~Harry, you're not making sense.
SO
MORE IN-DEPTH THOUGHTS ABOUT SHATTERED MEMORIES
I've been thinking a lot about Shattered Memories since I beat it (darn it that's an awfully long title, maybe I'll call it SM from now on) which is probably a mark of something, since most games nowadays I just beat and then move on with my life.
BUT SM RAISED SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS, WHICH REFLECT ON THE REST OF THE SERIES IN AN INTRIGUING WAY FOR ME
But I guess first some more minor things
-the chase scenes were still somewhat annoying, but after spending some time studying my map beforehand and trying to keep to my general path, I managed to get through them alright. My biggest hangup was the school maze and the forest maze, although I suspect I might have gone through the last two by luck or something.
despite the fact that the chase scenes were the only thing that provided an immediate sense of danger, i actually almost wish there were less of them. I WANT TO LOOK AT THINGS ARGH WHY DO I HAVE TO RUN
-the environments and graphics are hit and miss, but when they hit they hit really well and considering the hardware its on, its impressive. You can see the shortcomings most easily when you get up real close to certain things, notably cars. textures get sort of blurry and lo-res. Although this reminds me, I should really pick up some HD cables for the wiiiii at some point.
IT'S NOT BAD OR ANYTHING BY ANY MEANS, I'M JUST SAYIN DON'T EXPECT 360 TYPE GRAPHICS OR NOTHING
-the system itself, with the wiiii remote controlling the flashlight, was still a great idea and probably one of the better uses of the wiiremote I've seen lately. the little fiddly puzzles were all very easy but really, wiitype fiddly puzzles seem to be universally easy (see Metroid Prime 3)
But the controls themselves are actually very natural and work really well, and I really liked how at the beginning you could press A and have Harry call out for Cheryl, haha. The run button was rather fiddly but I really only used it while running from the monsters, believe it or not.
I've described SM as being more sedate than the other Silent Hill games (especially compared to Homecoming) and that seems pretty true going through it. This is a game more about story than gameplay necessarily. The safe/unsafe areas give you a sense of calm that isn't present throughout other installments of the series, and again I mentioned that before in that that has its pluses and minuses. Personally, since i'm the type of person who will stare at backgrounds all :O and look at EVERY LITTLE THING POSSIBLE the safe areas actually are ideal for me, since it gives me a lot of room to just look at everything or call people or whatever.
But the game itself is quieter and more subdued, and given the ending I think that makes sense. In fact thinking about it, the actual town of Silent Hill isn't even "turned on" the way we tend to normally think of it - it's not rising up against you like with James, or at least, not as actively. Mostly because it's all constrained to one person's imagination, so it's more of a subtle influence I suppose. It explains why the safe areas look more "normal" than in the other games, thinking about it.
I went into SM much like I went into the Silent Hill movie - I wasn't expecting a faithful or even accurate representation of SH1. I just wanted the occasional shoutout to the original, and that would be enough for me. I'm pretty easy to please, as you may have noticed. But I went into SM trying to keep my mind very open to its interpretation of SH1 - I knew it was doing something different, I knew it was going to take things in a different direction. So, like with the movie characters, I categorized everyone in a different place as than the original characters. There's originalHarry, newHarry, and Rose. Not the same character, not the same person, not in the same situation.
Keeping these different canons separate is how I'm able to madly love SH1 AND the movie at the same time, while not complaining about one wasn't enough like the other.
But anyway. This meant that the SM versions of characters stood on their own - I rarely connected them to their counterparts in comparison, since they were new people in a new situation in a new game, and the game was deliberately designed to screw with my expectations for these characters because of my experience with SH1.
So when I ran into newDahlia, she didn't bother me since she wasn't oldDahlia. She was a completely new character as far as I was concerned, and since she acted completely different from oldDahlia throughout the game, keeping the two separate was easy.
When I found newLisa, I had an instinctual "Liiisaaaaaa" reaction but was actually more intrigued to see what they did differently with her, rather than what they kept the same. Her red hair for example. The moments that called back to the original SH1, like how she hugs Harry at first, were little :D moments but ultimately felt more like bonuses to me, little nods to me that I'd only catch if I'd played SH1.
