So this game takes place after Silent Hill 3 when Harry is killed? And the whole adventure is just a memory Cheryl has of her father?
share[deleted]
I like that idea. Very interesting. The game was absolutely amazing.
shareThat works, except for one thing.
There is no 'Cheryl Mason'.
If Harry dies in the car that doesn't negate the pre-story about Harry and his wife finding the baby Cheryl prior to the events of SH1--the baby created when Alessa split herself when they burned her.
See? Cheryl is still Alessa. That part of the story does not seem to have been re-written.
Now, this could create a whole new path, with the adult Cheryl finding out about her actual beginnings which could lead into a seperate track of SH games--this Cheryl still has the god within her.
Or the whole exercise could reduce Silent Hill to a momentary delusion and Shattered Memories could be used to kill the story entirely
Prior to its release, SHSM was described by Konami as a re-imagining of the original title in the Silent Hill franchise. I think that people are looking for continuity, where none was planned. I liked the explanation about the good ending, bad ending, divergent timelines, but it is a standalone title. A series wii-boot (so to speak.) Continuity is all well and good, but is it really so necessary. I love the Silent Hill series, and I liked this game as well, without needing any continuity. I've seen the post "Why does Harry not remember that he's already been to Silent Hill? That was like the first game, DUH!" Oh the title of that thread was "This game is teh STUPID." (The sound of hand smacking forehead) One of the most successful game franchises is Final Fantasy. Are there any instances of continuity in the entire run of the thing? Only a few. Which proves continuity is not really all that important.
share[deleted]
And I did like your theory about the good ending bad ending of one creating the divergent timelines. My guess is that Konami didn't spend as much effort in making that story as we did enjoying it. One of the things I appreciated a little more the 2nd time round, is that I went and found my copy of SH1 and a working PSOne, and played it through again before my 2nd run-through. It seems to me that the difference in the nightmare sequences (darkness vs ice) could be explained by the difference in POV (Harry vs Cheryl)
shareCheryl isn't and was never Alessa in this game. Cheryl is Cheryl. Dahlia was Harry's wife and the mother of Cheryl. This game is stand alone, not related to the others unless they revamp the events to connect them in another game.
shareI was explaining my few gripes with this game (overall i loved it) in another thread and kinda came up with this as a way to make it fit the series continuity. It won't make sense in the context of this thread because it was addressing another but just bear with it, as it explains how I think (with a few changes) it could have worked.
==SPOILERS FROM THE ENTIRE SERIES BELOW== (sorry guys I dunno how to do the red txt spoiler cursor roll over to reveal thingy haha ;) maybe somebody fill me in?)
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not really even griping with most of the storyline of the game. Since this is actually Cheryl/Heather's re-imagining of the events of SH:1, I completely agree that she could have remembered, or speculated how the events took place differently than Harry actually saw them in the original. Thus, the pretty much entirely different story that we see in this game makes perfect sense to me since it is Cheryl/Heather's take on what happened that night and what she believes/wants to believe. That is all fine and dandy.
What I was a little disappointed in is the changing of the events after the game so that they don't fit into the series continuity. In this game we find out that Harry had actually died in a car accident when Cheryl/Heather was younger and blah blah blah. . . Now my gripe is; why couldn't they have ended it so that it fit with the events surrounding SH3? We know that Harry is actually killed during the events of that game, and not in a car wreck, why not work that into this game? Why couldn't the story have been Cheryl/Heather visiting a shrink after the events of SH:3? Say even she had mentally blocked out those events and the events of her father's death and at the end of this game she could have realized that he was dead still, just being how he died in SH3 instead of this made up past history that this game introduced. She still could have told the exact same story as though it appears in this game (as she was only 7/ didn't even really exist yet when it happened) but just make it fit with the Continuity of the original and SH3. The only real change during the events of this game that would have to be changed would be that Harry's wife is Dhalia. And since the Dhalia in this game is more or less an entirely different character, that would not have been a problem. A simple name change and presto."
Same with the Dr. Kauffmann character in this game, just change his name so as to not confuse him with the Dr. Kauffmann of the original.
My DVD Collection: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=8504358