James had the emotional depth of a guy entranced by a haunted town who would gladly jump down several bottomless pits without thinking. Giving him all this added emotional depth will sour the experience for me. When Team Silent had technical limitations they found narrative reasons for the compromises they made, like the fog to combat draw distance. Messing with those just because you have the tech to do it now will be like pulling the soul out of the original product, and that's about what I expect from this remake. My expectations are super super low.
Seeing james just barely react to monsters/not bothered to jump down holes made his character seem delusional, i still rhink he will only get very emotional in scenes like marias death, the truth in the hotel, and talking to mary on her deathbed inside James mind.
@@fowreeeeeeeel James IS delusional. He's chasing after the ghost of his dead wife. IMO the idea is that he's so emotionally disconnected that he simply doesn't care about his own life anymore and would do things like jump down bottomless pits just for the promise of seeing Mary again, even though he knows that's impossible.
I scrolled too far for the sane comment. I'm starting to feel like people don't really understand anything about SH2. It's mind boggling. I have zero faith just based on the trailer because it makes it obvious the people working on it don't understand it either. Gone is the dream like and strange ambiance that when paired with the voice actors and ost made this game what it is. I won't be giving these people a penny and I wish other people wouldn't either but I guess they'll learn the hard way.
@@fowreeeeeeeel That's literally the point tho. He's supposed to be delusion and dissociated, because he is. He's in a borderline amnesiac state trying to find the wife he doesn't remember killing. SH 2 plays very much into a dreamlike nighgtmarish state. It's not supposed to be grounded and realistic emotions. The town itself and every character in it is disconnected from reality, you've missed the point.
@@ByAzuraByAzuraByAzura Yes, but even in dreams if you see someone you love die you will still have a reaction. I know everything about Silent Hill 2, you know, this remake will almost certainly be amazing but james being emotional makes sense, i mean, in his twisted mind he hasn’t seen his wife for 3 years, and then seeing a ”clone” die of course he’ll be shattered.
Despite the limitations at the time, I do love the fact that TS focused on full body shots. An interesting way to use body language to convey emotion compared to the over reliance of face shots that some shows, films etc. tend to do. I hope Bloober is able to ultilize the whole environment to tell the story, not just through facial expressions alone.
ปีที่แล้ว +3
Yes, and man those full body shoots work magisterially.
I believe Bloober decided to go back to the drawing board (or maybe they were forced to do so by Konami) after some of the fanbase feedbacks. Even Masahiro Ito commented he agreed with some of the complaints in regards to James' facial expressions (I didn't have any issues with the trailer in that sense). Also, I remember Boober said the game was practically finished when they announced it, only to recently state that that was a misunderstanding (I don't buy it and I think this is evidence that they had to redo some stuff) - and here we are, 9 months of silence since that trailer.
Good point. I've played Blair Witch and The Medium from Bloober Team. I still think they handled the trauma of the protagonist and the relation to his dog quite well, but, in the end, Blair Witch was a First Person game where you rarely see any human character. And Blair Witch sure had it's other fair share of problems. But then there is The Medium. And how they handled the characters emotions at the end was simply horrible. It was overdramatic when it wasn't necessary and dull in important moments. Bloober wanted to get into the Blockbuster-Segment with The Medium and they simply fall on their butts. I, unfortunately, get the exact same vibes from the Silent Hill 2 Trailer. That's undoubtly Bloobers handwriting and their take on "Blockbuster". We still don't know how much this trailer represents the Remake. It has been radio silence when it comes to the Remake for almost a year now and there are rumors that the game is currently stuck in production hell. I do not believe this, by the way. But if this is the same Bloober Team from The Medium, oh boy, their cutscene direction is horrible and they have so much to learn.
@@TheAufziehvogelit seems weird that in the middle of supposedly working on the SH2 remake, they somehow had time and resources to do a Layer of Fear remake. It does make me wonder what's going on over there.
@@balthazor44 That's easy. They simply work on too many projects. They even had to delay The Medium. This isn't too uncommon, but if you review the second half of The Medium, the game is a mess and you can almost taste the crunch of the game. So yeah, The Medium was surely created under crunch. From internal documents we know about a lot more projects they work on. The Layers of Fear Remake just one of them (was released without a delay though). And the lukewarm reviews of the Layer of Fear Remake are the exact same complains Bloober Team is receiving for years. Cheap scares and heavy problems with telling a story. And this comes from someone who is not completely against them because they are good when it comes to designs and music. I do think that the Silent Hill 2 Remake is nearly wrapped up and they already tackle the next projects. Instead of focusing on one big game, they tackle multiple projects. And that's why they will most likely never produce anything that's better than mediocre.
@@TheAufziehvogelyou're probably right. Incidentally, I'm in the middle of the new Layers of Fear now. Never played the original. I'm enjoying it more than my other Blooober experiences (The Medum and Blair Witch), but largely for the reasons you mentioned. I like the environments, and it does at times manage convey a nice mood. But everything else is just so bland and the storytelling lacks anything resembling nuance. At times I can't help but to yell out to my screen "yeah, I get it already!" I never made it to the second half of The Medium. Even the first half was enough for me to pull the rip cord.
There's been radio silence for all the games, except for Silent Hill: Ascension recently. Its not a Bloober specific thing. And I suspect the Silent Hill announcements were rushed while the games are still premature, so they're all still working. Plus there's 2 other unannounced games besides Sakura. It could be that the games will be stretched out. First we'll get Ascension, then possible the remake this year or next year. Its a matter of patience. I don't think Bloober Team is lying about the game being ready, it was in another language and they said they were quite literally misinterpreted. But its possible it has been delayed due to feedback, if so that's quite welcome. The Sonic movie did the same thing when Sonic was criticized for his appearance, so much respect to those who listen to criticism.
i really think the game looks great and cant wait to sit down and play it through. There is only one scene I really want and that is when Marie chews James a new ahole in the basement for not giving a crap about her "Anyway....what do you mean ANYWAY?!!". That scene is so amazing I hope they recapture that particular moment properly.
It's a fantastic scene but seems almost impossible to surpass or even replicate (just look at the work in the HD remasters on PS3, for example). The whole game, as the Muse said, is very different from other SHs. Be it for technical or artistic reasons. I think the original will actually gain appreciation after Bloober's effort.
It's 100% a change. The player in 2001 had experience with Harry Mason in Silent Hill 1. The typical 100% good guy protagonist. Silent Hill 2 plays off of this expectation. When the game starts you aren't supposed to know James is distraught and visibly tormented by guilt, because he isn't. He has amnesia from the guilt. He felt so guilty that he forgot why he was going to Silent Hill and forgot that he killed his wife. He imagined that his wife had been dead for 3 years and imagined that the blank piece of paper in his car is actually a letter from her. That's why he thinks he is in Silent Hill. The player is supposed to think James is a typically good guy like Harry Mason. The big reveals in the game work because you learn that James isn't what he seems, and because at the time video games didn't really feature protagonists that weren't heroic good guys. If you change it so James is shaking and sweating and completely distraught from the very first scene of the game, then none of this works. Why is James this distraught if he thinks his wife has been dead for 3 years? The changes present in the trailer make it so the story does not make sense.
hmm that feels flimsy, I think remastering something is an aspect of remaking to some extent, both are approaches for change. I'd go with iteration. I think when it comes to any work that is beloved, "changes" can be a death sentence, especially narrative or sequence alterations that can undermine a lot of what makes it work in the first place that includes its flaws. Silent Hill 2 is clunky but that's because the focus is more on the story than anything else and too many "changes" to the story I think fundamentally ruins it. Ideally it should do its best to remain true to the original work as possible while honing and fine tuning its rougher edges usually stemming from whatever limitation of its time. But in this case part of the appeal is that ambiguity which is bolstered by its limitations that is deliberately strange and kind of hard to parse aesthetic. The aesthetic of Silent Hill combined with the era of hardware it runs on is so unique to both this world and the playstation (not mention this spawned countless game tributes trying to recapture that same liminal dreamy tones its so famous for to this day). I think the problem is focusing or fine tuning something that only works out of focus. Improvements and developments are to be expected otherwise it defeats the whole point of a remake. It infers that there is something the original could've improved on or developed that was worth the effort of return. I don't know anyone who asked for this game to be remade or changed. @@danielpeckham5520
25:23 in regards to re-releasing the original SH2, just throwing it out there but when Medievil was remade the team actually included the original PS1 game as an unlockable for completing the game 100%. I never got to play the original Medievil on PS1 so it's really cool that in addition to playing the Remake i can also experience the original game and it is a fantastic way to preserve older games. Personally i think every Remake should include the original game as an unlockable. Like imagine if you unlock all the endings in SH2 Remake, you reach the dog and then after mocking James's despair that a dog has been playing him this whole time the dog then grants you access to the original Silent Hill 2 and Born From a Wish. But this is just my wishful thiking. However it would be nice if they did somehow find a way to include the original game. I mean if a group of fans can fix the PC port of SH2 then surely a development team can get a working version of the original game too.
It should but it can't, The Original Source Code for all original first fours Silent Hill Games were lost by Konami, this is why the HD Remaster of SH2 and SH3 had so many problems as they had to use the back up files but not the original source game files to remaster so it came with the bugs not to mention the recast of the voices.
Original James felt like a broken, dead inside shell of a man in a believable way. New James feels like an actor trying to act like he goes through trauma.
Back in 2002, when I finished Silent Hill 2, I never imagined that this game would leave such a profound impact on me. Later on, I played the other Silent Hill games released on the PC platform, but as you might expect, none of them could recreate the same effect that Silent Hill 2 had on me. In my opinion, the most significant aspect of this game is the subdued and expressionless nature, even with the camera frequently positioned behind the characters. You know how old games were with their low-resolution textures and lack of details; we used to fill in the gaps with our own minds and imagination, and the same held true for Silent Hill 2. At least that's how it was for me. James' blankness and lack of emotional response to events, not being able to see his face all the time, allowed me to fill in the blanks with my own perceptions, making the game even more impactful from my perspective. Regarding the part where you mentioned the trailer towards the end of the video, while I agree that it highlights the most striking moments, having watched the Tokyo Game Show and E3 trailers of Silent Hill 2 multiple, multiple times, I can't say that the remake of Silent Hill 2 had the same effect on me. I still can't get used to the "new" James' childish eyebrows and exaggerated facial expressions, and if they can't get rid of this exaggeration in the final version of the game, I'm certain that I won't be able to establish the same connection with the new James as I did with the original James. Speaking of the introduction videos, in the original game's trailers, we could listen to snippets of Akira Yamaoka's magnificent pieces, which contrasted the game's terrifying atmosphere and piqued curiosity with some energetic and occasionally romantic parts. However, in the remake's introduction video, apart from one piece specific to the original Silent Hill 2, we didn't hear anything else. This makes me concerned about the audio content of the new game as well. I wonder how Silent Hill 2 songs used in the films will be adapted or if they will be adapted at all for the new game. As you know, one of Silent Hill 2's strongest aspects was its inclusion of marvelous pieces and ambient sounds. Personally, I don't have high expectations for the Silent Hill 2 remake. I'm content with the original game and the memories it left me with. Yes, I'll probably get and play the new game on its release day, but to be honest, I don't believe that Bloober Team's technical and narrative abilities, despite Masahiro Ito's leadership, can make a Silent Hill 2 game as impactful as the original. Although I've been subscribed to your channel for a while, I haven't been commenting much. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to share my thoughts through this topic. Thank you for what you've done so far and what you'll do in the future. It's wonderful to know that there are people who are genuinely devoted to the Silent Hill series.
People forget, the 90s was a time in game development where the ENTIRE process revolved around working around limitations of the tech at the time. Am I worried about the quality of Bloobers work? Of course, but only going off of their past work. Not because I view Silent Hill 2 as this perfect sacred horror game where *every* single moment is a perfect portrayal of exactly what the devs envisioned that shouldn't be changed, because it isn't, there's no way it COULD HAVE BEEN. People seem to forget that. Freaking awesome video 🎉
That's fair but at the same time Jame's emotional state and reactions are so integral to the story telling, you can't just take something so intentional and necessary and switch it up, you'd be missing the point
I can appreciate more expression in the remake - but part of the strength of SH II is that it felt understated, even if that was actually just us projecting onto the game. So much media now confuses amateur dramatics and melodrama for severity. Whereas the reality is that melodrama tends to signal juvenility and immaturity. A lot of the heaviest moments in life are not met with screaming and wailing, but with silence. That's not tiktok-stoicism, it's the reality of being overwhelmed. There mere act of sitting down when things get really wild, can communicate despair far more effectively than a tantrum. Think of more or less every single American horror film you've seen in the last decade or more - none of the writers understand how to build conflict or intercharacter drama that seems in any way reasonable. It's always a giant clusterfuck of characters wildly overreacting to every possible situation, screaming incoherently at every other character, and taking the single stupidest decisions availiable to them. A new person walks through a door unannounced and suddenly there are three accusations being screamed at them and the fourth person is pointing a gun at their head. There seems to be a delusional idea that this ramps up the tension. It doesn't. It just makes everyone look stupid and childish. Maybe it's different in the States, but I've been in a few interesting scenarios, and nobody reacts to them with full scale meltdowns 100% of the time for no reason. It's just not how people function apart from full on Jersey Shore-esque adult children. And at that point you cannot be invested in them. There's nothing salvagable in those people. That's why the slide down the elevator doors in SC II is effective - we don't need to see James screaming and kicking and crying. He just needs to collapse into a heap. It communicates exactly what it needs to.
Absolutely brilliant comment!! I agree completely. Your point about the elevator scene is such a good one. We know how defeated he feels just from his collapse. That's great subtlety in storytelling.
I don't think you understand how fight and flight responses work. Put any human-being in a life and death situation and see how fast that person turns stupid. Nothing you've said is based in reality. Projecting yourself from a position of comfort to a character in life and death situation and pretending to know that the character wouldn't make bad decisions? Now, that's childish.
