Silent Hill is a person’s inner world, a place where one redeems his sins.
Prologue:
On February 24, 1999, KONAMI launched Silent Hill, a third-person survival adventure horror game, was released on the then-popular PS console. At this time, the aftermath of "Resident Evil 2" in 1998 has not yet passed, and everyone has been talking about all issues related to biohazard all day long. The appearance of "Silent Hill" did not attract too many people's attention. Some people may even think that it is another biochemical imitation. However, "Silent Hill" soon attracted many people with its thick world view and strong religious character. Attracting people's attention, players naturally compared it with biochemistry. Compared with the slightly thin plot of biochemistry, "Silent Hill" pays more attention to the interpretation of this aspect, especially the addition of religious beliefs, making many issues thoughtful and reflective. In order to avoid being suspected of plagiarizing Biochemical, KONAMI set up the space of "Silent Hill" to be quite spacious. Different from the horror in a closed and small space that Biochemical aims to embody, "Silent Hill" uses thick fog and darkness to create a unique game. The atmosphere, coupled with the melancholy and decadent music, keeps people's psychology in a state of extreme depression. Uneasiness and panic create another kind of psychological terror. The setting of the puzzles also adopts a metaphorical method, and one must guess the solution based on the understanding of the obscure sentences in the information. It is precisely because of these advantages that contributed to the success of "Silent Hill" and also gave KONAMI the idea of ??serializing it. Because I am very obsessed with horror games, and "Silent Hill" is one of my favorite games. Although I cannot say that I fully understand the profound connotations of "Silent Hill", I do have my own opinions. Let me lead the way below. Everyone enters the world of "Silent Hill" in my mind. (Note: Since the world view of the "Silent Hill" series is very complex, the content of this article is only a personal understanding and inference based on the data appearing in the game. Other readers may have objections. It is for players' reference only. Discussions are welcome!)
Foundation Laying------1st Generation:
There is a small town in the middle of the United States called Silent Hill. There is an ancient religion here. Due to the large number of immigrants, Most of them believe in Christianity. Coupled with the death and loss of local residents, the native religion gradually declined, and Christianity took over its dominant position. It also claimed that the main god worshiped by the native religion was the dark angel Samael in Christianity. This religion is also called the Samael religion. .
Thirty-one years ago, Dhalia Gillespie, the leader of the Samael Church, learned that her daughter Alessa had the special ability to summon Samael. Crazy Dalia is convinced that as long as Alisa is burned as a sacrifice, Samael will be reborn, mankind will be liberated, and a beautiful paradise can be created. But in the end the ritual failed, and Alisa was seriously burned and fell into a coma. Most of her souls escaped. The burned body was sent to the underground ward C4 of Alchmilla Hospital. Doctor Kauffman assigned Lisa ) nurse provides care. Seven years later, the witch held another ceremony and gave birth to another baby girl. Part of the soul that had escaped in the fire was recalled and attached to the baby girl's body, while the other part of Alyssa's soul created the baby girl out of a sense of self-protection. world to escape Daria's persecution. At the same time, nurse Lisa, out of compassion and did not want to see the baby girl suffer again, put her on the side of the highway in Silent Hill. Harry, a foreign tourist, happened to be passing through here and was having sex with his wife who had been unable to have children. After consensus, they decided to adopt the baby girl and named her Cheryl. Three years later, his wife passed away due to illness, and his adopted daughter Cheryl became Harry's only spiritual sustenance.
On the day of his daughter's 7th birthday, Harry, who had already loved her as his own daughter, suddenly wanted to visit Silent Hill, so he drove to Silent Hill with her. On the way, a woman in blue (the soul of Alyssa) suddenly crossed the road. Harry had no time to dodge, and a car accident occurred. After waking up, Harry found that his daughter was missing. On the way to find his beloved daughter, he met the female police officer Cybil. She came to investigate the White Claudia drug trafficking incident in the local church. She was trapped in the town due to thick fog. With her help, Harry began his journey to find his beloved daughter.
