Spoilers, obviously.
I’ve gotten the first ending in Silent Hill f. The first playthrough isn’t terribly long; I clocked in at around eight hours, and I wasn’t exactly rushing. I think I got every single trophy that you can get with in the first playthrough. So what did I think of the game? Sadly, it’s not as scary as I would like it to be. But that’s fine. Not all horror games have to scare me. I respect the hell out of Mouthwashing, but it is hardly a scary game. It’s disturbing, and in some ways, Silent Hill f is disturbing too. My biggest problem with the game, however, is that the combat honestly kinda sucks. The most fun I had with it was when Hinako unlocked her special arm and could go beast mode on her enemies. Unfortunately, it’s only reserved for specific sections of the game for story reasons. Most of the time, you have to play as plain ol’ Hinako with frustratingly breakable weapons. Axes and hammers are strong, but painfully slow. Knives can put out a ton of DPS, but they break easily. It’s just a pain. Sure, there are ways to mitigate this, but that’s after suffering for hours.
I actually like Silent Hill f‘s story, though. I like the push and pull between staying with your abusive family or compromising on your values and identity by accepting an arranged marriage. Hinako admits that she’d rather make 1000 mistakes on her own than follow the right path that others have chosen for her. Like always, it’s about having a choice. Being a dutiful, stay-at-home wife isn’t inherently a bad thing. If that’s what you choose for your life, then more power to you. The problem is that girls like Hinako often don’t get to make that choice. Unfortunately, escaping her childhood also means symbolically cutting off her friends. This tension builds until it explodes in a fit of violence. One half of Hinako lashes out against everyone including her friends. Meanwhile, the other half is desperately trying to cling to a childhood that is long gone (the real Hinako is a woman in her 20s). What’s interesting is that Hinako might not be the most reliable narrator. Throughout the game, you find evidence that her family and friends are horrible to her in all sorts of ways. But what if those notes, letters, and diary entries are all fabricated by a mind desperate to escape her situation? For example, consider her mother. I don’t doubt that her father was an abusive douchebag. But was her mother as helpless as she appeared to us in Hinako’s journal and memories? I’m not sure we’ll ever get a clear answer. Silent Hill f definitely has an interesting, multi-faceted story. Too bad it is let down by the janky gameplay.
Granted, Silent Hill has never had good gameplay. Even the recent Silent Hill 2 remake has way too much combat for my liking. All I want, however, is for the gameplay to not distract me from the horror. In Silent Hill f, I have to juggle my health, my sanity, my painfully limited inventory, my embarrassingly low stamina for someone who is a self-proclaimed member of the track team, my weapon durability or my special beast power gauge. None of these gameplay systems are complex, but that’s not the point. When I have to worry about each of them during gameplay, I’m not focusing on the atmosphere. I’m not focusing on the horror around me. I especially hated managing my limited inventory so much. I could never use any of the food items I came across because 1) it was better to dump them into the shrine for faith points and 2) I never had space for them to begin with. Every time I picked up a few food items or offerings, I would instantly run back to the last shrine just to convert them immediately. Otherwise, I would have to drop stuff, i.e. waste them completely. It’s an asinine system. I truly believe scary games shouldn’t have too many moving parts. But if you really gotta be an action horror game, then be embrace it wholeheartedly. Be Bloodborne. Bloodborne is still a horror game. It’s not a scary one, but at least it’s goddamn fun to play.
All in all, 8/10 story, 4/10 gameplay.
I’ve also finally finished Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. As a big fan of the original game, I wanted more. The remaster is pretty good, but it’s missing a few very obvious quality of life features that should’ve come up in playtesting. For example, why do I need to re-toggle auto advance for every new conversation? Why can’t I permanently enable 2x speed in battle? You have to constantly hold down a button. Why do you need to reset my camera’s zoom levels every time someone talks? Or when Reis uses Holy Breath? But somehow, this isn’t a problem for other breath attacks. Why? I dunno, I guess it’s strange to me that the remaster can be so polished and yet unpolished at the same time. Still, going for the platinum trophy gave me the chance to do things I never did in the original game. For example, mastering every job on Ramza or doing every single errand. I still enjoyed my time with the remaster. Tactics Ogre still reigns supreme as my favorite SRPG of all time.
I’m currently playing through the Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake while debating whether or not I want to get the other Silent Hill f endings. I probably won’t go for the platinum trophy since I doubt I could tolerate the combat on the highest difficulty. I also gotta play Ghost of Yotei. A bunch of stuff catered to my taste just had to all come out at the same time.
If you’re curious about the next “Everything else” post, I’m pushing it back to Tuesdays.
