By Geoff Van der Linden (Metazoa)
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People enjoy being scared. Horror films are a staple of late night television and high school dates, both situations where a shiver down the spine is a welcome and delicious sensation. Authors such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Peter Straub have built their careers on telling frightening tales, and have sold untold millions of books. The Twilight Zone, with its’ unsettling morality plays and often unhappy endings, is a cultural touchstone and has inspired countless imitators and homages. Even static media such as paintings and sculpture can be used to communicate terror and unease: Hieronymous Bosche’s skill in depicting the torments of the Christian Hell in his paintings is legendary, and the illustrations of Stephen Gammell have been giving children nightmares for nearly twenty-five years.
Video games have also tried to communicate feelings of dread, tension and fear to the people who play them, but the results have been mixed at best. Part of the problem is that video games are traditionally designed in such a way as to empower the player: games are supposed to be beaten, after all. Removing that empowerment through such genre conventions as intentionally poor controls, overwhelming numbers of enemies, or limited weapons and ammunition oftentimes leads not to fear, but frustration. Likewise, tedious and illogical puzzles, fetch quests, and obtuse goals can potentially ruin the horror experience for a player. It’s a delicate balance for the designer of a survival horror game. No other genre has such a tight rope to walk.
So: how do you empower a player, but retain the ability to scare him? How do you walk that tight rope with confidence and keep the player interested and progressing through the puzzles, enemies, and all too frequent deaths? That was the question that the members of Team Silent at Konami asked themselves in 1998, and the answer they delivered was "Silent Hill" for the Playstation. The game is considered a classic, and with good reason: it’s scary, atmospheric, successfully blends traditional western horror film techniques with the subtle and understated psychological tones that define Japanese horror. It was both popularly and critically acclaimed, and led to the game becoming a revered and successful franchise. It’s widely considered a pillar of the survival horror genre.
Team Silent produced three more Silent Hill titles over the next five years and went their separate ways. Some remained at Konami to work on other projects. One member, Akira Yamaoka, remains involved with all things related to the Silent Hill license to this day, acting as producer and composer for both the Silent Hill movie, and the two games produced by outside developers for Konami. A few former members of Team Silent, however, decided that they weren’t done frightening people yet. After parting ways with Konami, they set up shop at Sony’s Japan Studio and began work on a game that would continue the terrifying legacy of the Silent Hill franchise. They had an evolution in mind, one that would take the basic structure of Silent Hill and turn it on its’ head. They set out to redefine Survival Horror yet again. The resulting game was Siren.
Siren is the brainchild of Keiichiro Toyama and Naoko Sat?, who together wrote the scenario, and Isao Takahashi, who filled the role of art director. Keiichiro Toyama was the creator and director of the original Silent Hill (though he was not involved with any of the sequels that followed), and has directed the entire Siren series to date. Naoko Sat? was the monster designer for Silent Hill (along with Masahiro Ito, who did not work on Siren) and was also co-motion and story demo designer. Isao Takahashi was a background designer for Silent Hill. Since the two series have the same creators in such important positions, there are obvious parallels between the two, although the similarities are often only skin deep.
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Siren
Forbidden Siren 2
Forbidden Siren 2
Siren: Blood Curse
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Siren / Forbidden Siren - Playstation 2 (2004)
American Cover
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Japanese Cover
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In the quiet, isolated town of Hanuda in rural Japan, location of an infamous mass murder, a terrible ritual is interrupted, just as the town is devastated by an earthquake. When the ground settles, the town finds itself isolated from the rest of the world, surrounded by an endless ocean of red water. Even worse, most of the inhabitants of the village are transformed into terrifying undead creatures called "Shibito" (rendered in kanji, it literally means ‘dead person’), who are anything but ‘dead’. You play through three days in the shoes of ten different playable characters (who are sometimes accompanied by a few important NPCs), all attempting to survive the chaos and terror that follows the aftermath of the earthquake. Every character you encounter during the course of the game, playable or not, are slowly turning into Shibito themselves, which allows for some truly disturbing moments and a few excellent genre-defying mechanics. During your stay in Hanuda village, you’ll discover the terrible secrets of a town that has literally sold it’s soul to things best left forgotten, and learn just how far some people will go to survive.
