音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Hope I'm not the only person who didn't realise going back to 'my room' will recover my HP until dying 3 times in Silent Hill 4. ~_~

Actually I do feel much more confident in horror games compared to last year -- in which I couldn't dare to do full-screen mode, or being freaked out even with KOKIA's healing melody flowing in background (dark-history memory in the first week Silent Hill 3 playing experience)... Now I begin a new game under 'Normal' mode + full-screen -- which is a huge improvement -- although my playing style isn't favoured by the game developers so I usually end up with a rather low rank. I can't help, for the first time play I simply tend to press '○' at every single corner (and again I complain about North America's reversed '○' and '✕' settings... not really a big deal as most games I play are from Japan though).

A bit off topic. I really wanted to start this post by:

↑Welcome to Silent Hill's most fun place -- the otherworld!

Finally I come to this far! First otherworld visiting in SH4--have been looking forward how it looks like all the way along my trip!
such as...

coming out of the hole and being welcomed by a woman manikin with bloody right hand...

or

standing right in front of this seal-engraved door with my previous Silent Hill memories...

or

wandering on the clock prison tower with merely a metal pipe (the foggy whitish environment chills me down to the bottom of sea)...
(and I wonder on Hard Mode whether you can fall off and die)

or

being deceived by the otherworld-like view and got confused between monsters' or my footsteps... (I indeed got killed in this stage once due to being surrounded by a group of ugly and stupid monkies <<< and afterwards I realised I missed the stungun in the previous stage and a power-sword here >_<)

P.S. 2D control is really annoying. I want 3D/radio control back! ><

Anyway, when things turn to the otherworld, your mind gets to be changed as well. Dogs? They're not a problem any more (thanks to the rusted axe <3). Yet my only problem is the hide-and-seek with my dear perverted neighbours!

When I just encountered them in the subway, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't kill them. Later I learned that they're not killable, the only thing you should do when meet them is to run.
Fine, so at first I called them 'stalkers'. But soon I realised something was wrong -- how they attack is... π-touch + heart-gouging...

Stalkers are much cuter. These drifting guys are absolutely nothing but perverts! Even you beat them to stop, they raise up almost immediately when you try to leave the "crime scene". And they move fast, leaving you almost no time to investigate (I guess that's how I missed my second power-sword).
So since I came back from the subway, I gave them a new name: 近所の変態オヤジ ⇨ my perverted neighbours. <<< This simply came up so I can't tell more in the wording.

However, I never knew that there's a stage right in 'my' apartment in Silent Hill 4 -- and ghosts appear a lot!
What a ghost-haunting house (even more exciting since it's in the otherworld)!
Wait a moment, so they are now literally my neighbours!
What a perfect match coming from the random! (つд⊂)

As what I know, I'm entering the middle part of SH4. I guess my current progress is about to finish the apartment stage. Since I've heard there'll be a hospital stage (of course, 95% HORROR GAMES HAVE A HOSPITAL), I'll bet I'm going into the otherworld of hospital as well! -- I'm so excited and, it's true that you can't say you've visited Silent Hill unless you had lots of fun in its otherworlds~♥

At the very last,

@Mr. Sunderland: I really had a grate time with your son a year ago and I'm planning to meet him again in this winter (in HD)! m(_ _)m

I always wanted a pipe when I was doing biohazard (although I won't use it), and now I want a rocket launcher while doing Silent Hill 4...

↑Right after prologue, the pipe is in my "collection". No wonder it is the standard SH equipment! ♥

--Just started the game for around 30 minutes, and I've died 3 times.. ><

↑Henry: Why I keep dying (*facepalm*)?! ( ﾟдﾟ)

I've been waiting for playing this game since this June when I was doing bio3, so let me enjoy my death this grey tainted world. (indeed biohazard is much more colourful-I should stop comparing these two..)

↑Yet I do love this kind of settings (this is perhaps the safest room in the world).

