Why do the Japanese Silent Hill covers look different from the American ones?
Because the two regions sold the same nightmare in opposite designs.
No shared cover programme ever existed. Konami's American and Japanese arms packaged Silent Hill independently, and they reached opposite conclusions about what sells horror: America put a person on the box; Japan put a design on it. The evidence is the covers themselves, side by side below.
THE TWO GAMES
Portrait versus design, twiceSilent Hill, 1999
Character cover versus warning sign
The first game set the pattern. America sold the man; Japan sold the map he is lost in.
Silent Hill 2, 2001
Face versus architecture
Twice in a row, the same split. American Silent Hill covers are portraits emerging from fog; Japanese ones are graphic compositions that withhold the people entirely.