I wanted to love Silent Hill: The Short Message, but with a complete lack of environmental storytelling, outdated looking character models, and no subtlety whatsoever, it's difficult to enjoy it. The visuals (outside of characters) are gorgeous, the monster design is terrifying, and I loved exploring the Villa while running away from the cherry blossom monster, but the story really kills it for me. It wants to drive home an important message, but it is too reliant on explaining everything right when you see it instead of letting the player figure it out themselves--making it difficult to take it seriously sometimes. There are good bones here that could let it rival PT, but it needed a complete rewrite of its story and a reimagining of its main character, Anita. Honestly, if Anita was either a silent protagonist or if she rarely talked, this could have elevated the game from a 2 to a 3.