Silent Hill f [Review]

It is within horror that hope is the clearest. Although I'm not an expert on Silent Hill – I've only played the 2024 Remake before – I've always felt compelled to play “what comes next” for the franchise. My expectations were high, even though it is from a different team from the said remake that I enjoyed.

Named only with a lower case and italic “f”, what I've got was one of the most interesting and well written narratives that I've ever seen in a horror story, while strengthening the visual and interactive aspect of the video game medium in a rarely seen balance.

Let's address the elephant in the room: Silent Hill f required me to play the game three times to really understand everything. And while this is something that I often detest in games (even in the ones I liked overall, like Armored Core 6).

Here on f, I'm surprisingly positive on it. Replaying the game more than once made me fully realize and understand the story, and it helps that there's a decent system that indicates what cutscene is new and what is skippable; The story can be somewhat obtuse, but by the third replay (with the said added scenes), everything made sense. It took about 35 hours to get all of them, so it is not that long, but can be longer if the game is played on a harder difficulty, something I didn't do this time.

Even on “Story”, the easier difficulty, I found the challenge fine, and it was common for me to die and get lost. The puzzles, also with a difficulty toggle, were challenging as well on “Story”, which I recommend overall. I feel that having a difficulty between the “Story” and “Hard” would've been ideal, but I enjoyed my time regardless.

While the game itself is set in 60s Japan, Silent Hill f brings a good reflection on the way that women were – and, sadly, still are – treated in society, with parallels that are both universal and local for Japanese Women and Women worldwide.

Everything related to the story is top-notch, as well as the characters and their twists and tribulations along the way, but it is relevant to say that sometimes there's too much exposition and repetition. Hinako, the main character, is amazing, and as the player I felt compelled to go through hell (three times) to free her from her suffering. It felt rewarding to finally see the plot points being carefully ended as the replays went on, but undeniably, it felt repetitive. To me, at least. But, again, there's an artistic argument to be made with the replays, it worked for me, so, yeah, again, this one makes sense to play three times, I promise.

The visuals and sound of this game were simply insane. There were movie-like moments with pristine illumination and movement work that is still just a bit stylized, and it works so much. Every place is endearing, and while the game may sometimes be a bit too dark, it has a nice color palette with increasingly more unsettling combinations. The soundtrack has lots of classical Japanese instruments, so they sometimes felt alien to me, and worked to add to the uncanniness of it all.

Combat wise, yeah, this is not f's strongest part. It is not terrible by any mean, and the way that weapons, counters and the “sanity” systems interact together is very well done. Undeniable though is that there's not enough enemy variety by the end, and because of it, the fear kinda goes away. The second and third playthrough are considerably less scary because of it.

I've felt very hopeful by the end, and while I may not fully relate to the struggles the characters go through in this game, it felt really genuine to me and the narrative excels on the empathy of it all. Silent Hill f shown me horrible, terrible outcomes, but also a happy one, for once, with a rewarding narrative and great storytelling packaged in a horror game.

It may seem daunting to play the game three times to “get it all” (it is not). It also may feel daunting to experience some scares and gore with a so-so and samey battle system.

The catch is: it is worth it.

9/10