Silent Hill 1 feels like a niche JP-only PS1 game, to me the fact that it sold so well and got sequels and even movies is really surprising
Silent Hill 1 feels like a niche JP-only PS1 game, to me the fact that it sold so well and got sequels and even movies is really surprising
re's popularity created large demand for more survival horror games
but SH wasn't survival horror
Fun fact: I first heard about Silent Hill when I was reading Youtube comments on a Resident Evil 3.5 video. There were dozens of morons claiming that the prototype looked "exactly like Silent Hill!", which lead me to research the game. But all things considered, the first game really is the best and it resonated with people because it was fresh and new. You never saw a game that combined Western and Japanese horror concepts so well.
That wasn't fun at all
Oneechanbara and Earth Defense Force both started as budget games for the PS2. They're not AAA by any means, but it just shows that a good idea can go many places.
Oneechanbara is still B-roll budget slop. So is EDF but that's more popular.
David Lynch was very popular in the 90s.
Silent Hill is largely a westaboo horror game.
Link's Awakening was even influenced by Twin Peaks.
Don't care.
Huh.. Radio.
What's going on with that Radio?
Mainstream gaming used to include actually good games back in the day, and not just slop for the lowest common denominators.
>Fully 3D
>pushing PS to its limits
>good sound design
>actually scary
>good unique fresh horror mechanics
It's kind of the anti-Resident Evil, which had 2D backgrounds, and was about elite swat members fighting sci-fi monsters. It felt like it took horror games into the next step, while Resident Evil in this period started to stagnate.
>was about elite swat members fighting sci-fi monsters
It was just 90s Capcom doing what they did best - focusing on gameplay. Every Resident Evil after 1 drives further on this aspect, with 2 and 3 really pushing the engine, mechanics and monster design to engage the player in the gameplay. While Silent Hill is more true to the horror aspect, no other game in the PSX era did such a phenomenal job at mixing elements of survival "horror" and enacting a real experience of feeling like a special forces member fighting off hellish creatures in vydia format. I think this is also largely the reason why Resident Evil 4 was such a huge hit despite partying ways with the survival "horror" aepect of the series.
I'm sorry OP but your post is nonsense. SH1 has a fully 3d modeled town, no small feat on the ps1, a conventional 5th gen combat system modeled after another popular horror series with the addition of strafe, and varied monster killing action. The only jhorror elements a westerner might turn their nose up at, girls with psychic powers and shared consciousness are late game plotpoints. By the standards of the ps1 it was a mass appeal action adventure with the bonus of horror.
>The only jhorror elements a westerner might turn their nose up at, girls with psychic powers
I completely disagree. Niche Japanese horror game would be Echo Night or ...Iru!, games that are entirely set in Japanese horror culture like with
Echo Night the themes of different type of ghosts (some good, some bad) which all have different reasons for haunting the place. Despite Echo Night not taking place in Japan, it's still Japanese flavour all over.
Silent Hill on the other hand was always western horror culture. They saw that Resident Evil made western horror culture big and as a result went deeper into western horror for various inspirations, but there is basically NOTHING Japanese about it. The only thing is that the monster design is actually creative, and almost feels unlike anything we'd ever seen, so it looks "different", but it's still not Japanese, there is no Yokai or Japanese demon inspiration or anything.
Literally the only thing is the small helpful ghost roaming around the school but it's quite inconsequential.
And as noted by others, the production value of the game also doesn't feel niche either.
What about Mizzurna Falls then? It's literally a game made for westerners and it never left Japan. Also some anons talking about Twin Peaks and guess what, Moonlight Syndrome was a Japanese game through and through but it took inspiration from Twin Peaks too! There was even a nightclub called Lost Highway in that game
>And as noted by others, the production value of the game also doesn't feel niche either.
This, however, is true