Silent Hill (Spoilers, All Series)

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Unfortunately, in the most devastating bedshitting of these games yet, equivalent to a man explosively defecating down both his pants legs immediately after shaking his intended father-in-law's hand, they went with a multiple-choice protagonist. What the FUCK

Hey kids! Is Murphy

1) Jesus
2) Kinda ok I guess
3) Bit of a dick tbh
4) Hitler

???

Mind-blowing. How the fuck? A character study without a character. Oof.

It's interesting that you bring this up as a failing of Downpour, because I've always thought this was something Silent Hill 2 did very well. In my mind, the ending you get in a given playthrough of that game retroactively informs James's character - so it's not just that your choices as a player (the actions that determine your ending, like remaining at high health or inspecting the hospital diary or etc.) impact James's mindset over the course of the game, but that the narrative is that a Leave ending James was always predisposed to staying alive no matter what, and an In Water James was prepared to die from the start. And I think this even ties back into his killing of Mary - of course that in particular is a complicated matter with no single motivation behind it in any route, but I tend to think that a Leave ending James may have primarily wanted to end Mary's suffering, whereas a Maria ending James may have been looking for a way to end their relationship as quickly as possible.

At least, I've always liked to read each ending as a reveal of that route's particular driving force behind James. Regardless I'm sure Downpour handles the matter far less deftly and doesn't see its different protagonist outcomes fit together anywhere near as coherently or cohesively as SH2's.

[BIL]

In dramatic terms, I would say consistency is the critical distinction. SH2's four endings illuminate facets of a consistent character; a man at the crossroads. James's demonstrable will to overcome ("Leave") doesn't obviate his equally vivid desire to lay down and sleep ("In Water") - nor his yearning for happier times ("Maria"), or the willfully insane desperation driving this entire ordeal ("Rebirth").

Mechanically, the difference is yet starker; the player inhabits James at especially fine distance. Try fleeing Pyramid Head, or Flesh Lips, as James himself terrifiedly attempts to, before grimly steeling himself. No dice; as the man himself just demonstrated, the doors are locked tight. Try leaving Angela to die - that door is obligingly, conspicuously open. No dice; James himself will rebuff the heartlessness you've sent floating up from his subconsciousness. Similar awaits if you try to leave Wood Side apartments for items you might've missed. Jimmy doesn't care about that shit, and will tell you.

Or try averting "Rebirth," having collected its precursors - again, impossible. The only escape is to leave those eldritch temptations where James visibly notices them, much like he declines a self-admittedly longed-for drink at Heaven's Night. We can't force James to break character, and just as importantly, we are never asked to. We can only nudge him towards certain outcomes, consistently well-premised. Absent a degree of delegated authorial control, we're far more stagehand than playwright, as we should be.

Cumulatively, SH2 provides a perceptive, well-rounded character study... and Downpour, a promising seed that, rather than blooming under similarly considered light and tending, rots away into a bad Choose Your Own Adventure. Murphy, simply put, has no character to study. They cannot ask us to examine a remorseful vigilante and grieving parent one moment, only to present us with an unrepentant multiple-murderer who killed the very child he'd previously mourned the next. What the Christ were they thinking?

(this is all pretty hilarious, now I write it down again... actually, I think you could make a really entertaining SH-esque around such a farcically inconsistent character. Something like Jimmy The Homicidal Maniac. "Well, you don't sound very happy to see me!" "S-sorry!" *click* "AIEEE!" *BANG*

Really play with the "Occupation: Protagonist" of SH2 manual legend He's the man of a thousand personas! )

By contrast, SH2 is notably very careful with James's character. A lifetime ago, on TEH FAQs (<3 still love those boards), someone argued the first Lying Figure encounter confirms James's taste for murder. "He sees a strange thing, and his first response? To grab a 2x4 and beat it to death!" That's not what happens. James sees a strange thing looming over a dead body, steps back in fright, and arms himself. Wisely, as it turns out - because if you don't exercise your neurokinetic privileges, James's corpse will be joining the other one shortly!

