Silent Hill: The Short Message

2024 video game

2024 video game

Silent Hill: The Short Message

Developer(s)| Konami Digital Entertainment[a]
Publisher(s)| Konami Digital Entertainment
Director(s)| Motoi Okamoto
Producer(s)| Motoi Okamoto
Programmer(s)| Yuya Yamaguchi
Artist(s)| Chihiro Tanaka
Writer(s)| Kiichi Kanoh
Motoi Okamoto
Composer(s)| Akira Yamaoka
Series| Silent Hill
Engine| Unreal Engine 5[1]
Platform(s)| PlayStation 5
Release| 31 January 2024
Genre(s)| Psychological horror
Mode(s)| Single-player

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a 2024 psychological horror game developed and published by Konami Digital Entertainment (with additional development by HexaDrive) for PlayStation 5. The game was announced and released for free on 31 January 2024 and became available for PlayStation Plus members. It follows a teenage girl who receives bizarre text messages from a friend who committed suicide and must look for clues in an abandoned apartment complex in Germany, while a monster covered in cherry blossom petals pursues her and cannot be attacked.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is played from a first-person perspective with no combat.[2] Bullying, the impacts of social media, and suicide are the primary themes of the game. It received mixed reviews; while some critics praised its visuals, atmosphere, themes, and being available for free, others criticized its gameplay, dialogue, and chase sequences.

## Plot

[edit]

Rather than the eponymous town of Silent Hill, the game is set in the economically depressed fictional German town of Kettenstadt.[3] It takes place within an abandoned apartment complex called the Villa, a popular graffiti site and infamous suicide hotspot among teenage girls. A young woman named Anita receives a message from her friend and Internet famous graffiti artist Maya, known online as C. B. (Cherry Blossoms), requesting to meet in the Villa; upon entering, she follows a trail of Maya's artworks throughout the building, beset flashbacks regarding the online harassment she experienced while trying to be as popular online as Maya. She is stalked by a monster (unnamed in the game but later revealed to be called Sakura Head)[4] which is covered in blooming cherry blossoms.

Unable to make contact with Maya, Anita receives a call from her other friend Amelie, who remarks that Maya is already dead, having jumped off the roof of the Villa some time ago. Anita is shocked that she would forget something so important and wonders who is messaging her as Maya. She winds up on the roof and discovers Maya's final art piece. Jealous of the popularity Maya experienced, Anita steps off the roof in an attempt to emulate her suicide.

Still alive, Anita awakens in the Villa, which is now in a dilapidated and vandalized state. She receives another message from Maya stating that neither of them can leave until Anita finds something undisclosed. Forced to explore the Villa again, she relives memories of Maya being bullied at school, before returning to the Villa. She finds an artwork of Maya's which she had never seen before, depicting Amelie. Anita recalls how Maya always seemed much closer to Amelie than her and that she felt ignored by Maya.

Continuing on, Anita comes to her school library, where she learns about how Kettenstadt was supposedly cursed by a Japanese witch after her death. She finds a letter written by Maya begging Amelie for help, and recalls that she purposely withheld the letter from Amelie due to her jealousy over Maya's close friendship with Amelie, which she believes led to Maya's suicide. She returns to the roof, where she calls Amelie and admits her guilt over Maya's death before jumping off the roof a second time.

Anita awakens back in the Villa. Exploring the building once again, she finds herself in her childhood home, and recalls how her mother both neglected and abused her and her younger brother by locking them in the closet. This culminated in Anita's brother dying while locked up and her mother attempting to hide his body in the refrigerator before Anita escaped and reported her to the police. She discovers that Maya was planning to make an artwork depicting her as well, confirming that Maya had not been ignoring her as she believed. The monster chases Anita for a final time again before she finds herself back on the roof, where she apologizes to Amelie for not realizing how much both she and Maya valued their friendship with her. She considers jumping off the roof again but stops herself at the last second, which causes the fog surrounding the Villa to disappear, returning Anita to reality.

Some time later, a social media post by Amelie indicates that both she and Anita have left Kettenstadt to start new lives at college.

