Silent Hill creator’s new game Slitterhead will “numb your ethics” with its possession system

At a recent advanced preview event for Slitterhead held in Japan, press and players alike were invited to try out Bokeh Game Studio Inc.’s action-adventure title. During the event, creative director Keiichiro Toyama, producer Kazunobu Sato, and game director Junya Okura revealed even more details about Slitterhead- including how it will make players question the morality of their in-game actions (source: Famitsu). 

Best known for his work on the horror game franchises Silent Hill and Siren, Keiichiro Toyama was quick to point out that Slitterhead is more action-oriented than his previous works. As the disembodied entity Hyoki, players can possess living things (usually humans) within the fictional city of Kowlong (which Toyama had specific reasons for choosing as the game’s setting).  

Kowlong is crawling with Slitterheads – monsters that can take on the appearance of humans. Bereft of its memory, the only thing that drives Hyoki is its need to eradicate every Slitterhead it comes across. 

Hyoki can assume normal humans’ identities to enter restricted areas, swap between different bodies, and best of all, turn their blood into weapons. Save for a few “Rarities” (humans that provide Hyoki with strong attacks and abilities), most of the humans you possess aren’t inherently adept at fighting Slitterheads. Hyoki can transform its host’s blood into various objects like spears, swords, and even a blood bullet-shooting machine gun. 

Using up a human’s blood reserves or taking too much damage from Slitterheads will cause the human to die, which is your cue to switch to another host. Players can also preemptively switch to a new host to keep enemies guessing or switch through multiple hosts to cover ground quickly. 

Toyama hopes players will embrace the possession system and that by treating humans as sacrificial pawns, players will “become desensitized to their ethical values.” This seems to be the case for many who were at the Slitterhead advanced preview event, as they were shocked by how quickly they adapted to swapping between multiple humans like they were changing clothes.  

Producer Kazunobu Sato also said that Slitterhead will include systems that will make players question if treating humans as disposable objects is acceptable. Toyama expounds further, explaining that Hyoki will start as “a blank existence without any emotions” and slowly become influenced by its interactions with humans as the game progresses. 

It remains to be seen if Slitterhead can be completed without possessing a single person, or if there are multiple endings to the game based on your decisions (the latter feature being present in the Silent Hill franchise). Regardless, Slitterhead is shaping up to be a unique take on the action-adventure genre; one that makes you question if your actions are justified by the greater good. 

Slitterhead is scheduled to be released on November 8 for the PC (Steam/Epic Games Store), PS5/PS4 and Xbox Series X|S.