In the church in the town, Harry met Dahlia, the culprit of the entire incident. She gave Harry a mysterious prop called Flauros, saying it could help Harry expel evil forces. He also claims that Cheryl has been swallowed by the other world, and Harry must go deep into the dark other world to find his beloved daughter. Because he was overly worried about his daughter's current safety, Harry completely believed Daria's lies and was taken advantage of by her. Later, they met Dr. Kaufman and Nurse Lisa in the inside and outside world of the hospital respectively, and learned that Dr. Kaufman killed Nurse Lisa because she stole the baby girl. In addition, Harry also found the mysterious potion Aglaophotis hidden by Dr. Kaufman, which is extracted from rare red herbs and is said to be able to drive away evil spirits.
At the amusement park carousel, this red potion was used to drive out the soul attached to Sibel, which was another part of Alisa's soul that escaped in the previous fire. Dalia took the opportunity to capture Alisa's soul. Only then did Harry realize that he had been being used by Daria. In order to hold the ceremony again, Daria must find all the scattered souls of Elisa. In order to protect herself, Elisa created an underworld to escape her mother's persecution and hid part of her soul deep inside. Daria used Harry to find The weakness of a woman's eagerness allows her to enter the other world and find that part of her soul. Harry, who knew the truth of the matter, rushed to the final altar, but it was too late. The ceremony merged Sherrel's body and Alyssa's soul into one, forming a complete body------Alyssa, the woman in white. Daria calls it Mother of God. Dr. Kaufman also arrived at this time, because he had a secret agreement with Daria before, using his own medical knowledge to help Daria refine White Claudia, a drug that can numb human nerves, and use this drug to control the town's The residents, so that the church could regain its dominance in the town, and then share the rights and the power of Samael together, but Daria did not fulfill her promise, so Dr. Kaufman poured the secretly prepared exorcism liquid Aglaophotis on the woman in white. , forcing the monster out of his body to take revenge. But Lisa, who was killed by Kaufman and trapped in the hospital in the other world for a long time, also appeared later and dragged Kaufman into the dark world of the other world in revenge. The monster that escaped from its mother's body was summoned by Harry's powerful weapon, and was soon defeated by Harry. At this time, Alyssa was exhausted. Before she died, she handed the reincarnated baby girl to Harry and helped Harry and Sibel escape from Silent Hill. (Note: Due to necessity, part of the above content is combined with the information of the third generation)
The first generation of "Silent Hill" introduced the town of Silent Hill to all players, and also placed the so-called Samael Cult in the world. has been introduced to the players, but the teachings and background of the Samael religion have been introduced very little, only giving the players a first glimpse of its appearance. What kind of church is Samael? What exactly is Mother of God? Why does Alyssa have to be burned to death in order to summon Samael? What is the world created by Alyssa? Wait, there are too many questions that have not been answered in the game. In the end, Harry brought out the reincarnated baby, which was a big foreshadowing left by the production staff. The story will definitely continue, because players are looking forward to the questions left by the first generation to be reasonably explained in the second generation. KONAMI also has a lot of room for development based on the first generation, and the emergence of the second generation has become a matter of course. things. It was not until September 25, 2001 that "Silent Hill 2" was finally released, but it also surprised all players
Innovation-----2nd generation:
In All players who are looking forward to the sequel of "Silent Hill" must have believed that the second generation will definitely take over the story clues of the first generation, because the first generation left too many problems and foreshadowings. However, when they get the second generation, all players But they were all surprised and "disappointed". KONAMI abandoned all the precious materials left over from the first generation and started anew, putting a brand new story in front of players. But after every player has played it, their beautiful words will continue to sound. To this day, the plot of "Silent Hill 2" is recognized by all players as the best in the series. The atmosphere of "Silent Hill 2" continues to use the techniques of the first generation and is enhanced. The thick fog and darkness, noise and limited visibility make players passively depressed at all times. In terms of puzzles, KONAMI unexpectedly separated the difficulty settings of the puzzles from the difficulty settings of the game. Different puzzle difficulties have different solutions, which meets the needs of players at different levels. What I have to talk about in the game is the biggest highlight of the game------the plot. The theme of the second generation is crime and punishment. Silent Hill is a metaphor for the dark world deep in everyone's heart, where all people with guilt in their subconscious will come here to atone for their sins. The entire game explores the dark side of the human mind, which is filled with sexual hunger, sexual violence, sexual abuse and other abnormal psychology, just like Freud's psychoanalysis. When players get deeper into it, they have forgotten that they are playing a game, and feel like watching a psychological detective movie. "Silent Hill 2", which incorporates philosophical concepts, is inevitable to succeed, but the profound plot is also a killer that limits its popularity as a popular game. Therefore, its sales volume has never been as good as that of some masterpieces. However, the series has been popular since the second generation. Confirmed the status of his masterpiece. Since everyone has a different understanding of the plot of the second generation, it is also the most controversial. Here I can only write down my superficial understanding of the game for everyone to enjoy.
