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[Update: 10/17/2020]Every cancelled Silent Hill game

 


[update]*editors note, most of these games never left the concept phase.

The Silent Hill franchise has got to be one of the scariest horror series, if not, the scariest game series that ever set foot on the gaming industry. The latter has put the players in the shoes of different characters as they walked through their own nightmares. The series has certainly succeeded to keep gamers awake with its psychological horror emanating from the gripping narratives and unique monster designs.

Surprisingly, the franchise is still discovered to this day by those who are willing to stay awake at night. However, many entries in the series were cancelled due to various reasons. That is why we're going to talk about these games today. When looking back, these entries felt quite promising and it's a shame they ended up being cancelled.

In case if you are interested, here's another article about Every Cancelled Resident Evil Project.
 
 Silent Hills (Cancelled 2014)


Silent Hills was way too ambitious for its time considering how the graphics looked ground-breaking and over-the-top infatuating. Unlike other previous entries, this one was to be directed by Hideo Kojima. In addition, the game reunited Guillermo Del Toro, Norman Reedus, and Junji Ito together as they were working on the game.

Silent Hill P.T looked entirely different compared to other Silent Hill games, but it managed to retain what made Silent Hill a nightmarish journey. On the one hand, nobody was certain what the game would have been if it was finished by Kojima Production. However, fans were excited to see what Kojima was cooking for them.

Unfortunately, In April 2015, Konami pulled the trigger by cancelling the game due to a conflict with Kojima at the time. As a result, the latter was fired along with other known creators from Konami. That decision from Konami would be met with criticism and insults by journalists and fans who were upset after hearing about the news.

Source: Wikipedia

Silent Hill: Cold Heart ( Cancelled 2007)
 

Silent Hill: Cold Heart is what Shattered Memories could have been. This was the original pitch by Climax Studios, and would have been completely different than the final game ( Shattered Memories).

Unlike the final vision, the pitch would have followed a female protagonist called Jessica Chambers as she decides to take a trip to visit her parents. However, in doing so she becomes trapped in an enormous snowstorm. To save her herself, she will follow an ambulance in hopes of finding a safe place. What she will realize after is that she is now in Silent Hill.

Compared to Shattered Memories where running is your only way to avoid enemies, this pitch would have combined elements from previous games while not neglecting Melee Combat. However, these combat moments were meant to take advantage of the Wii controller in order to create a real and intense experience using improvised weapons.

Source: SilentHillParadise
 

Silent Hill: Broken Covenant (Cancelled 2006)
 
 
Just like the situation with Silent Hill: Cold Heart and Shattered Memories, Silent Hill: Broken Covenant was a cancelled pitch that had a relation with Silent Hill: Origins. At the time, PlayStation 3 was just released to compete with Microsoft's console. Hence, the console was in dire need for a horror title to bolster people's expectations to pick up Sony's console.

While Climax Studios was working on Silent Hill: Origins at the time, they approached Konami with a pitch to bring the franchise exclusively on the PS3 back in 2006. Unfortunately, the project was never greenlit by the Japanese publisher and it remained nothing but a possibility.

Thanks to the internet, we can still gaze at a handful of footages of this cancelled pitch shared by a Youtube user known by the name of PtoPOnline. After taking a glance at those footages, it seems that the game would have followed a priest named Hector Santos, and would have been set in the American Southwest. When it came to the gameplay and the story, it looked like the game has borrowed certain elements from Silent Hill: Origins and Siren series since the game was pitched as an episodic release, granting smaller segments of gameplay that would chain together.
 

Silent Hill 3 and SH 5 plans (2003-2006):


Before Silent Hill 3 was born, it went through a cycle of plans. At first, the story would have continued with the concept of inner fear used in Silent Hill 2. However, due to the slow sales of the latter at the time, Konami pushed Team Silent to create an Arcade-style rail shooter spin-off similar to Silent Hill: The Arcade. The team rejected the idea instantly and the process wasted much of the budget and development for Silent Hill 3.

