Silent Hill 4: The Room question [spoilers I'd assume]

I’m about half way through the game. I’m back in the subway and being tormented by the female ghost with long hair. I have a Sword of Obedience, and as I understand it, I should be able to knock the ghost down and pin her with the sword. So how do I do that?

I can knock her down with my shovel or something, but when I hit my square button to call up my items, then select the sword and hit the square button again, nothing happens. Is there another way to use the sword I’m not understanding?

I haven’t gotten around to buying the game yet, but I’ve played all of the other game sin the series (I’m actually in the middle of SH2 right now), so I do have a suggestion.

It sounds to me like you’re “equipping” this sword and trying to use it like a regular weapon? Is there an option to simply “use” the sword, like a you would an item? Perhaps using it, not attacking with it, is the solution- I’ve seen it happen with other items in the series.

Please let me know how it turns out.

-j

oops- I meant to add, in case you don’t already go there, that www.gamefaqs.com usually has good walkthroughs, and if you just do a ctrl-F search on the text for the name of your sword, you can probably get the info you want without further spoilers.

Added before submitting:

I just checked there, and the first walkthrough I looked at wasn’t very helpful. It simply said to use the Sword of Obedience after knocking down a ghost to pin it to the ground. There was mention of ghosts that you may need to use silver bullets on- perhaps this is one of them?

Sorry for being so little help.

First thing is, you can only pin the ghosts after you’ve beat the living crap out of them. Most of the time, you knock them down and they just get right back up again. Nope. Keep knocking them down. Depending on which kind of ghost it is, after two or three trips to the floor they’ll stay down for a good 2-3 seconds. That’s your chance. Stand near the ghost, select the Sword of Obedience and hit the ‘X’ button in the default control scheme. Not attack, but “use”.

Good luck.

Oh, you’re playing the PS2 version. Yeah, probably the square button. Whatever “use/equip” is, not “attack”. But they do have to be beat down a few times. That’s the trick you might be missing.

Ok, this all makes more sense now. Thanks for the advice.

Yes, I’m using the PS2 version, and I do check out gamefaqs.com when I get really stuck, but the faqs for this game aren’t very helpful.

erislover, that’s what I was missing, and it explains a strange “glitch” I thought had occurred. I had beaten down the ghost at least 5-6 times, each time trying to use the Sword of Obedience with no effect. When my health was down to about two bars I said “forget it,” put the controller down & went to get something to eat. I expected game over & to come back to the “continue” screen, but when I came back 5 minutes later the ghost was on the ground, not moving. I figured that wasn’t anything I did, so good ol’ Eileen must have stood there smacking the ghost down with her purse. Who knew? My health was so low at that point though, I didn’t try using the Sword then. I restarted the level and finally made it through without using the Sword. I suppose I could go back & try it again.

Thing is now, I’m not sure I’m going to finish the game. It was just a rental, and it appears I’m going to spend the rest of the game being chased by the guy in the coat. I don’t like games where you’re constantly running from something invincible.