I can’t cease fascinated with Silent Hill f. Konami’s newest entry within the long-running survival horror franchise, this time developed by NeoBards Leisure, is well essentially the most fascinating sport I’ve performed all yr. From its disturbing lore and ties to Japanese mythology, to its weirdly unnerving forged of characters, every run by the foggy streets of rural Ebisugaoka unveils main revelations in regards to the city and its inhabitants.
Spoiler warning!
For this text, I’ve tried to maintain spoilers for Silent Hill f to a minimal. However should you’re wholly unfamiliar with the sport, I extremely counsel getting in blind earlier than studying this piece, as I do contact on narrative parts and themes that solely grow to be obvious when you’ve gotten caught in. Take into account this a lightweight spoiler warning when you have even the slightest curiosity in Silent Hill f.
That’s not simply the standard case of recognizing moments of foreshadowing on repeat playthroughs – although there may be actually loads of that. Relatively, Silent Hill f has among the finest implementations of New Sport Plus I’ve performed in fairly a while. Taking a leaf from the Nier playbook, Silent Hill f calls for you play it by a number of occasions in an effort to piece collectively the total image.
Nonetheless, that’s not as a lot of a slog because it sounds. New Sport Plus in Silent Hill f modifications issues up significantly. Many cutscenes play out in another way, enemy placements can fluctuate, fully new areas speak in confidence to you, and a few puzzles even have completely different options so that you can take care of. Whereas the skeleton of the primary playthrough is there, all these parts make sure you by no means fairly know what to anticipate on subsequent playthroughs.
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However it’s not simply Silent Hill f’s strategy to New Sport Plus that has me singing its praises. Even by sequence requirements, its plot is crushingly bleak. Misogyny, drug dependancy, abandonment, and management. All form the lives of the sport’s deeply tragic important forged, and it’s directly gratifying and heart-wrenching to witness protagonist Shimizu Hinako battle the horrors to beat her private demons.
Silent Hill f may simply be my sport of the yr, if solely as a result of its totality lives rent-free in my head.
Becoming in
(Picture credit score: Konami)
If you happen to’re unfamiliar with the sport, firstly, think about taking part in it for your self. I wouldn’t need to spoil the expertise for you right here. Silent Hill f doesn’t happen within the fictional Maine-located city within the US. As a substitute, we’re transported to Sixties Japan, within the sleepy – and likewise fictional – rural city of Ebisugaoka.
Our protagonist is excessive schooler Shimizu Hinako, a lady who despises the calls for and expectations of the period’s patriarchal norms, one thing that noticed her ostracized as a baby together with her dislike of taking part in with dolls, and her choice for hanging out with boys. Rising up, Hinako and her greatest pal Shu, for instance, would usually play ‘Space Wars’ with each other – an elaborate sport of fake that has them combating towards an imaginary alien power.
Hinako’s journal, which you seek the advice of to study extra about characters, areas, and notes on puzzles, is all written by her. Not solely will we see that she’s a superb sketch artist, Hinako isn’t shy about airing her grievances and frustrations with Ebisugaoka, her dad and mom, and even her associates to an extent.
One factor I discover fairly ingenious about Hinako’s character is the way it’s effortlessly woven into her capabilities as a survival horror protagonist. Her background as a trophy-winning monitor star goes an extended solution to clarify a near-bottomless properly of stamina and talent to defend herself in fight.
Very like Harry, James, and Heather earlier than her over within the city of Silent Hill, the ‘curse’ that befalls Ebisugaoka appears tailor-made round Hinako’s previous, her fears, and the traumatic moments she’s lived by. At dwelling, her father is an abusive drunk, whereas her mom is somebody she describes as ‘pitiful’, meekly residing within the father’s shadow. It’s a dreary existence that threatens to devour her at each given alternative.