The way the game inverted your expectations was interesting, particularly regarding Lisa and Alchemilla. The hospital is a pivotal area in almost every silent hill - the series is well known for its evil nurses. And anyone who played SH1 knows that you go to Alchemilla Hospital after you cross into the commercial district. So what SM does is pop you there, quickly, then immediately kick you out. It actually pretty much skipped the hospital entirely, which takes some balls for an SH game, you know?
The fact that their Alchemilla didn't have the same layout as the original (and believe me, I know the original) helped keep the entire thing sort of different, distant.
It was actually very meta in a way, that my memories of Alchemilla, of SH1 and how things SHOULD be, were what was throwing me off at points. It's a tricky thing to use one's presuppositions about a game against the player, and it can backfire pretty easily (see: MGS2).
Anyway, poor Lisa didn't last very long, which also somewhat surprised me since in the original, she lasted right up until the end in Nowhere. But without the cult or Samael or all of that, there didn't seem to be a Nowhere for her to go, or a way to have her be alive but not alive like she was in SH1. After all, what was it that Lisa really DID? She took care of Alessa, she told you where to go, she told you she was scared, she was on drugs. But Lisa, like most SH1 characters, was sort of broadly drawn and never filled in (since SH1 had like, half a plot).
Shifting her around, she still afraid, she still asks you for help, she still gives you advice on where to go, and she was still on drugs, or so it would seem. And then she died, trickling blood like she did in SH1, like the version of reality in SH1 was encroaching on SM.
Although hahahaha getting her her pills i made an absolute mess of her medicine cabinet. I dumped pills everywhere and dropped the bottles on top of each other. I WONDER IF PEOPLE WATCHED HARRY INTERACT WITH OBJECTS IN SM AND WERE LIKE "HARRY, ARE YOU OKAY, YOUR HANDS ARE AWFULLY SHAKY"
I feel like I'm rambling. UH. Oh right. MUCH TALK HAS BEEN GIVEN ABOUT THE BOAT SCENE, AND GIVEN MY HUGE CRUSH ON DAHLIA GILLESPIE I'M SURE YOU'RE CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT I THINK
WELL
actually it didn't bother me much at all. I was actually more concerned that Dahlia was lying to Harry and was going to trick him or something, although that was probably my idea of oldDahlia creeping in more than anything else. But since newDahlia was so divorced from oldDahlia in my mind, being a new character and all, and newHarry was rather divorced from oldHarry, it basically was two new characters banging each other rather than the SH1 characters.
ALTHOUGH I SUSPECT I MAY BE A SPECIAL CASE IN THAT SEX WITH DAHLIA, EITHER DAHLIA, DOESN'T BOTHER ME AT ALL, AS YOU ALL KNOW.
Although my change of clothes afterwards was a hawaiian shirt, whatever that means. :O
My favorite part would probably have to be after the mall when you go to Dahlia's "other church", her antique store. Although in SM, it's a pawn shop. If you played SH1, you know that in the back of the antique store there was a hole in the wall which led to a minishrine to Samael, which then caught on fire and sent Harry to the Other World.
However, at the back of the pawn shop, there's the door to Harry's apartment.
At this point I actually had to stop and tell Funkmeister because I was like DUDE OMG DUDE
YOU WON'T BELIEE WHAT THEY JUST DID
THINGS ARE GOING TO GET TRIPPY
It was such a fascinating thing to do to me, since the impact of that change would only really be significant if you played the original game. The portal to the nightmare other world in SH1 replaced with the door to Harry's apartment. IT'S NOT HARD TO SEE THE PARALLELS THERE and to have an idea of where the game is about to take you, and it's a feeling that'd probably be completely absent without that previous knowledge of SH1. IT WAS JUST A REALLY COOL MOMENT FOR ME, WHERE A SLIGHT CHANGE REALLY GOT ME GOOD
That was when things really felt like Silent Hill for me, when you encounter something outwardly normal like a door and get this feeling of dread and anticipation and that something is going to be off when you get inside. I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO FELT THAT WAY RIGHT
Sidenote - Lisa lives on Navidson Street, which I'm almost sure is a shoutout to the Navidson Record from House of Leaves, since SH1 was utterly shameless about naming all its streets after famous authors.
