I can’t stop thinking about Silent hill f. Konami’s last entry into the long survival horror franchise, this time developed by Neobards Entertainment, is easily the most fascinating game I have played throughout the year. From its disturbing tradition and ties with Japanese mythology, to its strangely disconcerting cast of characters, each runs through the mist streets of the rural area of Ebisugaoka presents great revelations over the city and its inhabitants.
Spoiler warning!
For this article, I have tried to maintain spoilers to Silent hill f to a minimum. But if you are not familiar with the game, I strongly go blind before reading this piece, since I play the narrative elements and the issues that only become evident once you have been caught. Consider this as a light spoiler warning if you have the slightest interest in Silent hill f.
That is not just the usual case of detecting moments of omen at play repeated, although there is certainly much of that. Quite, Silent hill f It has one of the best implementations of new games, in addition to that I have played in a long time. Taking a sheet of NIER Play book, Silent hill f He demands that you play it several times to rebuild the complete image.
However, that is not a great job as it sounds. New more game in Silent hill f Change things considerably. Many scenes develop differently, enemy locations can vary, completely new areas open to you, and some puzzles even have different solutions for you to deal. While the skeleton of the main game is there, all these elements ensure that you never know what to expect in later games.
But it’s not just Silent hill f’s Focus for the new game that makes me sing their praises. Even for the standards of the series, its plot is very bleak. Misoginia, drug addiction, abandonment and control. All shape the life of the deeply tragic cast of the game, and is both gratifying and heartbreaking to witness the protagonist Shimizu Hinako fight against horrors to overcome his personal demons.
Silent hill f It could be my game of the year, even if only because its totality lives without rent in my head.
Adjustment
If you are not familiar with the game, first of all, consider playing it for yourself. I would not like to spoil the experience here. Silent hill f It does not take place in the fictitious city located in Maine in the United States. Instead, we are transported to Japan of the 1960s, in the drowns and also fiction of the rural city of Ebisugaoka.
Our protagonist is the high school student Shimizu Hinako, a girl who despises the demands and expectations of the patriarchal norms of the time, something that saw her ostracted when she was a child with her disgust for playing with dolls, and her preference to go out with the children. Growing up, Hinako and her best friend Shu, for example, would often play ‘spatial wars’ with each other, a game elaborate to pretend that makes them fight an imaginary alien force.
Hinako magazine, which you consult for more information about characters, locations and puzzle notes, is written by it. Not only do we see that he is an excellent sketch artist, Hinako is not shy to broadcast his complaints and frustrations with ebisugaoka, his parents and even his friends to some extent.
One thing that I find quite ingenious of Hinako’s personality is how he is interwoven effortlessly in his abilities as the protagonist of survival terror. His experience as a trophy winning track star contributes greatly to explain an almost backless resistance well and the ability to defend himself in combat.
Like Harry, James and Heather before her in the city of Silent Hill, the ‘curse’ that happens to Ebisugaoka seems to adapt to Hinako’s past, her fears and the traumatic moments she has lived. At home, her father is an abusive drunk, while her mother is someone she describes as “unfortunate”, living meekly in the shadow of the father. It is a sad existence that threatens to consume it every time.
Fox tale
The horrors that Hinako faces in Ebisugaoka, from dolls that wield knives to scarecrows covered with the school’s attire, are not even close to being the most scary. Silent hill f. Hinako’s home and social life are one thing, but the insidious obsession of the city with superstition also manifests to make its existence a living hell.
Possibly, the primary antagonistic force in Silent hill f It is, as always in this series, some kind of supernatural cult, often known as the Fox clan. They inhabit a strange kingdom of another world that Hinako is transported throughout history every time he leaves consciousness.
Playing in the paranoid superstitions of Ebisugaoka and their reverence for foxes as creatures, the clan seems to be a known entity, so we can gather from documents scattered over the city. Their main objective is to expire to girls, making them brides and inevitably offering them as sacrifices. To be overwhelming, they are vile.
In essence, this is the central struggle of Hinako’s trip, a force so powerful that it can succeed in eliminating the identity (both physically and metaphorically) from even someone as independent as she. My heart sank every time Hinako entered the strange kingdom of the Fox clan, because it would inevitably end up losing a part of itself (again, both physically and metaphorically) at the service of its objectives.
Hinako’s trip is brutally annoying. What does not really surprise the previous works of the main writer Ryukishi07, including the heartbreaking Higurashi when they cry Series of visual novels, which deals with similar issues. But here there are at least one hint of hope, since every new game more career after its first game edges closer and closer to the truth of Ebisugaoka.
Again and again
Silent hill f’s Taking New Game Plus (NG+) is incredibly refreshing, especially in a game era where such a way is about an idea of the last moment, or worse, saved for an update after the launch. In Silent Hill F, NG+ has all the usual stamps. It will carry things like your inventory, statistics updates, documents, Omamori that grants benefit, daily entries and certain key elements.
Here, however, the new Plus game is not just a mode of bonus; a way that exactly Silent hill f’s Monsters with a significantly stronger hinako. No, the newer play races are absolutely a requirement if you want to discover the entire game narrative. Again, it’s no different from how NIER replicant and Automata Nier Handle repeated games.
Silent hill f It has four endings in total (well, five if the end of the UFO joke counts), the last of which is the ‘true’ conclusion of the game. But to get there, it must have witnessed at least two other finals, including the one that is locked in its first attempt.
And it is a great trip to get there. The scenes expand, providing additional context and hidden details. You can collect new documents that shed light on the city and its history. Nor is there a shortage of new rooms to discover, new scares to catch it off guard, and a general feeling of great restlessness, since once it seemed that the dress was life with new terrifying details (a certain sanctuary that you can find early in the game comes to mind there).
There are also some bright touches of quality of life. The final guide of the main menu (which you can see when winning the game once) will list the criteria to reach each conclusion. And if you want to accelerate things omitting scenes, a warning will inform you if the one you are seeing has changed in some way by stating that it is new.
I just can’t have enough of Silent hill f. It is one of the best horror games that I have played in recent memory, and firmly finds a place in my three best Silent Hill titles next to the original. Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. The Rural Japanese environment is such a refreshing change, and the integration of the history and mythology of the country plays exceptionally well in Silent hill f’s Horror brand.
If you are looking for a deeply shocking and unforgettable horror experience this Halloween season, I can’t recommend Silent hill f Enough, and you can pick it up today for PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S and PC through Steam.
