I am still thinking near-constantly about James Sunderland and, going by my experience with the original Silent Hill 2, will be doing so for the next twenty years, but I can spare some time to talk about a little indie game nobody's heard of.

A few weeks ago, proustbot made a post about Death Trick: Double Blind, a murder mystery game taking inspiration from Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick. I like Ace Attorney a lot, and I absolutely adore Ghost Trick, so I was tempted into checking it out.

I stressed myself out more than necessary while playing Death Trick, I think! The game has a time mechanic; you have a certain number of time slots in an hour, and actions like questioning a suspect will take up a slot. Sometimes, these actions will lead to new evidence items that you can use for further questioning.

When I ran into a long sequence where I wasn't getting any new evidence, I started to freak out; was I asking all the wrong questions? Was I going to run out of time and fail to solve the case?

I think the issue here is that I'm used to games automatically moving the plot along once you have all the information you need. Because things weren't moving on, I assumed I was missing something. In fact, I'd already gathered all the necessary information; the reason I wasn't getting new evidence was that I already had everything. But that's not what moves the story along; the story only moves along once a certain amount of in-game time has passed. I should have just relaxed and enjoyed having non-plot-essential conversations with the characters to pass the time.

Anyway! Because my misunderstanding of the mechanics led to me constantly feeling I was playing the game wrong, I started to get a little frustrated with it, although I was enjoying the writing. But then it won me back over with an excellent little mystery-story moment: I noticed a small detail and went 'wait, that's weird??' and started trying to make sense of it, and, in pulling that one thread in my mind, I suddenly found myself unravelling a huge knot of mysteries, some of which I hadn't realised were mysteries until that moment. It was extremely satisfying!

Spoilery details on my sudden revelation below the cut:


( Spoilers for Death Trick: Double Blind. )


There is no Death Trick: Double Blind fanfiction on AO3, and I doubt there's a market for any, but a part of me still feels I should write fanfiction where the Detective and the Magician make out.

I've just finished the Silent Hill 2 remake!

'James, you can't keep doing this!' I exclaimed, as James prepared to jump down yet another seemingly bottomless pit. I paused for a moment to consider. 'Although he might be thinking the same thing about me. I always have to press the jump button twice before he actually jumps, as if he's going "are you sure it's a good idea to jump into this pit?"'


( Notes on the Silent Hill 2 remake, up to the end of the game. )


The ending stats screen gave me two stats that combined alarmingly: I'd been playing for 19h4m, or 1,144m. I'd checked the map 1,131 times. I can't believe I checked the map almost exactly one time per minute.

That's a lie. I can absolutely believe that. I'm frankly surprised it wasn't more; I love checking the map in Silent Hill. It makes me feel so much more secure when I know where I am and where I'm going!

I just darted into the sitting room, where Tem was hanging out, and picked up the Silent Hill 2 remake's box to bring back to my bookshelf.

Tem: Going off to be alone?
Riona: I was just thinking that it does look like that. 'James and I are going to go upstairs now.'
Tem: 'James and I are just going up to my bedroom.'

What a fantastic remake! It's so clearly built on a deep love for the original game, and that really pays off. I absolutely loved it. It's been so good to spend time with James Sunderland, one of my most longstanding and unfortunate blorbos.