Silent Hill Artist Claims Konami Disbanded Team Silent

[coolerthanice21]

Konami dissolved the Silent Hill team so that they could take the series in a new direction, and then made Origins,which just copy/pasted everything from previous games. Something tells me they don't understand what "something new from the series" means.

 

[Dora]

I, uh. I actually liked Shattered Memories. At least far more than Homecoming, which induced a ragequit of hitherto unknown proportions. Shattered Memories wasn't scary, but it was easily the most mature and thought-provoking title in the series since Silent Hill 2. I initially HATED the ending and loudly proclaimed by disappointment in it when I'd finished, but promptly spent the next three days dissecting the entire experience, every line of dialogue and every bit of symbolism in my head. It was pretty well planned, and I think any game that gets a reaction like that out of me is one I enjoyed.

Fingers crossed for Downpour, but hell, I'm sure I'll be buying it anyway. Like my relationship with Stephen King's books, no matter what happens, for Silent Hill I keep crawling back for more, because maybe, MAYBE, it'll be better this time.

 

[Terramax]

"Just remember and never forget that if you don't like the direction of where Silent Hill went the only people you can blame are Konami themselves," he wrote. "They are the ones who canned team Silent and wanted someone else to make the games."

LaMar continues: "To further prove what I am saying, they made an arcade style Silent Hill shoot'em'up gun game!! How Silent Hill is that?!"

No, Kenzie, what we didn't like about the newer Silent Hills were that they played like crap, the plots were cliched and uninspired, and you didn't listen to the fans.

Don't pass the buck because you guys failed at your job.

 

[Tucker154]

I hope Silent Hill Downpour will be good, because if it isnt, my friend that is a Silent Hill fanboy wont shut up about it.

 

[Jonny49]

LaMar continues: "To further prove what I am saying, they made an arcade style Silent Hill shoot'em'up gun game!! How Silent Hill is that?!"

I'm not gonna lie, I kinda liked that game even though it has to be the most retarded use of the Silent Hill brand ever. It reminded me of House of the Dead.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I honestly wouldn't mind so much that they got disbanded (still a great loss of course; many brilliant and creative people fell victim to the ineptitude of management), if there hadn't been four more bloody Silent Hill games, of which only one was slightly interesting. Look, disbandening a developer team so that a series can end while it was still good is not really all that tragic. Axing the devs, so that the very same series can be milked dry, then milked some more only to save a few pennies is the sort of arrogant idiocy that makes me hate business people (Aside from them all being retarded and making more money than me, of course).

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Konami seems to be TRYING to destroy all their credibility and gaming success. Except for Inafune, they're the POSTER BOY for a Japanese company who seems to hate their own Japanese teams and panders to the West all they can. They only keep Kojima around because of MGS and Iga has been cynically given the shaft.

 

[icyneesan]

People seem to really get upset over Silent Hill. Especially over the newer Silent Hills. I fear for my life if people learn that I liked the newer Silent hills... OH SH!T THERE AT MY DOOR! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhh~

 

[Gladion]

As a massive Silent Hill fan, I have to say...

Bad for you, Kenzie. Talking shit about your former employee while giving not a single fucking piece of evidence isn't gonna convince me that Konami is stupid. What's annoying, though, is the fact that so many people here just swallow this bit of info and start all this hating on Konami. Seriously, guys, you're not questioning a single thing and want to tell me you can distinguish a good story from a bad one?

PS: Whoever you are who is going to quote me: You're an exception, of course.

 

[JamesBr]

Oh, yes it is.

The creative team behind its inspired edge is gone. Silent Hill have become just a empty brand now.

Considering a dev team is a large group of people, I find it unlikely that the only people who can make a good Silent Hill game is Team Silent. Not to say they've done a good job so far, they haven't, but it's still possible. Just saying. Hell, the first game is an awkward, obtuse mess. The third wasn't that great either (although the fog effects were awesome). Actually, Silent Hill 2 is really the only truly great game in the series. It perfect the plot and the environments that we all love. And it was a sequel. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, considering how awful The Room was, I think I'd understand the decition of disbanding them but I also think that it was way too hasty and stupid, because I still consider the first 3 Silent Hills as the very best on the series, especially 2.

Shame on you Konami.

 

[Flauros]

I, obviously, am very angry at konami.

Angry and disappointed.

And tired.

And hungry....

 

[bruunwald]

My understanding on that Silent Hill arcade game, which was released only in Japan, was that it used environments from Silent Hill 2 and 3. From what I understood, it is old enough to have been made by Team Silent, and it had been hinted it was made partly with their support. So I don't know if it's fair to be mad about that thing.

In any case, the thing about horror is you get used to it. No matter how hard Team Silent tried, they would eventually have failed us (The Room and the political wrangling that messed that game up are a hint at that). Change is good. For my part, I think Origins was one of the scariest of the franchise, and fit in quite well, though I have felt disappointments with Homecoming, like most. Shattered Memories was a good re-imagining and a heavy, emotional game, it's just that the game play sucked.

As to the inevitable fanboi reaction which will claim that only the Japanese, thus, only Team Silent, can imagine the types of psychological horrors that came from those first games, let me say that not only is racist, it's patently wrong. Silent Hill is about as Western as a Japanese game can get, from the influences of, and references to American and British authors and artists in the names of streets in the town, to the Freudian and Jungist concepts in the creatures and other horrors, to the Industrial Rock sound of the music, to the unspoken fact that the whole thing is about as Lovecraftian as a game can get without featuring Cthulhu himself.

I love Silent Hill, and I loved Team Silent, but that they never admitted the Lovecraft influence (cults, tentacled things, crossing inter-dimensional barriers, dream-influenced dimensia, dream horrors come to life, etc. - all American, British, and German concepts, by the way) has always been a crime. The closest they came was naming streets after people who carried on from/corresponded with Lovecraft. But he's there, nonetheless, whether they, themselves know it.

What I'm saying is that Western creators (American, Czech, whatever), are fully capable of imagining the same sorts of things. They just need to find the right team for it.