Another argued the second (or third? or fourth? does it matter?) Pyramid Head "represents James's guilt for killing Eddie." Why would James be busted up over defending himself from an armed maniac, one he'd done everything in his power to save from his own idiocy? James grieved momentarily, yes - his compassionate side is well-established by this point - then moved on. Eddie receives pointedly zero attention thereafter; utterly nil. When something is eating at James - as so many things are - they're shown, without exception. Furthermore... why would the writers cheapen things so, by casting Mary and Eddie's killings in the same light? That's horrendously unfair and cruel, and trivialising. "I did something horrendous. Unforgivable. It's destroying me." "What was it...?" "I narrowly survived a death match with a crazed mass murderer who'd barely missed blowing my brains out in an unprovoked attack a second earlier. Also I killed my wife lmao."

Fortunately, they did nothing so ham-handed. Unless PH owns a DeLorean, and also has an incredibly fucked-up opinion of self-defense.

A "fight," sir? /｀w´メ\ /｀w´メ\

Spoiler

Beg pardon, sir, this 'ere be an execution. /｀w´メ\ /｀w´メ\

Spoiler

Yet another said James cravenly left Maria to die in Brookhaven, confirming his selfishness, and damning "Leave's" remorse. I don't believe that's what is shown, at all. You can stay and fight to the end; he and Maria will both die, every time. Pyramid Head is unstoppable. What's more, you have to stay and fight until all hope is lost, on Hard Action - leaving Maria behind at any point during gameplay is a guaranteed Game Over. The only chance of survival is to reach the elevator with her by your side, which - because this is a literal living nightmare - brooks only one passenger. And James was still left floored with anguish, afterward. I think that whole sequence is a microcosm of James's powerlessness to halt Mary's sickness (again, something pointedly examined elsewhere; Lakeview reading room). At any rate, scarpering isn't an option, any more than it is versus Abstract Daddy.

Against this level of craftsmanship... the sad thing about Downpour, as always with SH outsources, is that kernel of quality. A repentless-yet-sympathetic avenger who'd laugh off the now dog-tired notion of MUH GUILTY PAST - "Yeah, I killed him. I enjoyed killing him. I'd kill him again, and again, and again. Suck me dry, you preachy spooks." *2xMiddlefingers + Eat Pussy Sign* - with a tragically complicating factor - a good man died facilitating that vengeance - is a dynamite concept! Killer! Do it naooo!

Then, they shat the bed so fundamentally, the house was condemned, and the foundations needed tearing up, because shit pours downhill, and gets into everything. 3;

As Roo says, Homecoming is very nearly as idiotic. After several hours of disgusted grimacing ("OHOHOHOOO! DRILL TO THA FAEC, BEEYATCH"), I actually burst out laughing at Alex's milquetoast, box-ticking "I'm sorry, buddy - I forgot!" SH2's premise was not original - "When a man loves a woman, and kills her" - but it was executed with pathos and intensity. A man's self-inflicted nightmare charade of guilt, denial, and despair, neuroses dragging at him from all directions, until his final exhausted collapse. It's a glimpse of the human heart's incredible capacity to wage war on itself; redemptive, in its own troubled way. "I forgot?" Is that what these assclowns took from it? Why even bother, outside of the shallowest M. Night ShamaLamaDingDongism?

Again, I suppose the outsources can at least be unintentionally hilarious. Not intentionally, the way the KCET four often can be, but it's better than nothing!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

A lifetime ago, on TEH FAQs (<3 still love those boards), someone argued the first Lying Figure encounter confirms James's taste for murder.

Another argued the second (or third? or fourth? does it matter?) Pyramid Head "represents James's guilt for killing Eddie."

Yet another said James cravenly left Maria to die in Brookhaven, confirming his selfishness, and damning "Leave's" remorse.

