After delivering one in every of final 12 months’s greatest video games with Silent Hill 2, Konami appears intent on conserving its resurgent psychological horror franchise’s momentum going. Silent Hill f, the collection’ subsequent mainline entry – and its first new entry in over a decade – was formally introduced in October 2022, and now that the aforementioned Bloober Staff remake is out of the best way, all consideration has shifted to f. At a latest Silent Hill Transmission, Konami and co-developer NeoBards Leisure provided one other have a look at the upcoming title with a brand-new trailer, whereas additionally revealing a bunch of recent particulars on its story, setting, and extra. Right here, we’re going to go over a few of these particulars.
SETTING
Each sport within the Silent Hill collection up so far has been set within the eponymous fictional American city, however Silent Hill f is doing issues in a different way. As beforehand confirmed, in a collection first, the sport is ready in Japan, in a distant mountainous city within the Nineteen Sixties. Named Ebisugaoka, the sport’s setting is predicated on Kanayama, an actual village in Japan. As defined by collection producer Motoi Okamoto in the course of the latest Transmission, the sport’s growth crew traveled to Kanayama to take reference photos and report sounds of day-to-day life within the village so they may recreate it in as a lot element as attainable. In accordance with author Ryukishi07, Kanayama served as the proper inspiration for Silent Hill f’s setting as a result of he may “actually really feel its historical past” when he visited it and was fascinated by its “labyrinthine alleyways.”
PROTAGONIST
We don’t know a lot about Silent Hill f’s wider solid of characters, however pertinent particulars have at the least been revealed on the sport’s protagonist- Shimizu Hinako, a teenage lady who, in response to the sport’s official web site, was “cheerful and energetic as a baby” however has “grown to change into rather more restrained” as she “struggles beneath the stress of expectations from her pals, household, and society.”
Curiously, it additionally appears like she’s going to have larger company within the story than the collection’ observe report would counsel. Talking in the course of the latest Transmission, Ryukishi07 mentioned, “Up till now, I’ve performed each Silent Hill sport, and one factor I seen is that lots of the feminine characters are put by means of a substantial amount of struggling all through their lives, why is why I assumed if this sport goes to have a feminine protagonist, then I need her to have the ability to make her personal choices for higher or for worse amid her struggles. I don’t need her to be simply pulled alongside by the story, however to seek out her personal solutions. That was the form of protagonist, or at the least, the form of story that I needed to create.”
STORY
Now that we all know extra about Silent Hill f’s setting and protagonist- what ought to we anticipate from its story? Effectively, it’s not going to be a picnic, which you will have guessed. As the sport begins, the city of Ebisugaoka is a reasonably uneventful one, and Hinako’s personal life doesn’t have a lot to face out both. Issues shortly descend into insanity, nevertheless, when a deep, ominous fog rolls in and covers the whole city, and consequently, is totally remodeled. Locations that have been as soon as acquainted to Hinako have been twisted past recognition by unspeakable and nightmarish risks, and it now falls to her to navigate Ebisugaoka as a way to survive – and perhaps even try to save her dwelling.
JAPANESE HORROR
Setting the sport in Japan was clearly a really deliberate selection on Konami’s half, with the builders emphasizing in the course of the latest showcase simply how closely Silent Hill f will lean into Japanese horror and themes. Sequence producer Motoi Okamoto defined, “Whereas Silent Hill f retains the collection’ core components of psychological horror, we challenged ourselves by setting the sport in Japan and leaning into these themes.”
He added later, “I consider the Silent Hill collection was born out of mixing the essence of Japanese horror with the essence of western horror. Nonetheless, because it was primarily based within the West for the longest time, it felt just like the Japanese affect was fading. And so, this made us suppose, ‘what if we go in the other way and make it one hundred pc Japanese horror?’ And this sport is the end result.”
CENTRAL THEME
One thing that the latest Transmission hammered dwelling greater than as soon as was Silent Hill f’s central theme, which, in response to sOkamoto, is “discovering the wonder in terror,” which, in flip, knowledgeable different elements of the expertise as effectively, from story to artwork design (extra on that in a bit). Okamoto defined, “A noticeable characteristic of Japanese horror is the concept that terror could be discovered inside magnificence. When one thing turns into too immensely stunning and ideal, it as a substitute turns into deeply unsettling. And so, gamers will expertise this world by means of the eyes of a younger lady who’s confronted with a wonderful but terrifying choice. We would like them to expertise how these contrasting components co-exist.”
STILL FOCUSED ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
Many will most likely have puzzled why a Silent Hill sport that isn’t set within the city of Silent Hill is even known as that, and apparently sufficient, that was a query that author Ryukishi07 posed as well- earlier than arriving on the conclusion {that a} concentrate on psychological horror to create unsettling dread is what’s central to the franchise’s DNA. That’s one thing that Silent Hill f goes to proceed specializing in. In accordance with the author, the sport will stay true to the collection’ custom of “portraying characters’ struggles with the evil inside themselves, sin, discontent, and battle in a visually placing means.”
ART STYLE AND MONSTER DESIGN
Konami confirmed again in 2022 that Japanese artist kera would function the lead artwork and creature designer on Silent Hill f, and in the course of the latest Transmission, we acquired to listen to extra on what that’ll entail. In accordance with kera, the core concept was to create one thing that felt distinctive and consistent with the sport’s concentrate on Japanese horror and its central theme of mixing magnificence and terror. The artist says, “I needed to contemplate every thing that’s are available in Silent Hill earlier than, and work out methods to take this sport in a unique course, however nonetheless be Silent Hill. It may not be the very same blood-smeared, rustic surroundings, however I sincerely hope you’ll get pleasure from our imaginative and prescient and the world we’ve created.”
MUSIC
Akira Yamaoka has been composing Silent Hill music for just about so long as Silent Hill has been round, and certain sufficient, he’s returning to do the identical for Silent Hill f as effectively. Particularly, he can be composing the sport’s Fog World music, whereas the Otherworld music is being composed by Kensuke Inage. In the meantime, Japanese musicians dai and xaki – who’ve labored with Ryukishi07 on his previous tasks – have additionally contributed.
PC REQUIREMENTS
We haven’t seen gameplay footage for Silent Hill f but, nor do we all know when precisely will probably be releasing, however apparently sufficient, Konami has already revealed its PC necessities. On minimal settings, to run the sport at 720p and 30 FPS, you’ll want both an i5-8400 or a Ryzen 5 2600, together with both a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti or a Radeon RX 5700. In the meantime, for advisable settings (which is able to run at 60 FPS in Efficiency Mode and 30 FPS in High quality Mode), you’ll want both an i7-9700 or a Ryzen 5 5500, and both a GeForce RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT. On minimal, an SSD is advisable, whereas on advisable settings, one is critical. On both setting, you’ll additionally want 16 GB of RAM and about 50 GB of free cupboard space.
PLATFORMS
Silent Hill 2 might have launched as a PS5 console unique final 12 months, however Silent Hill f isn’t following go well with. Konami has confirmed that each time it’s the sport releases, will probably be accessible on PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC. On the latter, you will discover it on Steam, Epic Video games Retailer, and Home windows Retailer. The sport can also be accessible to be wishlisted on all platforms.
