Siren - An Underrated Gem from the Creator of Silent Hill
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- Spoilers begin at 13:47 and end at 18:47.
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#spooktober
#horror - Hry
Siren Blood Curse was the first game that ever gave me nightmares, the Japanese really know how to get under your skin with their own flavour of horror
Just the track that plays at the main menu is creepy and scary enough.
And then there is heater of silent hill 3 who jump a god and lives to tell that lol
I'm only just now discovering that Siren Blood Curse wasn't a standalone...
For me it was THE ONLY game to give nightmares. It was really good.
Bruh that shit was terrifying. I couldn't even get through the demo 😂
This game scared the FUCK out of me as a kid. It was so nightmarish to process this stuff as a, like, 7 year old. My mom loved games like this, Silent Hill and Eternal Darkness. So I quickly learned to adapt to seeing this type of horror. And came to appreciate the more profound elements as an adult.
Yes; it was also difficult to process as a thirty-something lol. I only played 2 and 3 both scared me just as much as the movie Jacob's Ladder (1990).
Your mom is so cool! I was forbidden from playing horror games so I could only play them at night while being in constant fear of being caught. I guess it enhanced the experience :D
@@vonschweringen8321 My favourite 'horror movie' by far, although I categorize it more as a 'psychological thriller', if I'm being honest.
Sounds bad to introduce a young kid to a games like this
@@TheKitMurkit you would think so but from what I can tell it's only made me more interested in fiction and the nuances of it. I've developed into a much more creative person, as far as storytelling is concerned, and have been drawn more to works that have what I interpret to have more "layers" for lack of a better term. (Such as the works of Stanley Kubrick and the like. As well as other works of fiction that I find it much easier to read much more meaningful messages out of when I find the time in my days to digest such things.) I attribute a good bit of that to the media that my mother wasn't afraid to let me digest during my formative years (it wasn't all just horror, mind you)
Idk man, maybe I was just one of the lucky ones to be more wired for this type of stuff but I'm not convinced that I'm that special. Maybe kids around that age are more capable of processing this type of stuff, considering it's just stories, than we realize as adults (even I would feel hesitant to show something like this game to a 7 year old, despite knowing I witnessed it at that age)
I'm not sure. But it seems worth thinking about.
Very good horror games. Newcomers would probably enjoy "Blood Curse" for getting into the series, which is a way more use friendly experience and a re-imagining of the first game. The first 2 games are awesome, but insanely difficult and obscure about unlocking alternate objectives for alternate characters and progressing.
For a newcomer yeah i agree on playing Bloodcurse first just to have a taste of the series. My favorite will always be the first, even though imo the seconds one improves on gameplay mechanics and puzzles in terms of being user friendly.
@@SSEBBlue Siren 2 has alittle refinement over Siren 1. But if you're going into complete both games from start to finish (and collecting all archive items) They're pretty much neck and neck in terms of bat sh*t insane difficulty levels by the end of each game. Siren 2 might initially lure you into a false sense of being easier than the first, but quickly reveals its just as much a headfcuk lol
I still need to play siren 2 as it wasn’t available here back in the day, and every attempt to emulate it didn’t work. My laptop I have now may finally do it justice without breaking it
There is no blood course on ps store. Why?
Yooo love your playthroughs man! I have no way of playing the Siren games and, even if i did, id be too scared to even play em. So i watched your playthroughs instead and really enjoyed them hahaha
Thanks for doing what you do!
The thing about Siren's puzzles is that they were made with the purpose of being so cryptic that players would be "forced" to investigate and make this a joint effort, a concept that Kojima also appreciates. Basically the game wasn't made to be solved by one person alone. Nowadays there are much better tools to realize this idea, sure, but it's arguably still an interesting concept that ties back to the game's progression, in the sense that the multiple characters we control all play a *necessary* part to end the story, even if this was just a tiny contribution.
This was the game that got me into online forums back in the day. The game was so niche that there was really only me and two other people on the board swapping tips and theories about it.
@@marlondaniels7912 That's awesome! This is exactly the type of interaction the creator had intended. Of course, he had the Japanese gamer culture in mind, and as much as it still was a niche thing, they did that quite a lot more often than us here in the West. I've also had only a few people in my circle of friends going over the game, unfortunately.
Before it's time then.
