S.E.E.S.

Apologies for the lack of updates—the Hero daughters were sick this past week, thus derailing my extracurricular activities. Anyway, back to Silent Hill! *cue ominous Yamaoka track*

Building on my previous post, in addition to structuring Silent Hill around various school hubs, I’ve always thought that a shore town in the off-season would be a great setting for a new game. Traditionally, Silent Hill games are usually set in a vaguely inland region somewhere in New England. But I’ve always wished for more experimentation.

Post-college, I was in a bit of a malaise. I hadn’t yet decided to pursue education as a career. Living at home, witnessing the tectonic plates of my adolescence—high school friends, part-time jobs, old routines—drift away, I began to feel melancholic. Lost time and all that. Listless, in need of distraction, one of my friends suggested spending the weekend at his family’s shore house in Ventnor, NJ* (one town over from Atlantic City).

We spent many autumn and winter weekends down there. It was so eerie in the off-season; but strangely pleasant. Local businesses closed; traffic dissipated; the population dwindled. The place was a ghost town. I took many contemplative walks on the boardwalk, staring out at the frigid Atlantic as it lapped a quiet shore. 

Oh, the fog’d come in, too. Shit, there’s the Yomaoka music again.

*This is a photo of Ocean City, NJ which might actually fit my qualifications for a new Silent Hill better, as there’s a elementary, middle and high school on the island.