too. That's how Sightjacking works.
  • It might be more of the village and its cursed nature that provides the link that grants Sightjacking rather than a Shibito hivemind. Even Harumi was able to use it, and she was the sole living survivor of the Hanuda catastrophe, found in the middle of what used to be the village and nowhere near a Shibito state.
    • According to Maniacs and the website Harumi is one of a number of villagers who have a degree of psychic ability. The website shows she was having visions of Shibito and red rain before the game started. That seems to be why she can sightjack.
  • In the first game, when a Shibito Brain is present, all Shibito within a certain vicinity are linked to it. Temporarily killing the Shibito Brain will lay low every other Shibito in the area immediately and is usually an objective in some missions.
• Hollywood Cuisine: The recipe for Hanuda Noodles (Archive 022) in the first game. Of course, watching Shibitocop aka Officer Ishida gorging on a bowlful borders on Nausea Fuel.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Ostensible hero Mamoru Itsuki in the second game just can't resist a pretty face. Yuri acts like a typical damsel at first, but there's clearly something off about her, and especially around the time she starts having him breaking what she literally tells him are seals to the underworld, Mamoru really should have had a few more questions. If not for Ikuko stopping him, he would have singlehandedly freed Mother — as it is, he paves the way for Shu to do it instead.
• How We Got Here: Told in Anachronic Order and starting In Medias Res, the plot and backstory are often unclear at first, and it takes many missions, flashback cutscenes, and archive items to truly understand what's going on.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Mother's method of interacting with the surface world involves creating human-like avatars ("Doves") whose job is to look for a suitable Unwitting Pawn that will let her out of her prison. Apparently, it's not that uncommon for them to grow fond of humanity and abandon their missions.
• Idiot Hero: Abe Soji in the second game is a friendly but somewhat slow construction worker on the run for the murder of his girlfriend. He serves primarily as comic relief, but gets one of the game's three Multiple Endings.
• Immortality: Hisako Yao, the leader of the Hanuda religion. She gained eternal life after feasting on the flesh of the fallen god Datatsushi, based on the myth of Yao Bikuni ("800-year-old priestess") and the ningyo ("human fish", often translated as "mermaid"). Her descendants in the Kajiro clan gained Age Without Youth instead, with their twisted, inhuman forms supposedly entombed underneath the ancestral mansion. Hisako also has a bad case of The Fog Of The Ages as well, having forgotten the purpose of the ritual over the years, to the point where she's helping Kiyoya to stop it during early missions.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Yoriko manages to cut through a gate by a skill that she says she saw in a comic book.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Required to get Shibito Risa Onda off your back in one level. Happens to, well, an arguably good guy in the second with Tomoe Ohta, at least the first time she dies. In Siren: Blood Curse, it also happens to the Police-Shibito, leading to him running around with a stick in his chest for the rest of the game.
• Improbable Weapon User: Over the course of the second game, Mamoru Itsuki, Ikuko Kifune, and Akiko Kiyota all pick up mysterious fossils known as YamiNaki or Annuaki shards. These appear to be fragments of the ancestor god of Mother and Otoshigo, and in the second battle, they actually transform to resemble glowing swords. Also, at one point while playing as Ichiko, you can kill a Shibito and grab the item he was holding, a trophy about half Ichiko's height, which doubles as an Archive Item and a melee weapon.
• Infernal Paradise: The Manaist version of Paradise shows a blood-red sea with thousands of people bathing in it, winged shibito flying around everywhere, dog shibito roaming the grounds, red flowers all over the ground and the Mana Stone square in the center. It's a image of the Underworld from which Datatsushi and his like arrived.
• Interfaith Smoothie: An in-universe example: various archive items reveal that the religion of Hanuda combines elements of Christianity (e.g. depictions of angels, the story of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden) with Japanese and pre-existing Hanuda folklore, as well as worship of an "alien god." And then, of course, there's the Mana Cross, which, along with the whole "flesh of God" thing, might well be the reason the faiths were so easily combined in the first place.
