Everything we Know So Far About the New Silent Hill!

On the last 4th, players and horror enthusiasts around the globe got something they’d been anxiously waiting for: Silent Hill f’s release date, in September 25th, 2025. And, of course, just a small detail that came attached to the date: A trailer with gameplay footage!

Fans of the acclaimed terrifying series from Konami, which defined the psychological horror genre so many years ago, were left basically orphaned since 2012 when the last titles of the franchise until then were released Silent Hill: Downpour and Silent Hill: Book Of Memories. Every few months, rumors surfaced about a new title, there was the iconic Silent Hills (P.T.), which’d be produced by dream duo Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro and promised a spectacular return to the fog-filled town so many of us love, but it was thrown out even before it happened (but not without leaving its own impact and mark on the industry, made more impressive by the fact it was just a teaser), but nothing official was announced, and the fanbase rested again…

That is, until October 19th, 2022! That month, in the Silent Hill Transmission Konami did, two new games were announced, Silent Hill f and Silent Hill Townfall, as well as a remake of the fan-favorite Silent Hill 2, an interactive experience called Silent Hill: Ascension and a reboot/sequel to the movies: Return to Silent Hill. The fanbase went berserk, immediately flooded by fans speculating over the small bits of information we had available about what was promised to be the next game in the mainline, and the biggest focus of attention during the stream: Silent Hill f, developed by NeoBards Entertainment.

In this article, we’ll look over what we have in terms of available information about the new Silent Hill, review the newly released trailer and understand which expectations we can get for the highly anticipated game. Let’s go!

Before getting straight into Silent Hill f, we need to briefly discuss another game in the series, announced and released on the same day in January 2024, for free on the PS5: The Short Message, a short entry with about 3 hours of gameplay, and one that introduces some of the “new” themes and directions the IP is taking.

The main aspect that puts these two games together is that, despite carrying the name of the classic town of Silent Hill, they don’t take place there. The Short Message happens in the fictitious German city of Kettenstadt and f will take place in Japan. This symbolizes a transition that’s been hinted at by Konami here and there over the last few games, which is that characters don’t need to visit the town of Silent Hill itself nor have any direct involvement with the previous games’ villains such as the Cult or even Pyramid Head to be affected by the themes, visions, monsters and goings to the Otherworld.

Silent Hill is now less of a physical location and more of a kind of “purgatory”, a condition which can affect people at different places for different reasons, usually connected to loss, grief, guilt, the usual in these games. There are, yes, some elements connecting Kettenstadt and the town of Silent Hill, but these are more often than not veiled within the story, and a player who’s new to the series, for example, can end up completely missing them.

Having one of the strongest points any Silent Hill can have, the incredible enemy design done by icon Masahiro Ito (who sadly, didn’t return to work on Silent Hill f), especially on the main villain, Sakura Head, The Short Message tells us a tragic story surrounding a group of friends, with a very Silent Hill-esque plot twist at the end and a very well-made atmosphere, even though it was criticized by a few players for being too on the nose about the themes it brings.

But despite that, the game works very well as a transition between games where the protagonist went to Silent Hill and games where the town isn’t the scenario or the main element, rather becoming a background that contextualizes for us, the players, what’s going on in the screen.

Ambiance and Themes

And this brings us to our current subject! f will take place in 60s Japan, and the announcement trailer was carefully created to bring that ambiance to the game in the best way possible. To that end, they used 3D photogrammetry technology, a technique which creates photorealistic visuals, both to create character models and scenarios. All of that, of course, after extensive research and tons of reference material collected on the place and period the game happens in.

Location and Ambiance

Silent Hill f takes place in Ebisugaoka, a fictional city in Japan that once was well-developed and prospered with coal mining (hey, there’s one of those links to the original Silent Hill! But if there’s more behind this conexion, we’ll only find out when the game’s released) and dam construction industries. But eventually, the city declined due to still unknown reasons, eventually getting to the scenario we’ll be playing in: A small, somewhat ran-down town which finds itself enveloped in a thick fog.

