A Deeper Explanation of Silent Hill Ascensions Insane Story

[@Dlark17]

I can't believe John forgot one of the most important Ascension characters in his PowerPoint: Hideo Kojima.

[@TeamGhostRyderINC]

Kojima!! Here!! Impossible!!!.

[@boristhes0ulman]

I find it very funny that out of the two halves of this story, the mass shooting subplot is written into the one set in Norway.

[@Affenzunge]

and perpetrated by a woman.

[@onhillsgaming]

Got a subvert those expectations.

[@beardalaxy]

yeah you'd think they have the subplot with the crazy religion and a guy trying to burn down their building in norway xD

[@shawnheatherly]

Xavier is just trolling Rachel, I swear. Everytime he's alone with her, he confides and acts like she's the only person he can actually rely on, and yet he is also disgusted by her showing up at the Foundation.

[@LittleMountain90]

Coming soon to Versus Wolves, John being like "I'm recommending Silent Hill Ascension because I need to talk about this with somebody."

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

Payback for Omikron

[@stephenreyes2632]

This actually needs to happen

[@just_matt214]

IT HAPPENED

[@Broketheair]

I'm literally watching this for that reason. Gratz on the gift of prophecy and/or foresight.

[@erickilbride6856]

I worked on that game and I cannot express to you how much the entire team was rooting for Morgy

[@TheTubePoweredOne]

I absolutely believe that. I feel like you'd have to be crazy to _not_ want that scene, lol. Outta curiosity, who'd you do work under (since there's a few different teams that worked on the game, IIRC)?

[@erickilbride6856]

@@TheTubePoweredOne I was with Genvid QAing the game portion.

[@klaudiso]

@@erickilbride6856 maybe not your lane at all but it would be amazing to see a documentary about making that game and what exactly happened during production lol

[@ashikjaman1940]

I have the utmost respect for you and your co-workers

[@H3rmon861]

I’m actually starting to think we’re witnessing a The Room equivalent for video games. It’s so rare to have this blend of bad but also weirdly earnest that makes it feels sincere. Hope you make a video about this to share it to a wider audience because I feel like the larger gaming audience has no idea of how wild this disaster of a masterpiece is lol

[@jessbakica5233]

This game is so wild I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them what it was. A video would never clear things up but that’s ok, we would still love one 😂😂

[@Never_heart]

Honestly ya. I feel like if it wasn't presented in such a weird format, Silent Hill Ascension would be up there with the Deadly Premonitions for so bad they are good games

[@GigiBranconi]

Deadly Premonition was amazing ​@@Never_heart

[@wyrmlight1168]

A couple of corrections/notes as I'm watching: Johansens - Never directly stated whether or not Karl killed his wife but strongly implied - The reason he may have killed his wife is not only because he was in love with her twin sister Mette, but also because the wife was incredibly cruel to everyone around her - Not sure whether or not he married Mette directly after wife's death, but they definitely had some kind of pre-established relationship. Literally there's no context of time passing by unless somebody says it's been weeks or days or whatever. - The one character trait of Ingrid was 'fucking terrible person' - In-story explanation of Mette's killing tendencies is vaguely implied to be because of whatever's going on in the hospital that's making people suffer... I don't know, might be related to The Withering??? It's never explained - Eva doing the mass shooting might seem to come out of nowhere but her desire to kill all of the monsters and learn how to shoot strongly foreshadows her ability to willingly do a mass shooting - Said evil podcaster was one of the survivors of Eva's mass shooting and that's why they try to make Astrid's life as difficult as possible - Same for police officer but her daughter died Foundation - No clue how you got Pennsylvania but okay I'll just believe it - No clue if Foundation actually does anything because like. Every time that they do something it just... either makes things worse or?? Doesn't do anything??? - Faith is the voice of an adult woman in a baby body - Eric has a crush on Krista but is too loyal to Rachel to cheat on her (until the orgy) - Toby did something that fucked up a steel mill or something - Okay thinking about it now, Toby isn't directly RELATED to Rachel in any way--the most direct relation he has to Rachel is that he's a friend of her husband and his SISTER (who Rachel sacrificed) is part of the Foundation - Toby fucking hates Rachel I think??? Because she's part of a fucking cult - Krista is so down to fuck with Eric, Rachel's husband - Oh yeah the reason Rachel cut out her eye is because somebody she trusted in the Foundation told her doing so would help find her daughter. Oh, but keep it a secret. - Faith doesn't trust her mom because she says her mom left her to die... the Faith we have right now might not be the real Faith. Who knows. I sure don't. The Withering: - Uh Silent Hill Spooky shenanigans - Foundation claims to be fighting it but might either not be doing shit or making it actively worse - Foundation's patron god might be a creature of the Withering?? - Really cool designed monsters that don't really do shit and have a cumulative screentime of like. Three minutes or something. - There are sometimes random scenes where Some Guy is throwing straw dolls around on models and it's?? Implied?? That that's where the monsters come from??? My notes: - I fucking hate how everybody's always wearing the same clothes. Even during the orgy. - Voice acting's pretty good in some spots - What the fuck is going on - Why is there actually some kind of loose cohesion to this?? Like when it came out that Eva did the mass shooting I was like. OHHH. THAT'S WHY PODCAST GUY HATES THE JOHANSENS. - I don't think that this is AI, just bad writing that's severely impacted by the branching choose-your-own-adventure flavor of the 'game' and lukewarm writing in general.

