Silent Hill has at all times been greater than “monsters within the fog.” At its finest, the collection has dug into deeply private and cultural traumas, weaving psychological horror into supernatural nightmares. With Silent Hill f, the franchise takes its boldest departure but, leaving the misty American city behind for Nineteen Sixties Japan.
What may have been a dangerous reinvention as an alternative looks like a strikingly assured new department of the collection that balances the unsettling environment the franchise is thought for, with a story rooted in Japanese folklore, cultural historical past, and the painful struggles of household and societal expectations.
A Story of Trauma and Expectation
On the coronary heart of Silent Hill f is Hinako, a teenage woman caught within the suffocating expectations of her household and neighborhood. Her story tackles themes not often explored so instantly in big-budget horror video games. The narrative makes no effort to cover its sharp critique of organized marriages, exhibiting how Hinako’s destiny is dictated not by her personal wishes, however by traditions and her mother and father’ ambitions.
In lots of Asian cultures, these expectations have carried great weight, and Silent Hill f forces us to sit down with the worry and isolation that include being handled as an object to be given away. Right here I ought to point out that as an Asian girl myself, the underlying narrative struck exhausting, making me empathize deeply with Hinako’s plight. And whereas not the entire Asian diaspora can connect with the narrative, I can communicate for myself after I say it is a story that I can perceive fully.
The story of the sport explores home and little one abuse, most disturbingly within the relationships between Hinako, her father, and her mother and father as a complete. These should not caricatures of cruelty however frighteningly plausible portrayals of how abuse festers in households that care extra about appearances than compassion.
It’s a mature, typically troublesome story to look at unfold, however it additionally makes the sport’s supernatural horrors really feel extra earned, because the monsters really feel like manifestations of a really actual, human terror.
The Fox and Inari: Folklore as Horror
One of many standout components of Silent Hill f is the way it integrates Japanese folklore into its world. The fox seems all through the sport, tied to the Shinto deity Inari, typically related to rice, prosperity, and safety. However within the twisted, fungal world of Silent Hill f, the fox takes on a twin function, at instances showing as a information, at others an omen of destruction.
This symbolic stress between salvation and corruption is simply good for Silent Hill. The fox embodies the sport’s fixed ambiguity — is Hinako being guided towards freedom, or deeper into dropping it altogether? The usage of Inari additionally roots the horror in a uniquely Japanese cultural context whereas nonetheless echoing the common Silent Hill themes of guilt, repression, and worry.
Ambiance, Rating, UI, and Visuals
Graphically, Silent Hill f is gorgeous. The environments are drenched in unsettling magnificence, for instance, rotting countryside cities overtaken by crimson fungal blooms, faculty corridors that warp into suffocating tunnels of roots and petals, and shrines (together with your save factors) that pulse with each religious reverence and dread, all in an off-putting interaction of chiaroscuro.
The visible design is persistently placing, giving us among the most memorable environments within the franchise’s historical past. Considered one of my favourite components was the journal function, permitting us to dive into Hinako’s ideas within the type of written phrase. The sketches of various monsters, characters, and places cemented the care and energy the event workforce put into the sport’s consumer interface.
Akira Yamaoka’s music for the Fog World is one other triumph. His music stays the beating coronary heart of Silent Hill, and right here it seamlessly weaves conventional Japanese devices with the economic, haunting soundscapes followers anticipate.
Kensuke Inage’s composition for the Otherworld is a further triumph, together with Dai and Xaki, composers who beforehand collaborated with the sport’s author, Ryukishi07. The music can shift from mournful to suffocating right away, mirroring Hinako’s descent right into a world the place even moments of quiet are uneasy.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Silent Hill f is each a spotlight and, at instances, a frustration. Early sections emphasize exploration, puzzle-solving, and stealth, which really feel true to the collection’ roots. Hinako (to start with) shouldn’t be a gun-toting soldier, she’s a weak, abused woman, so her potential to combat is proscribed. The sport cleverly makes use of this to construct stress. Puzzles are additionally intelligent, and taking part in on the beneficial settings of Story (for fights) and Laborious (for puzzles) yielded a memorable expertise throughout my first playthrough.
Sadly, the ultimate fourth of the sport loses a few of this stability. Monster encounters develop into fixed, typically in cramped areas with little room to maneuver. As a substitute of counting on environment and dread, these segments lean into fight gauntlets that really feel at odds with the slower, extra deliberate pacing earlier on. Therapeutic merchandise drops additionally develop into frustratingly uncommon, making sections really feel much less like tense survival and extra like trial-and-error attrition.
Boss battles have already drawn comparisons to Soulslike video games, and it’s clear the builders could have borrowed from that design ethos. I perceive why, because the deliberate dodging, punishing assaults, and studying of patterns make for cinematic, difficult encounters. However make no mistake: this isn’t Soulslike. The bosses are powerful however way more forgiving, designed to create spectacle and stress slightly than demand lots of of retries.
Personally, I appreciated the problem, significantly when it got here to the second boss battle with the Rinko-like entity. It gave the fights a weighty really feel with out dragging the pacing down. And if something, simply preventing the everyday Kashimashi by means of Ebisugaoka gave me extra annoyance than the bosses themselves.
Technical Efficiency and Replayability
On a technical degree, Silent Hill f runs nicely more often than not however isn’t with out points. Framerate drops and stuttering seem intermittently on PlayStation 5 (base mannequin), particularly in bigger environments overrun with fungal growths. They don’t break the sport, however they’re immersion-breaking, significantly when the world’s environment is in any other case so rigorously constructed. Just a few patches may doubtless clean these issues out, however they’re value noting for anybody anticipating a flawless expertise at launch.
One of many strongest elements of Silent Hill f is its replayability. The sport options 5 completely different endings, every reflecting completely different selections and interpretations of Hinako’s journey. They don’t simply add superficial selection as they meaningfully reframe the narrative, leaving gamers with a robust incentive to revisit the story a number of instances. Silent Hill has at all times thrived on ambiguity, and f leans into this custom by giving gamers a number of lenses by means of which to interpret Hinako’s destiny.
Why It’s Not a Numbered Title
Some followers could marvel why Silent Hill f isn’t Silent Hill 5. The reply turns into clear after ending the sport: whereas it shares the DNA of the franchise, akin to trauma, supernatural horror, and psychological symbolism, it’s additionally very a lot its personal beast. Set in Japan, targeted on folklore as a lot as psychology, f looks like a aspect department of the Silent Hill mythos slightly than a continuation of the mainline story. That’s not essentially a foul factor, because it permits the sport to carve out its personal id whereas paying homage to what got here earlier than.
Closing Ideas
Hinako is a startling revelation. In a style typically outlined by silent avatars or grizzled survivors, she is a deeply human, weak, but in the end resilient protagonist. Her struggles with abuse, with household, and with id floor the supernatural horror in painful actuality. By the tip of the sport, for me, she rightfully earned her place alongside horror’s most memorable protagonists.
Silent Hill f shouldn’t be an ideal sport, however it’s a worthy addition to certainly one of gaming’s most storied horror franchises. With its haunting narrative penned by Ryukishi07, gorgeous visuals, Yamaoka’s unforgettable rating, and highly effective themes, it lingers lengthy after the credit roll. Regardless of its flaws, akin to efficiency points and an excessively combat-heavy remaining act, it’s a daring, stunning step ahead for Silent Hill. I actually discovered the “magnificence in terror” taking part in this significant piece of artwork.
(9 / 10)
(9 / 10)Wonderful