@@coolshah1662 Nothing you said functions as a counter to what Industrial Bonecraft said, for one. Two, let's just absolutely *stop* with the "but muh realism." Here's some reality for you: Stories are NOT the same as reality. Emotions in a story are not the same as emotions in reality. Actions in a story do not have the same consequences as they do in reality. Stories work because they are a distinct romanticised version of reality where everything has this level of drama to it that pulls us in and makes us care. And part of this romanticisation is that characters in stories are not bound purely by what's *supposedly* realistic, but instead by what fits the character's mind and the story. "Realism" in a story is distinct from reality. Die Hard goes out of its way to portray John McClane as an everyman. He's not supposed to be like a typical action hero of the day. He's supposed to convey a sense of realism. But guess what? He's not realistic in what he actually does. He achieves things that are VERY unrealistic, and yet we believe it - why? Because stories aren't the same as reality and they have distinct expectations and logic. Likewise, it's why things that may happen in real life aren't appropriate for stories. To use another example, we'll say... hm, Han Solo and Leia not being together at the start of The Force Awakens. Now, realistically, people fall apart for countless reasons in life. It happens. But in a story, where you've spent films setting up this story and allowing it to have a happy ending? Undoing that is bad form. Is it "realistic" that it could happen? Yes. Is it good for the story? *No.* Stories and reality, again, are ***different***. To so wildly and deliberately ignore a fact of storytelling that has been in place for quite literally all of human history in order to make this weak argument of some form of 'emotional realism' for this game? An argument that doesn't *even* hold water in reality for a VERY substantial percentage of the population? Yeah, no, *that* is childish. And profoundly goofy, for that matter.
@@innoclarke7435 You've said nothing of substance. Don't you fanboys get tired of this endless wank? What are you even trying to say? Stories are always romanticized, and, if they aren't, they're "badly written"? Did you come up with this lofty ideal? That's an opinion, not a fact. No body has to follow your extremely narrow window in regard to story-telling. That's your preference, not some objective marker to judge story-telling; and your Diehard example is laughable as SH and that aren't even in the same genre nor are they trying to aim for anything similar. There are a thousand stories out there that are extremely realistic; they even locate fantasy in the realm of reality to convey x, y, or z aspects. How unthinkable, amirite? And you know what, I'm going to go there: grab a decent horror story, and you'd realize how poorly written SH games are. heck, Poe's least complex short-story, pick any, takes a giant dump on the entire "masterclass" SH stories that are heavily plagiarized when it comes to Lynch's work. The problem with you desperate fanboys is that you lack media literacy and want to raise everything you consume to some great artistic status, without ever trying to engage with the said art's shortcomings; and boy does SH fall woefully short of Lynch's work that's been heavily plagiarized for sh2: there's literally frame by frame copy-pasting from Lost Highway (the infamous "face touching" scene at the start? Yeah, it's frame by frame plagiarism, but I'm sure you'd spin this into something else, as well) and Blue Velvet for SH2 and none of the artistic fervor that went into Lynch's work. In fact, none of the SH games are anywhere near as good as Jacob's Ladder, another movie that was heavily copied for the other-world effect. The voice-acting is goofy as shit and nothing like, for instance, The Killing of the Sacred Dear Lynchian effect SH Team was desperately aiming for. So what are you talking about, anyway? Listen, fanboy, consume something other than mediocre videogames and you might realize that they're not all that great. Even the music that became "iconic" for SH was heavily plagiarized by Yamaoka; so SH is neither original nor it does anything original. Save it.
The uncanny, empty, tired look on James' face does seem like a major factor in his character, unintenional or not But if we see him attain more emotion as the game goes on, I think that would be a positive change Does he need to have the same look the whole game like his soul has been taken? I'm sure that is how many would prefer it, but that's not the question
It would be interesting if James' facial expressions can indicate which ending you'll get. When James feels depressed, his face is always down leading to in water ending. If James isn't phased, he gets the Maria ending. If James is looks a lot more calm, then you get the leave ending.
@lainiwakura1776 Well it's more of a concept idea rather than something I want. I think it just helps for completionist. Maybe multiple playthroughs and difficulty setting.
James was indeed emotional but not over-dramatic like in the trailer of the remake. And yes, the technology used back then could be part of the reasons why James expressions (along with the other characters), looked "inhuman", sometimes but as you say in the video, he is emotionally blocked and he doesn't care much about others, just before the elevator scene Maria screams at him when he says "anyway" and then she gets mad. The same happens after defeating Eddie, James is conflicted by a moment but after that he continues on with his search, just like when Angela climbs the steps on fire he could not love her and he didn't do much to prevented her to sacrifice herself and, again, after that he continues on just like that. Even when he learns the truth he doesn't move a finger to stop Laura from leaving the hotel, perfectly knowing that there are monster everywhere or the fact that she has no home to go with or without monsters outhere. Also, from the very beginning of the game James says to Angela that he doesn't care if it's dangerous or not when she advised him not to go to the town and we see through the game that James acts more reckless than Harry in the first game, despite the fact that he has his memories blocked all the game until the hotel. And the mental block he has could be either self induced or maybe the town itself could have, at least, some part of involvement on its existence, when James tries to remember something, he puts one of his hands in his forehead and he shows that he feels some kind of pain when this happens.
I do like seeing a little more emotion from the characters, specially in the high stress situations like the elevator scene. I do think it would be best if at times James looked more emotionless, conveying his instinct to dissociate from pain as much as possible. Then maybe the tougher scenes would have a bigger impact, because that’s when his bubble bursts and we could see the true horror he feels, even if he tries to deny it.
@Juniper_Wippersnache Yeah but its also the fact that modern developers all want this hyper realistic graphics for their games resulting in many of them looking samey with no distinct visual style
I disagree that James’ original facial animations were “less emotional”. It’s just a different emotion; he’s dissociated and depressed rather than being acutely sad in the moment. To me, that’s a lot more realistic than the remake’s presentation. Should he always be deadpan? No, but the remake’s intense frowns aren’t very believable - there’s a reason it got turned into a meme.
No, it's not that James' original facial animations are less emotional, they're just non existent, you can clearly see many sections where his face is completely static and completely non animated, and it's not a design choice, they're just technical limits. And the dubbing was also embarassing, completely monotonous (if you try to dub it with an AI you can probably obtain a better result). And a lot of serious stuff gets turned into a meme, because, who would have thought, people are stupid as fuck.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi Voice acting was perfect? 🤣 if that piece of garbage was perfect I don't even wanna know what a bad voice acting is for you......if I try to dub James at home I can probably obtain a better result, stop trying to defend what's objectively indefensible.
@@gothicking9280 or maybe you just have no ear for nuance. original performances convey a very specific tone that plays perfectly into the narrative of the game. the new voice acting seen in the trailer is completely off the mark in this regard.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi Oh yeah, fantastic nuance, a completely soulless and monotous voice acting made like that because it's probably been done in 2 days, or, most likely, because the voice actor was an incompetent. As I was saying, stop trying to defend something that it's completely indefensable, it's not something sought after or done on purpose, it's like that because it's probably been done in 2 days with a 10$ budget.
The fog in Silent Hill was also the result of technical limitations. Should that fog go away too, now that it's no longer necessary? Or...did their solution to a technical limitation add something to the game that's become an integral part of the experience?
I hope the fog is kept. Like in the first Resident Evil on PS1. The doors were there for loading times. When the remake came out for game cube, they kept them because they were iconic
It added a lot to the game, and made it what it is. This kind of stuff needs to be used in the direction that suits the established storyline and artistic direction, if you want to call it a remake. Not only the fog added to the atmosphere, but the fog itself behaved uncanny. Blooper team's fog in SH2 remake is your regular UE5 fog physics simulation, taking that effect away.
Not even comparable james lack of emotions makes h8m less interesting less relatable and thats coming from somone who actualy was emotionaly discoiative for much of my life its not interesting and it doesnt fit silent hills world at all silent hill atracts people based on their guilt and emotions
That's a good point. Its a really pick and choose what the game ended up being, and what the developers wanted. The fog itself was created to hide the limitations of the game but it became such an iconic part of it.
Bloober has a very tenuous relationship with subtlety so I really don't think it's even worth trying anything else for them at this point. Their games blare their subtext at you with a fog horn
And people need to remember that YOUR version of James is going to be different from person to person. We don't see James' face emote solely due to technical limitations, it was also a way to keeps things AMBIGUOUS. Unrepentant James and Leave Ending James are mentally two wildly different people - and of course have different emotions and feelings. It's only in his physically most shocked moments that he truly emotes, or when he is interrogating Maria and we see his brow fold. Not knowing much about James, and not SEEING James strongly emote helps the producers keep James as a nebulous figure. In the Remake, we now KNOW what it is James is feeling, sadness and guilt, because he wears it on his sleave... But what about the other versions of James? Will Blooper Team have facial animation changes to match the current ending route you are on? Doubt it.
@@nillynush4899 Obviously it won't, but it's stupid to expect them to actually do anything subtle or leave any room for interpetation. All of what you said is going directly out the window and that's not a hot take or a striking revelation, that should be obvious the moment you see that Bloober is making this game. Realistically, they shouldn't even try to go for this - and you'd do much better to just accept that the SH2 remake will follow one single interpretation of James, likely a very simplistic one, and you'd be very lucky if it even makes any sense. The trailer, as Muse picked it apart in here, has told us everything we needed to know. Bloober is still Bloober and if they want their game to have an implication like, say, James is suicidal and is just looking for reasons to cling on as he enters Silent Hill only to ultimately give in (In Water), then boy will that be signposted thoroughly throughout the game. The only thing you can hope for is that maybe the product telling that story won't be genuinely painful to sit through.
With how they've handled dark topics like trauma and abuse in their previous titles, I am very worried with how they are going to treat Angela and her story.
So many people are making this argument about James showing too much emotion in his face and all I can think is, do you know how weird it would be to implement expressionless faces into a modern game? It would not deliver the same effect that older technology did 20 years ago where they were always having to cleverly obscure things, it would look really weird. I get that a big part of SH2 is how uncanny it is with how the characters behave, but the fanbase for this series has spent so long examining every small detail that they all think they know exactly what the dev team was thinking when they created it. There are clearly moments in the original game where James was emotional, 20 years later it can finally be shown in a realistic way.
@@Gabbagool86 We have put up with a lot and it's clearly shown in how much people care about how this remake is going to be handled. I'm not faulting anyone who is worried at all, I fully understand and feel the same way. I just think zeroing in on something like facial expressions isn't really the big thing to think about. Personally I'm trying to find a balance between being hopeful and cautious about it, I do think Bloober Team is made up of people who love this game and want to make something respectful towards the source material. I'd also like to think they've considered the feedback they've recieved from thier previous games and this trailer. Having some of the original talent involved is also reassuring. Not much we can do as fans besides either being supportive and hopeful that they're listening and treating this with care or sitting here obsessing over the details until it comes out.
There's a huge gap between expressionless character(which to me, in the ps2 game wasn't btw.) and getting a full drama queen. James' stoic face and ambiguity towards what was happening helped a lot in the story development back in 2001. To me this remake is already missing it's shot.
@@JeremieFriez An example of what I'm talking about would be the noose scene, since that is one people are bringing up and you can see it in this video as an example. They did absolutely nothing to James' face in that scene, it's just completely blank. If they did the same thing in this game it would look much more out of place because we can see James' face more clearly now, so the look of uncertainty fits. Most of the other parts we see will come down to a matter of opinion or what people think the game should be like because his face is obscured (probably because they couldn't accurately show the emotions they wanted to in an in-game cutscene). Personally, I think SH2 is about showing an awakening in James through what he is shown as the story moves forward, and the scenes they've shown him being a 'drama queen' are the pivotal scenes where James is making huge steps waking up from his dissociation, the scenes where Maria is in danger or dying are symbolic of James losing his wife. In the original game they did not show his face during these scenes, but we heard him crying out for her, we heard his anguish, and we even got monologes from him showing he was clearly distressed. James' stoicness towards other parts of the game could very well still be intact, such as when he meets Angela or Eddie or sees a monster for the first time. That doesn't mean he needs a blank default model face for those scenes, because like you said, facial emotion is a broad range in which subtle differences can send a huge message. Therefore, I still think people are jumping the gun to a comical degree thinking the game is already bad due to a few shots of his expression in a trailer, and it's due to people mistaking the graphical limitations of the original for James being just completely void of emotion or something. It's a story of his journey of not remembering or feeling much to remembering and feeling everything.
@@JeremieFriezJames stoicism to me was a man in a sense of disbelief trying to navigate what is going on and staying strong as much as possible. There was times where he expressed emotions at certain situations.
I missed your content. This year's been really rough, and your channel came to mind as I used to watch it a couple of years ago. Just wanted to say I appreciate your content and analysis's, it's a small comfort to watch
(Spoilers I guess) It’s way way too soon to judge the remake but, I will say limitations breed creativity. James’s sadness over Maria’s hospital death was expressed through body language, an empty hospital foyer and a painful yet beautiful piano piece now he sweats and frowns. I don’t know how to feel about that and, again I am in no way judging the remake. You can’t judges someone’s personality over a photograph. Yet we’re all analyzing this snapshot to hell and back.
Unrelated to this specifically. Have you noticed that the ring mark on his finger is on his right hand only during the intro restroom scene? After that scene, the mark is correctly back on his left hand. The interesting thing about this.. aside from maybe being an oversight, there might be some new symbolism to this. In the mirror scene, if we take the mirror's pov the ring mark correctly appears on his left hand since in a mirror the view is inverted. The most common symbolism surrounding mirrors is.. truth. This is dope if intentional.
Amazing video! Yeah, I'm just happy SH is back from the grave. These upcoming months, starting with Ascension, will be very important for the future of the series.
The idea that James Sunderland was "emotionless" due to technical limitations is a myth anyways. He was fatigued, dissociated, and repressing the memory of killing his wife.
I think it's just another bloober trope. They're trying to tell you how to feel by showing your character react to things, instead of letting you decide for yourself how to think and feel about a scene. While James' voice acting and camera positions might have been an accident, I feel it really shows him in a deep state of depression, not really caring about events or people, just trying to get through the situation he's in. Try to imagine what the game would be like if James would say "I miss my wife so much, I wish she didn't die", while crying, in every conversation.