There is also in Japanese mythology, a story about a girl named Yao Bikuni who became immortal by eating a fish-like creature known as Ningyo. This story certainly must have been the inspiration of the story of Yao who ate the body of her deity and became immortal that we find in the game.
Was going to mention this, there are many other works that also reference this myth/folktale.
One of these I wanted to note is Sekiro, where the Corrupted Monk's true name is Priestess Yao. Strikingly similar to Siren are the flowing waters sourced by a diety that heal and grant immortality, but at the cost of your humanity if you partake too much. I know that Max touched on the more Western inspirations for this concept, but is this also rooted in Japanese mythology/folklore?
Another religious aspect of the game's story I noticed involving the cult group's name.
The village is suffering a famine at the time of the 333 year cycle of a comet passing through the sky. At that time, for reasons still unclear, the godlike alien being falls from the sky and crashes near the village. The starving villagers out of desperation begin to eat the flesh of the alien, treating it as a blessing from the heavens. Food delivered to starving people directly from heaven. Mana/manna/mannah.
The Religion of Mana.
There's an anime called Mermaid Forest that covers a story similar to this myth, it was written by Rumiko Takahashi of Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 fame. Pretty great, very obscure and deserves way more attention than it got
i cant believe how good the facial textures look in this game for its era like its not even uncanny just straight up realistic
They used a somewhat primitive form of facial capture.
I remember people praising this game as being the only one to have a second person perspective as a gameplay mechanic
czcams.com/video/mC8QoRa8y_Q/video.html
Your comment make sense to me and reminded me of this video
Wow...never thought of it that way. Very cool!!
There's also this one part in Driver San Francisco where you're being chased but the camera actually shows the POV of the person chasing you as you drive the car in front of him. Pretty cool and underused concept.
@@alejorag I never played Driver SF, but damn that sounds fun
Driver San Francisco was really good, the story was surprisingly well done.
From what I heard in Nitrorad's videos about this games, the deevlopers made the first game purposefully obtuse and hard to guess, so that people would unite online and discuss about it. I wish more games did this, it's such a cool idea that you would never see in a AAA game
So likeeee souls game? One of the biggest franchises of all time?
@@michaelelmes2135 that or the 4 treasures that you DON'T take in ffXII if you want the most poweful weapon in the game, except if you want to find it in a treasure in a secret dungeon that have 20% of probability to spawn and you must open it with an item equiped and then you have the 10 % of probabilty to obtain the weapon.. only if the rng decided that the treasure isn't money like in the 60% of cases
That’s also the idea behind Silent Hills
I personally hate games that don't respect a gamers time. Obtuse puzzles are ridiculous. Make them hard sure but make them make sense.
Yeah, I remember being a teen when this game was coming out, and scrounging the internet for info on it. They had made a whole set of marketing materials in the guise of found footage, newspaper articles and online rumours, alongside a bunch of countdowns and secrets to find. It was pretty cool and engaging, and stuck with me.
I then tried the demo, shat myself in the first 10 minutes, and decided to not get a heart attack with the full game.
I would absolutely love a game and lore breakdown of this series, like you've done over the years, with Silent Hill.
The lore kinda spoilers, but basically a bunch of people from 300 BC ate an alien, and since then whacky shit been going on
Siren is one of those games that has fascinated me for years. I truly love the concept of these games (even the remake, it's okay). And I'm so happy that there was a teaser of a modern Siren game. Because I think it has potential.
Excited to see this video play out.
Wait there was a teaser for a modern siren game ??? Cool, I might check the game out when it’s released
@@SamuelSamuel-zx9mu I think they’re talking about the new game that’s in production by from Bokeh Game Studio, which is led by the Creator of the original Silent Hill and the Siren games. Pretty sure it’s not a Siren title, though it does look interesting
The lore of this game seems truly fascinating, and the way you presented it was just fantastic, would love to see more
Yeah, I wanted to know more. There is an uncanny similarity to Silent Hill though, like they were trying to do Siren first, but just didn't meet the same success. I could be wrong, but I think they were developing the Siren series first, and then a lot of ideas bleed over into Silent Hill.
Anyway, the caterpillar baby monster was terrifying.
@@nickcurrant2254 As far as I know, that isn't true at all. I think the similarities begin and end with the fact that they're simply Toyama's stories. The same could be said about similar themes being prevalent in the works of Stephen King.
