In a 1999 developer interview. Keiichiro Toyama says “What is it that sets Silent Hill apart from other games? If I had to answer that question in a nutshell, it would be the atmosphere, which I suppose is vague and ambiguous. However, if you play the game, I think you will understand. Silent Hill is an orthodox game with no outlandish or innovative gameplay mechanics, but it is suffused with a unique atmosphere and mood, not only in its appearance but also in the story and sound.” - Director of Silent Hill 1(SH1).

I couldn’t help but come to the same conclusion as Toyama’s answer of ‘atmosphere’ as the final credits rolled in my blind playthrough of Silent Hill 1. The atmosphere permeates throughout my time running through the titular town full of dense fog. As I controlled the main character. Harry Mason. An everyman who has no special titles, or special powers, is neither rich nor an individual who has super connections of note. He is simply a regular dad desperately searching every house and street for any clue, to recover his missing daughter Cheryl after a car crash gone wrong. And so begins our journey, as he battles/evades otherworldly creatures all while unknowingly trying to survive in this horror-filled place.

Storywise, I found his journey to be a cross between safe storytelling mixed with a jigsaw puzzle. Looking back I can construct how the narrative is achieved by effectively omitting key details. By the time I had all the pieces, I could complete the ‘puzzle’ so to speak. In doing so I was treated to a relatively safe journey in regards to not throwing my suspension of disbelief into smithereens while spreading the plot breadcrumbs interesting enough to lure me further into the mystery. In spite of the slow threads in the beginning. Be that as it may, once I hit my stride in schools and hospitals my will to continue deepened further. Enabling me to question everything and everyone within the bounds of not delving too outside the box to conjure. The regular who, what, where, when, why whodunit. Kept my brain tingling for morsels of information to seek the answer to my relentless inquiries. And thankfully the ending I received satisfied me to a measure I cannot help but applaud for. Well at least for receiving the ‘G+’ ending. And while there are other endings I’ve seen on YouTube. The overarching narrative felt uncommonly used amongst the other horror games I've played thus far. I wish I could give more concrete examples, but that would inadvertently lose the magic and surprise.

The atmosphere toes the line between the unknown and frightening to an absurd, but realistic degree. As I traveled deeper into the mist surrounding the locations of Silent Hill. Taking inspiration from Stephen King's The Mist among other influences. And to its credit, the close draw distance to maximize fog nearly in our faces works cleverly to hide the technical limitations of the PS1 era. The missing inhabitants while replicating a small town out in the country oozes with mystery in a sort of “Will there be something?” is teased mercilessly. I enjoyed exploring to my delight and wasn’t scared too much despite the oppressive silence and lack of inhabitants. Instead, I found otherworldly creatures prowling the dead of the day. Hairless malformed dogs prowling the streets, as winged creatures fly indiscriminately above Mason’s head to claw at him. To the nurses and doctors who are out of their freaking mind looking like a zombie at times. I admit to being scared and simply ran away from these ghastly enemies. The dense fog adds to the intrigue with incessant questions in the back of my mind. “What's happening? Where is Cheryl? What should I do? Why is this happening? How can I survive? Am I dreaming? Is this real?” These questions and more will inevitably pop up as you stumble & struggle.

The struggle is real. As I cautiously checked for enemies in rotten corridors, clean hallways, and entering empty rooms splitting the real and unreal. Confusing me, yet a handy map can be found nearby upon entering a new location. Making backtracking painless. Allowing me to easily strengthen my will, admire the presentation and reference what I had already been to. The map updates as you explore making it a vital tool to utilize. Reinforced by how simple the mechanics are. Mason can run, walk, use guns, and melee weapons, and interact with objects in the environment. The radio too helps as a sort of sound radar for nearby enemies. Helping us to prepare for what's to come. As a result, no gimmicks or very innovative systems at work as Toyama stated above. Focusing on other elements brings the core strengths to the front and center for players to devour. Grayish mist compliments well with the dead air of the soundtrack while feeding breadcrumbs to the player early on to piece and make their deductions. It is fascinating if not slightly stressful since I am playing a survival horror game. Yet I wasn’t all too bothered by the gameplay formula.

