The highly anticipated new mainline entry to the Silent Hill series, titled Silent Hill f, is scheduled to release on September 25 for major platforms. While the game will be making a stylistic departure from the direction of previous titles, returning fully to its Japanese horror roots, it will also switch things up when it comes to gameplay. Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto and Silent Hill f director Al Yang recently talked to Game*Spark about why they decided to shift towards more action-focused gameplay with the new title.
Okamoto explains that, while his goal for the Silent Hill 2 remake was to maintain the appeal of the original, he wanted to take a different approach with Silent Hill f. “Inserting more entertaining and thrilling action into Silent Hill f was an idea I had ever since the early phases of the development. And, since NeoBards Entertainment is a company that’s tremendously good at making action games, this is also one of the reasons why we decided to choose them as the developers.”
“The Silent Hill series isn’t considered a game that has entertaining action per se, but as we’re opening our doors to new players, we began to wonder what it would be like if we added more of those elements into the game.” Okamoto explains that, with Silent Hill f, his team is aiming to create a game that will be appealing to younger generations as well, which is why they decided to make action one of the highlights of the game. “Challenging action games are gaining popularity among younger players nowadays, so I believed that if we implemented such elements into the game, it would resonate well even with people who are new to the series,” he notes.
Yang added that another reason for putting emphasis on actions was to avoid making “clones” of previous Silent Hill games. “We didn’t want to end up recreating Silent Hill 2 over and over again, and we were aware that there was no reason to keep making clones of it. So, in order to avoid repeating what previous major titles did, we decided to make the action stand out more.”
On a related note, recently released previews of Silent Hill f have prompted divided opinions, as some players express concern over the “soulslike” combat and inclusion of mechanics like weapon degradation. On the other hand, since many of the previews we’ve seen so far don’t showcase spoilable content like exploration and puzzles, this could be what’s making the game’s focus on action seem more pronounced than it actually is. As the game’s release date approaches and new information becomes available, we’ll hopefully get a better idea of how Konami and NeoBard balanced the story and action.
Silent Hill f is set to release on September 25 for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S.
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