• Interrupted Suicide
• Invincible Minor Minion:
  • Every enemy in the game is unkillable, more or less. No matter how much damage you do to the Shibito, they revive within minutes (and in some cases seconds) due to the healing effect of the red water which is everywhere. Incidentally, this is also why there's no visible health meter; your character is also healing from the red water. The danger is that if you absorb too much of it, you turn into a Shibito as well.
  • In the second game, the corpses of the Shibito and Yamibito are simply possessed by new Shiryo or Yamirei within moments, which apparently heals the body. Explained by the island's belief that if corpses aren't staked with Mekkojou branches, they will be unable to go to Heaven and their bodies will be possessed by evil spirits.
• Jabba Table Manners: One of the focal Shibito of a mission in the first game can be seen gorging on a bowl of noodles with his bare hands. The food is also plastered all over the desk and even the walls.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Homuranagi.
• Keystone Army: In the first game, incapacitating a "Brain" Shibito will cause all other Shibito in the area to collapse and several levels are entirely based around destroying it just to paralyze the rest so you can get on.
• Kill It with Fire: The purifying flames of the Shield and Sword Uryen figurines can permanently destroy a Shibito.
  • In Blood Curse, the Uryen (宇理炎) is a cube-like device that casts blue "purging flames".
• Kryptonite-Proof Suit:
  • In Siren 2, the "doves" Mother sends out are modeled off the anatomy of a human being (Shu's drowned mother, whose corpse into Mother's dimension), and so possess a degree of resistance to sunlight that she and her Yamirei lack. This wears off after extensive time in the sunlight however, even if the dove tries to stay in the shade.
  • From the same game, Otoshigo's Shiryo die upon exposure to bright light (such as a powerful flashlight), but by possessing corpses they create Yamibito, who are more resistant, only being stunned by light exposure.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Any Shibito that gets knocked out while pursuing your current character will forget about that pursuit and resume their normal routine after reviving. Unless, of course, you stood there to watch the whole time.
• Laughing Mad: Shibito regularly have laughing fits and cry out in joy, because as a whole they're having an ecstatic religious experience, wandering around in a paradisaical world of shining light and angelic creatures. Naturally, they want to share.
• Leitmotif: In "Blood Curse", the same melody follows Bella and Amana around. It serves as a subtle hint towards the connection between the two characters.
• Locked into Strangeness: Hisako Yao's hair instantly goes stark white after Datatsushi is killed.
• Lost in Translation: In-universe. The unused chorus section of "Hoshingoeika", provided in Siren Maniacs, contains many references to Latin Christian terms, but the pronunciations have been corrupted almost beyond recognition, and even some of the meanings have changed. For example, "gururi ya" was said to represent the spinning of the holy circle (Ouroboros), but was much more likely a corruption of "Gloria".
• Mama Bear:
  • Reiko Takato, toward Harumi. Even being Shibito-fied didn't stop her.
  • Again with Melissa to Bella in "Blood Curse". Also even after becoming a Maggot Shibito and getting struck by lightning.
• Mad Doctor: Shiro Miyata.
• Madness Mantra: "Won't you look at me? Tell me I'm beautiful! Everlasting youth! Everlasting youth! Please...Won't you look at me...?"
• Mind Screw: As to be expected from the mind behind the first Silent Hill game, only amplified by the games' Anachronic Order.
• Mood-Swinger: The Shibito randomly exhibit various different emotions at any given time. They may be crying one moment and giggling the next.
• Mook–Face Turn: Kanae, one of Mother's Doves/Offshoots ultimately developed motherly feelings toward Shu and rejected her mission to take a human to Mother. Unfortunately, she couldn't entirely slip Mother's control.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Shiro Miyata is quite possibly a sociopath. He crosses the Moral Event Horizon several times, including when his twin brother Kei Makino happens upon him conducting an experiment on the Shibitofied Onda Sisters that wouldn't be out of place in Herbert West's science book. Extra Squick when he stomps on the Shibitofied fetus that Mina had been carrying before her murder. He later murders his brother for no real reason and takes not only his clothes but his role in the rest of the game - later levels playable as Kei Makino clearly feature Shiro wearing his dead brother's robes.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Just prior to the events of the first game, Mina Onda apparently told Shiro Miyata that she was pregnant with his child. He didn't take it overly well.