The characters that the player controls and interacts with during the three-day nightmare that consumes the village are interesting. They often have little in common with each other but a desire to live through the deathtrap that Hanuda village has become: these characters are not united in the face of danger. Siren has a central plot, but not every character is directly related to it. Despite this, each character and their story are fully fleshed out and complete in and of themselves, which adds a note of gravity to the overall narrative.
Siren employs a story and game mechanic called the ‘link system’ to tell the tale of Hanuda village. Each chapter, when completed, adds a bit more to the players’ understanding of the various sib-plots, and how they relate to the overarching narrative, through items and documents that are viewable in the link navigator section of the menu. These items and documents are placed in chronological order and not in the order in which they are discovered, which makes it difficult to determine whether or not the player has missed something until late in the game.
Even though some characters never meet or cross paths, actions that the player takes in some chapters will affect later chapters of the game. This is achieved through the completion of secondary objectives, which open up alternate routes and scenarios for subsequent chapters. These secondary objectives don’t affect the story, but provide options for navigation and items that somewhat eases later chapters for the player.
Siren has a diverse and surprisingly well-realized cast of characters. It has more in common with a novel or movie than a traditional game. There are no super soldiers or super cops: instead, you have a professor, a doctor, and a schoolteacher, among others. Since the background for each character is carefully explored through items and cut scenes, the reality of trying to sneak through a town full of ravenous undead as, say, a blind ten-year-old really hits home. No cavalry is coming to rescue them. These people, regular citizens, must somehow survive on their own. Some characters will live, some will die, and some will emerge from the disaster irrevocably changed.
Characters
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Kyoya Suda
If Siren can be said to have a hero character, then Kyoya is it. A lover of urban legends, the teenager travels to Hanuda in order to dig up dirt on a massacre rumored to have occurred many years ago. He finds a lot more than he bargained for.
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Tamon Takeuchi
Professor Takeuchi was born in Hanuda. He lost his parents as a child in strange circumstances, and returns to the village to discover the truth of what happened so many years ago. Takeuchi starts the game with a gun, which is very useful.
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Yoriko Anno
Yoriko is a student of Professor Takeuchi, and harbors a secret crush on him. She shows a lot of personal strength by the end of the game.
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Kei Makino
This shady character is a resident of Hanuda, and is a priest of the local religion. He is the twin brother of Shiro Miyata. His eventual fate is less than clear, but clever players will figure it out.
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Shiro Miyata
The twin of Kei Makino, and an even shadier character. Shiro is a doctor, and harbors a secret nearly as dark as the curse that engulfs Hanuda.
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Risa Onda
Risa was visiting her twin sister Mina when Hanuda undergoes its transformation. She’s probably the least helpful and capable character in the entire cast. Mina is Risa’s twin sister, and works at the local hospital as a nurse. She is not playable, and acts as the games’ Pyramid Head character. Her physical form is bizarre, and she is the most dangerous and powerful Shibito the player will encounter.
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Hisako Yao
A mysterious young woman of unknown purpose. She seems to be suffering from memory loss, and assists Kyoya early in the game.
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Miyako Kajiro
A fourteen-year-old girl of unusual inner strength and demeanor. She is heavily involved somehow with the terrible goings on at Hanuda village. She is blind, and can only see by sight-jacking.
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Reiko Takato
A local school teacher. Reiko is stargazing with a student when the curse descends on Hanuda, and vows to protect her from the horror that engulfs the village at all costs.
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Harumi Yomoda
This ten year old is stargazing with her teacher when the red ocean comes to the village, and depends on her teacher to help her survive. She’s possessed of ESP, and can sight-jack even though she’s never exposed to the red water itself.
