By SoleilNoir

Japanese Horror Without the Need for Jump Scares

Starting from the 1976 film "Carrie," a horror presentation called "Jump scare" was born.

In 1996, "Resident Evil" incorporated Jump scares into video games, and in 2003, a small game called "The Maze" spread widely online, making Jump scares the most popular frightening method in horror games.

However, the power of Jump scares is one-time. To achieve the goal of frightening, it must catch the person off guard and unprepared. Once a player has experienced it, this method of presentation is unlikely to be effective again.

Therefore, in the current situation where there is an increasing number of independent horror games that include Jump scares, it is quite rare to be scared in a horror game without relying on Jump scares.

In the realm of manga, renowned horror manga master Junji Ito excels at creating a sense of terror through "the creeping and growing eerie atmosphere in everyday life." The recently released game "World of Horror" on February 20th draws inspiration from Junji Ito's manga and presents a text-based adventure game in his distinctive style.

The game combines the Japanese horror style with Lovecraftian elements, allowing players to experience a sense of natural terror. At the same time, players have given the game overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Apart from the current game "World of Horror," there was another game that was influenced by Junji Ito's works and showcased this unique horror style to the extreme. Going back to 2003, there was a game called "Forbidden Siren" that truly embodied this distinctive horror style.

The folktale of the Outer Gods

In the twelfth year of the Tenmu era in Japan, a famine plagued the land. Due to hunger, three villagers from the Hanyu Snake Village resorted to eating the young offspring of an extraterrestrial creature called "Datatsushi" that fell from the sky.

YaoHisako, the pregnant female villager, endured the excruciating pain of being consumed alive by the fish-like creature Datatsushi. As a result, she was cursed by Datatsushi. Two villagers died, and only YaoHisako survived.

She gained an immortal body, but at the same time, she had to bear the curse of eternal life. Whether it was her unborn child or her descendants, as long as they carried her blood, they would eventually experience a physical decay and aging while their minds remained in an incomplete state of immortality.

In order to break the curse, Hisako founded a religion called "Shin-Gyo," also known as the "True Fish Sect." In this religion, every twenty years, a ritual sacrifice called "Miyako" was offered to the outer god, Datatsushi, as an act of atonement.

This sacrificial ritual continued until the year 1976 when the story of "Forbidden Siren" officially began.

The Valley of Horror Effect

"Forbidden Siren," the first two installments of which were released on the PS2 platform, was among the many horror games available on the platform. Well-known horror game series such as "Fatal Frame" and "Silent Hill" were also present on the PS2. What set "Forbidden Siren" apart from these horror games was its unique visual presentation.

What made the visuals of "Forbidden Siren" stand out? In fact, compared to other games of the same period, its graphics may not have been exceptionally impressive. However, the game's standout feature was its use of a unique facial capture technique.

Unlike the complex equipment and meticulous adjustments required by modern facial capture techniques, "Forbidden Siren" simply used eight angles to capture patterns of real human faces and applied these patterns to the game's 3D models.

The facial capture technique used in "Forbidden Siren" may seem crude by today's standards, but during that era, the lifelike 3D character models resembling real actors were quite impressive.

Although the developers intended to make the characters appear more realistic using this technique, the process of directly applying real human photographs to 3D models with a relatively low polygon count resulted in occasional moments where the faces appeared very real, but as soon as the characters moved or spoke, the faces felt artificial.

Within this realm of both realism and artificiality, players easily experienced the uncanny valley effect. This effect, accompanied by the game's overall dark atmosphere, intensified the sense of horror for players.

Field of View(FOV)

In the game "Forbidden Siren," players control ordinary characters such as students, women, children, folklorists, and vagrants. There are very few playable characters who come equipped with weapons.

Aside from close-range weapons like clubs and shovels, players occasionally come across handguns and shotguns. However, ammunition for firearms is extremely limited in the game. Coupled with the fact that defeated enemies can revive, players often find themselves in a vulnerable state, unable to fight back. They must rely on stealth and evasion to avoid confrontation with the resurrecting enemies.

