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[viveks86]

The writer is Ryukishi07. And his output is as Japanese and complex as they get. We should treat everyone at NeoBards as just people executing the writer's vision with Konami oversight. This will be authentically Japanese through and through. Don't lose faith

 

[viveks86]

All is forgiven if I can unlock and play the game in a bikini outfit.

How about bunny ears instead?

 

[near]

PLEASE READ BEFORE PLAYING

This game contains depictions of gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence.

This game is set in Japan in the 1960s and contains depictions based on the customs and culture of that time. These depictions do not reflect the opinions or values of the developers or any individuals involved.
If you feel uncomfortable at any point while playing, please take a break from playing or speak to someone you trust.

Just as the visual environment from the architecture and rotary phones grounds the game in that time period, so does the social environment. The expectations of women, family hierarchy etc, grounds the MCs character arc. The women's rights movement is not a subject matter, it's part of the context, and more about world building.

 

[Madserb2023]

I knew that it would involve this theme but I hope it isn't actually about that. It doesn't fit with Silent Hill. Half the population will have gone through this. Puberty is not going to condenm you too a Silent Hill like purgatory. It just wouldn't be scary. Maybe she has killed somebody in a hormonal rage. If it is literally running away from an enemy that is a representation of being a housewife then I am not interested, because that's just silky.

 

[Black_Stride]

Sounds Woke.

 

[March Climber]

Kacho will be fine. PeteBull though… I'm worried about him

In almost all of our talks, Kacho has been pretty fair and he will at least give things a shot before making an instant judgment.

Petebull and I don't really get into discussions with each other as much because he is very deeply ingrained within how he feels about everything. There are others here like that and I usually no longer bother standing in front of the river anymore to try and stop it. It is going to flow regardless, and they will feel what they feel regardless.

My only issue lately comes from when something is unfairly dogpiled on due to simply a trailer, main character reveal, or a plot description. A good example of this was the movie Furiosa, and I argued back and forth about how the movie was solid but for some it truly didn't matter. I think some others here get annoyed by that, like Danjin44 , which makes them question the validity of wokeness as a solid term (instead of a fluid term) as quite a few are quick to judge based on first imagery/impression before actually giving something a solid read, watch, or play or looking any further than a very small surface level.

No offense to anyone, just describing what I see here.

 

[Seomel]

Its actually crazy how it takes one word like feminist for some people to turn feral. Ryukishi is writing this and hes always had social themes in his games, woman characters are his strong suit and movement in 60's-70's is also well documented thing. If game has Hinako exploring it as one of themes alongside the rest. Genuienly whats the issue? Do people think its gonna be something like dustborn lol

 

[Seomel]

He's right about Japanese devs being smart. The stuff I said after was my own additional commentary.

Someone in this thread clarified that this game isn't developed by a Japanese studio so it is possible this ends up being an insufferable woke turd. I'm playing it day one so I'm ready to sound the alarm if need be.

Writer is one of most famous japanese horror writers. Producers from Konami are overseeing it, most dev is handled by Taiwanese studio with international team.

 

[Kacho]

What's your threshold when it comes to it? If it's a good video game game but has woke elements is that considered an alarm? On the other hand is subtle wokeness still considered an alarm?

Before anyone else says anything, these are genuine questions out of genuine curiosity.

Kacho knows that my only issue is with overt (hitting someone over the head) messaging and bad writing, but I'm trying to get a feel for where his line in the sand lies.

It's something I know when I see it. Like 50% of the GCPD being female in Gotham Knights. Or a similar percentage of Storm Troopers being female in Star Wars Outlaws.

Those motherfuckers have the subtlety of a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerine plant.

I can tell you if Silent Hill f qualifies when I play it, but I'm not worried about it. I've seen plenty of the game and nothing has jumped out at me. It's all in the execution, baby.

Writer is one of most famous japanese horror writers. Producers from Konami are overseeing it, most dev is handled by Taiwanese studio with international team.

Well there you go. It's probably going to be fine.

 

[Danjin44]

In almost all of our talks, Kacho has been pretty fair and he will at least give things a shot before making an instant judgment.

Petebull and I don't really get into discussions with each other as much because he is very deeply ingrained within how he feels about everything. There are others here like that and I usually no longer bother standing in front of the river anymore to try and stop it. It is going to flow regardless, and they will feel what they feel regardless.

My only issue lately comes from when something is unfairly dogpiled on due to simply a trailer, main character reveal, or a plot description. A good example of this was the movie Furiosa, and I argued back and forth about how the movie was solid but for some it truly didn't matter. I think some others here get annoyed by that, like Danjin44 , which makes them question the validity of wokeness as a solid term (instead of a fluid term) as quite a few are quick to judge based on first imagery/impression before actually giving something a solid read, watch, or play or looking any further than a very small surface level.

