Tag Archives: indie horror

Silent Hill: Promise, remastered

Silent Hill: Promise is a complete webcomic written from 2010-2019.

It was written in the style of an old text adventure game with participation from user commands as a comment on the latest pages. While the project took ten years to complete, the bulk of it was done in two single year stretches in 2010-2011 and 2018-2019.

Many of the early pages are practically illegible due to poor font choices and lack of plaintext transcription. This “remaster” retains all the original artwork, only changing the text font and size, and adding plaintext transcription.

Pages will be posted as they are completed, as was the original tradition of the comic.

The full, completed comic can be read (with difficulty) in its entirety at this link or at its original home on deviantart.

Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, canon-typical problematic things; themes of mental illness, loss, codependency, and sexuality.

Pages 1-7:

It is the middle of the night. Your cell phone is ringing.

additional pages under the cut.

The tweedle of your cell’s ringtone drags you from your fading dreams and you grope across the nightstand for the offending object. You squint in the dark at its blue light.

The caller is unfamiliar but you recognize the area code. Silent Hill. Your heart races as you realize this might be the call you’ve been waiting for.

>> Answer teh call. It be ph sayin he wants his money back. You answer the phone.

Your mind still confused with sleep, you are briefly convinced that the caller some hulking monster who had pursued you through the corridors of your dream. Shaking this off, you concentrate and stutter out a greeting.

“Hello?”

“I’m** xxilent hixx”

“James! Uncle james is that you?”

“Alone xxx xxxxx hotex you xxx come xx wating xxx.”

Static blares at you through the phone. Beneath it, you can just make out the sound of r voice that you recognize. It’s your uncle james. He’s been missing for three years, and this is the first you’ve heard from him since he left, saying he was going back to the town of silent hill. After a last burst of noise, your phone goes dead as you vainly call for him.

“Uncle James?”

You sit up and set your phone back on the nightstand, before leaning down and opening your bedside drawer. Inside are a pair of glasses, a pack of cigarettes and a photograph.

>> Inspect the photograph up close.

You’re pretty sure its a photograph from your uncle’s wedding, however, without your glasses, you can’t make out much detail.

>> Put on your glasses.

>> Put on glasses.

You take the glasses from the drawer and put them firmly on your face where they belong.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

With your glasses on, the moonlight filtering in through your window shades is just enough for you to make out the details of the familiar picture.

Its a photo from your uncle James’ wedding. His wife, Mary,  looks so healthy and beautiful in it. You can’t believe she made you wear that hideous orange bridesmaid dress.

You only put up with it for your uncle.

You don’t need to turn the photo over to know what it says.

“To the prettiest bridesmaid. With love, James.”

>> Smoke cigarettes like a badass.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

With your glasses on, the moonlight filtering in through your window shades is just enough for you to make out the details of the familiar picture.

Its a photo from your uncle James’ wedding. His wife, Mary,  looks so healthy and beautiful in it. You can’t believe she made you wear that hideous orange bridesmaid dress.

You only put up with it for your uncle.

You don’t need to turn the photo over to know what it says.

“To the prettiest bridesmaid. With love, James.”

>> Smoke cigarettes like a badass.

[next pages (to be added)]

Silent Hill: Promise, remastered

Silent Hill: Promise is a complete webcomic written from 2010-2019.

It was written in the style of an old text adventure game with participation from user commands as a comment on the latest pages. While the project took ten years to complete, the bulk of it was done in two single year stretches in 2010-2011 and 2018-2019.

Many of the early pages are practically illegible due to poor font choices and lack of plaintext transcription. This “remaster” retains all the original artwork, only changing the text font and size, and adding plaintext transcription.

Pages will be posted as they are completed, as was the original tradition of the comic.

The full, completed comic can be read (with difficulty) in its entirety at this link or at its original home on deviantart.

Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, canon-typical problematic things; themes of mental illness, loss, codependency, and sexuality.

Pages 1-7:

It is the middle of the night. Your cell phone is ringing.

additional pages under the cut.

The tweedle of your cell’s ringtone drags you from your fading dreams and you grope across the nightstand for the offending object. You squint in the dark at its blue light.

The caller is unfamiliar but you recognize the area code. Silent Hill. Your heart races as you realize this might be the call you’ve been waiting for.

>> Answer teh call. It be ph sayin he wants his money back. You answer the phone.

Your mind still confused with sleep, you are briefly convinced that the caller some hulking monster who had pursued you through the corridors of your dream. Shaking this off, you concentrate and stutter out a greeting.

“Hello?”

“I’m** xxilent hixx”

“James! Uncle james is that you?”

“Alone xxx xxxxx hotex you xxx come xx wating xxx.”

Static blares at you through the phone. Beneath it, you can just make out the sound of r voice that you recognize. It’s your uncle james. He’s been missing for three years, and this is the first you’ve heard from him since he left, saying he was going back to the town of silent hill. After a last burst of noise, your phone goes dead as you vainly call for him.

“Uncle James?”

You sit up and set your phone back on the nightstand, before leaning down and opening your bedside drawer. Inside are a pair of glasses, a pack of cigarettes and a photograph.

>> Inspect the photograph up close.

You’re pretty sure its a photograph from your uncle’s wedding, however, without your glasses, you can’t make out much detail.

>> Put on your glasses.

>> Put on glasses.

You take the glasses from the drawer and put them firmly on your face where they belong.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

With your glasses on, the moonlight filtering in through your window shades is just enough for you to make out the details of the familiar picture.