↑Mr. Sunderland!!! God, I loved the period while adventuring with James in last year!

However, just let me compare for one more time...

↑The standard item box in biohazard now comes into Silent Hill?!
It's not fun! Heather from SH3 has ever carried 5 Shakespeare with her from the beginning to the end (<<not me, it's from someone's gameplay video ^^;).

At the very beginning, when I wasn't able to see the character, I thought SH4 was a first-person game--the playing screen captions are lying?!--But seems the first-person view only applies in "my" room. Nice, now I felt so relieved (it can't be helped, I get serious motion sickness in first-person games =_=).

Like any other horror games, I'm looking forward to see how long (and how bad) I'll do SH4 till the end. Actually currently (about 40min after start) I've already got stuck. All doors are tightly shut, exits are blocked, the first living person other than myself disappeared, and around the entire map, what I got was 10 handgun bullets (not that powerful though << self-description). You believe KONAMI does bother players like this at the very beginning (I got lost in SH3 beginning as well, because the only usable door was so hard to see)? lol.

P.S. I personally prefer radio control over the 2D moving style...

Once you had a trauma it will be hard to get it healed, even with a rocket launcher...
NO, I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER THAT ANYMORE... (#゜д゜)ﾉ
↑ 444% private story.

So I decided not to touch bio3 for a while. Instead, I tried another series as a snack before the main dish SH4.

CLOCK TOWER series.

I got to know about this series by chance while browsing people's horror game playlists. Since I saw it so many times, as a mood change, I did it during this weekend: 1 and 2.

Different from biohazard or Silent Hill, overall there's no way to fight, you just keep escaping from our hard-working gardener: scissorman.
私は「ハサミ野郎」のほうが気に入るけど～ (*´∀｀)

In terms of just to clear the game, it's very, very easy. But perhaps you'll not get the best ending either--There're so many flags need to be taken care, and in case of "2", there's even an invisible timer for everyone's life. And I actually do worse in such "flagging" games than in survival horror. It would take forever for me to get all endings on my own. orz

By the way, if you've done "1", from this or that in "2" you could perhaps guess who is behind our "pretty" scissorman. We know in "1", he's like 9-year-old. Since "2" happens one year after, combining "he" is from the murder scene in "1", and in scenario 2, Helen's plot, "his" voice as well as "he himself" was in the library, it's so obvious, nothing scary (it's supposed to be adventure after all). But the game itself failed to expend much more detail. It focused too much on "game", which could disappoint people who care about the story.

Thus I decided not to waste my time and to cheat with a premade flowchart. Now I feel I made a good decision as I have no intention to do it again (even with a flowchart!). As for different endings, my main purpose is to know the story, and I'm not really interested non-true endings, plus we have youtube, so you know the rest.

Although like I said above, here let me be frank, this game is not bad. If I had no other games to play at all (unfortunately I do) I'd consider to flag everything on my own.

↑ taking the elevator might be the scariest scene! :P

I know, this game was released earlier than biohazard, was for PS1 and Win95 and other nostalgic hardwares, was limited in graphic and character move control (the latter is a pain!)... yes, I understand all of them, but still I'm speechless on some small (?) details...

↓ Heroine No.1 Jennifer (the one in pale yellow). Age: 15.

Are you sure she's that young? Why I feel she looks like 40-year-old!?

↓ The last of credits...

Of course that's human who made this game. Unless there's other meaning behind these letters (which I'm not interested in googling), I don't know what to say about their naming sense.

Other than 1 and 2, I also did a little search about 3 (the PS2 one). But when I saw they labelled it as a failure, and when I saw the producer to be Capcom... hmmm... I hesitated and went to youtube again. (；´∀｀)

Just like the review said, CT3 isn't good, like nothing but a stiff drama (especially the cutscenes, so stupid--they overdid too much). A lot of other settings look funny too: the heroine's (what's her name again? ._.) bow is so ugly. And with such a small bow you should be able to move. Bosses speak too much and thus are annoying. Also for one of the bosses, the hammerman... hammerman?! sounds so familiar. Then I realised the guy in Corpse Party was also nicknamed as hammerman! Oh, well, different things began to mix up.
Therefore, due to this or that, I lost interest and skipped to the very last of the player's videos. The last scene = a love comedy. Boring.