Puzzles felt adequate without being too complex. The simple systems lend themselves again and again. Becoming cyclical as you progress further in new buildings without feeling like a drag. Encounter a mysterious item? Maybe we can use this later to open a door or slot into a mechanism to open a path. Hmm, bottle? Must be some liquid I need. Keys? Oh, a locked door I couldn’t enter before surely will this time. Every puzzle I found difficult had a nearby solution to help players give off clues to solve their current dilemma. And usually, they may connect to another component, solving a dilemma could be a key to finally removing an obstacle. Out of all the puzzles I encountered. Only one of them is incredibly difficult. This was the only time I felt compelled to check a walkthrough and once I found the solution I couldn’t help but smack myself silly. So here’s a helpful tip. Check your surroundings to make sure of any missing pieces, having a separate monitor or paper on hand to visualize text hints can offer a different point of view. There are puzzles here without a hint so visuals and any patterns as delicately as I can vaguely say will prove invaluable to the naked eye. Don’t overthink, sometimes the easiest and most gut feeling may prove to be the right one.

Combat I wasn't fighting every step of the way like tank controls. Instead I embraced the simple fighting system and abused them to my advantage. Harry can equip one weapon at a time. Utilizes a multitude of melee and ranged weaponry. From pipes to knives to a pistol, shotguns, etc. The armaments helped tremendously like a hammer and the shooting mechanics aren’t all too complicated due to the absence of a reticle. As long as you focus in the direction of the enemy. You can shoot them with extreme prejudice. And man does it feel good to lay them out on the floor and kick em when they're down. Go close to an enemy? Eat a full round from my shotgun. Enemy closing in? NOPE. Time to run in a zigzag and not look back. Dying in about one blow? Excuse me while I chug a kit and some bottles without a required animation to take effect. See several mobs? Yeah forget that, Ima run past them. Pick your battles, don’t fight everything, to conserve ammo.

Felt the resource collection and using my stockpile satisfactory. Supplies are spread throughout the town so you’ll have to do some exploring off the beaten path to see any health kits or bottles to replenish your vitality. I had a surplus of bullets and avoided combat where I could to save ammo. Didn’t need to heal every time, only when I needed to. I wasn’t hindered by any inventory limit, nor was there any sort of stamina meter. He does have a health meter once you enter the menu with a press of the button. Making the lack of any real user interface where you would traditionally see one noticeable, albeit not necessary to see. I didn’t find any major issues with finding resources.

I’ll talk more about this later, but for now, I'll praise the tank controls. The mechanic where you move the player is similar to the process of how a tank moves. And this is a process you’ll need to contend with throughout the entirety of a playthrough. Nevertheless, as I became more familiar with tank life(This was my first time experiencing the phenomenon.) I found it weirdly satisfying to look at the element from a different angle. The controls accentuate certain camera angles to invoke a sense of anxiety and unease. The combat adds to this which I didn’t mind at all considering the game doesn’t shout to the high heavens to play for the fighting module. This in turn creates anticipation and tension adding to the already unsettling atmosphere. So I like it. For adding depth to the combat and fleeing.

Honestly, this emphasizes cutscenes when they play by displaying different camera angles while the dialogue occurs. And boy do I have some good news. I’m surprised by how little text there is in the conversations. Thereby not slobbering players with text logs or lore logs. Though as a lore nut, I firmly believe as long as you have enough relative lore in hand it could prove beneficial. But that is neither here nor there. Words and phrases are used sparingly as if to uphold a sacred tenet that fewer words equals good. SH1 for example follows this rule to a T. I did not see any wasted text. Puzzles and hints are included. It's like a subtly minimalist Chekhov's gun here. And oddly enough I am praising the usage of short conversations between Harry and whoever is speaking to him to excellent effect. Why? This adds mystery and intrigue to the central locations while increasing tension, fear, etc. Reinforcing the enigmatic atmosphere Toyama envisions. Seriously this is great stuff preserving minimal, but essential text to have players piece their own conclusions. Showing us, but not telling us.

In a 2015 interview from Factmag Akira Yamaoka(composer of a majority of the Silent Hill series) talks about the franchise's soundtracks and why it continues to be as influential as ever. “One of the greatest ways that Yamaoka enhanced Silent Hill’s fear building is by using music and effects in ways that run against what you’re expecting. “I wanted it to be unpredictable: maybe during a big scare I cut everything out, and maybe if nothing was happening at all there would be a lot of sound.” You have an empty hallway? Layer a few sirens and mix it in the red. You have an establishing moment with a villain or environment? Use only the sound of a sharpening knife.”