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Fox story
(Picture credit score: Konami)
The horrors Hinako faces in Ebisugaoka – from knife-wielding dolls to scarecrows draped in class garb – aren’t even near being essentially the most terrifying factor about Silent Hill f. Hinako’s dwelling and social lives are one factor, however the city’s insidious obsession with superstition additionally manifests itself to make her existence a residing hell.
Arguably, the first antagonistic power in Silent Hill f is – as ever on this sequence – some sort of supernatural cult, also known as the Fox Clan. They inhabit a wierd otherworldly realm that Hinako is transported to all through the story each time she slips out of consciousness.
Enjoying into Ebisugaoka’s paranoid superstitions and its reverence for foxes as creatures, the clan does appear to be a identified entity, from what we are able to collect from paperwork strewn in regards to the city. Their major goal is spiriting away younger ladies, making them into brides, and inevitably providing them as sacrifices. To be blunt, they’re vile.
In essence, that is the core wrestle of Hinako’s journey – a power so highly effective that it may well reach stripping away the identification (each bodily and metaphorically) of even somebody as impartial as her. My coronary heart sank each time Hinako entered the Fox Clan’s weird realm, as a result of she would inevitably find yourself shedding part of herself (once more, each bodily and metaphorically) in service of their objectives.
Hinako’s journey is brutally upsetting. Which comes as no shock, actually, given lead author Ryukishi07’s earlier works, together with the harrowing Higurashi When They Cry visible novel sequence, which offers with related themes. However there may be at the least a shred of hope right here, as every New Sport Plus run following your first playthrough edges ever nearer to the reality of Ebisugaoka.
Time and again
(Picture credit score: Konami)
Silent Hill f’s tackle New Sport Plus (NG+) is extremely refreshing, particularly in an age of gaming the place such a mode is commonly handled as an afterthought, or worse, saved for a post-launch replace. In Silent Hill f, NG+ does have all the standard hallmarks. You’ll carry over issues like your stock, stat upgrades, paperwork, perk-granting omamori, journal entries, and sure key objects.
Right here, although, New Sport Plus isn’t only a bonus mode; a manner so that you can precise revenge on Silent Hill f’s monstrous horrors with a considerably beefier Hinako. No, subsequent New Sport Plus runs are completely a requirement if you wish to uncover the totality of the sport’s narrative. Once more, not dissimilar to how Nier Replicant and Nier Automata deal with repeat playthroughs.
Silent Hill f has 4 endings in complete (properly, 5 should you rely the joke UFO ending), the final of which is the sport’s ‘true’ conclusion. However to get there, you’ll have to have witnessed at the least two different endings, together with the one you’re locked into in your first go.
And it’s a heck of a journey to get there. Cutscenes are expanded, offering extra context and hidden particulars. New paperwork that shed gentle in town and its historical past might be collected. There’s additionally no scarcity of latest rooms to find, new scares to catch you off guard, and a normal sense of nice unease as areas that after appeared like set dressing come to life with horrifying new particulars (a sure shrine you’ll find early within the sport involves thoughts there).
There are some sensible quality-of-life touches, too. The primary menu’s ending information (which you’ll be able to view upon beating the sport as soon as) will record the standards for reaching every conclusion. And if you wish to velocity issues up by skipping cutscenes, a immediate will let whether or not or not the one you’re watching has modified in any manner by stating it’s new.
I merely can’t get sufficient of Silent Hill f. It’s among the finest horror video games I’ve performed in current reminiscence, and firmly finds a spot in my prime three Silent Hill titles subsequent to the unique Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. The agricultural Japanese setting is such a refreshing change, and the combination of the nation’s historical past and mythology performs exceptionally properly into Silent Hill f’s model of horror.
If you happen to’re in search of a deeply impactful and unforgettable horror expertise this Halloween season, I can’t advocate Silent Hill f sufficient, and you’ll choose it up at the moment for PS5, Xbox Collection X, Collection S, and PC through Steam.
Right this moment’s greatest Silent Hill f offers
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