• Mystical Waif: Miyako, as far as her role and appearance go. Personality-wise, she's more snarky and moody than most examples.
• Mythology Gag: Miyako whacks her pursuer over the head with a stick in the original Siren. It doesn't work in Blood Curse.
• Neck Snap: The Shibito use this instead of strangling in Blood Curse, either by shoving you to the ground and requring a QTE to break out of or as a finisher when they kill you in melee.
• New Meat: Private Yorito Nagai starts this way in the second game. That changes after a few nasty events break and re-form him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the second game, when Mamoru Itsuki washes up on the cursed island he wished to investigate, he sees a strange woman, who appears to be extremely sensitive to light, and tells him her mother is imprisoned on the island, and asks for his help, implying that the first person she asked met a bad fate. They're then attacked by the Shibito. As they explore the island, the woman demonstrates strange powers, and when Mamoru finds what looks like a very large fish scale, she tells him it comes from her mother. To cap it all off, it turns out that opening the mother's prison involves opening seven magical seals keeping her bound beneath the island. Mamoru finds nothing about this suspicious, so he opens the gate keeping an Eldritch Abomination from escaping to ravage the earth. Fortunately, he finds a way to temporarily close it, but tons of Yamirei escape.
• Nigh-Invulnerable:
  • Present in both games. In the first, the Shibito take a lot more damage than a normal person would, and when they finally get knocked out, curl up and stay down for anywhere from a couple of minutes for the non-evolved Shibito to about half that or less for the evolved ones. At one point Shiro Miyata does vivisections on the Shibitofied Onda sisters... while they're still squirming and screaming. In spite of having their organs taken out and analyzed, they're good as new within no time. The only thing that can permanently destroy a Shibito is being set aflame by the Uryen. In the second, it seems endemic to Yamajima Island that people who die there come back to life as nigh-invulnerable Shibito or Yamibito if they aren't stabbed with a Mekkoju branch upon death.
  • The remake uses this, but it is much longer, as you can go through an entire level without it waking up.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: No matter how hard you beat down a Shibito or Yamibito, they always get right back up a short time later. There are occasionally ways to permanently remove specific enemies from a stage, however.
• Not Blood Siblings: Jun Kajiro was adopted by the Kajiro family for this specific reason, so that he could be raised by the family to marry his adoptive sister Ayako.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: In the second game, Yorito Nagai sees Takeaki Misawa, his SDF superior (who has been acting increasingly unstable) holding Ichiko Yagura at gunpoint. So he shoots him in the back. This comes back to bite him twofold; see The Corruption and Our Zombies Are Different.
• Ominous Fog:
  • Even the daylight moments in Hanuda are depressingly cloudy and misty.
  • In the second game, evolved male Yamibito apparently emit ominous fog. When you're in close proximity to them, everything goes dark around you.'
• Ominous Pipe Organ: The track, "The Gates of Paradise Are Open", which Hisako is seen playing on an organ to celebrate the resurrection of Datatsushi, graudually builds up, first adding an Ethereal Choir on top, before then also adding creepy Shibito throat singing.
• Once More, with Clarity: One of the final "movie stages" unlocked in the first game is Yoriko's reunion with Tamon on Day Three. As the player should have guessed by now, he was the half-Shibito at the time, while she was doing perfectly fine; it also seems that she was unable to see Datatsushi because of this.
• One Bad Mother: "Mother" is more or less the ultimate foe in the second game.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder:
  • Harumi. She's a ten-year-old girl who also can't run or use weapons, so for the levels you play as her, you must be ninja-level stealthy.