This unpredictability by Yamaoka works to an impressive degree throughout the entire soundscape. Where I felt the absence of regular conventional instruments in favor of creepy silence, air vibrations, the beating of unconventional items like banging of doors, the scrapping of blades, and the heart-pumping scratches and fluctuating radio frequencies awakens dread. Some examples I’ll pull from the OST have silence integrated well such as: ‘Downtime, never end, never end, never end, alive, nothing else, justice for you, heaven give me say, far.’ These tracks accompany many of the gameplay segments and cutscenes in a congenial manner yet interlaced wonderfully facilitating differences from the usual effects we often hear. Creating an unsettling tone to repeat for days on end as you boot up the game. Not to the point of over-use since a lot of tracks differ in tempo, rhythm, and how untraditional sound works. Seriously listen to any of those tracks and see how it differs from classical instruments. The names of these tracks also share similar connotations. Giving off a break if you will. Or time of rest. By comparison, there is another layer. And that is the panic tracks. Imagine low drums combined with a background of haunting wails or cries of ghastly echoes.

While the foreground is immersed with a layer of banging utensils harshly being hit on steel walls in a pattern that evokes slow encroaching terror. Yeah, terrifying isn’t it? Try listening to these tracks: Die, ain't gonna rain, half day, dead end, ill kill you, bitter season, don’t cry, for all, devil’s lyric, over, until death. I had to stomach through the OST again and it is incredible if not spooky. Yet thankfully enough here’s a secret to lessen the tension and anxiety. Lower the volume, no shame in doing so. I admit to doing so! The naming sense also is interesting to note again, with most of the tracks I chose from a small sample conveying notions of death, threats, and bittersweetness. I could’ve added more, but you can see the rest here and suit the tracks in other patterns. Regardless, I want to focus on a pattern. The silence tracks and panic tracks from the ones I listed earlier follow a theme, eh? The former inhabits an eerie vibe throughout yet doesn’t go to the steep lengths of making the player run to the hills. In my ears, I felt they were used to excellent effect, conveying a tingle of mystery as I ran to new rooms and buildings. By comparison. The latter displays the rush, the unbearing suspense mixed with a persistent rhythm forming an incessant need to get out. Run faster and get the hell out of traps and dead-ends. As a result, the panic tracks I think work in its favor and complement the silence to a proportion, I find myself fascinated by the two accompanying themes.

However, a third and smaller portion of tracks not of the two kinds emerges. And this brings to the forefront the classical tracks to a shotgun-filled bar full of emotions and relief. These tracks finally make use of classical instruments like the guitar strings. For example in the track ‘She’ I felt they provide a profound degree of closure. Some may see this as an abrupt slap of whiplash, on the other hand, I found it comforting. In the near silence and panic-filled corridors of ambiance. I found at the end of my main character’s journey and to my great satisfaction a longing feeling of contentment and tranquility. It is apt and so powerful to hear classical instruments shine so bloody hard. I am amazed how different Yamaoka's style conveys so uniquely and so beautifully to listen to. Granted, the effects on the unused may be perceived as annoying to hear repetitive noise effects. Although, I think it works to its benefit. Complementing the game to magically transport the player into the Yamaoka’s soundscape. Like a puppet master controlling how we feel. Just wow. Very different from other Japanese composers I'm familiar with listening such as Nobou Uematsu, Keiichi Okabe, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, Masayoshi Soken, Keiki Kobayashi, Kota Hoshino, Falcom Sound Team jdk, and Xenoblade composers. The OST manages to ride the fine line of not being either bombastic or slamming us with gentility. Filling the player with enough suspense to not overflow in sheer terror while giving enough intrigue to the limit of genuine courage. It is as Yamaoka talks about earlier. Unpredictable in building fear.

As much as I could continue praising and analyzing every morsel. I must talk about my mixed feelings. These are neither positive nor negative, but simply some things that gave me pause, could be better and perhaps a hot take down below.

