Line #93 VideoGame/SilentHills


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silent_hills.jpg]]
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6	->''"'My voice, can you hear it? This sign, can you read it? I'll wait forever if you'll just come to me.' Her words - To where do they lead? Be the first in the world to find out."'' (Avoid playing if you have a heart condition.)
7	-->'''-- Game Description'''
8
9	''Silent Hills'' was a short-lived horror-themed video game collaboration between Creator/HideoKojima and Creator/GuillermoDelToro, featuring an unnamed protagonist voiced by (and modeled after) Creator/NormanReedus. The game was to be developed by Kojima Productions.
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11	''Silent Hills'' was originally announced at Gamescom 2014 with a free, seemingly-unrelated demo called ''P.T.'' by upstart developer 7780s Studio, made available on the Platform/PlayStation4 directly after the announcement. Players who completed the demo's cryptic puzzles got to watch a cinematic teaser for ''Silent Hills'', which revealed ''P.T.'' to be a "'''P'''layable '''T'''easer" for a long-rumored new game in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series.
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13	Unlike the other ''Silent Hill'' games that play in a third-person perspective, ''P.T.'' plays in first-person. The game takes place in a suburban home with a single hallway that you simply walk through to the end -- only to find yourself back where you started. As the hallway loops, it changes, with the home becoming more dark and grotesque the more it loops, and you will have to solve various cryptic puzzles to advance while avoiding the ghost woman Lisa and learning the vague history of what seems to be the family that lived here.
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15	Thanks to the falling out between Creator/{{Konami}} and Hideo Kojima,[[note]]Kojima had long expressed a desire to move on from ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' only to keep getting dragged back in willingly or not for each game after ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2\|SonsOfLiberty}}'', alongside reports that ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV'' had gone massively over-budget (to which Konami had responded with their infamous treatment of Kojima during development such as having him work separate from the rest of his team) and rumors that Kojima hadn't even asked Konami for permission to bring the IP back[[/note]] distribution of ''P.T.'' ceased on April 29, 2015. Konami officially cancelled ''Silent Hills'' soon after, then rescinded all digital licenses worldwide for ''P.T.'', making the game impossible to re-download (and near-impossible to play) regardless of whether someone had previously downloaded it. Needless to say, fans got pissed -- and started [[https://www.change.org/p/kojima-productions-continue-working-on-silent-hills an online petition]] to convince Konami that it should [[DevelopmentHell put the game back into development]]. Kojima, Del Toro, and Reedus at least would re-partner for Kojima's first project after leaving Konami, ''VideoGame/DeathStranding''. So as things stand now, the "playable teaser" will remain a standalone game.
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17	You can still watch the teasers for ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4kIbwlGxBg P.T.]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcLXh44ci6o Silent Hills]]'', as well as tons of in-game footage of ''P.T.'', on Website/YouTube.
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19	----
20	!! ''P.T.'' and the ''Silent Hills'' teaser contain examples of the following tropes:
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22	* AlienGeometries: The hallway you are in perpetually loops in a neverending cycle, with each new cycle being marked by going down a small set of steps and walking through a door, perpetually going downward.
23	* AndStarring: At the end of the playable teaser, after listing the two main creative minds behind the project, the game reveals Creator/NormanReedus as the voice actor for the [[https://31.media.tumblr.com/e25ed9e3ebd0866de5e005d8fb422ced/tumblr_na7z6cnbvu1rdq2opo2_1280.jpg protagonist]].
24	* ArcNumber: Near the end of the teaser, a mysterious voice constantly repeats "204863," which is both Hideo Kojima's birthday (the 24th of August, 1963) with the 0 and 4 swapped, and the [[https://embed.gyazo.com/dfe7aa661cae1456798c10639c18928f.png coordinates]] to TheBermudaTriangle.
25	* ArcWords: "Watch out. The gap in the door... it's a separate reality. The only me is me; are you sure the only you is you?"
26	* BigBad: Lisa, maybe. At the very least she is the closest thing to an antagonist the teaser has.