The city of Ebisugaoka was based on a real location: Kanayama, in Gero, in the Gifu Prefecture. This was suggested by Ryukishi07, scenario designer and lead scriptwriter for the game, who chose the city because of its architecture, consistent with the game’s period, and, most of all, for its “labyrinth-like” alleyways, which will no doubt lend to the final product that claustrophobic feeling that long-time Silent Hill fans are very familiar with.

Themes

As mentioned before, Ryukishi07 is one of the main figures spearheading some of the parts that contribute the most to a game’s overall ambiance, especially one that’s psychological horror and has to have that “classic” feeling that fans expect out of a Silent Hill. He joined the team due to his work in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (Higurashi When They Cry), and his experience in mixing classic Japanese horror with mysteries to be solved.

One of the challenges the team faced was the transition from games that take place within the titular town and the new ones, that are only distantly connected to it. This was resolved through a “redefinition” of what Silent Hill is, but one that’s in no way a retcon. It still exists, everything that’s happened over there is still canonic and people are still getting lost and trapped in the fog-filled town, but now Silent Hill also represents internal conflicts of people outside there. To quote Ryukishi07, "[Silent Hill is] also about portraying characters' struggles with the evil within themselves, sin, discontent, and conflict in a visually striking way."

The character and creature design was done by artist Kera, who was inspired by Silent Hill 2’s monsters, one of the most iconic titles in the series. However, another challenge shows itself here - The setting of a city in the USA and one in Japan is very different, and this has to reflect upon the characters and monsters as well. Kera’s done a beautiful job that’s very prevalent in the trailers, putting together references to the originals with the new setting in a way that keeps alive the previous games’ atmosphere.

One of the core themes of Silent Hill f is finding beauty in horror, capturing one of the roots of Japanese horror, which aims to generate a feeling of discomfort and unease when faced with something that’s too beautiful. This theme is well conveyed in the trailers we have so far, through the use of gorgeous flowers, especially the Red Spider Lily, a flower that’s heavily associated with death in Japan, and their contrast with the grotesque horror images that fans of the series are used to.

Music

The music’s always been one of Silent Hill’s strongest points, after all, the ambience sound design is one of the main components in the immersion that’s so necessary in horror games. Previous games’ soundtracks, including the first music that comes to the mind of most people when Silent Hill is mentioned (yes, that one you’re probably thinking about right now with the high-pitched strings) was led by one of the most respected and acclaimed names in gaming music: Akira Yamaoka.

And, to our luck, he’s back for Silent Hill f! Yamaoka composed for the Fog World parts of the game, while the Dark Shrine ones were done by Kensuke Inage (Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors). A few additional pieces of music were also composed by Dai and Xaki, who’ve also worked on Higurashi.

In this game, we step into the shoes of Shimizu Hinako, a highschool student (yes, Japan’s going to scare us with creepy children again) who one day finds herself alone in a town overrun by a mysterious fog. In the new trailer, we can see the protagonist facing a monster alongside two of her school friends, but if these other characters are gonna play a bigger part, we still don’t know for sure.

Just like in Silent Hill: The Short Message, themes more relatable to a younger and more current fanbase will apparently be central to the story: Bullying, cyberbullying, solitude, betrayal, death and friendships put to the test are just some of the themes which could be explored, based on what we’ve seen in the trailer. This game’s protagonist is a woman on purpose, another decision by Ryukishi07, who, according to him, wanted to insert into Silent Hill history another woman who has control over her actions, and not only follows other male character’s story and events. Heather’s not alone anymore!

The trailer also reveals to us, finally, some of the gameplay we can expect for the final game, and this at the same time pleased some and displeased others, since apparently the game’ll follow a more action and combat-oriented direction, being less stealth. But, whether this’ll be the case or not, we’ll only know after September 25th.

Beyond gorgeous, well-made visuals to give us anxiety over waiting, the bits and pieces of gameplay and the release date, the new Silent Hill f trailer didn’t really bring a lot of new stuff by itself, but it definitely helped to keep the hype and the expectations for September well and alive. Will this game fulfill these expectations in a way that brings the Silent Hill flame back to life in players’ hearts? Only time (and Konami) will tell.

The game will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

And what about you, are you hyped for Silent Hill f’s release? Have you been waiting and counting down the days for 10 years, or are you a new player getting to know this fantastic series? Tell us in the comments together with your own expectations!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!