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*WARNING* This is a long rant, so if you really don't feel like doing some heavy reading, I'd advise you skip it.
Before I begin, yes I know someone else has started another thread in this already pretty damn small section of these forums, but I am going somewhere different with this one. Just bear with me here.
If anyone hasn't heard about this yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3IJ0uQnK4 - Playthrough (From JackSepticEye, though other YouTubers are available)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ZMGj54aYU - The reveal of it all being a bit of marketting for the new Silent Hill game, directed by Hideo Kojima (MGS) & Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) & starring Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead)
You will need to watch these two videos if you want to know what the hell I'm talking about.
I'd like to start by saying that despite P.T. having dialogue & some semblance of story, it looks to be more along the lines of something to build up hype, rather than a demo of the actual game. Despite how the actual game, 'Silent Hills' will turn out, I'd just like to say that to me, this one small piece they've come up with is as close to the original 3 Silent hill games as it's ever been in terms of atmosphere.
However, after watching through this a couple of times & also the speech at the end, either I've probably thought a bit too far into things, or there's a lot more 'Kojima' present than some might realise.
A quick sidenote to hopefully back me up here;
When making MGS2, Arsenal gear was actually designed with the idea of a living creature in mind, digesting you as you moved from the linear path of it's throat to it's colon... I'll just let that sink in for a moment >.> Oh, and if you don't believe me, watch the documentary that's on a dvd for the original version MGS2.
This may not be such a solid basis of which to build my theory around, but it's a solid demonstration of the guy's use of symbolism. And that seems to be one of two things that P.T. is about; Symbolism & interpretation.
And now, here's what I see it as; The state of the Silent Hill franchise today. Please hear me out before you pick one of the oh so many ways I could be shot down here.
First of all, you have the looping hallway. That could be considered as a representation of the franchise itself. How long have developers tried going down the same route while trying to add some kind of unique twist to this formula? I am legitimately asking here; How many times have they gone down that same route now since Homecoming, despite that one actually being a pretty good game in places. In fact, you could even say that there's some slight deviations that could be rated as exceptional, albeit still not the formula that makes Silent Hill work (ie; Homecoming & Shattered Memories). In truth though, developers have tried for a while now to capture lightning in a bottle & failed, pushing it to the point where it's actually descended into something quite ugly.
Second of all, there's the voice that's always talking to you on the radio. It could be me, but there are some things it keeps saying that strike me as reminiscent. You've got the line about the father hanging himself with a garden hose, immediately followed by a muffled voice repeating the line, only instead of a garden hose, he used an umbilical cord... Yes, I am literally going "HURR HE SAID UMBILICAL CORD LIKE IN SILENT HILL 4!!" Sue me. Also, there's a bit with the sound of a woman getting decapitated, and if you listen to the radio in the background, it's coaxing the killer along with stuff about society being rotten to the core. Again, it could just be me, but some of the things being said seem kind of parallel to previous characters, like Walter Sullivan.
Come to think of it, quite a lot of this reminds me of Silent Hill 4, but in a nice way.
Last but not least, you have the voice of the living foetus in the bathroom sink. If you reach the ending of P.T, it gives a small speech about how dad went & murdered the entire family, without even being original about it. He also says that he'll be back & is bringing his new toys with him. Now, you could indeed object with it actually being relevant to the plot of Silent Hills, but let's just make the pretty big assumption that it's actually not. I could probably sum this up in more elaborate ways, but I'll just go with a direct summary of what I think this voice really is;
This is the spirit of the Silent Hill series itself. The "soul" of it's concept, having been a bit mistreated by creators that failed to come up with ideas less generic or just financially 'safe'. You all know how most of the big publishers feel about survival horror these days, by which I mean most them don't see any potential for it anymore. The last SH game to come out was Downpour, and while some might argue it was a good game, to me it was quite the whimper. How many other people felt that way, if not long before that? I mean, who needs subtle pacing & a dark, immersive atmosphere with a strong story when you've killstreaks & co op! Am I right?!
Anywho, a lot of people have said that horror games have been a dying breed for a long time, and P.T demonstrates the message that this will change. If it says anything, it's one very clear message; Silent Hill is back. Not just another attempt, but an actual installment that's faithful to how it started (Again, in terms of rock solid atmosphere).
"But you know what? I'm coming back.
And I'll be bringing my new toys with me."
I'd say a ps4 is new enough.
There's a lot of things you could use against this argument here, since I couldn't find any relevance of things like the ghost to my theory. I know that it's just a piece of marketing to hype up the game & could very easily be interpreted as a pretentious one. But I think that a lot of thought has been put into this. It's no secret that Kojima is ever ambitious & works his fingers to the bone for his projects. He's put his own marriage on the line for MGS, for crying out loud. It wouldn't surprise me if a ton of effort went into this simple bit of promotion. And y'know what? Holy shit does the whole thing have me hyped up... As you- might have-... guessed >.> *ahem*
I could be wrong about this, because frankly, there's a lot of things that I probably haven't thought through. But it's been on my mind quite heavily. It was so important, I just had to rant about it in the thread of a forum that mainly deals with a different franchise altogether. Iz I not teh greetest.