No offense to anyone, just describing what I see here.

My issue when people don't like something their default complain is "it's woke" which makes it meaningless complain.

If someone doesn't like playing as female character then fine that's their taste but that doesn't make the game "woke" .

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to get bent out of shape over real historical subject matter.

Women used to have much less agency in their lives, the 60's and 70's caused massive changes for people all over the planet, and if someone wants to use that era as background for a horror story, that sounds rather appropriate.

 

[Deerock71]

 

[ecosse_011172]

Knew this would be comedy gold:

Chudgaf sees trailer : "Hot young Japanese schoolgirls, phwoar, Silent Hill is back, GOAT incoming"
...
..
.
Chudgaf reads 'feminism' : "Worst game ever, ruined, never playing it, waaaahhh!"

 

[March Climber]

My issue when people don't like something their default complain is "it's woke" which makes it meaningless complain.

If someone doesn't like playing as female character then fine that's their taste but that doesn't make the game "woke" .

I can't vouch for the people who do that in the first sentence as I agree, to me personally it doesn't make sense. And that's where my argument about Furiosa came from. For some, her being in the starring role was an instant write-off, regardless of the quality of the movie. That is something I simply can never connect with. To me if something is good, it is good.

Regarding my own line, these two moments have always been a very clear line to me:




Both of these moments interrupt a moment in writing (or the scene in general) as an overt 'insert' moment.

Now to be clear, that still doesn't mean "I'm out" when trying something, but I will at least recognize when moments like that happen, because it's so overt that it comes across as stupid, distracting, and detracting. I put them on the same level as distractingly shitty voice acting work in an anime, bad ADR (voice line punch in), or suddenly unserious quips in a very serious movie.

Edit: Just wanted to add in case anything's taken out of context. Nothing I have seen about Silent Hill F so far has seemed distracting story-wise. Everything looks cohesively consistent. Funny enough the only thing that has been a bit distracting is a gameplay element, which is the extremely heavy hitstop, making every single attack look like a 'last attack' which I don't necessarily consider to be a good thing, but again that's not enough to make me not play a game if it's good.

 

[CosmicComet]

Welp, guess im cancelling my preorder.

 

[Kacho]

And that's where my argument about Furiosa came from. For some, her being in the starring role was an instant write-off, regardless of the quality of the movie.

Furiosa was an outstanding movie that happened to have themes about feminism. My internal alarm did not go off once.

 

[viveks86]

My issue when people don't like something their default complain is "it's woke" which makes it meaningless complain.

If someone doesn't like playing as female character then fine that's their taste but that doesn't make the game "woke" .

It's actually amusing when you view it from center left, as a sizable chunk of the woke and feminists don't even get along and call each other names. Look at what they were trying to do to Hogwarts Legacy

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

What's women's rights? Sounds terrible.

 

[Madserb2023]

Its actually crazy how it takes one word like feminist for some people to turn feral. Ryukishi is writing this and hes always had social themes in his games, woman characters are his strong suit and movement in 60's-70's is also well documented thing. If game has Hinako exploring it as one of themes alongside the rest. Genuienly whats the issue? Do people think its gonna be something like dustborn lol

The problem I have is that the concept is not scary not that it isn't something of interest. It's something that is more Pixar than horror. The problem is that Silent Hill games live and die on how unnerving they are. It's not about being woke. Not playing Silent Hill 3 because it has a female lead is anti woke stupidity, however being a guy and unable to find a teenage girl struggling to cope with strict gender roles in 1960s Japan horrifying is not. If it's not scary it will flop.

 

[March Climber]

The problem I have is that the concept is not scary not that it isn't something of interest. It's something that is more Pixar than horror. The problem is that Silent Hill games live and die on how unnerving they are. It's not about being woke. Not playing Silent Hill 3 because it has a female lead is anti woke stupidity, however being a guy and unable to find a teenage girl struggling to cope with strict gender roles in 1960s Japan horrifying is not. If it's not scary it will flop.

I think it's too soon to call it. There are hundreds of horror movies out there all with different subject matter, especially in today's age where some are combining horror with themes that people never thought to do.

Part of the fun about art is the challenge of it. There's an Americal Football horror movie coming out very soon.




Sports and horror are a tough combination. Could the movie fail or end up being bad? Maybe, but from the trailers it looks like they are trying to do this seriously and disturbingly. And even if they may fail, I like that they even gave this concept a serious attempt.

 

[MagiusNecros]

If someone doesn't like playing as female character then fine that's their taste but that doesn't make the game "woke" .

Most don't even know that "woke" is a predominantly African-American term from the 1930s that is meant to maintain awareness of racial prejudice or discrimination...so racism.