    • There's also a plot reason: any graze means she's compromised by red water.
  • A level played as young Shu in the second game is the same case.
• One-Woman Wail: Karuwari II
• Only Sane Man: The Shimura family is possessed of extremely sharp perceptive abilities and intuition that make them immune to whatever means Hisako is using to keep the other villagers complacent and oblivious. Akira ignores it all, being strongly traditional. His cousin Takafumi makes a stink about it and gets committed, and Akira's son tries to run away with the Previous Miyako and causes her ritual to fail, getting him killed and causing the landslide twenty-seven years ago.
• Oral Tradition: Hisako Yao is based off the Japanese legend of the Yaobikune, the Eight-Hundred Year Old Nun who became immortal after consuming mermaid flesh. Given a Lovecraftian twist, of course. She even dresses up in a manner similar to a Catholic Nun to hang a Lampshade on this.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Irritable, sardonic Professor Tamon Takeuchi's parents died in a landslide twenty-seven years prior to the game. The trauma of losing his parents ends up drawing him back to Hanuda. They come back... sort of. Tamon's childlike, almost giddy regression upon finding them, while presumably affected by the red water, seems to suggest he's been holding onto some considerable angst.
• Our Zombies Are Different:
  • The Shibito in the first game. They apparently retain a degree of the intellect they had before they mutated, but are given to strange, neurotic behaviors, such as repeating mindless tasks or endlessly patrolling. After bathing in the red water often enough, they mutate into more powerful and horrifying forms. And all of them are thrilled that this has happened to them because being a Shibito means being one with their god. They want you to be happy, too. And that means opening you up and letting the red water in.
  • In the second game, "Shibito" are more conventional zombies, corpses animated by "Shiryo", which are spirits controlled by Otoshigo. "Yamibito" are Shibito who have been taken over and altered by "Yamirei", spirit-creature-thingies controlled by Mother.
• Parental Abandonment: Several of the playable characters lose their parents, before or during the games.
  • In the first game, Professor Tamon's parents died in a landslide in Hanuda when he was a child, while Harumi lost her parents in a freak car accident, forging a surrogate mother-daughter relationship with her teacher Mrs. Takato before the latter gives her life to protect her.
  • In the second game, Shu's mother died giving birth to him, while as a young boy, he woke one night and came downstairs to find his father Ryuhei bleeding to death on the floor. He's then taken in by Kanae, whom he had come to view as a surrogate mother, but she drowns while ensuring he makes it to the mainland. Unbeknownst to Shu, Kanae killed his father while under Mother's influence — and, as Shu's mother was also one of Mother's 'doves', Kanae looked exactly like Ryuhei's wife, and was apparently recovering some of her memories, meaning in some sense Kanae really was Shu's mother. The part of Kanae that was Shu's mother was driven to get him away from Yamajima, to save him from the part of her which was the entity Mother.
• Parasol of Pain: Umbrellas can be used as weapons in both games. They work about as well as you'd expect.
• Path of Inspiration: The Mana Cult of Hanuda. Of course, only Hisako Yao seems to know it's really about the whole Stars Are Right deal with resurrecting Datatsushi.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Siren Maniacs mentions that numerous people in Hanuda were troubled by visions and hallucinations, implicitly including sight-jacking. Harumi and Miyako explicitly had visions relating to events in the game.
• Rain of Blood: Type 3 variant in the first game and in "Blood Curse".
• Recurring Boss: Tomoe and Tsuneo Ohta in the second game. Interesting in that, thanks to Time Travel, you actually run in to them in three different forms: Human, Shibito, and then evolved Yamibito.
• Redemption Equals Death: Shiro Miyata, who literally sacrifices himself to power the Shield Uryen and open up a gigantic Shibito Roach Motel sinkhole. The freed souls of the Onda sisters beckon him to join them before he plunges into the blazing sinkhole himself.
