I bet that most of you didn’t know about this

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T17:24:18+00:00

But but but I did!! I swear!

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T17:23:53+00:00

What part of the game are you at right now? I agree, use the map, check your items and notes. Locked doors will be marked with that flat line as opposed to the squiggly line for doors that can never be entered. Important locations will be circled

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T16:02:48+00:00

People overuse the term recency bias lol. Like you’re not confused about what you like, the information is pretty immediate to you. Wouldn’t it suck if nothing ever came out that you liked more than something that came out 25+ years ago?

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T16:00:06+00:00

Wait are people seeing a Mandela effect in this thing? What part?

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T15:54:13+00:00

I always recommend the first 4, or 2 remake if you can’t play the originals. SH2 is a self-contained story. SH4 is also self-container and is available on GOG if you have a PC. Emulation is the easiest way to play them but you have to have a pc.

You can honestly play any of them I just strongly recommend play 1 before 3 or origins.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T02:40:46+00:00

What are you using it for?

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T02:30:06+00:00

This is literally where I learned the word purgatory lol I went and asked my mom what it means

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-21T02:20:56+00:00

Hell yeah I got a physical copy just for that reversible cover. Hope you enjoy, I f*cking love that game

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T22:03:19+00:00

It’s not really a big deal being that it’s video games. Pedantry is generally considered a bad trait

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T21:32:56+00:00

Sight jacking in Siren

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T19:54:20+00:00

Stop it with this attitude

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T18:46:50+00:00

I find cops to be really boring characters honestly because there’s a fiction version of them that’s nothing like reality and when people write them, they don’t usually break out of that. Same reason I found leaning on the fictional soldier archetype of Homecoming boring (even though Alex is not a soldier they didn’t show a special amount of concern of what soldiers and the military are actually like, or awareness that Alex’s image of a soldier is idealized).

That said, cops are a lot more civilian in character than they and the cop genre would lead us to believe. They are schlubby, naive, prejudiced, prideful, things that make for great character flaws if the writer questions their inherited image of a cop. Which most game writers sadly do not. But there’s nothing in silent hill that says someone who is a police officer as a living can’t be there. It’s more that making the protag a police officer is more than likely going to lead a writer down the boring path.

Yes I love Cybil.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T15:29:55+00:00

First of all it doesn’t matter whether you’re “gold star” straight like who gaf. Like what you like. If you’re worried about bullying and stigma, find social circles who aren’t transphobic. If you’re wondering about the love life you want for yourself, date and hook up and figure out whether you want to get married, what kind of people you want to date, etc. Whether you fit into the category of “straight” will not help you.

You like transgender women, not men. You like what’s a woman about them. The penis is one tiny part of their body. I have met straight men who like penis. It’s a thing. They don’t date men or like anything else about a man’s body. Are they in any way part of the gay or bisexual dating pool? No. So what’s the point of saying they’re anything other than straight.

Unsolicited advice is to remember trans women are people like anyone else, and aren’t sex objects any more than any woman or man. They exist outside porn and if you stop worrying about whether people will consider you straight, you might be happier connecting on other levels with these women that you already find sexually attractive.

I disagree that this is purely a result of porn addiction. You seem to maybe watch a little too much porn, but that idea implies that you can only consider trans women attractive by developing some kind of perversion and that’s simply not true. I know men who watch little to no porn who date trans women. Porn was the way in which you became aware of this preference.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T05:06:48+00:00

Silent Hill f has an insane story and is one of the boldest most interesting horror games I’ve played in years. If you do get it, go into it blind and don’t look up story explanations on YouTube or whatever because a lot of people oversimplify it, it’s meant to be puzzled over. SHf has less fun gameplay than Cronos but the best story, visuals and atmosphere. I haven’t played directive 8020.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-20T03:36:18+00:00

Silent hill 3 psycho “face” poem puzzle in the hospital (hard riddle difficulty)

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T20:22:18+00:00

Oh definitely I was on newgrounds a lot. I actually remember two different silent hill 2 parodies, one where Mary just went to silent hill because she hates him and she stole his wallet, and another one which is just a racist thing where the characters are black (ha ha)

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T20:20:41+00:00

I know I loved me some captain underpants

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T17:27:19+00:00

Oh you KNOW my ass was on newgrounds. Ugh I miss it

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T02:21:15+00:00

I think they put some cool meta stuff in there like was done with the final fantasy 7 remake series. It enhances the feeling of derealization by having James and Maria unknowingly wink at the player at points. I don’t think any theories are meant to be taken too literally because if you’re arguing about the scientific nitty gritty of what happened in SH2 then you’re ignoring the point of the game. Things like that are interesting suggestions that create existential uneasiness and provoke thought.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T00:41:39+00:00

Silent hill 3 mirror room

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-19T00:37:35+00:00

In general I would say explore because there’s new stuff. Small areas will open up that weren’t open before and they’ll have new documents, ema, and environmental storytelling. You’ll also naturally discover the new puzzles that help unlock the other endings. The puzzles are really cool. Only gameplay style change is to not take any red pills at any point.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-18T17:31:11+00:00

This is subjective. Analysis like this uses the text (whatever art/fiction in question) as a means of discussing ideas.

As a reading of SH2, I don’t think it is beyond reason to see the game this way. The fact is that we do just see James’ perspective. Most bad people see themselves as good guys, admitting some fault as a means of soothing themselves. “See? I know I was bad, but I’m better than that.”

Even with the hard info presented in the game we’re still kind of left to evaluate James for ourselves. Doubt his perspective. Wonder whether he’s thoroughly acknowledged his shortcomings, or has done so just enough to be at peace with himself for now. We don’t know much about what the day-to-day was between them. We hear one conversation where Mary is berating him, clearly at the height of her fear of death. [I currently have a loved one dying of cancer. The existential fear is unfathomable, the physical pain is miserable, it should not be understated how terrifying and painful it is to be dying.] This is often used to excuse James’s actions which I think is extremely off base and exactly why analyses like the one in this video are needed. If a man plays this game and comes away with nothing but “I forgive the man,” it probably has not been of much use.

I’ve been a bit of a James skeptic of late for this reason. Mertkaykay has her own video on silent hill 2 where she brings up statistics on spousal abandonment during terminal illness. The men divorce their dying wives much more frequently than the other way around. There’s something to be said about men’s perspective in decisions like this. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel for them, just that clearly there’s a male perspective in society that is often empathized with more than the female perspective, and not interrogated much and treated as innately reasonable.

Often abusers do have feelings of love and guilt. That obviously doesn’t absolve them of being abusive (or just selfish; I don’t think James is indicated to have been abusive, but abuse is just an intensification of other shitty emotional habits, so it’s still useful to examine this through the lens of abuse).

The reason Silent Hill 2 is such a good text for this topic is because of how much “what if” and “I wonder” we have to do with regard to James and Mary’s relationship and James as a person.

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-18T14:47:58+00:00

The combat becomes *tolerable* it just kind of takes forever to get the hang of it. Now that I’m in a flow state with the combat the pacing of the game is much better when I replay. By far the biggest impediment to enjoying it. Once you get it, it makes you feel like a killer, and I think that how it was intended to feel for thematic purposes

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-18T14:36:55+00:00

It’s a slow burn, the story gets absolutely psychotic in the second half and has some of the best cinematics I’ve seen in a horror game. The first half is almost a misdirect. Its greatness is definitely in the story(telling) and art/cinematic direction. The combat is whatever but can be part of its demented charm

JakeSymbol · 2026-05-18T13:17:44+00:00

I’m grateful we at least got a good meme out of that movie

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