Silent Hill f Review – The Horrors of Growing Up

The Silent Hill series was one of Konami’s golden geese for the majority of the early 2000s. As Team Silent disbanded, many studios tried to take creative ownership of the IP to varying success. Some leaned too much on combat, while others broke the lore in the process. Following the success of Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, Konami is moving forward with several exciting projects connected to the world of Silent Hill. 

While Silent Hill: The Short Message wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it proved that the series can provide creatively rich experiences for all types of horror fans. Silent Hill f is one such game. Developed by NeoBards, the game takes a lot of creative liberties with the series in the hopes of expanding its potential. 

By taking place in the mid-20th-century rural Japanese village and being written by Ryukishi07, Silent Hill f is a potentially divisive game that could make or break the series. How does Silent Hill’s first original game since Silent Hill: Book of Memories fare in 2025?

TL;DR

Silent Hill f is a fresh new take on a classic formula. It moves away from the titular town but retains everything that makes Silent Hill a ‘special place’ for its fans. With a replayable 10-hour story and a healthy balance of puzzles and combat, it revitalises the series and takes it into an exciting new direction.

Story – From the Pen of Ryukishi07

Silent Hill f does a lot of things for the series for the first time. Developed under the creative leadership of Ryukishi07, this is a story of Hinako, a young high-schooler living in Ebisugaoka, a rural village tucked away in the Japanese mountains. Notice how Silent Hill, the town, is nowhere in that description. 

Likewise, the game takes place in the 1960s, in a time when social and cultural norms were dramatically different from today. This is also the basis of the game’s story. Hinako doesn’t live a happy life, and she has very little agency in what will potentially happen to her in the future. As she lives out her high school days hanging out with close friends, thick fog rolls into Ebisugaoka, and supernatural forces start influencing the village. 

Silent Hill f is a mystery horror game written by the author of Higurashi: When They Cry. As such, saying anything more about it would mean spoiling the narrative elements that make up the tapestry of Silent Hill f. 

Multiple Playthroughs are Expected of You

What sets the game apart from previous Silent Hill games and many survival horror titles is its narrative structure. Similar to NieR Replicant and Automata, the game expects you to play it multiple times to get the whole story. Once you beat the game for the first time, you’ll get a standard ending. 

However, Silent Hill f will then tell you exactly what you need to do to unlock additional endings, which all complement one another. Aside from that, you’ll discover new notes and information on New Game+ and New Game++, in addition to locations and bosses you’ve never seen before. 

This is both a good and a bad thing, as the game fully expects you to complete it several times. For gamers short on time, this isn’t ideal. However, Silent Hill fans will find plenty to love in the game’s intricate and layered story, with new narrative elements being uncovered every few minutes. 

And true to Ryukishi07’s previous work, Silent Hill f’s story is heavily influenced by real Japanese history, religion, and culture, to the point that it requires multiple trigger warnings before you start the game. Its narrative will be especially impactful to Japanese gamers and those familiar with the country’s rich history.

Gameplay – Surviving the Horrors of Ebisugaoka

As is tradition for the series, this is a third-person survival horror game. You’ll explore Hinako’s village and its surroundings, including her high school, friends’ houses, and several other key locations. Silent Hill f primarily focuses on melee combat—there are no firearms here. This makes it unique in the series, as you typically control characters who are older and more experienced in using firearms (Heather is an exception to the rule). 

Hinako is a high school girl who uses steel pipes, bats, and knives—anything she can find lying around. The game also introduces a weapon durability system, which is a love it or hate it type of mechanic. Thankfully, the game gives you repair items and plenty of weapons scattered around, so you’ll rarely be left without a way to protect yourself. 

Silent Hill f emphasises survival and wants you to use all the items in your inventory to reach the next save point. You will truly feel vulnerable and exposed as you explore Ebisugaoka, which makes for a great atmosphere.

A Different Take on the “Other World”

The “Other World” is a big part of Silent Hill, as it refers to the alternate reality each visitor of the town experiences for themselves. Traditionally, these places always looked identical to the real world but were rusted, decayed, and abandoned. Silent Hill f does things differently as it thematically ties the village’s alternate dimension to Hinako’s character development. 

