More than anything, I associate Silent Hill 2 with anxious melancholy. It's a game associated with fear, self-hatred, guilt, and a lot of other things that I don't necessarily disagree with but never feel anywhere near as resonant to what the whole of this game is. It's empathetic more than it wants to condemn these people, even despite the cruelty of most of their fates. The use of atmosphere and environment here for storytelling is a level above and beyond what you normally get to see. Environmental storytelling is a popular concept, but rather than just find things in the world that tell you the story, the world itself also is the story. The way the town appears, the way rooms become sickly and infested, and the way characters specific spaces reflect their own traumas. Silent Hill doesn't judge these people, it simply reflects them, you begin staring into a mirror, and you never really stop.

Gave me at least 5 things to cry about. Like a fever dream of everything that makes someone spend their entire life dedicated to a world and it's characters. A swirl of endless amounts of fanart and fanfiction and "what if they all got along and everyone was happy" thoughts for the rest of the time you remember it exists. Everyone is so loved here, the cast feels so god damn real and human and alive. The best main antagonist in the game so far and one of the best in the series. If we can't save them, we can't forget them.

The "stumbling block" of the game but not at all a bad time. There's a lot of really genuinely excellent moments here and some gorgeous areas supplemented by the biggest ensemble cast so far. I was way more invested in Doma than Ala Migho (especially as a ninja player) but I grew to love bits of each. Lyse as the principal character is very one note and disappointing but instead we get a vehicle for Alisaie and the like to come into their own a little more, which is wonderful. The music gets insane here as well. The dungeon boss theme gets stuck in my head all the time