27	* BringMyBrownPants: Jokingly discussed; [[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/08/13/gamescom-2014-kojima-wants-silent-hills-to-make-you-st-your-pants during the Gamescom interview]], Kojima said that he wanted to include a pair of trousers in the Limited Edition to invoke this trope.
28	-->'''Kojima:''' Originally, we were thinking of making a game that would make you pee your pants. Now we are aiming for a game that will make you s*** your pants.
29	* DeathOfAChild: One of the loops has a baby locked in a fridge dangling from the ceiling, crying out in fear/agony, with blood pouring out of the fridge. Nothing can be done to save it.
30	* DoorHandleScare: A door handle suddenly starts to move [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vtrGF0ZTRc&t=363s here]].
31	* DrivenToSuicide: As the loops continue, the game reveals [[spoiler:that one of the fathers hanged himself after killing his family]].
32	* DrowningMySorrows: "You got fired, so you drowned your sorrows in booze."
33	* EldritchLocation: The house in which the demo takes place. Time seems frozen at the stroke of midnight, the door in the cellar opens out to the front door in an endless loop, and the whole place slowly [[IncrediblyLamePun goes to hell]] as the player continues.
34	* EvilLaugh: There's a particularly creepy woman's laugh once you cleared the "I can hear them calling me from HELL" puzzle.
35	* EyeScream: A recurring motif in the demo. One puzzle even requires you to gouge out the eye of a woman in a picture. The creepiness intensifies when a gooey substance emerges from the socket.
36	* FetusTerrible: At one point in the demo, there's a creepy deformed baby in the bathroom sink.
37	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the protagonist is first [[YouWakeUpInARoom waking up]], you can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84rcDyvadT4&t=21s just barely]] see [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Lisa]] peeking out from the other side of the door, long before any of her more obvious {{Jump Scare}}s.
38	* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou:
39	** The game opens with a disclaimer:
40	--->''[[ThisIsAWorkOfFiction This game is purely fictitious.]] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial It cannot harm you in any way, shape, or form.]]''
41	** At one point, the radio demands ''insistently'' that the [[ShmuckBait player look behind them]].
42	** A fake error message can appear, covering the entire screen. One variant of said error message is in bright red, and rather than having any technical text, it simply says, [[MadnessMantra over and over again in several different languages,]] "I'm heading there now."
43	* GenreShift: The demo shifts from previous ''Silent Hill'' titles' third-person survival gameplay to first-person exploration similar to such segments from ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: The Room''. Whether or not the final game would have kept this perspective remains unknown.
44	* GroundhogDayLoop: No matter how long you play for or how many doors you pass through, you will always be in ([[{{Gaslighting}} a variation on]]) the same hallway and the time will always be 23:59 [[spoiler:or 00:00.]]
45	* GuideDangIt:
46	** The final puzzle requires you to do a number of odd things. The only clues to these are 5 different messages that flash on the screen in Italian, German, Portuguese, Japanese and English whenever you collect a photo fragment:
47	*** After you enter the room, wait until you hear bells chime, signaling midnight.
48	*** Take ten steps in any direction and you'll hear something behind you. Stop moving, you will hear a baby laugh. ("Non mi mossi più nell'attesa inerte." / "I stopped moving, waiting motionless.")
49	*** After the noise stops but the radio is still on, speak into your microphone. The baby will laugh again. ("Sussurrei seu nome, mas o vento da noite levou sua voz embora." / "I whispered his name, but the wind of the night took his voice away.")
50	*** Your controller will start vibrating ("Poi il suo indice scivolò sulla mia mano." / "Then his index finger slipped onto my hand." — "つめたい手でしたからだがふるえました" / "It was a cold hand. My body was trembling.")
51	*** Continue to remain still till the vibration stops and the baby laughs a third time. ("Never moving a step, his hand in mine, I waited for it to pass.")
52	*** The phone will ring. Examine it, then leave the hallway as usual. ("Und durch Nebel schwindenden Bewusstseins glaubte ich, ein Telefon zu hören." / "And through mists of fading consciousness, I thought I heard a phone.")
53	** Aside from this, finding the picture pieces is largely straightforward - except one is hidden ''in the options menu'', requiring the player to stay in it for a little bit after picking up a few pieces already.
