@@paulogustavobatistasantosl7596 too bad 80% of it is unrelated padding with generic and safe writing about "wacky funny characters doing predictable goofy things!" while the rest 20% is a masterpiece with actual substance
@@teratoma. But it isn’t unrelated. (At least as far as why the game is choosing to do what you mentioned.) The contrast between the sweet random and childish level design choices and abruptly dark, serious themes/tone bring about two things: One, it serves as a juxtaposition. The dream world represents the subconscious and conscious, and especially the imagination through the perspective of a child, against the dark disturbing imagery to convey just *how trauma can distort even a child’s perception. (As highlighted by the sketchbook in the white space, colored drawings of red and black directly correlate to psychological damage in children, such as child abuse or unresolved trauma. Several other hints the game gives you in literally the first seconds of gameplay foreshadow how messed up the protagonist is.) and two, and even more importantly i.m.o., it serves as a design choice to tie together cohesive mechanics. The team wanted to offer a dark experience with serious themes, while offering something that played like a well designed Earthbound like RPG. I believe they succeeded and recommend Omori to anyone who likes JRPGs.
@@GG256_ i understand very well what they were going for and conceptually that's a great idea but the problem is that it's nowhere near as well done as you described e.g. "The dream world represents the subconscious and conscious, and especially the imagination through the perspective of a child, against the dark disturbing imagery to convey just *how trauma can distort even a child’s perception." Almost everything happening in the dream world is completely isolated to sonny's struggles and his real world experience - most of it aren't metaphors, allegories or parallels to any part of him unless you farfetch it which would be completely fine if the writing of the dream world wasn't awfully predictable and generic (besides very few moments like the food pyramid) and last for a very long time where nothing interesting happens besides busywork and filler text undertale is a great example with wacky and goofy characters in wacky and goofy situations where it's actually written in a witty and interesting way while most of omori is pointless filler that most people ignore because it has a beautiful coat of paint and more importantly, they deeply relate to 20% of masterfully done content that offers one of a kind experience
A game that tackled the issue of abuse, suicide, and facing both physical and metaphorical demons WAY better is an indie side-scrolling game called The Cat Lady from 2012
Woaw. I watched a playtrough of it 10 years ago. Would have never thought that i would hear that title mentioned again. But i agree that game is probably one if the most underplayed and under-talked-about games ever. I mean… i still remember it after 10 years. Insane atmosphere and i even liked the voice acting quite a lot.
Bloober's Blair Witch game literally had the exact same ending. You play as a trauma-sticken veteran who tried to kill himself before the events of the game. Near the end of the game you find out that you're destined to go crazy and become a minion of the Witch, ordered to kidnap and murder countless children. The game has 2 different endings. The "bad" ending, where you live and become the Witch's minion. And the "good" ending, where you allow yourself to be killed to prevent yourself from becoming the Witch's minion. As someone who struggled with suicidal thoughts in the past, something I always pondered (and I'm certain many other unfortunate people have aswell) is if me existing is causing others more harm than good, and if the world would be better off without me. Blair Witch pretty much confirms that, yes, people who go through trauma are inevitably going to inflict their pain upon others and are better just killing themselves. It makes sense when you realise Blair Witch and The Medium had 2 of the same writers...
You know, there is an anime that tells a story about a girl that due to her stress and mental trauma the emotions manifest itself into an otherworldly being that terrorized people in the real world. Even after knowing this, her friends always try to contain that while being a supportive group towards her. After a long ordeal it ends with a realization that only her who can calm this being by confronting her trauma and insecurities after being ensured by her friend that they will always beside her. Somehow a fucking anime with a horny protag can show a realistic portrayal on how a victim heal with the ups and downs along their journey while the Medium's writer just goes, "if a victim lash out due to their trauma, shoot them in the face" and got praised.
I mean, i hate those games, but if you really think the message here is, "you better kill yourself because you are only going to harm other people" that's kinda an overreaction, and wrong. It's just the trope of the protagonist sacrificing himself before becoming a villain. It's tragic? Yes. It's a good idea for a character? Yes. It's well wrtitten in this cases? Nop. Tragedy exists. You CAN kill a character with a trauma in a honourable way, in the same way you can show a character with a trauma becoming a villain, but the thing is, this games are very shitty when it comes to character development, and the cinical tone in the writting can make the players feel confused.
@@ricochet8104 idk dawg that's basically just taking one character from "wants to off himself for bad reasons" to "wants to off himself for good reasons." It's gonna be in poor taste regardless of how well written it is
@@beansfebreeze Why? He can actually change and have development between these 2 reasons, and change the message of the story. Saying that is badly written just because is not a happy ending sounds like nonsense to me. These kind of characters have existed since tragedy was invented.