• Ret-Gone: Played with. The defeat of Mother shunts all those in her presence into an alternate world free of her influence. This has an unexpected benefit for Soji Abe, when the woman he's accused of murdering never existed.
• Reviving Enemy: The Shibito.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Each surviving main character in the second game.
• Running Gag: The incredibly ill-conceived entertainment products that show up as archive items in the second game.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The "alien god", Datatsushi, in the first game.
• Secret Identity
• See the Invisible: Though never directly stated, in the first game, it seems that one can only see Datatsushi's mature form if they're in the process of turning into a Shibito — Kyoya and Yoriko, having Kajiro blood in them by that point, are thus blind to its presence. In Kyoya's case, this forces him to locate Datatsushi in the final battle by either sightjacking it or looking at its (visible) reflection.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: In the second game, during the few levels where the Shibito aren't outright replaced by the Yamibito, the two will typically attack each other before they go after the player. Additionally, Ikuko can temporarily possess any enemy through sightjacking and take out other enemies with them.
• Setting Update: The Siren ReBIRTH manga has the modern setting taking place in 2019. This necessitates an explanation for why they can't use cellphones (no signal or their phones get destroyed), but also permits things like fake Wikipedia articles to be used to provide information on the setting.
• Shaky P.O.V. Cam: Sightjacking uses this as a very important gameplay tool.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Takeaki Misawa in the second game is haunted by visions of Harumi Yomoda, sole survivor of Hanuda, whom he rescued. He's apparently on some sort of anti-psychotic/anti-depression medication as a result. It's not working too well.
• Shout-Out:
  • Yoriko Anno's manga-esque sketch of Tamon Takeuchi in her class notes (Archive 033) suggests she's possibly a reference to and an Expy of manga artist Moyoco Anno.
  • Siren: Blood Curse is made in the style of a Western J-Horror remake, with a composite Expy cast that includes Americans who decide to pay that quaint little village of Hanuda a visit.
  • The air raid siren's usage can be considered a reference to Silent Hill, or alternatively just a part of creator Keiichirō Toyama's Signature Style; he's also the man behind the first Silent Hill, and reportedly the use of sirens in both games was inspired by recurring nightmares he had about the sound.
  • The first game shares much of its setup with The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
  • The scene wherein Naoko Mihama lowers herself into the red water in a misguided attempt to gain eternal youth, but becomes a monster instead is lifted from one character's arc in Ankoku Shinwa by Daijirou Morohoshi, as acknowledged by the creators.
  • A couple archive items in the first level of Blood Curse name the producer for Melissa and Sol's show as one John Titor. It's appropriate, considering one of Blood Curse's main twists.
  • Another archive item in Blood Curse discusses a fictional handheld game system, the "Network King", and how an attempted follow-up system flopped hard, leaving the creators with a mountain of unsold units they ended up burying in an "undiscovered location" before a chain reaction of bankruptcies erupted through the entire toy industry - a clear reference to Atari burying unsold stocks of the infamous E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial immediately before the American video game industry crashed.
• Shovel Strike: Mina Onda wields the shovel Shiro Miyata used to bury her.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Kei Makino and Shiro Miyata are basically opposites. Kei is a kind-hearted, but completely ineffectual guy, and Shiro's cold, but gets things done. Shiro envies Kei, due to his place within the community, and we all know what can happen when brothers envy each other...
• Sinister Geometry:
  • Late in the first game, Hanuda is slowly being converted into a hideous nest for the Datatsushi and its Shibito servants.
  • In the second game, the Yamibito apparently grow shrouds from their bodies that they use to cover up a building's windows and other places where light might get in.
• Sins of Our Fathers: The events of the first Siren are rooted well in the ancient past. On the brink of death by starvation, the inhabitants of Hanuda resort to making a meal out of a still living Datatsushi. Needless to say, the big fella didn't care much for this, and his outraged and pained shriek mutates into the familiar siren wail while pronouncing a Fate Worse than Death on the entire village in a Lovecraftian twist on The Last Supper. The same thing happens to Kaiko in Blood Curse.
