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Japanese horror has long been held in regard for its use of spirituality, agonizing tension-building, and social subversion to inspire abject dread in its audience. The original 1998 version of The Ring, Ryu Murakami’s Audition, and pretty much anything ever produced by Junji Ito are all cases in point. Whereas western horror had a penchant for slashers, Japan was always the master of atmosphere. Nowadays, the distinction between the two isn’t so clear, as inspiration has continually cross-pollinated, more so from east to west. Silent Hill has traditionally straddled the two spheres, blending the visceral with the implicit. Silent Hill f can be considered a modest departure from this formula, as NeoBards drags the iconic series away from its western trappings, and back to Japan with plenty of kicking and screaming involved. Speaking to PCGamesN at Gamescom, series producer Motoi Okamoto and game director Ai-Yang explain why it’s bringing Silent Hill home.
Silent Hill f is fundamentally tied to the Japanese horror trope of finding terror in beauty, and we’ve already seen plenty of it reflected in its monsters, especially the upcoming PC game’s sakura-coated take on Insane Cancer. The golden-eyed, fox mask-wearing man from the Gamescom trailer is, clearly, too hot to be trusted. It’s classic Japanese horror in execution, placing the hapless Hinako into a dire, supernatural scenario born from her own traumatic machinations. It may have the aesthetic feel of some of the other best horror games to come from the region such as Kuon, but its grounding is classic Silent Hill.
After Bloober Team pulled out all the stops with its Silent Hill 2 remake, the bar for execution has never been higher for the series. Okamoto and Yang told us that the pressure to get Silent Hill f right is very much on them, but the pair are confident that they’ll deliver the goods. Hinako’s plight could not be further removed from James Sunderland’s, both in sense of time and place, and this, they hope, will keep the fundamental Silent Hill experience fresh.
“When it comes to previous installments for Silent Hill,” the duo begin, “for the most part, all the games either took place at, or adjacent to Silent Hill. The games all followed the same formula, so they had a similar feel. While we understand that fans will definitely play them regardless, we felt that following the formula too closely would start causing the experience to feel stale, which is the reason why we decided to try and mix up the formula.
“We reinvigorated it by trying out new things, and one of the ways [we’ve done this] was to shift up the setting, which is why we have players go to Germany for The Short Message. For this game, the way we approached it was to try out something new by providing players with the Japanese setting.
“Something which is a really big boon for us in general is that Silent Hill is really all about the atmosphere, and the tension of not knowing if something is quite right or not; just feeling ‘off.’ And with the new Japanese setting, what we’re able to do, which I like to call ‘virtual tourism,’ will have you going to places that you understand might be a little bit different.
“For instance, the school in Silent Hill f. Everybody knows what a school is, but a Japanese school? How does that work? How is it laid out? It’s like, ‘I understand what this is, I understand what goes on here, but there’s something a little bit off for me, culturally, and also time-wise.’ So not only are you stepping out of your cultural safe space, but also out of time, and that adds extra layers to that feeling of, ‘is this what it’s supposed to be? Is something a little bit off?’ This, for us, was a very big reason for this setting.”
Though we’ll have to wait for the Silent Hill f release date to arrive to fully ascertain if the devs have hit the mark, I’ve been thoroughly impressed by everything I’ve seen so far. We even got a look at its gorgeous map at Gamescom. But remember, therein lies plenty challenging horrors to defeat, even though f isn’t a soulslike.
In the meantime, check out more of the best story games and best survival games that will have you gripping the edge of your best gaming mouse.
How are you feeling about Silent Hill f’s 1960s Ebisugaoka setting so far? Sneak into our community Discord server and let us know.
Additional reporting by Lauren Bergin at Gamescom.