@@mondoprime Yeah, you're right. I confused it a bit. I remember playing the game because my friend said it was made by people from Team Silent, but I got the history crossed.
Check out the channel supergreatfriend he did an lp of both games and the final part of the first games lp is a run down of the story
I thought it was trash and the graphics are cat piss
Siren is forever burned into my memory.
When me and my buddy Paul were about 10, we played a PS2 demo disk that had Siren on it (as well as Serious Sam & The Red Star which were super fun). I remember the demo placing us in a schoolhouse that was dead quiet and pitch black. The opening cutscene implied that you (a teacher) and a student were the only people in the building, and that the two of you just had to get out. But then you hear footsteps... and then you sightjack into "something" walking down the adjacent hall... it's breathing heavily, and walking directly towards the room you're hiding in...
We did not finish that demo lol. We were both way too scared to play through it.
Now that I'm older and have a better appreciation for horror titles, I'm greatly impressed at the sense of dread you can still feel with this game even today (just like the original Silent Hill games).
Long live the PlayStation mag demo discs! Kept me entertained for hooooours
SAME STORY. That game was super scary, you describing that, wow .. Nostalgia and fear enter.
Is your buddy paul still there ?
i also played the siren demo, couldn't finish it either, i was scared shitless as a kid.
This game and it's sequel need a re-release so freaking bad. Criminally underrated. Great video man. I could listen to you talk about horror all year round
You can buy it as a ps2 classic on ps4 and had a ps3 westernized remake
You're a legend for even covering this game. Good on yah.
I have to say that the massive world-building that they did with each discoverable Archive Item gave the game so much depth. There was even an ARG element where you could find a real website link that takes you to the internet forum that Kyoya posts on about going to check out the lost village by biking there, which of course sets up the beginning events of the game. What else was on that website? Ad banners for the playable character Naoko who is a popular TV personality in-universe that eventually gets dragged into the otherworld Hanuda Village as well. It's little details like these that made the whole experience so memorable and fascinatiing, and it really deserves more praise.
“I am your mother!”
- baby faced abomination shaped like a overgrown grub before sacrificing herself to Thor.
I would VERY much like for you to continue Siren. One of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I walked into it entirely blind, no guide, and still remember plotting pathways and trying, then trying again, then a third time, and suddenly it's 4am
Did the same thing last night but with Returnal
@@youlittlerocket Oooooo, hope it's nearly as much fun!
The school area is iconic. Especially using sounds to distract enemies so the kid can move around without getting caught.
The PS2 was graced with so many amazing horror games.
The Siren series is somewhat enigmatic but sad to me. 😔 I feel compelled to understand more from it, and your insight on theologies has expanded what the game was trying to show. I would love to see more of your observations on the Siren games.
I've started this game multiple times but gave up half way through out of sheer fear. I really need to just finish this game!
Yup. I gave up too and that's extremely rare as I hate not finishing games but I just couldn't face this game anymore 🤣
I'd love to see you analyse the rest of the series and do a deep dive into its lore. Great work as always man, love your content
The original Siren! Such fond memories of this beautiful game. As I was playing it, it felt like the only thing that mattered. It was one of my last comforts at a time when my life was falling apart in a way I couldn't even fathom just yet.
Kind of want to know more.
I appreciate how you navigate around spoilers. Wish more CZcamsrs had that respect
Oddly enough, purely (mostly) mele is the best and most engaging way to attack enemies in my first playthrough of SH2
Amazing vid once again, keep up the good work 👍
Please, do make a series analysing Siren's lore. It's a fascinating game series with a lot of symbolism and thoughtful analogies.
I remember having to get a bootleg copy of Siren 2 (European version) and playing it black-and-white/monochromatic on my chipped PS2 because the 60 Hz setting made it look like that-or, at least that's what I thought was happening. Ah, the memories.
Small correction about the Hades and Persephone myth: 1. In some versions she is tricked and in other versions she takes the seed willingly. It depends on the version and translation so it's inconclusive which it is. 2. Winter exists because Persephone is in the Underworld. It did not exist before then. It is Demeter mourning her daughter not being by her side that causes Winter.
Oh wow. I just looked up Siren vs Silent Hill. Didn't know they were from the same dev. I was introduced to Siren from Playstation Home featuring a horror maze. Scared the shit out of me!