[@InfiniteAnvil]

I was pretty sure the reveal of Mette as an "angel of mercy"-style serial killer was meant to imply that SHE killed Ingrid, since it was apparently done with an injection of morphine. Since Astrid was under suspicion briefly because morphine implied a connection to the hospital, and then we learned that Mette had been doing that kind of shit *at the hospital*.

[@wyrmlight1168]

@@InfiniteAnvil Oh I hadn't even noticed or realized that... do we know if Mette was even at the house when Ingrid died or not? That's an interesting point. I'd also say that Mette killing people in the hospital via the use of morphine would probably be easily traced back to her as they'd probably be patients directly under her care, and that's not exactly something that can be hidden very easily. But then again, Rachel also should've gone to the hospital for taking her own eye out and been in a lot more pain than she was (she stands to get a really bad infection if it's not tended to properly) and she... you know. Apparently she's fine. So I don't think the writers really know or care to know about actual medical practice.

[@Estra_Estra]

@@InfiniteAnvil In episode 3, which John skipped, I think Astrid finds out Mette possessed morphine on her and straight up alludes to her being the murderer, but she's like "well, you know, hospital stuff!" and I don't think it really went anywhere. Also what's with them concluding it was just her illness, clearing the charge of murder? Like, does that imply it wasn't even a monster or supernatural _either?_ Seriously? What's up with that? Later, Karl is still afraid that it was him when he has that hallucination of himself, so was the prospect off the table or not? Shouldn't he not be worried of anything? What did it mean?

[@raioh4747]

Mr. Final Gamer is so generous to keep using terms like "game" and "playthrough" with this thing

[@Yelloweyedrobo]

Just letting you know your top games of all time list has a couple errors, I noticed you unfortunately forgot to put this masterpiece as your #1 game

[@niceatsymbolethereyoutube]

I think it's a really rude thing in some areas of Europe to include the #0 game on one's own top games of all time list. In fact in my own culture few dare to even type the characters #0 in the same sentence as the word "game" is to be typed. But I was double dared to, so it's actually really literally for reals super duper morally okay. Okay? -A NEWPORTIAN

[@dingus_maximus]

46:50 "Everyone's acting so strangely, running around spouting nonsense." *nods* "........Does the 'Lady in the Woods' mean anything to you?" This game was written by the best literary minds in human history.

[@OneMadApple]

man, they really decided to shoot the entire concept of "show, don't tell" right in the face, with the whole "Mette, Surprise Angel of Death" thing.