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Akira Shimura
An elderly hermit and skilled hunter, Akira knows quite a bit about the local religion. He lost his wife and son during the earthquake of 1976, which still grieves him. Akira carries a rifle.
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Naoko Mihama
The pompous and narcissistic host of a cable TV show called Occult Japan. Her character is incredibly annoying, and her ending is extremely satisfying.
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Tomoko Maeda
A young teen who has run away from home just prior to the coming of the red waters. Her story concerns her attempts to reunite with her parents, and her ending is one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire game.
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Siren (called ‘Forbidden Siren’ in Japan and Europe) plays out in short chapters, each of which put you in control of a single survivor, though other survivors may be present. Siren has a subtlety in its story that other games in the genre lack; much like the fan-favorite Silent Hill 2, it relies on the intelligence and astuteness of its audience to pick up on threads and hints and encourages the player to figure things out for themselves. On top of the non-linear timeline, much of the story is acquired through items and notes littered throughout the environment, similar to Resident Evil and Silent Hill. A letter from a villager to a local doctor found on a desk in an office the player is hiding in might shed some light on the overall narrative of the prior chapter for example. Of course, if a player isn’t paying careful attention, he could miss some of these items and end up without a clear idea of what’s happening until the endgame, so paying attention to your environment is paramount.
No discussion about Siren should go without mention of its difficulty: Siren is one of the hardest and most nerve-wracking games ever created. The Shibito are smart, very difficult to put down, and sometimes come in numbers. Some of the player characters are physically helpless, and one misstep can mean reloading your save. That being said, the game is completely fair. It rewards patience, smarts, and knowledge of its mechanics better than any other game in the genre. There is no "gaming" or "cheating" the systems that drive Siren: you will play the game correctly, or you will reload your save. It’s unforgiving, but if you learn how to play intelligently, and take advantage of the tools that the game gives you, it can be one of the most satisfying horror gaming experiences you’ll ever have. While Siren is oftentimes extreme in the pressure it puts on the player, it avoids falling off the proverbial tight rope by quickly establishing the rules the player must obey to succeed, and sticking to them religiously. A careful player will never be screwed over by poor controls or unforeseen situations, and since most characters are physically incapable of taking down Shibito, limited ammunition quickly becomes irrelevant. Staying hidden and moving carefully are the weapons a careful Siren player chooses.
If staying hidden and moving carefully are the weapons a player must use to successfully play the game, then sight-jacking is the ammunition. Every playable character in the game can sight-jack, and it’s the single most important mechanic in the game. Think of sight-jacking as a first person rendition of the ‘vision cone’ that the guards in Metal Gear Solid display in Solid Snake’s radar: sight-jacking allows the player to literally see through the eyes of other characters, and more importantly, any Shibito that might be nearby (this is due to the character’s slow transformation into Shibito themselves. It’s not really all that great of a trade-off, if you think about it). When you elect to sight-jack a nearby character or Shibito, you see through its eyes until you release your sight-jack, or decide to sight-jack someone (or something) else. Your character can’t move while sight-jacking, so it’s important to activate it only when you’re certain that you’re not in danger of being discovered. It’s a clever and innovative mechanic that allows you to learn when, where, and how it’s safe to move towards your goal, and will sometimes allow you to discover routes and items that you would not have been able to find otherwise.
Shibito are the primary enemy a player will encounter in Siren. They are the reanimated (or simply transformed) remains of the citizens of Hanuda who did not survive the events that concluded with the coming of the red water. They litter the entire town and surrounding countryside, either actively searching for the player characters or reenacting normal everyday activities in a terrible mockery of their former lives. They are analogous to a traditional ‘zombie’, but blend the classic characteristics of the walking dead with many of the unsettling quirks that makes the monsters in Silent Hill so disturbing. Strange jerking motions, bizarre noises, and dead eyes are key design elements of Shibito. They come in several different varieties, though most look largely human. Regardless of physical appearance, the player quickly learns that Shibito are not to be trifled with.