Were these people blind or something? I feel like a lot of people who love to write long essays about plot theories disregard the actual plot itself and don't actually refer back to the game script nearly enough when they're coming up with this stuff or backing up their theories. The Lying Figure encounter is easy to explain; he's already been explicitly warned by Angela that the town is dangerous, and soon after he encounters a dead body and a strange creature looming over the body that's now advancing on him. His reaction to defend himself isn't surprising (and the fact that you can't just flee is just the game giving you an easy enemy as a tutorial fight).

James is shocked and feels bad about having to kill Eddie, but it's the kind of "how did it come to this" shock when you're forced to kill someone in self-defense. Ending a human life can be brutal, even if you did it to save yourself, but as far as the town's concerned I'm safe to say it's not going to punish self-defense. Pyramid Head appears many times long before Eddie even appears, and during the last encounter James explicitly states that he realizes Pyramid Head(s) are there to represent his guilt and punish him (with respect to Mary, given he's just realized he's been denial about having killed her).

We already know from the first fight and even the last fight that James can't actually kill Pyramid Head (even if they decide to off themselves after taking enough damage) so the hospital run in the basement is by no means an attempt at abandonment of Maria unless your interpretation's just straight-up delusional.

I did learn something interesting in a discussion recently; apparently the opening move shows Eddie and Laura beside a white van while looking at a map, and it's just something that's never registered with me. It suggests Laura hitched a ride with Eddie into town (maybe the white van at the start is his?), which makes more sense than a little girl managing to hike into town alone or having been there the whole time despite the town being desolate.

[BIL]

Were these people blind or something? I feel like a lot of people who love to write long essays about plot theories disregard the actual plot itself and don't actually refer back to the game script nearly enough when they're coming up with this stuff or backing up their theories.

Yeah, I noticed that a lot back then; a consistent failure to engage with the material itself. Homie #1 would write a book, then get leg-swept by Homie #2's savage game script CTRL+V. It's by no means limited to SH, or even gaming, ofc; any time a work is significantly detailed yet popular enough, people jump in to willy-wave.

And to theorycraft, ofc. FromSoft has a whole cottage industry of those guys. I started finding the SH/MGS theorybros a bit exhausting around the time I got back into arcade, and eventually console action gaming, in the late 2000s. Fun in short bursts, but I remember this one dude going balls-out trying to "prove" that SH1-3's radios work because "somewhere in town is a radio station, broadcasting only silence, which the monsters' presence interferes with, causing static." I asked him WTF he was on about and he got really defensive, come to think of it I bet some of these posts are still there.

Speaking of, I loved seeing Masahiro Ito reply with authentic Japanese politeness to someone a while back, regarding the symbolism of SH3's Numb Bodies (so cute! ^w^ well, the little ones! the big ones still make me wanna die D:) - "They're just creatures; sorry!" I never liked the idea that SH had to fit this rigid, all-consuming grid. Sometimes, especially in surreal horror, it's good to just leave things be. I've a personal theory that SH1-3's nurses follow a matronly/sleazy/cute pattern based on Alessa, James, and Heather's respective POVs, re: femininity (a hapless little girl; a grown-ass and unfortunately blue-balled man; a young image-conscious teenager), but the fuck do I know. They're creepy woman monsters. Japan has an entire library full of those.

We already know from the first fight and even the last fight that James can't actually kill Pyramid Head (even if they decide to off themselves after taking enough damage) so the hospital run in the basement is by no means an attempt at abandonment of Maria unless your interpretation's just straight-up delusional.

I like to think Hard Action (and XTRA Riddle) is the canonical game, so it's especially funny knowing that if the player does hightail it, it's an instant trip back to the title screen.

I'm guessing none of these jokers ever had to run for a closing lift. I always found you just stick your hand in and boof, it'll obligingly wait... I know in that single-file corridor, with the fucking Terminator hot on me and wifey's heels, I'd be thinking "Yeah imma haul ass, whatever happens, if that elevator leaves we're mahfuckin dogfood."

