Silent Hill F - New Horror Game by Ryukishi07 and NeoBards

Silent Hill F - Horror Game by Konami and Ryukishi 07

This article contains all currently available information about the new mysterious horror project "SILENT HILL F".

Here you will find the details about the story, about the gameplay, and about the developers. And also I will analyze interesting hidden details that can be found in the trailers of SHF.

The article will be gradually updated as new information about the game appears.

Story of Silent Hill F

The events of the game unfold in 1960s Japan - in a small town called Ebisugaoka (which can be roughly translated from Japanese as "Barbarian Hill")

The main character of "Silent Hill F" is a young girl, Hinako Shimizu. She lived an ordinary life, but one day inexplicable events began to happen in her hometown.

A strange thick fog suddenly appeared on the streets, and deadly red flowers began to grow on houses. Also, creepy monsters appeared in the town.

Now Hinako must try to escape from Ebisugaoka and find out what happened there.

Interesting points of the game

1) SHF is supposed to be the earliest Silent Hill game in terms of chronology. The events take place earlier than in Silent Hill 1 and Origins.

2) This will be the first attempt to make SH in a purely Japanese setting. The stories of the previous games took place in America.

3) Apparently, the game will be close in spirit to Fatal Frame and Forbidden Siren. You can feel very similar vibes in the trailers. And the director of the project hinted on Twitter that he really likes these games.

4) In an interview, the developers say that SHF will not have a direct connection with the stories of the previous installments of Silent Hill. But there will be references to previous games.

5) The concept of "Beauty" would be an important theme in the game. Therefore, the monster designs will be created in such a way as to make them look creepy - but at the same time beautiful. And the "alternate world" will be dotted with flowers.

Gameplay

Not much is currently known about the gameplay, but the developers mentioned in an interview that the game will have battles with monsters, some survival elements, and puzzle-solving.

It means that SHF will more or less adhere to the classic gameplay traditions of the Survival Horror genre.

The game will also retain the traditional feature with the division into a "foggy world" and an "alternate world".

Scenario Writer

Ryukishi 07 - creator of Higurashi no Naku koro ni

The famous Japanese scenario writer Ryukishi07 is working on the story for "Silent Hill F".

He previously worked on many horror visual novels: Higurashi no Naku koro ni, Umineko no Naku koro ni, Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni, Iwaihime, Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope, and Ookamikakushi.

You can even notice a small reference to Ryukishi's previous projects in the SHF logo:

The title of the game is written in different colors: "Silent Hill" is in black, and the letter "F" is in red. Using one red letter in the title is an old trick of Ryukishi07. Higurashi and Umineko also had red letters in their titles.

Perhaps the story will also contain some references and parallels. In an interview, the authors mentioned that fans of "Higurashi no Naku koro ni" would surely enjoy the story of "Silent Hill F".

Developers

The game is being developed by the Hong Kong-based company NeoBards Entertainment.

They previously worked on the multiplayer games "Resident Evil Re:Verse" and "Resident Evil Resistance". And also assisted Capcom in the development of RE7, RE2 Remake, and RE3 Remake.

The director of Silent Hill F will be a man named Al Yang. Judging by his Twitter account, he is a fan of Japanese retro games.

Al Yang QQbert - director of Silent Hill F

A pleasant surprise for me was that Al Yang also loves Forbidden Siren - he recently tweeted a photo of his TV set covered in stickers of Shibito and ShibiToro.

Also, on top of his TV you can see a sticker with a heroine named Shiragiku from Fatal Frame 5.

Designer

The monsters and characters will be designed by Japanese artist Kera.

She previously worked on monsters and illustrations for the horror game "Spirit Hunter: NG".

Vincent from Silent Hill 3 - fan art by Kera

Apparently, Kera loves Silent Hill 3. In 2015, she even drew beautiful fan art of Vincent.

Kera also said on her Japanese blog that she first became acquainted with Silent Hill when she was at school. And the game had a big influence on her.

Composers

Several people are working on the soundtrack in Silent Hill F.

The music for the "foggy world" will be created by our favorite composer Akira Yamaoka, who previously wrote soundtracks for many Silent Hill games, as well as for SlitterHead and Shadows of the Damned.

For scenes in the "alternate world", the music will be written by another person - Kensuke Inage. He has never worked on horror games and mainly created soundtracks for samurai action games such as "Dynasty Warriors" and "Samurai Warriors". Therefore, it is rather strange that he was invited as a composer for SHF. But let's hope that he has a hidden talent for horror music.

Also, doujin music composers nicknamed Dai and Xaki will participate in the project. They are good friends of Ryukishi07, and previously wrote music for Higurashi, Umineko, and Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope.

Platforms and Release Date

Silent Hill F is set to be released on PC, Sony PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X\S.

The release date has not yet been announced. When the date will be confirmed, I will update this article.

Silent Hill FIVE?

Silent Hill 5 - screenshot with information about the game

In 2022 (a few months before the announcements), an interesting screenshot of an internal Sony presentation leaked onto the Internet.

It revealed that Konami was preparing a remake of Silent Hill 2, as well as a new numbered part of the series - "Silent Hill 5".

The information about SH2 Remake was fully confirmed. The remake was indeed announced, and even the info about 2 new endings came true.

But the announcement of "Silent Hill 5" did not happen. And instead, a project with a strange name "Silent Hill F" suddenly appeared.

So what could this mean?

It is possible that "Silent Hill F" was originally the "SH5" mentioned in the leaked presentation screenshot. In this case, the mysterious letter "F" in the game's title could stand for the word "FIVE".

However, it is also possible that there was another "SH5" project that was eventually cancelled.