The horror genre tends not to do very well at award shows. Parasite and The Substance were the exception, not the rule. And the same goes for the video game world as well, where our Oscars equivalent tends to favor the big budget release of the year, or that indie darling that somehow managed to put the entire world in a chokehold for months on end. So imagine my surprise when I saw that Silent Hill f actually picked up a few nominations at this year’s Game Awards.
Silent Hill f didn’t get the highly coveted Game of the Year nomination, but it did show up in three other categories, listed below:
- Best Narrative
- Best Audio Design
- Best Performance (Konatsu Kato as Hinako Shimizu)
It’s got some stiff competition in all three categories, though. The, in my opinion, highly overrated Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a total of 12 nominations, marking a record high in Game Awards history, and it’s in contention in all three categories that Silent Hill f is in.
Because I’ve got a real chip on my shoulder when it comes to award shows and The Game Awards in particular (Life Is Strange should’ve taken Best Narrative over The Witcher 3 in 2015, don’t @ me), and I now own a website where I can write about literally whatever the hell I want, allow me to go on a bit of a rant.
Award shows, and again, The Game Awards in particular, need to stop feeling like they’re just a celebration of the biggest, most popular releases of the year. We need more voices on the judges’ panels to shine some light on underrated picks. The big boys need to stop sweeping literally every category they’re nominated in, and look, I’ll admit I just want to see some recognition for what I genuinely feel is one of the most unique stories and perspectives we’ve ever seen in video games.
Despite its shortcomings on the combat front, Silent Hill f is hands down the most thematically rich game I’ve played in 2025. It’s an incredibly layered story that deals with religion, Asian culture, sexism, trauma, teenage angst, and gender roles, all in one terrifying yet neatly wrapped package. It does so in a way that will undoubtedly turn most players off, but nonetheless in a way that can only be achieved via the video game medium.
Yet, despite all its ambition and heart and the fact that it actually absolutely nails everything it set out to do, Silent Hill f is doomed to be a game that will simply get a courtesy nod at the video game industry’s biggest award show. It’s destined to be an underrated cult hit beloved only by series fans and Asian girls who love stories about Asian girls achieving self-actualization.
Instead of giving the Best Narrative award to the game that most deserves it, that award will likely go to Clair Obscur or Death Stranding 2 — the former being a “hero is actually an anti-hero” and “everything was kind of a dream” type story, while the latter is a technical marvel headed by a director with incredibly unique ideas but has no idea how to pen an actual good story.
It’s not just Silent Hill f either. Much smaller, understated gems like Demonschool (which I’ll have a review for very soon) will sadly fly under the radar too. Part of my vitriol comes from the fact that I just love rooting for the underdogs or contrarian pick, combined with my sometimes ill-informed belief that I genuinely have better taste in media than the average person. Silent Hill f may not get the recognition it deserves at Geoff Keighley’s glamorous show, but I’ll certainly do what I can to keep pushing for the less popular but no less deserving games to get their time in the spotlight.
Meanwhile, I’ll be rooting hard for Hades II to sweep up all the awards in December. You go, Hades II!