First tank controls for the unused can make it difficult to achieve the right balance in the beginning. When Harry moves in a single direction, turning becomes difficult. So you’ll have to swerve to the right or left before coming around. Takes some getting used to. I was never familiar with these types of old movements and considering it was my first foray into it. My first 15 minutes were clashing onto walls. I understand it's a product of its time. And while some may say it adds tension and anxiety, which I agree to a certain extent. More often than not I crashed into walls and wished it controlled better. Could be a dealbreaker for some. I’ve heard the newest entries after the first have better controls. Though for a first entry, it's not something I'll judge too harshly. Once an hour passed by I became used to them. To help, quick-turn using L1+R1. Helped immensely for my playthrough and thankfully the game’s runtime isn’t too long or medium to deal with. HLTB estimates put this at a short length.

Second, this might be a hot take. But I think going into the game blind completely would be a mistake. I tried playing blind for 95% of my experience and while I did have a good time, once I removed some tips to know beforehand along with some of my friend's advice I would’ve unknowingly struggled. Please check out some tips. I'll put some links further below to help newcomers. Therefore to prevent further suffering. Not required, but it doesn’t hurt to know ya know? For example, Running away from enemy mobs in the streets to conserve ammo. Quickturn if you hit a dead-end and I abused the hell out of that to counter the rough tank controls. Furthermore, going blind may inadvertently cause players more trouble when trying to achieve certain endings. They can be strict. Without going into concrete details of spoiler territory. To get the G+ ending, players need to somehow pick up a liquid in a hospital and use it in a boss fight. Not the last one. There’s a bit more, but I'll let Before I play handle that. Highly recommend referencing that in hand while you play. I hope that’s vague enough to say. I am not advocating for everyone to achieve that outcome, rather I think it would help in the long run when thinking about the game as a whole. It is simply a suggestion.

Third, boss fights I think could’ve been improved a little more to induce more puzzley in design without reverting into too gimmicky territory. As vaguely as I can say. I usually evaded their attacks, then shot bullets during appropriate moments. I’m torn on this point since I think this ties into the combat not being a true highlight to look forward to. I didn’t come to SH1 to be amazed by fighting. Yet unironically Toyama in another interview back in 1999 echoes similar sentiments by saying how “The action part of the game is really just something to create the horror.” A medium to enhance the horror if you will. Although, I still can’t help but add my suggestions on how this could be remedied to make boss fights more horrory. Off the top of my head: More on escaping, instead of traditional fights. Destroying objects in surrounding environments then switching to a different weapon like melee. Surprise me with dialogue maybe and if I answer wrong, game over. Taunt me while chasing me. I wouldn’t say they're bad by any means. The first, second to last boss and final boss do a decent job.

Fourth, I wish there was more interaction in the environment instead of literal observations anyone can make. When exploring anything of relative interest in his surroundings. Harry will make a direct, blunt phrase. “No useful books.” “Nothing unusual.” “Drugs? Better leave it.” “Just a wall.” Granted, there are plenty of notes, diaries, letters, and documents to give some relevant lore or plot hooks so it’s not all bad. Feels weird though. Why not have him say different lines like “Cheryl would’ve loved this book.” or “Ah I remember this drug from long ago my wife used to use.” See how those suggestions would’ve changed some of the stale observations? Makes me wonder if the other installments made some changes to his inspection.

Ultimately I found Silent Hill 1 to be largely a leap of faith as one Ubisoft franchise likes to say. While it does have some dated mechanics like the tank controls which may vary from person to person. And the story may not resonate with everyone. Along with my other mixed feelings. In the end, hidden beneath these varying qualities I found the everyman plot to be equally as satisfying as my time in Signalis. I can only leave pretty positive after my ten hour playthrough. And oddly enough, I regret not playing this title back then in my childhood. Never played any other entries in the series either. And yet for a PSX title released in 1999, I am pretty impressed how much it holds up. Stands tall amongst the other horror games I played. Sure the title doesn’t boast the Lovecraftian edge Bloodborne grasps. The excellent pacing of The Last of Us. Great lessons from Omori or hitting the fine balance of horror and action in the Evil Within series and Metro 2033. Nor does it provide richly diverse cast to the gills like Shadow Heart and Koudelka.