• Spirit Advisor:
  • Miyako Kajiro to Kyoya Suda at the end of the first game.
  • Shu Mikami to everyone in the second game, though he generally just stands around looking depressed.
  • A different Miyako to Howard in Blood Curse.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • In the first game, Kyoya Suda ends up single-handedly committing the historical and legendary slaughter of (Shibito-infested) Hanuda. It was this very story that inspired him to journey to the village and investigate it in the first place.
  • In the remake, one of the characters has to set everything into motion by e-mailing another one from 1973 after the town goes whacked again. As well Amana, meet Bella. Bella, meet Amana.
  • The cycle of Ouroborus. Yao both sets into motion and dooms herself, though it's not really a loop since she and Datatsushi's skull show up in multiple spots along time.
  • The supplemental stories include a case where a girl dies being chased by a Shibito, revives as one, and spots her past, living self. She tries to warn her not to go that way...
• Stealth-Based Game:
  • Most of the first game's missions involves the main cast trying to avoid detection by various Shibito to reach a certain location. This is usually compounded by the characters having neither effective weapons (at least in the beginning) nor Bottomless Magazines in the case of characters who pack or happen across firearms. Not to mention short of drastic measures (i.e. permanent death by Uryen or Homuranagi) the Shibito will revive eventually. Aggravated especially in the thankfully few instances of an Escort Mission.
  • Siren 2 also follows the same route; although some enemy weapons can be picked up and used, it is best not to be seen if you can help it.
• A Storm Is Coming: Hanuda is engulfed in the middle of a storm late in the first game.
• Stylistic Suck: The Urban Folklore Society, supplemental material stylized as an in-universe website about unexplained, possibly paranormal incidents (namely, the plot of Siren and Siren 2), has a poorly-tiled background for the home page and is rife with minor spelling and grammatical errors.
• Summoning Ritual: Two attempts to revive Datatsushi in the first game. The first one is sabotaged by Miyako Kajiro as Kyoya Suda arrives and Hilarity Ensues. The second one succeeds.
• Superpowered Evil Side: At one point, Ichiko Yagura blacks out and wakes up to find to her horror that she's killed Shigeru Fujita. When she finally goes off the deep end (due to The Corruption), we see exactly how a schoolgirl could kill a cop, as she becomes an invincible Omnicidal Maniac with infinite ammo and a katana.
• Super Soldiers: Miyata Clinic received a massive expansion and overhaul during World War Two when the government became aware of Hanuda's Shibito and thought they could make some to be used as troops. This was abandoned during the chaos near the end of the war.
• Survival Horror: If we have to explain, we're going to force-feed you some mermaid.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Homuranagi sort of qualifies. Kyoya automatically obtains it after taking down the Shibitofied Jun Kajiro in the Netherworld with the Uryen, but using it to go Highlander on Datatsushi is necessary to achieve the True (or rather, Full) Ending.
  • In Blood Curse, it's more of a Cube of Plot Advancement, though both the Uryen and the Homuranagi are needed for Howard to kill Kaiko.
• Symbolic Baptism: The rituals of umi-okuri and umi-gaeri involve half-Shibito being compelled to immerse themselves in the sea of red water when the siren calls and to leave it, respectively. Once they've done so enough times (depending on the individual), they evolve into the next form of Shibito. Some resist complying or are unable to, and so stay miserable half-Shibito.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Female student Yoriko Anno has the hots for Professor Takeuchi. He doesn't have similar feelings for her, though.
• Tears of Blood: As the red water replaces the blood within the human body, said blood is forced out from the eye sockets.
• They Would Cut You Up:
  • What Shiro ends up doing to the Ondas. Turns out that not much will kill them, no matter how much he cuts.
  • Also happens to the previous Miyako from the last failed ceremony, after her escape attempt failed.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Shiro nearly quotes the trope verbatim as he goes to finish off the Ondas. But by that point, he had shot his brother Kei and assumed his identity, making the quote darkly funny.
