TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Everything we know - and don't know, I guess - about all those Silent Hill rumours.

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jdnation
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

Sony's CES conference for PSVR is happening on Jan 4th at 8pm EST. If there is a VR game in the works then maybe we'll know soon.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by leftshoe18 »

If Short Message is a VR game hopefully it's not only a VR game. I don't have PSVR (and don't know if I can justify getting one at the moment lol).
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Alexius Corvinus »

How long can Konami wait before SH: The Short Message releases given that it was already rated by two ratings boards?
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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The answer may shock you!
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
I can see it with eyes closed
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Dead as far as the mind goes
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jdnation
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

CES: Nope, nothing... Heck they barely showed anything for anything else outside of Gran Turismo.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Alexius Corvinus »

Droo wrote: 05 Jan 2023 The answer may shock you!
If the answer to when this game might be shown is never, then consider me not shocked.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Alexius Corvinus »

I think the three unannounced Silent Hill games in development might be a sequel to Townfall, a Silent Hill 1 Remake, and a Konami in house mainline game following f. This unknown game could be even more closely related to the Short Message as a full blown game.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Droo »

If they're going to remake another game I'd rather it be 4. The game gas not aged well and I'd like to see Henry be given an actual personality.
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
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jdnation
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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It's more probable that they will aim to remake 1 and 3 first. Then 4, which yes, could do with a lot of improvements in terms of gameplay.

We could see ports of Homecoming and Downpour and Shattered memories as well for a quick buck. Likely digital-only.

Nobody knows if they'll remember 0/Origins. Book of Memories will likely die forever on Vita.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Mike Enslin »

Alexius Corvinus wrote: 14 Jan 2023I think the three unannounced Silent Hill games in development might be a sequel to Townfall, a Silent Hill 1 Remake, and a Konami in house mainline game following f. This unknown game could be even more closely related to the Short Message as a full blown game.
Annapurna are producing/co-producing multiple SH games. The game called Townfall was called Silent Hill Short Stories #1 in the leaked slide talking about Silent Hill 2. I'm sure there are other plans, but the Annapurna thing is a multi-game arrangement by various studios, of which Townfall is the first.

As for other remakes, I wouldn't count on Konami being super into remaking SH games. I know this is a bit of a touchy subject, but Silent Hill 2 being remade dovetails with Christophe Gans adapting Silent Hill 2 into a film. Silent Hill 1 was already remade as Shattered Memories, and adapted into a film back in 2006. Think about it. They're not going to make another film adaptation of SH1, nor SH3 (which was adapted into Revelation, which they seem to be ignoring) -- there's nothing indicating any interest in that direction.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Jonipoon »

While Christophe Gans certainly put the ball rolling, I don't think Konami were interested in remaking Silent Hill 2 in any way or capacity until they saw Capcom's huge success with the Resident Evil 2 remake.
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jdnation
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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If SH2 Remake does well, Konami will certainly be interested in having Bloober or anyone else remake 1 & 3 and 4. For one thing it would be cheaper and more straight-forward as a cash-grab.

There was an old leaker saying that Sony may have a 3rd Party State of Play or something soon. This began rumors of that MGS3 remake once again. But in any case, 3rd party may mean more SH content and possibly even knowing what The Short Message is, which could be another free 'demo' to capitalize on PT's success and help solve the PS5's exclusive-game drought for a bit.
Last edited by jdnation on 17 Jan 2023, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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>If SH2 Remake does well, Konami will certainly be interested in having Bloober or anyone else remake 1 & 3 and 4.

Oh, they most certainly will, but I could see them skipping 1 entirely, to be honest. I mean I love the first game, it's by far my favorite in the series, but it certainly stands out with all of its multiple layers and sideplots that are intentionally put there to mess with your head and question what is real and not. They threw a lot of concepts at the wall with the first game to see what would stick, and it wasn't until 2 and 3 that they perfected the world and lore of Silent Hill. That's the beauty of the first game though.

In many ways, Silent Hill 1 feels like watching an episode of Twin Peaks. It's bizarre, mysterious, and you're constantly trying to find out what's going on. Is everyone on drugs? Are they all stuck in a mental hospital? Are the aliens behind it all? Or is it all just a dream taking place inside Harry's head after he crashed the car and started to bleed out?

Of course, once we got to Silent Hill 2 & 3 the events of the first game started to make perfect sense in the established universe. But the game itself remains unchanged in its original form, and none of the other games is more "all over the place" than Silent Hill 1. I guess what I mean to say is that in order to remake 1 you as a developer would have to make a decision; either keep the weirdness of the original intact at the risk of confusing the audience, or change it up and tell a more straight-forward story at the cost of losing the original's uniqueness.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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On the contrary, I'd say SH1 is dated and small enough in it's design and story that it could be relatively cheaply done and highly profitable even as a low seller or budget priced title to be worth it.

Also if they wanted, there is a LOT more room for a new team to get creative and reimagine the environments and even story beats and cinematics without breaking anything. SH2, 3 & 4 are well regarded for their art direction. SH1 is not in the same league, even amongst fans. Remaking it would be the least controversial of the lot. They could also extend replay value by taking a page from Nier and have new content strictly on routes played through as Cybil and Kaufman. Since the monsters and Otherworldare all Alessa's projections, everyone would be seeing the same Silent Hill. So you can maintain the canonical route on Harry's.

It would also make sense before doing 3, which is the second most popular, but relies on SH1's story.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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How could you even suggest for it to be made cheaply as a budget title? Kind of disgraceful to its legacy.

For sure, Silent Hill is dated, but so is Silent Hill 2 if you compare it to modern technology. Okamoto even said so himself in that recent interview with IGN, where he acknowledged that Bloober Team have reimagined the environments quite a bit while still keeping the original essence.