Capcom has their success = biohazard. So you shouldn't expect too much.

Speaking of biohazard (I know I've been around this topic for weeks...), good news to me is the coming biohazard 1 HD remaster gets discounted even before its November release:

AND AGAIN I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS! ><
On some sites the collector's version costs ~$115. Good I haven't placed my pre-order! (ﾉ´∀｀*)

I'd really like to experience living in a mansion like that in biohazard1's world for even one night some day! >///<
and I do hope my trauma will be gone by that time!

Finally, a new piece in my "fangirl's collection":
↓

Steins;Gate blueray+DVD pack (the only thing bad is the movie is not here).

I didn't think to much when I bought this pack--I haven't watched such an amazing anime for years (in opposite Chaos;Head fell into my worst-anime-ever list ^^;)!.. although I'm not here for an anime review. Plus it's getting too long, so let me jump to my conclusion:
Edogawa Conan is the only one turns me to a shota-con, and
Makise Kurisu is the only Tsundere I ever loved~♥

⇩始めに、ずっと前考えたけど。こんなかわいい背景の付いてるとこでこんな怖いゲームをブツブツ喋ってんいいの？ (｡･_･｡)

To revenge my first time play's rank D in biohazard 3, I tried hard to save less and run quicker since this week. Everything was going well even after Carlos escaped from the hospital. Yet, when Jill entered the park, the little and long path on the right side, I prayed there were nothing but zombies and dogs, but I know the evil CAPCOM just is like a devil--the freezing beam got rid of 2 insane jumping hunters, and I thought I'd be able to catch my 2nd save right before the "earthworm" fight. However, I never knew there was a third hunter!!
The result = hunter's special move (you know what I mean).
Just in 1 second, the screen turned pure white, then black: "YOU DIED".

I laughed in despair. ゜д゜)鬱死・・・
My previous (1st) save was before fixing the train...
カプコンの野郎ぉぉぉーーー (# ﾟДﾟ) ﾑｯｶｰ
I swear I'll wipe them out in my afterlife.

Think about it again, in biohazard 1, they got me 10+ times, and in biohazard 3 THE MERCENARIES, 9 out of 10 times I die due to those stupid hunters.
The fact is, I haven't even cleared THE MERCENARIES for a single time, yet I've got the unlimited assault rifle + $1700. How come I fall in love with horror games with such a rubbish playing skill! =_=
Hunter now has officially become my biggest trauma (spiders are the next).

I'm so jealous of people who can run Nicolai with no problem! (although my heart belongs to the tough man Mikhail).

So naturally I need something to heal the damage in my heart, which is from ↓

Akiko's "mei-fa-re koo-ja-i;" served for this.
Frankly I was more interested in Yoko's song. And it was good, which I don't deny. But after hours of looping, I switched the looping mode from "playlist" to "track".
And haven't stopped looping since 2 days ago.
Although the other song by Akiko was good (of course it is!), the first track seduced me so much that I don't know what else I should play when I attempted to switch.
But such "meaningless" titles are indeed a pain. Can I wish the GUST staff stop playing around with these looks-nice-but-is-useless languages?! << Really tired with it. ><
As for the very first track... Let me pretend that there are only three songs in this release. Σ(ﾟ∀ﾟ")

I feel like I won't care about any future releases in the following 10 years, as long as I have this track.

--Or maybe I'm possessed.
This one is as dangerous as Ebola~

Since I've decided my special day will be October 17th, which marks I'm at the end of levelling-up. Soon I gotta do something with (a small part of) the battle field...

Although the finally confirmed date kinda depressed me because...