The protagonist James suddenly received a mysterious letter one day. The signature turned out to be his beloved wife Mary who had passed away three years ago. The letter asked him to go to Silent Hill. A special place that once belonged to both of them. Full of expectations and doubts, James drove to Silent Hill, hoping to find the truth of the matter. At this time, Silent Hill was surrounded by heavy fog. The appearance of monsters and the emergence of fragments of memories in the subconscious made James feel uneasy.
After several twists and turns, James finally arrived at the location of the "Special Place" mentioned by his wife in the letter - Room 302 of the Lakeview Hotel on the shores of Toluca. This was also where they stayed during their honeymoon. Here, the images he saw from a video tape connected the fragmented memories in his subconscious that he woke up after coming to Silent Hill. It turned out that his wife Mary, who was terminally ill three years ago, did not die immediately, but It was because he believed in his heart that his wife was dead and forced him to forget the cause of his death. And now he remembered it all. James also came to Silent Hill, the place of atonement, because of his subconscious "sense of guilt".
Because his wife was ill in bed at the time, James went to the hospital every day to take care of her. However, his wife's condition gradually worsened and her mood became very irritable, and she often blamed James. At the beginning, James tolerated everything because he loved his wife deeply. Over time, his spirit fell into extreme depression. Coupled with the heavy financial burden caused by medical expenses during his hospitalization, James could no longer endure this. This kind of mental torture, looking at the withered face of his wife who was tortured by the disease, he thought that his wife's death was only a matter of time, so he came up with the idea of ????letting his wife euthanasia, which could end the pain and torture of each other. But he couldn't bear to kill the wife he had always loved. Wandering between the contradiction between morality and reality, James finally chose to abandon his wife. Because he did not want to be condemned by his conscience, he forced himself to forget this memory and believed that his wife was dead. Mary, who was in the hospital at this time, was also very conflicted. She didn't want to burden her husband anymore and wanted to die, but she also longed for her husband's care. After James left, she spent every day in the hospital bed looking forward to seeing James again, but unfortunately he never appeared again. Mary, who was seriously ill, left two letters before she died, one to James, hoping that he would understand her feelings; the other to her friend Laura who was ill, hoping that she would not blame James too much. scholar. James believed that he left his wife when she needed him most, and that it was his infidelity to his wife that led to his wife's death. As a result, he subconsciously blamed himself and a "sense of guilt" immediately arose.
In the game, James meets Maria, a woman who looks exactly like his wife, but her dazzling red dress, sexy and open personality, coupled with provocative language and actions, all A sharp contrast to his wife. This is also the form of the perfect wife that James subconsciously needs. The Pyramid Head that has been chasing Maria and himself is also a manifestation of James's subconscious "sense of guilt", so he has never been able to kill this monster. Every time the triangle-headed monster appears, it does something sexual: rape or sexual abuse. This is because James has been living a single life since his wife became ill until now. As a normal man, he is bound to have sexual repression and sexual fantasies physiologically. He attacked James because he always wanted to punish his subconscious; and attacked Maria because he always thought that he was the one who killed Mary. The final battle with the triangle-headed monster shows that James' subconscious "sense of guilt" has gradually been eliminated, and he is about to get rid of the mental constraints that have been entangled in him.