Rather, Harry Mason’s troubled venture to recover his daughter is a powerful incentive to keep in mind. And the feelings of “annoyance, anger and incredible kind of powerlessness” evoked by the protaganists voice actor Michael Guinn moved me enough to see what happens in the end. Strong to witness amongst the clever backtracking, colliding with interesting and well-thought-out puzzles. Constant showing, not telling, and remarkable use of minimal dialogue I found in contrast to Parasite Eve. Demonstrating how much this little gem can achieve in a concise manner without padding. I wasn’t bombarded by useless cutscenes or tearing my suspension of disbelief a new one. Beyond the palpable unique atmosphere, intriguing everyman story and excellent sound design lies something special to anyone who has never played Silent Hill 1. I’d even go as far as to say the game has made me appreciate horror much more than I thought.

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
1st interview - Shmuplations translated the 1999 interview with Toyama and others
Wiki links - Everyman - Inspirational works of Silent Hill - Tank Controls - Chekhov’s Gun - SH1 OST - Soundscape
2nd interview - Akira Yamaoka interview
3rd interview - Another interview with Toyama back in 1999. Different from 1st.
4th interview - a 2018 interview with none other than the original Silent Hill voice actor for Harry Mason. Michael Guinn. Fair warning does contain spoilers for SH1 & SH3. I only read the SH1 portions.
Silent Hill 1 Before I Play Tips
Silent Hill 1 manual
A short history article on the origin of Tank Controls - Cool TIL tidbits.
My spoiler thoughts on Silent Hill 1 - Heavy spoilers from beginning to end of the game

Wow, it's the first game I ever worked on professionally! I'm marking this game as "mastered" considering I spent 2 years of my life working on it.

Look, there are other former Volition coworkers of mine that have guested on podcasts and talked about some of the issues this game's development went through. This game was supposed to be doing a lot more, originally. The ideas were too lofty to be pulled off by a team of Volition's size, poor management and meddling from the publisher damaged team morale, and a whole host of other things contributed to the poor final product.

The game was originally more of a loot-based, co-op action RPG with three open world cities that would update over time. The map updates were kind of like Fortnite's, but smaller and on a more frequent basis. New events would happen every so often that featured community goals, the kind you currently see happening in Helldivers 2. The ideas were neat, but it all felt very pie-in-the-sky.

The newly updated engine and tools Volition was using at the time were designed with this original game in mind... which means the tools needed to make a single player open world game with linear missions did not really exist. There were no cinematics tools and no tools for linear, checkpointed missions. So that's why the game launched with a shitload of bugs that would break mission progression.

Also here's a nitpick I have with the game that no one has ever pointed out. There are multiple areas in the game where way more scientist NPCs spawn than any other type and it's really jarring. Also all of the civilian NPCs look like they were built on a slightly different scale than the player characters. All of the civilians are kind of tiny looking, even when put next to the playable characters that are also on the small side.

When you are making something that is supposed to fall under the horror category, what is the one primary goal that you want to accomplish with your idea? The answer might not be as crystal clear as you think. Of course, most would probably expect the product in question to try to scare you, or to make you feel some sort of uneasiness, which would make sense, as for every great horror movie, game, or whatever one could point out, they have some element that either makes you uncomfortable, nervous, or just straight up scares the fuck out of you, which leads to them having much more of a lasting impression on the audience. That’s not all that a piece of horror media could do though, as they could shift gears from focusing on scaring you to giving you an action-oriented spectacle, just generally being spooky, or even to make you laugh. But, what happens when something related to horror, specifically a franchise, starts out with the intention of scaring you, only to then start to go in a completely opposite direction? Well, in this possible scenario, you could end up with something like Alone in the Dark 2.

I had a curious mindset when it came to going into this particular game, because I wasn’t quite sure what they were going to do with it compared to the first game. Based on screenshots, it didn’t look like it was going to do anything too drastically different from the original game, and the game’s promotional tie-in, Jack in the Dark, may as well be completely unrelated to this, so I figured it was just gonna be more of the same with nothing else to really show for itself. For the most part, I was right in my assumptions, but at the same time, there was something very… different about the game that I couldn’t place a finger on for the longest time, but I knew for a fact that, whatever it was that this game was trying to do, it certainly wasn’t as effective as the original game. It is still a good game though, having all of the same “lovable” elements and quirks that the original game had, but also taking a massive shift in terms of its approach that I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of.