These levels take the form of various Japanese temples and gardens, and follow her internal growth and change as she transitions from a high schooler into something else. In theory, these levels should be more appealing to long-time fans as they don’t simply revisit the same environments as the real world. 

However, they can get pretty repetitive because every temple looks similar to one another, and you’ll often find yourself lost in the infinite corridors of the alternate reality of Silent Hill f. At least from a narrative standpoint, these levels are appealing as they peel back the mystery of what’s going on more and more as you complete them.

Brainteasers Woven Into the Narrative

The game places great importance on the mystery of Ebisugaoka and Hinako’s troubled upbringing. Each puzzle you come across will be naturally integrated into the game’s story, Hinako’s diary, and her thought process. For example, you’ll come across a puzzle in the rice field early on in the game. 

It will ask you to explore Hinako’s diary for clues, recognise patterns and clues in your environment, and then apply what you deduced. Why does the puzzle exist in the first place? To illustrate that young Hinako got lost in the rice fields as a young child and was scolded and physically punished for doing so. Every puzzle in Silent Hill f is like this in the sense that it’s meaningful and serves a narrative purpose. 

And depending on the difficulty you’re playing, you’ll learn different things about Hinako and her group of friends from the notes and diary entries you unlock. This further emphasises replaying the game to learn even more about its world.

Visuals – Vivid Interpretation of 1960s Rural Japan

Silent Hill f uses the Unreal Engine 5 to bring its vision of 20th-century Japan to life. We tested the game on Xbox Series X. The game allows you to play in the Quality (30 FPS) and Performance (60 FPS) modes. Both modes work well enough, but don’t maintain a stable framerate. The game also heavily relies on motion blur on consoles, making for an awkward visual experience at times. 

Despite these shortcomings, the game looks great both in terms of raw texture quality and its art style. Ebisugaoka is a wonderful representation of a rural Japanese village, and it shows that NeoBards understood the assignment. Every alleyway, house, shrine, or forest area oozes with atmosphere. 

Monster designs are equally impressive, each representing an aspect of Hinako’s psyche manifested in grotesque, deadly form. There is a healthy variety of monsters in Silent Hill f and you won’t feel bored fighting the same enemies again and again. Likewise, unique bosses are impressive and deeply tied to Hinako’s backstory, which makes every fight matter.

Audio – Eerie and Uncomfortable, As It Should Be

Akira Yamaoka has become an iconic part of the Silent Hill series since the days of Team Silent. This time, he didn’t work on the game’s soundtrack entirely on his own, and it shows in the best possible way. To match its aesthetic and themes, Silent Hill f uses traditional Japanese instruments like flutes, strings, and drums accompanied by chanting. 

This gives it a unique and creepy atmosphere as the game emphasises Hinako’s growth and mental state through music. One way to describe it would be ‘uncomfortable’ but also enchanting and beautiful in its sadness. It truly is a standout in the series as it plays into the story’s themes. In terms of voice acting, Silent Hill f is also a series first. We warmly suggest playing the game in its native Japanese with English subtitles. 

While English voices are available, it really doesn’t make sense to play the game like that, except for general accessibility. The atmosphere of a forgotten Japanese village buried in the mountains comes to life with Japanese voice acting, and you owe it to yourself to experience Silent Hill f just like that.

Conclusion – Should You Play Silent Hill f?

This is a game that does a lot of things for the first time in the series. Moving the story away from the titular town was a smart choice as it gives Silent Hill f its own identity without overstepping the lore boundaries many gamers consider sacred at this point. The involvement of Ryukishi07 also lends the game an aura of mystery and traditional Japanese storytelling, which isn’t often found in mainstream gaming. 

Would you like the game if you enjoyed the recent Silent Hill 2 remake? It’s very likely. However, old-time fans may struggle a bit as they take their first steps into Ebisugaoka. Silent Hill f is unapologetically original in how it handles the series’ themes and how it ties into the bigger world of Silent Hill. 

While some may consider this a sacrilege, it’s exactly the kind of breath of fresh air this series needs. And with Silent Hill: Downfall still on the way, and Bloober Team hard at work on the Silent Hill 1 remake, the series is now back in full force. Silent Hill f is now available on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Big thanks to CD Media for sponsoring our review!