verdict
Silent Hill f skillfully reinterprets the iconic horror series for modern audiences, serving as both an emotional homage and a powerful vision for Silent Hill’s future.
Silent Hill 2 is, without a doubt, the most important and famous game in the series. As a longtime fan, I wasn’t sold entirely in the 2024 remake. Also, I’m not excited about Bloober’s future original take. Silent Hill f But it was different. I felt good The new entry is the best way to rekindle Silent Hill for a modern audience, and did not tamper with the first three games that were so loved. I was right.
Silent Hill F embodies everything in the series, especially the Silent Hill 2 – without trying to copy it for frames. Its latest graphics and design sensibility remains true to the series’ best nature, but often complements it rather than undermining what developer Neobird can do. Silent Hill F is an instant classic that burns itself to Canon in a way that many other people couldn’t.
We sit at a dinner table with our family in a small town in Japan in the 1960s, opening a cutscene of teenage hero Hinako. There’s a nervous atmosphere. Her father is abusive, her mother is ti-ill, her slut is rebellious, and we soon taste what this young girl is facing.
The title screen continues, and these few seconds bully what you can expect from Silent Hill F. The creepy nostalgic melody tells you without any doubt that you are actually playing the Silent Hill game. Meanwhile, the Nohkan flute (or similar high-pitched instrument) and Japanese lyrics gracefully blend the series’ history with new settings.
From here you set out on your first quest: “Head Down the Mountain.” Again, this mediocre task mimics the opening of Silent Hill 2. Hinako follows in his footsteps as James Sunderland descends into town. In just a few minutes, it’s clear that we’re already — at least — looking for a classy homage.
That said, I didn’t take it to f immediately. The wind is blowing the headset, perhaps even rain, but the trees and leaves around you are oddly static. Hinako moves awkwardly as she stomps the hills, and feels clunky in that she puts me off after a cleverly executed intro. But don’t discourage those first impressions from continuing into the fog. Despite some hard animations – I’m watching you, Shu – Silent Hill f slowly blooms into beautiful things.
Upon arriving at the bottom of the mountain, you arrive at ebisugaoka, a Japanese town in the Showa era, where Hira and her high school friends live. Naturally, ebisugaoka looks very different from Silent Hill, but it’s still familiar to explore. I don’t pick up the map. Instead, exploring more of Hinako’s distorted homeland will fill it up. Most of the townspeople are gone, trucks and other debris block your path, many doors are locked in tight, and it feels like the complex alleys of ebisugaoka are almost imposed on the map of Silent Hill. Even among the monsters, I felt like I was at home.
Rather than another world as we know, Silent Hill F’s secondary location is known as a dark shrine, with a completely different style and gameplay. This is not a bad thing. As I’ve detailed in my review of the Sh2 Remake, one of my main grapples in the Silent Hill 2 Remake is that its latest graphics shine too brightly in the otherworldly grotesque environment. If PS2-ERA graphics are fully lending to the SH2’s otherworldly unpleasant claustrophobic vibe, then the Silent Hill F equivalent is a luxurious space that is volatile for a variety of reasons instead.
The dark shrine is not simply an alternative version of evisugaoka, but when you sleep or knock out, Hinako enters a dream world. It’s as beautiful as it’s unforgettable. The outdoor area is formed primarily of bridges surrounded by water and mist, but its interior is primarily lined with golden fox statues and rooms dedicated to shrines and talismans. Hiki is another world where fear of the story unfolds. The God of Inari, depicted in Japanese culture by Fox Fox, is a recurring theme here, representing shapeshifts or, more precisely, transformations.
But it’s not the case with dark shrines. Look Like ebisugaoka, that doesn’t mean that it’s not the other half of the same coin. The gradually worsening town represents the present decline in Hinata’s real world, while the dark shrines show fear of the future. This is the story of a quiet hill with a new protagonist. A new fear. A new threat. A new world.
