A designer of the very first silent Hill on PlayStation has clarified one of the game’s many mysteries. So was it snow or ash that was pouring over the city? Masahiro Ito gave the answer. He had already spoken on the issue, recognizing today that he was somewhat exhausted from having to repeat himself.
It’s been a long time since we talked about Silent Hill other than through rumors of a new episode that will never happen. Here, it will therefore be a question of returning to the very first episode of the franchise published in 1999 on PlayStation. When Harry Mason’s character moved outside, matter fell from the sky. At first glance, it appeared to be snow.
And then, as the plot progressed and read various and varied theories, a number of players were led to believe that the city was experiencing an ash rain. On Tuesday, Masahiro Ito spoke on the subject via his Twitter account. The man designed the monsters and sets for this first silent Hillbefore being propelled artistic director of the two following parts.
Rain or ashes in Silent Hill? A replica of the game made it clear
In a first publication, Masahiro Ito writes:
“The white dots in the game sky are not ashes. ‘It’s snowing outside’.”
And to attach a screenshot where a character actually utters this last line. The next day, the designer commented on his own message, expressing a certain weariness on his part:
“To be honest, I’m tired of having to say it.”
Last month, Masahiro Ito had brought this same denial, in a way certainly a little less courteous, in front of an Internet user who claimed that ashes fell from the sky of Silent Hill. A theory that came from the film by Christophe Gans who was himself inspired by real facts, hence the confusion. In an interview granted in 1999 to the magazine PSM, the creator of Silent Hill Keiichiro Toyama had also indicated that Silent Hill did not exist in American reality:
“In this game, the atmosphere of modern horror novels was the hook, so we decided to choose a small American town as the setting. Of course, Silent Hill doesn’t really exist, and we haven’t assigned a specific location or time in the game. We deliberately chose not to use a real location, as it might create an inconsistency with reality . However, with the name Silent Hill, we hinted at an actual place in Japan.”
Source : Twitter @adsk4 (via Destructoid)