The story is somewhat similar to that of the original game, which takes place three months after the original game, where a young girl named Grace Saunders is supposedly kidnapped and taken to a mansion by the name of Hell’s Kitchen (not that Hell’s Kitchen), and when a private eye named Ted Stryker goes to investigate, he mysteriously disappears as well, so it is up to Edward Carnby to go find out what happened to them and uncover the secrets hidden within the mansion, which is a simple enough set-up that you can get behind, only for it to go overboard (almost literally) in the second half of the game. The graphics are about the same as the original game and Jack in the Dark, and by that, I mean it looks like Elon Musk’s wet dream made into a game, but it does still have a certain charm about it that I can’t criticize too heavily, the music is good, even though it has that problem of being played over and over again once more, but at least the tracks themselves are good enough to where I don’t get completely sick of them, and the gameplay/controls are almost identical to the original, both to its benefit and detriment, but the approach to this style of gameplay and controls is… kinda messy.

The game is a survival “horror” game, where you take control of both Edward Carnby and Grace Saunders, alternating between the two throughout the game, go through plenty of locations, both outside and inside of the mansion, fight off against the many different zombie, ghosts and ghouls that you will find within the mansion using whatever tools you happen to find, find many different items and tools within the mansion that can help you out in numerous ways, such as healing you, giving you a means of defending yourself, or solving the game’s many puzzles, uncover the mystery behind what is going on here through many different logs you will find along the way, and try not to get scared along the way…. even though nobody would ever genuinely be scared of any of this. Any AITD veteran will know what they are getting into with this game, as it functions and plays identically to that of the previous two titles, making the game a good time for those who are adjusted to its quirks. However, the approach to all of this, like I have alluded to earlier, is slightly different to that of the original, which somewhat drags it down.

Despite the fact that the original game was not scary in the slightest, the game was at least TRYING to primarily be a horror game, with a foreboding atmosphere, a few enemies that are still deadly if you don’t know how to properly handle them, and a properly spooky environment, which is mixed with the awkward controls and camera angles to make a game that would scare whoever played it, or at the least, make them uneasy as they kept going… at least, it would’ve back in 1992. With this game, however, it shifts heavily from trying to be a horror game, and it more so focuses on the action elements of the game instead, with you now having to face against a group of pirate spirits, as well as the many other things that try to kill you in the game. This, if you ask me, was not the way that a game series like this should’ve been handled at all.

Now, I’m not saying that this ruins the game in terms of its atmosphere or presentation, because once again, these games aren’t scary, so there isn’t much to gain from that perspective either way, but what this change does ruin is how the player approaches the gameplay and the challenges it provides. From the very moment you take control of your character for the first time, you have to quickly kill an enemy that is right by you, and then you have to quickly move into a hedge maze located nearby, while fighting off whatever creatures you may encounter while doing so, or else you run the risk of dying immediately. They just throw you into the fire, without giving you any time to get adjusted to the controls or what’s going on, which may not be so bad for those who have played the previous games, but newcomers will pretty much be boned from the moment they press start.

This is, of course, paired with the fact that you have to deal with the controls used for attacking foes, and the same camera angles from the original game, and you have something that I wouldn’t necessarily call fair a lot of the time. But, with all that being said, none of this makes the game any worse. Fundamentally, it is still Alone in the Dark, which means you still run around, solve puzzles, find items, and defeat enemies in the same way, and it still manages to have that old-school charm that isn’t preferable compared to what other games since this have done, but it can still be fun to mess around with. Not to mention, in terms of the camera angles, they are handled much better off here, with there being none that are too difficult to manage, and none that are zoomed out way too far to where you look like a tiny little speck, so that’s good.

Really, aside from its shift towards action-oriented elements, I didn’t have too many problems with the game as a whole. It does kind of suck that it doesn’t really do anything to change up the gameplay whatsoever, making it feel kinda bland in comparison to the original, and if I had to give one complaint to the game overall, I would say that solving some of the puzzles can be pretty cryptic at times. Yes, I did use a walkthrough to get through this game, just like with the original, but there were still points where I got stuck because things aren’t properly conveyed to the player well enough at points. There is this one part in the game where you can’t proceed forward until you have done everything in the specific area that you are in, and I for the life of me could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I did everything the walkthrough said, I was looking around all over the place, and I had defeated all the enemies, so I was clueless as to what to do next. However, then I noticed that there was one item that I didn’t get before, and the item in question was not only incredibly tiny, but the color of said item made it practically blend into the floor, meaning that the game wouldn’t let me progress all because of this one tiny, miniscule item that nobody would be able to see without knowing it was there to begin with. Yeah, that’s my fault, apparently.

