Though Silent Hill has featured feminine characters earlier than, Silent Hill f stands out by telling a uniquely emotional story centered on its protagonist, Shimizu Hinako. The sport is about in Sixties Japan and follows a younger girl dealing with an vital second in her life. She is caught between strict traditions and a altering world the place girls’s rights are beginning to develop.
The story doesn’t supply a transparent glad ending. As a substitute, it reveals how unsure and scary the longer term can really feel below robust social stress. Hinako’s fears embody marriage, being pregnant, turning into like her mom, dropping mates, and being caught in her hometown. These fears really feel actual as a result of they’re based mostly on precise human experiences.
Al Yang, Studio Artistic Director at NeoBards Leisure and director of Silent Hill f, spoke about how the crew infused a feminine perspective into Hinako’s portrayal to PC Gamer’s senior editor Wes Fenlon at GDC, saying:
The principle theme is girls’s rights, or how that was perceived in that point. We’ve loads of feminine members on our crew, and also you’d all the time ask them questions relating to the fears Hinako had, and the monsters that characterize them.
The crew gathered completely different factors of view from individuals with completely different life experiences.
As Yang stated:
A few of them are married, a few of them have youngsters, some are proper out of college. So that you get completely different views from completely different age ranges.
He additionally made it clear that he didn’t wish to assume issues:
I’m not certified to inform you how girls ought to really feel or what the pressures [they face]. I can attempt to perceive, however that’s not on me. Essentially the most I can do is to speak to individuals and get suggestions and attempt to translate that as a lot as potential.
This strategy additionally formed the design of the monsters, which characterize actual fears and trauma. Yang added:
So with the monster that [represents] Hinako’s worry of being pregnant and whatnot, there was loads of suggestions from our crew members, and it was drawn by one in all our feminine idea artists too.
He concluded by saying:
There’s loads of particulars, that is your personal private nightmares, or the nightmares of people that’ve had kids. And once more, speaking to our youthful employees members, in the event that they’re afraid, what are they afraid of?
Silent Hill f is obtainable now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence XIS, and PC by way of GOG and Steam.
