Siren: New Translation/Blood Curse

August 4, 2008 | 7 Comments

Back when the original Forbidden Siren was released for PS2, I was extremely interested in the game. Upon playing the game, however, I found that there were many problems with the control and in addition to this, the game is extremely hard. If you fail a mission, for example, you will have to repeat an entire level. Your character is completely vulnerable in comparison to other survival horror characters out there. After several trial and error attempts, I felt that I didn't have much fun and stopped playing the game. I always regret it because I like the non-linear storyline offered by the original game and wanted a chance to figure out the story. Fast forward 2008, Sony suddenly announces that Team Siren will release Siren: New Translation (Siren: Blood Curse in US and Europe) via PSN and Blu-ray. The game is basically a remake of the original with different casts and tweaked controls. I became interested in the game and when it was released last week, I decided to purchase it. I completed the game yesterday so here's a review.

The Demo

There's a demo for the game on the PSN store. However, the demo is hardly representative of the actual game itself. Not only it's the least scary/disturbing part of the chapters, it's also the most straight-forward (little exploration, shooting on rails, etc) part of the game. In the actual game, there are only few scenarios where you get to use guns. The demo is one of them but the truth is, most of the time you'll have to rely on stealth and Sightjacking to get to your destination or complete your missions. The actual game also allows you to complete several missions via different ways. For example, at one point you have to sneak into a house and you have three ways of doing so. You can also create strategy to deal with the enemies that roam in each level. You can, for example, lure the enemies into one area and lock them up so that they won't disturb you when you need to do something important in another pivotal area later on. This is why I recommend that you at least play a few episodes before deciding one way or another.

Availability and Method of Delivery

Siren: New Translation is a rather unusual title because it's delivered via Blu-ray disc and online download. In the US this title is only available on PSN (Playstation Network) so if you want the disc, you have to import the Asia version, which includes English subtitle and in-game instructions. Europe will get their disc sometimes this fall. Personally, I couldn't be bothered waiting so I ordered the Asian version since I also get a limited edition CD to go with it. If you do download from PSN, however, you get an option whether to download the entire 12 episodes or to download it per episodes. I have read somewhere that you can actually download a set of 3-4 episodes at once if you want to but I'm not sure if this is true or not. Downloading episode by episode is a good way to give the series a try if you're not sure. Be aware, however, that the first episode is really short so if you just purchase that one, you may end up feeling disappointed. The second episode contains parts of the demo so it's not until the 3rd episode that you get a full experience of the game.

The Story

Siren: New Translation is an example on how to do a good in-game storyline, especially a horror one. It's well written, tense, and full of shocking revelations after shocking revelations. Prior to this game, I have never played a horror game that makes me feel completely distraught afterwards. I actually need to stop playing after completing 1-2 episodes per day because otherwise I'd be emotionally drained. The combination of the gameplay and the storyline works really well and makes you feel the emotional and mental anguish of the characters. The horror that you feel in this game does not only come from the freaky monsters that you encounter but also from the fate of the characters. There was more than one occasion where I was completely traumatized along with a character in the game. The fact that the characters are extremely vulnerable also adds to the scare factor. To begin with, you can only keep one weapon to defend yourself. In some episodes, you can't even fight the enemies so you have to rely on Sightjacking and stealth.

Various downloadable trailers showing story/gameplay

The story is structured in that multi-arc style similar to TV shows with multiple characters (ie. LOST). Each episode usually consists of 1 opening + 4 chapters + 1 preview. From those chapters, 2 of them are usually playable chapters while the others are cut-scenes. The cut-scenes are relatively short, right to the point, and deliver a lot of plot development. You can also skip them if you wish but I don't understand why anyone would want to miss out on such pivotal piece of the storyline. I always find that some of the best and memorable games that I've played are the ones that contain some kind of storyline. This game does that job very well. The transition between the cut-scenes and the gameplay makes you feel like you're a part of the story. The game also includes "previously on SIREN" and "next on SIREN" part of the game, which gives the game an action TV series feel to it. If you've played the first Siren game and was a witness to its awful voice acting, you'll be glad to know that the cast of this game does a better voice acting job.