Can we mention that bloober team recently copyrighted the split worlds “technique”. As if they came up with Idea, meaning that you would have to ask for their permission to use that technique even though it was used way before their games existed. Then they have the audacity to say “they don’t want to sue anyone”. Like bruh, that’s the whole reason why you copyrighted that “technique”.
Yeah, really, really disgusting move of them. This info should be spread around as much as possible. What phonys they are. It is really the ugly cherry on top of it all.
you can't copyright an idea. They apparently used a patent for real-time visual use of dual screens. It's apparently specific to their games (or so it is claimed), but if any other game series tried it, they could cite those previous games in court and that patent would probably be thrown out or the case would probably be thrown out due to lack of similarities with their specific patent.
@@nichoudha yeah, but that’s what’s funny though as well. There were real time spit screens before The Medium. So if they do try taking anyone to court, one of two things will happen. Either they’ll win the lawsuit and siphon money off the other developers, or the lawsuit will be dropped because this was already a pre existing idea before they patented it.
@gensokyo boyz no. in coop splitscreen p1 and p2 share the same world. they patented a system where 2 worlds are rendered simultaneously and both are interactable and lets you control 2 different characters that are rendered in these separate worlds. some sort of secret behind making that happen idk other patents were mass effect’s dialogue thing, shadow of mordor/war’s nemesis system, eternal darkness’ sanity system where your character does random things because of crazy, the dpad (expired), and an hud arrow that points towards your objective (expired), etc. they patent really weird things
Metal gear Solid 4 did it. And I believe the game Fahrenheit did it too. So yeah I find it really foul that they copyrighted something that was free for everyone to use. Edit: Sorry, MGS4 was a different case.
It’s great to see somebody finally be critical about this game. Are people so starved of the Silent Hill genre that they’ll just praise anything that even attempts to imitate it?
The only time it was actually creepy is when you're using headphones and you hear whispering and the binaural audio makes it sound like you're actually being surrounded by the Blair Witch or whoever it is that's whispering.
I fucking hate hate hate how now every media tries to justify abusers in general like “omg they had a terrible childhood” like yeah but lots of people do and not all of them decide to become someone’s hell.
The worst part is that _it works._ I’ve seen so many people cite a character’s tragic backstory as if it makes genocide or child abuse or extreme bigotry okay.
It also frustrates me as a survivor of abuse, because it gives people the impression that victims will inevitably become abusers. I internalized this idea at some point in my youth, after years of seeing this tired trope, and it caused me to develop a panic disorder. I let it convince me that I’d become like the people who hurt me. I think it was more devastating than the initial pain - which would be an interesting idea to explore in fiction, but-that’s not the melodramatic tragedy p0rn of: “the cycle continues” that non-traumatized audiences love. Banana Fish is the only series where I liked the use of this idea, with the protagonist and his foil experiencing the same trauma, but choosing to process them in contrasting ways. They’re both twisted versions of the children they once were, but only one *chooses* to take it out on others.
It just shows how absolutely dead survival horror is that Konami looked around and said yeah let's get those guys that made the medium a game pass fodder game to do a remake of one of the most beloved games of all time.
The split world mechanic felt and looked really unique, interesting to see what we see in our eyes while we also get to see what Marianne sees. But it also frustrates me when I hear that Bloober copyrighted the famous split screen mechanic so they can only use it
Reminder that these assholes also patented the "dual worlds splitscreen" mechanic, so now no other developer can try their hand at doing something interesting or better with that mechanic, and that they themselves dont plan to use it in the future. Fun stuff!
@@godzilla2k26 I immediately thought of Lux Pain. Not exactly the same but you do get two different views of the same thing on the two screens when on a mission? I need to replay that, it's been a while. Oh edit, I played this game and forgot - English name I believe is The Game With No Name? It's a horror series. I'll correct myself later, just leaving this here for before the computer gets switched on.
When I first heard of The Medium, I imagined going through different locations, like a hotel, an abandoned hospital, a forest, a graveyard you get it it. Solving the mysteries of each place and finding a puzzle piece of the big mystery which brings it all together. Like a detective game with supernatural elements. Needless to say I was disappointed.
That sounds awesome and reminds me of the Echo Night series. Your main task could be to exorcise the ghost, but maybe you could approach it differently, either with brute force or by trying to understand their trauma and reason for haunting. Then that could affect the ending, where the ghosts could be on your side if you actually tried to help them. Like a mix between The Witcher, Constantine and Luigi's Mansion.
@@adriank8792 There's no puzzle nor mystery in this game. It's a carousel ride where every solution is the same " walk in circles around this room, find the interactables and then proceed".
This is a trend as of late, not only game developers but Hollywood as well try to tackle really sensitive topics without the knowledge or sensitivity required to handle them. Remember 13 reasons why? A show about suicide? Basically romanticizing suicide from the get go, when it's the number 1 thing NOT TO DO when speaking about such a topic. This is nothing new, I can remember a few movies in the past that delve deep into certain topics that they absolutely fail to grasp.