[@josephbyrne320]

I have to believe that this is being written by an AI, and that like, the reason there are *two* kids, who *keep* going missing, is because it scraped Silent Hill 1, Silent Hill the movie, Silent Hill Shattered memories, and Heather's recap of Silent Hill 1 within Silent Hill 3, and now as a result the AI disproportionately understands Silent Hill as a setting where children go missing. So now it is just going to punch the missing children button as much as possible.

[@boristhes0ulman]

Counterpoint: it's written by a team of overworked interns who are given contradictory and detached requirements by the money people about things the story has to include with no time to figure out how to actually include them without derailing the whole thing.

[@josephbyrne320]

@@boristhes0ulman tbf! I suspect that both is probably going on! The storybook in paticular is maybe the most clear and creative expression of whatever the story might have been intended to be ('we want a horror story where older generations throw the next under the bus for their own survival, until they reach a generation that has nobody to kick the can to'), but rendered in a metaphor that feels like a person must have wrote that. But other times the game has characters flip argument positions or motivations within one scene, that feels more like an unmodified Ai output.

[@Never_heart]

​@josephbyrne320 I think the broad plotting was written by real people given absolutely no useful direction by the directors abd team heads. While a lot of the dialogue is AI written. The broad isn't quite trope filled enough, but the moment to moment dialogue is filled with awkward unfinished or recursive ideas

[@josephbyrne320]

@@Never_heart I mean it could be! And it's possible there is no AI involved at all; it's just that the writing is just so *uncanny* at points, It's hard to shake!

[@Never_heart]

@@josephbyrne320 I definitely can say I have never experienced a piece of media that confuses me quite in this way

[@Tenchigumi]

2:50 Considering that a valley is essentially the opposite of a hill, they should have just gone all in and called the town Høylytte dalen or Støyende dalen.

[@surpriseandterror9698]

One of the problems with this story is that I have no idea when people are acting strange and unnaturally because they're influenced by evil, they are an evil spectre masquerading as someone they aren't, or just unnaturally written. I get that 'feeling like a bad dream' is part of the appeal of Silent Hill, but divorced from anchors of anyone acting normally, this all feels like some awkward malfunctioning puppet show.

[@Owesomasaurus]

"Evil podcaster who is really mean" you could have just said "podcaster"

[@TheTubePoweredOne]

Y'know, for such an unmitigated disaster, Ascension had some real pedigree involved in its making. Up until recently, I had no clue that JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Games was in charge of art direction, monster designs, _and_ sound design. What a world we live in where we can unironically point to Mr. Mystery Box as being directly responsible for some of the legitimately good stuff to come from this game.

[@D_Jester]

You've heard of Yakuza's secret Koreans, but you've never heard or expected Silent Hills' secret Canadians(Mette). Also, after what we've heard about The Foundation, can we even be sure Faith is Eric's daughter?

[@Arp1033]

every time Orson is on screen I am terrified he is going to bend over backwards and start crab walking and screaming at people

[@raspymorten]

36:35 This is really minor, but when the showed the cover of the book in the previous episode, it was in Norwegian. Which I thought was a pretty nice touch at the time. Then the actual text is just... In English. Which feels like a cop out if you ask me. Like you can just have them read out the English dialogue, but come oooon, if you're gonna write the cover in Norwegian, write the text in Norwegian too.

[@LotteBlueJays]

Its funny that John makes spelling mistakes that make the words sound super Irish. Like he says "origy" most of the time anyway so it basically fits.

[@littlegreymouse2484]

That generational trauma version of The Billy Goats Gruff is actually rad 🐐

[@InfiniteAnvil]

17:56 DING, withering is not an adverb it is an adjective, Final Gamer DEFEATED.

[@PregnantAdamSandler]

I feel like John really should have gone over how the purifier sent faith or a faith clone to rachel that said "If you abandon me the purifier is going to kill you super hard" and then Rachel abandoned her.

[@arthurdossantos6826]

I love how Rachel is just brutal sometimes. Like when she had the foundation missionary killed by a monster just because he was annoying her.