Example of "Previously on SIREN" (Looks awesome if you don't mind spoiling yourself a bit. Best to stop after the title appears though)

When the game begins, there is an explanation that the village of Hanyuuda was lost in a landslide back in 1976. However, when a group of US TV crew visit the site, they become a witness to a sacrificial ritual involving two girls. At the same time, a Tokyo high school student called Howard Wright also arrives in the village after receiving strange emails from an unknown person. Howard manages to disrupt the ritual and saves one of the girls and the story starts from here. The story has a lot of similarities and themes to Silent Hill. This includes but not limited to: the presence of nightmarish alternate universe, the sound of siren signalling the transition between the two worlds, and reawakening otherworldly God through ritual sacrifice. The reason for this is because the creator of Siren, Keiichirou Touyama, is also the creator of the first Silent Hill. He, however, stopped working on Silent Hill after the first one. If you play this game, you can see how some elements of Silent Hill story would have evolved if Touyama had stayed to develop that series.

Siren: New Translation Opening Movie

As a result, the majority of Siren's atmosphere is similar to that of Silent Hill in that you feel a constant fear throughout your journey. There's a constant tone of sadness pervasive throughout the game and you feel as if unavoidable doom lies ahead for your characters. The supernatural elements of the story is not any more or any less believable than other supernatural-themed horror games like Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, and Onimusha. I mention the last example of game because at the end of this game, the tone of the game slightly shifts from pervasive doom to that of supernatural heroism similar to Onimusha. Or if you prefer a movie analogy, it goes from Evil Dead to Army of Darkness. The shift can be quite jarring but I thought it works quite well to prevent the game from being completely depressing. The game's base plot is also a bit hard to comprehend and requires one to understand the concept of time distortion and loop. The story also uses a lot of Japanese obscure mythology so a good dose of suspension of disbelief is more than necessary.

NEW: Story timeline

Gameplay and Control

The gameplay consists of 3 main elements: Sightjacking, stealth, and puzzle solving. There are occasions where you have to duke it out with the Shibitos but unless they're on their own, it's not a good idea to try to take them out. Sightjacking is a rather difficult tool to use. Because the Shibitos have repeated movement, it's often hard to tell their location unless they move around from one area to the next. Otherwise, you'll often see something like a hand hammering a nail on a wall and have little to no context as to where it takes place. This increases your fear and frustration at the same time. Because if you're behind a door, who's to say that this Shibito is not hammering the nail in front of your door? Stealth is now an important part of the game. If you can do it well, you can actually finish the Shibito with one attack and in some cases, you'll get a nifty animation to go with it. You can use any weapon you find in the game but you can only hold one at a time so if you choose to take the hammer, then you'll have to let go the screwdriver you're using.

Battle can be performed either in 3rd person mode or 1st person mode. I personally feel that the control can be a bit difficult to use at times, especially when you're being surrounded/chased by many enemies. Although you'll get used to it eventually, I really hope that in the future the programmers tighten up the controls. In addition to the analogue stick and the face buttons, you also have the D-pad. This is useful when you have to set a trap and need to call the Shibito so that they'll walk into the trap. The D-pad is also necessary when you're on escort missions. These are missions where you have to ensure the safety of a companion. In Howard's case, it's usually Miwako while for the other characters, it varies. During the mission, you can order your companion to hide in a closet or to wait at a certain place while you go ahead and look around for a route to pass without being spotted. Once you find a safe route, you can go back to your companion and tell him/her to follow you. There are cases where Shibitos will chase your companion after you left him/her. In this case, you need to quickly find her before one of the Shibitos can get to him/her.

Graphic

Every Shibitos in this one is rendered in gory details. The normal, human-like Shibitos are actually not that creepy. However, since they're extremely fast and violent, you can't help but being on the edge whenever you try to sneak around them. Later on, however, you encounter other Shibito species that look completely revolting. I get the impression that Shibito is some kind of an evolution phase where humans slowly transform into insect-like creatures. This is the reason why as the events moves to the 2nd and 3rd days, you'll encounter some insect-like Shibitos. The freaky kind you wish you won't see in real life. The Shibitos design is an improvement over the original ones. However, human characters are the ones who get to reap the most out of the new graphic engine that PS3 provides. In the original series, the animators basically took shots of the actors' facial expression from different angles and then stick the film into rough 3D polygons. In this game, however, the 3D characters are composed using full polygons (no video attached to the head). Despite this, they look startlingly good and at times look quite identical to the actors who play them.