Its a photo from your uncle James’ wedding. His wife, Mary,  looks so healthy and beautiful in it. You can’t believe she made you wear that hideous orange bridesmaid dress.

You only put up with it for your uncle.

You don’t need to turn the photo over to know what it says.

“To the prettiest bridesmaid. With love, James.”

>> Smoke cigarettes like a badass.

>> Examine the photograph, including anything that may be written on the back.

With your glasses on, the moonlight filtering in through your window shades is just enough for you to make out the details of the familiar picture.

Its a photo from your uncle James’ wedding. His wife, Mary,  looks so healthy and beautiful in it. You can’t believe she made you wear that hideous orange bridesmaid dress.

You only put up with it for your uncle.

You don’t need to turn the photo over to know what it says.

“To the prettiest bridesmaid. With love, James.”

>> Smoke cigarettes like a badass.

[next pages (to be added)]

Okay so in 2017 airdorf released a short indie title called Faith. You have no weapons, only a cross, and play as a disgraced preacher who failed an exorcism a year ago and have come back to finish what you started. It looks (mostly) like an Amiga game and takes 30 minutes to beat if you’re taking your time + are trying to get all endings. The second game is just over an hour, plus a second run to get the secret ending, plus one more ending that only requires you to redo the final boss. I have yet to play the third game, although I know how it goes and I intend on playing it today.They’re very simple, gameplay-wise, and very text-heavy (although you don’t technically have to read any of the text if you don’t want to, it’s all lore stuff) but if you want a different flavour of religious/occult horror, I highly recommend it. I would say trigger warning for body horror, but if you’re into amnesia that’s probably not an issue. I WILL say eyestrain warning though. The first game is short enough that it’s not a problem, and looking at literally any screenshot will disclose exactly what kind of eyestrain I mean, but I figured it polite to give a head’s up anywayThere’s also a few bits in the games that are absolutely gorgeous, but in the interest of not spoiling the entire game, I’ll keep quiet about those(I had turned anon on for the first ask bc I didn’t want you to feel pressured + I wasn’t sure if my tone was coming across okay uwu)

tigirl-and-co:

blackheart-biohazards:

Hey no worry about anon, vs off anon. You’re great. 👍

Can you tell us a little more about the religious aspect without spoiling too much? We tend to avoid a lot of christian-centric religious content due to Toko and Harry’s religious trauma, and I’d love to know if it would be safe for me to play without getting too under his skin in a bad way.

Oh for sure! It’s a lot of demonic possession stuff, plus bible verse quotes in the beginning and end. The denomination of the main character is Catholic

This meme spawns from the game. There’s themes of abortion, as the possessed woman worked at a clinic. The parents are fine with it but there’s a passing mention of some members of the community being upset.

Your only weapon is a handheld cross, which wards off demons and can be used to exorcize minor spirits from background objects in order to Unlock Lore

The trilogy as a whole deals with the main character, John Ward, slowly losing his faith, but in the first game it’s not very prominent.

The plot of the first game is that he and another preacher were called in a year ago to exorcize a demon from the woman by her parents, but botched it, and the older preacher became possessed(?) While John fled. He is returning to the house to finish the job.

Later games delve more into the occult rather than standard Christian horror, although the 2nd game does future an abandoned church. The first game makes a passing mention that some parts of exorcism may ‘seem harsh’ (exact words) to a layperson. There is one ending (the most obvious ending and the one that most people get the first time) that might be somewhat triggering, and I can disclose that + tell you how to avoid it if you want!

There’s a lot of classic religious horror phrasing, such as a demon one can encounter yelling things like ‘corruption, thou art my father!’

I also don’t know if it’s relevant, but John is also accused of being mentally unsound due to his proclaiming of demons and such in the aforementioned ending and also semi-frequently in the second game.

Lmk if you need any more info!

Thanks for the extra context! It might be a little much for us, given the religious bent of the protagonist, and antagonists being demons. But we’re okay with the classic movie the Exorcist, so I may give it a try and just shut it down if it gets to be too much!

Okay so in 2017 airdorf released a short indie title called Faith. You have no weapons, only a cross, and play as a disgraced preacher who failed an exorcism a year ago and have come back to finish what you started. It looks (mostly) like an Amiga game and takes 30 minutes to beat if you’re taking your time + are trying to get all endings. The second game is just over an hour, plus a second run to get the secret ending, plus one more ending that only requires you to redo the final boss. I have yet to play the third game, although I know how it goes and I intend on playing it today.They’re very simple, gameplay-wise, and very text-heavy (although you don’t technically have to read any of the text if you don’t want to, it’s all lore stuff) but if you want a different flavour of religious/occult horror, I highly recommend it. I would say trigger warning for body horror, but if you’re into amnesia that’s probably not an issue. I WILL say eyestrain warning though. The first game is short enough that it’s not a problem, and looking at literally any screenshot will disclose exactly what kind of eyestrain I mean, but I figured it polite to give a head’s up anywayThere’s also a few bits in the games that are absolutely gorgeous, but in the interest of not spoiling the entire game, I’ll keep quiet about those(I had turned anon on for the first ask bc I didn’t want you to feel pressured + I wasn’t sure if my tone was coming across okay uwu)

Hey no worry about anon, vs off anon. You’re great. 👍

Can you tell us a little more about the religious aspect without spoiling too much? We tend to avoid a lot of christian-centric religious content due to Toko and Harry’s religious trauma, and I’d love to know if it would be safe for me to play without getting too under his skin in a bad way.