Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 140: Silent Hill

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Todays game is Silent Hill, that is to say the first one. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

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Previous Results:
Planescape: Torment - 9.83 (12 votes)
Higurashi When They Cry - 9.69 (8 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.61 (22 votes)
Silent Hill 2 - 9.5 (20 votes)
Deus Ex - 9.33 (10 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.17 (33 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 9.16 (18 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.1 (10 votes)
Yakuza 0 - 9.03 (13 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 8.91 (30 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.88 (13 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.88 (13 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.88 (20 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Suikoden II - 8.8 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.75 (21 votes)
Xenogears - 8.71 (23 votes)
Tales of Berseria - 8.69 (14 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.67 (31 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.67 (27 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (27 votes)
Dragon Quest V - 8.64 (14 votes)
Pyre - 8.64 (7 votes)
Bastion - 8.63 (12 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.56 (27 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 8.42 (12 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.4 (5 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.39 (40 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.38 (28 votes)
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 8.38 (17 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.37 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.31 (56 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.28 (37 votes)
Dragon Quest XI - 8.27 (16 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 8.21 (19 votes)
Final Fantasy VI - 8.19 (43 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.17 (21 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 8.17 (15 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.15 (41 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.04 (14 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.94 (27 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 7.94 (16 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.85 (31 votes)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - 7.75 (6 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.7 (5 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.69 (31 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.66 (26 votes)
Bioshock - 7.64 (23 votes)
Celeste - 7.62 (25 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.54 (14 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.5 (30 votes)
The Last Story - 7.47 (6 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.35 (28 votes)
Tales of Symphonia - 7.34 (28 votes)
Earthbound - 7.33 (19 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.26 (29 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.25 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (25 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 7.11 (23 votes)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.1 (30 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
Super Paper Mario - 7.04 (23 votes)
Assassins Creed II - 7.04 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy VIII - 7.01 (30 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (5 votes)
Hollow Knight - 6.98 (21 votes)
INSIDE - 6.93 (15 votes)
Gone Home - 6.91 (17 votes)
Bioshock Infinite - 6.87 (19 votes)
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood - 6.83 (6 votes)
The World Ends With You - 6.79 (24 votes)
Death Stranding - 6.73 (13 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All - 6.68 (32 votes)
Firewatch - 6.65 (10 votes)
Dark Souls - 6.62 (20 votes)
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 6.61 (29 votes)
Chrono Cross - 6.56 (17 votes)
Valkyria Chronicles - 6.5 (16 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - 6.5 (13 votes)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - 6.38 (12 votes)
Final Fantasy V - 6.37 (26 votes)
Grand Theft Auto V - 6.36 (11 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 6.34 (35 votes)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 6.16 (14 votes)
DOOM (2016) - 6.15 (13 votes)
Tales of Vesperia - 6.13 (23 votes)
Star Fox 64 - 5.8 (25 votes)
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception - 5.8 (24 votes)
Assassins Creed III - 5.94 (8 votes)
Final Fantasy IV - 5.76 (32 votes)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 5.72 (9 votes)
Tales of Xillia - 5.71 (12 votes)
Metroid Prime - 5.67 (24 votes)
Dishonored - 5.67 (9 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - 5.63 (13 votes)
Kingdom Hearts - 5.51 (31 votes)
The Wonderful 101 - 5.5 (4 votes)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 - 5.46 (12 votes)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 5.43 (14 votes)
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - 5.3 (10 votes)
Grand Theft Auto IV - 5.27 (13 votes)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - 5.26 (28 votes)
Far Cry 3 - 5.21 (8 votes)
Fable - 5 (12 votes)
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - 4.93 (23 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 4.85 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy XIII - 4.79 (29 votes)
Final Fantasy X-2 - 4.79 (19 votes)
Final Fantasy XV - 4.79 (19 votes)
Fallout 3 - 4.76 (17 votes)
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - 4.72 (9 votes)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 4.64 (40 votes)
Fallout 4 - 4.43 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy - 4.23 (20 votes)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 3.89 (9 votes)
Resident Evil 6 - 3.74 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 3.69 (13 votes)
Star Ocean: The Last Hope - 3.43 (15 votes)
Starcraft II (overall) - 3.4 (5 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3.31 (16 votes)
Dissidia: Final Fantasy - 3.29 (12 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates (overall) - 3.29 (12 votes)
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void - 2.83 (6 votes)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - 2.66 (16 votes)
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm - 2.57 (7 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - 2.4 (10 votes)
Tales of Zestiria - 2.38 (8 votes)

Needs more votes:
Torment: Tides of Numenera

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name><rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them.

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Nominate Portal 2

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9

Simple but effective. Like RE it tells most of it's interesting stuff through logs, but then you get cool scenes like Lisa and it really lays the groundwork for the whole psychological angle SH games are known for. Instead of the enemies and town being representatives of trauma for the protagonist, here it's based around the antagonist (of sorts). The small cast is used superbly even if some of it is hidden behind optional content.

