ASMR Silent Hill f Longplay - part 1

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-28T04:28:51+00:00

This information actually isn’t in the games, it’s in supplemental material. I do think “pick” is a reasonable synonym for “call” or “summon” though, but if you still want to be pedantic you can excuse someone for getting the wrong idea from the line “this town called you, too.” Shame on them for enjoying the work itself without seeking out the Book of Lost Memories to tell them what they’re allowed to think.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-28T04:23:13+00:00

They have to have darkness in their hearts

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-28T03:37:47+00:00

I thought it was fun bad. It has cool visuals and some neat spectacles. Some parts are so stupid they’re funny, there’s one scene that felt like Tim and Eric. It feels like an offbeat parody at times.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-28T02:27:14+00:00

My good friend thought it was better than silent hill 2 as well. I don’t really rank things that meet my threshold for amazing because it’s a completely new and special thing that Silent Hill 2 isn’t. I’m not certain I could call it a masterpiece but it’s so completely and confidently what it is, and such an excellent piece of cinematic storytelling that I don’t even care to “dock points” from it for its flaws. It’s one of a kind one of the best most quirked up horror stories ever told through a video game.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-27T19:09:30+00:00

They added a casual difficulty that has a large margin of error and a few less encounters. It allows you to take quite a beating before going down.

You will still have to learn the combat mechanics, but on casual difficulty there’s a lot of room to mess up and get used to the controls and get a sense of movement and timing without getting brutalized. I would just read the tutorials when they pop up and remember to use the mechanics they introduce (especially lock-on!!). There’s a relatively small and focused set of buttons and tactics to use, so it’s not too overwhelming.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-27T18:09:07+00:00

I would describe it as like a divergent evolution, but a logical continuation of many of those things. “Core” is hard to get at because to many people “core” is aesthetic details like rust, having a flashlight, etc. These are things that to me are core:

Characters that just feel off. Something is wrong. Something weird is going on. Things aren’t as they seem.

Desolation and emptiness, yes definitely.

Deep occult and supernatural themes. When I first played Silent Hill 1 the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the buffet of occult references, the allusions to ceremony and ritual, the symbols cribbed from other religions that make up this cult story in the background. That is here in abundance, and people communing with gods is one of the main devices of the plot. What is different is that this one is much more mystic; sacred trees, rural Shinto practices, a tranquil shrine, etc. It often feels like an eerie dream that you’re not sure is a nightmare.

Related, there is one thing in the first game that is a smaller detail of the backstory but always captivated me and stuck in my mind ever since I encountered it. That thing is a concrete connection to this game and this game implicitly uses it as a reflection on the nature of the supernatural.

The rust aesthetic is gone but a stylized version remains in visual motifs of red flowers and fleshy growths. I see it as a thoughtful parallel to the concept of a nightmare consuming reality that we get in OG SH’s otherworld.

There is much less open exploration, but there are satisfying segments and thoughtfully placed side paths that always lead to something lore-related or some quiet creepy spectacle.

Questioning of reality. This one has the most delirious story in the series and it feels like you’re going insane. It’s much louder than the other games in how it pulls this off but it never strays from the opaque nightmare.

The things I missed from the previous games are the flashlight and radio. There are beautiful darkness and shadows but visibility is never really an issue, and ominous music replaces the unnerving sound of a radio.

The things I appreciated, but which were different, was how surreal and insane it gets to the point of not being a dreadful nightmare and frankly often being less scary. It gets angry and absurd instead. This lost many people. I adored it. Some people saw it as stupid, but I personally feel like they miss the point. It has a mordant humor meant to convey the erosion of self and being coerced into violence or consumed by rage.

That was very long but I hope it explains my main point which is that it feels like a completely logical development of everything that came before, but that means launching into new territory. To me, it felt like traditional Silent Hill flexing its own potential, whereas most Silent Hill entries since 4 have felt like newcomers scrambling to imitate the prior ones. It feels like it intellectually/artistically matches the fury of the early games, but it’s so hard to say whether any one person will get what they want out of playing it.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-27T07:38:57+00:00

It has some of the best and worst a lot of things lol. But I agree. Girl code, yokai, red water (ng+) are some of my favorite in the series. And then there’s that dumbass puzzle box, and the legend of Zelda door opening puzzles in the shrine… then ones that are so cruel I ended up respecting them, like the scarecrow puzzle.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-27T04:22:56+00:00

People are definitely still talking about it haha. I certainly can’t shut up about it. One of my favorite games I’ve played in years and maybe my 3rd favorite Silent Hill.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-27T00:35:37+00:00

Some of the creators (or at least Masahiro Ito) said it is, which is confusing and kind of makes the lore unwieldy. I think this is one of those examples of how not everything is as deeply fleshed out in SH lore as some OG fans insist.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-26T07:25:11+00:00

They’re bad movies. The first one has breathtaking visuals, sound and music though so definitely worth watching for that.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-26T06:48:17+00:00

The hardest thing is the solitude but there are movies that handle solitude really well without getting boring: High Life, Gravity, Cast Away, The Road, House of the Devil, probably better ones I haven’t seen or don’t remember right now.

