It’s been a huge day for the Silent Hill franchise. From the announcement of the Silent Hill 2 with Bloober Team, the AnnaPurna Games collaboration on Silent Hill: Townfall, the return of Silent Hill films, with Return To Silent Hill, and now, the biggest highlight of the whole event, the announcement of a brand new franchise entry, the fascinating, and visually stunning Silent Hill F. Revealed during today’s Silent Hill Transmission stream, we learned that Konami has partnered with Taiwanese developer Neoboards Entertainment, a team responsible for 2020’s Resident Evil Resistance, and the upcoming asymmetrical title, Resident Evil Re:Verse. Prior to these titles, Neoboards were known for their remasters and collaborations, having been responsible for titles such as Devil May Cry HD Collection, Onimusha: Warlords Remaster and the Resident Evil Origins Collection. They had even contributed in the development of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes for Capcom, as well as on Marvel’s Avengers for then-Square-Enix-owned studio Crystal Dynamics.
Unlike many of those previous titles, Silent Hill F appears to be single-player in nature and seems to evoke the very colourful, floral style seen in leaked screenshots from much earlier in 2022. Much less was said about the game by Konami, but the two-minute plus shows a mid-1900s Japan, gorgeous stylings, and what appears to be a tease of first-person navigation and controls. The official description in the game’s trailer outlines the following, “Silent Hill F – will be a completely new story set in 1960s Japan featuring a beautiful, yet horrifying world. Written by Ryūkishi07, famed for Japanese visual novels dealing with murder mysteries, psychological and supernatural horror. The game will be produced by Motoi Okamoto, a former Nintendo developer.
Despite the drastically different look and feel of the game, there are still some familiar Silent Hill qualities that are apparent in the trailer, from the way it utilises fog and mist to obscure vision, to the traditional abandoned town environment. Reportedly franchise stalwart Masahiro Ito has long been fascinated by the idea of making cherry blossoms into horror imagery, and after images that leaked in early 2022 depicted a creature that looked something like a cherry blossom tree, as well as the colourful sticky notes littering walls, now being paired with these vibrant environments shown in the official trailer – it seems like Ito is about to see his dream realised.
Silent Hill F has not yet been provided a release window, nor any release platforms, but rounds out a phenomenal day for the franchise, and Konami as both returned to the spotlight in a massive way, celebrating what appears to be a a reboot of the franchise, supported by the Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill F tentpole entries
