Introduction

Japanese version _________________US version_______________________European version

I'll do the obvious and start with the synopsis from the back of the case:

00:00 Midnight. A siren calls and a sea of red water mysteriously surrounds the mountain village Hanuda.
Slowly, a terrible force transforms the inhabitants into shibito, undead husks of their old selves, fueled
by evil and hate.

Play as one of ten characters caught in a living nightmare. You have three days to learn how their paths
intersect as they try to stay alive. Survival depends on your ability to sightjack - or the power to see
through the eyes of friends and foes. There is no one hero. There is little hope.

Will you resist the call of the Siren?

So here's how it works. Despite what it says above, we'll have to use all the characters to complete the game. Siren is fairly unique in the horror genre in that most characters are un- or lightly-armed and the enemies cannot be (permanently) killed. The stages play out totally out of order, but the date and time each one takes place is given at the beginning to help you make sense of it all. Eventually, we'll be given some leeway in selecting which stages to play, but the order is set for the first dozen or so. Everything has to be completed to see the true ending anyway, so in that sense Siren is completely linear.

The Link Navigator:

This menu shows the date, time and primary character of each stage, including movie stages. Eventually, we'll be using it to select missions ourselves. Blue is for mission stages, green is for movie stages. When a mission has been completed (or a movie seen) the box will darken. Blue boxes that are half dark and half light mean the primary objective has been completed, but not the secondary one.
Completing a mission will usually unlock another one. However, almost every stage has a secondary objective which, when completed, will unlock yet another mission. Interestingly, these secondary objectives themselves have to be unlocked - usually by picking up an item or altering the landscape in the same area but as a different character earlier in the timeline. Many of them are extremely unintuitive, and I'll admit turning to GameFAQs at least a couple of times when I first bought this game. Secondary objectives cannot be completed the first time through a stage, even if all the requirements have been fulfilled.

Other Information:
There are 100 archive items scattered throughout the game and I'll be getting all of them. Since they're all static (i.e. no videos) I'll post them in the thread as I collect them, rather than wasting time going through the menu during playthrough.

GAMEPLAY

Combat
Excepting special shibito, enemies take two revolver rounds or one rifle round to drop. The number of melee attacks required depends on the weapon, character and force of the blow. Holding down the attack button longer increases the power and range of the attack.
Kyoya, Tamon, Kei and Akira can usually withstand one revolver round or one rifle shot from a long distance. However, damage varies and sometimes they will be killed by a single shot. Most other characters usually can't survive even one bullet.

Health and Recovery
There are no recovery items in the game, but the red rain heals everything it touches (like Kyoya's bullet wound from the first stage). So, if you hang around long enough in the stage, you'll recover. Counterintuitively, it seems to work indoors as well. There is no health meter.

ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS:

What are the enemies/combat like?
The shibito are basically zombies (at first), but act and move just like humans. Most of them are armed (and even the unarmed ones can kill you), and lots of them are carrying guns. The player cannot kill the shibito, merely stun them for anywhere from about 10 seconds to about 3 minutes. The down time mainly depends on the type of shibito, but some individuals are scripted to get up faster in order to herd the player one way or another.

Why do the characters have those funny accents?
After its release in Japan, the game was, unusually, localized first in the UK before being brought to the States. The sequel never made it to the US at all. Don't worry though, the voices grow on you in time.

Why are the videos so dark?
The game is dark, so you're seeing it the same way I do when I play because there's next to no ambient light in the levels. However, everything appears brighter through sightjacked eyes...

Is it scary?
It starts out a bit slow, but if you stick with it I promise you won't be disappointed. Obviously, however, it's far more intense if you play it yourself instead of watching me.

How does it compare to other horror games like, say, Silent Hill?
It's quite a bit different. Besides the non-linear story and mission system, there's very little fighting and much more strategy. The main feature of Siren, though, is sightjacking - the mechanics of which are explained in the clip Kyoya Suda - Day 1 - 02:08 Arato, Banks of the Mana River. Each mission has a map with the beginning and end point marked, but details are few and the player's location is not shown on it. Instead, you plan your routes and timing by sightjacking the other beings around you - looking through their eyes.

How many missions are there?
About 30, not including movie stages. And almost all of them will have to be played at least twice to complete both objectives.

NEWS

It seems there's a movie in Japan as well- and it came out nearly two years ago!
UK Commercial 1 (Thanks Schildkrote!)
European flash site (Thanks HarryParachute!)
Siren Spoiler Site (Japanese)
Official Website (Japanese)
Siren Soundtrack compiled by Macabre Productions (Thanks gtincan!)