Hey, I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your work on this incredible analysis. I'm adding this to my little collection of game analysis and critical writing.
It seriously means a lot whenever I see people writing this way about games. It not only makes the medium and our enjoyment of it better, but it makes this specific place, ReseEra, a much greater and valuable game community.
Please keep up the great work.
Amazing thread, Finale. Well done.
Even though I would have preferred seeing Imamura, Tsuboyama, and Owaka back to 'resurrect' Silent Hill, Kojima & Del Toro had me fascinated. Success or failure, at least SH was going to have some true auteurs behind it again and a budget that wasn't pure 'bargain-basement' crap.
Damn good thread Finale.
It's a shame that the dream collaboration of Kojima, Del Toro and Junji Ito doing a new Silent Hill never got to be more than that, a dream.
One thing that might have been already mentioned somewhere: Kojima, being such a huge film buff, possibly took some light inspiration from the 1976 movie "God Told Me To", specificallythe way that the father tells his daughter that it was just a game to make her get out of the bathroom and the references to an extraterrestrial presence
Finale, you should link some of your other analyses you've posted on ERA. I bet some of the others here would enjoy them. You put a lot of heart into your written works, and always reveal new layers to appreciate.
I think these assessments are all cleverly made and well put and well extracted from what was in the game, but to be honest, the impression I got was more that Kojima thought about a situation in which violence would break out in a normal life, and so he took these things. Remember this is done by the same guy who thought we'd be a ashamed of our words and deeds by not seeing his masterful vision behind Quiet; a blatantly sexualized character whose sympathetic backstory of stupid was supposed to justify having her wear almost nothing while performing military actions. I don't think the artistic intent was to make you see P.T. as a game with a message on this subject matter, it was just a means to an end for Kojima to set the tone for a horror story and mask his upcoming product Silent Hills.The consequences of a restrictive patriarchy are unilateral. It requires both men and women to uphold and adhere to designated values as to maintain a controlled hierarchy.
Under this system, men are instructed to be competitive in all facets of their lives and opt for individual success at the expense of interpersonal relationships. Boys are taught to control or suppress their feelings and cannot learn how to coherently express themselves. Men must defend and protect their masculinity by rejecting activities, ideas, and constructs that do not comply with their given masculine ruleset. This causes them to idolize and reward examples of their own behavior and detest, undermine, and resent behavior that deviates from that expectation.
This has brutal implications for women, who must exist alongside (or more accurately, beneath) the male-dictated social structure. Because masculinity is so narrowly defined, anything that deviates from masculine norms is relegated into its feminine antithesis.
I think these assessments are all cleverly made and well put and well extracted from what was in the game, but to be honest, the impression I got was more that Kojima thought about a situation in which violence would break out in a normal life, and so he took these things.
[...]
We also don't know anything particular behind its development really. It lists the names of a bunch of leads that worked on it including Kojima and Del Toro, but we actually don't know if any ghost writer worked on this one, like Shuyo Murata or whoever worked on past MGS titles, or maybe even Del Toro. There's the off-chance that a lot of these ideas you mentioned in your OP are actually intended to be thought of to this level of deconstruction, and also the chance that Kojima was in a bliss, because like all writers not all of hits writing has hit home but from the track-record it's true, he does have it in him sometimes.But I completely understand where you're coming from. I agree with your skepticism. I've said before that part of the reason P.T. shines so enduringly is because it never had a chance to be ruined with a follow-up. Silent Hill, as a series, wishes it could be that lucky.
Just wait until Kojima finishes watching The Return. He already saw the first episode and loved it. Who knows what crazy ideas he'll come up withOn the topic of women in Kojima's games, didn't Strangelove in MGSV create the AI's the became The Patriots? Or am I misremembering?
Anyway. excellent thread Finale Fireworker. PT is one of my favorite things in fiction ever. It got me into David Lynch, for wich I have to mention the obvious comparisons there are with PT and Lynch's work (aside from the sense of dread from both works).
And that's the fetus which is very, very similar to Lynch's baby in Eraserhead:
Interestingly enough, thematically, the baby serves as a representation of the main character's fears of not being able to achieve his rather mundane dreams, and is eventually what leads him to (apparently) die in a pretty surreal way:
Considering how much into surrealism and magic realism I am, and how Kojima going weird all the way in Death Stranding, I'm pretty stoked. I hope that afterwards, Kojima and Del Toro work on a horror game. Hope that you see some of Lynch's movies, Fireworker! I'm sure you'd like them.
Oh daaaamn, Kojima being inspired by Episode 8 would be nuts.Just wait until Kojima finishes watching The Return. He already saw the first episode and loved it. Who knows what crazy ideas he'll come up with
I don't see why the concept (obviously not the name) could be resurrected at Kojima's new studio and get in contact with Del Toro and Reedus again...
Yknow
Something talked about in this thread, and brought up by Finale, is the overarching theme in the MGS games-That is a patriarchy through both Big Boss and Solidus, about being shaped by a person who you don't necessarily care for, about who you are and what you are to be, and overcoming it and being your own person. That despite all that, you don't have to follow in that persons footsteps. I've talked about it in the past, but my father is a deadbeat alcoholic. An asshole of the highest regard. And to me, MGS was a game that taught me how to escape that, that you shouldn't be tied to something because it's 'blood ties' or because that person raised you. I effectively don't care for that man, and my family is always baffled that I don't. And I think that's ok, that I don't care for that person because of the pain they caused me and my family.
Say what you will about Kojima, but the themes he has put in his games, are head above many other games. No other games tackle what he has, and to me, growing up a kid who cared a bit too much about games, it really helped me understand my position in life and my ability to choose.
Great write-up OP
Do you have any thoughts as to why the radio repeats that after killing his family, he hangs himself in garage but the 2nd time it says he hangs himself with an unbillical cord instead of hose?
Well it took me more than a week, but I finally finished your analysis and all I have to say is great work! I think you hit the nail on the head re: themes and did a great job extrapolating the elements of the game and contextualising them.
Can't wait for your next thread :)
Sorry to bump this but I dunno if this was worth it's own thread and though this one would be more appropiated for it. It's just about a small thing just found that probably never knew till now that I found pretty cool.
wonder what else can be found now that it's being datamined.
Sorry to bump this but I dunno if this was worth it's own thread and though this one would be more appropiated for it. It's just about a small thing just found that probably never knew till now that I found pretty cool.
wonder what else can be found now that it's being datamined.
Sorry to bump this but I dunno if this was worth it's own thread and though this one would be more appropiated for it. It's just about a small thing just found that probably never knew till now that I found pretty cool.
wonder what else can be found now that it's being datamined.
Finale Fireworker, have you done more analysis like this recently? I loved this one and the one on TLOU.
I am so sad that this game is gone. I pray one day Kojima goes back to it. Was it ever going to be a game on its own, or was it always meant to be a teaser for a cinematic silent hills game?
I just read this. Absolutely fantastic. I'm hoping Death Standing deals with some of the themes they had planned for Silent Hills.
thx for the bump, amazing thread op, all your analysis are very good, congrats
Looks like it's officially been five years since P.T. released - as of August 12th.
😢 🕯
Might play it today.
The game could've been finished and released by now.
Oh what could've been.
The game could've been finished and released by now.
Oh what could've been.