In addition to Maria, James also met Laura, Endy, and Angela in Silent Hill. Laura is an 8-year-old little girl. She is innocent and has no sin in her heart, so she is never harassed by monsters when she walks back and forth in Silent Hill. Because I once lived in the same ward with Mary and was deeply cared for by Mary, I trust Mary very much and I also like Mary very much. But later when Mary's condition worsened, due to her great mood changes, she often blamed James, and James finally abandoned Mary. All this was seen by the young and ignorant Laura, and she always thought that James was treating Mary badly. Therefore, he has been against James throughout the game, and each time it deepens his inner pain, especially the scene where he stood on the wall and said, "Actually, you don't love Mary at all", which made James completely falling into self-blame. Eddie's parents have divorced since he was a child. Without the warmth of his family, his personality has become very weird. Because he has been ridiculed by others, he has a very low self-esteem and long-term mental depression. In a rage, he will kill the people who laugh at him, and his inner guilt will also arise. The killing scenes are repeated again and again in Silent Hill, which constantly stimulates An. Dee's subconscious. Struggling in pain in his heart, he was finally killed by James and received the punishment he deserved. This only aggravated James's belief that "he was a murderer" and further deepened his inner self-blame. There has always been a doubt in the life experience of another character, Angela. From the progress of the game, it can be seen that her mental state is very unstable, with split personality and suicidal tendencies. The death of her family has become a fact, and it is certain that her father was killed by her, but why she killed her father and how her mother and brother died are very vague in the game. According to the game Going on, I feel that her father often sexually assaulted her when he was drunk, so she killed her father, and her mother and brother may have died because they did not stop her father from raping her, so she killed them in anger. die.
She came to Silent Hill solely to find her mother, which also shows that she subconsciously feels guilty about her mother's death. Once she even mistook James for her mother, it also shows that she has been escaping from reality and using fantasy to Numbing herself, and in the middle of the game, she said to James, "You don't have to be so nice to me. That's why you men are nice to women. You might as well force me directly." And in the later stage, before walking into the sea of ????fire, she said, "My mother said I deserved it." These two sentences contradicted my previous inferences. Could there be something more to the matter? I suddenly had another thought: Could it be that she had a split personality in her mind, which caused the deformity? She first seduced her drunken father into having sex, and then she killed him, including the whole family, under another personality, and then used fantasy to free herself. Of course, these are just my personal guesses and there is insufficient evidence. And when she finally walked into the sea of ??fire, it showed that she had realized that the sins she had committed must be punished, and escaping could not solve the subconscious guilt. Only death was the only relief. This also made James reflect on himself. He was also running away from his wife and her death. Now it was time for him to face everything, so he must understand things in Silent Hill.
The second generation leaves people with more questions to think about than the first generation. It is not an exploration of the game itself like the first generation, but an exploration of the depths of people's hearts. Just clearing the level is no longer This is the main purpose of the game. Everyone is searching every corner of the game in order to understand each character, hoping to find clues to explore the inner activities of the character. Even if it is an inconspicuous piece of information, the players have repeatedly scrutinized the content. The meaning of hiding. But most of the games just give hints and require players to guess based on the entire game. But everyone's understanding is different, so there is a lot of controversy among players on some issues. Although the excitement of the second generation has won unanimous praise from players, the problems left by the first generation are still worried by all players. The third generation has naturally become the next target that fans of "Silent Hill" are looking forward to.
