Silent Hill f Review (PC): Don’t Trust the Fox

Gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence. These are some of the content warnings you get when opening the store page for Silent Hill f: the latest entry in Konami’s legendary horror series. Needless to say, this one gets heavy.

Silent Hill f is a new Siren-esque take on the franchise, transporting us to 1960s Japan’s Showa era, where we follow Hinako, a high school student in the rural town of Ebisugaoka, who is faced with overcoming horrors both mundane and beyond her comprehension, ranging from her personal issues with gender roles to manipulative gods puppeting the corpses of her friends and family.

For such a mainstream franchise, it’s difficult to believe that Silent Hill went on a near 12-year hiatus, broken by Silent Hill 2’s remake in 2024. The idea of a new entry in the franchise has always felt a bit amorphous, especially considering how much the series shifted after 4, but thankfully, Silent Hill f defies expectations in the best of ways, delivering something completely different that still manages to fit within the series, while also featuring a gut punch of a story thanks to Ryukishi07’s fantastic writing.

A Crimson Sickness

While this new entry doesn’t necessarily take place in the town of Silent Hill, the encroaching fog and mind-bending horrors that the series is known for are still present in the small rural town of Ebisugaoka, a seemingly innocuous and mundane location that serves as the perfect backdrop for a deluge of crimson brought on by infectious blood lilies and flesh growths, creating some beautiful contrast between the mundane and grotesque. If that’s too bland for you, the game also isn’t without its more fantastical locations, as Hinako alternates between the real world and the Dark Shrine whenever she loses consciousness, which holds some of the game’s more mythologically inspired set pieces.

While visually engaging, some of the Dark Shrine segments unfortunately stretch on for too long, making the real-life exploration parts of the game feel less grounded. The Dark Shrine is extremely relevant to the plot, directly influencing events in the story, but it does so while constantly taking your focus away from Ebisugaoka. For a game with such an interestingly layered plot, Silent Hill f really drops the ball when it comes to meshing these two parts together, to the point where it feels like you are constantly picking up and dropping alternating stories in a way that doesn’t feel satisfying.

The Souls-like Allegations

Combat is a huge part of Silent Hill f, with Hinako being quick to pick up a weapon to defend herself when the fog starts sweeping her town. It’s quite refreshing to play as a competent survival horror protagonist for once, as she is not only agile but also a bit of a menace, hitting enemies with everything she has despite only having access to improvised weaponry. The game doesn’t necessarily encourage combat, since enemies don’t drop resources, but the lack of any real stealth mechanics means you are most likely going to fight your way through most situations, especially since there are mandatory combat rooms and boss fights later on, meaning it’s in your best interest to get familiar with each enemy’s moveset for when running away isn’t an option. Hinako’s ability to engage in combat mostly relies on a combination of weapon durability and sanity, as every weapon can become unusable if it’s not repaired properly, while sanity is used to focus on enemies, giving you longer windows to counter their attacks while also charging up a hard-hitting move.

Silent Hill f’s combat is surprisingly dense mechanically, featuring stamina management, perfect dodges, and posture breaks, alongside the fact that Hinako can perform a Sekiro-esque mikiri counter whenever an enemy is about to launch an attack. While its developers disagree with calling it a Souls-like, and I do agree that it is a bit of a stretch, the action influences are plain to see, as, without spoiling too much, Hinako even gets something close to a Devil Trigger while in the Dark Shrine. This focus on action does make the game feel less like a horror title for most of its runtime, as even though its story features loads of serious and uncomfortable moments, not many scares are present throughout the exploration segments. Something to note is that a lot of the game’s sanity-related mechanics during combat are only felt when playing on higher difficulties, which I strongly recommend doing at some point to get a more significant survival horror experience, be it during your first playthrough or during NG+.

Tonally Silent Hill

Silent Hill f’s horror is intimately related to Hinako and her childhood experiences growing up in a small community, especially focusing on her relationship with the opposite gender and how society views her for not conforming to gender roles. Unlike other Silent Hill protagonists, Hinako already knows most of the game’s cast, making this “version” of the town especially insidious, as it contorts her already rocky relationships with her family and friends into much worse obsessions of jealousy and hatred.

One of the more interesting things in the game is Hinako’s journal, which she uses to catalogue new enemies, bosses, and locations. This is a game brimming with subtext, as even the things that initially don’t seem to have much of a connection with Hinako, like a monster who is a giant mound of flesh with a taiko drum embedded onto its stomach, get a journal description like, “It tries to cancel out any noise with its loud voice and banging. That’s how it’s always been,” which quickly becomes very relevant when taking Hinako’s relationship with her father into account. Hinako’s writing delivers some very important glimpses into her perception of the world, bridging the gap between what the player sees and what it means to her, enriching the story while also making you care a lot for the character.

Now Do It Again

Visual novel writer Ryukishi07 is credited for the game’s story, and part of the DNA present in his other works, as well as other visual novels in general, carries into Silent Hill f, specifically the recontextualized playthroughs and multiple endings that the genre is known for. Silent Hill as a franchise is no stranger to multiple endings; in fact, it might even be famous for them, but Silent Hill f takes things further with its inclusion of a New Game+ mode, which features new dialogue, unique puzzles, and extended cutscenes. Replaying the game is mandatory if you want to get the full story, as the first playthrough has a fixed bad ending regardless of your choices, meaning at least three playthroughs are required to see everything the game has to offer.

I have to admit, as much as I enjoyed the game, I was dreading starting another playthrough, as I expected New Game+ to be a gimmick that only added minimal changes except for the more important cutscenes later in the game. As it turns out, I was somewhat wrong about this, as there is a lot of dialogue that gets recontextualized once the game starts unveiling its plot points, which does manage to keep subsequent playthroughs novel, but there are also entire bits of the game where not much changes, with the Dark Shrine segments especially being tough to sit through. I understand this might be a deal breaker for some, and I wouldn’t blame you for being frustrated and wanting to watch the other endings on YouTube instead of replaying through the entire game multiple times, but I do believe you would be robbing yourself of a really unique experience by doing so, even if it can be a test of patience at times.

Final Verdict

Silent Hill f is undeniably fresh and engaging, presenting fans of the genre with a story that is rich with subtext and commentary in a way that few other games could manage to. This would be a near-perfect experience if it could find a better way to mesh the real world and Dark Shrine together, both in the first playthrough and New Game+, but it’s still a very easy recommendation to make.

Regardless of its growing pains, Silent Hill f’s layered story is genuinely impressive to see, and Ryukishi07 does a great job at implementing a plot that is deeply rooted in Japanese mythology and culture into the series without feeling out of place. Konami’s gamble to partner with such a unique writer has definitely paid off, and I can only imagine Silent Hill fans are excited to see what’ll come next now that the series has gained a second wind.

Silent Hill f was reviewed on PC with a code provided by Konami. It is also available on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.

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