Shibito are very difficult to put down, and some are outright invincible. Some characters are tougher or better equipped than others, too: where one character might be able to temporarily overpower a Shibito and make it to safety, another is entirely helpless. That fact simply underlines the importance of sight-jacking as a method of evasion and remaining hidden. All Shibito have a proscribed patrol route that you must learn, which can be very complex. These aren’t the guards in Metal Gear Solid, despite the earlier comparison: sound attracts them far quicker, their patterns are more complicated and less repetitious, and you may not be able to kill them if they see you.
There are no health packs in the game: characters regain health by not moving for a little while. Considering the already steep difficulty curve, regenerating health is a blessing. If you’ve been caught and beaten up by a Shibito, you’re still in the game as long as you can escape, hide somewhere safe, and sit still for a minute or so.
Siren employs a flashlight much like Silent Hill, but only suicidal idiots bother to turn it on unless they’re absolutely sure that there are no nearby enemies. Light attracts Shibito very quickly, which we’ve already established is something to avoid. Some characters have access to a gun, which is made more useful with judicious application of the flashlight, but otherwise it seems to be there to get your character killed. Just leave it off. Additionally, a lot of actions require the player to fiddle around in menus: for a game designed to be as tense and frightening as possible, this can quickly become tedious and detract from the tension the game tries to create.
Special mention should be made of the sound design and art direction in Siren. The superficial comparisons to Silent Hill are obvious and irrefutable, but it’s to be expected given that the same key people created both games. The graphics are some of the best on the PS2, and the audio track does an admirable job of keeping the player alert and frightened: especially if you play the game at one in the morning with your lights off and the surround sound system turned up. The cutscenes are intentionally murky, and jerkily animated. The Shibito move in an unnatural and unnerving way, and their shrieks and muttering are both disturbing and discordant. Their design, both visually and aurally, are more than simple shock value: it reinforces the need for stealth on behalf of the player. The only odd spot - the characters look like the developers took photographs of real actors, digitized them, and put them on the models. It all looks a bit unnatural, but it adds to the creepiness. However, since the game was localized in England, all of the characters have British accents, and none of the acting is terribly good.
The levels are intelligently laid out and lack any of the jarring ‘out of place’ fetch quest puzzles that mar games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. By way of example: you’ll never need a five-sided jewel to open the door on a women’s restroom. Siren focuses on keeping the player drawn into it’s world, and does it’s best to ensure that the suspension of disbelief is maintained. The game does suffer from "Man, It sure is dark" syndrome, which can sometimes disorient the player and lead to some unnecessary death and frustration, but given how much it adds to the atmosphere, it can be forgiven.
Prior to the release of Siren, Sony launched two viral websites that tie into the game and provide a tiny bit of back story. One, a public forum dedicated to weird science and supernatural investigation called www.occultland.com, references Kyoya’s plans to travel to Hanuda. The second, "Urban Folklore", originally contained a single post detailing some rumors and speculation about the origins of the tales of Hanuda village, but has been updated with new information and hints for every new Siren game. These websites are primitive looking, and ultimately light on content, but are interesting examples of viral marketing and make quick and fun reads for fans of the game.
All in all, Siren is an interesting and demanding experience that all lovers of survival horror should play. It’s hard, unforgiving, and requires a lot of patience, but the satisfaction to be gained in mastering its’ system and finishing the game is worth it to fans of survival horror.
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Siren 2 / Forbidden Siren 2 - Playstation 2 (2006)
European Cover
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Japanese Cover
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Forbidden Siren 2
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Three years after the release of Siren, Sony Japan and the Siren team released Forbidden Siren 2. Unlike the original Siren, Forbidden Siren 2 never reached the U.S.: it was released in Japan and Europe only. Wisely, in the localized version, they've given you the option to choose between English (still with British accents) or the original Japanese.