[@chrisdaughen5257]

The Foundation reminds me of the church from the first Silent Hill movie. It feels like the Foundation has been dealing with the Blight for years, but there are people who seem to be living normal lives within the town. Moreover, Ascension keeps the Foundation's mission and history too vague outside of them worshipping their founder and wanting to get rid of the Blight. I'm waiting for a scene where they do the "Ascension" and everyone finds out their "rituals" were made up and had nothing to do with the Withering.

[@MINTY_FN]

The bad spelling actually adds something to this. Like, it gives it the whole "person driven insane by eldrich knowledge does best to scrawl down what they've learned in their padded cell" vibe. Your attempt to spell "discernible" was valiant.

[@beardalaxy]

my favorite by far was "orgiy" xD

[@theslakemoth]

Up until they outright told us, I didn't think Eva was a ghost because I remembered her interacting with Astrid at some point in one of the first few episodes so I was very confused when she turned out to be a ghost that only Karl was seeing. I'm only now realizing that I have been confusing Brit with Eva this entire time.

[@AWSMBTR]

The lack of continuity is so strange, characters say something very final like "Don't ever come back near me or I'll fucking kill you" and one episode later without anything having happened to explain it, they're like "Oh, I forgive you now, let's be besties.".

[@aprilmacg169]

If I hadn't seen the VOD's leading up to this summary, I would not have believed that this was not a bit

[@abrasivemusik]

46:50 Bartender: Everyone is acting strangely, running around spouting nonsense. Astrid: *beat* ... Does the 'lady in the woods' mean anything to you? That had me dying and felt like such a sitcom sketch moment. XD This game is unbelievable.

[@Mattismen]

I love that Silent Hill 2 is now a verb.

[@theslakemoth]

4:57 I thought John was just doing a bit here but I've spent about 20 minutes scouring the internet and I literally cannot find one other picture of Orson anywhere.

[@ThePanchEffect]

man, we got a wolf content, a fox editing it. we need a tanuki for another role, production? executive? and we are golden

[@MrSamfonseca]

We know why Eric is walking like this. Of course, it's the aftermath of the merging ceremony.

[@TeamGhostRyderINC]

Hey i think Krista Lee is new Shadowhart. Eyepatch Wolf is simping on Krista like he did with Shadowhart. So basically now we can call him Shallow Eyepatch Wolf once again.

[@thetrueyuiop]

The “impossible scenario” is incredible storytelling, actually. They should have emphasized that.

[@jay4.166]

You know John, it hurts to know that the FINAL GAMER is a filthy episode skipper. You think you parasocially know someone and then they do something like this.

[@ALloydRH]

I know the final gamer is dyslexic, but he literally mixed up Pennsylvania and Norway XD 17:20

[@godspeedyoublacknerd]

This game feels like it was directed by the guy who made Hunt Down The Freeman

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

3D animation is an impressive field. In one point of the spectrum we have low funding animations that should not be incredibly detailed but they are (Overwatch Pron). On the opposite side we have studios that had decent funding and possibility of hype but became Silent Hill AScenSion.

[@shaserra8924]

So wait ... Astrid is emphatic at the end that she can't leave Orson alone, but then what was up with that scene where she was in the ice bar? The scene before that had Brit stomping around the hospital looking for Astrid, so who was supposed to be with Orson while all that was going on?

[@morganqorishchi8181]

I love how confused Jon is every time something is done right. "Why is this shot lit really beautifully?" is said like a man finding Shakespeare plays amidst porn mags.

[@doodlebrain6594]

I hate hate hate that Eric is like “I can’t just walk away, look at you, you need help” when previously one of his best moments was telling Rachel she might not be able to be in a relationship right now. Everyone just fucking flip flops

[@beardalaxy]

I love the flip flopping of Rachel and Eric's marriage in like every scene. One of them wants to stay, then the other one wants to stay, then back again... with seemingly no reason for why they keep changing their minds. You can totally tell that it's all about the players who showed up that day or had a bigger sway in the poll and it makes the narrative sooooo bad.

[@beo3828]

It think it was preeeetty obvious that Eva was Karl's daughter, we just didn't know she was dead and the whole mass murder thing. We were also sorta led to believe she was the youngest sister, when she's most likely the oldest.

