After delivering certainly one of final 12 months’s greatest video games with Silent Hill 2, Konami appears intent on protecting its resurgent psychological horror franchise’s momentum going. Silent Hill f, the sequence’ subsequent mainline entry – and its first new entry in over a decade – was formally introduced in October 2022, and now that the aforementioned Bloober Workforce remake is out of the way in which, all consideration has shifted to f. At a current Silent Hill Transmission, Konami and co-developer NeoBards Leisure supplied one other take 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 recreation within the Silent Hill sequence up up to now has been set within the eponymous fictional American city, however Silent Hill f is doing issues in another way. As beforehand confirmed, in a sequence first, the sport is about in Japan, in a distant mountainous city within the Sixties. Named Ebisugaoka, the sport’s setting is predicated on Kanayama, an actual village in Japan. As defined by sequence producer Motoi Okamoto in the course of the current Transmission, the sport’s improvement crew traveled to Kanayama to take reference footage and report sounds of day-to-day life within the village so they might recreate it in as a lot element as potential. In line with author Ryukishi07, Kanayama served as the proper inspiration for Silent Hill f’s setting as a result of he might “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 not less than been revealed on the sport’s protagonist- Shimizu Hinako, a teenage lady who, in line with the sport’s official web site, was “cheerful and energetic as a toddler” however has “grown to turn out to be way more restrained” as she “struggles underneath the strain of expectations from her associates, household, and society.”
Apparently, it additionally appears like she’s going to have better company within the story than the sequence’ monitor report would counsel. Talking in the course of the current Transmission, Ryukishi07 stated, “Up till now, I’ve performed each Silent Hill recreation, and one factor I observed is that most 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 recreation goes to have a feminine protagonist, then I would like 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 search out her personal solutions. That was the form of protagonist, or not less than, the form of story that I wished to create.”
STORY
Now that we all know extra about Silent Hill f’s setting and protagonist- what ought to we count on from its story? Nicely, it’s not going to be a picnic, which you could 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 rapidly descend into insanity, nevertheless, when a deep, ominous fog rolls in and covers all the city, and consequently, is totally reworked. 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 to be able to survive – and perhaps even try to save her residence.
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 current 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 sequence’ 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 sequence was born out of mixing the essence of Japanese horror with the essence of western horror. Nevertheless, 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 100% Japanese horror?’ And this recreation is the end result.”
CENTRAL THEME
One thing that the current Transmission hammered residence greater than as soon as was Silent Hill f’s central theme, which, in line with sOkamoto, is “discovering the wonder in terror,” which, in flip, knowledgeable different elements of the expertise as nicely, from story to artwork design (extra on that in a bit). Okamoto defined, “A noticeable characteristic of Japanese horror is the concept that terror may be discovered inside magnificence. When one thing turns into too immensely stunning and ideal, it as an alternative turns into deeply unsettling. And so, gamers will expertise this world by means of the eyes of a younger lady who’s confronted with an attractive 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 recreation that isn’t set within the city of Silent Hill is even known as that, and curiously sufficient, that was a query that author Ryukishi07 posed as well- earlier than arriving on the conclusion {that a} give attention to 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 line with the author, the sport will stay true to the sequence’ custom of “portraying characters’ struggles with the evil inside themselves, sin, discontent, and battle in a visually hanging 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 current Transmission, we acquired to listen to extra on what that’ll entail. In line with kera, the core concept was to create one thing that felt distinctive and consistent with the sport’s give attention to Japanese horror and its central theme of mixing magnificence and terror. The artist says, “I needed to take into account every thing that’s are available Silent Hill earlier than, and work out the right way to take this recreation in a distinct path, however nonetheless be Silent Hill. It won’t be the very same blood-smeared, rustic surroundings, however I sincerely hope you’ll take pleasure in 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 positive sufficient, he’s returning to do the identical for Silent Hill f as nicely. Particularly, he will likely 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 initiatives – have additionally contributed.
PC REQUIREMENTS
We haven’t seen gameplay footage for Silent Hill f but, nor do we all know when precisely it will likely be releasing, however curiously 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 really useful 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 really useful, whereas on really useful settings, one is important. On both setting, you’ll additionally want 16 GB of RAM and about 50 GB of free space for storing.
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 recreation releases, it will likely be out there 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 be out there to be wishlisted on all platforms.