54	** You need to say either "JACK" or "JARITH" in the [=PS4=] controller to end the ''P.T.'' demo.
55	* HauntedHouse: The demo takes place in a suburban house being haunted by a dead family.
56	* TheHiddenHour: The clock is always at 23:59, [[spoiler:or eventually 0:00]], no matter how long the player wanders the halls.
57	* InkSuitActor: Norman Reedus bears a large resemblance to the main character (he was modeled after him).
58	* InterfaceScrew:
59	** Part of the game, resulting in messages seemingly left by an indie dev team for internal use.
60	** If you stand below the blood pouring from the fridge suspended in the air and look up, your vision will get blurry as if there was actual liquid being poured on your face and eyes.
61	* InterfaceSpoiler: Meta ones:
62	** The loading indicator is a reference to the ''Halo of the Sun'' symbol from earlier ''Franchise/SilentHill'' titles.
63	** The options menu resembles that of Kojima Productions's ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes]]''.
64	** Of course, there's the use of the [=FOX=] engine itself.
65	* IronicHell: One interpretation of PT: you're playing as one of the fathers who murdered his own family, trapped forever in the house where you killed them. This is reinforced by the fact that [[spoiler:during the red-hall speed-run loop, after reliving the murder, the voice on the radio is revealed to be ''the fetus in the sink'', who mentions that the main character's wife had gotten a job at the grocery store 10 months back, and only because the manager there liked how she looked in a skirt.]] So, the odds are even higher that in ''that'' case of PaterFamilicide, it was because [[spoiler:the man's wife [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe had gotten pregnant from an affair with said manager]], and the fetus in the sink was the manager's rather than the husband's.]]
66	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: It's evident that the teaser has a plot, but players will have to figure it on their own using subtle clues from gameplay.
67	* JumpScare: Lisa (the hostile ghost in the playable teaser) contributes almost all of the game's jumpscares.
68	** She will often appear behind you to attack you.
69	** If you fail to do a step in the final puzzle correctly, you'll see Lisa standing and convulsing at the back of the hall. If you get close to her, she'll suddenly walk through and past you.
70	** If you try opening one of the corridor's doors, she'll pop up from inside and shut the door.
71	** The large decoration comes loose and falls onto the ground suddenly with the loud noise of glass smashing. If you look above just after, you'll see Lisa staring down at you from the balcony.
72	* LeftHanging: We'll never know exactly what significance any of this has, as the game has been cancelled.
73	* LookBehindYou: On the seventh and eighth loops the radio may prompt you: "Look behind you. I said, '''look behind you"'''. Doing so results in a jump scare by Lisa.
74	* MeaningfulName: The "s" in the fictitious 7780s Studio supposedly stands for "Silent Hills." [[Franchise/SilentHill The series]]' namesake, the city of Shizuoka, Japan, has "7780" as its postal code; "Shizuoka" literally means "silent-hill." Add an "s," and there you go.
75	* MindScrew: Courtesy of a number of visual effects and the GroundhogDayLoop gameplay.
76	* {{Minimalism}}: ''P.T.'' crams the maximum amount of creepy into two hallways, a bathroom, an entryway, and a tiny dark room. There's not even a "use" button, at most you can usually just zoom in on something.
77	* MythologyGag: All of which technically double as {{Foreshadowing}} given the nature of the demo:
78	** The ubiquitous flashlight and radio are both present and accounted for.
79	** The roaches aren't new to the series, though they aren't the giant kinds seen in the first few games and they don't attack the player.
80	** The creepy baby in the demo looks like one of the aliens from the joke endings in earlier ''Silent Hill'' games.
81	** Decrepit bathrooms, a staple of the ''Silent Hill'' series, return.
82	*** With a hole in the wall that is extremely evocative of [[VideoGame/SilentHill4 another game with a hole in the bathroom wall.]]
83	** Ominous red lights appear, as well as subtle sounds of a siren in the background.
84	** Similar to previous entries, the teaser features a lot of subtle scares in an empty, mundane setting with things slightly off, suggesting something much more terrifying is going on.
