In 1960s Japan, Shimizu Hinako’s secluded town of Ebisugaoka is consumed by a sudden fog, transforming her home into a haunting nightmare. As the town falls silent and the fog thickens, Hinako must navigate the twisted paths of Ebisugaoka, solving complex puzzles and confronting grotesque monsters to survive.
Developed by: Konami Digital Entertainment
Played on: PlayStation 5
Length: 10 hours
A review key was provided by Soft Source Publishing.
Silent Hill f is the latest original story and standalone game to come out of the Silent Hill franchise, and to that I say: finally. Not just because I’ve been dying to get into the franchise, but because I didn’t want to slog through games that came out when I was in kindergarten, or settle for remakes that can only attempt to recapture the nostalgia of the original titles. Finally, there’s a game for a new generation of Silent Hill fans — and it helps that it’s really, really good.
Set in the secluded town of Ebisugaoka, where the only thing more rampant than the town’s worship of an ancient fox god is its patriarchal misogyny, Silent Hill f brings us a classic horror setting that would feel tired if not for its masterful presentation. Even in its opening moments, the game weaves together a haunting soundtrack by Silent Hill veteran composer Akira Yamaoka, and eerily beautiful environments that leave us itching to explore. And with the clock ticking down on ten hours per playthrough, Silent Hill f wastes no time putting a metal pipe in your hand and leaving you to fend for yourself.
While the franchise is generally known for its “everyman” protagonists, in an attempt to instill a sense of helplessness, our newest main character Shimizu Hinako is a tomboy and high school athlete with enough female rage to power a jet engine. For better or for worse, this results in a heavy emphasis on combat which makes the choice of game difficulty one that you shouldn’t take lightly.
By default, the game recommends Story Mode combat and Hard Mode puzzles for the traditional Silent Hill experience, and I’d recommend taking it for your first playthrough. It is an unnecessarily confusing system, but generally we found that Story Mode presents a perfect amount of challenge on par with Hard Mode in most games, while Hard Mode is made for the players who really enjoy suffering. Meanwhile, puzzle difficulty is manageable on the recommended Hard Mode, but can always be bumped down to Story Mode if you prefer to do a little less thinking.
There are arguments to be made about player agency taking the horror away from horror games, but for the most part, I grew to appreciate the game design choices made here. The melee combat system is simple to master but hard on your resources, which makes map exploration a constant gamble of risk and reward; and while the game struggles to balance fun and frustration when fighting more than one monster at a time, there’s plenty of room to play smart and isolate enemies or even choose to avoid fights entirely.
But as a sucker for a good meta-narrative, it’s hard for me to find fault in a game that manages to tie its combat system to its character storytelling. It is simply natural for a character like Shimizu Hinako to go into every fight swinging, something that is emphasised time and time again in the main story, and it builds up to one of the most satisfying narrative arcs I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.
Konami made their smartest move when they decided to hire Ryukishi07, best known for his cult horror visual novel Higurashi When They Cry, to write for this game. The result is a narrative that takes full advantage of the Silent Hill format to explore a young woman’s trauma to a deeply disturbing extent. Whether through viscera-heavy cutscenes, heart-wrenching vocal and acting performances, or the many lore notes that build out the world and its characters, Silent Hill f will easily exceed and raise your expectations for every game from this franchise moving forward.
It is almost a shame that the first ending for Silent Hill f, and likely where most people will stop playing the game, ends on such an abrupt note. While it is meant to encourage players to pick up New Game+ to unlock better endings, each ending also comes with a list of prerequisites that you have to keep track of throughout your ten hour playthrough. Is the writing good enough for me to attempt that someday? Perhaps. But for now, it’s just not enough for me to head into another ten hours of gameplay with zero variance in combat.
Or, well, there’s always Youtube.
Verdict: The F stands for Finally
If you’ve never played a Silent Hill game before in your life, Silent Hill f is where you want to begin. Anchored by incredible writing from cult horror author Ryukishi07, this newest entry presents a sickening exploration into a young woman’s trauma that will make you believe that real horror games are back; even if its combat-heavy gameplay may be a hit or miss with certain players.