## Development

[edit]

Motoi Okamoto, producer for the Silent Hill series, stated the game's main themes are suicide, cyberbullying, social media, and mental health. Creature designer and Silent Hill veteran Masahiro Ito continued, "I felt that, definitely, this was something that would really resonate with a younger generation, given that so many of them are active on social media."[5]

### Leaks

[edit]

In 2022, screenshots from the game were leaked under the title Sakura.[6][7] Silent Hill: The Short Message was rated in South Korea in September 2022 and in December 2022, The Short Message was rated in Taiwan.[8][9] In October 2022, Konami began hiring for upcoming Silent Hill projects, including an unannounced in-house game.[10]

## Reception

[edit]

Reception

Aggregate scoresAggregator| Score

|

Metacritic| 53/100[11]
OpenCritic| 24% recommend[12]
Review scoresPublication| Score

|

Eurogamer| 3/5[13]
GameSpot| 3/10[14]
GamesRadar+| 3/5[15]
Hardcore Gamer| 2/5[16]
Push Square| 4/10[17]

Silent Hill: The Short Message received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic, with 25% of critics recommending the game on aggregator OpenCritic.[18]

Christopher Teuton from Screen Rant wrote in his review: "For a free game that shows the first glimpse of what Konami is truly going to do with the franchise, Silent Hill: The Short Message is absolutely worth experiencing". "It's a far better start than it could have been, and it is undeniably the best new Silent Hill media since 2014, although the game's effectiveness in handling these topics will vary depending on a person's own relationship with them."[19]

Writing for IGN, Koji Fukuyama and Daniel Robson commended the game's "effective use of themes... to create a feeling of genuine dread", describing the game as a modern and impactful iteration of the Silent Hill franchise.[20] In contrast, Mark Delaney of GameSpot described the game as a "bad Silent Hill caricature", critiquing its "trial-and-error" chase sequences and "on-the-nose" plot and dialogue.[14] Willa Rowe of Kotaku found the game to be "unnecessarily graphic" and its themes "shallow and heavy-handed", observing the game's ending twist to be predictable.[21] In a review for Polygon, Carli Velocci compared many aspects of the game to previous Silent Hill titles such as P.T. and Silent Hill: Downpour, and found the references to the series at large "extremely unsubtle", while describing the game's presentation of its suicide themes as "borderline tacky", observing that the writing "doesn't give Anita much more definition beyond her mental illness." Still, she ultimately concluded that the game has its merits, such as "some unique imagery that makes me feel optimistic about the series' future".[3]

By 12 February, the game reached 2 million downloads on the PlayStation Store.[22]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Additional work by HexaDrive

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Sinha, Ravi. "Silent Hill: The Short Message Review – How to Save a Life". GamingBolt.
2. ^ Foster, George (31 January 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Finally Revealed, Releasing Today For Free". TheGamer. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
3. ^ a b Velocci, Carli (2024-02-02). "Silent Hill: The Short Message could've tried harder to not be Silent Hill". Polygon. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
4. ^ Liu, Stephanie (21 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Monster Named 'Sakura Head'". Siliconera. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
5. ^ SILENT HILL: The Short Message - Commentary 01: Production Team Interview (EN) (Spoiler Warning), 31 January 2024, retrieved 2024-02-05
6. ^ "Leaker Says Konami Pulled Silent Hill Pics It Apparently Doesn't Want You To See". Kotaku. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
7. ^ Wilson, Mike (2022-09-05). "More Leaked Images Purportedly From the 'Silent Hill 2' Remake and 'Silent Hill: Sakura' Appear Online". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
8. ^ "Silent Hill: The Short Message rated for PS5 in Taiwan". Gematsu. 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
9. ^ "Silent Hill: The Short Message rated in Korea". Gematsu. 2022-09-26. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
10. ^ Foster, George (2022-11-06). "Konami Appears To Be Hiring For An Unannounced Silent Hill". TheGamer. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
11. ^ "Silent Hill: The Short Message". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
12. ^ "Silent Hill: The Short Message". OpenCritic. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
13. ^ Blake, Vikki (February 6, 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message review - a potent but hardly subtle parable". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
14. ^ a b Delaney, Mark (1 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Review - In My Restless Dreams, I Flee That Town". GameSpot. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
15. ^ Hurley, Leon (2 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message review: "not perfect but it makes me think there might be a future to Silent Hill"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
16. ^ LeClair, Kyle (February 2, 2024). "Review: Silent Hill: The Short Message". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
17. ^ Croft, Liam (February 1, 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Review (PS5)". Push Square. Gamer Network. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
18. ^ "Silent Hill: The Short Message". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
19. ^ Teuton, Christopher (2024-02-02). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Review - "Worth Checking Out"". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
20. ^ Fukuyama, Koji; Robson, Daniel (1 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message – First Hands-On Impressions". IGN. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
21. ^ Rowe, Willa (2 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message Has Me Worried For The Franchise's Future". Kotaku. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
22. ^ Robinson, Andy (12 February 2024). "Silent Hill: The Short Message has been downloaded over 2 million times". VGC.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

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