Due to Silent Hill 2 being criticized at the time for not following the original Silent Hill footsteps, the team would not move on forward with their original Silent Hill 3 idea, instead the aforementioned ended up selecting to conclude the Alessa story from the original Silent Hill and tie up loose ends to appease fans. However, this decision wouldn't be agreed by every Team Silent member.

A period after the release of Silent Hill 3 and 4, Team Silent began re-purposing their original Silent Hill 3 ideas for Silent Hill 5. This decision was because of the underwhelming response to Silent Hill 4 by fans and critics. To counter this response, Akihiro Imamura wanted a strong fifth instalment which would bring the franchise back to its knees. The game would not have followed the same gameplay style as Silent Hill 4. Instead, it would focus on a more dramatic otherworld that takes advantage of PlayStation 3's technology.

The planned story of Silent Hill 5 was to focus on a damaged human being summoned to Silent Hill for a certain reason. Akira Yamaoka described the story as '' the darkest story we have come up with ''
Other unique features which the game would have featured is that the next planned entry would have started off in Silent Hill as an everyday town with people going about their lives, which would slowly begin to rot away as players progress in the game.

Silent Hill 5 was meant to have innovative ideas not implemented in other previous entries at the time. We can only hope Silent Hill 5 will one day become a reality rather than a mere possibility.

 
Silent Hill DS (2006) :

 

Seems like 2006 was a busy year for Silent Hill with several developers pitching ideas to Konami for a Silent Hill game, and this one is no exception. [Update: The incorrect developer was attributed to Dementium: The Ward but that has been corrected thanks to someone in the comments.] RenegadeKid had been rumored to be working on a new Silent Hill exclusively for the DS, unfortunately, Konami turned down the idea as the latter did not want to invest into the Nintendo DS gaming at the time. As a result, the project would turn out to become Dementium: The Ward.

 
 
Silent Hill (2013):
 

Back in 2013, Masahiro Ito was involved in a direct sequel to the franchise similar to what Team Silent did with Silent Hill 3. Since he designed Pyramid Head as James Sunderland's spirit to uncover the latter's twisted thinking, he was, on the other hand, displeased with the triangle head was treated in later entries. (e.g Silent Hill: Homecoming).

Since it was impossible to convince Konami to make a game without Pyramid Head because of the brand recognition, he had plans other plans in which would please the community. One of those plans was for Pyramid Head to be killed in the opening scene of the game by a distinct form of Valtiel that wasn't used in previous entries. The game would have incorporated different new concepts too, but unfortunately, the game was cancelled.

However, Masahiro Ito stated in 2017 his willingness to make a new Silent Hill if Pyramid Head is not in it or if he could kill the beast once in for all, and if it's not a direct sequel to earlier instalments.
 
Bonus: The Box


During the past decade, Silicon Knights, known for games such as Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Too Human, developed a pitch for Silent Hill called '' The Box '' planned to release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The latter was meant to be an open world third person survival horror experience. However, the project was abandoned, and would later turn into an original title called '' The Ritualyst '' which was supposed to be published by THQ. In turn, this one ended up being canned back in 2009 and we never heard anything new about it ever since.

Source: Another Fandom, again

Thank you for reading! Did you like this list? What cancelled Silent Hill game that interested you the most? let us know below!

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Comments

  1. Renegade Kid made Dementium. Not Wayforward. Just sharing in case anyone is mislead by what was said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has been corrected and the writer responsible for the mistake has been flogged. Thank you for your assistance.

      Delete
  2. These are not canceled games, they're canceled concepts, or ideas. The only canceled game was PT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were planned to be made into games, but I agree with your semantic argument. An editor's note has been added to the beginning of the article.

      Delete
    2. Wow, you all really like to beat around the bush. P.T. wasn't cancelled , it stood for "playable teaser" is what we got, silent hill5, which it was teasing is what got cancelled. Even if some of this games never saw an alpha stage or still concepts or pitch , at one point they where all conciser for a new silent hill that didn't happen. Why can't you just admire all this information instead of looking for some type of recognition ??? Just picking hairs now,lol =XD

      Delete

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