It’s really ignorant to see how developers don’t actually do the research before displaying it before an audience because it creates misrepresentation for these serious mental health issues. It’s really damaging for actual victims and these people just seem to want to be edgy or entertaining when mental health issues are never like that. Don’t embellish things like that because it’s so unfair for victims.
DC Comics also did what you described with the abysmal Heroes in Crisis. At the same time, Marvel was publishing volume 2 of The Unstoppable Wasp, which depicted the title character's bipolar disorder. Where Heroes in Crisis failed spectacularly, The Unstoppable Wasp thankfully nailed it.
@@user-zn5zr2ed3x The fact that they will probably screw up the remake with needless changes is bad enough. Like already why tf did they put stocking on the nurse enemies?? And now the lying figures just look like they are in some kind of weird one piece bathing suit lol. That's all without even knowing what they've changed story wise
Thank you for bringing up how the devs pretty much made shitty copy of Beksiński's artwork into their game's visuals. As far as I know, his family (Beksiński has been killed in 2005) deserved financial compensation from a game that relies so heavily on his work's it feels like if they copypasted his artwork.
I like how this trash was super overhyped and had tons of adv. but Song of Horror game , that was made by a few people, that is actually super good, and innovative in a lot of ways(and fun) is just lost without any adv. So if you want true survival horror Alone in the Dark style, play Song of Horror.... It hurts my soul, that people don't know about it....
Tysm for including the thoughts of someone who has these issues, it really makes a difference. As for the narrative, I feel the nihilistic message could work if it had been re-tooled. Years ago, I left an abusive relationship but I struggled with the knowledge that I was leaving him and his mum to his dad, who was even worse. In this instance, for me at least, the message of 'you can't save everyone' takes on a very different meaning.
A game that has taken inspiration from another popular horror game, but imo, does it well is Red Candle Games’ 2019 game; Devotion. It follows a similar pacing and style as PT but branches into a story that lets you explore different times within a family’s apartment as they struggle with [something]. It’s fantastic storytelling and beautifully done. Sadly, it hasn’t been heavily talk about because of it being a Taiwan based game co. that fell into controversy involving Winnie the Pooh.
I remember being so confused and disappointed at the ending. I didn’t understand the reasoning of the “it’s you or me” ending, and then we don’t even see who is the one that supposedly dies? Like come on! Give me something to actually chew on here! And what was the whole point in the beginning about her foster dad being a funeral director/FH owner? I’m a mortician so that made me curious as to how it would be incorporated, and yet nothing. And barely any backstory about presumably living in the funeral home is crap. I’m a live-in apprentice right now and I’ve experienced my bedroom door opening and closing with no explanation perceivable as to how other than some ghostly force. And you’re telling me that Marianne didn’t ever really experience paranormal stuff even though she was a medium. If I was reflecting back on living with a foster dad that was a funeral director, I sure would be reflecting on all the people I saw and stuff I experienced. I’ve got not a smidge of street smarts or ghost sense, and yet it feels like I’m more grounded as a medium character than Marianne. It’s too bad they didn’t do more with the funeral home setting and background that Marianne has. Would have definitely made the game cooler. But then again they probably would have gotten a lot of stuff wrong based on how little the public understands how things work at a funeral home and rely on the misinformation and misconceptions generated by horror movies and other media sources.
I was about to say “what misconceptions?” But then I remembered that Caitlin Doughty’s channel “Ask a Mortician” is one of my favorite ahah I would love to play a game with the premise you just gave honestly. It sounds so interesting
This game gives me bad vibes just like The Suicide of Rachel Foster. Editing to add that the game Martha is Dead also is a bad one too. Both of the ones I mentioned here feel exploitative on poor mental health and trauma like this and the Blair Witch game. As someone who has been through trauma and abuse, seeing the clip for the ending of The Medium really just shocked me. This is another exploitative game and once again basically makes us an accomplice to something incredibly morally bankrupt. It's "shock value" and nothing more. Congrats Bloober, you once again made another exploitative game and decided to fuck over your audience.
Yeah it's sad to see the message of a game about dealing with trauma, has two endings that lead to "yeah, the kiddy diddler is redeemable, but the kid he diddled? Yeah she's just suffering from too much trauma, end her or yourself, she's just a burden" That's a very nice message game....Yeah....mhmm, yeah....not.
In Silent Hill 2 the girl you meet can't be saved and has the same message about suicide. It just doesn't have a phoned in scene of her killing herself to reinforce it. Pretty overkill of The Medium to show it and then fade to black.
