There is plenty of anticipation over the Silent Hill franchise. Konami had finally unveiled a revival of sorts to the public last year. Several Silent Hill games were revealed to be in the works. That was cause for the fanbase to be overjoyed but also skeptical. For a franchise with its share of misses compared to hits, it was hopeful that the next set of games would have been worth the wait. With that said, before the games were unveiled to the public, there were some supposed leaks of video games apparently in the works, including a title called Silent Hill: The Short Message.
This game had some concept art online and even a few details. But the title was never officially unveiled by Konami. We’re still waiting for the game to be unveiled, but now an Australian Classification Board outline might have outlined some of the big plot points in the game. Thanks to Reddit, we’re finding out the classification outline, which we’ll share below. It’s not too much different from some of the statements provided by industry insiders in the past, but at least it’s another mention of a game we’ve been waiting on.
Before this, the speculation is that Silent Hill: The Short Message was a demo of sorts for the next major franchise installment. Fans believed we would be getting a PT-style reveal where players would go through a short game that would reveal the next title. If you don’t recall, when Hideo Kojima started work on a Silent Hill revival, he released PT, a demo that had players going through a series of puzzles. Upon finishing the game, it was unveiled that Hideo Kojima, under Konami, was bringing out Silent Hills.
Of course, that game never came to fruition as Hideo Kojima parted ways with Konami. Ultimately, the project was scrapped, and fans had to endure several more years of silence. With that said, there was a comment on Reddit by AestheticGamer, who is an industry insider, that previously released details regarding Silent Hill: The Short Message. According to the industry insider, it was claimed that these plot points from the classification board only share the first section of the game, as there are a total of three sections for players to go through.
Currently, players have access to Silent Hill: Ascension. This is the latest release for the IP and one that hasn’t been connecting with fans that much. Likewise, we know the Bloober Team is working on a remake of Silent Hill 2, but again, we’re left waiting for an official release date to be unveiled.
Australian Classification Board Outline
“Strong suicide themes, horror violence and coarse language: an exploration‑based psychological horror game in which players control characters in an apartment building called The Villa in modern‑day Germany. The player assumes the role of a young woman, Anita, who must explore The Villa through first‑person gameplay in order to collect clues and uncover what has happened to her friend. Anita is exploring a bathroom environment which features a bathtub filled with bloody water, blood‑splattered tiles and a razor blade on a bloodied sink. Upon examining a razor, Anita experiences a flashback. In a cut‑scene depicted through a first‑person point of view, a voice yells, “This is all your fault! Bad things happen because of YOU!” and a hand holding the razor enters the frame.
The character’s left arm enters the frame with horizontal scars evident across the character’s wrist. The scene cuts to a black screen before the razor makes contact with the character’s wrist. The following shot features an image of the character’s left arm with old and fresh scars. In a cut‑scene depicted through a mixture of third‑person and first‑person shots, the player character stands on the edge of the building’s rooftop, looking down. It is implied that Maya committed suicide by jumping off the ledge of the rooftop. The player character, in a distressed state of mind, speculates that she will never compare to Maya. Echoes of her mother’s abusive tirades are heard in the background as Anita prepares to jump and says, “Maybe I can be like her… Here goes…” In a first‑person shot, her feet are seen near the edge of the ledge before, in a third‑person shot, she steps off and begins to fall.
Throughout the game, cut‑scenes depicting self‑harm and suicide are followed by black screens which feature white text encouraging players to seek treatment and help if they are at risk of self‑harm and suicide and to offer support if they see people around them struggling. In the Board’s opinion, depictions of suicide and self‑harm within the game occur in the broader context of discourse exploring issues revolving around mental health which encourages players to seek help or offer support to those in need. As such, the impact of the depictions does not exceed strong in impact and can be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification.”