The story of Forbidden Siren 2 is similar enough to the first game to be familiar and comfortable for series veterans, while being fresh enough to interest new players. A blood-red tsunami capsizes a ferry, and the survivors find themselves on the island Yamijima. The survivors soon discover that the entire population of Yamijima disappeared twenty-nine years ago after a similar tsunami crashed into the island. Uncovering the reason why is closely tied to their own survival. The Siren calls, the Shibito wake, and creatures even more dangerous now walk the island...
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Mamoru Itsuki
The ‘hero’ character of Forbidden Siren 2, Mamoru is a journalist for the tabloid ‘Atlantis’. He finds Yuri Kishida early in the game, and soon discovers that something is very wrong with her.
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Ikuko Kifune
A marine biologist with strange psychic powers. Ikuko can control the people she sight-jacks through some kind of possession, and is the twin sister of Ryuko Tagawa. She comes to the island unwillingly, drawn by instinct.
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Yorito Nagai
A private in the Japanese Self Defense Force, Yorito arrives with Takeaki Misawa and Hiroshi Okita by crash landing in a helicopter just before all Hell breaks loose. This kind of luck is emblematic of the experiences Yorito has during his stay on Yamijima. Yorito is young and unsure of himself, and struggles to keep his mind together in the wake of the red wave.
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Takeaki Misawa
A major in the Japanese Self Defense Force, and the field commander of Yorito Nagai and Hiroshi Okita. Major Misawa is haunted by a mysterious tie to the first game, and quickly begins to lose his sanity when the Shibito rise on the island.
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Akiko Kiyota
A psychic who accompanies Soji Abe to the island in order to prove his innocence in the death of Ryuko Tagawa. She is strangely familiar with the island, and is able to read the past while sight-jacking.
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Soji Abe
Soji is wanted for the murder of his roommate Ryuko Tagawa, and kidnaps the psychic Akiko Kiyota, hoping that she will help clear his name. Akiko leads him to Yamijima Island, where he tries to reconcile the connection between the murder of Ryuko and the rise of the Shibito.
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Shigeru Fujita
A police officer that was born and raised on the cursed island, and returns to investigate reports of strange sightings on the supposedly deserted island.
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Ichiko Yagura
A terrified and confused young lady who is more deeply involved in the events on Yamijima Island than she realizes. Shigeru Fujita rescues her from the Shibito early in the game, but things immediately take a darker turn.
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Shu Mikami
A famous and blind novelist, accompanied by his seeing eye dog Tsukasa. Shu was born on Yamijima Island, and harbors dark and terrible secrets tied to the cursed place. He is, of course, an amnesiac, and can control things he sight-jacks. You need to sight-jack his trusty puppy Tsukasa and view the word from his eyes in order to move. While Tsukasa follows his master faithfully, you still can't completely control him, making for some tense moments.
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Kanae
A childhood playmate of Shu Mikami, and presumed dead for many years. She is somehow responsible for the tidal wave that destroyed the village long ago.
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Yuri Kishida
A crazy woman, and the murderer of Ryuko Tagawa. She has goals on the island that the characters can only guess at, and is far more than she seems.
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There are numerous other characters too. These include Tsuneo Ohta, The head of the fisherman’s guild and father of Tomoe Ohta, he was present during the tidal wave that wipes out the town in 1976. Why he is found wandering the island in the present day is a mystery to both the player and Tsuneo himself; Tomoe Ohta The daughter of Tsuneo, and a serious problem for the players. She’s similar to Mina Onda from the original Siren; Ryuko Tagawa The roommate of Soji Abe who is murdered before the game begins. She has, of course, a mysterious past tied to the cursed island. She was not what she appeared to be ; Hiroshi Okita Hiroshi is the third soldier in Major Misawa’s squad, and the best friend of Yorito Nagai. He dies during the crash landing, but quickly rises as a Shibito; Ryuhei Mikami The father of Shu Mikami. He is wandering the island as a Shibito, and holds the key to some very important information about the tidal wave in 1976; Kyoya Suda The protagonist of the original Siren, currently employed as some sort of holy warrior. He wields the holy sword Homuranagi; and Nitaka Ichifuji, a secret character, only playable once the game is beaten on the hardest difficulty. He’s a Shibito and former solider.