• Thunderbolt Iron: Homuranagi was forged from siderite obtained out of the Mana Stone.
• Time Travel:
  • Both games take place in an alternate dimension where the past and present versions of the setting are mashed together. In the second game it's subtly hinted that the main characters are from an Alternate Universe, and that with the defeat of Mother and Otoshigo, and the collapse of the combined timeline, they're scattered across the dimensions. Then there's the third game, in which not only is there time travel, there's a time travel loop that has the main characters stuck in a spiritual sideways 8 eternally.
  • After she's caught in Datatsushi's collapse, white-haired Yao falls outside of time with Datatsushi's skull. You can actually catch Miyako smashing the skull early in the game to sabotage the ritual, only to be surprised later when it's found intact. The skull, also existing outside time, can and has been replaced as needed.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Kyoya and Yoriko in the first game.
    • Left trapped in the other world, Yoriko not only survives but reverses roles with the professor, being the one who pulls him out of his days-long embrace with his parents, who may or may not mean well but are still part-Shibito at this point.
    • Kyoya, meanwhile, becomes a kind of heroic revenant who apparently now wanders time and space, a One-Man Army and Walking Arsenal called upon to destroy evil while listening to "The Buster" on his portable CD player... for all eternity. The repeating partial ending has the Shibito wreaking havoc across all the fields... and Kyoya packed with grenades, the Homuranagi, and an assault rifle. And he kicks off the massacre by calling down a celestial artillery strike on the Shibito with the Uryen.
  • Yorito Nagai in the second game. He starts the game in sobbing hysterics; he ends it wearing camo This Means Warpaint and killing two bosses in a row, one of them the embodiment of an elder god.
  • In Blood Curse, Howard Wright.
• Town with a Dark Secret: The villages of Hanuda and Yamajima. One is home to a cult of immortals trying to bring their alien god back to life, the other to a cult of fishermen trying to stop an elder evil buried under their island from returning to the world of light.
• Twin Switch: Shiro kills his twin brother Kei early on Day 3 and goes on to do a Dead Person Impersonation of him. Even the game doesn't tell the player about it at first, only hinting at it by giving Kei the same weapons Shiro acquired, making them believe they play as Kei in some of the later levels, when they are actually playing as Shiro.
• Two-Faced: Spider Shibito develop an arachnoid face complete with mandibles on the top of their head, which they use as their primary "face" after transformation. Their vestigial original face is now on top of their head, with their neck twisted to face backwards..
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Characters who come closer to becoming a Shibito (and so death in general) start seeing things. A complete Shibito sees the cursed setting as a paradise filled with angels.
  • Towards the end, a disoriented Tamon sees Yoriko with the pale face of a Shibito running at him. From Yoriko's less infected view, we see Tamon was the one becoming a near-complete Shibito.
  • In Siren Blood Curse, a player should feel suspicious when playing Bella again, suddenly sneaking through a flower-overgrown mountain bathed in golden sunlight, even though she just barely escaped a hospital in the middle of the night. Cue seeing that person bang at the window as a fully transformed Shibito later.
  • Miyata sees a rather optimistic welcome to the afterlife, complete with the women he vivisected and/or murdered along with their unborn child happily calling him over.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Played straight in the first game, averted in the second and remake.
• Unstoppable Rage: Yorito develops a case of this near the end of the second game.
• Walk the Earth: If the second game is any indication, Kyoya, unable to return to our world, wanders the Netherworld defeating supernatural menaces with the Uryen and the Homuranagi. One wonders where he gets batteries for his portable stereo player...
  • Same fate for Howard in Siren Blood Curse.
• Weaksauce Weakness: In the first game and its remake, Spider Shibito can't open doors, so it's rather easy to lure one into a room you don't plan to use, knock it out, and trap it (an objective in one stage of the remake actually tasks you to do just that so a character you're escorting can follow you safely). In the second, most of the enemies are vulnerable to bright light, which kills Shiryo and Yamirei, and briefly stuns Yamibito.
