What was originally intended to be Konami’s foray into dominating the North American sales market thanks to the success of Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise, a small group of developers for Konami, known for under-performing in previous video game projects, literal outcasts within their own company, were put together to focus on this new endeavor. With emphasis on Hollywood-like atmosphere, Konami would essentially place this daunting task on their new christened “Team Silent”, who in all reality did not know to go about creating a Hollywood-like experience, resulting in Konami slowly loosing faith in the project.
As time passed, the personnel and management of Konami lost their faith in the game, eventually leaving Team Silent to do what they wanted resulting in them ignoring the limits of Konami’s initial plan, and making Silent Hill a game that would appeal to the emotions of players instead, giving them more creative freedom and led them to focus their efforts in creating a game focusing on the fear of the unknown.
One of the youngest members of Team Silent, Takayoshi Sato, was in charge of creating the game’s cast of characters. As a young employee, Sato was initially restricted to basic tasks such as font design and file sorting. He also created 3D demos and presentations, and taught older staff members the fundamentals of 3D modeling. However, he was not going to be credited for all the extra work he did as he did not have as much respect within Konami as older employees. Sato eventually approached the company’s higher-ups with a short demo movie he had rendered, and threatened to withhold this technical knowledge from other staff members if he was not assigned to 3D work.
As a consequence, his superiors had to give in to his demand, and he was allowed to do character designs. Although Sato was largely responsible for the game’s cinematics and characters designs at this point, his superiors still did not want to fully credit his work, and intended to assign a visual supervisor to him. To prevent this from happening, Sato volunteered to create the full-motion videos of Silent Hill by himself.
Over the course of two and a half years, he lived in the development team’s office, as he had to render the scenes with the approximately 150 Unix-based computers of his coworkers after they left work at the end of a day.
Sato stated that the development team intended to make Silent Hill a masterpiece rather than a traditional sales-oriented game that Konami was pushing for, and that they opted for an engaging story, which would persist over time – similar to successful works of literature.
The game debuted at the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta, Georgia, where the presentations of movies and in-game scenes garnered applause from the audience.
The first Silent Hill received generally positive reviews and would sell over two million copies-in its initial release.
The game’s popularity as the first in the series was further recognized long after its release and was credited for moving the survival horror genre away from B movie horror elements and to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films, due to the game’s emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror.
Praised by various video game publications and media, The Silent Hill series had become a staple in the world of video games for its atmospheric and haunting music by composer Akira Yameoka, and more importantly its unique and engrossing story that utilized a different form of horror, the journey through one’s mind.
Although similar to the Metal Gear franchise, Konami has left us nothing but questions concerning what will happen to this beloved franchise. To many these days, the Silent Hill series is over and we might never return to to that small little town shrouded in shadow….. to bring us back to Silent Hill.
Although there were spinoffs and sequels that slowly moved away from the original ideas or game mechanics that made the Silent Hill series stand out among the rest, it’s the haunting melodies and captivating feelings upon hearing these amazing tracks that will once again bring us back to this town hidden in darkness, because this stage of the Retro VGM Revival Hour is dedicated to all things Silent Hill…
In my restless dreams i see a town covered in endless fog……..now that you know the truth, would you ever want to leave?
Download this episode directly HERE (right-click and choose “Save As”!)
iTunes
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Full track listing:
===========Game – Composer – Title – Company========
1.) Silent Hill – Akira Yamaoka – “Silent Hill, Fear Of The Dark, My Heaven, Killing Time, She & Tears of…(extended) ”- January 31, 1999 – Konami – Sony Playstation
2.) Silent Hill 2 – Akira Yamaoka – “Magdalene, Angel’s Thanatos, Love Psalm, True, Theme Of Laura, Promise (Reprise) & Promise” – September 24, 2001 – Konami – PS2, Windows PC & Microsoft Xbox
3.) Silent Hill 3 – Akira Yamaoka (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) – “Sickness unto foolish death, Please love me… once more, Dance with night wind, Never forgive me/never forget me, I want love & You’re not here, ” – May 23, 2003 -Konami – PS2 & Windows PC
4.) Silent Hill 4: The Room – Akira Yamaoka (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Joe Romersa) – “Tender Sugar, Melancholy Requiem, Silent Circus, Cradel Of Forest, Nightmarish Waltz, Your Rain & Room Of Angel” – June 17, 2004 – Konami – PS2, Windows PC & Microsoft Xbox
5.) Silent Hill: The Arcade – Akira Yamaoka – “Theme of Hanna” – July 25, 2007 (Japan/Europe only) – Konami – Arcade
6.) Silent Hill: Origins – Akira Yamaoka (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) – “Hole In The Sky & Shot Down In Flames” – November 6, 2007 – Climax Studios/Konami – PSP & PS2
7.) Silent Hill: Homecoming – Akira Yamaoka (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) – “One More Soul To The Call & Cold Blood” – September 30, 2008 – Double Helix Games/Konami – PS3, Xbox 360 & Windows PC
8.) Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – Akira Yamaoka (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn)- “Always on my Mind, When You’re Gone, Childish Thoughts, Hell Frozen Rain & Acceptance (Extended ver.)” – December 8, 2009 – Climax Studios/Konami – Nintendo Wii, PSP & PS2
9.) Silent Hill: Downpour – Daniel Licht – “Intro Perk Walk & Railcar Ride“ – March 13, 2012 – Vatra Games/Konami – PS3 & Xbox 360
10.) Silent Hill: Book of Memories – Daniel Licht (w/ vocals provided by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) – “Opening the Book, Water World, Love Pslam & Now We’re Free“ – October 16, 2012 – WayForward Technologies/Konami – Playstation Vita
