Siren: New Translation demo in JPN PS Store

The demo of Siren for the PS3 is now up. You can find it in the Japanese PlayStation Store. The file is 550MB.

[BilI Gates]

Been playing it for awhile now. Crazy stuff lol.

[sonarus]

How much Japanese?

[BilI Gates]

The voices and menu are in English but the description for the controls are in Japanese. You'll figure it out though.

Creepy stuff. Very dark and atmospheric. The music is beautiful. Grainy graphical style (similar to Silent Hill).

Been waiting for a horror game like this since the original Siren. You could tell they've really fixed the controls and they've even added a few new things. I'm in love..

[rucky]

Freakin scary, can't continue tonight I need my beauty sleep. Funny how the main character looks like Brad Pitt

[NeoBasch]

Poor Siren. Oh how is it ignored? :'(

Well, anyways... I found this link fairly helpful to get me through the process of creating a Japanese PlayStation Store account. Some of you have to be wondering how you can get a hold of this demo, so here you go. Just follow the instructions and read the comments section below if you are having trouble. Your question could have already been answered.

http://ps3mods.blogspot.com...

I'm downloading the demo now. I may report back with some impressions. Depends how up to it I feel. Rather than impressions, you should all go out and download the demo. That would be the best thing you could do for yourself. ;)

35%! Wahoo!!!

UPDATE: Oh my God! I haven't even started the demo, but I recommend to anyone that is going to try this not to start it up right away. Go over to your games tab, hover over the Siren game data and just listen. OH MY GOD!!! That was one of the freakiest things I have ever encountered in a video game/movie. Here I am checking out some updates on my laptop and all of a sudden I hear that! Mad props for the phenomenal performance there.

[PiTCHBLaCK]

If this comes to NA I'm getting it asap!.

[Expy]

Oh god... love the atmosphere in this game o.o

[NeoBasch]

Alright, impressions... It's been a while since I have done one of these. I'll try not to spoil much. If you consider gameplay to be too much, then you should skip over this post completely. I'll go into a few specifics for those that want to get the most out of the demo.

I haven't the slightest idea of the fundamentals of speaking nor writing in Japanese, but I feel this phrase sums up my whole experience with the short two mission spread:

"Negata! Imo no uchi ni."

... Yeah, I probably butchered that one, but the English equivalent is "Just run! Before its too late."

I wasn't going to weasel my way out of this one. Lights off, sound cranked, and secluded in the basement with nothing to comfort me but the sole press of a button to break up the action and, just maybe if I was lucky enough, my rapidly pulsating heart (the pause button :p ). Its almost a feat just to make it through the darn thing. So there I was, clutching my little controller for my dear life.

The demo starts you out in the shoes of Mister/Mr. Sam Monroe. Just like you, he seems like he has been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. You have no idea what's going on, but seem to only be concerned about the others that broke apart from the group. In the first mission, you are tasked with finding your fellow wanderers. Thankfully, much of the game is presented in English: the voice actors, menus, and mission objectives (the objective listed before the stages that is).

Once all the preliminary background is out of the way, you'll notice a few things upon start up. First of all, you are an American. Yes, they changed the characters and story around a bit. The developers wanted to incorporate more of a cultural mix. You will also notice that he is equipped with a flashlight. Silent Hill vets will feel right at home and will know exactly what to do. But let's not get too hasty. In the bottom-right hand corner is a hint. Unfortunately, all hints are written in Japanese. But may I remind you, its safe to play around. If you like to discover things for yourself, skip over this next section. The following section is just a brief look into the the controls of Siren.

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Go ahead and press SELECT. A menu will be pulled up starting with the Map page. Towards the top you can see that it is highlighted. You will also notice other tabs that trail off to the right. To switch between these tabs, press L1 and R1 to travel left and right respectively. Go ahead, try it out. Notice how the display in the center changes as you switch tabs. You may also notice a hand on the far right side pointing to some more Japanese text. This is just another way to mark your progress. The finger points to and highlights the phrase to whichever section that the display applies to: Map is the top phrase, the next Status, Archive, and so on and so forth.

Switch back to the maps tab. In here, you can trace your progress, find out where you are, how far you have to go to reach a key area or new elevation. When you first open your map up, the currently selected level based on elevation is displayed. The blue tear drop signifies the position you are currently at in reference to the map. If you have run around a little already, you may also notice some trailing black dots. Theses dots mark the steps you have taken. Great for retracing your steps.