Forbidden Siren 2 plays similarly to the original game, but adds a number of small and important tweaks to the mix. First, and probably of the most interest for many players, is the selectable difficulty: you now have the choice of easy, normal, and hard. Combat is a viable option in Forbidden Siren 2, introducing unarmed attacks and a three hit combo system. NPCs you’re guiding will defend themselves with weapons now, which is handy: escort missions are universally reviled, and for good reason. You can now stop Shibito from regenerating by dispersing an unfriendly spirit with your flashlight or a weapon hit, which makes traversing the island much easier. Speaking of flashlights, there are now enemies that are weakened by direct light, which makes the flashlight more than just a ‘Kill me!’ button. It should be noted, however, that attempting to "brute force" your way through the game is still unadvisable. Hiding and sneaking are still the best options: characters are better able to defend themselves, but aren’t invincible or capable of protracted struggles.
The game is also quite a bit brighter than the original, so you spend less time stumbling around the darkness. The graphics have also improved immensely, with realistic character models that ditch the digitized-face routine of the first game.
Characters can now crouch walk, making less noise and staying lower to the ground. There is an alert system that will warn the player if there are enemies nearby (your Dualshock will vibrate), and the handling of firearms is much improved over the first game. It seems the developers of Siren listened to the complaints about the original game’s difficulty: Forbidden Siren 2 is much more approachable and far easier to complete, while still offering a challenge.
The Shibito are still a serious problem for anyone playing the game, but a new enemy makes its first appearance in Forbidden Siren 2: the Yamibito ("Darkness people"). They function similarly to Shibito, but are smarter, tougher, and generally less pleasant. They have a natural weakness to light, though: players should always have their fingers on the flashlight button if they think a Yamibito is in the area. Just like a Shibito, a defeated Yamibito can have its regeneration halted by dispersing the spirit that attempts to inhabit the defeated creature. Pro tip: use your flashlight.
The game is still broken up into chapters that focus on one character at a time which overlap chronologically and are non-linear in structure, but adds a few variables. There are now multiple paths and objectives for some chapters and characters, which alter the story and change a few key events far more than in the original game. More importantly, several characters now have special abilities they can use while sight-jacking. For example, two characters can control anything they’re currently sight-jacking, and another character reveals psychic impressions when sight-jacking in certain areas.
The narrative, due primarily to the branching storyline, is even more obtuse and confusing than the first game, which is unfortunate. A player can easily finish the game and have only a vague idea of what actually happened. Since the story is a primary reason to play the game to begin with, it makes finishing the game less than satisfying, requiring more than one play through to uncover enough of the plot elements to make sense of the overall story. That shouldn’t dissuade fans of horror games from playing Forbidden Siren 2. While something of a departure from the first game, Forbidden Siren 2 has enough atmosphere and deep game-play to stand proudly on it’s own.
Just like the "Occult Land" forum and "Folklore Society" websites for the first game, Forbidden Siren 2 has a couple viral sites that offer glimpses into the personalities and history of the characters in the game. Shu Mikami has his own site, www.Shu-Mikami.com, which is far more in-depth than the websites related to the first game. Check out the ‘BBS’ link and read all the posts: if you’ve played through Forbidden Siren 2, it’s a little macabre.
The second site, www.yumemi-salon.com, is the homepage and business site of Akiko Kiyota, under the pseudonym Mademoiselle Yumemi. It’s fairly standard homepage stuff, and lacks any real story hooks, but I encourage the reader to click on the ‘tarot card reading’ link. It’s all in good taste, I assure you.
