Siren (series)

Siren
Genres	Survival horror, stealth
Developers	SIE Japan Studio Project Siren
Publishers	Sony Computer Entertainment
Creators	Keiichiro Toyama
Platforms	PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3
First release	Siren November 6, 2003
Latest release	Siren: Blood Curse July 13, 2008

Siren (Forbidden Siren in the PAL region for the first two PlayStation 2 games) is a survival horror stealth game series consisting of three installments developed by SIE Japan Studio and Project Siren, a development team within SIE Japan Studio, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Games

Aggregate review scores
As of June 25, 2013.

Game	GameRankings	Metacritic
Siren	71%[1]	72[2]
Forbidden Siren 2	74%[3]	74[4]
Siren: Blood Curse	77%[5]	78[6]

Siren

Siren is the first installment in the series and was released in November 2003 for the PlayStation 2.

The game is set in a remote Japanese mountain village named Hanuda (羽生蛇村 Hanyūda Mura), which is described as being very traditional and particularly exclusive society. Following the interruption of a ritual in the forest near midnight and a subsequent earthquake, the village teeters between time and space, with an infinite sea of red water in place of the usual surrounding mountains. The crux of the story focuses on the efforts of Hisako Yao, the leader of a local religion, to resurrect or re-awaken a being known as Datatsushi through an occult ceremony. The siren of the title is the call of Datatsushi, summoning the residents of Hanuda to immerse themselves in the red water, thus creating an army of subordinates called shibito (屍人, lit. "corpse people"). The shibito then go about building a nest to house the corporeal form of Datatsushi once it is summoned, as well as killing and converting any living humans left in Hanuda. The story is told through the perspectives of ten survivors, some of whom are natives of Hanuda, and is presented out of chronological order over the three days in which the mystery takes place.

Forbidden Siren 2

Forbidden Siren 2 is the second installment in the series and was released in February 2006. The game tells the story of several characters who become trapped on Yamijima, an island off the coast of mainland Japan. On August 3, 1976, an underwater cable was cut, and all power to the island was lost. During the subsequent blackout, all of the islanders disappeared and the island became deserted. Twenty-nine years later, in 2005, a magazine editor called Mamoru Itsuki is visiting the island to conduct research for an article when the ferry he and a small group of other passengers are on capsizes, after it is hit by a red tidal wave. Shortly after his arrival, a group of soldiers crash land on the island after their helicopter has engine troubles. They must all find ways to survive the island's "monsters", the shibito.

The game is played through several character perspectives, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses, through an overlapping timeline of the fateful night that alternates between the present and the past. The story can unfold in different ways with, in many cases, two or more different versions of a level, which will have slightly different objectives than the original. If the player is thorough and plays through these optional versions, the story and characters may develop even further than before.

Siren: Blood Curse

Siren: Blood Curse is the third installment in the series and was released in July 2008. The game is a "reimagining" of the first game and it tells the story of an American camera crew's disappearance in a mountainous region in Japan. On August 3, 2007, an American TV crew visits the area of Hanuda Village, Japan, a mountain village that vanished completely in 1976. At the same time, an American high school student has also traveled to Hanuda due to a mysterious e-mail message that he had received. At nighttime, the crew stumble upon a ritual (called a Mana ritual) being performed where they watch local murdered as part of the ritual. As another local was about to be sacrificed, the American student intervenes and saves the local, then goes out to find help. In the process of getting help, he encounters a policeman that tries to kill him. Meanwhile, the sacrificed local revives as a Shibito, a "monster" of Hanuda, and attacks the camera crew.

Film

Forbidden Siren
Directed by	Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Written by	Naoya Takayama
Starring	Yui Ichikawa Hiroshi Abe Naomi Nishida
Release dates	February 9, 2006
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Forbidden Siren (サイレン) is a movie adaptation of Siren. It was released in Japan on February 9, 2006 to coincide with the Japanese release of Forbidden Siren 2, on which the movie is loosely based. Forbidden Siren was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi and stars actors Yui Ichikawa, Leo Morimoto, Naoki Tanaka, Hiroshi Abe, Naomi Nishida, Suzuki Matsuo, Kyûsaku Shimada, Mai Takahashi, and Jun Nishiyama.

Manga

On April 17, 2014, Sony announced a manga series titled Siren: Akai Umi no Yobigoe (Siren: The Call of the Red Sea) and based on the first game. The manga is drawn by Hiroshi Kamio and it will run in Home-sha's Shinmimibukuro Atmos magazine. The game franchise's director Keiichirō Toyama and scenario writer Naoko Satō are supervising all aspects of the manga.^[7][8]

References

1. "Siren Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
2. "Siren Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
3. "Forbidden Siren 2 Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
4. "Forbidden Siren 2 (ps2: 2006): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 22, 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
5. "Siren: Blood Curse Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
6. "Siren: Blood Curse Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
7. "Sony's Japanese Horror Game Siren Gets Manga Series". Anime News Network. April 17, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
8. Alexa Ray Corriea. "PlayStation horror series Siren is getting a manga adaptation". Polygon.

External links

• Forbidden Siren at the Internet Movie Database