Slitterhead Q&A video released: Silent Hill creator’s new horror action game

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-02-25 22:00 JST)

Bokeh Game Studio has released part 1 of a Q&A session about their upcoming title Slitterhead where they answer fan questions.

Bokeh Game Studio is a Japanese game development studio that was founded in 2020. The studio includes creators like Keiichiro Toyama who is known for their work on Silent Hill and Siren, Siren lead character designer and The Last Guardian producer Kazunobu Sato, and Junya Okura who worked as a game designer on the Siren series and Gravity Rush.

Slitterhead was announced in 2021 and will be the first title from Bokeh Game Studio. The action-adventure game is set in Asia and depicts a desperate struggle between humans that wield mysterious powers and grotesque monsters in its dark horror-like world.

The game’s creative director Keiichiro Toyama, producer Kazunobu Sato, and game director Junya Okura all appear in the Q&A video. They were first asked about what inspired them to make Slitterhead. According to Toyama, the game was born from the energy he felt from Hong Kong as a city and wanting to reinterpret the Siren concept. He also discussed why the Chinese monster known as 野狗子(pronounced yĕ-gŏu-zĭ) was a center motif of the game.

When coming up with the setting, Toyama wanted something modern and easy to understand with man-eating monsters. But instead of zombies, he looked into other sorts of creatures. After coming across the brain-eating野狗子, the inspiration he received was the start of the project plan.

Toyama mentioned that they also want to expand the player base to include players that don’t play horror games and can enjoy the action elements. But instead of conflict being just defeating enemies, they want situations that players may be reluctant to enter to combine both action and drama.

Okura and Toyama also explained that Slitterhead will be a third-person game. This is because the team includes a lot of staff that worked on Gravity Rush, and they want to make good use of the team’s strengths and familiarity with third-person action.

When talking about how scary or difficult the game will be, Okura commented that they are prioritizing entertainment value. Rather than being too scared to move or press forward, they want players to feel elements of fear while the game remains rooted in action. Toyama also added that they don’t want it to be so scary that it becomes difficult, but rather, they’re challenging themselves to make something where players question what the right course of action is.

Another fan question was about whether players would experience the game from multiple viewpoints like some of their previous titles. Toyama explained that this question might be referring to something akin to Siren’s Sight-Jack mechanic as a way to literally move to another viewpoint, or a story structure that includes multiple playable characters to tell a story from different perspectives. In any case, Toyama said it’s a strong point of theirs hinting at some form of multiple viewpoints being incorporated into the game.

They were also asked about whether they have been able to recreate the good times they had when making Siren, as they mentioned wanting to do in a previous video. Sato noted that while they would normally begin by going on a research trip, they weren’t able to because of COVID-19. Okura added that they are in a sense because they’re trying to create something new like when they made Siren, which means coming up against similar challenges. Toyama mentioned that while budgets and the level of responsibility are different than before, the attitude where everyone goes all in to make something interesting is nostalgic and fun. And while they still argue from time to time, it sounds like they go about it more delicately nowadays.

When asked if the experience of working on Gravity Rush had an impact on Slitterhead, Toyama explained that the game is a compilation of all his past experience and that feedback from Gravity Rush is being taken into account for how they approach the action elements. It sounds like they are leveraging this know-how for action involving buildings of different heights as well.

It is currently unknown what platforms Slitterhead will release on. But according to Sato, they are considering a physical release and would like to release a collector’s edition as well. The next Q&A video is scheduled to go live on March 4.