Although the European version of Forbidden Siren 2 has English, it's extremely hard to play on a non-European PS2, mostly because it's a DVD9 (the Japanese version, on the other hand, is a DVD5.) One solution is to rip the DVD to a computer, hack out extraneous sound files, and burn a new DVD. Otherwise, you'll need a mod chip in your console. You'll also need the ability to play PAL games, either through a TV tuner capture card, or through component cables on any HDTV.
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Siren: Blood Curse / Siren: New Translation - Playstation 3 (2008)
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Siren: Blood Curse
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Sony, in its wisdom, decided that the original Siren never really found the audience that it deserved. They commissioned the Siren team to create a half-remake, half-re-imagining of the original Siren for release as a PS3 exclusive. The result plays like a "best of" Siren, with many of the game play innovations of the second game combined with the story and structure of the first game. On top of that, there are several tweaks and upgrades to the game-play that allows Siren to compete with more modern horror games, and adds enough new plot twists and characters to provide a reason for even seasoned Siren fans to play.
The game again takes place in Hanuda village in rural Japan, and follows roughly the same story as the first game. There’s now an American TV crew that witnesses the botched ritual at the beginning of the game, which provides some new cast members to play with. The script is top notch, with excellent voice work across the board. The graphics are either incredible or horrible depending on who you talk to: the texture work on the environments is great, but there’s a noise filter running over everything at all times that you can’t turn off. At some points it’s hardly noticeable, but in a few key instances, it can obscure important things like hiding places and items. At any rate, it's a step up from Silent Hill: Homecoming, released around the same time. Every playable character in the game has a digitized likeness for a face: in some scenes, it really helps the player to "get into character", and it allows for a range of emotion and, for lack of a better term, "acting" from the characters that other survival horror games lack. It adds to the tension and fear that you, the player, are intended to feel. In some scenes though, it takes a running, giggling, headlong jump into the Uncanny Valley and pulls you right out of the game, Shibito or no Shibito.
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Howard Wright
The "hero" character in Siren: Blood Curse/New Translation, and the analogue of Kyoya Suda from the original game. He interrupts the ritual that the American television crew witnesses during the opening cut scene, and quickly learns that sticking his nose in other people’s business is a very bad idea.
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Sam Monroe
A college professor, and ex-husband of Melissa Gale. He is also the father of Bella Monroe, and is more or less Tamon Takeuchi from the original Siren. His eventual end is expanded upon in the archives
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Melissa Gale
Sam’s ex-wife, Bella’s mother, and the host of the TV show that witnesses the botched ritual at the beginning of the game. She turns into a maggot Shibito, in a disturbing and morbid manner.
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Bella Monroe
The daughter of Sam and Melissa, who is somehow deeply tied to the curse that plagues the town.
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Seigo Saiga
A local doctor, a member of the local cult, and eventually an ally. Seigo Saiga helps Howard understand his role in the strange events surrounding Hanuda village, and sacrifices himself to help Howard put things right... At least, as right as they’ll ever be.
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Sol Jackson
The cameraman of the American TV crew that witnesses the ritual at the beginning of the game, and a dangerous Shibito for most of the game’s duration. He is secretly in love with Melissa.
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Amana
The analogue of Hisako Yao from the first Siren, Amana is sometimes helpful and sometimes dangerous. She acts as the tutorial for Howard in chapter 2, but is far more insidious than she first appears. She has strange ties to Bella Monroe.
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Miyako
A young lady who is destined to be ritually sacrificed. She becomes close to Howard during the course of the game, and eventually helps him to end the terror engulfing the rural town.
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The combat and selectable difficulty from Forbidden Siren 2 make another appearance, which goes a long way towards making the game more accessible (though the difficulty is still very high: much higher than any given Silent Hill or Resident Evil). Sight-jacking now triggers a ‘split screen’ effect, with your character’s perspective on the left hand side of the screen, and the perspective of whoever you’ve sight-jacked on the right hand side. It takes some getting used to, but it offers a tactical flexibility that comes in handy once you get used to it, especially since you can now move while sight-jacking (something you could not do in the original Siren, and only one character was capable of in Forbidden Siren 2). The game is still broken up into chapters, but the length of each chapter is significantly reduced and streamlined, which creates an interesting, almost episodic feel. Depending on skill and experience, each chapter takes roughly ten minutes to an hour: a significant reduction in time invested when compared to the original. Playing a game as tense and demanding as Siren in small chunks is brilliant game design: it allows the player to play just enough to get his fix, and come back at his leisure. It makes it much easier for anyone to eventually see it through to the end.
