After delivering certainly one of final 12 months’s finest video games with Silent Hill 2, Konami seems intent on holding 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 best way, all consideration has shifted to f. At a current Silent Hill Transmission, Konami and co-developer NeoBards Leisure supplied one other have a look at the upcoming title with a brand-new trailer, whereas additionally revealing a bunch of latest 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 thus 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 sequence first, the sport is ready 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 throughout the current Transmission, the sport’s improvement staff traveled to Kanayama to take reference footage and document sounds of day-to-day life within the village so they may recreate it in as a lot element as attainable. 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 at the least 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 baby” however has “grown to turn out to be way more restrained” as she “struggles underneath the stress of expectations from her associates, household, and society.”
Curiously, it additionally seems like she’s going to have better company within the story than the sequence’ monitor document would recommend. Talking throughout the current Transmission, Ryukishi07 stated, “Up till now, I’ve performed each Silent Hill recreation, and one factor I observed is that lots of the feminine characters are put by way of an excessive amount of struggling all through their lives, why is why I assumed if this recreation goes to have a feminine protagonist, then I need her to have the ability to make her personal selections 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 type of protagonist, or at the least, the type 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 count on from its story? Effectively, 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 shortly descend into insanity, nevertheless, when a deep, ominous fog rolls in and covers your entire city, and in consequence, 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 as a way to survive – and possibly even try to save her dwelling.
JAPANESE HORROR
Setting the sport in Japan was clearly a really deliberate alternative on Konami’s half, with the builders emphasizing throughout 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 imagine 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 wrong way and make it 100% Japanese horror?’ And this recreation is the consequence.”
CENTRAL THEME
One thing that the current Transmission hammered dwelling 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 features 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 terror could be discovered inside magnificence. When one thing turns into too immensely lovely and excellent, it as an alternative turns into deeply unsettling. And so, gamers will expertise this world by way of the eyes of a younger lady who’s confronted with a phenomenal but terrifying choice. We would like them to expertise how these contrasting components co-exist.”
STILL FOCUSED ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
Many will in all probability have questioned why a Silent Hill recreation that isn’t set within the city of Silent Hill is even referred to as that, and curiously sufficient, that was a query that author Ryukishi07 posed as well- earlier than arriving on the conclusion {that a} deal with 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 putting manner.”
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 throughout the current Transmission, we bought 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 in step with the sport’s deal with Japanese horror and its central theme of mixing magnificence and terror. The artist says, “I needed to think about all the pieces that’s are available in Silent Hill earlier than, and work out easy methods to take this recreation in a special course, however nonetheless be Silent Hill. It may not 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 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 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 beneficial 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 beneficial, whereas on beneficial 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 could have launched as a PS5 console unique final 12 months, however Silent Hill f isn’t following go well with. Konami has confirmed that every time it’s the recreation releases, it will likely be obtainable on PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC. On the latter, yow will discover it on Steam, Epic Video games Retailer, and Home windows Retailer. The sport can be obtainable to be wishlisted on all platforms.
