Summary
Silent Hilldebuted on the PS1 in 1999, following survival horror hits likeResident EvilandClock Tower. The series initially performed well, but then it fell off a bit, and subsequently, Konami withdrew from game development across all its franchises.Silent Hillmade a comeback in 2024 after a big hiatus with the successful release of theSilent Hill 2remake and the more divisiveSilent Hill: The Short Message.
Now,Silent Hill fis coming soon, and is set to release in September 2025.Silent Hill fis the first brand-new, fully featuredSilent Hilltitle in over a decade. Based on recent news and trailers, these are all the details we know about the game so far.
6The Release Date
September Is Getting Packed
Silent Hill fwas officially announced in 2022 alongsidemultipleSilent Hillprojects. Not much was shown back then beyond a title, and now, years later, Konami has finally put a date on it.Silent Hill fwill launch onSeptember 25, 2025for PS5, Xbox consoles, and PC systems.
September was already looking packed before Sony’s State of Play, with games likeMarathon,Borderlands 4, andHell Is Us.Now it is absolutely swimming with big titles, including another big announcement,Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles,a remaster of the PS1 game.How willSilent Hill fstack up next to these games, and can it hit that September release date?
5The Setting And Protagonist
Hinako’s Nightmare
The setting is the most striking thing aboutSilent Hill f,because, unlike otherSilent Hillentries, this onetakes place in Japan. The game stars a young teen schoolgirl named Hinako who resides in the small town of Ebisugaoka alongside some classmates, including Shu, Rinko, and Sakuko. Even more mysterious is the 1960s era, which means technology will be low-tech, not that this series has ever been cutting-edge with gadgets.
The greatest asset to anySilent Hillplayable character has always been a portable radio, and Hinako can surely manage to find one of those in Ebisugaoka. After years of taking place in the literal town of Silent Hill in the U.S., it’s nice to see Konami take a big chance withSilent Hill f. Whether 1960s Japan will be this game’s only setting is a mystery for now.
4Exploring The World
First-Person Puzzles And More?
Most of the footage shown so far, between the latest trailer and screenshots, has Hinako exploring the streets of Ebisugaoka in third-person. This version of the town is known as the Fog World, similar to howcharacters explore Silent Hillin the other games. There is also the Otherworld, which is shown briefly, where Hinako explores a field full of mannequins dressed as schoolchildren.
While exploring this section, Hinako switches to a first-person perspective to explore a puppet for clues.MostSilent Hillgames have been played with perspectives during puzzle segments before, but few have been fully featured from a first-person perspective.Perspectives aside, it’s unknown if Hinako can access the Otherworld of her own accord or if it will be an automatic switch for story purposes, as the series has played with both ideas in the past.
3Hinako’s Weapons
She Needs More To Fight The Forces Of Fog
In the trailers and screenshots forSilent Hill f, Hinako’s main weapon seems to be a pipe. It’s a classic weapon in the series and is just about as iconic asCloud’s Buster Sword inFinal Fantasy 7or Gordon Freeman’s crowbar in theHalf-Lifegames. Fans know that melee weapons typically break over time in theSilent Hillgames, forcing them to get new weapons as they progress.
This may not be the case inSilent Hill,since Hinako’s pipe in the trailers does show wear and tear, but she never throws it away.This could be a story feature to show that this pipe has gone through some stuff to get Hinako to safety. Besides that, the latest trailer also shows Hinako holding a Naginata, which is a type of Japanese spear players have probably handled in other games likeSamurai WarriorsorNioh. Whether weapons break or not inSilent Hill fis a mystery, but so far, Hinako seems to rely on that pipe quite a bit.
2The Enemies
The Doll Aesthetic Continues
Most enemies in theSilent Hillseriesare repurposed mannequins, from ones that crawl under cars to creepy nurses who prefer harm over healing. The doll-based aesthetic returns inSilent Hill f,but with a new twist on life, as the enemies look more like the puppets that artists use for drawing. It’s a common technique used by manga and anime artists, for example, which suits the Japanese setting.
The most common enemy in the trailer is the Kashimashi, which are the almost-naked dolls. The Ayakakashi are the clothed school children, and the Ara-abare is a giant flower-infused monster that looks like it came out ofThe Last of Us. There is also the boss character Hinako faces at the end of the latest trailer, along with the Oi-omoi, which can be found on the Konami website forSilent Hill f. All in all, these are nightmares born from imaginative Japanese minds, and there are likely more to be found in the full game.
1Ripped Clothing
Is This A Health Mechanic Or A Storytelling Device?
There’s an interesting mechanic at play inSilent Hill fthat some may not have noticed. There are several scenes where Hinako has ripped clothing, like one in the latest trailer that shows her attacking a monster with a torn right sleeve on her school uniform.Silent Hill fwould not be the first game to do this for a gameplay or story reason.
For example, in theBatman: Arkhamgames, Batman’s suit will change over time to reflect the danger he goes through during his hectic nights on patrol, and is there for story purposes only.The 3rd Birthday, on the other hand, has a clothing mechanic to reflect Aya’s damage. So, is the tearing of clothes inSilent Hill fa story or gameplay mechanic? It’s another mystery, but since they show it in the trailers, it’s not insignificant.
