The second foe you fight resembles an underwear-clad mannequin, complete with stockings and corset.īut then you look again, and you realize it’s half-constructed from household objects what you saw as stocking-clad legs are in fact umbrellas, minus their fabric covers. But where sexuality is pushed to the forefront, it really dials up the conflict between that and their alien nature. That’s certainly true of some of the game’s foes, the Others, which blend organic and non-organic elements. “By combining the two things that seem to repel one another visually,” explained art director Kouta Ochiai, “we are able to effectively express to the players that the Others are the kind of incomprehensible creatures that are conceptually and mentally different from us humans.” It also benefits from having a world that’s not as grim as Giger’s. The sexual elements are more overt than in Silent Hill 2, though less so than the work of H.R. Scarlet Nexus goes out of its way to amplify that confusion, and at times, it’s hugely disconcerting. So there’s that brief microsecond, when you first cast your eyes upon it, where you’re not entirely sure what you’re meant to feel. And the Abstract Daddy might look very different to abuse survivor Angela Orosco, but to protagonist James Sunderland, it’s him and Maria/Mary going at it like rabbits. Push-up bra or not, Silent Hill 2’s faceless nurse will happily bash your head in.
![silent hill 2 prison monster silent hill 2 prison monster](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aArLrGJeWrQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
There’s an erotic element to each, but their grimy otherworldliness conflicts with this. Silent Hill 2’s Bubble Head Nurse enemy is the most obvious example of this, but the Mannequin and the Abstract Daddy are similarly disconcerting. Instead, the similarity stems from the way both Silent Hill 2 and Scarlet Nexus’ enemies make use of sexual symbolism to put you on edge. This Japanese action RPG’s futuristic metropolis is as far removed from that title’s foggy town as you could get (though I’d still love a Silent Hill set in a major urban center). I’m not suggesting Bandai Namco intentionally copied Silent Hill 2. But Scarlet Nexus’ monster design is so strikingly reminiscent of Konami’s survival horror that, for a die-hard like myself, it’s like going home. I don’t know whether Silent Hill 2 artist Masahiro Ito ever met the Scarlet Nexus team or, if they did, they asked him to hold their beer. The following article contains spoilers for both Silent Hill 2 and Scarlet Nexus.