However, the environments and the art direction is of least concern in terms of remaking Silent Hill. What needs to be taken with the uttermost care is the story, lore and dialogue. It has to be simplified and made more straight-forward, but not at the cost of losing the original's bizarre "Twin Peaky" atmosphere.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

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> SH2, 3 & 4 are well regarded for their art direction. SH1 is not in the same league, even amongst fans.

This is false. SH1's art direction is what makes it one of the best-looking PS1 games. There are so many indie horror games that try to copy SH1's art style and direction that I honestly don't know how you can think it's not well-regarded in that department.

> It would also make sense before doing 3, which is the second most popular, but relies on SH1's story.

Silent Hill 1 is the second most popular. It's the only game in the series besides SH2 to get a Greatest Hits release because none of the others were very big hits. SH3 was definitely more popular than the games that came after it but SH1 and SH2 are the series's peak in terms of popularity.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by jdnation »

A few clarifications.

At the time of release SH1 was impressive for a PSOne title in terms of art direction. I agree on that. But in terms of today for new audiences with no nostalgia for the PSOne, it doesn't hold up as well as the PS2 entries. Not to mention a number of other titles that were inspired by it.

You can still impress people today with the PS2 games. SH1, not so much. That doesn't mean it can't be appreciated in it's original format and understanding the limits of the technology back then. But people would be more impressed and less critical with remaking it versus SH2. This is the context I'm referring to.

SH1 can benefit from the same improvement that Resident Evil 1 got from the Gamecube Remake. It benefits more than the PS2 remakes would.

The more abstract nature of SH1's PSOne graphics, a product of its time, leaves more leeway to 'interpret' environmental details in a remake, just like RE1 accomplished. Faithfully maintaining the layouts of the original but with significant new detail. I'd say it even improved upon the original. Nonetheless, I agree that SH1 is more artistically auteur than RE1 in it's more deliberate style.

SH1 getting new details would be less concerning than the PS2 games precisely because the PS2 games are already more detailed and people want that preserved.

The Lynchian feel can also be maintained even with more detailed photoreal environments and full body motion capture. Lynch did make live action movies after all.

When I said remaking SH1 would be cheaper, I mean in terms of scope. Not that it shouldn't receive the level of care and detail that SH2 is getting. SH1 has fewer environments than the PS2 games for a start. Places like Nowhere can comfortably take advantage of asset reuse. The Otherworld's supernatural darkness can obscure the horizon. Basically all the shortcuts that the original game was conceived in to make up for graphical shortcomings on PSOne also work here. Of course, all this is assuming they stick closely to the level design and layout of the original.

In terms of sales figures and popularity, this is not a 1:1 comparison. For example, the Metal Gear series:
MGS1- 7 million.
MGS2- 7 million.
MGS3- 4 million.

Even for SH:
SH1- 2 million.
SH2- 1 million.
SH3- 300,000

Now which of these game's entries are the most critically well received and universally considered the best of the series?

MGS3 and SH2.

Which ones are Konami remaking first?

MGS3 (rumored) and SH2.

Of course I am discounting the Twin Snakes Remake, but we may as well argue that Shattered Memories was a remake of SH1. The point is that for the current Konami new gen remake initiative, they have chosen the crital reception over sales. Because sales figures alone don't guarantee that the buyers loved your game enough to return for the sequel. It is complicated to parse. There is more competition for your dollar as time goes by and other factors such as exclusivity and console base size and marketing that don't reflect on the quality of the game itself.

But anecdotally, when I look into new streamers of SH games and discussion in general, it is the PS2 games more widely recognized than SH1. 2, 3 and 4 in that order. The simple reason is that they are more visually striking. It could also be an availability issue. But nonetheless, unless someone is determined to play them all in release order, most people go for the more universally recognized titles if they can't do them all. The first being 2. The next being 3 & 4, though many are recommended to play 1 before 3 if they can. Heck, there are even some who ended up liking 1 more than 2, to the surprise of their audiences' concensus. But the consensus is a thing and that is likely what Konami is considering in its decision making, and likely Sony too if they are involved in a 3rd party deal.

They'd likely want to make 3 first after 2, but the issue is that it is a direct sequel. Unless they decide to rewrite the story so that details from SH1 are incorporated into SH3 a lot more so that they needn't rely on ever remaking SH1. I hope they don't do that, but it is conceivable to remake both SH1 and 3 into a retelling as a single game. If SH2 sells extremely well, they could potentially do that.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Jonipoon »

^Silent Hill doesn't have fewer levels than Silent Hill 2, though:

1
Midwich Elementary School
Alchemilla Hospital
Sewers
Lakeside Amusement Park
Nowhere

2
Wood Side Apartments
Brookhaven Hospital
Prison/Labyrinth
Lakeview Hotel

And that's not counting smaller areas in both games, such as the lighthouse or Rosewater Park. But the first one is by no means a smaller game, it's actually pretty large.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by The Adversary »

I think what jdnation means is that, while there are more levels in SILENT HILL, some of them are repeated. The sewers are pretty much identical, and Nowhere is nearly a replica of Alchemilla Hospital, so recreating it in its entirely wouldn't be quite as tedious as possibly SILENT HILL 2.

At least that was my interpretation.

I think both games are pretty equal, location-wise, though the first game is arguably more explorative, especially considering that there are puzzles in the town itself (like finding the three keys, and the To School note, and Annie's Bar). James doesn't really have to do much of that.
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Re: TWO New SH Games In Development??? (New SH Game Rumours)

Post by Droo »

I did find it odd that they locked the Good endings behind randomly acquiring a liquid you have no reason to collect and expecting to stumble on explorable buildings you have no reason to suspect can be entered when almost the entire rest of the town buildings are locked.
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