Silent Hill: Shattered Memories/WMG

All four ending videos in Shattered Memories are real.

1. Harry was a weakling who frequently got beat up by Dahlia.

2. Harry tried to become more assertive by doing two women at once.

3. Eventually, the fun stopped and Harry turned to alcohol to deal with the fact that he couldn't do two women at once anymore.

4. Harry & Dahlia got a divorce.

Harry may have even died as a result of DUI while driving away from Dahlia's house immediately after making video #4. Lisa may have also been in the car, and her fate in the game was based on pictures taken of her corpse in Harry's car.

All the games except Silent Hill 2 happened in Cheryl's head

It's almost implied in the UFO ending since James appeared in it. Also, it's one of the only games that truly stood alone without interfering with the idea of Silent Hill being all a part of her delusions.

Shattered Memories explains everything

All the main characters where patients of Dr. Kaufman, and is hinted as much....in the UFO ending. However tongue in check it maybe, it keeps everything canon...and somewhat based in reality.

• So, Silent Hill 1 and 3 are him working with Cheryl (note that he writes about a follow-up visit over the end credits), Silent Hill 2 deals with sexually repressed and murderer in denial James (which is why he "hasn't seen his wife lately"), Silent Hill 4 is coaxing out the secluded and eternally shy Henry (or maybe working with Sullivan?), Origins is with Travis (but what would he be seeing a psychiatrist for?), and Homecoming has Alex and his soldiering delusions and serious parental esteem issues.
  • Re: Alex: He could even be under treatment for PTSD, and the games progression is the doctor stupidly (or accidentally) but successfully convincing him that he wasn't a soldier. Re: Travis: Maybe he ran for days on end at a time with literally hours of sleep over several days, to the point that he started hallucinating and generating straight-up false memories, and the game is him recounting to Dr. Kaufman why he abandoned his route to wander around an old, empty mining town while overlaying a dream about a semi-successful resort town near his home over his experience?

Harry of Shattered Memories was having an affair with Alessa

I know the game's not even out yet, but there's plenty to work with in the meantime for a crazy theory:

• The themes of unfaithfulness and needing "something" to make it through the day, not to mention all the talk about secrets.
• Some of the puzzles shown so far, such as having to undo the clothing of mannequins in order to find a key.
• There's also all the sexual imagery in what's been shown so far, like the pinup calendar.

So, This Troper's theory goes something like this: Harry was cheating on his wife and doing it with Alessa, a seemingly ordinary 16-year-old girl and perhaps best friend of Dahlia the stripper. They would roleplay as if Alessa was his daughter named "Cheryl," complete with schoolgirl uniforms and items imported from Japan. This is especially true if Harry states on his form that he enjoys roleplay during sex. One day, though, his wife found out. So, he went crazy and burned down the whole house in a drunken rage, killing both his wife and Alessa.

• • Well, you got the incest part right. It's just that you've got the roles switched. It's not Harry that wants his daughter; it's that Cheryl wants her father. Yes. THAT WAY.

The 'Harry Mason' from 'Shattered Memories' isn't actually Harry Mason

But somebody with his memories.

• Depending on how you look at it, he's a manifestation of the Harry Mason who died in a car crash.

'Cheryl' dies in the crash at the start of 'Shattered Memories'

And everything that follows is a depiction of his nervous breakdown and an ensuing psychotic episode.

• But she wasn't even in the car crash.

'Shattered Memories' isn't a Remake

Or a re-imagining, or a reboot. It's a straight sequel. The fact it's set now, in the 2000's instead of the 1980's like Silent Hill is the first clue. The fact Harry allegedly 'lives' in Silent Hill now is another. The ghosts of events from Silent Hill are replaying themselves over and over and growing more fractured and shattered with time, starting with the New Game+ and ending after possibly numerous playthroughs of SM. These are the Shattered Memories the title refers to.

• Now that the game's actually out, this is kind of true. Provided you're willing to accept the ending in which the entire first game is a delusion created by Harry's dying mind.
• Bear in mind that it's well established that Cheryl and Harry have been living in Silent Hill their whole lives, whereas in Silent Hill 1 (and 3) they both lived far away from the eponymous town.