Anyway, the other small nods and references, like Annie's Bar and the Indian Runner were fun to see again, although I couldn't go inside. Although I guess that makes sense with Kaufmann being off doing his thing somewhere else though.
HOWEVER THE THING WAS RIGHT AFTER I SAW ANNIE'S BAR AND WENT THROUGH (and talked with Michelle, who I think was an extremely alternate version of Kaufmann to a degree and filled his gap in the story. Michelle - Michael. Although they served different purposes blah blah I think that's what was up but that's just a theory) IT POPPED ME BACK TO TALK TO KAUFMANN AND HE WAS ALL YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH SEX DO YOU YOU'RE OBSESSED WITH NOT HAVING SEX YOU NEED TO HAVE MORE SEX
AND THE TIMING OF IT RIGHT AFTER ANNIE'S BAR
I WAS FRIGGING ROLLING i can never think about annie's bar without giggling
ALTHOUGH THE REVEAL AT THE END KIND OF CHANGED THAT FOR ME BUT STILL AT THE TIME IT WAS HILARIOUS
Anyway I don't know how my answers changed the story, or what I missed out on or what dialogue I didn't find or what as a result, but at the end Kaufmann pretty much told me how boring I was, very dedicated to my family, that sort of thing. It was actually a fairly accurate read on me, which was kind of impressive. :O I assume the ending or whatever might change depending on what you say.
MAN THE PART WHEN THINGS WENT CRAZY AFTER YOUR APARTMENT
DOWN INTO THE DARKNESS DOWN THE STAIRS AND JUMPING DOWN PITS
SILENT HILL THROUGH AND THROUGH
AND THE REPEATING ROOMS, MAN that whole part was great, i loved the repeating rooms and corridors (well when you weren't being chased down them) and man that one fall where you saw the images flashing on the wall was such a :O!! moment for me, haha. IT WAS A REALLY COOL EFFECT I THOUGHT
Anyway I haven't really talked too much about the ending and all that so far. The whole thing is another meditation on grief, much like with James, and it sort of reflects on the original in interesting ways.
Roughly, as far as we know, the timeline for SH1 goes
Dahlia gives birth to Alessa --7 years later--> Alessa is burned alive, splits in two, Harry finds Cheryl and adopts her --7 years later--> Harry and Cheryl end up back in Silent Hill, Cheryl and Alessa reunite and give Harry another baby
Over all, 14 years. But either way, when Alessa was 7 she got burned and died or whatever you want to believe (pretty sure Dahlia did it either way), and split off and one part of her found Harry, and so it goes.
And in SM instead, when Cheryl was 7, Harry dies. And in my game, it was around the same time that Harry and Dahlia were getting divorced. As Kaufmann said, in probably one of the more cutting lines in the game, that what 7 year old really knows their parents anyway? So Cheryl made up a whole fantasy life, a whole illusion of her father as a hero
which, and I'm sure it's not a coincidence, happens to line up with what most SH1 players think of Harry.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one surprised or disappointed at mentions or hints of Harry doing bad things in SM, right? At first I thought SM was going to go the easy route and have Harry abuse or molest Cheryl (and I was ready to be all >:( about it, let me tell you), but instead it just left ambiguous hints here and there. I don't know if my generally straightlaced answers left Harry's path relatively clean, but it wasn't spotless. But everytime Harry veered off the path, did something sketchy or dodgy, I couldn't help an instinctual "Harry wouldn't do that" kind of reaction.
For me at least, as a person in love with SH1 and especially with Harry, I adore that man. I really do. And in a way, my adoration of him is probably exactly like Cheryl's. What did we really know about Harry, really? In the first game you only get a few awkward monologues about his wife dying and adopting his daughter. Pretty much all of Harry's character revolves around Cheryl - you only find out small bits and pieces. In SH3, you get a few more insights into him with his notepads, revealing that he had a bit of a darker side to him, that he had bad thoughts sometimes, but still, they're small pieces. And players take those pieces and create a vision of Harry in their minds. I don't know about you guys, but the Harry I picture is a brave and heroic kind of figure, a bit dim but absolutely devoted to his family and his daughter. A loving father.
