Siren fans who were terrorized by the original game will encounter the ghastly Shibito again but a new menace also roams the island - the Yamibito. While the Shibito flee from darkness, the Yamibito abhor the light. By using flashlights, torches, conventional weapons, and even motor vehicles, players beat back the preternatural forces while traipsing through the adventure. When an enemy is wielding a weapon, it's possible to grab the weapon from the lurker and use it for a beating. A first person view of the action may be toggled in addition to a behind-the-protagonist camera. The strength of the original Siren game was the uncomfortable feeling that the environs and music , and shadows that were presented to the player. At the outset of Siren 2, the exploration on the wharf is lit only with your flashlight but the things that you see are basically stark and clear. However, as one delves deeper in the island, the creeping feeling once again permeates the game to cause discomfort and trepidation...
Jan Code: 4948872151061
Region Lock-out
Please note Japanese Playstation 2 games will not boot on USA or European PS2 consoles due to the inherent region-lockout on Playstation 2 game discs.
NCS Game Notes & Spoilers
* In the intro, a moaning wail starts the moment the game boots and weird Ring-like imagery flashes on the screen. Eerie sound effects and echoes pierce the nightmarish title screen. Scary.
* Upon starting a NEW GAME, players may adjust the screen position and brightness level as well as the difficulty from Easy and Normal. There's an OPTION menu in English which allows the player to toggle Auto Save, Hints, Captions, Map Markers, and View Points between two cameras.
* Once the game starts, a grainy video shows a father tucking his son into bed. The child speaks to papa and the two hold a short conversation. Fade out. Blackness. A scream permeates the darkness and sounds of struggle. The screen is still black. The sound of a mob breaking glass and trampling up the stairs is heard. A child's voice is heard - that's you... Control is handed over to the player shortly afterwards and the room is dark. Move around the darkness and inspect the comic near your sleeping bag or the books against the wall. The L-analog moves the child while the R-analog swivels the camera in all directions to view your surroundings.
* There are two sliding doors in the room. The door next to the bookcase opens into a closet and the door on the opposite wall leads to a flight of stairs. As you're walking down the stairs, you may pan the camera downwards to check out the design on the pajamas the kid is wearing. Keep in mind that it's dark inside the house and one might have to squint in order to make out any details at this point in the game.
* Once you reach the bottom of the stairs and turn right, you see that your father has been killed and is lying in bloody clothes. Crying and going to papa, you look up to see someone with a dog... Introduction ends.
* The next scene shows a boat going somewhere - inside, a group of people are sitting around each other. Once of the characters is the child from the intro, all grown up. Strange sounds may be heard outside and then the boat begins rocking and rolling on the high seas. The hero goes outside and sees a child hanging by a rope and he reaches out to grab him but he sinks into the water. The camera pulls away to take in the boat being roiled in boiling seas as heavy rains and waves crash into it...
* At this point, the game will allow you to save your progress so that you won't have to relive the intro.
* Once the game has been saved, a option to review the movie that just played is made available. This option is available for every scene that is shown in the game. The movie replay particularly useful if you want to check out a conversation or an event that has happened already for clues and information.
* In the next scene, hero is lying on a flight of stairs and wakes up - he puts his glasses back on, flicks on a flashlight and starts walking when something startles him - a blurry movement that passes from left to right. The boat has apparently sunk and he has fortunately washed ashore. Waves crash all around him and the game begins. Run around the wharf and check out the realistic waves as they bubble and crash below him. To view them up close, walk down the flight of stairs and you may stand there and watch as the waves roll in. The flashlight illuminates small portions of the screen at any one time and hellish sound effects and music plays in the background to bump up the spooky factor.
* GAME CONTROLS
L-analog / Movement
R-analog / Camera movement
SQUARE BUTTON / Turn on/off flashlight
TRIANGLE BUTTON / Select action - at the outset, only a hailing command is available
X BUTTON / Crouch / While crouched, may use the L-analog to scuttle along
R1 TRIGGER / Stand still - useful to stop quickly when moving
R2 TRIGGER / View and focus on an object or target close-up
D-PAD / Push up to toggle first-person view, push down to activate behind-the-hero view
SELECT / Summon world map
START / Option menu
R1 + O / Shove movement action
* While in a crouch, press up on the L-analog to move along in a running crouch. Once you obtain a gun, you can shoot in first person view for some FPS love.
* To view a large amount of game hints (in Japanese) in case you're stuck at some point, press the START button and highlight the OTHER option. Three sub-options appear: ARCHIVE / HINT / HELP which explain the controls, the button combinations, the use of the menu system, any hints that have been opened so far, and more. As long as you can read Japanese, any subplots that thread through the game may be checked out and read to clear up confusion.
* The movement of the camera is twitchy and jittery when adjusting it with the R-analog. From what we understand, the producers of the game wanted to recreate a Blair Witch effect with a herky jerky camera to cause gamers to become somewhat disoriented, nauseous, and perhaps a little discombobulated.
* The viewjack system returns where the protagonist may view the action from the eyes of an enemy to check out the surroundings and to figure out where they are in regards to the protagonist. New to Siren 2 is the ability to also viewjack into animals and glean information from the eyes of the beast - there's a blind man who uses his seeing-eye dog to check out his environs. The ability to look into the past and past events to learn more about the Yamijima mystery is also available.
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