Which ironically people today use the term to actively discriminate against others whether they belong to a generalized group or just people they either do not like or disagree with.

----------

As for the game itself if the timeline uses some elements of how Japanese Women were expected to behave or the darker side of their society is reflected in enemy designs or the story then I think Silent Hill is moving in the right direction. As it's supposed to be this unnerving inner look at a person's inner turmoil and Psychosis.

Silent Hill 2 had great allusion to this with the characters, James Sunderland and how Silent Hill manifested in all these characters by feeding on their pain, guilt and resentment. In some cases "Silent Hill" feels like an otherworldly being and in others it's just powerful emotions like a cascading waterfall or adding gasoline to an already raging fire.

Most Silent Hill games either involve occult rituals that cause terrible things to happen or it's spiritual trauma so great it warps everything's perception of that trauma to great effect.

Given the trailer's it's pretty clear that Hinako is not completely innocent and we will find out what that is end of September. Big Fatal Frame vibes.

 

[Seomel]

The problem I have is that the concept is not scary not that it isn't something of interest. It's something that is more Pixar than horror. The problem is that Silent Hill games live and die on how unnerving they are. It's not about being woke. Not playing Silent Hill 3 because it has a female lead is anti woke stupidity, however being a guy and unable to find a teenage girl struggling to cope with strict gender roles in 1960s Japan horrifying is not. If it's not scary it will flop.

I dont think any of us can judge yet how scary or unnerving it would be until we have played it. We havent had new mainline like this in decade.
Also womens movement is barely one of the themes presented. Its not be all end all of game.

 

[peronmls]

WGAF?

 

[nial]

He's right about Japanese devs being smart. The stuff I said after was my own additional commentary.

Someone in this thread clarified that this game isn't developed by a Japanese studio so it is possible this ends up being an insufferable woke turd. I'm playing it day one so I'm ready to sound the alarm if need be.

It's much more nuanced than just going 'the Japanese will do no wrong', though (especially with the anti-woke mob being no stranger on going against Japanese creators as well. Kotaro Uchikoshi, anyone?). Just a matter of looking at the actual people behind, and Ryukishi07 has excelled at similar themes in the past, so it's nothing particularly weird here.
It all ultimately depends on the collective effort between him, NeoBards and KONAMI, either way.

 

[Madflavor]

Sounds Woke.

Looking at your avatar, I'd bet if Terminator 2 came out today, you and a bunch of other guys would be bitching that Sarah Connor was woke.

"Woke" topics aren't inherently bad. All about the execution.

Bingo. Far too many people have lost the plot these days.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

As much as I like to clown on the racist, man hating, neo-feminists. In the end I just want great games. As long as they don't hit me over the head with socio-political themes with the subtlety of a slighted Karen in a check-out line. I can stomach plenty of underlying messages if it feels like the writers actually tries to make it fit the story and world.

So if this game focuses on horror first and foremost with underlying themes of historical accurate struggles/trauma of females without resorting to "all men are toxic, do better" then I don't really see the problem. But guess we won't know until after release.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Looking at your avatar, I'd bet if Terminator 2 came out today, you and a bunch of other guys would be bitching that Sarah Connor was woke.

I was being sarcastic.

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

Could give less fucks. I just hope the game is good, it's a fucking video game is not that deep.

 

[Hugare]

The devs are from Hong Kong, with staff in Taiwan and China. The game director is Taiwanese and lived in the USA for 10+ years and went to college in California.

Jesus dude, you went all FBI on the game director to find something to point and say "woke".

Most of the staff is asian, the game director himself is asian. Him going to college in California doesnt mean the gane will be woke.

I bet my left nut the game wont be preachy or political. This is a japanese game, ffs. When was the last time we've seen a feminist game from Japan?

Chill, GAF.

 

[iHaunter]

Sounds Woke.

So does brain damage. Hate people throwing around that word so senselessly.

 

[Mister Wolf]

There's always Cronos.

 

[captainpat]

Why are people taking sites like pcgamer at face value? The western gaming press loves taking any statement that seems woke from JP devs and exaggerating the hell out of it from what it actually means.

 

[Kataploom]

Yeah I'll wait for users reviews, it's gonna be difficult to ignore the interactions farmers on X using whatever they can you rage bait the anti woke fellas tho...

 

[Chan]

There's always Cronos.

Female lead. W-o-k-e™

 

[PeteBull]

Kacho will be fine. PeteBull though… I'm worried about him

Imho if that feminist talk is just smoke screen for western reviewers game wont suffer a thing, if on the other hand pushing agenda will be top priority of the dev team(instead of simply game's quality being top priority as it always should be) then game will definitely not be as good as it could be(doesnt mean it will be 2/10 trash, but might just be 6 or 7 instead of 9/10, we will know at launch so still plenty time left.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Looking at your avatar, I'd bet if Terminator 2 came out today, you and a bunch of other guys would be bitching that Sarah Connor was woke.

