Silent Hill f Will Haunt You Long After You Stop Playing

The release of Silent Hill f is just around the corner for those of you who haven’t purchased early access to the game. If you’ve been itching to dive into Konami and NeoBards Entertainment’s latest addition to the beloved franchise, we’re here to tell you that it’s every bit as terrifying and thrilling as the franchise’s best.

If you’ve checked out our review of the game, you know that it’s a return to form for Konami, and a worthy addition to the Silent Hill franchise’s illustrious ranks. But I think that Silent Hill f is a worthy addition to the survival horror genre itself, bringing a chilling, sinister vibe to Ebisugoaka that I’m yet to shake off despite taking on another more light-hearted title after I rolled the credits on it.

What makes it such a masterclass in horror? What sets it apart from its own peers in the franchise and the genre at large? That’s what we’re about to dive into. If you’re worried about spoilers ahead of your own playthrough of the game, have no fear (pun intended). We’ve got you covered!

Through The Eyes Of Tainted Innocence

Our first port of call has to be Hinako, and her terrifying trek through the new world that Konami and NeoBards have painstakingly crafted. We know that she comes from a troubled home, a young woman growing up in a society that is as oppressive as an alcoholic father whose behaviour towards her leaves her cynical and jaded.

That colored worldview translates very well to the way Silent Hill f creates tension through her point of view. Hinako doesn’t trust very easily, although she may not be as aware of that facet of her personality as she would like. As a title that’s very much focused on the psychological aspect of its scares, Hinako is the perfect vehicle for its examination of complex themes, and her age and emotional turmoil are a crucial part of how we, the players, experience her harrowing tale.

We’re privy to the friction she faces in her personal life from the very first hour of the game, gaining an insight into how her rebellious nature has affected her interpersonal relationships despite her best intentions. From her father to her friends, her caring nature often collides with her determination to change things for the better, creating an inner conflict that Ryukishi07 has cleverly used to bring chills and thrills to the Silent Hill experience.

It’s evident in the way she often sees important reminders of her childhood at crucial narrative points, and in the way she either takes them in stride or ignores them as she goes on towards her next goal. It’s evident in the discoveries she makes about how she’s perceived by her friends, and the resulting chaos that ensues from those discoveries.

Is it the monsters she’s most afraid of, or the perceptions of those around her? Could death at the hands of the monsters she encounters be a better alternative to being betrayed by those she holds dear in her troubled life, or betraying them in turn? These are questions that haunt you as you play the game, and are ones that constantly underline the experience, never making things too obvious but subtly nudging your own mind towards its darkest corners.

There’s a solid argument to be made in favor of the entire thing playing out in her head, a trauma that has manifested itself in a way that only teenage angst could manage in an already troubled mind. Hinako’s innocence, or the lack thereof, is an important facet of Silent Hill f’s horror, working in tandem with the game’s other aspects to form a very cohesive and terrifying whole. The game forces us to share her perspective as we explore Ebisugaoka, the next important component of its outstanding presentation of its horror elements.

Silent Hill With A Japanese Touch

If Hinako and her inner turmoil carry the weight of Silent Hill f’s psychological horror, it’s the town of Ebisugaoka that brings the physical part of the experience to fruition. The fog that permeates its deserted streets and tight corners makes the tension feel like an almost tangible part of the experience.

We commented on how Konami’s focus on a “100% Japanese horror” experience has been realized very well in the new game. Ebisugaoka is very much a part of that realization, with a painstakingly crafted environment that bears so many little details and clues as to what’s coming next without actually giving any of it away.

Uncertainty becomes Hinako’s constant companion as she carefully navigates its streets, with the nagging feeling that the town itself is out to get you, being something that’s very hard to shake off as you make your way through its desolation. Of course, the mysterious red mist and the monstrosities it has created are also a factor, but they’re to be expected in a Silent Hill title.

However, just as Silent Hill and its denizens were a part of many of the franchise’s greatest hits, the world that Hinako explores is a major part of why the franchise stands out among its peers. It’s deliciously creepy in a way that can be quite hard to satisfactorily explain, while there could be something important to discover around every corner – or the possibility of a gruesome death.

We found ourselves constantly slowing down to a careful walk, every step through the devastated town feeling like an exercise in controlling our anxiety and anticipation of something jumping out at us. But that wasn’t the only part of why Ebisugaoka had us turning on as many lights as we could in our gaming rooms.

It’s in the little discoveries that we made in its locales. For instance, a note about scarecrows in a rice field had us almost certain that there was going to be an attack coming our way, considering that the said field was full of them. But it didn’t come immediately.

Once back in the field, we tried to regulate our breathing and approach each scarecrow as cautiously as we could, trying to identify which ones would try to rip us apart. It’s a testament to Konami’s talent that we guessed wrong on nearly every instance, and the whole thing felt like an eternity despite it being only a short while in the real world. The town of Ebisugaoka was just as effective at making us feel like we weren’t welcome, just as Hinako’s suspicion and cynicism made us feel like unwelcome strangers in her mind. But that’s not all, not by a long shot.

The Devil In The Details

The game’s new combat system quickly sets aside any concerns that it was going to make things easier for Hinako or for us. She wields her weapons with desperate inelegance, her fear a palpable part of the combat loop. The Focus and Sanity meters are an important part of why Silent Hill f’s enemies are formidable opponents, giving them the advantage instead of the other way around.

Hinako isn’t invincible and is, in fact, quite easy to take down if you get too careless. The enemies delay their strikes, keeping you anxiously guessing about the right moment to dodge or parry their attacks. The game forces you to make mistakes and punishes you for them in a way that can have you being the reason that your best laid plans never come to fruition. Combat in this title is another factor in how it successfully remains terrifying from start to finish.

And let’s not forget its audio design. While the English voice cast is indeed adequate and conveying a range of emotions, I’ve always personally preferred subs over dubs, and the Japanese voice actors really sell the terror that their characters are facing, and the fear of a grisly fate really comes through on that front.

The music and audio design is another highlight of the experience, and the soundtrack is a major part of why Silent Hill f hits as hard as it does on the horror front. From the absolutely creepy noises that emanate from every enemy you face to the subtle soundtrack that elevates the tension that the narrative and visuals convey, the game’s audio gives you many reasons to be rightly afraid of what you’re likely to face around each corner.

There’s also a melancholy to the game’s quiet moments, a sort of lament aimed at the life Hinako could have had if she could just get along with the world around her. That melancholy contrasts well with the terror she feels and is forced to overcome time and time again. It’s a level of detail that is astounding and bone-chilling, all at once.

All of these factors really come together in the dark world, which Hinako visits from time to time after a particularly significant moment of her time in Ebisugaoka. It’s where everything we’ve outlined comes together to bring the Silent Hill experience that we know and love to the spotlight, and it does so with style. Its narrative significance further underscores that sentiment, and it’s where you’re going to see the psychological horrors of Hinako’s harrowing adventure play out, and rightly so.

All in all, it isn’t one of these elements or another that makes Silent Hill f such a terrifying trip through a teenager’s troubles. It’s in the way they all fall in place together, time and time again, to sustain the tension from its scary moments, and lend a haunting melancholy to its tragic reveals that make this one our personal favorite in the horror genre.

It’s an experience that stays with you long after you’ve put down your controller, and is probably going to be at the back of our minds long after we’ve moved on to other titles. And that is the game’s biggest strength, and why its horror clicks in the way that it does.

Now, excuse us while we get back to Ebisugaoka and try to unlock another ending and make sense of its troubling tale.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.