You mean Maria? She can't be saved because she isn't even REAL, because she's based on James's dead wife Mary. LITERALLY no one could be saved in that scenario. Maria did get suicidal herself, but that was because she was a representation of James's guilt.
@@crispinypata well you see, they said Girl, and given that half the cast is female if we count Mary and Laura, that was pretty vague. Also, I forgot about that. It's been some years and all I could remember was her SPOILER FOR A 20 YEAR OLD GAME abuse from her father.
The difference is that in Silent Hill 2, you can't save Angela because you just met her when arriving in the town, so of course you won't be able to magically fix the trauma she experienced her whole life. The message isn't "Peoples suffering from trauma and PTSD are a lost cause and should die for their good and the good of their loved ones", it's "How do you expect to fix a lifetime of trauma experienced by someone you just met in what amounts to a few hours?". If Konami handled it the way Bloober team handles lily in the Medium, you would have James putting gasoline on the flaming staircase, just to be sure. And Abstract Daddy, rather than tormenting Angela, and then James when he try to help her, would have caused a great massacre somewhere else, or something like that
I know this is an older video but now with bloober and Konami being officially partners… I fear bloobers silent hill will be just as shallow, pretentious and basic as the medium.
When it comes to the minor character of Richard, although abuse (can) be a factor within a perpetrators life that can have a person turn to abusing others, that doesn't mean that it's a necessary or a sufficient reason for the game to rely on that as a crutch for the audience to have sympathy for Richards Character. There are are many more factors of the precursors for sexually predatory tendencies and the culpability Richard has that the game fails to identify making the depiction of "his child form" inappropriate and disanalagous to real world abusers. One must give more factors than just being abused themselves and a psychosexual fascination of children as reasons for Richards actions of becoming a perpetrator.
Was really underwhelmed with this game, don't know how it got such high reviews from the big outlets. It's like because it's day one on game pass people are more lenient just like a lot of Netflix movies;like would u be happy if u payed to see bird box in theatres?
A cinematic walking simulador with baby Gameplay and story ripped of from movies,what did you expect? I wish they shared the same appreciation to actual good and artistic "walking simuladors" such as Pathologic
Life is Strange did remind me of Silent Hill at times. For instance, the beginning of the game when the protagonist examine themself in a bathroom mirror just like in Silent Hill 2. There's also the reality break towards the end that's typical for Silent Hill games.
@@goldilocksguy5170 What? Have you ever actually watched Twin Peaks? Aside from being a small town with an unusual atmosphere, there's really nothing in common between Twin Peaks and Silent Hill.
My only disagreement is that I would not recommend Little Hope (I hate its ending and I didn't enjoy any of its characters). If you want a modern game that has a moving, beautiful story with horror elements, I'd recommend Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice or Night in the Woods. Otherwise, I totally agree with everything you said.
Another reccomendation I throw out here is "The House in Fata Morgana". Really, this is the single most mature and genuinely moving narrative game I have ever played that outwardly calls itself "horror" (and, as a visual novel, really deserves the title for managing to get under your skin with only text and sound without utilising too many tired cliches, more relying on an eerie atmosphere).
one night about two years ago i was having a rough time so i called the suicide hotline not really knowing what to expect. first i was put on hold, and then i talked to a woman that im guessing was new or didn't really know what to say. i expected her to ask a lot of questions and to try and reassure me, but she asked very generic questions and didn't really do much to try and get me to open up more. it only lasted maybe 5-10 minutes then she asked if i was going to hurt myself and i said no, so he basically said goodbye after that. it was the only time ive ever called but it stuck out to me so much. to anyone that is having those thoughts, i would still suggest calling but maybe have other options incase it doesn't workout like in my case.
To be fair they don’t really do much but ask you info to send to the police incase you sound or admit to planning on harming yourself, I had the same experience as a teen, but if you literally have noone else to vent too, I do say do it.
If you are feeling suicidal, dont tell anyone. Because you will just get stuck in the psyche ward and that shit sux. All it did was teach me to keep my mouth shut, because there are experiences worse than death.
I wanted Richard to be devoured by The Maw. I do feel bad for Sadness and Lily though. Also, the ending of having to choose whether you or Lily dies is dumb to me. It reminds me a bit of The S/////de of Rachel Foster where two characters try to justify csa.