I wouldn't mind more detail and more expressive facial features but I don't think Bloober has shown that they can show enough restrain or nuance to actually make it work, without hitting you over the head with what they're trying to make you feel.
Death of the author. It literally doesn't even matter what the intention was because what they shipped is independent unto itself. That's the nature of art. You don't get to send someone a blue sweater and then overwrite analysis of that and say the sweater was intended to be green.
A great artist does not tell or say, great artist shows. But even greater artist shows only that much that the viewer can make up their own mind and that very thing creates the world of it's own in the viewers mind.
Exactly like you said it. And the funny part is, irrelevant of how difficult it was to make facial expressions in the SH2 (in the scenes rendered in in-game graphics) there are instances of other characters showing extreme expressions, even James (the two-pyramid head scene). The expressions were clunky and weird, but there was an attempt of making them. Therefore, James missing any kind of expressions at moments we expect him to, is intentional, not a technical limitation only, since we have a technical reference point in the SH2 itself. I don't know why people try to justify Blooper completely changing the character by "oh it was the same in the original, just you couldn't see it due to old graphics stuff". Blooper messed up James from the start, and by changing the main character mental attributes they change the overarching interpretation of the story to an extent. Which means Blooper will meddle into SH2 story and storytelling. And we know how that went for their past games.
I think you brought up a lot of good points. I think most people that didn't take kindly to the trailer forgot that a lot of the "magic" of the original was based off of technical limitations at the time. I also don't think a remake has to be a shot for shot recreational. That would be boring and a waste of resources. We should be getting more story telling elements now that we have the technology for it.
Honestly, I've thought a lot about this, and I hope they do change a lot from the original. The only people interested in this game, for better or for worse, will be the megafans of the original SH2, but the twist of James being the killer is what made it so impactful. If they decided to go all-gas-no-breaks on something way the hella out of left field, in fact, decide to make the twist have nothing to do with everything being symbolic to James, it would subvert expectations in the most meta way I can think of, and what is more meta(l) than that? The first Western developer (Poland counts) to make a Silent Hill game that wasn't just a SH2 clone, except it's a remake of SH2 and SUPPOSED to be a SH2 clone? That would be awesome.
@@MelancholyRequiem I mean the studio developing the game has a rotten reputation. Put 2 & 2 together, not hard to see it's a rushed cash grab. OG Team Silent did it best
Thank you Muse so much for doing this video! It was needed! You are mirroring what many of us feel. It's just hard to get those thoughts out as some fans who are blinded by nostalgia goggles don't want to allow anyone to share that view. Some don't understand the idea of a what modern remake can be (to a game that was restricted in many ways by the hardware and software tech at the time). Sure some aspects (like the fog, flashlight, etc) are staples of Silent Hill and are kept for good reason. It doesn't mean other aspects of SH2 can't be improved upon. Like you I "want" to see more added to the game. I want the important / artistic aspects to remain intact... but I also want to finally see what could have been, finally become a reality. Everything I saw in the SH2-R trailer looks fantastic... and this is coming from a guy who played SH2 when it first came out... and whose life was changed forever by it.
I could just as easily claim your blinded by recency bias "Nostalgia goggles" needs to stop being thrown around so much. Stop pretending people who disagree with you just have a personal issue.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502Note, I said "some fans"... not "all fans". There is a big difference between others who disagree with me (which I have no problem with) vs toxic gatekeeping fans. I'm fine with anyone who wants to keep things the same (I get it).... I'm not ok with them not allowing others the same courtesy if they prefer things be modernized / improved upon from their pov. No matter what... we'll always have the originals to play (on PC at least, one way or another). Just stop preventing others from being allowed to enjoy the remake (or possibly enjoy it more) is all I want.
Sato crafted James as a disassociated, enigmatic persona in the same vein as Bill Pullman or Kyle Maclachlan meandering in the Lynchian hellscape. While the technical limitations undoubtedly played a role, it was the cinematography that truly ensured the preservation of this essence. Fred didn't not deliver an emotionally heightened performance for Alice/Renee, nor did Jeffrey wailed for Dorothy. Their subdued expressions allowed the dream-like atmosphere to persist, and so did James' reaction in the elevator scene. Not seeing what exactly happens to Maria is Silent Hill at its best -- your mind plays out a worse scene than polygons ever could.
I really enjoyed this video. I’ll confess that I’m one of those people who feel they could’ve toned down the facial emotions a bit. I’m of the firm belief that SH2 is a game that in some ways was so good because of the limitations at the time and the creative solutions they had to come up with. When I see the trailer I worry it’s gonna be a half-assed remake and the character expressions are focused on so heavily because it’s the biggest "good" thing the game has going for it. Even so, I think your video opened my mind up a bit.
Thank you for making this video. I had arguments with a few people who also thought James looked "too emotional," and had pretty much the same opinions - he only lacked emotion in the original due to technical limitations. All the other characters also lacked facial expressions in their scenes. I do think some of the technical limitations of the original games made a lot of things better for Silent Hill and pushed for the team to make things more subtle and nuanced, but I am pretty excited to see how the Remake will be handling emotions. I'm still cautiously optimistic about the remake, but it's got a lot of potential. Thank you for also mentioning Pyramid Head becoming a pursuer enemy - ever since the RE2 Remake, I've wanted Pyramid Head to have similar AI to Mr X in the Remake and I really hope they make that a thing. There's a lot the team wanted to do in the original game that was just too ambitious, and it would be really amazing to see the remake align more with their original vision. I'm honestly very excited and hope it turns out good.
Honestly my biggest issue (not a big one) is James doesn't look like James to me. I also don't think it would be bad for james being emotional. But someone pointed out James off behavior makes him a compelling character because at the end of the game it gives the player a A-ha moment you really James behavior is him trying to mentally block what he's done.
This is a fair analysis, I'm glad you're giving this remake a fair shot. I'm going to go in with an open mind too. I just think they should've focused on subtler scenes in the teaser trailer coming out of the gate, or remade the original e3 prison trailer.
I think Pyramid Head as a pursuer would only work if he’s limited to indoor appearances. In the streets, you’re in a wide open space. Running around Pyramid Head to avoid him would be trivial. He’d go from being an unbeatable threat to a minor inconvenience. But in the tight corridors it’s a completely different story, the pressure would be significantly more intense and avoiding him would be much harder. In the original you only encounter PH in enclosed spaces or tight corridors and I think that should be maintained even if he shows up more frequently.
@@fowreeeeeeeel Yes, I have played the full game, thank you very much. Pyramid Head is an antagonistic force that can kill the player already. Him appearing in a couple more places does not make him “more of a villain” in a significant enough way that it alters the story in any fundamentally important way.
I’m really hope it will released pretty soon like we haven’t got any news and update for the remake and I’m really worried, also October is almost near
Yes because when i think of a classic piece of media i think how a team of modern day hacks can improve it, yes i think how can Michael Bay improve Stalker 1979 or The Ascent 1977, or how can James Wan improve The Phantom of the Monastery 1934 or Eraserhead.
11:35 idk if you've ever hit that state or have seen someone in real life hit that state but when you're that depressed and emotionally muted and your mind is flipping back and forth between will i wont i. You dont exactly have an over the top sad face grabbing onto a noose. There is nothing. Quite literally you hit a sense of peace at that point and there is nothing. Which despite some of your other arguments having decent points. This single shot right here is not one of em. There should be no expression on James' face.
@demonic_myst4503 as someone who's attempted self unalive (thanks youtube) your emotions are pretty much numb at that point. Once you're there or in serious consideration of it. There's not much of anything intense going on in your mind.
@demonic_myst4503 I would argue, that the way a 14 year old and a mid to late 20 something year old man disassociates differs immensely from each other.
When I saw it was Bloober, I got so excited. Because I mistook them for BluePoint…. Given how Bloober has repeatedly bungled subjects like mental illness and SA and abuse, I don’t think they can pull it off. I’m still going to play the game, but it’s more about the nostalgia factor than any hope I have that Bloober has the tact and skill to improve upon anything.
@Juniper_Wippersnache Mr. Ito is not only designing the monsters, he is also directing all the combat mechanics in the remake. Mr. Yamaoka crafted every sound you heard in the original , music and sfx. His experience gained over the past 22 years of creating scores and albums assure that he will improve and expand upon his original work.
I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree with the "but it's all they could do with their past gen tech!" argument. James was an unreliable narrator and even from the beginning, his blank expression and muted reactions makes him unsettling in a town full of monsters. Turning him into a perpetually sweaty, sad boi with the most overemotional facial expressions just turn him into a self-parody. Frankly, we didn't *need* to see his face to understand his emotions; having the audience at a distance from him helps us examine his actions more critically, especially on which ending he receives. Keeping him too close to the audience (figuratively and literally) is going to negate that unless proven otherwise. I would *really* like to be proven otherwise; I don't want this remake to fail. I'm doing my best to remain optimistic, but Bloober famously (and consistently) do not understand how horror, the themes they present, and approach dark subject matter delicately. They've fail every single time (Blair Witch and The Medium, especially). I want to eat my words badly depending how this remake goes, but everything they've done (including recent interviews saying they're going to away from psychological horror *while remaking one of the most important psychological horror games out there* ) leaves me afraid of the end product. At the end of the day, the remake *might* improve, but I guess we'll wait and see.
100% agreed. Even SH1 had CG scenes where a character (like Lisa) would literally grin from ear to ear. People are confusing technical limitations with what Team Silent artistically intended - Masahiro Ito pretty much confirmed that after he criticized Bloober’s choice of facial animations.
I think they will change the opening cutscene given all the clash from fans, i find it beautiful how the game now portrays James as more emotional, but only for example when maria dies, eddie dies, the reveal that james killed mary, i can just imagine him crying, and finally him meeting Mary on her deathbed, even though it takes place in James mind.
I thought the creator of sh2 purposely made james as emotionless as possible to throw the player off so you didnt know james was the bad guy even going as far as highing a voice actor with no emotion in his voice
True, but there were not many va’s to pick from, the sh2 team picked english people working in Japan to voice, so not many choices. Turns out Guy Cihi was the perfect voice representation of James they could have found.
Currently playing through the original Silent Hill 2 (yes its the HD version, wasn't going to hunt down a ps2 to play a game I found on sale for 5.99). I think James' lack of emotion in the original speaks more to the limitations of the at the time hardware then the intention but it does work. However going into the remake, I think it is worth doing it with a more emotional character. Capcom humanized Leon more in Re4 Remake, so i think this approach could work
Personally, I'm not worried about stronger emotions (although, I'd rather see that as a slow progression, where he seems distant and dissociated before having smaller moments of "snapping" before shattering). My biggest concern is how they want to steer away from it being psychological horror when the story as a whole works best as a psychological horror. The entirety of Silent Hill and its detizens wrap around the psyche of its victims and are warped by it. The story literally starts out when he goes to find the very wife he helped kill. So stripping it of that feels absolutely like they do not understand the fundamentals of what they are working with. I'm just approaching this with caution since I'm not as against this studio as some people are. I get wanting it to stand out, but I'm worried it'll feel like a shallow reflection of a stronger horror story.
So delighted to have stumbled on your channel -- your content is devouring my Saturday! Excellent analysis and theories across the board. I'm one of those OG fans who has been with the series from the beginning, and while there have been disappointments, I still play every main line game with a dark song in my heart. Can't wait to play both this and f.
While I agree that this remake has an opportunity to be more exact with its framing bc it doesn't have to worry about the same technical concerns that its predecessor had, I feel like the opportunity presented should be one where the cinematography can more richly, clearly show off James' character. But the more expressive performance doesn't feel like it's true to his character. I'd be fine if the updated framing and blocking was placing a stronger emphasis on James' dissociated, drifting state of mind, and plenty of films have used closeups and such to convey that. The opening cutscene of the original game itself uses a closeup to convey that about James!
I love your breakdown of all these emotional scenes. It couldnt have been said better. Thank you for making this video to show the haters that the new remake needs the emotions we couldnt see before. I absolutely love what ive seen so far and i like how james looks. I hope the team doesnt listen to the hate and continues in their path to bring us something amazing 🙏
I do really love your content! I stumbled it upon searching Silent Hill 2's remake trailer breakdowns, one of the happiest "accidents" I've ever had! ♥
I havent watched the full video but the devs multiple times that James and other characters having minimal facial expressions beyond "blank" by choice. This was what they wanted to do and not a limitation of the ps2. Even if every cutscene in the game was CGI Jamss would look just as frozen. It was the entire point. Ignoring that just because you *can* easily mocap that with a big budget, is to miss that point.
I might be the only sane Silent Hill fan, because I’m withholding all judgments good, bad, or indifferent, until I actually play the remake, and even then, I’m going to approach it as its own thing instead of comparing it to the original. This existing doesn’t vanish the original from existing. You can always play the original one (yes it’s out of print, but let’s be real: roms are free and not hard to find), but we will never have the original “again.” It’s a game that entirely exists within the microcosm of time when it was created. This will be a new interpretation, for a new era, because that’s all it can be. But the original still exists whenever you need it.
Wrong. The game is gonna replace the original in modern audiences' mind. Because why would you play the game with "WORSE GRAPHIX" and "IMPOSSIBLE TANK CONTROLS" over the shiny new game with modernized shit dialogue and too much focus on combat? Zoomer can't appreciate old games. It's bullshit to remake movies and games "for a new era". It's a product of its time and it's great for it.
Narratively, the lack of facial expressions, and apparent stoicism of James in OG SH2 also conveys that he's as much an avatar for the player, as he is a defined character. This plays into the game's various endings, which depend largely on how the player makes James treat himself and how he treats other characters. Adding additional facial expressions to certain scenes does have the potential to create a dreaded ludo-narrative dissonance if the role-play aspect of the original endings is maintained in the remake. For example, James reacting to Maria being trapped outside the elevator and murdered by Pyramid Head opens the possibility of James OVER-reacting to that event. In the original game, the scene has some power because we can see James frantically mashing the button to open the door and let Maria in. He is clearly not completely callous to her suffering. But the omission of clear angles of his face gives room for the player to have your own feelings about Maria. If the player is being very protective of Maria and leaning towards the "Maria" ending, then the remake expressions are appropriate. But if the player is detached from her, doesn't protect her, and role plays James as not being very concerned with her, then the remake expression has the potential to be an overreaction that is at odds with how the player is playing James and treating Maria. At the end of the day, James does see Maria as a person. Especially at this point in the game, he hasn't started to see her as some weird pseudo-antagonist. So he does have sympathy for her, and a reaction to her suffering is absolutely appropriate for this scene. But the point is that the original scene was ambiguous, and allowed the player to fill in this emotion themselves. In the remake, we might not be able to do that.
