For over two decades, the quaint little town in Toluca County has endured in the hearts and minds of the most hardcore psychological horror video game fans. As beloved as Silent Hill is, though, I don’t think many would argue with me saying that Konami’s storied series has lost much of its shine over the past 20 years. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the series honestly hasn’t been good since Silent Hill 2, and with 2025’s Silent Hill f marking the company’s return to the mainline series (and video games in general) since the atrocities that were Silent Hill: Homecoming and Silent Hill: Downpour, the stakes have never been higher.
With Silent Hill f, however, Konami whisks us away from Toluca and plops us into 1960s Japan. Specifically, the sleepy town of Ebisugaoka. The similarities to Silent Hill are immediately apparent; the fog, the twisted monsters, the steel pipe are all there and instantly familiar. Ebisugaoka also happens to be a coal mining town. Make of that what you will.
Yet the shift in locale has already done wonders for breathing new life into the series. Taken at face value, you could see this as just an ambitious Japanese horror game that’s had the Silent Hill branding haphazardly slapped on it. But I’d argue that the very essence of Silent Hill itself goes beyond just the physical location and Dahlia’s cult or the origins of the Gillespies.
Silent Hill is existential dread. It is the fear of the unknown self. Silent Hill f understands the fundamentals of the series, and puts a new spin on the formula while still remaining respectful to its roots.
I See That Town, Ebisugaoka
Set in the 1960s, during Japan’s Showa Era, our story begins with high schooler Hinako Shimizu. Silent Hill f wastes no time in establishing Hinako’s troubled background. An abusive father and an overly subservient mother that she no longer respects have left Hinako cold and withdrawn. Her older sister Junko was the only one she found comfort in within the family until, well, she got married.
With no one to turn to in her family, all Hinako has left are her three friends: Shu, Rinko, and Sakuko. And boy, do they have problems. In classic Silent Hill fashion, both Rinko and Sakuko check all the boxes of your typical Silent Hill weirdo NPC. One of them keeps muttering “traitor” under her breath when Hinako’s not paying attention, while the other keeps giving the stink eye and seems overly curious about what Hinako and Shu talk about when she’s not around. Shu is the normie of the group and it’s clear from the start that he and Hinako have a bit of a “will they won’t they” thing going on.
Together, these four characters form a strange dynamic that feels precarious, like it’s always just hanging by a thread. As if one wrong move or word could send the whole thing crashing down. But then again, isn’t that how most teenage friendships feel most of the time? The fragile but precious core of your entire world.
Silent Hill f doesn’t give you much time to think on the follies of teenage dynamics, though, because it doesn’t take long for a mysterious fog to settle over Ebisugaoka, causing the monsters to come out of the shadows to play. The bulk of Silent Hill f revolves around Hinako’s escape from Ebisugaoka. Along the way, you’ll also uncover the mysteries of the town itself, the fog, and get a personal deep dive into Hinako’s home life and why she is the way she is.
The mysteries are so damn tantalizing too, as Hinako experiences bouts of strange headaches where she’ll either pass out or fall asleep, only to wake up in some sort of nightmare dimension. In this dimension that takes on the form of a dark Shinto shrine, she meets a mysterious man who wears a fox mask (aptly named Fox Mask), who guides her through this strange, alternate world that seemingly has no connection with Ebisugaoka.
I’ll say this much about the story. Despite the occasional pacing issue, Silent Hill f does a superb job of keeping you hooked from start to finish. Its world is captivating and beautiful in a grotesque manner, and I found it impossible to tear myself away from the screen once I started playing.
The Steel Pipe Is Universal
As much as I’d like to keep singing Silent Hill f‘s praises, I am, unfortunately, a critic. Which means that I must tell you about how bad the combat and movement can feel at times.
I don’t know what it is about Silent Hill games, but even the more modern ones after Silent Hill 3 have never actually felt good to play. There’s always a certain clunkiness to them. Silent Hill f largely sticks to the formula of “pick up a steel pipe and whack it”, but introduces a Stamina and Sanity system to shake things up.
I’ve seen comparisons to FromSoft’s Souls games, and yeah, I guess I can see the similarities if you think all stamina-based combat games are the same, but the difference is night and day. Sprinting and attacking consumes Stamina. When it runs out, Hinako takes a few seconds to catch her breath, leaving her vulnerable. There’s also a Sanity bar that lets you enter Focus mode, which allows you to see enemy attacks more clearly and gives you a bigger window to counter them. There’s a light attack, heavy attack, and a Focused attack.