This video is amazing, as usual of your work
I would love to see you analyze the other 2 games, specially Siren 2!! Most people (including me) think it is the best game in the series, because it managed to become a tad more refined by making the puzzles less non-sensical and adding more hints to aid the player, while still keeping the complexity, uniqueness and difficulty that made the original game so distinctive (unlike Siren Blood Curse).
Great job again Max, you definitely need to expand on the rest of the series. You should check out the Suffering, it's not as elaborate as other survival horror games but goes for that "tormented history of a place" and what it does to people
Yes! More of it all please. Really want more of the story in this one..it seems great!
Excellent video as always
Thank you for covering this gem. I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU DO MORE ON SIREN!
One of my favorite games of all time. To this day I haven't met another person who has played it besides my roommate from the time I discovered this game.
It's legit so good.
An underrated gem.
3:08 About that
Its a direct result of the team trying to make a, for lack of a better Word, PT experience where players had to band togheter and discuss stuff online to figure the game outro.
I so love the work you do, so appreciated! Thank you so much for the effort you put into these analyses.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch my videos.
I really got that spooktober feeling. Nice vid
This was awesome, Max! Please do more if you can. Thanks! 😀👍
Yes thank you for making this video!
The siren sound has been my alarm ringtone for years. :D
Would love to see more about this game!
I love, and respect, this game so, so much. Thank you for talking about it.
Yes, I would absolutely love to hear you delve deeper into Siren, for those who have played it. Finishing the game, unlocking the freedom to use the... calendar?, lol... and then fully completing this game is still to this day, approaching 2 decades after playing it, one of the most meaningful and satisfying experiences I have ever had with a game. And I'm the kind of person who asks people who mention Final Fantasy Tactics if they know what the ending to Act 1 of Tactics Ogre entails.
Glad to see "Forbidden Siren" is getting some love - it is one of the scariest games I ever played, even though it can be frustrating as hell at times. The atmosphere is simply amazing. Too bad neither the sequel or the remake managed to recapture it. And let's not talk about the disastrous movie adaptation.
New sub! My god.. I played this back in 2003 and still get the chills just thinking about it. Super eerie, ultra confusing universe and game/story mechanics but a truly hidden gem!
Thank you for this ! 💙
I would love to see you do a deep dive on this and all of this series! I loved this game and agree it's criminally overlooked.
Great overview, I've been meaning to play this game for awhile since I saw it on PSN. Gonna take the plunge soon. You rock Max, keep up the great content
I think my favorite thing about Siren 1 and 2, something that I grew to really love in other survival horror games, is how the gameplay, setting, and enviornment can show you just how bad the shibito threat is getting in each game. If you pay close attention to the timeline in the first game, you can see exactly how the shibito evolve over the course of the three days; every day at noon, a bunch of shibito head out to bathe in the red sea, and several hours later, they come back with their newly mutated forms. Additionally, with the exception of Tomoko, who we never see again after the house level, every shibito-turned playable character eventually gains a mutated form of their own since by that point in the timeline, each of them heard the siren go off at noon after becoming a shibito and were compelled to bathe in the red water.
Seeing how the game's story and environment justifies and explains the presence of the monsters quickly became one of my favorite details in a survival horror game. I love it when there's a proper explanation for the monsters' presence and why they take on more horrific forms.
Awesome video! I’d like to see your videos on the other games in the series.
this video triggered so many memories of this game. wow I complete had forgotten of it's existence
Gotta say, man. That Delorian/Silent Hill analogy was pretty great.
Good stuff 👌🏼
Yeah! Was curious about this game's lore for a while now. Glad you covered it! Would love to see what you can dig up about their alien god or those freaky creatures!
You cannot imagine how long I've been waiting to see a video like this. I had lost almost and thought that Siren just vanished from the minds of everyone on earth
This game was really terrifying and hard. The time zone thing also gives a whole new gameplay experience.
I would love to see you talk about Siren 2, but because the game wasn't released in America, you're either gonna have to emulate it or get a region free PS2
Would love to hear you talk more about this game and the other games in this series. I had never heard of it before but now I'm fascinated!
I’d love to see a video on siren 2 and the other games that came after!:)
I’ve been morbidly obsessed with this series since time immemorial, alongside games that fall in a similar category such as Bloodborne. I would be thrilled to watch more videos on the subject.
I'm proud to say that I already knew about Siren, but I'm so glad that my favorite youtuber has finally made a video on it!
