Twilight Nebula Citizen and Friend (Bestest) Taylor the Impaler was up to his trix again, plumbing the depths of Masahiro Ito’s knowledge. For those who don’t know who this amazing man is, Masahiro Ito was the Silent Hill series lead art director up to and including Silent Hill 3.
In our supplementary video to The Real Silent Hill Experience we made the argument that everything in Silent Hill and all it’s goin’ ons is happening in the REAL world, not some craziness spanning forty dimensions of time and space.
This received a lot of confusing backlash despite its sound logic. Jeremy Blaustein, localization and acting director for Silent Hill 2-4, was asked for his take on the feelings of the original team.
Blaustein: …the SH team stated all the time that there was a real world and the otherworld. So I have to say that … there is the REAL WORLD and then there is the changed world as it gets infected or influenced by the dark forces. So my answer … is that there are 2 worlds in SH…
It is clear that J Blau is describing what we had previously described as an easy way to refer to the nightmare-changed real world. They are merely the same real world in two different states. Yet, his words were not as clear as all that for some people. Arguments still originated from the Making Of Silent Hill 3 featurette, where Masahiro Ito is apparently “quoted” saying that players move back and forth between one world and a “parallel” world (despite the word “parallel” not being spoken by Ito himself. We regard this as a translation error).
Taylor the Impaler to the rescue! Taylor decided it was time to stop mincing words and get a straight answer from an actual member of the original team! Below is Taylor’s full conversation with Masahiro ito via Twitter:
Taylor the Impaler: I’m not sure if someone has asked you about this before, and if they have, I apologize for bringing this up again.
But In the ‘Making Of’ video for SH3, when you explain the meaning behind Valtiel… the subtitles say ‘In Silent Hill 3, you go back and fourth between the real world and a parallel world. Valves that the monster opens and closes represents the passage of these two worlds.’
This a little unclear for most people, are you actually saying “parallel world” in Japanese? Did you mean ‘Otherworld?’ Can you please explain in better detail behind these words? Thank you.
Taylor the Impaler: So you meant it more like the real world changing and twisting into another world, rather than going to a separate ‘parallel world’?
It’s the word “world” that’s the cause of all this confusion. While characters in Silent hill may see two perceived worlds, this does not necessarily mean they are two parallel, physical worlds on two planes of existence. Because guess what? Two planes of existence = two “dimensions”. And now we know for sure it ain’t that.
Crealy.
Unless you’re trying to piss him off in which case keep it up it’s really quite funny what his reactions turn out to be.
Blaustein isn’t on your side he’s just some butt hurt guy who’s quite terrible at translations considering he lived in japan for several years. Not sure if you missed this but this is what he posted on your facebook some time ago.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397881_309889442391244_198854206828102_808884_304627716_n.jpg
Ito’s statement as well as downpour’s mention of “real world” match up to mean one thing though, that the monsters are indeed real however this still does not admit defeat that there’s other dimensions.
This is great news. Glad to see them still maintaining the integrity that is the game’s story they’ve all worked so hard to craft.
Glad to hear it! Although it seems like there might still be a translational barrier in this conversation, so I’m not sure if we can say for certain that Ito’s “confirmation” is, in fact, a confirmation. I can definitely see how some fans might still spin his words to mean what they want it to mean.
In any case, I’m glad to see so much support for what you guys have done. If Konami were smart, they’d hire you guys to work with the writers and designers of any future Silent Hill games as consultants to help keep the game grounded in it’s roots. The whole “parallel dimensions” things really bugs me (has since the movie came out), as it seems to make the whole franchise moot and pointless. If the god can’t influence the real world, then what is the point in birthing it to begin with? And what is the point in trying to stop the birthing? It can’t possibly do any harm to our world anyway. And since birthing the god is the whole point of 3/4 of the original games, then making those efforts irrelevant makes the whole franchise meaningless.
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2012/02/22/The-Otherworld-of-Silent-Hill-is-NOT-an-other-world-its-OURS.aspx
As always, keep up the good work, guys!
I don’t think there’s a translational barrier. Nobody is translating for Ito now, like it was back then. Nobody is speaking for Ito except Ito.
He now knows and practices English. It ain’t good English, but it’s English. XD