[@boristhes0ulman]

Wasn't obvious to me, I genuinely thought she was just, like, a weird kid from the farm next door.

[@digitalbooklett9357]

Honestly I was also not sure when she first showed up, I thought Karl was treating her like another daughter-figure than his actual kids I did catch the hints that no one else was acknowledging her except for Karl though, but the shooting thing was a twist

[@bemodreamy]

Spilling that Silent Hill tea

[@hi_tech_reptilez]

Yo theres a whole wikipedia page on that Norwegian Penguin Knight and it may make life worth living. He is also the Colonel-in-chief after being promoted rank by rank from lance corporal. (Edit: actually, hes a major general as of 2023)

[@crashi159]

I LOVE YOU SUPEREYEPATCH WOLF

[@TheTrueRandomGamer]

"And I love you, random commenter."

[@gmkgoat]

This is REGULAREYEPATCH WOLF

[@anthonycousineau5205]

You don't know how much I love those recap about Silent Hill Ascensions! Really hope you do a video about it!

[@Kiwavaki]

More please, I cannot stop.

[@RandomDude647]

I applied to be a sound designer at the game company that worked on this; in hindsight im glad they rejected me

[@Pigeonstatue4232]

The Withering just seems to take children that already have pretty bad vibes. I say we let it happen

[@chibirex596]

the answer to why they set it in norway, and why Short Message is in germany too, is because current konami doesn't dare to set them in USA or Japan because of what the story themes would say about those countries so they set them in european countries that don't have as much global soft power lol

[@antzerobooks]

"oh, i'm getting excited to meet this lady in the woods" - john

[@Cheesus333]

I'm always a sucker for the John Cena theme but I really do miss the thirty seconds where he was Big Billy Punches

[@franciscoj.f.3268]

This presentation is even clearer to any presentation I have done for any scientific conference xD

[@EnzoDraws]

26:34 "this is the adict daughter who's-she's kinda okay she's pretty cool" "I'm not okay" "ok I guess not"

[@thedarkercarter]

foxcade taking shots while John "doesn't" know lol

[@morgancross5481]

I can't wait for the full video on this beautiful mess. It would actually be really cool to explore how this whole thing has all the elements of a Silent Hill game....but like only if you squint. Weird stilted dialog, ambiguous characters, lots of completely unexplained supernatural elements, dead wives/children etc etc. If you didn't know anything about the franchise you'd be forgiven for assuming it sounds very similar to SH2 *on paper*, but the very clear ocean of difference between these two experiences would be a great topic for a deep dive.

[@Xick]

That bit where Brit is seeing that vision of evil ghost mom yelling at her to relapse and die, and then the scene cliffhangers. That wasn't a choice, was it?

[@aronbrown7286]

Brit and Eva look EXACTLY THE SAME

[@bandgeek20]

27:50 During this scene, I may have caught something that I would be surprised if it was intentional by the writers. Britt is on the edge of relapsing, and she has a SH vision of her mom, who Britt hates. The vision is saying that drinking again will reunite them together. Britt doesn't want that, so she stays sober to either avoid it altogether or for as long as she possibly can. That's how I interpreted this, at least.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

I hate how modern writers are treating the Power behind Silent Hill like it's just sime extreme form of exposure therapy, that's just not how any of this works...

[@chrisdaughen5257]

Why are Ingrid and Mette both Kara from Detroit Become Human?

[@TvTrollByIvy]

Usually, hills surround valleys. So Silent Hill and Sillent Valley go together. Also, Yahtzee made a joke once, when a Alone in the Dark game had a stage name "Silent Quarry". Same logic applies. Everybody is so cleaver.

[@cristianotsurudaprocopio8757]

43:32 And then the lady in the woods turns out to be a player-generated character with a voice synthesizer. Just imagine.

[@LordQuadros]

"Gentlemen, we may not make this the best entry in the Silent Hill franchise, but by god, will we make it the horniest."