Oh Muse, this is probably my favorite essay of yours yet. You hit the nail in the head. While I'm not entirely sold in the remake's facial expressions yet, I was also in awe of James' reaction in (assumably) Maria's last death. If possible, I really hope they remake Born from a Wish as well, because I'd love to see Maria's face when she realizes Ernest didn't exisr / when she contemplates death.
People express emotions in different ways, in the original James had suppressed most of his feelings and maybe even memories. That was the point of the 🟥
@@bigg1637yes, but throughout the game his illusion very slowly starts shattering or he is reminded of mary by maria, he still remembers all the good times he had with Mary but supressed everything else about her.
I think part of what makes James a great character is how removed he is from whats going on around him. SH2 has a dream like quality and James is in basically a self induced trance. I dont want an animation dump because they can afford it now
The noose scene is my favorite from the trailer tbh, like the original's awkwardness is very good in most parts but some of it is just kinda boring really and the original noose scene is a good example of that to me. It happens in none less than the UNDERGROUND section, the most intense part of the game, where James is obviously being shown as a prisoner too, of COURSE they'll frame him into the noose and be on the nose about it. But also that puzzle wasn't really about James' death but that of someone else, the suffering of other people as shown in multiple clues throughout the whole prison portion: it highlights even more that even if you play James at his rock bottom when he just doesn't really care at all if he lives or dies, witnessing someone else's suffering or the result of it is still a trigger to him, it's exactly why he's so dissociated in the first place. I'm very mixed on the things surrounding the remake all things considered but that scene? Nah, it's an excellent scene.
the technical limitations are unfortunately always a point that prevents to know what is artistic intention and what isn´t. it´s the same for kubrick´s movies where you can never know if it was a continuity error or his intention
I'm of the feeling that Silent Hill 2 was perfect for its time and no matter who remakes it, it will never be as well received or beloved as the original. There are many valid criticisms lofted the game's way due to Bloober's poor track record. That being said, there are many criticisms that are being sent the game's way that are not valid. The technical limitations of past generations gave us a lot of cool atmospheric additions, but are just kind of pointless to put in. No matter how atmospheric, RE will never have those door loading animations or fixed camera angles; SH2 won't have fog that acts the same as the original...you could argue that the "soul" of those projects is gone, and maybe in some way they are. But I believe, SH2 Remake will be a good game. Will it have the same impact of the original? No, it won't. But I would argue that it will be a well-crafted love letter to the original. Not something that everyone will want, but I believe it will be it's own piece of art.
Good argument, however, since bloober team Is on charge of the remake I would have really low expectations. Just take a look at the medium and how awful they tell trauma and sensitive topics, like abuse and suicide, SH2 also has this topics but the manage them in a responsible and subetly way
I've been more concerned about the lack of talent and heart with what has been observed so far. Taking the current gaming market into account along with the nature of the internet and spoilers pretty much gimps the idea from the get go. Ito seems like he was just consulted not heavily involved, and Yamaoka's ost will be good (still SH2 music) but, Sato not being there is a red flag to me. The west spent over a half decade showing the world how they can't do Silent Hill well, and I think the current market pushers taking a crack at a masterpiece like SH2 will end badly. Think Resident Evil 3 Remake, glossy but lifeless at its core, no depth.
It will be an absolute shitshow. For one, to this day Konami doesn't have a clue about what Silent Hill even is, so them handling it to Bloober will work as well as you'd expect. They only have Yamaoka and Ito on board, and I say "have" as in; the guy that made the music and the guy that designed the monsters. And for what is known, Ito is just suggesting them ideas all the way from Japan and supervising as in "Bloober sending him carefully selected material that looks good enough". Without Sato and Owaku, I have no faith in this project, and article after article, is all red flags and vague statements. Now they went to say that they "reimagined" the game and it will be a taste in their new "mass market horror" approach (They went on to say that they were done making psychological horror, and that the remake will be a taste in their new approach) In all honestly, I hope they fail so that Konami finally puts Silent Hill to rest or sell the IP to someone that trully cares.
I used to cosplay James on Tiktok, and it was very interesting to use audio of the game's dialog for that. Tiktok is, by nature, very face focused, the usual shot for cosplayers is from about the waist up, but pretty much none of the cutscenes in the game show James's face so instead of mimicking something from the game I had to develop my own idea of how his expressions would be. I wound up with a kind of dazed, slightly sad default expression and a lot of hesitant body language, but that's all my interpretation. James, like a lot of player characters, is kind of muted in his responses to events, so you can easily read him one way or the other.
@Juniper_Wippersnache It probably would have been more accurate to say "Most of the cutscenes are not focused on James's face. Generally we see a lot of the side or back of his head as he talks to other characters."
@Juniper_Wippersnache I was talking about this from the specific perspective of someone who was trying to study James's expressions for my own reasons. Not about whether the way they shot the cutscenes worked for the game or not. I figure either Bloober Team's remake will be good or it won't. I'm not invested in the remake at all. I don't understand why you decided to come down so harshly on me, when my specific scenario doesn't seem to have anything to do with your point.
The trailer for the Remake is bad in my opinion. Yes, it showes the "best" moments of the game, but it didn't give me the feeling of Silent Hill or of James himself. For me, Silent Hill 4 had the best trailer. It showed how the game is. A weird, confusing and scary game.
Only thing I don't care for is the voice actors, including Mary's voice over but besides that if its handled well, the actual material I don't think I mind the emotion amped up.
As long as the intro/rope scene is changed into the ”original” style i will be glad, i have always wanted to see how James reacted to his heartbreaks and journey, this game will be awesome, in terms of graphics…bloober, do not destroy this legendary title.
Great video. It really is a shame how negative this community is, though. It's to the point where I feel like no matter how the game turns out, it just won't be good enough. Nothing for this fan base will ever be good enough and that is why this franchise is truly doomed. It's almost poetic.
The fanbase is incredibly draining because of how negative it is, and nothing will ever be good enough for it. On one hand it shows how much they love and care for it, on the other its almost a self fulfilling prophecy as nothing will ever be what thier perfect idea of the game is.
Also… we gotta let go of the PT thing. It (the demo) was so good because it was short. Hideo Kojima, though brilliant, cannot help himself and cast nothing but A-C list actors nowadays in his projects. If you look at his last game it took awhile to get to the point. It was a future political commentary because that is what he is known for doing so well but it can be long winded at times. Even Guillermo del toro who is known for fantasy horror has a tendency of having his movies somewhat fall apart at the end. The only saving grace may have been Junji Ito. imo. We’ll never know what story these 3 would have come up with so all I have to go by is their past/current work… and yeah I’m choosing the cynicism route because it allows me to move on from PT
@Juniper_Wippersnache because like you I too have a viewpoint to share. Haha, anyway, clearly it appears we are at an impasse and you have your strong opinion and nothing will change that. Same with my own. We’ll leave it at that.
On a side note - if they upgraded the apartment complex (make it much bigger) to let players get in and out of each room with more ease they could use PH as a Mr Ex in that area. Il never for get the fear I felt when I heard that damn blade scrape on the ground on the roof. Imagine hearing that but not being able to see him. Holy crap.
I've thought the same thing. James seemed emotionally unattached in the original like he didn't know what was going on. In this one it's like deep down he knows but is just running from it.
the 'empty nothingness' of the original works better. intended or not, limitations can be in your favor. david lynch's work wouldn't be as interesting or mysterious if he had james cameron's budget or aesthetic.
He's supposed to have amnesia but is drawn to uncover what lies behind his mental block... He shouldn't be that emotional, he should be numbed in relation to the world as he's in shock throughout the game
I'm happy to have seen you make a video on this. The original game had technical limitations that the team had to work with, and they did great with it. Like you said, a lot of it was far away shots, which really created this distance between the player and character. But the team had to give up what they also wanted. CG cut scenes were the norm back then (I remember Prince of Persia looking so beautiful in the cut scenes). But later games did away with those and vastly improved in-game cut scenes using the same models. So I am looking forward to how Silent Hill 2 will be interpreted in the modern era, and I enjoyed seeing a more expressive James, and like you said, he was emotional in the games too. So I'm not sure what the criticisms are for the trailer. As for Bloober Team, I saw the beginning of Layers of Fear and wasn't impressed. But I saw their Blair witch game first a while back and I really liked what I saw (except for the ending, but I'm sure with a story already in place for Silent Hill 2 its all about execution then).
I think they just really miss. The opening scene: James walks into the toilet room. Just WTF? They miss mystery of this moment - we don't know how long he standing here. And all this loud words of respect to original is some kind of "fuckoff and buy".
I may not be a fan of Silent Hill 2 but I still prefer the original James in the original is supposed to be very emotionally distanced. This actually works well with the limited technology at the time. James at the start of the game looks way too emotional compared the original where he's still in denial, the new one just felt thematically off.
You're so right about articles, I remember reading a review in a magazine before the original released saying how bad it is, saying the story was confusing, I remember it like it was yesterday! If I had listened to them, I would have never bought it but I'm glad I did day one! P.S. The remake must be exactly the same bestiana 😭
The lack of emotion was almost certainly due to limitations, but I feel it really adds to how dissociated James is. Like with the noose cutscene, he seems entirely emotionless. Like pulling his head closer isn't even a conscious action, which fits so well for the In Water ending.
11:37 then again that could be the scene from outside the prison where it's just james interracting with the noose as we could see the background is very different probably just a new cutscene bloober team put it
I genuinely don’t understand the concern and how ppl don’t see how much Silent 2 has improved already. 🙄 It’s a legit remake, holding the core story of Silent Hill 2 inside. I seen all of that in the one trailer they showed. I genuinely don’t know how ppl, did not see that. I don’t know if it’s for attention or genuine ignorance and negative mindset. Regardless, this game is definitely an improvement compared to the original. Matter a fact, the original needs an update. I’m hoping for better dialogue, better combat, more interactions, more rewarding looting, more puzzles, more chill music, more lore, more unlockables, more endings, and etc. Thank you for shedding light to the non believers and being so informative!!💯👏🏽🌫❤️
I see your point about it's not entirely fair to judge the remake for being being expressive. But like many pieces of art the limitations can actually enhance it. I'm glad Team Silent worked with in their limitations to make the scenes work. The literal distance helped with the emotional distance of James. To me the Bloobers mistake is making him needlessly emotional. Almost to a comical level. James has always been a strange dude. Him having human emotions is overwhelming. But no way to know until the games out. I have little faith in them though.
I remember when the first trailer for the RE2 remake came out and I along with other old fogies were upset the fixed camera angles where nowhere to be seen. After some reflecting I was excited to revisit the Raccoon City Police Station and see it in a whole fresh new perspective. Konami definitely deserves the shade thrown at them for the decade of mistreatment to their fans ect, but I'm skeptically optimistic, and just like Muse pointed out, we "hopefully" get to relive some of our favorite locations and scenes with brand new pair of eyeballs!
Then he will be portrayed as a villain, which is completely wrong. if you have played the game and know what pyramid head does throughout the story and what he represents, you know why it does not work.
James had the emotional depth of a guy entranced by a haunted town who would gladly jump down several bottomless pits without thinking. Giving him all this added emotional depth will sour the experience for me. When Team Silent had technical limitations they found narrative reasons for the compromises they made, like the fog to combat draw distance. Messing with those just because you have the tech to do it now will be like pulling the soul out of the original product, and that's about what I expect from this remake. My expectations are super super low.
Seeing james just barely react to monsters/not bothered to jump down holes made his character seem delusional, i still rhink he will only get very emotional in scenes like marias death, the truth in the hotel, and talking to mary on her deathbed inside James mind.
@@fowreeeeeeeel James IS delusional. He's chasing after the ghost of his dead wife. IMO the idea is that he's so emotionally disconnected that he simply doesn't care about his own life anymore and would do things like jump down bottomless pits just for the promise of seeing Mary again, even though he knows that's impossible.
I scrolled too far for the sane comment. I'm starting to feel like people don't really understand anything about SH2. It's mind boggling.
I have zero faith just based on the trailer because it makes it obvious the people working on it don't understand it either.
Gone is the dream like and strange ambiance that when paired with the voice actors and ost made this game what it is.
I won't be giving these people a penny and I wish other people wouldn't either but I guess they'll learn the hard way.
@@fowreeeeeeeel That's literally the point tho. He's supposed to be delusion and dissociated, because he is. He's in a borderline amnesiac state trying to find the wife he doesn't remember killing. SH 2 plays very much into a dreamlike nighgtmarish state. It's not supposed to be grounded and realistic emotions. The town itself and every character in it is disconnected from reality, you've missed the point.
@@ByAzuraByAzuraByAzura Yes, but even in dreams if you see someone you love die you will still have a reaction. I know everything about Silent Hill 2, you know, this remake will almost certainly be amazing but james being emotional makes sense, i mean, in his twisted mind he hasn’t seen his wife for 3 years, and then seeing a ”clone” die of course he’ll be shattered.
hello algorithm gods. please bless this channel
Yesssss. AJ deserves all the praise!
You gotta address the gods properly. None of this “Hello” hogwash. You must get on your knees. “My lords. I humbly ask you grant us thy blessings…”
Amen brother or sister
Amen
W AJ
Despite the limitations at the time, I do love the fact that TS focused on full body shots. An interesting way to use body language to convey emotion compared to the over reliance of face shots that some shows, films etc. tend to do. I hope Bloober is able to ultilize the whole environment to tell the story, not just through facial expressions alone.
Yes, and man those full body shoots work magisterially.
