How Does Silent Hill: Ascension Fit Into the Canon and Timeline of the Iconic Horror Franchise?

The Silent Hill game franchise has long set the bar for horror storytelling on our consoles since 1999, and with their newest released interactive series, Silent Hill: Ascension, does the series fit into the canon and timeline of the franchise? Here's everything you have to know.

The Silent Hill Timeline Explained

Credit: Genvid Entertainment

Silent Hill, like many other major franchises in their respective genres and media platforms, has its own canon story and timeline to consider.

Silent Hill used to be occupied by the Native Americans. They named it 'The Place of the Silent Spirits', given that the town was quite literally considered to be a sacred place full of spirits.

These spirits came from their deceased loved ones and those who have occupied the Earth before they did.

As the Book of Lost Memories described Silent Hill: "There were others who came before. In those days, this town went by another name. But that name is now hopelessly lost in the veils of time. All we know is that there was another name and that for some reason, the town was once abandoned by its residents."

That is until the Europe colonizers forced the former to abandon their homeland after many of their people were slaughtered. But even before the settlers arrived, the town seemed to possess its mysterious power.

Besides, while the franchise did set up its timeline, gamers shouldn't brush off the fact that each story comes with a different protagonist.

So, whether or not you decide to watch or play the gameplay by order of the timeline, the lore would still become more prominent.

Here's a little overview of the entire timeline arrangement for the Silent Hill game franchise, by the setting of time in each game:

• Silent Hill Origins (2007) - Late 1970s
• Silent Hill (1999) - 1983
• Silent Hill 2 (2001) - 1993
• Silent Hill: The Arcade (2007) - 1993
• Silent Hill 3 (2003) - 2000
• Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004) - Around 2003-2004
• Silent Hill: Downpour (2012) - 2004
• Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008) - 2007
• Silent Hill: Book of Memories (2012) - 2010
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009) - 2008

The only exemption to this list is that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is technically a whole new timeline. It's technically a remake of Silent Hill where it's starting an alternate chronology.

Of course, there's also the other remake, for Silent Hill 2 it was Silent Hill f, which comes from a different timeline, as well.

Now that we've established this, here's where Silent Hill: Ascension takes place in the canon timeline of the franchise.

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Is the Silent Hill: Ascension Canon in the Franchise?

Silent Hill: Ascension has yet to be confirmed when the interactive series takes place and if it is even a part of the established canon story and timeline of the franchise.

Is Silent Hill: Ascension a Sequel, a Spinoff, or a Reboot?

Although the interactive series does take the familiar elements of the digitally animated horror series, the new format of having multiplayer decide the fate of the characters in the endgame is what spices up its uplifting series compared to its predecessors.

It remains to be seen where and when exactly Silent Hill: Ascension takes place on the timeline since it just started streaming this October 31st.

It would be difficult to pinpoint its placement since the interactive streaming experience is a "live" streaming event, meaning it is still a current ongoing storyline for the global audience.

READ NEXT: How Silent Hill: Ascension, The Interactive Series Works

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