I watched this entire video, and it's been sitting in my head since seeing it. I've been trying to think of a way to play devils advocate. I am a victim of abuse but I don't think I feel the same way about the game, But I still take my own issues with it. I was thinking to myself, that the Bloober team doesn't feel like they understand the perspective of a victim who experienced Lily's abuse. As if they wrote the character, not truly understanding how the victim would feel. But then I thought, what if it is meant to be an actual representation? What if this game and it's ending is actually trying to painfully showcase the true feelings of victims? It is very dark and perhaps inappropriate, but what if the game is trying to say something like "This is how a victim may feel or react or behave. It's not healthy or what is right, but it's what happens to real people. These are the decisions real people might make." I still have my problems though. The statement "You can't save everyone" I actually believe to be true. Painfully true. It's just a horribly pessimistic message to send, but maybe they just intended to get straight to the point. I don't think they're calling people "lost causes", but really harshly reminding everyone of a cruel reality. A bit way too harsh. My biggest issue and what didn't sit right with me, is that it felt like Lily's abuse is a key factor that a lot of plot points branch off from. BUT. They sort of danced around the subject instead of taking it head on. They technically never even confirmed exactly what Richard did, the player just has to come to their own conclusion. I wish they would call it what it is because it felt a little too censored to me, like they didn't have it in them to really discuss the topic of abuse to the level of awareness that it deserves. I see the points made in this video and I do agree with them, to be honest. I'm a little uncomfortable with my response because I can relate to and agree with multiple perspectives and I really don't think I'm completely sold on just one. At best, the ending of The Medium is just strangely.. mean.
@@godzilla2k26 I don't understand what you mean. Though, also, reading my comment from about a year ago, I think I communicated my points poorly. I'm sure I could make my thoughts way more clear and concise but I doubt it's worth it a year later.
I'm gonna give this a quick go, 'cause my old post was even confusing to myself. One of my main points, was about how Lilly was seemingly to blame, and that she had to die to fix the problems she caused. I don't think this has to be victim blaming (Though it could be.) Depending on if you see the game events as absolutely literal, or highly symbolic, it changes a lot of debates. On the symbolic side of things, it is not necessarily the game developers saying Lilly is at fault, It could be the guilt, shame, and blame that victims put onto themselves, It looks like everything is Lilly's fault because it's a symbolic representation of her feelings. Also, it feels like a representation of how in real life, victims are sometimes blamed. Their attackers and abusers are seen as innocent or at least get away with their crime. Victims can be seen somehow as "being in the wrong" or "at fault". So the game could make Lilly be "at fault" to show the unfortunate possibilities that have happened to real people.
As a victim-by-proxy of abuse, I feel like your comment makes perfect sense. The entire deal with trauma is that the event that took place falls out of scope to such a degree that the worldview literally cracks and causes a stunlock. The fact that you have _several_ questions on what the authors *might* have intented points to me that the game triggers this confusing state of mind that victims of abuse actually have. Whether that is briljant writing or that the game is actually trash and their conclusions of the story is a cop out where people interpret vagueness as an oppertunity to craft their own version... What I personally find important, is that abuse in games/stories/etc. is named, the consequences are shown and how people can heal from their torment. Ambiguity isnt 'good writing'. It shows a lack of bravery to tell an honest story.
I think the kicker for me when I watched a streamer play and finish this game, was the credits actually begging you for a positive review. Like... no...? I'm not gonna do that.
Really??? That’s so cheap and definitely shows how the developers felt about this game and how they felt the need to beg for positive reviews shows how bad this game was
Yo I'd be curious to hear your take on the game "song of horror". It seems to do its own thing and while I personally really, REALLY didn't appreciate how they fumbled a brilliant idea with immersion-breaking QTE-style events that occur at random and can kill you (paired with a few things that aren't signposted, are poorly signposted and/or the game seems to funnel you towards that may well cause you one or more deaths in a game where death has consequences) you might be able to power past that and appreciate the wonderfully oppressive atmosphere created.
the irony of developers attempting to make a silent hill clone is that if they did end up in silent hill, they'd probably be faced with their own game.
I remember being pretty excited when this first got shown off.Then I realised ohhh the devs of Layers Of Fear / Blair Witch no thankyou and im glad I reached that conclusion.
Yamaoka actually gets more credit than was due for the og games soundtracks too btw. Hitomi Shimizu was arguably more responsible for the industrial and soundscape aspects whereas Yamaoka did more of the traditional song-writing. It's a lot more evident when you compare their respective works following the og Silent Hill games, as well as within the games; as Yamaoka got more creative control focus shifted towards the more traditionally "musical" elements. And I love trip hop and the SH4 soundtrack, but I don't think the dark ambient side of things has been a strength of Yamaoka for some time.