I believe Bloober decided to go back to the drawing board (or maybe they were forced to do so by Konami) after some of the fanbase feedbacks. Even Masahiro Ito commented he agreed with some of the complaints in regards to James' facial expressions (I didn't have any issues with the trailer in that sense). Also, I remember Boober said the game was practically finished when they announced it, only to recently state that that was a misunderstanding (I don't buy it and I think this is evidence that they had to redo some stuff) - and here we are, 9 months of silence since that trailer.
Good point. I've played Blair Witch and The Medium from Bloober Team. I still think they handled the trauma of the protagonist and the relation to his dog quite well, but, in the end, Blair Witch was a First Person game where you rarely see any human character. And Blair Witch sure had it's other fair share of problems. But then there is The Medium. And how they handled the characters emotions at the end was simply horrible. It was overdramatic when it wasn't necessary and dull in important moments. Bloober wanted to get into the Blockbuster-Segment with The Medium and they simply fall on their butts.
I, unfortunately, get the exact same vibes from the Silent Hill 2 Trailer. That's undoubtly Bloobers handwriting and their take on "Blockbuster". We still don't know how much this trailer represents the Remake. It has been radio silence when it comes to the Remake for almost a year now and there are rumors that the game is currently stuck in production hell. I do not believe this, by the way. But if this is the same Bloober Team from The Medium, oh boy, their cutscene direction is horrible and they have so much to learn.
@@TheAufziehvogelit seems weird that in the middle of supposedly working on the SH2 remake, they somehow had time and resources to do a Layer of Fear remake. It does make me wonder what's going on over there.
@@balthazor44 That's easy. They simply work on too many projects. They even had to delay The Medium. This isn't too uncommon, but if you review the second half of The Medium, the game is a mess and you can almost taste the crunch of the game. So yeah, The Medium was surely created under crunch. From internal documents we know about a lot more projects they work on. The Layers of Fear Remake just one of them (was released without a delay though). And the lukewarm reviews of the Layer of Fear Remake are the exact same complains Bloober Team is receiving for years. Cheap scares and heavy problems with telling a story. And this comes from someone who is not completely against them because they are good when it comes to designs and music.
I do think that the Silent Hill 2 Remake is nearly wrapped up and they already tackle the next projects. Instead of focusing on one big game, they tackle multiple projects. And that's why they will most likely never produce anything that's better than mediocre.
@@TheAufziehvogelyou're probably right. Incidentally, I'm in the middle of the new Layers of Fear now. Never played the original. I'm enjoying it more than my other Blooober experiences (The Medum and Blair Witch), but largely for the reasons you mentioned. I like the environments, and it does at times manage convey a nice mood. But everything else is just so bland and the storytelling lacks anything resembling nuance. At times I can't help but to yell out to my screen "yeah, I get it already!"
I never made it to the second half of The Medium. Even the first half was enough for me to pull the rip cord.
There's been radio silence for all the games, except for Silent Hill: Ascension recently. Its not a Bloober specific thing. And I suspect the Silent Hill announcements were rushed while the games are still premature, so they're all still working. Plus there's 2 other unannounced games besides Sakura. It could be that the games will be stretched out. First we'll get Ascension, then possible the remake this year or next year. Its a matter of patience.
I don't think Bloober Team is lying about the game being ready, it was in another language and they said they were quite literally misinterpreted. But its possible it has been delayed due to feedback, if so that's quite welcome. The Sonic movie did the same thing when Sonic was criticized for his appearance, so much respect to those who listen to criticism.
i really think the game looks great and cant wait to sit down and play it through. There is only one scene I really want and that is when Marie chews James a new ahole in the basement for not giving a crap about her "Anyway....what do you mean ANYWAY?!!". That scene is so amazing I hope they recapture that particular moment properly.
It's a fantastic scene but seems almost impossible to surpass or even replicate (just look at the work in the HD remasters on PS3, for example).
The whole game, as the Muse said, is very different from other SHs. Be it for technical or artistic reasons. I think the original will actually gain appreciation after Bloober's effort.
😂 that scene never fails to make me laugh tho. I dont mind it if bloober changed it to be more serious.
It's 100% a change.
The player in 2001 had experience with Harry Mason in Silent Hill 1. The typical 100% good guy protagonist. Silent Hill 2 plays off of this expectation. When the game starts you aren't supposed to know James is distraught and visibly tormented by guilt, because he isn't. He has amnesia from the guilt. He felt so guilty that he forgot why he was going to Silent Hill and forgot that he killed his wife. He imagined that his wife had been dead for 3 years and imagined that the blank piece of paper in his car is actually a letter from her. That's why he thinks he is in Silent Hill.
The player is supposed to think James is a typically good guy like Harry Mason. The big reveals in the game work because you learn that James isn't what he seems, and because at the time video games didn't really feature protagonists that weren't heroic good guys.
If you change it so James is shaking and sweating and completely distraught from the very first scene of the game, then none of this works. Why is James this distraught if he thinks his wife has been dead for 3 years? The changes present in the trailer make it so the story does not make sense.
Its a remake, not a remaster. Changes are to be expected.
hmm that feels flimsy, I think remastering something is an aspect of remaking to some extent, both are approaches for change. I'd go with iteration. I think when it comes to any work that is beloved, "changes" can be a death sentence, especially narrative or sequence alterations that can undermine a lot of what makes it work in the first place that includes its flaws. Silent Hill 2 is clunky but that's because the focus is more on the story than anything else and too many "changes" to the story I think fundamentally ruins it. Ideally it should do its best to remain true to the original work as possible while honing and fine tuning its rougher edges usually stemming from whatever limitation of its time. But in this case part of the appeal is that ambiguity which is bolstered by its limitations that is deliberately strange and kind of hard to parse aesthetic. The aesthetic of Silent Hill combined with the era of hardware it runs on is so unique to both this world and the playstation (not mention this spawned countless game tributes trying to recapture that same liminal dreamy tones its so famous for to this day). I think the problem is focusing or fine tuning something that only works out of focus. Improvements and developments are to be expected otherwise it defeats the whole point of a remake. It infers that there is something the original could've improved on or developed that was worth the effort of return. I don't know anyone who asked for this game to be remade or changed. @@danielpeckham5520
@@danielpeckham5520 So? It's screwing up the experience.
@@rikiishitoru8885 until the game actually comes out, I won't pre judge it
25:23 in regards to re-releasing the original SH2, just throwing it out there but when Medievil was remade the team actually included the original PS1 game as an unlockable for completing the game 100%. I never got to play the original Medievil on PS1 so it's really cool that in addition to playing the Remake i can also experience the original game and it is a fantastic way to preserve older games. Personally i think every Remake should include the original game as an unlockable.
Like imagine if you unlock all the endings in SH2 Remake, you reach the dog and then after mocking James's despair that a dog has been playing him this whole time the dog then grants you access to the original Silent Hill 2 and Born From a Wish.
But this is just my wishful thiking. However it would be nice if they did somehow find a way to include the original game. I mean if a group of fans can fix the PC port of SH2 then surely a development team can get a working version of the original game too.
It should but it can't, The Original Source Code for all original first fours Silent Hill Games were lost by Konami, this is why the HD Remaster of SH2 and SH3 had so many problems as they had to use the back up files but not the original source game files to remaster so it came with the bugs not to mention the recast of the voices.
Original James felt like a broken, dead inside shell of a man in a believable way. New James feels like an actor trying to act like he goes through trauma.
That’s why I think this game will be one of the hardest, if not THE hardest game to make a faithful remake of
Back in 2002, when I finished Silent Hill 2, I never imagined that this game would leave such a profound impact on me. Later on, I played the other Silent Hill games released on the PC platform, but as you might expect, none of them could recreate the same effect that Silent Hill 2 had on me.
In my opinion, the most significant aspect of this game is the subdued and expressionless nature, even with the camera frequently positioned behind the characters. You know how old games were with their low-resolution textures and lack of details; we used to fill in the gaps with our own minds and imagination, and the same held true for Silent Hill 2. At least that's how it was for me. James' blankness and lack of emotional response to events, not being able to see his face all the time, allowed me to fill in the blanks with my own perceptions, making the game even more impactful from my perspective.
Regarding the part where you mentioned the trailer towards the end of the video, while I agree that it highlights the most striking moments, having watched the Tokyo Game Show and E3 trailers of Silent Hill 2 multiple, multiple times, I can't say that the remake of Silent Hill 2 had the same effect on me. I still can't get used to the "new" James' childish eyebrows and exaggerated facial expressions, and if they can't get rid of this exaggeration in the final version of the game, I'm certain that I won't be able to establish the same connection with the new James as I did with the original James.
Speaking of the introduction videos, in the original game's trailers, we could listen to snippets of Akira Yamaoka's magnificent pieces, which contrasted the game's terrifying atmosphere and piqued curiosity with some energetic and occasionally romantic parts. However, in the remake's introduction video, apart from one piece specific to the original Silent Hill 2, we didn't hear anything else. This makes me concerned about the audio content of the new game as well. I wonder how Silent Hill 2 songs used in the films will be adapted or if they will be adapted at all for the new game. As you know, one of Silent Hill 2's strongest aspects was its inclusion of marvelous pieces and ambient sounds.
Personally, I don't have high expectations for the Silent Hill 2 remake. I'm content with the original game and the memories it left me with. Yes, I'll probably get and play the new game on its release day, but to be honest, I don't believe that Bloober Team's technical and narrative abilities, despite Masahiro Ito's leadership, can make a Silent Hill 2 game as impactful as the original.
Although I've been subscribed to your channel for a while, I haven't been commenting much. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to share my thoughts through this topic. Thank you for what you've done so far and what you'll do in the future. It's wonderful to know that there are people who are genuinely devoted to the Silent Hill series.
People forget, the 90s was a time in game development where the ENTIRE process revolved around working around limitations of the tech at the time.
Am I worried about the quality of Bloobers work? Of course, but only going off of their past work. Not because I view Silent Hill 2 as this perfect sacred horror game where *every* single moment is a perfect portrayal of exactly what the devs envisioned that shouldn't be changed, because it isn't, there's no way it COULD HAVE BEEN. People seem to forget that. Freaking awesome video 🎉
That's fair but at the same time Jame's emotional state and reactions are so integral to the story telling, you can't just take something so intentional and necessary and switch it up, you'd be missing the point
I can appreciate more expression in the remake - but part of the strength of SH II is that it felt understated, even if that was actually just us projecting onto the game.
So much media now confuses amateur dramatics and melodrama for severity. Whereas the reality is that melodrama tends to signal juvenility and immaturity. A lot of the heaviest moments in life are not met with screaming and wailing, but with silence. That's not tiktok-stoicism, it's the reality of being overwhelmed. There mere act of sitting down when things get really wild, can communicate despair far more effectively than a tantrum.
Think of more or less every single American horror film you've seen in the last decade or more - none of the writers understand how to build conflict or intercharacter drama that seems in any way reasonable. It's always a giant clusterfuck of characters wildly overreacting to every possible situation, screaming incoherently at every other character, and taking the single stupidest decisions availiable to them. A new person walks through a door unannounced and suddenly there are three accusations being screamed at them and the fourth person is pointing a gun at their head. There seems to be a delusional idea that this ramps up the tension. It doesn't. It just makes everyone look stupid and childish. Maybe it's different in the States, but I've been in a few interesting scenarios, and nobody reacts to them with full scale meltdowns 100% of the time for no reason. It's just not how people function apart from full on Jersey Shore-esque adult children. And at that point you cannot be invested in them. There's nothing salvagable in those people.
That's why the slide down the elevator doors in SC II is effective - we don't need to see James screaming and kicking and crying. He just needs to collapse into a heap. It communicates exactly what it needs to.
Absolutely brilliant comment!! I agree completely. Your point about the elevator scene is such a good one. We know how defeated he feels just from his collapse. That's great subtlety in storytelling.
I don't think you understand how fight and flight responses work. Put any human-being in a life and death situation and see how fast that person turns stupid. Nothing you've said is based in reality. Projecting yourself from a position of comfort to a character in life and death situation and pretending to know that the character wouldn't make bad decisions? Now, that's childish.
@@coolshah1662 Nothing you said functions as a counter to what Industrial Bonecraft said, for one. Two, let's just absolutely *stop* with the "but muh realism." Here's some reality for you: Stories are NOT the same as reality. Emotions in a story are not the same as emotions in reality. Actions in a story do not have the same consequences as they do in reality. Stories work because they are a distinct romanticised version of reality where everything has this level of drama to it that pulls us in and makes us care. And part of this romanticisation is that characters in stories are not bound purely by what's *supposedly* realistic, but instead by what fits the character's mind and the story. "Realism" in a story is distinct from reality. Die Hard goes out of its way to portray John McClane as an everyman. He's not supposed to be like a typical action hero of the day. He's supposed to convey a sense of realism. But guess what? He's not realistic in what he actually does. He achieves things that are VERY unrealistic, and yet we believe it - why? Because stories aren't the same as reality and they have distinct expectations and logic. Likewise, it's why things that may happen in real life aren't appropriate for stories. To use another example, we'll say... hm, Han Solo and Leia not being together at the start of The Force Awakens. Now, realistically, people fall apart for countless reasons in life. It happens. But in a story, where you've spent films setting up this story and allowing it to have a happy ending? Undoing that is bad form. Is it "realistic" that it could happen? Yes. Is it good for the story? *No.* Stories and reality, again, are ***different***.
To so wildly and deliberately ignore a fact of storytelling that has been in place for quite literally all of human history in order to make this weak argument of some form of 'emotional realism' for this game? An argument that doesn't *even* hold water in reality for a VERY substantial percentage of the population? Yeah, no, *that* is childish. And profoundly goofy, for that matter.
@@innoclarke7435 You've said nothing of substance. Don't you fanboys get tired of this endless wank? What are you even trying to say? Stories are always romanticized, and, if they aren't, they're "badly written"? Did you come up with this lofty ideal? That's an opinion, not a fact. No body has to follow your extremely narrow window in regard to story-telling. That's your preference, not some objective marker to judge story-telling; and your Diehard example is laughable as SH and that aren't even in the same genre nor are they trying to aim for anything similar. There are a thousand stories out there that are extremely realistic; they even locate fantasy in the realm of reality to convey x, y, or z aspects. How unthinkable, amirite?
