Franchise protagonists are often thrown into hardships beyond most people's wildest dreams. Whether it be a zombie apocalypse or a race against time to save the world, video game's central characters have been through unimaginable predicaments since they were first pixelized. And perhaps no gaming franchise has seen more characters go through heavier hardship, anguish, and literal nightmare conditions than Silent Hill.
Silent Hill is an apex of the psychological horror genre and has spanned across several generations of gaming, first hitting the original PlayStation in 1999. Since then, the series has expanded across several media platforms, including two films. Each character in the series seems to find themselves strangely drawn to the sleepy town where their worst nightmares come to life.
17 Andy
The Japanese GBA exclusive visual novel, Play Novel: Silent Hill, is often forgotten by fans but is essentially a reimagining of the first game through interactive text-based gameplay that revolves around the player's choices. A downloadable story involving Harry Mason's young neighbor, Andy, was released in 2001 and features the adolescent boy sneaking into Harry's car and hitching a ride to Silent Hill.
16 Joseph Schreiber
At the beginning of Silent Hill 4: The Room, the player briefly controls Joseph Schreiber, the previous tenant of the dreaded room 302. Although it is brief, Joseph's first-person gameplay acts as a preface for the rest of the game's events and his character appears later to assist the true protagonist, Henry Townshend.
15 Cybil Bennett
Cybil Bennett is one of the most recognizable characters in the franchise, appearing in the first game, its subsequent retellings, and even appearing in the film adaption. Despite being synonymous with the series, she is only playable in Play Novel: Silent Hill which further explores her timeline from the first game while also delving a bit more into her backstory and personality.
14 The Protagonist
With the release of Silent Hill: Book of Memories in 2012, Konami switched things up with the series by shifting the gameplay into dungeon crawling action, allowing for co-op multiplayer, and having the protagonist be entirely customizable. Players choose a class build and then adjust their protagonist's appearance to their liking.
13 The Orphans
Another overlooked game in the franchise is Silent Hill: Orphan and its sequels, Silent Hill: Mobile 2 and 3. These games were released for mobile phone devices and swapped the gameplay from third person survival horror to a point-and-click first person style. For the most part, the player controls a series of adults (Ben, Moon, Lucas, Karen, Emilie, and Vincent) who are all tied to the mysterious Sheppard's Orphanage.
12 Eric And Tina
Silent Hill joins the ranks of many other game series with a rail-shooter arcade cabinet game titled Silent Hill: The Arcade. The gameplay is a shooting gallery in which two college students, Eric and Tina, visit a certain charming lake front community and are thrust into terror and mayhem when their friends go missing.
The game revisits many enemies and areas from previous games with a fresh perspective and adds a few new characters into the series, but it is still a relatively niche game in the franchise's history.
11 The Bogeyman
It is rare in any horror game to be able to play as one of the monsters, let alone one of the main baddies. Towards the end of Silent Hill: Downpour, the player actually takes control of the hulking hooded being who has been chasing them throughout the game in a sequence that is downright haunting. Without giving away too many spoilers, the frightening gas-mask wearing beast is perhaps more symbolic than Downpour would originally have players believe.
10 Maria
Perhaps the most enigmatic and confusing character in the series is Silent Hill 2's Maria. A doppelganger of the protagonist James Sunderland's deceased wife, Maria randomly appears and disappears in an eerie and almost dream-like manner. She is playable in Silent Hill 2's prequel, Born From A Wish, where she wanders a creepy mansion and assists a strange man with his quest to resurrect his deceased daughter.
9 Mira
For all the pure terror, agony, and gut-wrenching torment the Silent Hill series puts players through, it only seems right the developers have some fun and subvert fan's expectations. Mira is the perfect character for this. She is a shiba inu dog that is typically shown in gag endings, sometimes controlling the game's events or working with aliens. She has become something of an icon in the series and finally as a playable character in iOS game, Silent Hill: The Escape.
8 Travis Grady
Silent Hill is the destination of countless lonely souls, whether they realize it or not. Travis Grady is a simple trucker at first glance, making his first appearance in Silent Hill: Origins as a working man who stumbles into the diabolical plot that sets forth the game's central events. Like many other characters, Travis is haunted by tragic family trauma that manifests itself through terrifying creatures he must overcome. He also makes a fun cameo in the film, Silent Hill: Revelation.