Silent Hill JPN Information Please

[PlopPlop]

Right the background, a mate of mine on the net got in touch to ask me a question about the original Silent Hill on the PS1, namely the Japanese version. The question he asked was do the killer babies appear in the primery school?

I thought not, but Wikipedia says that not only do they appear in the Japanese version they even have slightly different model graphics!!!

Now I had the UK demo from MGS, the UK retail original and the US retail original already but not the Japanese version, so I went and bid on this;

http://www.crimson-ceremony.net/lostreleases/item.php?id=shgame_sh1-ps1-asi1

thinking that it was the Japanese version, only to realise that it was the Asian version and had the claw monsters.

SO I went and got this one as well;

http://www.crimson-ceremony.net/lostreleases/item.php?id=shgame_sh1-ps1-jpn1

The propper Japanese version, and this too has the claw monsters instead of the killer babies.

So after all that tracking down and buying my question is this, does ANY other version in the world have the killer babies in it? Or is it just the US one?

[BLSR1]

By killer babies, do you mean the ugly children with knives or the black ghosts?

[Anders]

Maybe the Japanese demo? I don't know, I've never played it (sealed).

https://www.crimson-ceremony.net/lostreleases/item.php?id=shdemo_sh1-ps1-jpn-demo1

You can find those practically for free on Yahoo Japan Auctions, but usually in bundles with other demos...

Then there's the US demo, I don't know if there are differences to the regular US retail game, but I guess as the game already have those babies you're not that interested.

https://www.crimson-ceremony.net/lostreleases/item.php?id=shdemo_sh1-ps1-usa-demo2

I have one for sale anyway...


Also, not what you're asking, but are you aware of the different PAL demo? It comes on the Australian Silent Hill demo (OPM Australia), and the same demo can also be found on the Best Horror Games Ever demos. This demo does not have the killah babes. Much closer to PAL retail.

[Vincent]

*puts his hand up* I'm the guilty one that started this quest.

Plop's speaking about the grey kids with knives that show up in the alleyway at the start of the game and again in the school. The UK version has brown, claw-handed creatures instead of the grey kids with knives that the US version has.

Apparently the Japanese version has a slightly different version of the kids than the US version. But as we've found out both the Asian and the Japanese versions are exactly the same models as the EU version which goes against everything I'd read about SH since it first appeared.

Also, not what you're asking, but are you aware of the different PAL demo? It comes on the Australian Silent Hill demo (OPM Australia), and the same demo can also be found on the Best Horror Games Ever demos. This demo does not have the killah babes. Much closer to PAL retail.

The PAL demo that's on the UK version of the OPSM Best Horror Games is exactly the same as the demo that came free with Metal Gear Solid. I have both of them (so does Plop) so I can confirm that they both have the grey kids from the US version. I'm sure it's the same as the demo that OPSM first put on their disc. Unfortunately I don't have that one, but I do remember playing the same demo a good while before getting the Best Horror Games mag and disc.


So, to confirm so far:

What we though:
EU version is censored with brown creatures with claws for hands.
US version has grey kids holding knives.
Jap version has a slightly different model, but they are still grey kids with knives.

What we seem to know now after some digging:
Jap version is the same as the UK version with the brown clawed monsters.


Anybody else got any ideas about this?

[Anders]

The PAL demo that's on the UK version of the OPSM Best Horror Games is exactly the same as the demo that came free with Metal Gear Solid.

Actually, they aren't the same. Try them again.

[Vincent]

Actually, they aren't the same. Try them again.

Okay, will do. I admit it's been a few years since I've fired up the MGS disc.

[PlopPlop]

@ Anders, your right, I've just chucked the Best Horror Games Ever disc in and it's a sort of hybrid of the MGS demo and the retail game, it zaps you straight into the main hall of the school from the menu and it's the claw monsters, not the Grey Children with knifes!

Looks like the difficulty setting is Normal. It looks just the same as the retail as far as I can tell.

One thing that is REALLY stumping me and Vince though is the release sequence of the game, it was released in Japan, then the US and then the UK all in the same year 1999, so if the US version was the second release, how come it's uncensored? It would have been taken from the Japanese game, then must have been cheanged to include the Grey Children, then the UK version would most likely have come from the US version! So it must have been changed back?

That just doesn't seem right? Can anybody shed some light on this?

[Anders]

They didn't throw the original game code in the trash. They didn't have to redoanything to include the children in the US game, they just used the original code. Must have been something like this:

1. JPN code with children (unreleased)
4. |_JPN game with teddybears, in Japanese
5. | |_European localizations of the edited Japanese game
2. |_US localization of the original Japanese knife-children game
3. . |_European localizations of the US game (unreleased, English demo only)

[Rombie]

The game was delayed in the UK to make the changes... the original intent was to have the same game as the US, but it didn't happen. I don't recall any public discussion on why. The original release date was only a couple of months after the US, but it was pushed back into August.

[Zombie_X]

Hrm.. I have The US, JPN demo's of this and they creatures are different!!

[Vincent]

Actually, they aren't the same. Try them again.

Ahem, whoops. You're right. The demo on the Best Horror Games disc has the brown clawed creatures we got in the UK.

My mistookeness.