And you know what, I'm going to go there: grab a decent horror story, and you'd realize how poorly written SH games are. heck, Poe's least complex short-story, pick any, takes a giant dump on the entire "masterclass" SH stories that are heavily plagiarized when it comes to Lynch's work. The problem with you desperate fanboys is that you lack media literacy and want to raise everything you consume to some great artistic status, without ever trying to engage with the said art's shortcomings; and boy does SH fall woefully short of Lynch's work that's been heavily plagiarized for sh2: there's literally frame by frame copy-pasting from Lost Highway (the infamous "face touching" scene at the start? Yeah, it's frame by frame plagiarism, but I'm sure you'd spin this into something else, as well) and Blue Velvet for SH2 and none of the artistic fervor that went into Lynch's work. In fact, none of the SH games are anywhere near as good as Jacob's Ladder, another movie that was heavily copied for the other-world effect.
The voice-acting is goofy as shit and nothing like, for instance, The Killing of the Sacred Dear Lynchian effect SH Team was desperately aiming for. So what are you talking about, anyway? Listen, fanboy, consume something other than mediocre videogames and you might realize that they're not all that great. Even the music that became "iconic" for SH was heavily plagiarized by Yamaoka; so SH is neither original nor it does anything original.
Save it.
The uncanny, empty, tired look on James' face does seem like a major factor in his character, unintenional or not
But if we see him attain more emotion as the game goes on, I think that would be a positive change
Does he need to have the same look the whole game like his soul has been taken? I'm sure that is how many would prefer it, but that's not the question
It would be interesting if James' facial expressions can indicate which ending you'll get. When James feels depressed, his face is always down leading to in water ending. If James isn't phased, he gets the Maria ending. If James is looks a lot more calm, then you get the leave ending.
@@Danny328DT I would be into that
@@Danny328DT That's a bad idea and you should feel bad.
@lainiwakura1776 Well it's more of a concept idea rather than something I want. I think it just helps for completionist. Maybe multiple playthroughs and difficulty setting.
James was indeed emotional but not over-dramatic like in the trailer of the remake. And yes, the technology used back then could be part of the reasons why James expressions (along with the other characters), looked "inhuman", sometimes but as you say in the video, he is emotionally blocked and he doesn't care much about others, just before the elevator scene Maria screams at him when he says "anyway" and then she gets mad. The same happens after defeating Eddie, James is conflicted by a moment but after that he continues on with his search, just like when Angela climbs the steps on fire he could not love her and he didn't do much to prevented her to sacrifice herself and, again, after that he continues on just like that. Even when he learns the truth he doesn't move a finger to stop Laura from leaving the hotel, perfectly knowing that there are monster everywhere or the fact that she has no home to go with or without monsters outhere. Also, from the very beginning of the game James says to Angela that he doesn't care if it's dangerous or not when she advised him not to go to the town and we see through the game that James acts more reckless than Harry in the first game, despite the fact that he has his memories blocked all the game until the hotel. And the mental block he has could be either self induced or maybe the town itself could have, at least, some part of involvement on its existence, when James tries to remember something, he puts one of his hands in his forehead and he shows that he feels some kind of pain when this happens.
I do like seeing a little more emotion from the characters, specially in the high stress situations like the elevator scene. I do think it would be best if at times James looked more emotionless, conveying his instinct to dissociate from pain as much as possible. Then maybe the tougher scenes would have a bigger impact, because that’s when his bubble bursts and we could see the true horror he feels, even if he tries to deny it.
Yes the possibilities of a modern engine are endless. But oftentimes less is more that's all I'll say
@Juniper_Wippersnache Yeah but its also the fact that modern developers all want this hyper realistic graphics for their games resulting in many of them looking samey with no distinct visual style
I disagree that James’ original facial animations were “less emotional”. It’s just a different emotion; he’s dissociated and depressed rather than being acutely sad in the moment. To me, that’s a lot more realistic than the remake’s presentation. Should he always be deadpan? No, but the remake’s intense frowns aren’t very believable - there’s a reason it got turned into a meme.
No, it's not that James' original facial animations are less emotional, they're just non existent, you can clearly see many sections where his face is completely static and completely non animated, and it's not a design choice, they're just technical limits.
And the dubbing was also embarassing, completely monotonous (if you try to dub it with an AI you can probably obtain a better result).
And a lot of serious stuff gets turned into a meme, because, who would have thought, people are stupid as fuck.
@@gothicking9280 voice acting was perfect in the original.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi Voice acting was perfect? 🤣 if that piece of garbage was perfect I don't even wanna know what a bad voice acting is for you......if I try to dub James at home I can probably obtain a better result, stop trying to defend what's objectively indefensible.
@@gothicking9280 or maybe you just have no ear for nuance. original performances convey a very specific tone that plays perfectly into the narrative of the game. the new voice acting seen in the trailer is completely off the mark in this regard.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi Oh yeah, fantastic nuance, a completely soulless and monotous voice acting made like that because it's probably been done in 2 days, or, most likely, because the voice actor was an incompetent.
As I was saying, stop trying to defend something that it's completely indefensable, it's not something sought after or done on purpose, it's like that because it's probably been done in 2 days with a 10$ budget.
You have been a true blessing to the Silent Hill community for years now! I thank you for your dedication to this amazing series 🙏
The fog in Silent Hill was also the result of technical limitations. Should that fog go away too, now that it's no longer necessary? Or...did their solution to a technical limitation add something to the game that's become an integral part of the experience?
Lol yo this comment is so stupid.
I hope the fog is kept. Like in the first Resident Evil on PS1. The doors were there for loading times. When the remake came out for game cube, they kept them because they were iconic
It added a lot to the game, and made it what it is. This kind of stuff needs to be used in the direction that suits the established storyline and artistic direction, if you want to call it a remake. Not only the fog added to the atmosphere, but the fog itself behaved uncanny. Blooper team's fog in SH2 remake is your regular UE5 fog physics simulation, taking that effect away.
Not even comparable james lack of emotions makes h8m less interesting less relatable and thats coming from somone who actualy was emotionaly discoiative for much of my life its not interesting and it doesnt fit silent hills world at all silent hill atracts people based on their guilt and emotions
That's a good point. Its a really pick and choose what the game ended up being, and what the developers wanted. The fog itself was created to hide the limitations of the game but it became such an iconic part of it.
Bloober has a very tenuous relationship with subtlety so I really don't think it's even worth trying anything else for them at this point. Their games blare their subtext at you with a fog horn
And people need to remember that YOUR version of James is going to be different from person to person. We don't see James' face emote solely due to technical limitations, it was also a way to keeps things AMBIGUOUS. Unrepentant James and Leave Ending James are mentally two wildly different people - and of course have different emotions and feelings. It's only in his physically most shocked moments that he truly emotes, or when he is interrogating Maria and we see his brow fold. Not knowing much about James, and not SEEING James strongly emote helps the producers keep James as a nebulous figure. In the Remake, we now KNOW what it is James is feeling, sadness and guilt, because he wears it on his sleave... But what about the other versions of James? Will Blooper Team have facial animation changes to match the current ending route you are on? Doubt it.
@@nillynush4899 Obviously it won't, but it's stupid to expect them to actually do anything subtle or leave any room for interpetation. All of what you said is going directly out the window and that's not a hot take or a striking revelation, that should be obvious the moment you see that Bloober is making this game. Realistically, they shouldn't even try to go for this - and you'd do much better to just accept that the SH2 remake will follow one single interpretation of James, likely a very simplistic one, and you'd be very lucky if it even makes any sense.
The trailer, as Muse picked it apart in here, has told us everything we needed to know. Bloober is still Bloober and if they want their game to have an implication like, say, James is suicidal and is just looking for reasons to cling on as he enters Silent Hill only to ultimately give in (In Water), then boy will that be signposted thoroughly throughout the game. The only thing you can hope for is that maybe the product telling that story won't be genuinely painful to sit through.
With how they've handled dark topics like trauma and abuse in their previous titles, I am very worried with how they are going to treat Angela and her story.
So many people are making this argument about James showing too much emotion in his face and all I can think is, do you know how weird it would be to implement expressionless faces into a modern game? It would not deliver the same effect that older technology did 20 years ago where they were always having to cleverly obscure things, it would look really weird. I get that a big part of SH2 is how uncanny it is with how the characters behave, but the fanbase for this series has spent so long examining every small detail that they all think they know exactly what the dev team was thinking when they created it. There are clearly moments in the original game where James was emotional, 20 years later it can finally be shown in a realistic way.
I know the fanbase has put up with fifteen plus years of Konami bs similar to the mgs fanbase now i think about it
@@Gabbagool86 We have put up with a lot and it's clearly shown in how much people care about how this remake is going to be handled. I'm not faulting anyone who is worried at all, I fully understand and feel the same way. I just think zeroing in on something like facial expressions isn't really the big thing to think about. Personally I'm trying to find a balance between being hopeful and cautious about it, I do think Bloober Team is made up of people who love this game and want to make something respectful towards the source material. I'd also like to think they've considered the feedback they've recieved from thier previous games and this trailer. Having some of the original talent involved is also reassuring. Not much we can do as fans besides either being supportive and hopeful that they're listening and treating this with care or sitting here obsessing over the details until it comes out.
There's a huge gap between expressionless character(which to me, in the ps2 game wasn't btw.) and getting a full drama queen.
James' stoic face and ambiguity towards what was happening helped a lot in the story development back in 2001.
To me this remake is already missing it's shot.
@@JeremieFriez An example of what I'm talking about would be the noose scene, since that is one people are bringing up and you can see it in this video as an example. They did absolutely nothing to James' face in that scene, it's just completely blank. If they did the same thing in this game it would look much more out of place because we can see James' face more clearly now, so the look of uncertainty fits. Most of the other parts we see will come down to a matter of opinion or what people think the game should be like because his face is obscured (probably because they couldn't accurately show the emotions they wanted to in an in-game cutscene). Personally, I think SH2 is about showing an awakening in James through what he is shown as the story moves forward, and the scenes they've shown him being a 'drama queen' are the pivotal scenes where James is making huge steps waking up from his dissociation, the scenes where Maria is in danger or dying are symbolic of James losing his wife. In the original game they did not show his face during these scenes, but we heard him crying out for her, we heard his anguish, and we even got monologes from him showing he was clearly distressed. James' stoicness towards other parts of the game could very well still be intact, such as when he meets Angela or Eddie or sees a monster for the first time. That doesn't mean he needs a blank default model face for those scenes, because like you said, facial emotion is a broad range in which subtle differences can send a huge message. Therefore, I still think people are jumping the gun to a comical degree thinking the game is already bad due to a few shots of his expression in a trailer, and it's due to people mistaking the graphical limitations of the original for James being just completely void of emotion or something. It's a story of his journey of not remembering or feeling much to remembering and feeling everything.
@@JeremieFriezJames stoicism to me was a man in a sense of disbelief trying to navigate what is going on and staying strong as much as possible. There was times where he expressed emotions at certain situations.
I missed your content. This year's been really rough, and your channel came to mind as I used to watch it a couple of years ago. Just wanted to say I appreciate your content and analysis's, it's a small comfort to watch
(Spoilers I guess) It’s way way too soon to judge the remake but, I will say limitations breed creativity. James’s sadness over Maria’s hospital death was expressed through body language, an empty hospital foyer and a painful yet beautiful piano piece now he sweats and frowns. I don’t know how to feel about that and, again I am in no way judging the remake. You can’t judges someone’s personality over a photograph. Yet we’re all analyzing this snapshot to hell and back.
I just happy that the franchise is back 🙏🏻
Eh. Tt the cost of a rotten studio being behind the development of it. Team Silent was the one & only
Unrelated to this specifically. Have you noticed that the ring mark on his finger is on his right hand only during the intro restroom scene? After that scene, the mark is correctly back on his left hand.
The interesting thing about this.. aside from maybe being an oversight, there might be some new symbolism to this. In the mirror scene, if we take the mirror's pov the ring mark correctly appears on his left hand since in a mirror the view is inverted. The most common symbolism surrounding mirrors is.. truth.
This is dope if intentional.
Amazing video! Yeah, I'm just happy SH is back from the grave. These upcoming months, starting with Ascension, will be very important for the future of the series.
The idea that James Sunderland was "emotionless" due to technical limitations is a myth anyways. He was fatigued, dissociated, and repressing the memory of killing his wife.
Interesting breakdown of how game limitations can create the experience you get when playing
I think it's just another bloober trope. They're trying to tell you how to feel by showing your character react to things, instead of letting you decide for yourself how to think and feel about a scene.
While James' voice acting and camera positions might have been an accident, I feel it really shows him in a deep state of depression, not really caring about events or people, just trying to get through the situation he's in.
Try to imagine what the game would be like if James would say "I miss my wife so much, I wish she didn't die", while crying, in every conversation.
I wouldn't mind more detail and more expressive facial features but I don't think Bloober has shown that they can show enough restrain or nuance to actually make it work, without hitting you over the head with what they're trying to make you feel.
Death of the author. It literally doesn't even matter what the intention was because what they shipped is independent unto itself. That's the nature of art. You don't get to send someone a blue sweater and then overwrite analysis of that and say the sweater was intended to be green.
A great artist does not tell or say, great artist shows. But even greater artist shows only that much that the viewer can make up their own mind and that very thing creates the world of it's own in the viewers mind.
Exactly like you said it. And the funny part is, irrelevant of how difficult it was to make facial expressions in the SH2 (in the scenes rendered in in-game graphics) there are instances of other characters showing extreme expressions, even James (the two-pyramid head scene). The expressions were clunky and weird, but there was an attempt of making them. Therefore, James missing any kind of expressions at moments we expect him to, is intentional, not a technical limitation only, since we have a technical reference point in the SH2 itself. I don't know why people try to justify Blooper completely changing the character by "oh it was the same in the original, just you couldn't see it due to old graphics stuff". Blooper messed up James from the start, and by changing the main character mental attributes they change the overarching interpretation of the story to an extent. Which means Blooper will meddle into SH2 story and storytelling. And we know how that went for their past games.
