I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the Silent Hill series has languished for the past two decades. In my view, the series peaked with the first two games, and from that point on, it’s all been downhill. Whether it’s a mainline entry, spinoff, or god forbid, a movie adaptation, Silent Hill just can’t seem to catch a break. That is, until Silent Hill f came along.
After Konami’s very public exit from the mainstream video game space and the cancellation of Silent Hills, it seemed like the company had given up on making games entirely. So when Konami returned years later with a new Contra game of all things, and the promise of a Silent Hill 2 remake, I was cautious. I wasn’t too taken with the remake, and I wondered exactly what Konami’s game plan was. They had announced a few new Silent Hill projects, yes, but was the company just going to cash in on nostalgic remakes from here on out? The answer, as it turns out, is no. Silent Hill f is first actually good Silent Hill game we’ve gotten in 20 years, and it’s proof that Konami seems pretty damn serious about revitalizing this beloved series.
When Silent Hill f was first revealed to be set in Japan and not in the titular American town, there were questions about what really made this a Silent Hill game. After all, just look at the trailers. Fox Mask looks like he just came out of an anime. How can the Otherworld exist here? Beyond the fog and the steel pipes, which are superficial similarities at best, what makes this a Silent Hill game?
I think Konami and Producer Motoi Okamoto had the right idea. The series had become too westernized, and was in need of a shot up the arm. And what better way to do that by setting it in an entirely different location? After being put in charge of the Silent Hill brand, Okamoto stated that he wanted the concept of Silent Hill to be more closely tied to psychological horror and the themes that come with it, and not just the town itself.
So, what is Silent Hill? If you’ll allow me to crib a line from Bioshock, I think it comes down to this: There’s always a town. There’s always internal conflict. And there’s always agony, usually self-inflicted. What made the first two Silent Hill games so special wasn’t the town itself; it was the characters and their motivations, what they were in town for, what brought them there, and what will ultimately lead them out. The games have always been about self-actualization and clarity, and that’s exactly what Silent Hill f manages to do.
Whereas the games in the post-Silent Hill 2 era were entirely fixated on the town, its murders, cults, and all that other stuff that eventually got too ridiculous, Silent Hill f brings the series back to the basics. Here, we have a sympathetic protagonist who’s also clearly hiding or repressing something from her past or in her life, in a small town with a history so twisted and steeped in Japanese folklore that it’s basically ripe for all sorts of spooky things to happen. Those two things are more than enough to bring out the elements that defined the series in the first place: a complex protagonist, and a layered mystery just waiting to be solved.
The point of Silent Hill was never Dahlia’s cult or the rituals they performed to create a god-like demonic child. While the original Silent Hill may have pulled off the cult storyline masterfully and with finesse, it’s also a storyline that was well-suited for that one game. The same goes for James and Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2. We don’t need more games telling us about the backstory of Pyramid Head. He belonged to James and James alone. The town shifts with every iteration, reshaping itself into some morbid form of grief, trauma, and guilt depending on who the protagonist is. And I suppose the question is, if these games were always about introspection and the fear of what’s within, with your environment shifting to match your dark, then why do we need a fixed location at all?
The concept of Silent Hill has evolved far beyond the physical setting of an American town. It works better as an abstract idea. The idea that what’s within will always catch up with you, no matter how much you try to bury it. And the more you bury it, the more horrifying it becomes. Sure, the flavors of the town certainly help to enhance the psychological horror aspect and may even provide logical explanations as to what’s happening, but they’re just that. Flavors. I don’t need to understand why a town is able to morph itself into my darkest fears. I just need to understand how James feels and what he’s going to do about it.
Written by Ryukishi07, best known for writing the Umineko and Higurashi visual novels, it’s no surprise that Silent Hill f has turned out the way it has. As flawed as his previous works may be by today’s standards, Ryukishi has proven to be a master at writing localized mysteries with a dash of the supernatural, while keeping his characters flawed, but relatable. Silent Hill f‘s protagonist, Hinako, embodies all the flaws and relatability of the original series protagonists and more.
For all the ways that Silent Hill f has seemingly deviated from the “formula”, perhaps what’s surprised me the most is how faithful it actually is to the essence of the series.