On the negative side, there are times when the characters' mouth doesn't sync properly while they're talking. These, however, are rare cases and most of the time you'll be too busy running in fear that you don't even pay attention if their mouth opens in synch with the voice of the actors. The environment seems to be the one that gets the most criticism when the demo was first released. People claimed that some areas look low-poly and the texture are not next-gen. I believe this was partly done to ensure that the game could be compressed down to manageable level on PSN. After all, people are already complaining that they have to download 9GB to play the entire game. If the game was a full-blown in size and quality, I don't think the size can stay 9GB. This is the reason why I'm not too keen on digital delivery. To begin with, I don't even have the bandwidth to download 9GB in one go since I have a cap of 20GB/month here. Also, I only have 40GB PS3. While it's easy to upgrade that, I'd rather stick with what I have unless it becomes really necessary.

Besides, I like the idea of owning the game in my hand (as opposed to having digital copy). Because of this, I do hope that Team Siren will increase the polygon numbers and the quality of the texture in the next game. I do admit, however, that in comparison to recent screenshots from Silent Hill: Homecoming, Siren: New Translation looks far better in the lighting department. Moving along, another complaint that came out often after the demo was released has something to do with the black level of the game. Unlike other horror games, which normally uses grey-ish black, the black level in Siren: New Translation is really pitch-black. The thing is, you can't actually sneak around in the dark, hoping that the enemy won't notice you. I remember being spotted right away even though I was hiding in a dark room with the torch turned off. Because of this, the pitch-black nature of the environment feels like a waste. In the future, there is a need to make the environment work more effectively as gameplay element.

The Characters

There are a total of 7 playable characters. You get to play as some more than the others and each character has different play style. Some can only sneak around, another can only hold light, easy-to-carry weapons, while others have shotguns. Most of the time, however, you start the game without any kind of weapon and have to find one to defend yourself. And if you're playing as a character with no weapon, then you have no choice but to be stealthy and use the Sightjack really well. Sometimes you have to play as a character who has to escort another character. Unlike the first game, however, you don't need to worry as much because this time around, the tag-along characters are more resourceful and can hide/defend themselves for a while. I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with the characters that the producers have come up with. Although they have been 'westernised', so to speak, they actually remain likeable and devoid of many cliche foreigner traits that one often sees in anime/manga/video games.

Unlike the first game, the voice acting this time around is a combination of Japanese and English language. In other words, the Japanese will speak Japanese while the foreigners speak English. Personally, I think the voice acting is better this time around. It's not exactly award-winning performance but they sound like normal people and their reactions rarely go over-the-top. In order to streamline the complex and long story of the original, the writers have decided to merge several characters into one. As a result, even though the original game has at least twice as many characters (around 18), this one only has 8 main characters and 1 supporting character. Personally, I think the maximum amount of characters should be around 10. It'll be hard to care and keep tabs on more than 10 characters. Anyway, just like the first and second Siren game, real life actors are used to model the characters. You can see the actors below. Some of them even have blogs. Howard is the only in-game character who maintains a blog of his own prior to his disappearance.

Siren: New Translation - character models

Howard Wright (played by Stephan Fisher)

Howard is just an 18-year old who was studying at an International High School in Tokyo, Japan, when he received an email stating that he needs to go to Hanyuuda and save a damsel-in-distress. Although at first he thought the email was just a prank, he decides to ride a bike to the place out of boredom. When he gets there, he stumbles upon a sacrificial ritual and manages to disrupt it by saving one of the girls. Japanese Siren fans dubbed him as USDK, which is an abbreviation for U(S) SuDa Kyouya. This is because Howard pretty much takes up the role that was assumed by the main character of the first Siren game, Suda Kyouya. Within the game, Howard seems to be the only foreign character who understands and speaks Japanese relatively well.

Miyako (played by Okamoto Natsuki)

Miyako is a mysterious girl that Howard saves from the ritual. Miyako is an important link to the curse that the village receives. Unlike in the original version, this one is not blind and she's now 16 year old instead of 14 year old. I assume this is done to make her a more compatible love interest for Howard, who's now an 18 year old as opposed to 16 year old Suda Kyouya in the first game. Although Miyako is a major presence in the game, she's not playable at all.

Sam Monroe (played by Jonathan Legg)

The father of Bella Monroe and ex-husband of Melissa Gale, Sam works as an anthropologist in the US when he was contacted by Sol and Melissa's TV company to work as anthropologist consultant for the program that they're shooting: a village that suddenly disappeared in 1976 due to landslide. Sam seems to have a bit of knowledge of Japanese and can understand if someone talks to him in Japanese. However, never at any point in the game that he speaks Japanese like Howard.

