Siren coming to PSN Jan. 15, studio exec reflects on development

Siren, the PlayStation 2 horror game from the Project Siren team at Sony Japan, will be released on PlayStation Network as a PlayStation 2 Classic on Jan. 15, and the former head of the development team discussed its development on the PlayStation Blog.

According to Takafumi Fujisawa, executive producer on Siren at Project Siren and the former vice president of Sony Worldwide Studios, Project Siren was "on a mission to formulate a form of fear or horror that would resonate with an audience regardless of their cultural background, and to deliver that from a very intentionally Japanese perspective."

Fujisawa highlighted three elements central to delivering a uniquely Japanese experience with worldwide appeal in Siren: a feeling of hopelessness from seeing people close to you turn into enemies; the "dreadful or creepy feeling" that comes from seeing yourself through others' eyes; and the village in the Japanese mountains that served as the game's setting.

His favorite memory from working on the Siren franchise was being approached by director Sam Raimi, whom Fujisawa referred to as "the master of horror movies," to make a Siren movie. Raimi bought the film rights in 2006, although the only Siren movie to date is the 2006 Japanese film Forbidden Siren.

Siren was originally released in North America in 2004.