Enter Silent Hill...
offers more endings
in its compact form
than the original
Last issue, we featured a review of Sacred Line, a visual PlayStation edition.
novel-style game released as a homebrew title for the Sega
Genesis. In that article, we promised more on visual Best of all, PNSH
novels to come, and mentioned Play Novel: Silent Hill. delves deeper into
Judging from our inbox, there was significant interest in the mythos of Silent
learning more about this reinterpretation of Konami's Hill itself, expandPLAY NOVEL
famous survival horror title so including it in our Visual ing on characters
SILENT HILL GBA
and plot points we
Novels section was a no-brainer.
never get to explore
Only Silent Hill fans need apply.
in
the
original
version.
Where
Words: Michael Crisman
does Cybil go after
meeting Harry in the
cafe? Why is a police officer from Brahms in Silent Hill
to begin with? What happens when Cheryl and Alessa
meet for the first time? Now is your chance to find out.
Additionally, PNSH offers up different puzzles to solve
and re-arranges some of the events in the original, so even
if you've memorized your way through Harry's PS1 adventure, you'll find plenty of events, asides, and situations
unique to the visual novel experience.
PNSH offers an extremely useful flowchart function,
something not often seen in visual
novels, which
allows you to
essentially fast forward or backtrack in
the plot at your leisure, allowing the player to skip large
swaths of the game once you've seen them already. There's
also a text fast-forward feature, and a review option that
lets you go back and re-read text you've already scrolled
past in a given scene. Also, while some choices in the
game move you towards a less-desirable ending, there
aren't any game over screens. It's nice to be able to
concentrate on directing the story without worrying about
health drinks or getting overrun by a boss monster.
PNSH is both a re-imagination and expansion of the PS1
title, but presented in such a way as to remove the 'twitch'
factor. So instead of relying on jump scares and on-screen
action to send chills up your spine, it goes for a more
cerebral
form
of
supplying
creeps:
your
imagination. Like an adult version of those picture books
you read as a child, PNSH takes you on a head trip through
a world of darkness and depravity, with the main
character's actions guided by your own personal choices.
It's a world with many potential outcomes\in fact, PNSH Visit www.alchemillahostpital.net to play.
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