But as Kaufmann said, what 7 year old really knows their parents? Cheryl's image of Harry through SM, the valiant savior fighting against overwhelming odds, trying to find her, still alive (I'm not the only one wrecked by that scene in SH3 every single time I'm sure), matched my vision of Harry. And so when it all came down, that it was a fantasy Cheryl created because Harry was dead and she couldn't let him go, that hit me hard because I knew how Cheryl felt. The glimpses throughout the game I got, of Harry having trouble with his marriage, being distant, maybe hurting people, they all made me uncomfortable. That can't be right. You can't be Harry, not oldHarry. And in the end, you find out that it's all just what you wanted to see.
I wonder how effective this would be if you hadn't played SH1, or didn't love or care for Harry. You take a risk whenever you rely on a player's investment in your characters for emotional payoff. For example, Harry's death in SH3 is supposed to be a huge and moving scene... but if you didn't like Harry in the first place, you don't care. That's the risk inherent in any attempt to engage people emotionally. Some people won't do it, some people will.
But I loved Harry, I really did. And it worked.
Even Michelle's comments about how she didn't really love her boyfriend, just a version of her boyfriend she had in her head, all relate to the entire theme of the thing.
Continuing on, Cheryl's relationship with her mother is likewise fascinating to me. Dahlia of course is Cheryl/Alessa's birth mother - that's common knowledge throughout all the games, although her father is never revealed (many supposit that it's Kaufmann). But the thing is, Harry adopted Cheryl later and raised her, with his wife for four years and then by himself. Harry as her father, and Dahlia as her mother, and the two wage war throughout SH1, although Dahlia's notably more subtle about it in that she tricks Harry into doing her work for him.
Take this into consideration with the life that Cheryl in SM might have lived. The way I played through the game, Harry doted on Cheryl shamelessly, and Dahlia constantly reprimanded him for spoiling her. Harry absolutely adored Cheryl, while Dahlia was trapped in a loveless marriage and seemed more resentful of them both than anything else.
Cue divorce. Where does Cheryl's sympathies lie? Harry leaves her with Dahlia, it seems, and then ends up dying somewhere. From what Kaufmann said, Cheryl resented Dahlia, even hated her. Probably blamed her for Harry leaving, maybe for Harry's death. So in her fantasy world...
Dahlia's still her mother, but when she was 7 (when Harry died), she burned her to death. But she escaped and another part of her went to live with Harry. Harry, her father who was brave and strong and loved her. Seven years later, Dahlia dies and she reunites into Heather, and still lives with her father.
In SM, Cheryl hates and refuses to talk to Dahlia - has constructed an entire fantasy life revolving around her father apparently just to avoid her. 18 years passed since Harry died - Cheryl would be 25. She became a shoplifter, had a troubled home life, Dahlia apparently got into drugs or something of that nature. How closely does her fantasy resemble SH1, and how far does it stray?
It really depends on how much you know about SH1. For a new player with no SH experience, Cheryl's fantasy in SM could be completly divorced from anything - it could be entirely new and stand-alone. For those who played SH1... it leads to some interesting questions. How much of SH1 or SH3 could just be fantasies on Cheryl's part?
It also makes sense regarding the monsters that chase you - they don't overtly hurt you, just hold onto you to slow you down. Then once they pin you down, they pet Harry's hair or stroke his arm or just lay on top of him. They don't want to hurt you, they just want to stop you, which fits in nicely with Cheryl not wanting to hurt Harry, but not wanting to learn the truth about him either.
My version of Cybil had medium length brown hair, which again helped define her as her own version as opposed to SH1 Cybil or Movie Cybil. Although she seemed to match up more with SH1 Cybil in that she didn't really do much of consequence, hahaha. POOR CYBIL
The big theme in my game was love cooling - relationships eventually dying over time. I don't know if that'd be the same theme for everyone else though. I know it changes. I wonder if the ending where the two of them divorced for Cheryl's sake would change if I said that parents should stay together for the children, instead of not? INTRIGUING STUFF.
also the maze running should be easier on repeat playthroughs, I would guess
ALSO I NEED TO CHECK IF THERE'S A UFO ENDING, DANG
I did miss the insane object puzzles though, but I love adventure games so I'm biased.
anyway dang that should probably do it for now, I CAN'T SHUT UP
MORE IN-DEPTH THOUGHTS ABOUT SHATTERED MEMORIES
I've been thinking a lot about Shattered Memories since I beat it (darn it that's an awfully long title, maybe I'll call it SM from now on) which is probably a mark of something, since most games nowadays I just beat and then move on with my life.