I think the other big issue with any 'Silent Hill' like games (including the non team Silent sequels) is they not only blantly copy them, but they don't understand why those concepts worked in the first place. For example, one of the biggest reasons Silent Hill 2 works is because it never tells the player how to feel. It knows how to perfecly fit within those shades of grey. It never forces you to view the characters (mainly James, Eddie and Angela) in a particular way. It asks you to examine them and come to your own conclusions about how you feel about them. The ending system plays into this as no ending is labled as "good" or "bad" because Team Silent can't tell how you'd feel about James and what he did. I think a lot of the horror comes from this as it's frightening to understand the horrible things people can do to one another (or have done to them in the case of Angela or Mary), but also be able to emphathise or understand them even though you know what they've done as a result is objectively wrong. (These are just some examples of why Silent Hill is amazing but there are many others of course) Many of these games that attempt to imitate Silent Hill don't understand how to approach a story like this. You have to be incredibly unbiased if you're writing a story in this way. For most people this is difficult which is why get a game like The Medium, where the writers cannot help but to interject their own opinions on the matter into the story. Bloober Team and many others just don't understand these complexities and try to boil it down into "oohh, scary monster chasing me, jump scare or loud noise". What disgusts me more is that so many people are desperate for anything that is like Silent Hill, that they put up with or praise this kind of shit.
Yeah but I hope if silent hill doesn’t turn out to be true to its source material, people will speak out about it since it’s a cult classic among so many people especially since for many it’s been regarded as the best survival horror game and has a complex story that deals with many mental health issues. We’ll just have to see
Yeah I saw that. It's so beyond disappointing. Not only just because Bloober is involved (I think we all know why that's dissapointing), but also because of the way the community is now responding. I think it's fine if people want to enjoy the news, but I've seen so many people call anyone criticising Bloober or Konami "toxic", "crybabies", "ungrateful", "fake fans", "bandwagoning", etc. The amount of invalidation that is occurring because people were hurt by the messages in The Medium and are discussing them, in relation to Silent Hill is insane. Any effort of discussion is being instantly dismissed by those who are so seem to align themselves with the anti intellectualism trend occurring currently. It's like everything I hoped wouldn't happen is now happening. And I now worry with the news of the remake and the attempt to reboot the franchise, that the originals will be left behind and forgotten. I know that the real fans won't let that happen, but with the way the discussion is occurring at the moment, it feels more and more like that may end up being the case. I love these games, but I'm so tired of seeing this happen over and over again within the community.
@@caitlinrose2458 they are just starved for any sh content. I hate remakes, i think you should never remake something if you dont want to change thing drastically, and for sh2 i dont think its needed. The game is just perfect as is
Honestly, I think the only way we're ever getting a new, good Silent Hill game is if the devs take a serious step back and try to approach the franchise with a new perspective. Cannibalizing past iconography, mainly from the first three games, is the reason Homecoming and Origins especially do not work. I mainly give Shattered Memories a pass because at least it does something really interesting and different with SH1 as a template, and tells what I think is easily the best narrative post Team Silent. Treating Silent Hill like a collection of images or a formula is going to doom the game. Devs should come at it with the idea of wanting to bring something new and meaningful to the franchise. The idea should be to use Silent Hill as a base for something really unique. I think that's part of the reason why I'm not that hesitant about the recent image leaks. The weird post-it note halls feel kind of interesting and different. Using something as mundane as a post-it note and making it almost feel like this weird, fleshy growth on the walls is great, if you ask me. Bottom line, if you're going to make a new Silent Hill game, you should want to do something new with the franchise in a way that does not rely on the first three games purely for inspiration, and you should have something worthwhile to say, rather than just going with a generic formula.
Silent Hill and OCD would go quite well together imo. intrusive thoughts and images can be translated into monsters that sneak up on you around any corner. Also things like ritualistic “puzzles” that only hold back the monsters for a short while (so you can progress) until they inevitably come back, sometimes stronger. The only way you can defeat it is by coming to terms with the fact that they exist and will never go away, but you can learn to cope with and live with them, eventually turning into passing thoughts.
TBH I understand why it happened when the hardcore fans saw the OG trilogy as the second coming of Christ and even rejected Team Silent when they tried something different with The Room. The fan canon presented SH2 as more or less the only way to make a sequel (since Heather's story was finished), even though it was a strange outlier when it released. It reminds me of Twin Peaks fans hating The Return because they expected the same cozy vibes with murder mysteries and soap opera love triangles. But there'd be no point in telling that same story again. PT brought that creative impulse back, but we'll never see what the full game could've been.
Getting back to this comment after hearing about the SH2 remake gives me second hand embarrassment on Konami's part, a studio that I have hated for years. We ask for something fresh and new, and they give us the exact opposite
@@LOEKASH I think I ,would have been really disappointed with that announcement if not for Silent Hill f at the end. I'm hedging probably too many of my bets there. It's being written by Ryukishi07, who's responsible for two incredible horror visual novels that have a deep, empathetic understanding of people, their flaws, and the awful things they sometimes do, and considering how genuinely scary the first one he wrote, Higurashi, can be, I think he'll do right by Silent Hill. Fuck Bloober Team though, lmao. Literally zero faith in the SH2 Remake being anything but a bastardization.
@@weirdautumn Seriously, after the flops of Homecoming, Downpour and so forth, I'm surprised Konami is _still_ trying to use Western developers... And Bloober of all people. Focus Home Interactive has done some good stuff lately, wish they'd gone with them if anything.