85	** At the very end of the demo once you complete it, the ''Silent Hills'' title is shown while the ''Silent Hill'' theme song plays.
86	* NothingIsScarier: Much of ''P.T.'' is walking through an empty hallway, not knowing who or ''what'' might ambush you.
87	* OffingTheOffspring: The news broadcast on the radio talks about multiple familicides perpetrated by fathers. The family that is the main subject of the broadcast (presumably Lisa's family) goes over the husband shooting his pregnant wife, his son, his daughter, and even the wife's unborn child. The broadcaster posits social issues such as unemployment and childcare as probable causes for the familicides.
88	* OminousMundanity: The same hallway of the unassuming-looking suburban house becomes an EpiphanicPurgatory.
89	* OminousVisualGlitch: The screen glitches throughout the teaser, especially near the end.
90	* PaterFamilicide: The subject of the first loop's radio broadcast, which set the implied context of the teaser (regarding Lisa the ghost and the sink fetus). The closing words from the "Radio Voice" are from a deceased victim of such a crime as well ("But one day, he goes and kills us all!").
91	* PsychologicalTormentZone: The player, who is controlling either Lisa's husband or [[MurderByMistake some hapless guy]] [[MistakenIdentity presumed to be him]], is forced to relive the memories of [[PaterFamilicide her and her children's murder]] while she stalks him, snaps his neck, and [[GoryDiscretionShot presumably]] [[CripplingCastration severs his genitals]].
92	* RapeAndRevenge: Figurative, in that [[PaterFamilicide the murder]] ''[[PaterFamilicide was]]'' [[PaterFamilicide "the rape"]] -- the husband having controlled her offspring by killing them all, out of his own insecurity that [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild the baby might not be his]].
93	* RedFilterOfDoom: The hallway gets bathed in an eerie red light towards the end of the game as the psychological horror starts to reach its climax.
94	* RedHerring: Not all of the things you experience in ''P.T.'' affect your ability to progress. For instance, your flashlight will glow different colors just to mess with you, or the ghost will start to appear at midnight in random locations.
95	* TheReveal: Built into ''P.T.'' After completing the "final loop," you find out that you've just finished playing a "'''P'''layable '''T'''easer" for Creator/HideoKojima and Creator/GuillermoDelToro's new ''Silent Hill'' game.
96	* RiddleForTheAges: It's unknown ''what'' really ''Silent Hills'' was going to be, considering the ending of ''P.T.'' states that the teaser doesn't reflect the final result. Although one could argue that the TGS trailer did show what people were to expect. But again, it's unknown.
97	* SceneryGorn: The increasingly decaying home is impressive.
98	* SceneryPorn: The few shots that we see of Silent Hill's streets are gorgeous.
99	* SchmuckBait: [[spoiler:"Look behind you. I ''said'', '''''look behind you.'''''"]]
100	* SelfContainedDemo: ''P.T.'' was meant to be this to a new ''Silent Hill'' game. However, the game ended up being cancelled, and eventually ''P.T.'' itself was pulled from the Playstation Store.
101	* ShoutOut:
102	** The baby found in the sink strongly resembles the baby from ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}''.
103	*** Speaking of Creator/DavidLynch: the style of the long, narrow, and sparsely-lit hallway bears a striking resemblance to [[EldritchLocation the AXXoN N set]] from ''Film/InlandEmpire'', especially when the lights become dimmer, are removed, or change to less traditional colors in later loops.
104	** There are a few references to [[Creator/JunjiIto Junji Ito's]] work, [[spoiler:including the spinning and spiralling eyeball paintings - eyes being a very prominent aspect of Ito's art style, and often [[GrossUpCloseUp illustrated in particularly lavish detail]] in his works - and the ''very'' subtle [[Manga/{{Uzumaki}} downward spiral]] made by the hallway loops]]. Ito is, unsurprisingly, a friend of Hideo Kojima. It was eventually revealed that Ito was to be one of the game's principal artists.
105	** There's references to the historical ''War of The Worlds'' broadcast in a radio message, although everything you hear (sans [[ArcWords the number "204863"]]) [[GratuitousForeignLanguage is in Swedish]]. Those references specify "75 years ago"... which is unusual, given that ''P.T.'' had actually been released 7''6'' years ago...