One prominent feature of "Forbidden Siren" is the "Field of View" system, which is almost a unique skill possessed by the playable characters. The Field of View allows players to perceive the vision of other characters, including the vision of the resurrecting enemies. Within these perspectives, players can also see their own position from the viewpoint of others. This ability allows players to assess their movement routes and solve various puzzles.

The mechanics of the Field of View are quite intriguing. Players need to hold down the L2 button and rotate the right analog stick to search for different perspectives. When a perspective is not yet found, the game screen displays noise and static, resembling the nostalgic sensation of changing channels on an old TV set using a rotary dial.

The game presents highly challenging puzzles, especially when faced with multiple resurrecting enemies in pitch-black environments. The constant tension and nervousness experienced by players are relentless throughout the gameplay.

However, the developers intentionally set the difficulty level to be high for a reason. Their intention was to create a game that would challenge players and encourage them to discuss and find ways to progress, reminiscent of the atmosphere during the era of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). However, as various walkthroughs and guides for the game became available later on, the difficulty of playing the game decreased significantly for those who relied on these resources.

Contradictory World

The Field of View system in the game also has corresponding settings and mechanics.

Anyone who comes into contact with the blood of Hisako and Datatsushi will gradually transform into a bloodied and twitching corpse, with bleeding from the seven orifices. During the process of transformation from a normal person to a corpse, the character will gradually experience the perspectives of others, which is the essence of the Field of View mechanic.

In other words, several characters controlled by the player in the game are gradually undergoing a transformation towards becoming corpses. When using the Field of View, players can see that most of the corpses are engaged in repetitive daily activities. In the midst of these ordinary actions, players must stealthily pass by them from behind, presenting a highly challenging and stressful endeavor.

In the game, "Forbidden Siren," there is a storyline involving a 14-year-old junior high school student named Chiko Maeda. Chiko runs away from home after her parents read her diary. During the events of "Forbidden Siren," Chiko encounters Hisako while evading the corpses.

However, Chiko gets separated from Hisako midway and continues her escape. During her journey, Chiko witnesses a heavenly white light filling the sky, and the corpses she passes by no longer pose a threat to her.

After a long and arduous escape, Chiko finally arrives at a church. Through a window, she sees her parents inside the church and becomes overwhelmed with excitement. She knocks on the glass and calls out to them.

However, upon seeing Chiko outside the window, her parents' faces turn to fear and horror. From their perspective, Chiko's appearance has become identical to that of the corpses.

In the process of her escape, Chiko tragically falls victim to Hisako and transforms into a corpse. Seeing the heavenly white light and the non-aggressive behavior of the corpses are actually signs of her transformation into one of them.

After witnessing her parents' terrified expressions, Chiko, unaware of her own transformation into a corpse, leaves in despair. However, her parents, consumed by guilt, chase after her. In the end, the whole family becomes corpses and continues their "daily life" in their original home.

When the player controls another character, 10-year-old elementary school student Harumichi Yomota, they can witness this terrifying scene of the seemingly happy family of three.

For the corpses, the curse of Datatsushi is like a blessing from an Outer God, granting them eternal life and allowing them to live in the unique anomaly of the Hanyuda Village.

They do not see themselves as terrifying and hideous corpses; they believe they are no different from their lives before and can continue their daily routines in the heavenly village.

From their perspective, the intruding humans appear as monstrous beings, and their attacks on humans are merely their way of "blessing" them to become as "happy" as they are.

In "Forbidden Siren II," the concept of "Kageri" is introduced, which refers to corpses possessed by vengeful spirits. In the ending, rescue team member Ryozo Munakata is drawn into the parallel world where the Kageri reside.

Under the black sun, Ryozo encounters Kageri women pushing baby carriages, conversing Kageri, and elderly Kageri shuffling past him. They all react with horror and screams upon seeing Ryozo. In the face of these grotesque Kageri, Ryozo, armed with a submachine gun, mercilessly slaughters them.

In a later diary entry written by a child possessed by a Kageri, it is mentioned that one day, a monster fell from the sky and killed all the innocent people nearby.

