A few days ago, Konami made a more than surprising announcement to its fans eager to rediscover the license after years. The Japanese company has unveiled not one but three video game projects around the horrific universe, thus delighting players and allowing the hype to be revived once and for all. Among all these productions, the one that made the most noise is undoubtedly the second opus of Konami's legendary license. Awaited by his fans for several decades, the adventures of James will soon resume on next-gen consoles.
For the moment, the announcement of the famous remake has not been accompanied by a release date, but we do know that it will be available on PC and PlayStation 5 when it launches. It's listed as PlayStation console exclusive for 12 months, suggesting that Silent Hill 2 will be available on Xbox a year after launch. But while everyone (including us) is more than eager to dive into the horrific universe of Konami's license, theories are flying. One of them, called the theory of the mirror created a real hype on the networks, before being totally destroyed by an artist of the PS2 version.
"I'm so sick of it all"
Here are the words used by Masahiro Ito , artist creating environments and designs for the PS2 version of Silent Hill 2 to answer the mirror theory. The latter was born following the publication of the remake trailer by Konami. In this one, we observe a cult scene from the production, during which James rinses his hands at a tap and thus finds himself (rather logically) in front of a mirror.
In the reflection of the main protagonist of the second opus, viewers thought they saw James Sunderland's irises turn not towards his own face, but towards the "camera"... thus breaking the fourth wall.
On the networks, many fans of the license analyzed the trailer frame by frame in order to prove their theory that James would look at the players and not his reflection. However... Masahiro Ito quickly called them to order in a rather clear message: "James does not look at the player" .
"I directed/built all the cutscenes"
Like all good theorists, some have questioned the legitimacy of Masahiro Ito's words, saying that if he was an artist of cinematics, he perhaps did not know the precise intention of that of the mirror. However, there is nothing. The artist wanted to make things clear: these are not empty words, James does not really look at the spectator through the mirror. This, he knows very well because in addition to having developed the artistic aspect of the visuals of Silent Hill 2, he also thought a lot of them.
Like what, some theories are quite tough and it is sometimes difficult to debunk them, or at least to face those who firmly believe in them. However, we will have to believe the words of the artistic director of Silent Hill on PS2 because the plot of the remake will undoubtedly be similar there and there is therefore little chance that James will break the fourth wall this time.