Early on, combat feels fine because the enemies are weaker and easy to kill. Combat is often a matter of waiting for your foe to expose themselves, hit them with a heavy attack, then follow with a couple of light attacks to finish them. Bing bang boom, done.
Then, things get trickier as tougher enemies are introduced, and in larger numbers. Now, you need to manage your Stamina. You need to dodge more as you can’t always be on the offensive. The problem is that Hinako’s movement often feels stilted and remarkably unsuited for fluid combat. It doesn’t help that enemy patterns are erratic and difficult to read, and your Stamina also recharges at a slower pace. So when you get hit or even stun-locked, it’s the worst feeling in the world.
As you get closer to the end, Silent Hill f also has a tendency to throw even more enemy hordes at you. There are also multiple chase sequences where it’s not always clear where you’re supposed to go, and trying to double back in a rush often feels clumsy. When these instances result in a game over, that feels bad too.
I’ve never been one to harp on immersion in my video games, but honestly? Hinako is, what, a 16-year-old high schooler? What the hell is this game doing making her dodge and counter like a samurai? I appreciated the attempt to make combat a little more engaging, but in this case, it felt unnecessary and even a little detrimental in some situations.
There are a few mechanics in place to make things a little more manageable, including a fun gacha-style upgrade system. There are various items you can pick up in Ebisugaoka, including prayer and offering items that you can present at a shrine (which also serves as your save point). By making offerings, you get Faith, which can then be used to draw a random Omamori, which are charms that you can equip to make Hinako a little stronger.
Most Omamoris are obtained through the shrine, but there are some that can only be picked up in the world. These do a variety of things, like increasing your stats, decreasing Sanity/Stamina usage, or enhancing the effects of your other Omamoris. You can also pick up emas, which are used to permanently upgrade Hinako’s stats, but these are much harder to find.
Stuck On the Puzzle
Outside of combat, you’ll spend most of your time in Silent Hill f exploring the town and solving its many puzzles. The exploration itself is incredibly rewarding, with notes and letters scattered everywhere, providing juicy tidbits about the history of Ebisugaoka and its denizens. As you read, you’ll gain more insight into the people’s beliefs, the traditions they upheld, and draw your own conclusions about the effect some of these practices might’ve had on the people.
Then there are the puzzles, par for the course in any Silent Hill game. Silent Hill f‘s puzzles are largely fun and manageable, even on the game’s Hard difficulty setting. A scarecrow puzzle in a foggy field where you must interact with the right scarecrow or risk getting attacked by them is a big standout.
There are a couple of duds though, where the clues were either not so tightly written, or the possible solutions were too vague. There’s one particular puzzle that had me stumped for over an hour, and even by the time I finally got it right, the solution barely made any sense to me and left me feeling unsatisfied.
The good news is that there’s also a Story difficulty setting for puzzles, where the clues and prompts are much more straightforward. Some of these will straight up tell you what you need to look for, which is nice for folks who may not be the biggest fans of logic puzzles.
Silent Hill… Fox? Flower? Five?
Perhaps what struck me the most was how simple yet layered the story of Silent Hill f was. Ryukishi07 served as the scenario writer, and he’s best known for his work on the Higurashi and Umineko visual novels. The former, in particular, also takes place in a small, rural Japanese town, features young adolescents as main characters, and tons of weird scary things start happening before you even realize what’s going on.
The Higurashi influences are clear here (though Silent Hill f moves at a much faster clip, thankfully), and Ryukishi07’s writing chops and the themes of Silent Hill almost seem like a match made in heaven. The Silent Hill games have always been more about psychological horror and internal conflict, both key aspects in Higurashi, and Ryukishi07 masterfully crafts a nuanced protagonist in Hinako and a story that sprawls out and ends up being much bigger than you initially imagined.
Even without engaging with its more grandiose elements, there’s something deeply personal about Silent Hill f‘s story that’s caused it to stick long after the credits rolled. When you strip away the supernatural, what’s left is a story about adolescent cruelty, feminism, trauma, and the harsh realities that come with simply being a woman. Silent Hill f struck a chord with me in a way I haven’t experienced in the series since James’ own expedition into that quaint little town. The bigger, tantalizing mystery outside of that was just the cherry on top.
Silent Hill f expertly weaves elements of Japanese mythology and folklore into the history of Ebisugaoka, creating a truly disturbing backdrop against which our tale of adolescence and the unfortunate realities of Showa Era customs is told. Despite the occasional missteps in the gameplay department, Konami and Ryukishi07 have created the most unique and fresh mainline Silent Hill game we’ve seen since Silent Hill 2.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PS5.