Common actions, such as yelling, turning the flashlight on and off, and so on, are mapped to the D-pad, which means less time fiddling with menus. The multiple pathways of Forbidden Siren 2 are gone, which cleans up the narrative nicely and makes the events surrounding Hanuda village clearer. When you complete Siren: Blood Curse, you’ll know what’s going on.
Siren: New Translation received a Blu-Ray release in Asia and Japan: European and North American PS3 owners weren’t so lucky. Siren: Blood Curse (the North American title of the game) was released exclusively for download on PSN, available as three separate ‘episodes’ for fifteen dollars each, or alternately, one single download for forty dollars. This is either a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. If you don’t have a great broadband connection, forget downloading the game: it’s massive. That naturally leads us to our second problem, which is hard drive space. Owners of the twenty gigabyte PS3 are purely out of luck, and with all the games that require mandatory installs of five gigs or more, even owners of sixty and eighty gigabyte PS3’s might balk at filling half of their hard drive with a single game: a single game that takes upwards of five hours to download, no less. Thanks, Sony.
On the other hand, if you aren’t sure that Siren is the game for you, and the free demo available on PSN doesn’t offer enough of a glimpse to make you decide one way or the other, you can buy a single episode and play through it cheaply. It won’t take more than a few hours, and won’t take up nearly as much space. If you decide you like it and want more, the other episodes are always available on PSN.
The solution for many people was to simply import the Asian version. It’s completely in English, both dialogue and text, and is relatively cheap. With shipping, the game costs less to import than most new games cost off the shelf of your friendly game retailer. Say what you want about Sony’s policies and business practices: not region-locking games makes situations like this much easier on everyone.
Yet another phony website was released alongside Blood Curse, this time the personal blog of Howard Wright, the protagonist: http://www.hw-biker.blog-paradise.com/. It’s pretty light on content, but worth a look anyway.
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Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
Siren: Blood Curse
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Movie: Forbidden Siren (2006)
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A film adaptation of the Siren series was released alongside Forbidden Siren 2 in Japan. While it takes a number of liberties with the story, the atmosphere and surreal plot are straight out of the game.
A young woman named Yuki moves to the island Yamajima with her Father and brother Hideo. The strange habits of the local townsfolk, coupled with the mysterious history of the island itself, disturb Yuki greatly. When she’s told by a local fisherman to never go outside when the Siren is ringing, a series of events is set in motion that will both reveal the town’s dark secrets and challenge Yuki’s perception of reality.
Most of the narrative devices employed by the game incarnations of Siren, such as following several characters at once, out of joint chronology, and the archive systems, are abandoned in favor of a more traditional film. It’s similar to the changes made to the story of Silent Hill in the movie adaptation: when you need to distill a complex and lengthy narrative from twenty hours down to one and a half, certain sacrifices must be made.
Everything from the games is present and accounted for. There are Shibito (although they're never specifically named as such) that Yuki must avoid, there is a shrill and ominous siren that heralds disaster, and there is a dark and terrible secret at the root of the town’s curse. The story is far clearer and focused than the games, even given that the ending is somewhat nebulous and open to interpretation. Unlike the majority of "video game movies", Forbidden Siren is a deep and interesting film that fans of the games shouldn’t miss. The film was never released in North America or Europe, but it’s available for import. You can find a plot synopsis and translation on the internet.
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Forbidden Siren (Movie)
Forbidden Siren (Movie)
Forbidden Siren (Movie)
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