BUT SM RAISED SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS, WHICH REFLECT ON THE REST OF THE SERIES IN AN INTRIGUING WAY FOR ME
But I guess first some more minor things
-the chase scenes were still somewhat annoying, but after spending some time studying my map beforehand and trying to keep to my general path, I managed to get through them alright. My biggest hangup was the school maze and the forest maze, although I suspect I might have gone through the last two by luck or something.
despite the fact that the chase scenes were the only thing that provided an immediate sense of danger, i actually almost wish there were less of them. I WANT TO LOOK AT THINGS ARGH WHY DO I HAVE TO RUN
-the environments and graphics are hit and miss, but when they hit they hit really well and considering the hardware its on, its impressive. You can see the shortcomings most easily when you get up real close to certain things, notably cars. textures get sort of blurry and lo-res. Although this reminds me, I should really pick up some HD cables for the wiiiii at some point.
IT'S NOT BAD OR ANYTHING BY ANY MEANS, I'M JUST SAYIN DON'T EXPECT 360 TYPE GRAPHICS OR NOTHING
-the system itself, with the wiiii remote controlling the flashlight, was still a great idea and probably one of the better uses of the wiiremote I've seen lately. the little fiddly puzzles were all very easy but really, wiitype fiddly puzzles seem to be universally easy (see Metroid Prime 3)
But the controls themselves are actually very natural and work really well, and I really liked how at the beginning you could press A and have Harry call out for Cheryl, haha. The run button was rather fiddly but I really only used it while running from the monsters, believe it or not.
I've described SM as being more sedate than the other Silent Hill games (especially compared to Homecoming) and that seems pretty true going through it. This is a game more about story than gameplay necessarily. The safe/unsafe areas give you a sense of calm that isn't present throughout other installments of the series, and again I mentioned that before in that that has its pluses and minuses. Personally, since i'm the type of person who will stare at backgrounds all :O and look at EVERY LITTLE THING POSSIBLE the safe areas actually are ideal for me, since it gives me a lot of room to just look at everything or call people or whatever.
But the game itself is quieter and more subdued, and given the ending I think that makes sense. In fact thinking about it, the actual town of Silent Hill isn't even "turned on" the way we tend to normally think of it - it's not rising up against you like with James, or at least, not as actively. Mostly because it's all constrained to one person's imagination, so it's more of a subtle influence I suppose. It explains why the safe areas look more "normal" than in the other games, thinking about it.
I went into SM much like I went into the Silent Hill movie - I wasn't expecting a faithful or even accurate representation of SH1. I just wanted the occasional shoutout to the original, and that would be enough for me. I'm pretty easy to please, as you may have noticed. But I went into SM trying to keep my mind very open to its interpretation of SH1 - I knew it was doing something different, I knew it was going to take things in a different direction. So, like with the movie characters, I categorized everyone in a different place as than the original characters. There's originalHarry, newHarry, and Rose. Not the same character, not the same person, not in the same situation.
Keeping these different canons separate is how I'm able to madly love SH1 AND the movie at the same time, while not complaining about one wasn't enough like the other.
But anyway. This meant that the SM versions of characters stood on their own - I rarely connected them to their counterparts in comparison, since they were new people in a new situation in a new game, and the game was deliberately designed to screw with my expectations for these characters because of my experience with SH1.
So when I ran into newDahlia, she didn't bother me since she wasn't oldDahlia. She was a completely new character as far as I was concerned, and since she acted completely different from oldDahlia throughout the game, keeping the two separate was easy.
When I found newLisa, I had an instinctual "Liiisaaaaaa" reaction but was actually more intrigued to see what they did differently with her, rather than what they kept the same. Her red hair for example. The moments that called back to the original SH1, like how she hugs Harry at first, were little :D moments but ultimately felt more like bonuses to me, little nods to me that I'd only catch if I'd played SH1.
