Henry: Portrait of an awesome man

[SHF]

Oh how many people dislike Henry. Saying how boring he is, etc.
Well I happen to think he is one of the greatest characters.
First, he is one of those quiet, assertive types. Fearless, handsome, has a weird sense of humor ( he asks Cynthia if she is ok, after she is obviously stabbed multiple times).
This thread is comemorate his awesomeness!

[KageReneko]

has a weird sense of humor ( he asks Cynthia if she is ok, after she is obviously stabbed multiple times).

I don't think he was trying to be funny (If so he would be a total jerk). that kind of dumb questions are automatic and you ask them without thinking, when you see somebody falling your fist impulse is asking "Did you Fall?" or something dumb like that...

Henry isn't a great guy, he is just an average man; anyway, his quiet personallity made him a smart guy totally able to figure and accepting the situation that he is living, he is not stupid like other characters COUGHJamesCOUGH and after being the witness of two murders he really does his best in order to save Braintree and Eyleen, that's pretty nice from a guy who obviously prefers to be alone in his world... Besides that he is pretty boring but we can't blame it, that is his personallity, that's why he was chosen for the 4th game and that's why we all love/hate him; I myself am a really boring and bland person and I really liked to see a character like me in a game... We don't want to be loved, we just do what we have to do and that's all...

[Violent Corpse]

I myself am a really boring and bland person and I really liked to see a character like me in a game... We don't want to be loved, we just do what we have to do and that's all...

Exactly. I love Henry because I can relate with him quite well.

[SHF]

has a weird sense of humor ( he asks Cynthia if she is ok, after she is obviously stabbed multiple times).

I don't think he was trying to be funny (If so he would be a total jerk). that kind of dumb questions are automatic and you ask them without thinking, when you see somebody falling your fist impulse is asking "Did you Fall?" or something dumb like that...

^
I was being sarcastic.

[Edea]

I don't mind Henry. He's just a normal guy.

[Re1Mu2R3]

I don't know. I think he's either very stupid or extremely slow looking at the way he reacts to murders.
Playing through the game as Jasper would've been more fun just to see his reactions.

[cascade88]

I've poked fun at Henry before myself, but I don't think he's all that bad actually. His voice actor doesn't have an attention-grasping voice, but the acting wasn't all so off-par as people say (in my opinion). He just had a more calm, laid-back way of freaking out. It was almost dream-like, as if he was perma-disoriented the whole time, which, really, comes across as a relevant point to the game's theme. It all feels like a bunch of fucked up dreams.

[Arsenic13]

Henry is an emotional inept wall, but there are actually people like that in the world. Why not pull a boring guy into a crazy situation?

I honestly don't care for him though. He came off as an empty character that the player should be instead of a personality.

[SilentWren]

He really was boring, but he could've been so much worse. I don't know that many guys who would defend a woman just for a booty call.

[Kenji]

In many ways, Henry's a great avatar character. But, then, so is Link... until they put up reaction shots of his face that leave nothing to the imagination or any room for the player to insert their own reactions.

Henry's different, though. He's just slow and don't give a shit. Same basic problem, though. Unlike Harry, there isn't a simple driving force that just about anyone (including the character) can get behind, that the character can focus on in conversations or observations while allowing the player to imagine their own reactions to everything else.

No, "I wanna go to Perkins" doesn't have the same gut appeal as "my daughter is missing."

[silenthell88]

what the hell?

lol

nah but seriously....i like this character but he had no personality at all

[mikefile]

....i like this character but he had no personality at all

And if he had any it wouldn't have worked at all.

His personality is perfect for this game and in my opinion, the creators couldn' have done better job. Firstly, it's very realistic. Henry is a boring guy, and as Arsenic13 said, why not put him in Silent Hill? The importance of his empty character is eqivalent to Heather's badass, emotive, colorful personality. Secondly, he is the Receiver of Wisdom, thus he must receive wisdom by participating at the final murders (and not interact as a more emotive, spiritually filled person would do). And finally, SH4 is about the Room that Walter wants to achieve so hard to fill his heart with love and can't find a way in there, while lil' Henry simply sits there, in his mother's belly, and lives his empty and bland life.