@@dwagin6315 I found them in disc replay for like 100 bucks and i also found enternal darkness for gamecube for 50 bucks and i know that game is like 80 now
@@dwagin6315 go to small local game stores or swap meets, they tend to not know what they have and price them like normal games, at least in my experience.
I was intensely interested in the Medium when I first found out about it, but after hearing about the problems with the writing especially, I'm really glad I let it pass.
hell it wasn't even that positive, it was just "here's a recent horror game about trauma." Perhaps we should just try making new scary games rather than "but the real monster WAS YOUR MIND!" for the 3000th time after silent hill 2 already perfected the idea
@@LakesideAmusementPro I agree that it's better then the medium, it was just dreadfully boring in my opinion. It wasnt a total disaster like the medium
One thing I find especially interesting in this games depiction of trauma, is how it kind of contradicts itself? In the case of Richard, his abuse of Lily is explained away by the story through his traumatic past. they remove all agency from his character, favouring this idea that every choice and action you make is completely predetermined by your upbringing. It's nurture over nature. But later on when we meet Henry, he's just fully a demon. He's a shit person who's murdered god knows how many people, and he's not even shown to be a person. he doesn't even have an inner child, it's just always been the demon. Henry shows nature over nurture. So like, which is it?
@@josephine-rt6jw I suppose, though it is fairly accurate to real life. People are usually a combination of their nature and nurture, though some are affected by one over the other more.
@@TheBlueLink3 I agree, but I do find it interesting that the character who assaults a young girl is the one we’re meant to sympathize with. Henry is a full monster, but Richard is a flawed person no longer in control of his actions. Not only does it contradict the lore, it presents a concerning message/idea. Ofc at the end of the day it is a video game, nothings perfect and it’s not like this specific game is going to dictate how we treat perpetrators of assault, but I do think it’s a valid critique to make, especially with how Lily is treated within the confines of the story.
@@josephine-rt6jw I wouldn't really say the game says that Richard is no longer in control of his actions. While he does have a sad backstory, he still ends up getting mentally broken. "Justice" is still served, so saying the game wants us to really sympathize with him is a bit of a stretch as well. With Henry, I think they just wanted to play with previously set up expectations. Plus, not all minds work the same. I do think the game has problems and is narratively messy, though some views on it seem overly critical and reaching on what the points of the game actually were.
I'm soooo glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this way about The Medium. Not only a terrible excuse for a "survival horror" game, but an even worst experience to anyone who has been or is dealing with some sort of trauma. When I got the ending for the first time, I knew the game was bad, but it somehow managed to really piss me off with the message it was delivering. Great review, Ghen. BTW I'm totally gonna steal the "dishonest" part of the title for my review, because it's the best way to address this game LOL
Marianne spent her whole life helping people using her powers so them saying that she cant save everybody at the end obviously meant that she cant help everybody she wants to help and was talking about everybody she saves in general and not only her sister so i think you really misunderstood what the game was trying to say. They say that with characters like Batman and Superman for example sometimes that they cant save everybody.
I felt that you and many others are blowing the message of the game out of proportion. "You can't save everyone" means that she finally found her sister again and yet she has to die to end the madness of the monster. It wasn't meant to go deeper than that. It was a take on how in games, we want to be the hero that saves everyone and sometimes it is out of our hands to do that. We saw Richard's rise to infamy in order to realize that this monster was a person at one time and so we have to carry the weight and burden of sentencing him to justice as we try to remain careful that we don't become monsters ourselves in the process.
I wouldn't call Observer taking advantage of cyberpunk. It felt like a genuine love letter to the genre, especially with casting Rutger Hauer as the main character.
@@Ghenry just a difference in a opinion, drawing heavy inspiration isn’t inherently experience ruining, plus cyberpunk is a genre not a past franchise so that argument doesn’t work like with PT and SH does.
I watched this video after the recent news of the SH2 reboot in order of like hopefully not being as skeptic and giving bloober team a chance, but this just made it FAR worse, especially that ending. Your friend hit the nail on the head. This is coming from someone who suffered from the trauma of sexual abuse as a child, something I still deal with to this very day. But Holy fucking shit. That ending is fucking off the wall. Super off the fucking wall, it's so toxic and defeatist. Like legit. I know silent hill 2 deals with trauma, but it presented that trauma and was a journey in overcoming and coming to terms said trauma which always resonated with me. It never praised James for his actions, but it did make you understand why he did those actions and symbolically the steps he took to overcome it. For anyone that is going through similar/any type of trauma, you can outgrow it. You can take whatever was taken from you back. Don't believe defeatist bullshit from people like Bloober Team who have NO IDEA what it's like to be a victim of it. Like I can understand if they wanted to make a shocking ending, but it's shocking in all the wrong ways. Also The whole abuse cycle thing was cool, but again it's completely subverted by the sympathy to the abuser. Like bro, I've been fucking diddled as a child and it's a fucking horrible idea to just assume everyone whose been abused will eventually become a vessle for abuse, or can't make it past it. FUCK BLOOBER TEAM.