The way the game inverted your expectations was interesting, particularly regarding Lisa and Alchemilla. The hospital is a pivotal area in almost every silent hill - the series is well known for its evil nurses. And anyone who played SH1 knows that you go to Alchemilla Hospital after you cross into the commercial district. So what SM does is pop you there, quickly, then immediately kick you out. It actually pretty much skipped the hospital entirely, which takes some balls for an SH game, you know?
The fact that their Alchemilla didn't have the same layout as the original (and believe me, I know the original) helped keep the entire thing sort of different, distant.
It was actually very meta in a way, that my memories of Alchemilla, of SH1 and how things SHOULD be, were what was throwing me off at points. It's a tricky thing to use one's presuppositions about a game against the player, and it can backfire pretty easily (see: MGS2).
Anyway, poor Lisa didn't last very long, which also somewhat surprised me since in the original, she lasted right up until the end in Nowhere. But without the cult or Samael or all of that, there didn't seem to be a Nowhere for her to go, or a way to have her be alive but not alive like she was in SH1. After all, what was it that Lisa really DID? She took care of Alessa, she told you where to go, she told you she was scared, she was on drugs. But Lisa, like most SH1 characters, was sort of broadly drawn and never filled in (since SH1 had like, half a plot).
Shifting her around, she still afraid, she still asks you for help, she still gives you advice on where to go, and she was still on drugs, or so it would seem. And then she died, trickling blood like she did in SH1, like the version of reality in SH1 was encroaching on SM.
Although hahahaha getting her her pills i made an absolute mess of her medicine cabinet. I dumped pills everywhere and dropped the bottles on top of each other. I WONDER IF PEOPLE WATCHED HARRY INTERACT WITH OBJECTS IN SM AND WERE LIKE "HARRY, ARE YOU OKAY, YOUR HANDS ARE AWFULLY SHAKY"
I feel like I'm rambling. UH. Oh right. MUCH TALK HAS BEEN GIVEN ABOUT THE BOAT SCENE, AND GIVEN MY HUGE CRUSH ON DAHLIA GILLESPIE I'M SURE YOU'RE CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT I THINK
WELL
actually it didn't bother me much at all. I was actually more concerned that Dahlia was lying to Harry and was going to trick him or something, although that was probably my idea of oldDahlia creeping in more than anything else. But since newDahlia was so divorced from oldDahlia in my mind, being a new character and all, and newHarry was rather divorced from oldHarry, it basically was two new characters banging each other rather than the SH1 characters.
ALTHOUGH I SUSPECT I MAY BE A SPECIAL CASE IN THAT SEX WITH DAHLIA, EITHER DAHLIA, DOESN'T BOTHER ME AT ALL, AS YOU ALL KNOW.
Although my change of clothes afterwards was a hawaiian shirt, whatever that means. :O
My favorite part would probably have to be after the mall when you go to Dahlia's "other church", her antique store. Although in SM, it's a pawn shop. If you played SH1, you know that in the back of the antique store there was a hole in the wall which led to a minishrine to Samael, which then caught on fire and sent Harry to the Other World.
However, at the back of the pawn shop, there's the door to Harry's apartment.
At this point I actually had to stop and tell Funkmeister because I was like DUDE OMG DUDE
YOU WON'T BELIEE WHAT THEY JUST DID
THINGS ARE GOING TO GET TRIPPY
It was such a fascinating thing to do to me, since the impact of that change would only really be significant if you played the original game. The portal to the nightmare other world in SH1 replaced with the door to Harry's apartment. IT'S NOT HARD TO SEE THE PARALLELS THERE and to have an idea of where the game is about to take you, and it's a feeling that'd probably be completely absent without that previous knowledge of SH1. IT WAS JUST A REALLY COOL MOMENT FOR ME, WHERE A SLIGHT CHANGE REALLY GOT ME GOOD
That was when things really felt like Silent Hill for me, when you encounter something outwardly normal like a door and get this feeling of dread and anticipation and that something is going to be off when you get inside. I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO FELT THAT WAY RIGHT
Sidenote - Lisa lives on Navidson Street, which I'm almost sure is a shoutout to the Navidson Record from House of Leaves, since SH1 was utterly shameless about naming all its streets after famous authors.