Maybe they were used to those "Silent Hill IRL" Chinese elevators. Maybe my faith in elevator safety mechanisms is foolhardy. 3:

re: your previous post (sorry I didn't reply sooner; was caning it on GNGR's final stretch last night), I am so glad someone else played Homecoming in detail before critiquing it. I used to run into so many apologists who'd call me a bandwagoner, then I'd aykshually them into next Christmas with muh hard-won deets. It's such an unfortunate game... after SH1/3/4's cycle, a new story from the POV of a fallen cult might've been astounding.

It's more like one very strong idea (the families), one okayish one (dissociative identity), and one so bad it made me howl with laughter (I FORGOT D: D: D:).

SH1's characters are introduced and interacted with much more believably, such as with Lisa's final scene, or where Cybil has been turned into a parasite host. The closest SH2 has to such a thing is with Laura, where she locks you in the hospital basement and a boss battle ensues. James makes no comment on this event to Laura when much later he finds her in the hotel, but at that point he's seen Maria die multiple times. It's clear supernatural stuff is going on that's tied to the characters' respective pasts, and it's much more plausible that James works out that Laura literally doesn't see any monsters (or he's too focused on meeting Mary in the hotel when he meets up with Laura again to comment on her having locked him in a room where monsters tried to kill him).

I've always adored that reunion with Laura; there's this wonderful contrast between their respective worlds, not just as characters, but simply as a taciturn adult and a headstrong child. James is audibly tiring a bit, fresh from his most punishing ordeal yet. Laura is likewise, after that long walk (especially for a small child) from Nathan Avenue to the Lakeview, along that same road where James found only an obliterated chasm.

It's like a weary adult and child, neither especially fond of the other, driving home at the end of their respective work/schooldays too tired to argue, and instead getting along for a bit. James isn't mad about Fartfacegate, and Laura isn't sorry anyway.

The writing is cleverly done, too; giving quite a bit of info on the story and the town itself, without ever going off-tone into mystique-killing exposition. Attempting to follow Laura out of the room after, only to face the single most unnerving ambush yet, is also a killer return to James's infinitely darker world. I generally consider KCET's "I met someone in a room, then they walked out" model a minor Achilles, but they played that one beautifully. I jumped at the piano, too!

I did learn something interesting in a discussion recently; apparently the opening move shows Eddie and Laura beside a white van while looking at a map, and it's just something that's never registered with me. It suggests Laura hitched a ride with Eddie into town (maybe the white van at the start is his?), which makes more sense than a little girl managing to hike into town alone or having been there the whole time despite the town being desolate.

That's the one I've always gone with, and although it's been several years... I think it's actually confirmed in the Lost Memories mook. Which, while not a primary source, has tons and tons of commentary direct from Owaku, Ito, Sato, and other key personnel (like Yamaoka, who I'm not very happy with these days lovable goof, but goddamn, I hope he defers to the aforementioned, should the band ever get back together).

Another I wonder about is the closing shot, of Laura hesitantly entering a doorway, seeming to recognise somemone inside, and happily bounding in. I seem to recall that, too, is confirmed in LM, as a scene from she and Mary's time in hospital. Might be headcanoning there, otherwise.

What talents KCET were, at any rate. They had a consummate sense of what to state, what to imply, and what to leave unaddressed... even the truly shortchanged SH4, which I started out openly contemptuous of BITD, has matured well, I think. That's always a two-way street, of course; a lot of things they published only on the game's website, that made me go "Aaagh! The fuck were they thinking, leaving that out?!" back then are more like "Eh ok nice, RIP creepy ghost people" nowadays.

[BryanM]

Ugh, everytime someone posts here I'm reminded of Silent Hills. And by proxy, the many many other franchises Konami has killed over the years:

* Tokimeki. Two groundbreaking titles. An absolute stinker of a third. An average fourth. You've probably already seen this video a thousand times, explaining its appeal.

