James Is Not Looking at the Player in Silent Hill 2 Intro According to Art Director
Silent Hill 2 Art Director Masahiro Ito took to Twitter to put to rest a popular fan theory about the survival horror game.
Ito-san explained that in the intro of the game James isn’t looking at the player (basically breaking the fourth wall), but he’s simply looking at his own reflection.
He also added that he’s fed up with being asked about it, and fans should consider the context of the story, which is that James is there to seek his wife.
Ito-san concluded by explaining his extensive involvement in the development of the game and its cutscenes, clarifying that if James was intentionally looking at the player, he would know.
I’m so fed up with this.
In the first place, why does he have to see the player who exists in out of the story? He is now there for looking for his wife. Consider the context of the story.
Excuse me, I directed/built all of the whole cutscenes had something to do w/ creatures & some other cutscenes. Some parts of the ideas of the story were by me. Also many lightnings that had something to do with them were by me. All keyframe animations of all of creature by me
The “headcanon,” as Ito-san calls it, was generated bya Reddit postin 2020, which was then picked up without proper verification by several media outlets and went viral.
The topic may have come back to the surface with therecent reveal of Silent Hill 2’s remakedeveloped by Polish studio Bloober Team (which created Layers of Fear, Observer, Blair Witch, andThe Medium). The trailer shows the same scene in much higher definition, and James is definitely looking at his reflection. Below you can check out the original scene and the remade version.
It’s worth mentioning that Ito-san is directly involved with the creation of the remake alongside other members of the original Team Silent and composer Akira Yamaoka.
Incidentally, during the same event, we also saw the reveal ofSilent Hill Ascension,Silent Hill f, andSilent Hill: Townfall, on top of the official unveilingof the movie Return to Silent Hill.