[@niceatsymbolethereyoutube]

So this is the the youtuber that outcompeted Rooster Teeth, untill that company failed to exist, huh? Bigger than RT! Noice one mate. -A Newportian

[@PKMNTrainerKratos]

That's fine. I didn't need to do anything else for my evening

[@alexandreturcotte6411]

New graph, yipee!

[@Xenodyne]

18:29 CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER

[@mertcanasfg7986]

You should an updated version when series ends

[@CEOofBoneitis]

Flow chart of multiple Kojimas

[@firefly56embers33]

So i just watched the orgy video, and uh, he wasn't joking I'm speechless

[@FayeHunter]

My husband fell asleep during the Silent Hill Bonin' and i filmed it. I love him. But i love Johns reactions even more. -Faye⚓

[@dogonahottinroof]

On the two names Alonso point, maybe in norway they have a version of the yakuza trope but where someone is secretly Spanish instead of secrely Korean.

[@MarieAntoon]

The Flowchart is back!!!!

[@chaseredmoon407]

You know its bad when the pepe silvia rant makes more sense than the explanation of this.... Thing

[@Zyphon44]

honestly, as someone currently in recovery, all the stuff about Brit's alcoholism seems... so shallow and blunt that it's almost offensive.

[@mynaemismoos]

Always enjoy these Ascension synopsis videos, John. And for the love of John Cena with Fire, please do subject Woolie to this. Please.

[@rearedlogarithm]

Very late, but regarding Eric's actual name being Alonso: it could be part of Eric trying to fit into American culture by taking an English name, since he's a Hispanic immigrant.

[@doesntno]

Orson is gonna make a great lead singer for a death metal band

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

To be fair the orgy did help get his daughter back so maybe they should be adopting a more orgy-based approach

[@Tazdragon1]

I think I love this thing, whatever it is

[@jekblom123]

So were you the guy from Plumbers Don't Wear Ties?

[@muffinzetta3670]

That was his father

[@Kotosanji]

why is their liquor in a a recovering alcoholics home

[@johnrivers3813]

Oh I get it! The Norwegian family lives in the inverse of silent hill, silent valley and that's why they're connected! *slams face into desk*

[@starhew2868]

The kids look like Dan from Xenogears

[@BeinDraug]

Hey dude with work and life going on i have not had the time to consume this chaos but i am fascinated by it. Do you think you could put together a full simmaryof it once its over?

[@doodlebrain6594]

Ok the book scene is a good creepy kids scene

[@turtlebomb2001]

For anybody able to catch it live, about what time does the stream start?

[@lexnight]

Wait why the fuck is there a bar named the "Tacoma" in *Pennsylvania*??

[@TeamGhostRyderINC]

So are you going to be your game / video of the year. Plus you are going to recommend this to woolie right as part of your recommend or die.

[@jay4.166]

Stop giving him ideas. He's already too powerful.

[@TeamGhostRyderINC]

@@jay4.166 My plan worked internet, the deed is done. Ascension has been recommended, you're welcome internet

[@cmdvolken6053]

You know... you didn't have to do this John... In fact you might have caused yourself a great calamity upon us all. Bless your twisted heart all the same. :P

[@hotwheelsdeepstate]

i hope how all the children in this look and act like real human children

[@clownsingularity]

i watch these exclusively for the intros, i dont care about silent hill

[@Vyes]

Daddy's Little Sayter

[@danielcollinson101]

If there's enough outcry for it among the fandom here, I will happy write a Silent Hill Ascension erotic fan fiction starring Supereyepatch Wolf and his favourite character from Ascension (real ones will know who)

[@iseeundeadpeople9]

ONE VOTE!

[@just_matt214]

What did Kojima mean by this

[@petesematary]

An evil podcaster who's really mean? Strong words man - It's not like he made anyone play Omikron

[@mercyvector]

I’m not watching you’re videos i’m waiting for crow country.

[@TKUltra971]

Silent Hills is going to roll over for the folks at ESG. It's not even horror anymore, its a CBS after school special from the 1990s, early 2000s.