  • Applies to the female characters, every single one of them. The game has three tiers of characters in adult male, adult female, and child. The only child is Hirumi and she is understandably weaker than an adult in every way but the adult female characters are generally not as capable as the males. Female adults have less HP, less stamina, weaker melee proficiency, can't use automatic guns and one of the most frustrating features is that adult females can't climb ledges higher than half their body height usually just above their hips. In missions with a male and female adult the player will always be the male and could usually cover for the weakness such as help the female climb a ledge she can't on her own and these tend to play more like any damsel escort mission in any other game but in missions where you play as a sole female character (or an adult female with a child) these weaknesses become more glaring. Funnily enough even the female mooks share these weaknesses.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted in the first game. When Miyata activates the Uryen, two rotting Shibito slink off the screen rather than get caught in the chasm. They have a touching reunion with their son in the ending, until that goes to hell.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Siren 2 explores this with both the Shibito and the Yamibito. In Yorito Nagai's ending, he ends up trapped in a world full of Yamibito. This causes him to snap and fire at all the Yamibito around him in blind rage. However, the Yamibito of this world were just normal people living their everyday lives. An archive entry, a picture diary drawn by a Yamibito child, revealed that he was just as alien and terrifying to them as they were to him. There's also a secret mission where the JGSDF helicopter pilot Nitaka Ichifuji, who turned into a Shibito, helps a fellow Shibito recover a steam iron left by a loved one.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: Naoko Mihama in the first game. Once a famed idol at nineteen, her career went steadily downhill as she aged, until, at twenty-eight, she's been reduced to reporting for a crappy "Ghost Hunters"-style supernatural show.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child:
  • Played straight with Harumi Yomoda, who is the only cast member to escape Hanuda alive and intact.
  • Gruesomely subverted in the case of Tomoko Maeda. At the end of her mission to reach the local church, she peers into the window and sees her parents taking shelter there. And they see her... weeping Tears of Blood that mark her gradual transformation into a Shibito. The Japanese commercial that used this cutscene was reported to have been very disturbing to viewers and was actually banned.
  • Again subverted in Bella Monroe's case in Blood Curse. In the first loop, she reenacts the same scene as Tomoko's last mission, all Tears of Blood and window pounding, plus an accompanying Maggot Shibito after reaching the church where her parents are. In the second loop, you - and dear old dad Sam - finds out that she's Amana, the one who started the mess by eating Kaiko after being flung into the past.
• The Virus:
  • Spread by the red water in the first game. If too much of it gets into your bloodstream, you become a Shibito, and the more of it that gets in, the faster you turn. So, as long as you don't drink it, breathe the vapors, soak in it, or let it into your wounds, you'll be fine... Uh-oh. Looks like rain...
  • The red water is actually a physical manifestation of the Datatsushi's curse upon the village of Hanuda, somewhat understandably resentful of the ancient inhabitants going way overboard with the whole Body of Christ communion.
• Yandere: The conflict between Mother and Otoshigo boils down to this, essentially. Once there was a race of ancient beings who lived on Earth but were driven away by the light. Some of them escaped to another dimension, and some to the very bottom of the sea floor where the sun couldn't reach them. Both lost their forms and melded into Mother and Otoshigo, respectively. By chance, their minds managed to briefly come into contact millions of years later, and Otoshigo developed both an obsession with becoming one with Mother once more and (rather unfounded) resentment for Mother separating themselves all that time ago. For Mother's part, she regards Otoshigo and his spawn as annoying lesser beings who keep bothering them. Therefore they attack them, which doesn't help Otoshigo's mood.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Once you have red water in your system, you can never leave the Netherworld, even if you don't become a Shibito.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After the ritual to restore Datatsushi proves successful, no more generations of Kajiros are needed, and so Ayako Kajiro gets roasted.
• You're Insane!: Said verbatim by Kei Makino upon seeing what Shiro did with the Onda sisters.

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