Overall, despite its shift towards action elements, some cryptic parts that can go fuck themselves, as well as… pirates being a thing, I would still say that AITD II is a good game, continuing the same basic gameplay that the original game established, while also branching out the story, environments, and enemies that you fight to where it does feel unique in comparison to its predecessor, even if it is lacking in innovation. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the two previous games, as well as those who don’t mind a little jank every now and then, because despite how jank it is, it still manages to be an interesting example of survival horror in its earliest stages. Although, now I’m wondering, since we now have ghost pirates in this game, how are they gonna top themselves with the next game in terms of the enemies? Are there gonna be ghost aliens? Ghost ninjas? Ghost cowboys?................................... please tell me it doesn’t actually use one of those things.

Game #524

Simply put, an unforgettable experience. Another one of those games that just blows you away once you sit through the credits contemplating everything you just played through and witnessed. I am so in love with this series and I am a little funked up individual to say the least!

After playing through the first one twice I was so pumped to dive in as my brother watched me complete my first playthrough by me screensharing through a discord call so we both got to witness all the bizarre insanity and horrific situations that ensued. After getting my ass beat time and time again in the first game I managed to have an incredible first run with this one! Albeit, mistakes were definitely made and I had to learn, but I felt more seasoned going through the ringer a few times up to this point. Decided to go with Marcoh for my character and damn was it a good choice (the good ol' 2 piece and biscuit combo for the win!).

Nearly improving from the first in everyway especially when it comes to each character's own exposition and backstory you can choose to hear from the beginning and how they get to this point. Love how many references/inspirations to other games and horror culture they have in this too! There is so much interesting lore and things happening around this crazy town of Prehevil with so many characters it is impossible to take this whole game in with one playthrough with many paths to take and people to meet and recruit. All characters have a unique playstyle and the edition of using firearms before a fight is such a game changer.

Ended up getting a full party all the way to the end and felt so damn powerful with some good gear pickups even though I lost most of my coin tosses (shittiest luck, story of my life lol). First run I managed to get Ending A and the last boss music gave me chills especially at that one part in the song that gave me PTSD flashbacks, if you know...you know...

I know they are working on another one and apparently adding even more content to this one and that just makes me so happy. I love the OST in this game and the way they bring about horror is so different then how some other games do it with jump scares, never knowing what you will run into or what they will throw at you next always makes you feel on edge and gives you that spine tingling feeling. Definitely wanna do some more runs in the near future and get the other endings, I am so damn addicted! Everyone should play this game if you are a fan of horror games and want an unforgettable experience. How did they come up with this stuff?! I love it!

I guess I had better write an actual review this time as I wrote one before the game came out.

Simply put, far and away THE BEST game RGG have ever put out. Yakuza 7 left a little to be desired in certain areas (especially music and the janky combat) but they’ve nearly perfected their own RPG formula here with the additions of movement and chain attacks, which are both integral and important to the combat. The music is much improved from 7 as well, and while the story isn’t perfect in any way, the huge payoff you get from playing the series beforehand is massive. It has been an incredible journey and all of the fanservice and the sendoff for Kiryu cannot be matched.

I honestly have no idea where they go from here but every game RGG makes just gets better and better in the quality department and they really are in a league of their own with the maturity of stories they put out.

On a side note, if you don’t play all the games prior to this you are a coward. If you only play 7 before this you are an idiot. And RGG please never include another vtuber in your games ever again.

If you’re curious, this was the original review:
“If RGG has million number of fans i am one of them . if RGG has ten fans i am one of them. if RGG have only one fan and that is me . if RGG has no fans, that means i am no more on the earth . if world against the RGG, i am against the world. i love #RGG till my last breath.. .. Die Hard fan of RGG . Hit Like If you Think RGG Best developer & Smart In the world”