Silent Hill f recently added a new Casual mode to the game, and it didn’t take long before Japanese fans started jokingly calling the feature “Konatsu mode,” after Hinako’s voice actress and model Konatsu Kato. Kato, who started streaming the game on her YouTube channel in October, is doing her best to complete it, despite not being a gamer herself.
From struggling to figure out the controls to having a hard time solving Silent Hill f’s many combat and puzzle challenges, Kato lets her viewers know that gaming isn’t her forte. Despite this, she has been slowly learning the ins and outs of the game and in her latest stream, is trying her best to defeat the Sakuko-like monster. The fight cost Kato almost an hour of play with no success, leading her to be on the verge of tears. Kato’s streams have gone viral not just for the Japanese actress/model’s connection to the franchise, but her honest reactions to Silent Hill f and her steady progress as a gamer.
Since Casual mode makes the game even easier than Story mode, Japanese fans decided to nickname it “Konatsu mode,” making a friendly jab at her inexperienced playstyle. And considering her livestreams garnered such wide attention and media coverage, some fans went on to theorize that her playthroughs were what incentivized Konami to implement the new game mode in the first place.
Post translation:
If other developers, not just Konami, came to recognize that some people can’t progress even on the lowest difficulty setting and it motivates the re-evaluation of difficulty of the horror genre as a whole, it means Konatsu Kato has made an enormous contribution to the game industry.
Horror games still have a reputation for being inaccessible to casual players.
Some fans believe that Kato’s streams will bring to light the difficulties some people experience when playing horror games and hopefully incentivize other developers to make their scary games more accessible to players. While this might turn off hardcore players, it could encourage those who are intimidated by horror games to try them out. Given how inaccessible the genre can be, perhaps lessening the barrier to entry will get more people into horror games.
Silent Hill f is available for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S.
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