I always thought it was a sequel to the bad ending of Silent Hill. Shattered Memories showed the elements of Reality as Cheryl remembered them, and Silent Hill was Harry's delusional dying dream which included references to real people that he knew, Wizard of Oz style.

Shattered Memories is Harry Mason's entry into the afterlife

After he's killed in SH3, he finds himself in the Astral Plane, where Silent Hill's Otherworld/Foggedworld have always existed, even before they spread out into reality after the events of SH1. The reason he thinks he's a resident now is because his memories have been Jacob's Laddered, and he must fight to free himself of the town's taint once and for all before he can move on. The title is a reference to his shattered memories of the town shaping the Astral Plane around him.

Harry is working for the Order in Shattered Memories

Cheryl isn't Harry's daughter- he kidnapped her to use in the Order's ritual of re-uniting the two parts of Alessa's soul. Afterwards, he felt intense guilt about it and attempted to leave Silent Hill forever. However, Cheryl/Alessa used her psychic powers to cause him to crash in an effort to get revenge. Harry suffered a head injury during the crash and now believes himself to be Cheryl's father. He is unwittingly blundering towards the resting place of Alessa/Cheryl, who is attempting to stop him with the monsters and Otherworld transformations. Harry's Silent Hill driver's license and address are both part of a fake identity he used for the kidnapping and which he now believes to be real.

This idea is based around observations from the trailers, namely the fact that she is quite clearly not in the car when it crashes- the passenger seat is empty. Additionally, in the E3 trailer Dahlia seems to expect Harry to know who she is by her first name alone, and sounds mystified by his asking who she is. This is because she was his contact with the Order.

• Not exactly. Dahlia is Harry's former wife.

The UFO ending in Silent Hill Shattered Memories tells the truth about the town.

It is really a giant spaceship!

The UFO Ending is canon.

The trip Construct!Harry takes in Shattered Memories is symbolical. Cheryl has actually been recalling the events of Silent Hill 1, hence why Kaufmann mentions cults and demons. Cheryl is utterly broken, and is quick to say that before he finds his daughter Harry is abducted by aliens. James is a hint of a sequel, featuring group therapy between Kaufmann and James/Mary.

In Shattered Memories, The situations are based off of what Cheryl would like to happen... to an extent.

For example: true to the firstgame, Lisa dies in a rather horrific manner. As the player sees in the "Sleaze and Sirens" ending of Shattered Memories", Harry had an affair with her and Michelle. While Cheryl couldn't bring herself to kill Michelle, a girl who went to her school around the same time, she could find it in her to fantasize about punishing Lisa for her affair with her father. Another example would be everyone subtly or not so subtly warning Harry to turn back near the end of the game symbolizing Cheryl's desire to turn back the clock and stop Harry's death, as after that point, she's forced to face the fact that he's died, even if she chooses to ignore it afterward.

• While this theory mostly works, it fails to take into account that Michelle is not Cheryl's classmate; she was Prom Queen and sleeping with Harry when Cheryl was seven years old. That story about Michelle and Cheryl going to school together is a complete lie.

Shattered Memories is in continuity with 1 and 3.

The spoiler tags don't want to work on a text body this large, so be forewarned of MASSIVE plot spoilers and ending spoilers in this folder.

The entire game takes place a few years after the events of Silent Hill 3. Heather, unable to handle the stress and anguish of what happened to Harry and the sheer trauma of everything from Silent Hill 1 and 3, is drawn back once again to Silent Hill. She's drawn to the lighthouse overlooking Toluca Lake, and it's there that her lingering reality-warping abilities from carrying the cult's God begins to act again.

Her mind subconsciously creates the image of Doctor Kaufmann, because he's the only doctor she's ever really known, to help her rebuild her shattered mind and create a new set of memories, so that she can let go of her past and live again.

But she knows it's a lie, and in defense, her mind begins to builds constructs around the people from Silent Hill 1.. Memories of what really happened, subtly warped by the influence of the reconstruction. Harry, the hero. Cybil, the cop. Lisa, the tragic nurse. And Dahlia, her mother, obstructive and dangerous while seeming benign (Dahlia is very often the catalyst for an Otherworld shift in Shattered Memories).