You'd better let us see that Minecraft SH city when it's finished.
I don't wanna miss out on that.
thank you for covering this game! i love Siren series so much and it totally deserves more recognition! i’d love to hear your thoughts about Siren 2 and Blood Curse c:
I would love to see you cover the rest of the series.
Finally someone talks about it
*giddy Nitro rad noises*
I love nitrorad. Cant wait for the upcoming horror videos for October. Im hoping
I did a double take at hearing "mythical serpent" and "tsuchinoko" in the same sentence because it's far too grand a term to describe a rotund noodle that has a penchant for alcohol and lies.
I aboslutely love this game, the atmosphere was so good and the gameplay, I mean to me its a 9 on every level
this game definitely seems like a series you should keep analyzing!
Would love to see the more of the mythology of this game series if you haven't already. That fruit of life, red water, and Cherub bits is fantastic. I know it's been two years but I binge watch your silent hill reviews and now I am here.
Interesting video. I would love to hear more about Siren's lore!
"Silent Hill and Siren need to get combined into one word, like those relationship shipping people."
"Alright. How about Siren Hill?"
"Nah."
"Uh... Silentren?"
"Nope."
"I've got it! Sirent Hill!"
"That sounds like a lot of work to explain that we aren't doing an Asian accent... on a Japanese game."
"Well then... How about we just use both names as they are?"
"Sounds good."
Great video, I forgot all about this game, never played it but I do remember when it was released.
Back in the day Pewdiepie had a essay type of video showcasing Siren: blood curse after his walkthrough of it. They were some of his best videos although underrated. I have not been able to find the showcasing video anymore.
Yes please make more of these videos!! I am not a big SH fan but I am really into Siren and the lore is really fun to watch and only really available to people who 100% all the games.
Siren is too scary for me to play, but I really love that there's a lot of characters, realistically when things like thing goes down there would be several people in the same situation as you have
Great video I had no idea this existed
Seeing the flashes when one of the demons spotted you still caused me to feel panic, and I haven't even played the game in over 15 years.
I played this on PSNow a couple of weeks ago. Cool too see someone cover it!
I tried looking up some analysis of this game like a week ago and was surprised at how few there were, underrated game imo
Loved the video. Although I'm just happy that "The Mist" from Frank Darabont was referenced in the beginning of it
Excellent and by all means keep going
Would love more Siren videos, including analysis + video essays on the other games in the series
You have a very good channel!
Your analysis videos are great! It would be great to watch one of Siren 2 and Blood Curse.
I would greatly enjoy more videos about this game and it’s series.
I really like the way they digitize the actors faces. It gives this otherworldly, uncanny feeling being stuck between two realities.
I first learned about Siren from one of Nitro Rad's Review of the game.
It's cool to see another talking about it too, cause Siren is very interesting.
Never heard of Siren before. Thanks for covering it ^_^
This is pretty interesting. I would love more on Siren.
Thanks for introducing me to Siren. I've heard about it before but never had the chance to play them.
I would love to see you analysing this forbidden gem.
hey that's the Pathologic 2 soundtrack, thanks for re-traumatizing me subliminally!
This is the only game that has ever truly scared me. Played a demo of it when I was younger, haven't finished it though.
Yes, Siren! this game is excellent...except for one thing: the difficulty is unforgiving. Glad you finally took a swipe at it.
I saw your poll the other day and thought, damn shame Siren isn't on there.
What a great surprise
Please cover more of Siren! I watched my mom play silent hill when I was little, and wandered across this game and thought it was AMAZING. I was a bit too young to play it successfully, but I thought the sightjacking was amazing, and I loved that you have little to no fighting ability against the enemies. I've always thought games where you can just....... shoot them..... are not nearly as scary :D
This game is scarier than silent hill for sure.
The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden grants knowledge, not immortality. In fact, Adam and Eve were already immortal, and _lost_ their immortality when they ate the fruit.
💯
If one can lose their immortality then they are mortal and always were by definition.
If immortality is conditional, it is no different than mortality, which is primarily defined by being conditional.
but immortality is knowledge
I’m invested and now I would love to see the other two parts
safe to say, i think that vids like these should be done a lot more.
You motivated me to give it a new chance. It sure needs special energy
Currently playing it for the first time and it’s perfect. No shame in using a walkthrough either 💪💪