If you press the left or right digital pad button you will be able to zoom in and out. If you press up on the digital pad you will switch between heights of elevation for the given level you are playing. Think of it as you are now currently on the 1st floor, by pressing the up button you will be able to see the 2nd floor. Use the left analog stick to navigate around the view to see more. Feeling lost yet? Look in the bottom-left hand corner. You will notice a compass. Directly above that is a tiny stack of risen planes. These planes just show you where you are on the map: 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc... The orange plane is your currently selected "floor" (or the floor your viewing), while, if viewing a different floor than that of which you are currently on, the blue plane will signify the floor you are currently playing on.

If you have no idea what you have done to the map, press TRIANGLE. It will reset all transformations back to default settings and will display the floor you are playing on. Now before we get into more complex controls. I would like for you to notice one more thing. The bilingual text box at the bottom of the screen details what the current day and time is in the game world, and the geographic location you are traveling at.

Alright, now its time to mess up the screen. Move around the right analog stick. Ah, did you see it? If you hold down on your right analog stick, you will bring up the other floors. They will have a purplish tint of color. This makes it easier for the player to see how the different floors are connected. The floors will also be presented in 3D to show scale and objects better. This could reveal houses, factories, furniture, exits, road blocks, and all sorts of other things. While in this view, you can still switch between floors. It pretty much only changes the pivot by which you can swing the map. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. If you tilt the right analog stick left or right, you can swing the map.

I think that takes care of the map. Ugh, one more thing. The SQUARE button toggles between hiding and displaying identification tags for parts of maps.

Alright, let's move on. Press R1 to toggle to the next tab. Up in the upper-left hand corner, your given brief information on the playable character. As of now, you are Sam Monroe. A 37 year old Cultural Anthropologist. Your items and weapons each share their own group boxes. The yellow square acts as a cursor and highlights items. The only item you should have right now is a flashlight.

Press R1 again and you should now be in the Archives tab. These are where all the files and Intelligence go that detail or describe the story, weapons, or other items of interest. Currently, you should have only one file that can be read: 07. Go over to 07, make sure you have the orange highlighting rectangle hovering over it, and press CROSS (X). You will see an identification card, glasses, a pen, and a newspaper. There's not too much to comment on here besides the fact that he is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Matheson College. Two other small items of interest is the newspaper underneath (which seems to talk about religious rituals and sacrifices) and the glasses. Finally, a main character with glasses. Nice. :D

The next tab is for hints, which is all in Japanese. The last tab is for options where you can tweak some pretty nifty things. For example: camera controls (two different types along with inversion), screen adjustments (including the effect you get when a Shibito spots you), the difficulty and sound. Though, the last two I mentioned cannot be changed in the demo. Press CIRCLE or SELECT again to get out of the menu.

Now that we are out of the menu, let's focus on some actual gameplay. Press SQUARE or R1 to perform melee strikes. CIRCLE makes you crouch. Press it again to get up out of the crouch. You can also run while you crouch. Great for moving around behind cover undetected. Holding R2 puts you in first person. Right analog stick moves the camera, and the left the character. Press any digital pad button to call up a shortcut menu. A mock version of the digital pad will appear on screen. Press UP on the digital pad after the image is displayed to toggle on or off your flashlight. If you call up the shortcut D-Pad commands again but press left this time, you will be rewarded with shouting and calling for help. This will come in handy later when you have to secure areas for certain characters.

Okay, I think I've helped enough to get people going in the demo. You can figure out the rest through trial and error or whatnot. Good luck, and have fun. Let me know if you need any help.

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Yay! Back to my impressions. The environmental sounds effects are incredibly well done. Beautifully simple motion controls. The atmosphere top notch and the voice actors fare pretty decently themselves. The hit reactions and blood effects are shockingly implemented. Trust me, it is something to behold (besides some lame doll physics). Once you start getting weapons, you will see what I mean. And besides being probably the scariest game I have ever played (sorry SH2/3), I think Siren: NT is off to an amazing start.

Somethings I would recommend they try to improve upon before release would be to tighten up the graphics. They look nice, but nothing spectacular like one particular shot or two from the trailer. I may be hoping for too much, but you never know. Maybe they will beef up the visual department a bit more. The audio should also be mixed a little better. The balance seemed kind of weird. I loved the eerie tones to the music and sound effects, by the voice overs hardly come across. This is a game that will probably benefit greatly from Surround Sound, but they should still allow the typical mixture filters in other games. Also, they could improve on the sound effects of combat a bit. The pistol is fine, but the melee weapons I can't help but think they have all been toned down. No sickening slashes like from the first Shibito you encounter. Heck, I can hardly remember if there was a sound effect.

Those are probably my biggest complaints so far. Regardless of these, though, the game stands head and shoulders above most of its competition, at the very least. This game is amazing. Its the most fun I've had with a game since the awesomeness that was Uncharted. Easily, probably one of my top five anticipated games of the year. Yeah, its that good.

I love it, and look forward to see what they do with this game when it finally releases. :)