Anyway, the other small nods and references, like Annie's Bar and the Indian Runner were fun to see again, although I couldn't go inside. Although I guess that makes sense with Kaufmann being off doing his thing somewhere else though.
HOWEVER THE THING WAS RIGHT AFTER I SAW ANNIE'S BAR AND WENT THROUGH (and talked with Michelle, who I think was an extremely alternate version of Kaufmann to a degree and filled his gap in the story. Michelle - Michael. Although they served different purposes blah blah I think that's what was up but that's just a theory) IT POPPED ME BACK TO TALK TO KAUFMANN AND HE WAS ALL YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH SEX DO YOU YOU'RE OBSESSED WITH NOT HAVING SEX YOU NEED TO HAVE MORE SEX
AND THE TIMING OF IT RIGHT AFTER ANNIE'S BAR
I WAS FRIGGING ROLLING i can never think about annie's bar without giggling
ALTHOUGH THE REVEAL AT THE END KIND OF CHANGED THAT FOR ME BUT STILL AT THE TIME IT WAS HILARIOUS
Anyway I don't know how my answers changed the story, or what I missed out on or what dialogue I didn't find or what as a result, but at the end Kaufmann pretty much told me how boring I was, very dedicated to my family, that sort of thing. It was actually a fairly accurate read on me, which was kind of impressive. :O I assume the ending or whatever might change depending on what you say.
MAN THE PART WHEN THINGS WENT CRAZY AFTER YOUR APARTMENT
DOWN INTO THE DARKNESS DOWN THE STAIRS AND JUMPING DOWN PITS
SILENT HILL THROUGH AND THROUGH
AND THE REPEATING ROOMS, MAN that whole part was great, i loved the repeating rooms and corridors (well when you weren't being chased down them) and man that one fall where you saw the images flashing on the wall was such a :O!! moment for me, haha. IT WAS A REALLY COOL EFFECT I THOUGHT
Anyway I haven't really talked too much about the ending and all that so far. The whole thing is another meditation on grief, much like with James, and it sort of reflects on the original in interesting ways.
Roughly, as far as we know, the timeline for SH1 goes
Dahlia gives birth to Alessa --7 years later--> Alessa is burned alive, splits in two, Harry finds Cheryl and adopts her --7 years later--> Harry and Cheryl end up back in Silent Hill, Cheryl and Alessa reunite and give Harry another baby
Over all, 14 years. But either way, when Alessa was 7 she got burned and died or whatever you want to believe (pretty sure Dahlia did it either way), and split off and one part of her found Harry, and so it goes.
And in SM instead, when Cheryl was 7, Harry dies. And in my game, it was around the same time that Harry and Dahlia were getting divorced. As Kaufmann said, in probably one of the more cutting lines in the game, that what 7 year old really knows their parents anyway? So Cheryl made up a whole fantasy life, a whole illusion of her father as a hero
which, and I'm sure it's not a coincidence, happens to line up with what most SH1 players think of Harry.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one surprised or disappointed at mentions or hints of Harry doing bad things in SM, right? At first I thought SM was going to go the easy route and have Harry abuse or molest Cheryl (and I was ready to be all >:( about it, let me tell you), but instead it just left ambiguous hints here and there. I don't know if my generally straightlaced answers left Harry's path relatively clean, but it wasn't spotless. But everytime Harry veered off the path, did something sketchy or dodgy, I couldn't help an instinctual "Harry wouldn't do that" kind of reaction.
For me at least, as a person in love with SH1 and especially with Harry, I adore that man. I really do. And in a way, my adoration of him is probably exactly like Cheryl's. What did we really know about Harry, really? In the first game you only get a few awkward monologues about his wife dying and adopting his daughter. Pretty much all of Harry's character revolves around Cheryl - you only find out small bits and pieces. In SH3, you get a few more insights into him with his notepads, revealing that he had a bit of a darker side to him, that he had bad thoughts sometimes, but still, they're small pieces. And players take those pieces and create a vision of Harry in their minds. I don't know about you guys, but the Harry I picture is a brave and heroic kind of figure, a bit dim but absolutely devoted to his family and his daughter. A loving father.
