You Probably Shouldn't Include The Nails.
Riona: Why does the Silent Hill 2 manual feel the need to tell me that the plank James wields is between 32 and 40 inches long? What am I expected to do with this information?
Rei: Craft a custom dildo.
Riona: I don't like this answer.
My other favourite detail about the Silent Hill 2 manual: each character bio opens with a rundown of age and occupation, but it's just 'Age: Unknown. Occupation: Unknown' for every character. Apart from James, for whom we get 'Age: Unknown. Occupation: Protagonist'.
A few notes I forgot to include in my previous entries on replaying Silent Hill 2:
- It cracks me up that James's reaction, if you try to examine the stage with the pole on it at Heaven's Night, is '...Just a regular stage. There's nothing strange about it,' ellipsis and all. (There's also a great 'James desperately tries not to pay attention to how sexy Silent Hill is' moment if you examine the locker with a poster of a woman in a bikini on it: 'The locker won't open. ...This is no time to be looking at a stupid poster.')
- An unsettling detail I never noticed before: the prison morgue is not included on the prison map, suggesting this is not an entirely above-board affair. Although I should probably have guessed that from the fact that their corpse disposal system appears to be 'just shove the corpses in a big hole'.
- I examined the piano in the hotel, and James's thoughts slightly broke my heart. 'There's a piano here. I remember how much Mary liked to play the piano. She wasn't very good... But I still loved to hear her play. That was so long ago, before we were even married. Why am I thinking of that now...' Oh, James/Mary, one of my longest-standing and most doomed ships.
- Another devastating bit of internal narration I don't remember ever seeing before: 'There's a book open on top of the desk. It looks like a medical book. I've already read enough medical books. None of them ever did any good.'
- I actually missed examining the liquor bottles in Heaven's Night this time around, which I was sorry to realise, because it's the single piece of examination text I remember most vividly: 'Liquor bottles. I don't need that right now. It’s not that I don't drink. In fact, I drink a fair bit. To get away from the pain and the loneliness... But the drinking never changes anything... Anyway, I don't need it now. There's something I have to do.' It feels like a significant characterisation detail; I'm surprised that it's so easy to miss it entirely.
- god, James, you're such a wreck, I can't believe I love you so much
- 'The symbolism of Silent Hill 2 clearly illustrates that James is an ass man,' I appear to have written in my diary at some point. I regret this.
Rei: Craft a custom dildo.
Riona: I don't like this answer.
My other favourite detail about the Silent Hill 2 manual: each character bio opens with a rundown of age and occupation, but it's just 'Age: Unknown. Occupation: Unknown' for every character. Apart from James, for whom we get 'Age: Unknown. Occupation: Protagonist'.
A few notes I forgot to include in my previous entries on replaying Silent Hill 2:
- It cracks me up that James's reaction, if you try to examine the stage with the pole on it at Heaven's Night, is '...Just a regular stage. There's nothing strange about it,' ellipsis and all. (There's also a great 'James desperately tries not to pay attention to how sexy Silent Hill is' moment if you examine the locker with a poster of a woman in a bikini on it: 'The locker won't open. ...This is no time to be looking at a stupid poster.')
- An unsettling detail I never noticed before: the prison morgue is not included on the prison map, suggesting this is not an entirely above-board affair. Although I should probably have guessed that from the fact that their corpse disposal system appears to be 'just shove the corpses in a big hole'.
- I examined the piano in the hotel, and James's thoughts slightly broke my heart. 'There's a piano here. I remember how much Mary liked to play the piano. She wasn't very good... But I still loved to hear her play. That was so long ago, before we were even married. Why am I thinking of that now...' Oh, James/Mary, one of my longest-standing and most doomed ships.
- Another devastating bit of internal narration I don't remember ever seeing before: 'There's a book open on top of the desk. It looks like a medical book. I've already read enough medical books. None of them ever did any good.'
- I actually missed examining the liquor bottles in Heaven's Night this time around, which I was sorry to realise, because it's the single piece of examination text I remember most vividly: 'Liquor bottles. I don't need that right now. It’s not that I don't drink. In fact, I drink a fair bit. To get away from the pain and the loneliness... But the drinking never changes anything... Anyway, I don't need it now. There's something I have to do.' It feels like a significant characterisation detail; I'm surprised that it's so easy to miss it entirely.
- god, James, you're such a wreck, I can't believe I love you so much
- 'The symbolism of Silent Hill 2 clearly illustrates that James is an ass man,' I appear to have written in my diary at some point. I regret this.