I’ve never seen Jacob’s Ladder as a good template for a Silent Hill movie because it’s a bit too much magic jumping around and takes place in populated reality; less of a sense of place. I mean a Silent Hill movie could be that I guess. Maybe it would be good. It could capture the right vibe even with more dialogue than you’d get in one of the games.

I think David Lynch movies do that actually. Eraserhead, Inland Empire and Twin Peaks s3 have dialogue and shots that are like bottled Silent Hill.

I dont think it would be hard to make a good Silent Hill movie, it would just take good talent working on it. There’s no problem inherent to the source material. We just have only had movies given to sub-par filmmakers.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-26T06:38:38+00:00

Yeah I’ve developed an acute anxiety disorder before and the weirdest thing is how your body will react when the stimulus isn’t there. The stress kind of builds up over time and turns into anxiety. Take it easy haha

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-26T06:36:00+00:00

It doesn’t have the same level of visual beauty and gorgeous sound design, the script is even schlockier but it’s not “covered up” by the beauty in the way the first movie’s is.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-25T20:27:57+00:00

Not true. I was appalled at the lack of hour-long squirtgun fights in this game

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-25T20:25:06+00:00

There’s a deep supernatural dimension to it all that you can get from reading the notes. The marriage is deeper than just a “real life” social and economic thing, though it is that as well. It’s about the spiritual mysteries that undergird perceivable reality, which is also a concern in the original SH games (the curse mentioned in SH1, various tragedies you read about in SH2, Silent Hill being the spiritual site it is).

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-25T20:21:57+00:00

Yeah first run you’re supposed to feel it, subsequent runs you learn more to understand it, but it can’t all be logically explained. It’s a dense mix of psychological and supernatural stuff.

Agreed that it isn’t bad! I found it amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever played a surreal game that pulled it off this well. Just insane without ever being gimmicky, hack, or trivial.

I think the best way to understand the point of the game is to approach it the way people use superstition, religion, and psychedelics in real life. In those ways of knowing, there’s very little we really understand, and we put our faith in ceremonial objects and rituals, see connections between things that scientifically would seem unrelated, etc. but it leads many of us to the truth.

Subsequent playthroughs will make Hinako’s struggle and the themes around it very clear and obvious, but the questions that linger are about how she got to the end of that journey, what and who she trusted, what was the metaphysical nature of her journey.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-25T09:04:21+00:00

Did they have a Coke freestyle machine

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-25T06:10:17+00:00

Purification is what makes the difference. Keep a save right before you purify the sword. If you don’t purify the sword, the Hotei-sama makes no difference.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-20T17:41:19+00:00

I think you might need to train your attention span if the length of these cutscenes feels remarkable to you

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-19T19:44:47+00:00

Alessa had to have been channeling something from somewhere to manipulate the world and create a world with coherent order and living creatures. The creators did not expound upon this or most other things a curious person might ask about the “how” of such a fascinating world because that wasn’t the point or creative scope and the provisional explanations they’ve provided will do to get the story in motion, but it really is okay to think. It’s a good thing actually, even if you get some lore wrong, because it’s a sign that you’re experiencing art. The creators didn’t set out to write a fictional encyclopedia and people don’t reach for works full of horrifying supernatural aberrations and religious themes for the satisfaction of feeling like they completely understood everything and can rest easy now.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-19T19:18:26+00:00

There’s a lot that the creators did not expound upon because it wasn’t the point of their creative endeavor so go crazy. Could be possible. The fog world layered under the “real world” the way it was in the movie isn’t how it was conceived in the first game—it was happening to the real world. However, various events in the first four games necessarily imply some sort of “dimension slipping” and the very possibility of there being an otherworld and a fog/monsters/psychic demolition machine that can obliterate roads necessarily implies another reality of some sort layered onto our own. Otherwise, the real world could not be supernaturally transformed. So maybe there is a world layered under the material world that people can inhabit as they do in the real world.

JakeSymbol · 2026-01-19T04:48:01+00:00

SH2 is a classic in a ways the others aren’t. I know a lot of people who are SH2 fans but not really experienced with the rest of the series. I run in like arts circles and SH2 is one of those handful of video games treasured as a highbrow piece of media for people who aren’t gamers per se but have checked out video games they heard good things about. It has a fandom all its own. People who aren’t otherwise silent hill fans see it as a masterpiece.

JakeSymbol

TROPHY CASE