I thought Libra would be higher (like 100%) but apparently I'm wrong (although the above image doesn't really mean anything. xD;;)
I'll just go with my current plan, I don't want to wait to next May! (*´∀｀)

From the end of June to the end of September, I finally cleared biohazard 3, total time in record = 7H 3x M.. (# ﾟДﾟ) ﾑｯｶｰ
If taking account of the time when I got lost, the total time might be over 10 hours.
Not surprising as I could spent 16 hours + for Silent Hill series.

As usual a pile of new images, which explain things better than plain text~


Bear?! (I'm not here for fun!)


Pipe... biohazard are you attempting to rob the symbolic weapon in Silent Hill??
↓

Fine, it's not a weapon..


Alfred Cornes... who is that? ._.


This ugly boss got me 4 times! °A°


The most tiresome riddle in this game. =__=

After the "battle-for-card-key", my status (consumed ~26 acid rounds + ~10 mine thrower). But right when I was running out of ammo, I suddenly realised I was supposed to use... something I don't know the name, to weaken it (tera-gorilla). <<< I know I don't really understand biohazard at all. (and the result was more cost in ammo).
Yet, amazingly I didn't die and I made it when there were only 7 seconds left (even got lost where the card key was and I almost gave up)! lol
Too bad I didn't make to capture the exciting moment.

Something interesting is now on top right...


So this is the "minister" in biohazard2?

Rocket Launcher!! (but in the first time play I didn't use it. ^^;) So in bio3 it's not like I get it from someone, and get rid of the last boss with one hit only.
...which means...↓

the last boss has to be dealed with something else... I don't know what it exactly is (missed the final top secret file) but it looks so cool!


By the way, like I said last time, in heavy mode, instead of collecting herbs I made this beautiful collection: First Aid Spray x 10.


First choice of course! Only this is qualified to be a s.t.a.r.s.!


Why in game Jill holds the magnum with both hands? (￣д￣)ｴｰ

The fabulous ending.

"It's (the missile) here."


Over the clock tower.


Over the city.


"We gotta go."


Missile finally arrives.


The end of Raccoon City.


R.I.P. for the 100k lives.
(Biohazard now graduates from the Raccoon City area.)

There are 8 slots for such after stories... so I have to clear this game for 8 times? (not really a big deal but not very soon. :3)

Now look at the date. September 28th. The same day when Jill starts her last escape! And toward the very end, I finally knew the real name of that tera-gorilla, Nemesis. He is indeed like the "minister" in bio2, who drops items after being temporarily killed. But he's so fast and I'm still not good at dodge moves. <<< I know I don't really understand biohazard at all.
and somehow I more care about how Carlos made to the helicopter. They should make another route for Carlos like bio2's B side! (*´∀｀)

As my next target is Silent Hill 4 (eventually I'm going back to SH)!

Maybe I've been in Raccoon City for too long, and even an ordinary scene triggers my mind-warp.


↑ I don't know what you think about of it, but that's green herb x 6 to me! (；´∀｀)

Since I'm near the end of bio3, I just appended bio4 and bio5 into my future collection. Meanwhile, I also noticed something alongside them..


↑ biohazard HD remake! I can't wait for this! (ﾟДﾟ)ｳﾏｰ

bio1 indeed was excellent, yet the graphic quality perhaps won't satisfy current fans any more. Although the first remake has been released years ago, I have no intention to try it at all (don't ask for the reason ><). I'm really glad that it has now its second remake, which I can actually play (although it won't be earlier than this Xmas). But HD is always delicious. By just looking at the background of the official homepage can make me feeling healed~~
I did see many screen captures of the first remake, and have heard about that's a harsher challenge compared to the original version. In my case, guess I'd focus on doing my death counts (and hope they don't make spiders too disgusting..).
I'll continue to see whether hunters are still my top 1 nightmare.