But as Kaufmann said, what 7 year old really knows their parents? Cheryl's image of Harry through SM, the valiant savior fighting against overwhelming odds, trying to find her, still alive (I'm not the only one wrecked by that scene in SH3 every single time I'm sure), matched my vision of Harry. And so when it all came down, that it was a fantasy Cheryl created because Harry was dead and she couldn't let him go, that hit me hard because I knew how Cheryl felt. The glimpses throughout the game I got, of Harry having trouble with his marriage, being distant, maybe hurting people, they all made me uncomfortable. That can't be right. You can't be Harry, not oldHarry. And in the end, you find out that it's all just what you wanted to see.
I wonder how effective this would be if you hadn't played SH1, or didn't love or care for Harry. You take a risk whenever you rely on a player's investment in your characters for emotional payoff. For example, Harry's death in SH3 is supposed to be a huge and moving scene... but if you didn't like Harry in the first place, you don't care. That's the risk inherent in any attempt to engage people emotionally. Some people won't do it, some people will.
But I loved Harry, I really did. And it worked.
Even Michelle's comments about how she didn't really love her boyfriend, just a version of her boyfriend she had in her head, all relate to the entire theme of the thing.
Continuing on, Cheryl's relationship with her mother is likewise fascinating to me. Dahlia of course is Cheryl/Alessa's birth mother - that's common knowledge throughout all the games, although her father is never revealed (many supposit that it's Kaufmann). But the thing is, Harry adopted Cheryl later and raised her, with his wife for four years and then by himself. Harry as her father, and Dahlia as her mother, and the two wage war throughout SH1, although Dahlia's notably more subtle about it in that she tricks Harry into doing her work for him.
Take this into consideration with the life that Cheryl in SM might have lived. The way I played through the game, Harry doted on Cheryl shamelessly, and Dahlia constantly reprimanded him for spoiling her. Harry absolutely adored Cheryl, while Dahlia was trapped in a loveless marriage and seemed more resentful of them both than anything else.
Cue divorce. Where does Cheryl's sympathies lie? Harry leaves her with Dahlia, it seems, and then ends up dying somewhere. From what Kaufmann said, Cheryl resented Dahlia, even hated her. Probably blamed her for Harry leaving, maybe for Harry's death. So in her fantasy world...
Dahlia's still her mother, but when she was 7 (when Harry died), she burned her to death. But she escaped and another part of her went to live with Harry. Harry, her father who was brave and strong and loved her. Seven years later, Dahlia dies and she reunites into Heather, and still lives with her father.
In SM, Cheryl hates and refuses to talk to Dahlia - has constructed an entire fantasy life revolving around her father apparently just to avoid her. 18 years passed since Harry died - Cheryl would be 25. She became a shoplifter, had a troubled home life, Dahlia apparently got into drugs or something of that nature. How closely does her fantasy resemble SH1, and how far does it stray?
It really depends on how much you know about SH1. For a new player with no SH experience, Cheryl's fantasy in SM could be completly divorced from anything - it could be entirely new and stand-alone. For those who played SH1... it leads to some interesting questions. How much of SH1 or SH3 could just be fantasies on Cheryl's part?
It also makes sense regarding the monsters that chase you - they don't overtly hurt you, just hold onto you to slow you down. Then once they pin you down, they pet Harry's hair or stroke his arm or just lay on top of him. They don't want to hurt you, they just want to stop you, which fits in nicely with Cheryl not wanting to hurt Harry, but not wanting to learn the truth about him either.
My version of Cybil had medium length brown hair, which again helped define her as her own version as opposed to SH1 Cybil or Movie Cybil. Although she seemed to match up more with SH1 Cybil in that she didn't really do much of consequence, hahaha. POOR CYBIL
The big theme in my game was love cooling - relationships eventually dying over time. I don't know if that'd be the same theme for everyone else though. I know it changes. I wonder if the ending where the two of them divorced for Cheryl's sake would change if I said that parents should stay together for the children, instead of not? INTRIGUING STUFF.
also the maze running should be easier on repeat playthroughs, I would guess
ALSO I NEED TO CHECK IF THERE'S A UFO ENDING, DANG
I did miss the insane object puzzles though, but I love adventure games so I'm biased.
anyway dang that should probably do it for now, I CAN'T SHUT UP