Any thoughts? Other than 'Lay off the caffiene & conspiracy theories, you fuckin' crackpot', I mean
Before I begin, yes I know someone else has started another thread in this already pretty damn small section of these forums, but I am going somewhere different with this one. Just bear with me here.
If anyone hasn't heard about this yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3IJ0uQnK4 - Playthrough (From JackSepticEye, though other YouTubers are available)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_ZMGj54aYU - The reveal of it all being a bit of marketting for the new Silent Hill game, directed by Hideo Kojima (MGS) & Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) & starring Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead)
You will need to watch these two videos if you want to know what the hell I'm talking about.
I'd like to start by saying that despite P.T. having dialogue & some semblance of story, it looks to be more along the lines of something to build up hype, rather than a demo of the actual game. Despite how the actual game, 'Silent Hills' will turn out, I'd just like to say that to me, this one small piece they've come up with is as close to the original 3 Silent hill games as it's ever been in terms of atmosphere.
However, after watching through this a couple of times & also the speech at the end, either I've probably thought a bit too far into things, or there's a lot more 'Kojima' present than some might realise.
A quick sidenote to hopefully back me up here;
When making MGS2, Arsenal gear was actually designed with the idea of a living creature in mind, digesting you as you moved from the linear path of it's throat to it's colon... I'll just let that sink in for a moment >.> Oh, and if you don't believe me, watch the documentary that's on a dvd for the original version MGS2.
This may not be such a solid basis of which to build my theory around, but it's a solid demonstration of the guy's use of symbolism. And that seems to be one of two things that P.T. is about; Symbolism & interpretation.
And now, here's what I see it as; The state of the Silent Hill franchise today. Please hear me out before you pick one of the oh so many ways I could be shot down here.
First of all, you have the looping hallway. That could be considered as a representation of the franchise itself. How long have developers tried going down the same route while trying to add some kind of unique twist to this formula? I am legitimately asking here; How many times have they gone down that same route now since Homecoming, despite that one actually being a pretty good game in places. In fact, you could even say that there's some slight deviations that could be rated as exceptional, albeit still not the formula that makes Silent Hill work (ie; Homecoming & Shattered Memories). In truth though, developers have tried for a while now to capture lightning in a bottle & failed, pushing it to the point where it's actually descended into something quite ugly.
Second of all, there's the voice that's always talking to you on the radio. It could be me, but there are some things it keeps saying that strike me as reminiscent. You've got the line about the father hanging himself with a garden hose, immediately followed by a muffled voice repeating the line, only instead of a garden hose, he used an umbilical cord... Yes, I am literally going "HURR HE SAID UMBILICAL CORD LIKE IN SILENT HILL 4!!" Sue me. Also, there's a bit with the sound of a woman getting decapitated, and if you listen to the radio in the background, it's coaxing the killer along with stuff about society being rotten to the core. Again, it could just be me, but some of the things being said seem kind of parallel to previous characters, like Walter Sullivan.
Come to think of it, quite a lot of this reminds me of Silent Hill 4, but in a nice way.
Last but not least, you have the voice of the living foetus in the bathroom sink. If you reach the ending of P.T, it gives a small speech about how dad went & murdered the entire family, without even being original about it. He also says that he'll be back & is bringing his new toys with him. Now, you could indeed object with it actually being relevant to the plot of Silent Hills, but let's just make the pretty big assumption that it's actually not. I could probably sum this up in more elaborate ways, but I'll just go with a direct summary of what I think this voice really is;
This is the spirit of the Silent Hill series itself. The "soul" of it's concept, having been a bit mistreated by creators that failed to come up with ideas less generic or just financially 'safe'. You all know how most of the big publishers feel about survival horror these days, by which I mean most them don't see any potential for it anymore. The last SH game to come out was Downpour, and while some might argue it was a good game, to me it was quite the whimper. How many other people felt that way, if not long before that? I mean, who needs subtle pacing & a dark, immersive atmosphere with a strong story when you've killstreaks & co op! Am I right?!
Anywho, a lot of people have said that horror games have been a dying breed for a long time, and P.T demonstrates the message that this will change. If it says anything, it's one very clear message; Silent Hill is back. Not just another attempt, but an actual installment that's faithful to how it started (Again, in terms of rock solid atmosphere).
"But you know what? I'm coming back.
And I'll be bringing my new toys with me."
I'd say a ps4 is new enough.
There's a lot of things you could use against this argument here, since I couldn't find any relevance of things like the ghost to my theory. I know that it's just a piece of marketing to hype up the game & could very easily be interpreted as a pretentious one. But I think that a lot of thought has been put into this. It's no secret that Kojima is ever ambitious & works his fingers to the bone for his projects. He's put his own marriage on the line for MGS, for crying out loud. It wouldn't surprise me if a ton of effort went into this simple bit of promotion. And y'know what? Holy shit does the whole thing have me hyped up... As you- might have-... guessed >.> *ahem*
I could be wrong about this, because frankly, there's a lot of things that I probably haven't thought through. But it's been on my mind quite heavily. It was so important, I just had to rant about it in the thread of a forum that mainly deals with a different franchise altogether. Iz I not teh greetest.
Any thoughts? Other than 'Lay off the caffiene & conspiracy theories, you fuckin' crackpot', I mean