Nop, the difference about movies today and back then was the writing, in Terminator 2 Sarah is a badass but she cant do everything alone, she needs the help of men to achieve her objectives, Dr Miles sees what his work ll cause and even give his life to help Sarah.

If Terminator 2 was a 2025 movie, Sarah would be the one doing everything by herself, Terminator and Dr Miles would be two pussies too afraid of doing anything If not pushed by the strong woman lead.

There is a great difference in how old movies handles Man x Woman compared to today movies.

 

[GateofD]

The devs are from Hong Kong, with staff in Taiwan and China. The game director is Taiwanese and lived in the USA for 10+ years and went to college in California.

Like sure it's Silent Hill in name, but in no way do I actually count it as a true SH in blood.

Like SH1-3 is the original Star Wars trilogy.

4 and Homecoming and random Wii ones are the Star Wars prequel trilogy tier

F and whatever else is the sequel SW era in terms of vision

 

[Madflavor]

Nop, the difference about movies today and back then was the writing, in Terminator 2 Sarah is a badass but she cant do everything alone, she needs the help of men to achieve her objectives, Dr Miles sees what his work ll cause and even give his life to help Sarah.

If Terminator 2 was a 2025 movie, Sarah would be the one doing everything by herself, Terminator and Dr Miles would be two pussies too afraid of doing anything If not pushed by the strong woman lead.

There is a great difference in how old movies handles Man x Woman compared to today movies.

You're acting like people don't cry woke the moment they even sniff something that vaguely resembles what they believe to be pandering progressive ideology in their games, movies and shows.

And I am saying that if T2 came out today, you absolutely would have people crying woke seeing a "girl boss" in the trailer. People are seeing red wherever they look.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Things I'd really like for this game:


- Less combat than SH2 remake. To me, this is my main concern. I want atmospheric horror, not an action game in disguise.

- A connection to the "real" Silent Hill. I'd do something like The Grudge movie, whose plot connects Japan and USA very well.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

You're acting like people don't cry woke the moment they even sniff something that vaguely resembles what they believe to be pandering progressive ideology in their games, movies and shows.

And I am saying that if T2 came out today, you absolutely would have people crying woke seeing a "girl boss" in the trailer. People are seeing red wherever they look.

extremes breed extremes

 

[falling into hell]

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. Wokeness is like cancer it needs to be fought wherever you see it.

 

[Madflavor]

extremes breed extremes

Basically. And to be clear, I don't like woke shit getting shoved in my face either. But I think years of it has caused a lot of people to become hypersensitive to it where they're seeing problems where there isn't any.

I sincerely doubt a game like this is going to have any embarrassing and badly written, ultra progressive politics shoved into it.

 

[Kacho]

extremes breed extremes

Grid 2013

Grid 2014

Grid 2019

Grid 2022

Something is different but I can't put my finger on it...

It's not the first, games like The Crew 2 or GRID Legends were pretty woke. You can easily make that happen by introducting some story mode and/or "diverse" characters you need to interact with. Or you can have someone trying to lecture you about something instead of just letting you drive, like they've done that with NfS Unbound.

Oh

 

[Lokaum D+]

You're acting like people don't cry woke the moment they even sniff something that vaguely resembles what they believe to be pandering progressive ideology in their games, movies and shows.

And I am saying that if T2 came out today, you absolutely would have people crying woke seeing a "girl boss" in the trailer. People are seeing red wherever they look.

 

[TintoConCasera]

The PC in PC Gamer doesn't stand for "personal computer", right?

 

[Mister Wolf]

Nop, the difference about movies today and back then was the writing, in Terminator 2 Sarah is a badass but she cant do everything alone, she needs the help of men to achieve her objectives, Dr Miles sees what his work ll cause and even give his life to help Sarah.

If Terminator 2 was a 2025 movie, Sarah would be the one doing everything by herself, Terminator and Dr Miles would be two pussies too afraid of doing anything If not pushed by the strong woman lead.

There is a great difference in how old movies handles Man x Woman compared to today movies.

 

[Kacho]

Looks like a great flick to watch with the bros

 

[FoxMcChief]

Oh lord

 

[FoxMcChief]

Wait, people think the lead chick is hot? I mean, she's not MS or Sony levels of ugly. But I don't think I'd label her hot.

 

[GateofD]

includes soy husband version Arnold that doesn't even get to sleep with his wife cause the partnership is not physical. Like she wouldn't want to jump someone with Arnold's build.