While the Silent Hill franchise started strong, and has since become a beleaguered series, there’s still hope that the newest entry will right the ship. Unfortunately, Silent Hill: Downpour will do so without many of the enemies that made the earlier games so frighteningly memorable. In an interview with the PlayStation Blog, Downpour producer Devin Shatsky revealed that classic monsters like Pyramid Head or the Puppet Nurses wouldn’t be returning this time around. “In Silent Hill games, the monsters are directly tied to the protagonist’s background, so the enemies in this game all have meaning to Murphy,” Shatsky said. “We won’t be shoehorning in Pyramid Head or the nurses just to do it. It wouldn’t make sense.”

Shatsky elaborated a bit more on the reasoning behind the decision, adding, “That could be seen as a mistake of Homecoming — the developers paid fan service by introducing monsters from previous games, but it didn’t really make sense. The core fans called us out on that, and rightfully so.” Just so we’re clear, the same fans that Konami included these iconic creatures for subsequently called Konami out for doing that very thing. All is not lost though. Fans hoping to see some of that famous Silent Hill atmosphere shouldn’t worry too much though. Shatsky gladly reports that fog will play a big part in the new game. So at least you’ve got the fog to look forward to.

SOURCE: Silent Hill: Downpour comes full circle on PS3 [PlayStation Blog]