Before its release, I knew that Neobard was leaning towards the plundering of Japan’s terror, the “fear of beauty.” This thread interweaves the entire Silent Hill F, not just Hinako’s own journey, but also in both the designs of the dark shrine palace and the floral designs that corrupt ebisugaoka. What makes this even more poetic is the fact that monsters, especially enemies like mannequins, change as the game progresses and the infection gets worse. The more “infected” they are, the more beautiful they grow and they become stricter. Without giving too much, this appears to represent resilience, especially the resilience of women in the game. The more these beautiful women’s forms endure, the more they will suffer and survive, and they will become stronger.
This was not lost to me as a huge fan of Ito. I worked on almost every silent hill game before F, so it was a shame to hear that mannequins, nurses and pyramid head creators wouldn’t be involved here. While I’m keeping up, you’d think he was a huge asset in Silent Hill F, especially looking at his Sakurahead designs from a short message, an artist known as Kera did an amazing job on his behalf. Kera’s new take on mannequins and slow descent into corruption has led to childhood toys mutating into monsters, but one of the most memorable enemies portrays the fear of motherhood in a horrifying way.
Speaking of monsters, I’m very pleased with the battles in horror games. All enemy types have a unique move set to learn from quick slashes and wide heavy swings to ranged attacks that charge. The further you go, the more frequently boss battles have the toughest challenges, so you have to face more enemies at once. Sometimes it’s harder to avoid monsters than in previous games and force you to get into combat encounters you might have wanted to avoid. To reduce this, weapons and health items are popular all over ebisugaoka. Some consumables can be exchanged for faith with save points, so they can also be used on some consumables. This can be used to upgrade health, stamina and other attributes.
One of the returning members of Team Silent is Akira Yamaoka, a sound designer and composer Yamaoka. Newcomers like Kera may have done an incredible job with monster designs, but when you ask Yamoka to compose the soundtrack for ebisugaoka, it feels like it’s necessary. With every step, every sound, and every musical stab, it reminds me once again that this is a real deal. That said, Akira is also joined by Kense’s Inage due to the sounds and music of the dark shrine. I initially questioned the decision to have another composer from another world. But with my previous thoughts in mind as to why dark shrines become completely independent places, it makes perfect sense for them to give different sounds.
As important as setting and combat, is the puzzle where Silent Hill F Nail is a nail. There are a few simple teasers. Some require real thoughts, especially in hard mode. They are all new and seamlessly associated with ongoing stories, but they once again feel the work with the most memorable moments from Silent Hill’s past.
One of the only complaints I have is that Silent Hill F is probably not as subtle as some of its predecessors. The series is well known for its all-talk and interpretation, but much of Hinako’s fear and dislike is thickly placed. The story, written by first-time SH writer Ryukishi07, maintains the mystery in the back half, but leave almost the imagination behind, “The road twists and turns. It’s like walking through your head.” We’re not in Silent Hill, but the abundant fog is thrown at both evisugaoka and dark shrines, but the literal “fog monster” is a bit Too much On the nose.
There is also the issue of saving your progress. Desperately searching for dedicated savepoints, or navigating how to go back to one, is part of a silent hill experience that is as classic as fog. Sadly, Neobird leaves this in the past by adding frequent autosaves that can’t be turned off. But taking leaves from books like Souls, Hokora Shrines are also the place where you level up or trade items, making them an essential feature even if you don’t have to rely on them to store them.
Perhaps F’s more direct storytelling and autosaube are part of a conscious decision to bring the series up to date in an era when the attention span is rather low. Despite the setting of the 60s, it addresses some very realistic current issues, including patriarchy, female oppression, and mental health. After all, this is Silent Hill.
Creating a new game in your beloved series means that comparisons with previous entries are inevitable and often necessary. If you use the name Silent Hill, you must do justice. There was doubt that Neobird could win that position in Silent Hill history, but F really beat me. This is a great homage to the entire series, and at the same time shows a strong vision for its future.