Return - 3rd generation
The sequel that all "Silent Hill" fans have been waiting for for 2 years was finally released with players on May 23, 2003 Meet. As everyone expected, the story background and world view of the third generation are the same as those of the first generation, and they still make a big fuss about religion. Basically, all the questions left by the first generation have been answered here. Since the method of separating the difficulty of puzzles in the second generation has been well received by players, this game continues to carry it forward. In terms of the setting of puzzles, the producers have racked their brains, including puzzles about 5 Shakespeare's collected works and 5 pictures. The puzzles of Tarot cards are my personal favorite. Of course, I refer to the case where the puzzle difficulty is HARD. The former requires players to understand these 5 works, and the latter requires players to understand Tarot cards, and then according to the sentence Obscure hints reveal the secrets. If the difficulty level of the puzzle is not HARD, or if you are a player who plays the game while watching the strategy, of course, you will not be able to appreciate the subtleties, and you will not be moved by the good intentions of the production staff. The atmosphere and sound effects of the game maintain the consistent style of the series, and the enhanced graphics make the real-time animation close to the realm of reality. In particular, the facial expressions of each character once again impact the visual nerves of players. The weapons part of this game can be said to be "deceptive". On the surface, it seems that more types of weapons have been added to the game, and there are even machine guns. You need to choose different weapons according to different situations to deal with monsters, which enriches the battle. content. However, when players finished the game, they discovered that cold weapons still played the leading role in the game. Faced with numerous monsters and their wide attack range, the weaknesses in the durability and practicality of the gun were undoubtedly exposed. It mainly relies on various knives and blunt instruments to attack enemies. It is this kind of primitive violence that makes players more interested. And when the game progressed to the later stage, the players shouted that they had been fooled. As for why you were fooled? I will analyze it for you now.
1 After Dhalia's "God Summoning" ceremony was destroyed by Harry, Harry took the turned saint left behind by Alessa before she died and escaped from the Silence. Ridge, and named the saint Heather. Due to Daria's death, the church was succeeded by Claudia, who became the new leader of the church. She was Alyssa's best friend when she was young and was also the most devout believer. Her belief in God has reached To the point where others are outraged. In order to retrieve the Saint, they sent followers to hunt down Harry. Harry took Heather and traveled between cities. The investigative report of veteran detective Douglas mentioned that when Heather was 12 years old, Harry once killed a person, but was found not guilty of self-defense, and then the father and daughter immediately left the place. It can be seen from this report that the father and daughter have been living in an unstable place to avoid being pursued by the church. The story begins here.
When Heather was 17 years old, she and her father temporarily settled in this city. But Claudia actually hired Douglas, a private detective, to find their traces, and the experienced Douglas quickly found their residence in this city. While he was persuading Heather to go with him to see Claudia, the church's killers had broken into Harry's home and killed him.
When Heather returned home and saw her father's body, the pain in her heart was completely covered by hatred. She vowed to kill Claudia to avenge her father. The old detective Douglas also knew that he had been used, and he felt deeply guilty. Decided to accompany Heather to Silent Hill. Speaking of which, I have to mention the important information "Harry's Diary", in which you can learn about the approximate time when this story happened and some clues. Among them, Harry mentioned that he had hesitated, and the appearance of Heather made him lose his heart. His beloved daughter Cheryl, in pain, he tried to strangle her to death with both hands, but in the end the kind-hearted Harry raised Heather as his own daughter and loved her deeply. In order not to hurt Heather, Harry kept hiding her. life experience. Knowing the truth of everything, Heather, who was sitting in the car, shed tears sadly, "I haven't had the chance to tell you how happy you make me." Heather said what she had always wanted to say to her father. There is no chance to hear the words again, and these words also heighten the sad atmosphere of the entire game to the extreme.
During this period, Heather also met Vincent, the church’s “think tank”. With his advice, the church grew stronger and had its own church and charities affiliated with the church. Orphanage (Silent hill Smile Support Society referred to as 4S). He is a hero of the church, but contrary to Claudia's point of view, he very much advocates money worship. Although he also believes in the existence of God, he mainly uses the name of the church to collect money. He believes that God created heaven after he came. Unable to satisfy his desire for money, he tried every possible means to sabotage the ceremony. He also uses Heather to go to the hospital to find Claudia's father, Leonard, who has turned into a monster. If Heather dies, he can directly destroy the ritual. If Leonard dies, he can get The Seal Of Metatron. , use this seal to fight against Claudia (the first generation Alyssa used it to fight against her mother Daria).