[Talolili]

I actually like Henry. He's very boring and repeats the same phrase over and over again, but he's still interesting and sort of cute in a way.

[Aherd]

^I agree. His lack of a reaction as many implies is a reaction to me, calculating and calm:D
Tho I did hope the game could slightly focus a bit more on him, maybe a sequel?~

[Mephisto]

Who, in real life, isn't like Henry? Pretty much all the humans, in one way or another, are like him. Methodical beasts with the same routines who don't give a shit about nothing irrelevant (for them) but their own little world. Living in society is hard, and some only choose to live like that because they have daily obligations.

Henry's the perfect character for this game because the story isn't even about him. The protagonist of the game, liking it or not, is Walter Sullivan. Henry is just the bridge that connects the story together but that bridge is not useless at all.

Henry and Walter, sometimes, are like mirrors.

[Aherd]

Yeah, that's why I hope there would be a sequel featuring henry(really liked his character ), something like him discovering himself maybe?LOL tho i doubt that will bring konami big bucks considering his popularity

[Tabris]

I've said this before in a different thread a while back about Henry.

But I do remember a long time ago, someone who was a part of making the game said that the reason Henry is the way he is to make him a somewhat neutral character. That way it's easier to place yourself into Henry's shoes as you play the game. It's basically a lot like Mephisto said above.

If it helps at all, think Chrono from Chrono Trigger. Just with dialogue and more character to him. It helps you 'become' the character. Which makes sense for a game like SH4 where the character you play isn't really the main character at all.

I wish I could find a reference to the specific article for this but I honestly have no idea where in the hell I read it. This is from at least 6-7 years ago now.

[Aherd]

If that's the case, I dare say that maybe they didn't completely achieve what they wanted? Seemingly there are still players(minority) who can relate to this character or had wished to have got to know more of him, due to the fact that he isn't 100% a neutral character, cause in game, he still shows emotions, however subtle they are, letting players think that they are still playing 'as' him and not playing "through" him? Maybe that customizing thing BoM has would work quite well hereLOL
On another note, dont u think that it'll make more sense. had the game designers wished for the player to be in the shoes of the character, to provide more alternatives for players to choose from(if that were possible, considering the story and gameplay is quite linear)?
The bottom line is, regardless of what the designers originally intended, the outcome is that henry is still a character that has personality, or to some people, the vaguest hint of one, and sadly, SH4 isn't about him.(Sequel!)
Anyway, I never bought that neutral character thing(iv also read it somewhere before), i've always found it quite easy to place myself in all protagonists shoes since SH 1, and isn't that kind of the point of playing games of this sort anyway?XD

[Dr-G0nz0]

I always took it that Henry was a bland character to drive your interest more in Walter and the 21 Sacrements.

Henry was just an unlucky guy. It was never about Henry in this game --where as the other games, minus Sh 1, were centered around the protagonist-- he was just some normal guy who happens to be living in room 302 when all the shit goes down.

Just my take on him anyway. Because all the other characters in "The Room" have very interesting back stories. I dunno if that's what they were going for, but it is kind of like an RPG game where you play the nameless hero.

[mikefile]

I always took it that Henry was a bland character to drive your interest more in Walter and the 21 Sacrements.

That and the fact that Henry, in its own way is in fact the innovatively interesting character, that is conceived as emotionless and empty.

Yes, circumstances depict him as a neutral bystander that randomly enteres in a shitload storm, however, his emptiness has an important function in the plot, as do the other vics. They do revolve around Walter, but all of them were chosen for a solid reason. Henry's character perfectly depicts Walter's frustration of how an emotional retard spends his loneliness in the most very sacred place to Walter.

About the randomness thing, it's not that simple to answer. All of the victims have a specific theme that fits their character. However, one can say that Walter was practically finding random people and assigning them themes that would apply to them the most significantly. The Holy Scriptures kind of screw this thinking. Nevertheless, it's very likely that if Walter had found different people, he would still find a way to labelize them according to the interpretation of the ritual.