Melissa Gale (played by Emma Howard)

Bella's mother and Sam's ex-wife. Although she seems to prioritise her work instead of her family, she is clearly regretful of the choice she made. She doesn't get along with Sam that much and seems to harbour resentment over the fact that Sam is the one who gets the custody right over Bella. Melissa works as an anchor on a late-night, dubious paranormal show along with Sol Jackson.

Seigo Saiga (played by Hattori Seiji)

A mysterious doctor who works at the local hospital. His past and true intention are revealed as the game progresses. Saiga is admired by his assistant, a nurse called Yukie. Unlike Miyako, who can't speak English at all, Saiga can speak English a little bit and can understand what other characters say when they talk in English.

Amana (played by Alexis)

A woman who have lost her memory and identity. She first appeared in the forest trying to help Howard escaping to safety. Her true identity and intention is revealed as the game progresses.

Bella Monroe (played by Ryana Crocker)

The daughter of Sam and Melissa. Bella was originally supposed to be left behind with a nanny but Sam decides to bring her to Japan with him, a decision which obviously enraged Melissa, especially when the situation starts to turn out of control.

Sol Jackson (played by Kenny Scott)

A cameraman/script writer who works together with Melissa in the TV show. He seems to have a crush on Melissa and considers Bella like his own daughter.

Playability and Replay value

The first Siren on PS2 was one of the hardest game I ever attempted to play. I gave up after a while because the difficulty got to a point where it stopped the game from being fun. Having said that, I always regret that I couldn't finished it because the story seems unusual and was delivered in non-linear structure similar to that Japanese horror film, Ju-On: The Grudge. The second one was a little bit more forgiving but it's still difficult and I couldn't go past beyond the part where I have to guide a blind man and a dog. I'm really glad that the developer decides to give the first game another go with revamp control and sightjacking ability. This one is a lot more forgiving if you fail a particular mission. Instead of having to go all the way back to the start of a chapter, you only have to repeat a particular mission. Sightjacking can now be performed while you're walking so this means you're no longer a sitting duck while trying to read the Shibito's mind. You now have a better survival chance if you wield a weapon but having a weapon doesn't mean that you won't be dead if you're not careful.

I've read several reviews from the usual gaming review sites and can't help myself from rolling my eyes because those reviewers claim that one can win a fight as long as one has any kind of weapon. They probably haven't played more than the first 4 episodes because that's clearly not the case in the later episodes, where the difficulty progressively ratchets up that you can't just charge into battle without any kind of plan. In fact, the difficulty has gotten to a similar point to the original game in the last episode of this remake. As far as replayability goes, the game allows you to improve upon your time, which clearly won't be that great if you play the game on your own without any kind of help or cheats. If you do that, you'll also miss several archive items, some of which explain the situation in the game. I personally have fun going back through the chapters, trying to find the archives. Reading them really give further insight as to what happened in the village as well as the motivation behind each character. Unfortunately there's no such thing as harder difficulty level. But the game offers awards if you don't use Sightjack, can sneak undetected, or didn't get harmed during the game.

Miscellaneous Links

Howard Wright's Blog
In case you missed it up above. It provides a lot of essential background information for the game and possible hints for the sequel, maybe?

Wallpaper 1 | Wallpaper 2
Two character-based wallpapers from Sony PSN store. They'll fit any HDTV. If you want the SD version, just go to the US PSN store.

Siren: New Translation - TVCM 1
The first TV commercial for Siren: New Translation

Siren: New Translation - TVCM 2
Known as "Tea Time TVCM" in Japan.

Siren: New Translation - Episode 0
These are videos that are taken by Japanese TV crews, who were around the area at the same time as the American TV crews (you can actually see Melissa and Sol lurking around in the distance in one of the videos). These videos turn out to be quite a horror drama of its own starting from video number 8. As a side note, the lighter belonging to one of the crews is one of the archive items in game.

Hanyuuda Official Site
Check out the live feeds. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of the Shibitos.

Siren 1 - TVCM
The original TV commercial that advertises PS2 Siren game. When the ad was aired in Japan, it created controversy because it was deemed to be too scary. As a result, the ad was banned in Japan ever since then.

© memento 2003