As Heather searched for Claudia in Silent Hill, she also learned of another terrible conspiracy of Claudia. Claudia killed Harry in order to fill Heather's heart with hatred for killing her father, and to create an illusion to make Heather see a large number of believers as monsters in her eyes, thus stimulating the sense of killing in Heather's heart during the constant killing, making her The "god" in Heather's body received a good growth environment. Claudia believes that the "god" born from blood and hatred is definitely the most powerful and perfect. Heather, who knew Claudia's conspiracy, finally met this "devout" believer in the church. Vincent's wishful thinking did not work, the seal failed to prevent the ceremony, and Claudia also killed the traitor to the church with one blow. Heather suddenly remembered the Aglaophotis, a red pill in the necklace her father left for her - the exorcism artifact that finally forced out the monster in the first generation. After eating it, Heather spit out a worm-like monster - ---The so-called "god"'s body, Heather was about to step on it to death, and the crazy Claudia swallowed it into her body, but because she was not the mother of the real Mother of God, she became A deformed monster was born, which was quickly eliminated by Heather.
The entire story ends here. The third generation basically completes the plot of the first generation. Although some details are still unclear, the entire religious framework of Silent Hill has been established. stand up. The third generation still left foreshadowing according to the convention of the series. The introduction of the new characters can only be explored and guessed from obscure sentences, and no specific information can be found at all. The mental patient who has always had a crush on Heather was not explained at the end of the game. Because KONAMI also wants to continue the Silent Hill series for generations 4, 5, and 6~~~. But personally, I still like works that are as unique as the second generation. After all, if a story is told often without changing the story, everyone will always get bored. We look forward to the 4th generation bringing us new surprises.
Decline-----4th Generation
On June 17, 2004, perhaps because KONAMI was too eager to achieve success, the series' convention of one game every two years was broken. Only one year after the 3rd generation, the 4th generation has been hurriedly released to players, which makes people wonder whether its quality will decline. As players expected, the 4th generation brought too many disappointments and complaints to players. The picture has become too bright and clean, completely losing the dark and unclear sight characteristics of the Silent Hill series. In addition, the elimination of radios and flashlights makes people feel "suddenly enlightened". In the previous games, the visual range was very limited due to heavy fog and darkness, making it impossible to see the surroundings. In addition, the noisy sound from the radio made me upset. The long-term psychological depression has disappeared in this game. . The puzzle settings have been greatly reduced, and they are all cutscene puzzles. The obscure but intriguing puzzles are gone, and the method of separating the difficulty of puzzles that was well received in the 2 and 3 generations has also been cancelled. Although the newly added limit system for the number of props carried requires a certain amount of strategy when playing the game, the ratio between the number of props and the number that can be carried in each scene is too large, especially when the same prop is placed separately, which is very annoying and often needs to be repeated. Going home, players in online forums even joked that the subtitle should be "Go home often".
The male protagonist Henry in the game has completely become a dispensable character. He is the least distinctive character in the entire series. He speaks no more than 20 sentences in the entire game, and most of them are repetitive. To put it nicely, he is the driving force of the entire game. The clues of the game, to put it bluntly, he is like a walk-on character in the movie, but the image creation of the villain Walter Sullivan is the most prominent. Okay, let’s talk about this for now. Although it is a shortcoming, it can be seen that KONAMI is trying to innovate. After all, each game in the series repeats the same mode repeatedly, and players will always get bored one day. The 4th generation still has many remarkable advantages, and the plot is still as exciting as ever. In the 2nd generation, Walter Sullivan, an "inconspicuous" name that only appeared in newspapers, serves as the game's villain. The orphanage (Silent hill Smile Support Society, referred to as 4S), a charity organization affiliated with the church in the third generation, was also added. The "21st Virgin Mary Advent" ceremony is similar to the conditions that need to be met in the Rebirth Ending of the second generation. It can be said to be a crossover. It is one work in the entire series, but the connection between them is just that.