I think you brought up a lot of good points. I think most people that didn't take kindly to the trailer forgot that a lot of the "magic" of the original was based off of technical limitations at the time. I also don't think a remake has to be a shot for shot recreational. That would be boring and a waste of resources. We should be getting more story telling elements now that we have the technology for it.
Time will tell how it works. I've heard concerns that they will change a fair bit based on their vision of SH2
Honestly, I've thought a lot about this, and I hope they do change a lot from the original. The only people interested in this game, for better or for worse, will be the megafans of the original SH2, but the twist of James being the killer is what made it so impactful. If they decided to go all-gas-no-breaks on something way the hella out of left field, in fact, decide to make the twist have nothing to do with everything being symbolic to James, it would subvert expectations in the most meta way I can think of, and what is more meta(l) than that? The first Western developer (Poland counts) to make a Silent Hill game that wasn't just a SH2 clone, except it's a remake of SH2 and SUPPOSED to be a SH2 clone? That would be awesome.
@@MelancholyRequiem That would be dumb and not SH2, just using SH2 characters and the name for sales.
@lainiwakura1776
With the abhorrent behavior the SH2 fandom has displayed towards this remake, "dumb" might even be too good for them.
@@MelancholyRequiem Eh, im still iffy with them fully changing something so pivotal
@@MelancholyRequiem I mean the studio developing the game has a rotten reputation. Put 2 & 2 together, not hard to see it's a rushed cash grab. OG Team Silent did it best
Thank you Muse so much for doing this video! It was needed! You are mirroring what many of us feel. It's just hard to get those thoughts out as some fans who are blinded by nostalgia goggles don't want to allow anyone to share that view. Some don't understand the idea of a what modern remake can be (to a game that was restricted in many ways by the hardware and software tech at the time). Sure some aspects (like the fog, flashlight, etc) are staples of Silent Hill and are kept for good reason. It doesn't mean other aspects of SH2 can't be improved upon. Like you I "want" to see more added to the game. I want the important / artistic aspects to remain intact... but I also want to finally see what could have been, finally become a reality. Everything I saw in the SH2-R trailer looks fantastic... and this is coming from a guy who played SH2 when it first came out... and whose life was changed forever by it.
I could just as easily claim your blinded by recency bias
"Nostalgia goggles" needs to stop being thrown around so much. Stop pretending people who disagree with you just have a personal issue.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502Note, I said "some fans"... not "all fans". There is a big difference between others who disagree with me (which I have no problem with) vs toxic gatekeeping fans. I'm fine with anyone who wants to keep things the same (I get it).... I'm not ok with them not allowing others the same courtesy if they prefer things be modernized / improved upon from their pov. No matter what... we'll always have the originals to play (on PC at least, one way or another). Just stop preventing others from being allowed to enjoy the remake (or possibly enjoy it more) is all I want.
Sato crafted James as a disassociated, enigmatic persona in the same vein as Bill Pullman or Kyle Maclachlan meandering in the Lynchian hellscape. While the technical limitations undoubtedly played a role, it was the cinematography that truly ensured the preservation of this essence.
Fred didn't not deliver an emotionally heightened performance for Alice/Renee, nor did Jeffrey wailed for Dorothy. Their subdued expressions allowed the dream-like atmosphere to persist, and so did James' reaction in the elevator scene. Not seeing what exactly happens to Maria is Silent Hill at its best -- your mind plays out a worse scene than polygons ever could.
I really enjoyed this video. I’ll confess that I’m one of those people who feel they could’ve toned down the facial emotions a bit. I’m of the firm belief that SH2 is a game that in some ways was so good because of the limitations at the time and the creative solutions they had to come up with. When I see the trailer I worry it’s gonna be a half-assed remake and the character expressions are focused on so heavily because it’s the biggest "good" thing the game has going for it.
Even so, I think your video opened my mind up a bit.
Thank you for making this video. I had arguments with a few people who also thought James looked "too emotional," and had pretty much the same opinions - he only lacked emotion in the original due to technical limitations. All the other characters also lacked facial expressions in their scenes. I do think some of the technical limitations of the original games made a lot of things better for Silent Hill and pushed for the team to make things more subtle and nuanced, but I am pretty excited to see how the Remake will be handling emotions. I'm still cautiously optimistic about the remake, but it's got a lot of potential.
Thank you for also mentioning Pyramid Head becoming a pursuer enemy - ever since the RE2 Remake, I've wanted Pyramid Head to have similar AI to Mr X in the Remake and I really hope they make that a thing. There's a lot the team wanted to do in the original game that was just too ambitious, and it would be really amazing to see the remake align more with their original vision. I'm honestly very excited and hope it turns out good.
Honestly my biggest issue (not a big one) is James doesn't look like James to me. I also don't think it would be bad for james being emotional. But someone pointed out James off behavior makes him a compelling character because at the end of the game it gives the player a A-ha moment you really James behavior is him trying to mentally block what he's done.
This is a fair analysis, I'm glad you're giving this remake a fair shot. I'm going to go in with an open mind too. I just think they should've focused on subtler scenes in the teaser trailer coming out of the gate, or remade the original e3 prison trailer.
I want it to be good but i seriously have doubts
I think Pyramid Head as a pursuer would only work if he’s limited to indoor appearances.
In the streets, you’re in a wide open space. Running around Pyramid Head to avoid him would be trivial. He’d go from being an unbeatable threat to a minor inconvenience.
But in the tight corridors it’s a completely different story, the pressure would be significantly more intense and avoiding him would be much harder. In the original you only encounter PH in enclosed spaces or tight corridors and I think that should be maintained even if he shows up more frequently.
No, just no. That makes Pyramid head seem like a villain, pyramid head is something completely else, have you played the full game?
@@fowreeeeeeeel Yes, I have played the full game, thank you very much.
Pyramid Head is an antagonistic force that can kill the player already. Him appearing in a couple more places does not make him “more of a villain” in a significant enough way that it alters the story in any fundamentally important way.
RE Simps: "Step on me giant vamp mommy!"
Muse: "Pyramid Daddy come hunt me!"
I’m really hope it will released pretty soon like we haven’t got any news and update for the remake and I’m really worried, also October is almost near
The algorithm has brought us together. In our special place…
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… A Silent Hill 2 deep dive
Yes because when i think of a classic piece of media i think how a team of modern day hacks can improve it, yes i think how can Michael Bay improve Stalker 1979 or The Ascent 1977, or how can James Wan improve The Phantom of the Monastery 1934 or Eraserhead.
Hello muse and everyone
The subtly of this game, is what made it so great. I really hope the remake can capture that same magic
11:35 idk if you've ever hit that state or have seen someone in real life hit that state but when you're that depressed and emotionally muted and your mind is flipping back and forth between will i wont i. You dont exactly have an over the top sad face grabbing onto a noose. There is nothing. Quite literally you hit a sense of peace at that point and there is nothing. Which despite some of your other arguments having decent points. This single shot right here is not one of em. There should be no expression on James' face.
As somone who was emotionaly disociative i heavily disagree it was the bigest flaw of the second game not a strengh
@demonic_myst4503 as someone who's attempted self unalive (thanks youtube) your emotions are pretty much numb at that point. Once you're there or in serious consideration of it. There's not much of anything intense going on in your mind.
@@CRAgamer i had emotional disociation at14 its not a 8nteresting character its not iconic nor is it fit silent hills world at all
@demonic_myst4503 I would argue, that the way a 14 year old and a mid to late 20 something year old man disassociates differs immensely from each other.
@@demonic_myst4503your experiences are not objective reality.
When I saw it was Bloober, I got so excited. Because I mistook them for BluePoint….
Given how Bloober has repeatedly bungled subjects like mental illness and SA and abuse, I don’t think they can pull it off.
I’m still going to play the game, but it’s more about the nostalgia factor than any hope I have that Bloober has the tact and skill to improve upon anything.
I have full faith and trust in Mr. Ito & Mr. Yamaoka. I can't wait to get lost in Silent Hill again.
Me too.
Ya
@Juniper_Wippersnache Mr. Ito is not only designing the monsters, he is also directing all the combat mechanics in the remake. Mr. Yamaoka crafted every sound you heard in the original , music and sfx. His experience gained over the past 22 years of creating scores and albums assure that he will improve and expand upon his original work.
Studio behind it is soulless. Ito and Yamaoka being a part of it is basically its only redeemable aspect
I love that they borrowed the Silent Hills PT roach intro. 👨🍳 💋
Loved every minute of this video. Such insightful analysis into one of the greatest stories ever told. Subbed to your channel in a heartbeat! ❤
I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree with the "but it's all they could do with their past gen tech!" argument. James was an unreliable narrator and even from the beginning, his blank expression and muted reactions makes him unsettling in a town full of monsters. Turning him into a perpetually sweaty, sad boi with the most overemotional facial expressions just turn him into a self-parody.
Frankly, we didn't *need* to see his face to understand his emotions; having the audience at a distance from him helps us examine his actions more critically, especially on which ending he receives. Keeping him too close to the audience (figuratively and literally) is going to negate that unless proven otherwise. I would *really* like to be proven otherwise; I don't want this remake to fail.
I'm doing my best to remain optimistic, but Bloober famously (and consistently) do not understand how horror, the themes they present, and approach dark subject matter delicately. They've fail every single time (Blair Witch and The Medium, especially). I want to eat my words badly depending how this remake goes, but everything they've done (including recent interviews saying they're going to away from psychological horror *while remaking one of the most important psychological horror games out there* ) leaves me afraid of the end product.
At the end of the day, the remake *might* improve, but I guess we'll wait and see.
100% agreed. Even SH1 had CG scenes where a character (like Lisa) would literally grin from ear to ear. People are confusing technical limitations with what Team Silent artistically intended - Masahiro Ito pretty much confirmed that after he criticized Bloober’s choice of facial animations.
I think they will change the opening cutscene given all the clash from fans, i find it beautiful how the game now portrays James as more emotional, but only for example when maria dies, eddie dies, the reveal that james killed mary, i can just imagine him crying, and finally him meeting Mary on her deathbed, even though it takes place in James mind.
I thought the creator of sh2 purposely made james as emotionless as possible to throw the player off so you didnt know james was the bad guy even going as far as highing a voice actor with no emotion in his voice
True, but there were not many va’s to pick from, the sh2 team picked english people working in Japan to voice, so not many choices. Turns out Guy Cihi was the perfect voice representation of James they could have found.
Currently playing through the original Silent Hill 2 (yes its the HD version, wasn't going to hunt down a ps2 to play a game I found on sale for 5.99). I think James' lack of emotion in the original speaks more to the limitations of the at the time hardware then the intention but it does work. However going into the remake, I think it is worth doing it with a more emotional character. Capcom humanized Leon more in Re4 Remake, so i think this approach could work
james is suppose to be suppresing everything including his emotions...
exactly, he looks like hes on the verge of tears most of the time in the remake.
Personally, I'm not worried about stronger emotions (although, I'd rather see that as a slow progression, where he seems distant and dissociated before having smaller moments of "snapping" before shattering). My biggest concern is how they want to steer away from it being psychological horror when the story as a whole works best as a psychological horror. The entirety of Silent Hill and its detizens wrap around the psyche of its victims and are warped by it. The story literally starts out when he goes to find the very wife he helped kill. So stripping it of that feels absolutely like they do not understand the fundamentals of what they are working with. I'm just approaching this with caution since I'm not as against this studio as some people are. I get wanting it to stand out, but I'm worried it'll feel like a shallow reflection of a stronger horror story.
Awesome! Glad to see a video talking about this!
So delighted to have stumbled on your channel -- your content is devouring my Saturday! Excellent analysis and theories across the board. I'm one of those OG fans who has been with the series from the beginning, and while there have been disappointments, I still play every main line game with a dark song in my heart. Can't wait to play both this and f.
While I agree that this remake has an opportunity to be more exact with its framing bc it doesn't have to worry about the same technical concerns that its predecessor had, I feel like the opportunity presented should be one where the cinematography can more richly, clearly show off James' character. But the more expressive performance doesn't feel like it's true to his character. I'd be fine if the updated framing and blocking was placing a stronger emphasis on James' dissociated, drifting state of mind, and plenty of films have used closeups and such to convey that. The opening cutscene of the original game itself uses a closeup to convey that about James!
I love your breakdown of all these emotional scenes. It couldnt have been said better. Thank you for making this video to show the haters that the new remake needs the emotions we couldnt see before. I absolutely love what ive seen so far and i like how james looks. I hope the team doesnt listen to the hate and continues in their path to bring us something amazing 🙏
I do really love your content! I stumbled it upon searching Silent Hill 2's remake trailer breakdowns, one of the happiest "accidents" I've ever had! ♥
I havent watched the full video but the devs multiple times that James and other characters having minimal facial expressions beyond "blank" by choice. This was what they wanted to do and not a limitation of the ps2. Even if every cutscene in the game was CGI Jamss would look just as frozen. It was the entire point. Ignoring that just because you *can* easily mocap that with a big budget, is to miss that point.
I might be the only sane Silent Hill fan, because I’m withholding all judgments good, bad, or indifferent, until I actually play the remake, and even then, I’m going to approach it as its own thing instead of comparing it to the original. This existing doesn’t vanish the original from existing. You can always play the original one (yes it’s out of print, but let’s be real: roms are free and not hard to find), but we will never have the original “again.” It’s a game that entirely exists within the microcosm of time when it was created. This will be a new interpretation, for a new era, because that’s all it can be. But the original still exists whenever you need it.
You've summed it up perfectly. I wish more people would approach it with this mindset.
Wrong. The game is gonna replace the original in modern audiences' mind. Because why would you play the game with "WORSE GRAPHIX" and "IMPOSSIBLE TANK CONTROLS" over the shiny new game with modernized shit dialogue and too much focus on combat? Zoomer can't appreciate old games. It's bullshit to remake movies and games "for a new era". It's a product of its time and it's great for it.
