A theory about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
WARNING: If you are a fan of the Silent Hill franchise, but have not played Silent Hill 1, 3 or Shattered Memories, I seriously recommend clicking away from this theory. I don't want to spoil the awesomeness. Also, I know I probably got a TON of facts about Shattered Memories wrong, considering I haven't played it in a long time, so feel free to politely correct me about anything I may have misread.
Okay. So, the argument for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, is that it is a Re-imagining of the first game, a different version of the story, and meanwhile, others say it's the split timeline theory. (Silent Hill's good ending becomes SH3, while the bad one becomes SH:SM). Well, I have something different to add.
I believe, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is not a Re-imagining, not a bi-product of the bad ending, but instead, is a Sequel, to the 2003 rendition of the town, Silent Hill 3. DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! How can this be? Well let's look at the facts.
Exhibit A: What's Canon, and What is not.
As confirmed by the writers, Silent Hill's TRUE ending, was the Good - ending. (Which sets up SH3) In which Cybil dies, and Alessa/Cheryl gives birth to a baby girl, and requests Harry to get out of Silent Hill with the baby. That baby would later grow up to be Heather Mason, AKA Alessa, AKA Cheryl (Wow, heather has a lot of Alter egos.), But as we see in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the Canon they have, is supposedly the Bad - ending, In which Harry dies, Cybil dies, and Cheryl dies. Which can't be possible, because in the end of Silent Hill: SM, we find out that Cheryl is the main character. Meaning the Re-imagining idea isn't possible.
Exhibit B: A Shattered Memory.
As some may know, the game is about Cheryl recollecting her memories about what happened in Silent Hill. Which, is all very inaccurate. Like a very bizarre version of what really DID happen. Well, Cheryl, at the end of the first game, gives birth to god and becomes Alessa. And upon defeating her, Cheryl gives Harry the baby, a baby which still has the soul of Alessa (Which is why she can be the only one to birth god in Silent Hill 3), and with that soul, Heather has very specific memories. In Silent Hill 3, heather spends the whole game trying to remember, she goes on about how she can't forget, and she must remember who she is, but it's very fuzzy. Purely because heather is not the REAL Cheryl. She is a bi-product of who cheryl was. Meaning she believes that Harry and his wife were divorced when his wife really died, and she believes many more false things about the entire story. Her mind is fuzzy, therefore, making her ideals of the story, a shattered memory.
Exhibit C: Cheryl Mason is Clearly Heather Mason.
One of my number one points here, is how the resemblance between Cheryl and Heather is uncanny. But it goes deeper than that. Look at the pictures below.
Picture number 1 depicts Heather, whilst Picture number 2 depicts Cheryl. Both of them have the horrible scars of fear etched under their eyes, both of them have the short, brownish hair, both of them have the same physique. But that's not all. In the ending to Silent Hill 3, Heather tells Douglas to call her by her real name from then on, "Cheryl", and she considers dying her hair back to it's original color, which was light brown. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! Cheryl also looks like an older Heather. But I think Strangest of all, is that Cheryl said that her father died a hero, and kept insisting his death wasn't in a car accident. Well, she was right. He didn't die in the car accident according to canon, Harry was the hero, he defeated Silent Hill, and stopped god. And years later, Claudia killed him in cold blood. A memory that Cheryl would be trying to forget, huh?
I've made my case. And it is that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, is in fact a sequel, and the CLOSER to the Alessa trilogy. Bam.
Comments
I totally agree with you, I dunno what else I can say. I've been thinking the same since I've played SH 1&3 and watched Shattered Memories on yt (I don't have ps2 :c).
Why thank you for hearing me out.
I'm glad you agree with me, I just wasn't ready to accept Shattered Memories as a re-imagining, It was clearly a sequel. I just had to dig deep.
I understand that
I also couldn't see it anything else but a sequel. It just... didn't make much sense to me. Your theory does. Too bad that there aren't many Silent Hill players, because we can't see other people's point.:c
Thanks! I honestly didn't think my theory would hold solid ground, Purely because of one thing. The doctor Cheryl talks to in the game is in fact Micheal Kauffman. And he was in the first Silent Hill game, and according to the Canon ending, Lisa Garland pulled him into Silent Hill and killed him. So that kinda puzzled me for a bit.
Yeah, the world needs more Silent Hill players. We SH players are intelligent people who know what true horror is, and have seen some serious sh*t in our time, not to mention, puzzle solving is fairly easy in everything if you've beaten all 5 of the original Silent Hill games. XD
Yeah, the thing about Kauffman confufes and kinda drives me crazy XD but it still makes more sense than a re-imagining to me. People can talk what they want, I'll never change my mind and think of that game like it's a re-imagining. I mean, Kauffman's death may be a good counterargument for people who disagree, but IMO our arguments are just so much better, reasonable.
btw, this may sound horrible, but the first time I played SH was when I was... 9 XD my cousin showed me it and we've been enjoying the game together, so yeah, I must confess, I've started seeing some serious, scary shit very early XD
And about the puzzles, I'm a little sad because English isn't my first language and though the normal mode was simple to me and I understood everything, I still wish I could play all SH games with riddle level set on the highest, and be able to understand the riddles written in the old English language. Someday I'll try, I hope.
An up & coming YouTuber that I have taken a liking to recently reviewed this, I'm actually gonna give it a look now despite knowing the big twist.
Shattered Memories review
I own both games. I don't like Shattered Hill Memories, it made me angry.
Hit the lever? Nah.
I remember playing some old third person Silent Hill game and didn't get what the series made so "great" back then.
Third person generally don't mix well with horror.
Shattered Memories called me a drunk throughout the game. I get that enough from my family, i don't need it from a video game.
Well if it you makes feel any better. Characters usually talk to your character, not you.
Eh, it's fine dude. I played Resident Evil 2 for the first time when I was 7, it's not horrible, you just found great games early on.
Not in this game. In Shattered Memories, it directs it's comments about you, towards you, the player.
All Silent Hill games are 3rd person. Even back on the PS1. How exactly is Silent Hill not scary to you? It's a generally psychologically disturbing game. If you didn't find it the least bit great, then I'm scared to know what you did find great.
Omg, I thought I was the only one creepy kid
it's kinda comforting XD
Don't you think blondes have more fun?
The game said I was bad in bed.
Well I'm aware she said that, (It's also my second favorite quote in the entire franchise) but she never said she wasn't opposed to it.
We never know, the game could be right. XD Jk man, The game is basically a mind fucker, that's what It does. It takes your answers, and generates replies.