It It Time Silent Hill Had A New Female Protagonist?

Rely on Horror: The Silent Hill series is home to many diverse characters. Men, women, and even children have walked the streets of the powerful town. Only one female has been a protagonist though. Heather Mason, AKA Cheryl, AKA Alessa was the only female that we the players could control in the Silent Hill series (canon titles) Yes, Heather’s role as the lead in Silent Hill 3 was extremely important, because of her ties to The Order, but why haven’t we seen another game starring the opposite sex? Now that the series appears to be branching away from The Order, we should be able to jump into the shoes of a female character with her own trauma and issues.

[JsonHenry]

I would prefer not. But my wife is standing over my shoulder saying yes, Silent Hill is ready. (again)

[dark-hollow]

It's time for a good silent hill....made by Japanese developers.

[Arsenic13]

What's with JP developers can only do SH? You do know that the original JP team focused on Western, specifically American, horror as influences?

[specialguest]

Western developers would have never thought of creating Pyramid head. Everything from the reason for the pyramid shaped head to the painful grunts, and his act of raping the mannequins was well thought out when designing him.

The crazy twist to this is that Pyramid head is actually a manifestation by those who feel an extreme amount of guilt or have an overwhelming desire for punishment. His acts of violence are not aimed solely at humans, as he has also brought harm to the other creatures that inhabit Silent Hill.

With western developers, you would have gotten something very cliche based on Hollywood films. A monster with bulging muscles hell-bent on killing you, and lacking of that symbolic twist.

[Pozzle]

Maybe it's because I've played/watched too many Japanese horrors, but I'd argue the early Silent Hill games have a very distinct Japanese flavor that the later games definitely don't have. The Japanese approach horror very differently than the West and it shows in their horror games. Games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill might have been inspired by Western/American horror, but they were still very Japanese in their way of storytelling/setting/atmospher e/etc.

The cramped locations (claustrophobic, inescapable rooms), the creatures (bizarre, unexplainable "youkai" type monsters), the emphasis on rules of the universe (Silent Hill cannot harm people until they enter the town, and human characters will never be able to stop the town because it is a force far more powerful than them), the setting (the Otherworld is dark, filthy, and damp), the lack of explanation and abundance of questions (characters will never be in control of the situation because they don't understand what is going on), the "unknown invading the known" (Silent Hill's influence is slopwly spreading and cannot be stopped) etc...these are all common cliches used in Japanese horrors.

[Pozzle]

At this point, I'd just be happy with a good protagonist of EITHER gender.

I haven't found a Silent Hill protagonist interesting since Heather from SH3. :(

[knifefight]

I don't know, it it? Maybe it it, maybe it itn't.

[8BitSoul]

There are some interesting points in this article. As a long-time SH fan, I can definitely relate to the thought of playing as another female protagonist. What's kind of ironic, is that Team Silent said back in 2003, when asked why they chose a female character instead of male, that they were tired of creating stories and games revolving around middle-aged men. Guess they weren't so tired of it after all, seeing as how they went back to that particular stereo-type in SH4. Heather's chapter is absolutely one of the more interesting, and seeing a woman descend into madness was a refreshing perspective.

[blackbirdi]

sh 3 has the best female protagonist