Michelle and John may be constructs based on people that were important to her when she was on the run with Harry in Silent Hill 3, or they could actually be a couple of people drawn into Silent Hill's psychic vacuum unrelated to Heather's reconstruction entirely.

The Truth that Harry is searching for is that none of this is real; the very memories Heather is building are a lie. What happens in his search for Cheryl is a direct result of her own conflicting feelings on this Truth; part of her knows that these memories are a lie, and so the constructs help Harry, in their own way, towards finding her; this part of her wants her Daddy to save her from the overwrite. But another part of her is afraid that if Harry finds her, it will all be undone, resulting in the frozen Otherworld and the Rawshocks to obstruct him. Every time he seems to have a legitimate chance to find her, this part of her mind lashes out, and the Otherworld takes root. Very much reminiscent of the Cheryl/Alessa split originally, her powers are simultaneously helping and obstructing the Harry construct.

The sudden death of the Lisa construct with blood streaking down her face could be considered a leak, so to speak; the truth of what really happened in Silent Hill poking into the fabrication.

Harry complains on occasion about his memory being fuzzy. This is the result of the real memory of what happened being inaccessible; he, alone, still carries the memory of everything that really occured, but it's being blocked by Heather's history reboot. His memories have been set back to Silent Hill 1, while everything around him changes. He remembers the car crash. He remembers that Cheryl was in the car with him when it happened. He does not remember Dahlia despite her being his wife in Heather's new history. When prompted by outside stimulus, his mind begins to access the new history, as happened when he was "reminded" about his house in Silent Hill, a house he has never actually owned. But even that only comes in part. In a sense, Harry is actively resisting the overwrite. His ability to do so may explicitly be because of the part of Heather's mind that wants him to save her; she's shielded the Harry construct from the changes, much the way she shielded Lisa Garland in Silent Hill 1.

In the end, Harry does find Heather and the Kaufmann construct in the lighthouse, and what happens there is determined by Heather's psychological profile; what part of her mind is strongest determines which part of her mind prevails in the conflict. In one ending, Harry himself, with a mind unclouded and the Truth laid bare to him, now remembering everything that occured in Silent Hill 1 and 3, makes one final sacrifice for the daughter he loves, sacrificing the very truth of what happened in Silent Hill so that the daughter he was willing to fight through Hell and back for (metaphorically speaking) can move on and live a happy life.

• Another possibility is that Shattered Memories is the result of the cult's god trying to reclaim Heather. In this case, Kaufmann may actually be the original Kaufmann now working for the Nightmare god, as the last time we saw him, he was dragged down into the Nightmare by Lisa while Harry was escaping.

Under this theory, the "good" ending where Cheryl finally accepts that Harry wasn't the big hero of her story and lets go is actually the bad ending; Kaufmann succeeds in getting Cheryl to accept a revised version of her history that writes Harry out of it and Dahlia back in. The Harry construct, looking for his daughter, is Cheryl's subconscious realizing the danger she's in and lashing out, creating a manifestation of the hero figure that saved her so that he can do it again. The Dahlia construct would, then, be created by the god in response to this; you'll notice that Dahlia is often directly responsible for the Otherworld shift. There are no scenes with Construct!Dahlia that do not result in the Otherworld, because she's specifically trying to keep Construct!Harry from rescuing his daughter.

All the people Harry interacts with are dead too.

That explains everything. Also, notice how at the end when he and Cheryl accept his death, he freezes, and it's implied he froze to death. Well, Lisa's death could have been her accepting it.

Shattered Memories breaks the fourth wall.

The psych segments are in first person, not to hide Cheryl's identity, but because Kaufmann is talking directly to the player. Harry isn't Cheryl's idealized memories of her father, but the player's idealized memories of Silent Hill 1. At the end, Kaufmann tells Cheryl that although her father is dead, there are still people who love her. Or in other words, he tells the player that although Team Silent isn't working on the series anymore, there are still games being made and could you give them a chance. Whether Cheryl/the player does is up to them.