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Nominate Final Fantasy II

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8/10

For a first game in a new IP, Team Silent showed remarkable talent in building a storyline that's mysterious, full of red herrings and misdirections, and demonstrates a true penchant for the depressing and dark, though it is still the simplest of the stories in the original Silent Hill tetralogy, which makes sense. Harry Mason doesn't have the features you would expect from an SH protagonist (he's a widower but it doesn't factor much at all), but then the game isn't truly about him. He remains more or less aloof and clueless through basically the whole ordeal, but it's really the tragic story of Alessa that gives the game its emotional weight. The game shows remarkable patience, showing Alessa off only in brief glimpses but becoming more prominent as the story advance, all the while the game tricks you into thinking it's about finding Cheryl, which it is and isn't. Just like it is and isn't about drug trafficking, or extra terrestrials. One of the best joys about the Silent Hill series is interpreting your own meaning, and in that sense the original SH is perhaps the best at this. Everything feels off-kilter and all times thanks to weird music and strange character inflections, an ever-twisting, breathing fever dream that hands you disparate pieces of a puzzle and asks for you to put them together even if incomplete or missing. Cultist Dahlia peddles religious nonsense in your ear while Cybil the cop is your anchor to reality and reason until she becomes corrupted by the forces of Silent Hill. You have all these different voices in your head and it just makes the events that much more bewildering for you, in a good way, a way that boosts the horror and fear you're supposed to feel. I appreciate that this game feels different than what was to come, while still signaling the amazing craft of emotional storytelling and strong character writing, such as Lisa's incredible and heart-wrenching transformation scene late in the game. I think it deserves to be talked about in the same breath as SH2 & SH3.

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8

Harry is the weak point here I think. Still good.

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7.5/10

Did a fantastic job of establishing a cool setting and paving the way for everything that would follow, but the story is a smidge too straightforward and Harry far too weak of a protagonist in a series that would go on to receive the majority of its acclaim for being on the total opposite end of the spectrum on both those points.

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7

Good, but doesn't have the strong central protagonist that made Silent Hill 2 so great.

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8

I call Silent Hill 1 the scariest thing in any medium that I have ever experienced in my life. I credit it more to the atmosphere, mystery and the brilliantly executed exploration more than its actual story. However the story works extremely well for the type of game it is even though it is not on the same level as Silent Hill 2. But what other horror game really is on the level of Silent Hill 2 in terms of story?

I think Silent Hill's greater lore and story with Silent Hill 3 is very good. But we're not rating that we're rating only Silent Hill by itself. I'll give it an 8/10

7.5

Pretty good

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Nominate Ever17

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7

8.5

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8.8/10

Played SH1 for the first time in 2017, and it has aged incredibly well. The story had me hooked from the start, and while SH1 is nowhere as powerful as SH2, the mystery is strong and the atmosphere/setting/worldbuilding is above excellent.

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Snake5555555555 posted...

For a first game in a new IP, Team Silent showed remarkable talent in building a storyline that's mysterious, full of red herrings and misdirections, and demonstrates a true penchant for the depressing and dark, though it is still the simplest of the stories in the original Silent Hill tetralogy, which makes sense. Harry Mason doesn't have the features you would expect from an SH protagonist (he's a widower but it doesn't factor much at all), but then the game isn't truly about him. He remains more or less aloof and clueless through basically the whole ordeal, but it's really the tragic story of Alessa that gives the game its emotional weight. The game shows remarkable patience, showing Alessa off only in brief glimpses but becoming more prominent as the story advance, all the while the game tricks you into thinking it's about finding Cheryl, which it is and isn't. Just like it is and isn't about drug trafficking, or extra terrestrials. One of the best joys about the Silent Hill series is interpreting your own meaning, and in that sense the original SH is perhaps the best at this. Everything feels off-kilter and all times thanks to weird music and strange character inflections, an ever-twisting, breathing fever dream that hands you disparate pieces of a puzzle and asks for you to put them together even if incomplete or missing. Cultist Dahlia peddles religious nonsense in your ear while Cybil the cop is your anchor to reality and reason until she becomes corrupted by the forces of Silent Hill. You have all these different voices in your head and it just makes the events that much more bewildering for you, in a good way, a way that boosts the horror and fear you're supposed to feel. I appreciate that this game feels different than what was to come, while still signaling the amazing craft of emotional storytelling and strong character writing, such as Lisa's incredible and heart-wrenching transformation scene late in the game. I think it deserves to be talked about in the same breath as SH2 & SH3.

Love your insights. Especially the part about how it is and isn't a search for Cheryl.

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8.75

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plasmabeam posted...

Love your insights. Especially the part about how it is and isn't a search for Cheryl.

Thanks I appreciate it!

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8.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 6

Nominate Final Fantasy II.

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