106	** This isn't [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain the first time]] a Creator/HideoKojima product has initially pretended to be a SurvivalHorror game from an unknown developer.
107	** The featureless and empty room the player starts in resembles the rooms of the labyrinth in ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves''.
108	* SignatureStyle:
109	** The demo ends with a phone call on a black screen, identically to every ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' game Kojima has developed since ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' in 1998. Doubly fitting since a radio to indicate the presence of monsters is a ''Franchise/SilentHill'' staple.
110	** Kojima is known for screwing with the graphical interface in his games. One even results in a black screen, stating "these bugs must be fixed before the final game is released," and then the player restarts.
111	* SlasherSmile: Lisa constantly has this expression. Given how she also [[DeathGlare Death Glares]] at you in a few encounters, it could also be a GrinOfRage.
112	* SpookyPainting / SpookyPhotographs: The teaser features paintings and photographs all over the hallways, [[spoiler:[[CreepyChangingPainting that later turn into animated spiraling eyeballs.]]]]
113	* StealthSequel: Initially presented as a demo for a completely new game from an independent studio, the ending instead reveals it to be an official part of the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' franchise... or it would've been, at any rate.
114	* StringyHairedGhostGirl: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Lisa certainly has all the qualities of one, minus the stringy hair. She appears to have BoyishShortHair that exposes her [[NightmareFace horrifying]] [[SlasherSmile face]].
115	* SurrealHorror: The demo has you looping through a slowly-degrading suburban home over and over again, talking to a mutated paper bag, being lectured by a fetus in a sink, and other strange things. Some of the best scares in the demo come from the sheer oddness and weird, almost uncomfortable surroundings.
116	* StylisticSuck:
117	** One of the weirdest ever -- in a [[https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/499833281886420992 tweet]], Kojima explains that he intentionally capped the framerate for ''P.T.'' at 30fps, to make it seem like an independent game.
118	** Additionally, the amateur photo that appears when you go to download the teaser was a photograph of an employee's backyard. Kojima used it to give off the impression that the teaser was from an indie developer.
119	* ThemeSongReveal: At the very end, "Silent Hill" -- the theme of the franchise -- starts playing.
120	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The ''P.T.'' trailer has scenes from ''P.T.'''s [[TheStinger stinger]] that [[TheReveal reveal]] it to actually be a teaser for ''Silent Hills''.
121	* TwistEnding: The teaser. A total of ''4'' major swerves if you had no idea what the teaser was going into it. And they are:
122	** Surprise! The game is directed by Creator/HideoKojima.
123	** Surprise! Creator/GuillermoDelToro is co-directing.
124	** [[RuleOfThree Surprise!]] Creator/NormanReedus is in the game as well!
125	** [[OverlyLongGag Surprise!]] It's not a new IP; it's a new ''Silent Hill'' game!
126	* UnnaturallyLoopingLocation: Besides a few disturbing rooms, the bulk of ''PT'' takes place in a building that constantly loops as the player goes through a hallway and eventually comes back to the beginning.
127	* VideoGameDemake: One fan has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea8NEYoknCw recreated the demo]] as a 1998 Playstation 1 game.
128	* VillainProtagonist: Strongly hinted at. The radio broadcast mentions two different men who both murder their families. If it is the case, [[spoiler:your wife, son, and unborn child]] [[AssholeVictim have a good reason to haunt you.]] Amazingly, [[spoiler:your daughter doesn't seem to hold a grudge.]] Unless of course, you ''aren't'' actually the father. In which case, everything above is a SubvertedTrope. We don't (and may never) know for sure.
129	* WombHorror: ''P.T.'' involved some pregnancy-based horror such as [[spoiler:the talking fetus in the bathroom]].
130	* WhamShot: Creator/NormanReedus' face reveal at the very end, as well as the reveal of the ''Silent Hills'' title card.
131	* YouWakeUpInARoom: You start ''P.T.'' waking up in a dingy cement room, and will return there each time you "die" in the HauntedHouse loop.

Context VideoGame / SilentHills