* Dracula Murder Simulator.

* I kind of feel like the jumpy-shooty game could have lasted longer and been bigger than it was, somehow.

* Metal Stuff.

Add your own dead game franchise to build up the "fuck konami" energy.

The only franchise I know that's still alive is Power Pros baseball, and apparently had a well received release in recentish times? Is there... is there anyone else that's alive?

[BIL]

Power Pro, and I think Winning Eleven (FOOTEH/soccer) and... what was their horse racing franchise? I think those are the only ones left standing. 3:

And y'know, good on 'em. The little Power Pro dude makes me smile, he's an OG. ISS/W11/PES almost is too, come to think of it (1995 iirc). The horse game I seem to recall having some roots, too.

No illusions about Konami ever doing anything for the likes of us anymore, but eh. Small comforts.

I have to say, Capcom have been killing it, the last four years or so. DMC5 and GNGR and RE2make are as good as anything they did back in the 80s/00s glory days. I'd love to see Konami similarly revived, but as my ol' KCE Hawaii buddy used to say BITD, the rot had set in as early as 2003. Beancounters took over, and everything died, or became pachinko. Doesn't bear thinking about really. 3;

[BryanM]

Huh, I do remember that the pachinko business was doing poorly, but looks like it's going a lot worse than I or the MBA swine expected...

Silent Hill f was announced a few months ago, apparently. The When They Cry guy as the writer doesn't seem like quite the right vibe, especially after seeing "Unlike previous games in the series, it is not being set in the titular town, but in 1960s rural Japan."

For some reason I think I heard all about this, but then promptly forgot all about it.

Eh well, probably won't be the worst game to hold the name.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

[I like to think Hard Action (and XTRA Riddle) is the canonical game, so it's especially funny knowing that if the player does hightail it, it's an instant trip back to the title screen.

Yeah, Pyramid Head does NOT fuck around in Hard Action and will straight-up kill Maria unless you're actively shooting him (or poking with the pipe?) to damage him and slow him down. But then if Maria gets in between you and him when you're aiming... X_x

It's almost as brutal as the boat ride is? 10 star ranking that sucks cuz of the controls. :V

I am so glad someone else played Homecoming in detail before critiquing it.

I really did want to like it. The environments and bosses and whatnot are interesting enough, and the melee combat's decent enough (even if 99% of the time you'll be using the knife as it's really damn good) but the NPC interactions just don't feel believable, and a lot of the themes feel like they're trying to tell the player "hey remember SH2, it's just like that! you're an amnesiac and the town's punishing all the bad folks~" but it's just not executed as well. I do like that they tried to focus more on the occult aspect of the town as SH 1, 3 and 4 did though (the occult aspects from the first game are mostly ignored in SH2 aside from the NG+ Rebirth ending).

The game also doesn't handle inverted aiming properly. If you invert the Y axis, it inverts it for the general camera movement, but NOT when you've got your gun raised, so god help a player who's used to playing with inverted/airplane style aiming.

[BIL]

Silent Hill f was announced a few months ago, apparently. The When They Cry guy as the writer doesn't seem like quite the right vibe, especially after seeing "Unlike previous games in the series, it is not being set in the titular town, but in 1960s rural Japan."

For some reason I think I heard all about this, but then promptly forgot all about it.

Eh well, probably won't be the worst game to hold the name.

Oh, I remember hearing that and going "hm." Higurashi (as weeb friends called it back in the late 00s) never sounded all that interesting to me.

Actually it sounded PRETTY FUCKEN WEEB TBQH (■｀w´■) But! If it means a new SH developed in its home territory, I won't complain. 3; I've no illusions of it guaranteeing a better result than the last two decades of cut-price outsourcings to Great Value Screensaver Co of West Buttfuck (and their equally august competitors, Terry's Cut-Price Webpages of North RumpyPumpyshire). It might be utter shite! But it at least promises a bit of that old East/West dissonance.

