A small unincorporated town that is the people of Silent Hill who wanted out of any dealings with the cult or the gods of the place and the deal was the four founding, prominent families of the town had to kill their firstborn every generation? That's absolutely fucking killer in terms of premise. That's a classic gothic horror right there.

The issue is the mandatory twist doesn't make sense. Joshua dying doesn't make Alex being alive somehow have broken the pact. Even if you go by the "it has to be every 50 years on the dot" there was nothing stopping their parents from killing Alex even if he accidentally killed Joshua too.

I guess there's a weak argument of Alex got committed for killing his brother but again, his father is the head of the police for Shepherd's Glen, the mental hospitals in Silent Hill are all run by the cult, you have to go around the giant lake to get to any of them, surely an accident could have occurred.

The plot of Homecoming would have made a million times more sense if instead of killing his brother and getting sent away to a mental asylum where he just rationalizes it away as a tour of duty, if, after being treated like dogshit by his army vet dad for almost all of his growing up, Alex had just run off to enlist.

Given when the game is set that still fucks up the ritual sacrifice thing because now Alex is off in the middle east, and you can play with whether Joshua is alive or not without this being a rehash of Silent Hill 2.

He's a 13 year old in a town full of monsters and being invaded by the fucking cult from Silent Hill, he's in mortal danger. Hell the other families might be desperate enough to try to sacrifice him even if he's not the firstborn.

And then Alex gets back it becomes a twist of letting him in on the secret and now he has to decide if he's willing to let himself be drowned to save everyone and make this cycle go another 30-50 years.

As opposed to the "oh you were never a soldier you killed your brother and went crazy awoogawoogawooga" twist the game saddles you with.

and i'll do it again

hit the nail on the fuckin' head

i know nothing about this canon but still find your mini dissertation fascinating; great work

^