Besides of the graphic quality. I'm also looking forward another new feature: Japanese voices.
Jill Valentine <= Yuya Atsuko => Sato Miwako!!
Nice choice for Jill! ♥

As for Rebecca = Koshimizu Ami. Speaking of her my first impression is Luca from Ar Tonelico 2. Rebecca's image might not fit her voice but maybe in the final performance they will match up.
Too bad I have no idea about the cast voice for Chris, and I wonder who voiced Wesker and Barry (don't want to google it so I'll leave it to my actual play).

Now I understand why biohazard and Silent Hill are rivals (I'm already in both of them, deeply). So based on my current experience:

	Silent Hill	Biohazard
Chars	ordinary people	excellent fighters
Weapons	simple (pipe)	gorgeous (rocket launcher)
Riddles	serious (esp. @difficult. I ever got stuck for days)	ridiculous(ly easy)
Hues	mainly monotone and dark	colourful and bright
Horror degree	100%	depends (btw since bio4 it's not horror any more)
1-line summary	no matter what it's scary	with enough ammo it's nothing

P.S.
I'm fine with the NA versions of Silent Hill, but I can't only allow Japanese version's biohazard, because a stupid and rubbish (700% true since I couldn't even endure the introduction while randomly clicking on their youtube channel) music band registered this name--I don't dislike the English title of the game, but I prefer to use the original one as it's English after all and requires no efforts to translate.

The next after bio3 is SH4, which I've decided long time ago! (・ω<)

Q: what kind of game "biohazard 3" is?
A: A survival horror game that scares people mainly by making huge sounds. e.g. the moment when crows breaking the glass.

Let's Be Smart. Run!
My last experience of Biohazard 3 stopped at soon after I entered downtown area, at the end of June. But since then, I thought a bit more about the game itself. Even if you finish it in lite mode, the hidden stuff won't be unlocked. So since the beginning of this month, I left all lite mode save data behind and restarted this game in heavy mode ("heavy" sounds challenging, why didn't you make a normal mode ?_?).
Heavy mode is heavy! Especially before you collect enough ammo in stock. Similar to bio2, zombies come as a big group so knife-clear is hard. Bypassing them is hard to as the camera angles limit your sight. (I restarted at least 4 times for the beginning part with a knife in order to save my ammo, and try not to save too frequently.)

Learned from previous experience, the "tera-gorilla" (still don't know his name) seems invicinble (even with a magnum in lite mode). Unlike the "minister" (tyrant) in bio2, I have no way to fight with him and the smartest thing to do is to run (I really wonder if there's a way to beat him and get ammo from him.. →部長のタマからタマをもらう). At first I thought once he comes, you won't get rid of him (and he is indeed fast! °_°) But later I noticed that seems he will disappear after you run for a certain amount of distance. BGM helps a lot here. If the tera-gorilla is still following you, even in the "game saving room" the BGM isn't peaceful any more. Somehow, you'd predict his appearance, e.g. when cutscenes come or right before/after you're involved with some key items.. which makes things less scary. Anyway, running isn't that hard (as long as you're not in "danger"). So, feel the tension! I actually like his deep voice of "s.t.a.r.s...." and maybe I should use it as... (# ﾟДﾟ)
--Hey, you repeated "stars", so you're a relative of the last boss in bio1 or something like that?!

Adventure in the Ruined City
↓ Continued from last time.

A quiet path, or maybe will be full of zombies in next minute.


Looks like the tera-gorilla could appear at any time but eventually he didn't.


666 ← 100% noticed by chance!


This guy wasted me at least 40 minutes! -- Because I didn't read the text at all after taking the book. Yet thank to that, I went back to the starting place and found lots of gun powder jars! xD


Umbrella HQ?!

Papa...
Every one has a dark soul inside and the normal self would be possessed by the dark soul at certain points. In my case, I believe, my dark soul shows up with such games. After a harsh wander in Racoon city due to I carelessly ignored system text, I finally got the battery and entered the transmission substation. Remember there's a live action? I shouldn't go to the emergency exit (because I just tried to open it but the knob doesn't turn). Afterwards... きゃー、すっげー気持ちいい！！ ← I'll stop spoiling further. ('∀`)

At the same place..