Or does it. Set in 60s Japan, huh. Are you trying to sell more books, Higurashi bro? >_>

I heard Toyama was looking at a new horror project, a few years back. I'm far past the point of actively following these things, though. If it falls through = pain 3; If something good happens = well isn't this nice lmao :3

[I like to think Hard Action (and XTRA Riddle) is the canonical game, so it's especially funny knowing that if the player does hightail it, it's an instant trip back to the title screen.

Yeah, Pyramid Head does NOT fuck around in Hard Action and will straight-up kill Maria unless you're actively shooting him (or poking with the pipe?) to damage him and slow him down. But then if Maria gets in between you and him when you're aiming... X_x

It's almost as brutal as the boat ride is? 10 star ranking that sucks cuz of the controls. :V

I'm not sure if it's ten star-worthy (might be a bit slow, or mess with the shot/fought ranks), but I was able to get the Hard Action Brookhaven escape down to a reliable process, having heard ahead of time how unforgiving it is (was worried about it harshing my revisit mellow ).

First, reload the handgun before you enter the corridor, full clip ready to go. Once you're into the setpiece - the long shot that sees PH emerge from around the corner, to his bloodcurdling ring entrance BGM - double back and get right up in his face, so Maria can't Clint Eastwood her way into your line of fire. Contact-dump the clip straight into his fuckin face, counting down so you don't get caught in the reload animation. PH will be stunlocked during the shots, which sound rad plinking off his face, and left temporarily without his terrifying Hard Action hyper-trudge. Haul ass away after the last shot, don't reload.

It's been a few years, so I forget the path's layout, but you're now good to move to the next corner - maybe even two corners at a time. At any rate, get far enough ahead that Maria follows you out of PH's striking range (my dog is the same way! want him to come in the house? jackass will sit there panting at you all day if you don't go in first!). Get in front of her again, reload while you wait for PH to come around, get pointblank and hammer him again, etc. Nails a difficulty spike in an otherwise chillaxing Terror Horror affair reet down.

I never knew WTF I was doing in the Lake Toluca Solo Classic, but at least you can't drown. Ahh, fuck, what a killer stygian scene. Right down to the "PERSONS PROCURING OR CONCEALING ESCAPE OF PRISONERS" warning on the... whatever the fuck is behind James at that moment. I remember the sublime "Wait. What?" bathos of escaping the Abyss like it was yesterday.

I am so glad someone else played Homecoming in detail before critiquing it.

I really did want to like it. The environments and bosses and whatnot are interesting enough, and the melee combat's decent enough (even if 99% of the time you'll be using the knife as it's really damn good) but the NPC interactions just don't feel believable, and a lot of the themes feel like they're trying to tell the player "hey remember SH2, it's just like that! you're an amnesiac and the town's punishing all the bad folks~" but it's just not executed as well. I do like that they tried to focus more on the occult aspect of the town as SH 1, 3 and 4 did though (the occult aspects from the first game are mostly ignored in SH2 aside from the NG+ Rebirth ending).

I like to think of SH1 and SH2 as improbably perfect companion pieces; "Worlds of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life" (quoth Harry), seen from the third and first-person, respectively. "Improbable," as director Keiichiro Toyama left KCET after SH1. But given Hiroyuki Owaku (enemy & event programmer), Takayoshi Sato (CG), Masahiro Ito (art lead), and even lovable shitbird Yamaoka (audio, Rob Halford cosplay) were all intimately involved in developing SH1, before going on to head up SH2, I don't think it's much of a leap.

With SH2 establishing a much older, larger enigma, I think you could compellingly portray SH1's cult cycle as not uniquely supernatural; just another tale of human folly, unnervingly reified. With one stark exception, SH1 tells nothing of the town itself not related to Alessa. The drug trade, the unexplained deaths of local authorities, the ritual burning... taken alone, this could be read as Carrie meets Prince of Darkness, on the scale of The Mist. Abused psychic girl plunges hometown into the abyss, trying to contain its evil deity she's doomed to birth.