Narratively, the lack of facial expressions, and apparent stoicism of James in OG SH2 also conveys that he's as much an avatar for the player, as he is a defined character. This plays into the game's various endings, which depend largely on how the player makes James treat himself and how he treats other characters. Adding additional facial expressions to certain scenes does have the potential to create a dreaded ludo-narrative dissonance if the role-play aspect of the original endings is maintained in the remake.
For example, James reacting to Maria being trapped outside the elevator and murdered by Pyramid Head opens the possibility of James OVER-reacting to that event. In the original game, the scene has some power because we can see James frantically mashing the button to open the door and let Maria in. He is clearly not completely callous to her suffering. But the omission of clear angles of his face gives room for the player to have your own feelings about Maria. If the player is being very protective of Maria and leaning towards the "Maria" ending, then the remake expressions are appropriate. But if the player is detached from her, doesn't protect her, and role plays James as not being very concerned with her, then the remake expression has the potential to be an overreaction that is at odds with how the player is playing James and treating Maria.
At the end of the day, James does see Maria as a person. Especially at this point in the game, he hasn't started to see her as some weird pseudo-antagonist. So he does have sympathy for her, and a reaction to her suffering is absolutely appropriate for this scene. But the point is that the original scene was ambiguous, and allowed the player to fill in this emotion themselves. In the remake, we might not be able to do that.
Oh Muse, this is probably my favorite essay of yours yet. You hit the nail in the head. While I'm not entirely sold in the remake's facial expressions yet, I was also in awe of James' reaction in (assumably) Maria's last death. If possible, I really hope they remake Born from a Wish as well, because I'd love to see Maria's face when she realizes Ernest didn't exisr / when she contemplates death.
@@user-yv7dt5je1l Likely gonna happen. The studio behind the remake doesn't have the best track record/reputation
Cant belive we need a video editorial to explain to people why a guy whos wife is dead looks sad
People express emotions in different ways, in the original James had suppressed most of his feelings and maybe even memories.
That was the point of the 🟥
@@bigg1637yes, but throughout the game his illusion very slowly starts shattering or he is reminded of mary by maria, he still remembers all the good times he had with Mary but supressed everything else about her.
@@fowreeeeeeeel I'm just hoping the remake is subtle in its approach.
I am currently replaying the original and hell it's still impressive.
I think part of what makes James a great character is how removed he is from whats going on around him. SH2 has a dream like quality and James is in basically a self induced trance. I dont want an animation dump because they can afford it now
The noose scene is my favorite from the trailer tbh, like the original's awkwardness is very good in most parts but some of it is just kinda boring really and the original noose scene is a good example of that to me. It happens in none less than the UNDERGROUND section, the most intense part of the game, where James is obviously being shown as a prisoner too, of COURSE they'll frame him into the noose and be on the nose about it. But also that puzzle wasn't really about James' death but that of someone else, the suffering of other people as shown in multiple clues throughout the whole prison portion: it highlights even more that even if you play James at his rock bottom when he just doesn't really care at all if he lives or dies, witnessing someone else's suffering or the result of it is still a trigger to him, it's exactly why he's so dissociated in the first place. I'm very mixed on the things surrounding the remake all things considered but that scene? Nah, it's an excellent scene.
the technical limitations are unfortunately always a point that prevents to know what is artistic intention and what isn´t. it´s the same for kubrick´s movies where you can never know if it was a continuity error or his intention
I'm of the feeling that Silent Hill 2 was perfect for its time and no matter who remakes it, it will never be as well received or beloved as the original. There are many valid criticisms lofted the game's way due to Bloober's poor track record. That being said, there are many criticisms that are being sent the game's way that are not valid. The technical limitations of past generations gave us a lot of cool atmospheric additions, but are just kind of pointless to put in. No matter how atmospheric, RE will never have those door loading animations or fixed camera angles; SH2 won't have fog that acts the same as the original...you could argue that the "soul" of those projects is gone, and maybe in some way they are. But I believe, SH2 Remake will be a good game. Will it have the same impact of the original? No, it won't. But I would argue that it will be a well-crafted love letter to the original. Not something that everyone will want, but I believe it will be it's own piece of art.
Good argument, however, since bloober team Is on charge of the remake I would have really low expectations. Just take a look at the medium and how awful they tell trauma and sensitive topics, like abuse and suicide, SH2 also has this topics but the manage them in a responsible and subetly way
I've been more concerned about the lack of talent and heart with what has been observed so far. Taking the current gaming market into account along with the nature of the internet and spoilers pretty much gimps the idea from the get go. Ito seems like he was just consulted not heavily involved, and Yamaoka's ost will be good (still SH2 music) but, Sato not being there is a red flag to me. The west spent over a half decade showing the world how they can't do Silent Hill well, and I think the current market pushers taking a crack at a masterpiece like SH2 will end badly. Think Resident Evil 3 Remake, glossy but lifeless at its core, no depth.
It will be an absolute shitshow. For one, to this day Konami doesn't have a clue about what Silent Hill even is, so them handling it to Bloober will work as well as you'd expect. They only have Yamaoka and Ito on board, and I say "have" as in; the guy that made the music and the guy that designed the monsters. And for what is known, Ito is just suggesting them ideas all the way from Japan and supervising as in "Bloober sending him carefully selected material that looks good enough". Without Sato and Owaku, I have no faith in this project, and article after article, is all red flags and vague statements. Now they went to say that they "reimagined" the game and it will be a taste in their new "mass market horror" approach (They went on to say that they were done making psychological horror, and that the remake will be a taste in their new approach)
In all honestly, I hope they fail so that Konami finally puts Silent Hill to rest or sell the IP to someone that trully cares.
@Juniper_Wippersnache Ostrava of Boletaria is an underrated NPC, the Solaire of Demon's.
@Juniper_Wippersnache Poor Ostrava
I used to cosplay James on Tiktok, and it was very interesting to use audio of the game's dialog for that. Tiktok is, by nature, very face focused, the usual shot for cosplayers is from about the waist up, but pretty much none of the cutscenes in the game show James's face so instead of mimicking something from the game I had to develop my own idea of how his expressions would be. I wound up with a kind of dazed, slightly sad default expression and a lot of hesitant body language, but that's all my interpretation. James, like a lot of player characters, is kind of muted in his responses to events, so you can easily read him one way or the other.
@Juniper_Wippersnache It probably would have been more accurate to say "Most of the cutscenes are not focused on James's face. Generally we see a lot of the side or back of his head as he talks to other characters."
@Juniper_Wippersnache I was talking about this from the specific perspective of someone who was trying to study James's expressions for my own reasons. Not about whether the way they shot the cutscenes worked for the game or not.
I figure either Bloober Team's remake will be good or it won't. I'm not invested in the remake at all.
I don't understand why you decided to come down so harshly on me, when my specific scenario doesn't seem to have anything to do with your point.
The trailer for the Remake is bad in my opinion. Yes, it showes the "best" moments of the game, but it didn't give me the feeling of Silent Hill or of James himself.
For me, Silent Hill 4 had the best trailer. It showed how the game is. A weird, confusing and scary game.
Makes sense, and yah I would love to be able to play the original along with the remake. Cool video overall.
Only thing I don't care for is the voice actors, including Mary's voice over but besides that if its handled well, the actual material I don't think I mind the emotion amped up.
As long as the intro/rope scene is changed into the ”original” style i will be glad, i have always wanted to see how James reacted to his heartbreaks and journey, this game will be awesome, in terms of graphics…bloober, do not destroy this legendary title.
Great video. It really is a shame how negative this community is, though. It's to the point where I feel like no matter how the game turns out, it just won't be good enough. Nothing for this fan base will ever be good enough and that is why this franchise is truly doomed. It's almost poetic.
There is no greater enemy to the Silent Hill fanbase than the fanbase itself.
The fanbase is incredibly draining because of how negative it is, and nothing will ever be good enough for it. On one hand it shows how much they love and care for it, on the other its almost a self fulfilling prophecy as nothing will ever be what thier perfect idea of the game is.
It's bloober. Team.
Also… we gotta let go of the PT thing. It (the demo) was so good because it was short. Hideo Kojima, though brilliant, cannot help himself and cast nothing but A-C list actors nowadays in his projects. If you look at his last game it took awhile to get to the point. It was a future political commentary because that is what he is known for doing so well but it can be long winded at times. Even Guillermo del toro who is known for fantasy horror has a tendency of having his movies somewhat fall apart at the end. The only saving grace may have been Junji Ito. imo. We’ll never know what story these 3 would have come up with so all I have to go by is their past/current work… and yeah I’m choosing the cynicism route because it allows me to move on from PT
@Juniper_Wippersnache because like you I too have a viewpoint to share. Haha, anyway, clearly it appears we are at an impasse and you have your strong opinion and nothing will change that. Same with my own. We’ll leave it at that.
I like your takes. You've caused me to reconsider my original position on the topic. Very well thought out and articulated.
On a side note - if they upgraded the apartment complex (make it much bigger) to let players get in and out of each room with more ease they could use PH as a Mr Ex in that area. Il never for get the fear I felt when I heard that damn blade scrape on the ground on the roof. Imagine hearing that but not being able to see him. Holy crap.
Yeah, hopefully they'll upgrade from "locked door simulator" to a more open world concept, similar to what Downpour did.
I've thought the same thing.
James seemed emotionally unattached in the original like he didn't know what was going on.
In this one it's like deep down he knows but is just running from it.
That Noose scene is one i can't wait to see when the game releases.
Holy shit your channel is growing. AND rightfully so. your content is so GOOOOD.
I also think the noose scene in Remake isn't the same scene in SH2 noose puzzle- theyre different scenes.
There's two different nooses in the game, the trailer seems to show a combination of the two.
the 'empty nothingness' of the original works better. intended or not, limitations can be in your favor. david lynch's work wouldn't be as interesting or mysterious if he had james cameron's budget or aesthetic.
He's supposed to have amnesia but is drawn to uncover what lies behind his mental block... He shouldn't be that emotional, he should be numbed in relation to the world as he's in shock throughout the game
I'm happy to have seen you make a video on this. The original game had technical limitations that the team had to work with, and they did great with it. Like you said, a lot of it was far away shots, which really created this distance between the player and character. But the team had to give up what they also wanted. CG cut scenes were the norm back then (I remember Prince of Persia looking so beautiful in the cut scenes). But later games did away with those and vastly improved in-game cut scenes using the same models. So I am looking forward to how Silent Hill 2 will be interpreted in the modern era, and I enjoyed seeing a more expressive James, and like you said, he was emotional in the games too. So I'm not sure what the criticisms are for the trailer.
As for Bloober Team, I saw the beginning of Layers of Fear and wasn't impressed. But I saw their Blair witch game first a while back and I really liked what I saw (except for the ending, but I'm sure with a story already in place for Silent Hill 2 its all about execution then).
I think they just really miss. The opening scene: James walks into the toilet room. Just WTF? They miss mystery of this moment - we don't know how long he standing here. And all this loud words of respect to original is some kind of "fuckoff and buy".
they will probably change it to match the original.
I may not be a fan of Silent Hill 2 but I still prefer the original James in the original is supposed to be very emotionally distanced. This actually works well with the limited technology at the time. James at the start of the game looks way too emotional compared the original where he's still in denial, the new one just felt thematically off.
Nice video, question though; how do you do those diffused edges? Makes it almost look like film reel.
It's an image overlaid on the video! I just used the fade tool in photoshop to create some black to transparent edges.
You're so right about articles, I remember reading a review in a magazine before the original released saying how bad it is, saying the story was confusing, I remember it like it was yesterday! If I had listened to them, I would have never bought it but I'm glad I did day one!
P.S. The remake must be exactly the same bestiana 😭
Those reviews are never actually true because they simply lack the fundamental understanding for SH2.
Thank you for not using a whole ass sh2 gameplay as background. I can't get spoiled since I played it, but still, I wanna go fresh to the remake
The lack of emotion was almost certainly due to limitations, but I feel it really adds to how dissociated James is. Like with the noose cutscene, he seems entirely emotionless. Like pulling his head closer isn't even a conscious action, which fits so well for the In Water ending.
11:37 then again that could be the scene from outside the prison where it's just james interracting with the noose as we could see the background is very different probably just a new cutscene bloober team put it
I genuinely don’t understand the concern and how ppl don’t see how much Silent 2 has improved already. 🙄 It’s a legit remake, holding the core story of Silent Hill 2 inside. I seen all of that in the one trailer they showed. I genuinely don’t know how ppl, did not see that. I don’t know if it’s for attention or genuine ignorance and negative mindset. Regardless, this game is definitely an improvement compared to the original. Matter a fact, the original needs an update. I’m hoping for better dialogue, better combat, more interactions, more rewarding looting, more puzzles, more chill music, more lore, more unlockables, more endings, and etc. Thank you for shedding light to the non believers and being so informative!!💯👏🏽🌫❤️
I see your point about it's not entirely fair to judge the remake for being being expressive. But like many pieces of art the limitations can actually enhance it. I'm glad Team Silent worked with in their limitations to make the scenes work. The literal distance helped with the emotional distance of James.
To me the Bloobers mistake is making him needlessly emotional. Almost to a comical level. James has always been a strange dude. Him having human emotions is overwhelming. But no way to know until the games out. I have little faith in them though.
Modern gamers: "Emotions bad."
Everyone who is surprised:
These are really great points. Thank you for this.
The thing I miss most about the original cutscene is the lighting... beautiful vibes
I remember when the first trailer for the RE2 remake came out and I along with other old fogies were upset the fixed camera angles where nowhere to be seen. After some reflecting I was excited to revisit the Raccoon City Police Station and see it in a whole fresh new perspective. Konami definitely deserves the shade thrown at them for the decade of mistreatment to their fans ect, but I'm skeptically optimistic, and just like Muse pointed out, we "hopefully" get to relive some of our favorite locations and scenes with brand new pair of eyeballs!
I really liked how they showed him psychotically depressed.
Relate a lot :/
Good job on this analysis!
I'm also excited by the thought of pyramid head coming inside
Then he will be portrayed as a villain, which is completely wrong. if you have played the game and know what pyramid head does throughout the story and what he represents, you know why it does not work.