This raises a question for the players: Humans kill threatening corpses and Kageri to survive in the otherworld, while the corpses and Kageri retaliate against humans for invading their realm. So, who is true, who is false, who is good, and who is evil among the corpses, Kageri, and humans in this world?

"Forbidden Siren II" presents a world that is ordinary yet contradictory and eerie, characterized by Junji Ito's distinctive style.

Realism and Gaming

The realism portrayed in "Forbidden Siren" is unparalleled by any other horror game.

This realism is not only evident in the game's mechanics, world-building, and character designs but also in the overall story, which has a connection to the reality the players inhabit.

For instance, in the first installment, the protagonist, Kyoya Suda, is trapped in an eternal cycle within the village of Hanuda. Driven by his hatred for the Shibito (reanimated corpses), he embarks on an endless killing spree, targeting the thirty-three Shibito villagers of the village.

This corresponds to a real-life massacre event that occurred in Japan in 1938 known as the Tsuyama 33 Villagers Massacre.

In 1938, Mutsuo Toi, due to health reasons, was unable to join the military. Influenced by militaristic ideology, he endured constant contempt from the villagers. One day, he took a modified hunting rifle, as well as a samurai sword, a dagger, and a knife, and severed the village's power lines, engaging in a brutal and inhumane massacre of the villagers.

The act of cutting the village's power lines is also reflected in the gameplay of "Forbidden Siren," where Kyoya Suda has a segment where he needs to cut off the power circuit while evading the Shibito.

In addition, Sony Interactive Entertainment has created official virtual websites for each installment of "Forbidden Siren." The contents of these websites are written from the perspective of the game's protagonists, allowing players to further understand the game's storyline after completing it.

It is worth mentioning that the game's screenwriter, Naoko Sato, and producer, Keiichiro Toyama, both previously worked on the production of "Silent Hill" at Konami. In "Forbidden Siren," Naoko Sato showcased her outstanding writing abilities.

The narrative of "Forbidden Siren" spans multiple time periods and involves more than ten main characters. The game's level design disrupts the events of various characters from different time periods, allowing players to explore the game in a unique way and gradually uncover the truth behind the events amidst the suspense.

Furthermore, after the release of "Forbidden Siren," official supplementary materials such as artbooks, manga, and novels were released to further enrich the game's story.

Indeed, completing "Forbidden Siren" alone is not enough. Players must integrate the fragmented narratives within the game and then incorporate the plotlines from the peripheral works to piece together the complete story of "Forbidden Siren."

That's why even to this day, few players can fully articulate the intricate details of the "Forbidden Siren" storyline. As a result, the interpretations of the plot elements I mentioned in the previous discussions may not be entirely accurate.

Different players may arrive at different conclusions after playing "Forbidden Siren." This is part of the charm of the horror story that "Forbidden Siren" tells. The game allows for diverse interpretations, adding to its overall allure.

Forbidden Siren: A 15-Year Hiatus

"Forbidden Siren," which has been without a sequel for fifteen years, captivates players from the beginning to the end with its oppressive atmosphere, just as its tagline suggests: "No matter how hard you struggle, only despair remains."

All the major characters in the game inevitably fall into the cycle of the otherworld, and the only two characters who truly return to the real world teeter on the edge of despair.

By blending urban legends from the real world with the eerie plotlines within the game, "Forbidden Siren" tells a seemingly absurd yet chillingly realistic story.

"Forbidden Siren" does not rely on jump scares, but like Junji Ito's manga, it provides players with a deeply unsettling experience.

"Forbidden Siren" is indeed an exceptionally unique horror game. The first two installments were released on the PS2 platform in 2003 and 2006, followed by a reimagined version titled "Forbidden Siren: New Translation" released on the PS3 in 2008, targeting European and American players.

However, "Forbidden Siren: New Translation" made significant modifications to cater to the tastes of Western players, which resulted in a decrease in the game's horror and suspense. Nevertheless, it can still be considered a decent horror game.

Indeed, it has been almost fifteen years since the release of "Forbidden Siren: New Translation," and during this time, producer Keiichiro Toyama has been involved in developing the "Gravity Rush" series. It seems that the prospect of a new installment in the "Forbidden Siren" series is uncertain and could be a long wait for fans.