That exception is White Claudia, precursor of tourist favourite PTV, which unifies Alessa, Walter, and even James. Those hefty tomes Jimmy finds, and even the dread Darkness Bong, are useless without a strong hit of White Chrism. Jimmy even finds the Crimson Tome in the Lakeview's reading room, mirroring the chapel library where Heather (packing her own endgame-critical WC gear) finds On Syncretic Religions; storehouses of white settler knowledge.

[White Claudia]
Ancient records show it was used for religious ceremonies.
The hallucinogenic effect was key.

What I like about this model is, SH1/3/4's human element - the fanaticism, the megalomania, the atrocities in service of, along with Alessa, Heather, and Walter's plights - is untouched. That stuff is real as all hell. It's merely a neat reconciling of Heather's musing to Douglas, "I guess it wasn't much of a 'God' if it could be killed by a human being." Harry did indeed kill the thing Dahlia revered (and her daughter dreaded, attempting to murder-suicide Heather rather than risk its escape) as "God." He shot it repeatedly in the face while avoiding its flamey flames that PWNed Dahlia, and it fell over and dieded. I think it was just another monster - a particularly odious and resilient one, as real-life Gods so often are - birthed from the great Whatever that caused the area's previous occupants to steer clear.

(the old "Injun burial ground! Bwaaa!" thing is a lot cooler taken as a non-denominational "This place makes weird and dangerous shit happen, kids! Stay the fuck out, before you bring Meat With Teeth - or even Hooker Who Looks Like Mom, how will I explain that shit - down on us all! Ohshi, it's whitey with guns and blankets. Hey waitaminute, whitey! Don't build your prison camp there! Ahh fuck" imo)

It also grounds a necessarily videogamey aspect - God getting blown away like Enemy Crime Boss - into the only marginally less farcical domain of human endeavour. Jimmy's Pyramid Heads cannot be Smith & Wessoned away like Dahlia's God. They will, however, obediently go away, if Jimmy's pesky Eros can surpass the looming Thanatos that summoned them; SH2 being a struggle of human will not against another, but itself.

I generally don't subscribe to this extent, myself. I always thought "God" was dogma incarnate, but I take Alessa and Walter's paranormal abilities as flatly "real," in-universe. But given how consistent the backstory of "abused children dosed with peyote in the pursuit of Miss Cleo powers" is, and how seamlessly it jives with SH2, it's something I increasingly like to entertain. Maybe Alessa could "kill people with her mind" not out of some unique power; just the resonating of Whatever with the universally-recognisable longings of an abused child.

Clawing At The Veil.mp3（＾w´ ）

Spoiler

This is what I wish Homecoming had capitalised on; cult as family. A strong writer could conjure moving horror/drama for days out of that concept. They just didn't have the raw minerals, apparently. I'm sure cash wasn't abundant, either. Plus, they were wasting time with a B plot of far less innate oomph, and a C plot that blows back over the whole production, most foully, like a dog farting in front of the television. 3;

Actually, fuck, speaking of White Claudia and other psychotropics, there's the lesser-feted companion piece to Fukuro aka Pyramid Head's Sex Tape, [url=hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_WuZGtYbXo]Kinoko[/url] ("Mushroom"). Hm. And "Overdose Delusion," which I'm linking here because it's fukken RAWK. Reminds me of why everyone loves Yamaoka.

[NYN]

Praise be blackoak and his works.

Maybe the first (of more) on the lations?

Clawing At The Veil.mp3（＾w´ ）

Spoiler

The DOG pun is still so funny that I'll use it further, just like to point how I love that the earphones hold no sense. Even more than the giant "C.O.M.P.U.T.E.R."!
Or that the mutt could operate it. Or the use of the tissue box? Just make it the one true ending, please.

[BryanM]

Don't be silly. They don't make earphones for dogs. They're very functional.