I think another problem with how the game delivers its message is that the Maw may be trying to represent something, but it also seems to be an actual demon or something that the sister made a deal with. So on the one hand, yeah, the message is bad, but the sister is also harboring a demon or something that does need to be dealt with. The writers probably should have had some other way to defeat it than killing the sister.
Its good to know that people hating on bloober are just upset about the way the issue of trauma is handled . For a moment there I was worried about the SH2 remake!
What gets me after watching this video is that the devs’ seemingly laziness to only make the game for Series consoles and PC and not provide an Xbox One port saved me from playing through it and becoming disgusted at the ending since while I myself haven’t gotten that far down in the proverbial dumps that it would have any negative effect on me, a couple of my colleagues whom I care deeply about are dealing with some truly depressing situations currently and the ending ticks me off really badly when I think about what they’re going through at the moment. 😒
2:35 I had to stop and come to write, but is 2021, there's a supposedly revolutionary technology of a split screen rendering, and these devs can't make the character blink naturally? she keeps her eyes still for so long it creeped me out and not in the good way. Anyway, the split screen only makes me think how stupid the protagonist would look takling to herself by any bystander in the distance, like lmao
Bloober Team honestly seem a bit like crooks after the way they did the people that bought the original release of Observer. They release System Redux and only give the people who bought the original a timed discount, that they wouldn't know about unless they were keeping tabs on Bloober Team, for what, like 10% off? That just seemed kind of fucked up. I wouldn't expect it free, but I'd expect at least half-price or something.
You know who I feel Blooper games aim for? Hack critics, like, think about it, they're not overly long games, they aren't complicated, they are visually appealing overall, good music, but it's like, it's like it's made for someone that doesn't have enough time to play videogames, that also wants to feel high and mighty about their refined ''game art'' taste, like, it's critic bait, cause like, I'm an SH fan, I could tell this wasn't gonna be anything for me from the screenshots, it's definitely not made for people that want a new Silent Hill, it's just, vapid, without a soul, everything it does is look like it's doing something on the outside, but playing it, it's, nothing. Maybe that's the true horror.
@@OuhPii It got a lot of high scores, it's what I mean by it being critic bait, it dresses like a survival horror, like a silent hill, but it isn't, it's short, it's easy, a busy critic can play it in a day and pretend that its a smart game that goes back to the roots and give it a high score and feel high and mighty about it. But what do I know, I ain't a critic.
@@QMMarc comment wasn't meant as a counter-argument: GameSpot is well known at this point for their lazy reviews » Seeing a high score on their part just supports your statement of TheMedium having some critic-baity elements.
@@OuhPii I didn't take it as a counter, just elaborated on it a bit more haha, but yeah, it's just like, as long as The Medium get's high scores to paste on top of it's cover, they're winning, people that don't know better will get it cause, high score, it's kinda scummy right? It is what it is.
@@QMMarc Sure it's a strat that could work but only goes so far, if word of mouth doesn't support those critic scores. LastOfUs2 is probably the best recent example for this tactic not working in the long run.
Bloober Team & Konami..... What a devilish combination. Their silent hill will either be boring or hilariously bad. I hope it's the latter cause even though homecoming and downpour were shit. At least we had fun laughing at horrible developer decisions, the super best friends playthroughs are prime examples of that. Future Silent Hill games will never be as good as the first 4. #FUCKONAMI
Aweful news, but, to some degree, honestly, its also the fans fault. Why do people want to have silent hill remakes or new ones on the first place? I dont get it. I would be much more eager for something fresh, completely unreleated. Like, for once, a new franchise? Are we so drained of creativity that warming up or remaking 20 year old games, that already where about as good as it gets, is all we can hope for?
It's crazy they gave the creative director of this game the keys for the silent hill 2 remake, that thing is dead on arrival I don't even wanna know how he's gonna handle Angela's storyline
@@egorkvyatkovskiy6624 The In-Water ending is the best ending. It makes no sense for him to move on to a better life or to pick Maria, who will end up developing the same disease (thus keeping James in a vicious cycle of going through the same torture).
Don't forget the most important inspiration for Silent Hill, Kindergarten Cop. Seriously, the school from that movie is clearly used as a basis for a school in Silent Hill.
I'm really glad you were transparent with this game. IGN gave tjos game an 8.5 and while I REALLY wanted it to be good. I really did, this game just continued to disappoint with minor glimmers of hope only to deflated everytime
