Entrusted to the Taiwanese team at NeoBards Entertainment, Silent Hill f marks the return of Konami’s legendary horror saga to the hands of an Asian development team, after seven consecutive chapters conceived and created by studios straddling Europe and the United States. The event was significant enough not only to convince the developers to set this new installment in Japan, but also to entrust its writing to Ryukishi07, one of the most acclaimed visual novel authors on the Japanese indie scene, two choices that could have easily turned the project into a fresh beginning for the franchise, shaping it both aesthetically and thematically.
Unfortunately, Silent Hill f suffers from fundamental design and writing flaws that ultimately set it on a far humbler trajectory. Presented as a return to exploring a dreamlike world that blends the series’ signature horror atmosphere with the beauty of pastoral landscapes and traditional Japanese temples, the game places us in the role of Hinako, a young student living in a remote village called Ebisugaoka in 1960s Japan.
From the very first moments of the story, which opens with a dialogue between Hinako and her sister in traditional bridal attire, the themes the narrative aims to address emerge with great intensity. Silent Hill f’s narrative, in fact, embraces multiple themes, contextualizing them coherently with the chosen setting. Hinako is a protagonist portrayed as a strong, non-conformist young woman, incapable of tolerating the verbal and physical violence her father subjects her to within the walls of their home. Simultaneously, she despises the passivity of her mother, subservient to her partner and an echo of a traditional femininity that no longer has a place in the world Hinako wishes to forge for herself.
Counterbalancing Hinako’s complex family situation are her two friends, Sakuko and Rinko, and the young man Shu—the only one who seems to understand and support her needs, yet who unwittingly sketches the outlines of a love triangle with one of her companions. The plot is set in motion when the four teenagers notice the village has suddenly been emptied of its inhabitants, with mysterious, monstrous-looking creatures now roaming its streets. Hinako is forced to confront these monstrosities armed only with an iron pipe, as reality begins to merge with imagination, pulling her into an illusory dimension where only a man with a fox mask seems to offer comfort.
The ingredients are all there, those we expect from a Silent Hill title: a deeply personal conflict rooted in unspoken past events, grotesque monsters that embody the protagonist’s fears and frustrations, and a varied supporting cast whose subplots, told through allegory, dissect their relationships with Hinako with brutal honesty.