マグナム来た！！ ... although I'm not going to use it immediately. Magnum = Last Boss Limited

Cable, Fuse and Oil. After collecting the three, my intuition told me the tera-gorilla would come. And I was right--you gotta to be used to him. But this time, he didn't chase me for too long based on how BGM changes. While suspecting what's going on, I encountered the first (?) boss if not taking account of the tera-gorilla. According to its appearance, I'd like to call this boss "Papa" (another memory-fragment inherited from bio2).
But unlike the with-10-acid-rounds-I'll-get-you dumb version in bio2. This guy in bio3 does hurt!
The fact: I died 2 times.
At least now I know how to fight him. The hard part is to use quick-turn adeptly--I never imaged it could stretch itself and that's how my status decreased to "danger" for 2 times.

Right, since I'm in heavy mode, I can't abuse First Aid Sprays any more. Nice timing when the herbs came since I was out of stock (during the fight with Papa). ^^;

The Phantom of the Clock Tower
Compared to all other stages, the clock tower is the most non-biohazard-ish place. Things are changing from an abandoned city to a lost fantasy. Every single piece of this place (except the train carriage) could trigger my brain cells to make up a gothic-styled tale....


The No.1 place that links me to Silent Hill (3).

Since I got some flame rounds from Carlos just now, I realised there would be enemies that are weak to fire = spiders...
And my prediction was right again. No wonder, spiders, as one standard creature in biohazard, they haven't shown up so far... ~_~
(I'm aware of that I should complain since I start this game.)

Not a phantom, however. What I eventually met there was--every one could tell--the tera-gorilla.
Don't tell me I've come to the final stage (I just got rid of Papa not too long ago). There are still missing names in my "map view", and (at least it's listed in the game's user manual) I haven't switched the character to Carlos... he isn't dead! H-E J-U-S-T C-A-N'T D-I-E!

However when I learned that I couldn't run like previously. He's supposed to be the last boss and I was hoping someone would drop a rocket launcher in front of me--it's like a canonical method to end the story of biohazard. Too bad, it didn't happen.
Again, sadly I re-challenged him for 5 (or more) times.. Compared to him, to fight the Level-4-Papa (Side A story last boss in bio2) is nothing but a piece of cake.
and soon, I realised it's not the end of story--he's not the last boss yet! Although I'll keep believing the rocket launcher would be my ultimate approach to beat him, it would be an even harsher fight. I'm looking forward to count my future death. (；´∀｀)
Or maybe I'll never be able to win him. The game's subtitle is "Last Escape", which means I'll clear the game through escaping from him instead of killing him...

Hunter!
Virus... so that's why I couldn't heal myself with a blue hurb regardless the ECG was also purple ← this made the mini-last boss fight so hard as I couldn't tell my status! ><
Now the riddle solved. It's not the end. I got switched to Carlos--Assault rifle is so powerful, and it sounds much gentler than magnum (in love)!
At first I didn't know what I should do. But looking at the map, I could only go to the hospital. I see. But why the antidote, or vaccine, is there instead of Umbrella HQ? ._.
And my biggest nightmare finally arrived.

--The Hunters! Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
I don't know for how many times they've got me in bio1. Indeed the hardest creature in biohazard I've encountered so far (although not the most disgusting one, I give that honour to spiders..).


biohazard. Such an impressive mark like a save point.


I know, I know, they will break the glass when I leave the room. So obvious..


A simple lock. Glad that I checked this door so I'll tell Jill taking the key-pick with her. (・ω<)


Not the end, but I never expected it's still such a long way to enjoy survive! (｡･_･｡)

Now I stop here at my 10th (or 11th) save and will be back later. Hopefully next time is my last report of it as a first time play~

Bonus
I don't remember when I made it...
and it's so obvious to tell who are in my main party~