Silent Hill F trailer sheds light on the first game in the series to be set in Japan

Konami has shown more of Silent Hill F, the eighth main entry in the Silent Hill series.

Silent Hill F was originally announced back in October 2022, but very little of the game has been since then. This has now changed following the latest Silent Hill Transmission broadcast, which showed more of the game, which is developed by Taiwan-based studio NeoBards Entertainment.

The game will be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Windows Store.

Rather than its usual setting of a fictional town in the US state of Maine, Silent Hill F is instead set in Japan in the 1960s.

“Shimizu Hinako was living her life as an ordinary teenager,” the game’s story reads. “That is, until her town is suddenly shrouded in fog and begins to change in a horrific way.

“Now she must explore a town she no longer recognises while solving puzzles, fighting strange enemies and doing everything she can to survive, in order to face the ultimate decision that she must make. This is a tale about a beautiful yet terrifying choice.”

In the presentation Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto explained that the main concept for Silent Hill F is “find the beauty in terror”.

“While Silent Hill F retains the series’ core elements of psychological horror, we challenged ourselves by setting the game in Japan and leaning on those themes,” he explained.

“A noticeable feature of Japanese horror is the idea that terror can be found within beauty. When something becomes too immensely beautiful and perfect, it instead becomes deeply unsettling. And so, players will experience this world through the eyes of a young girl who is faced with a beautiful yet terrifying decision.”

The game is written by Ryūkishi07, a writer best known for their Japanese visual novels focusing on murder mysteries, psychological and supernatural horror. While his story is completely standalone from the rest of the Silent Hill series, Ryūkishi07 says there are still easter eggs in there for fans to spot.

“This game was both a return to Silent Hill’s origins as well as a series of new challenges,” he said. “An easy example of a challenge we faced is whether we can still make Silent Hill work while departing from the titular town.

“Naturally, from a creator’s standpoint, I feel I can confidently say that what we’ve made is a Silent Hill game. However, we’re interested in seeing how long-time fans of the series feel after playing, and if they agree.”

Before working on Silent Hill F, developer NeoBards had worked on games from other classic IPs including Devil May Cry HD Collection, Onimusha: Warlords Remaster and the Resident Evil Origins Collection for Switch.

More recently, it contributed to Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, as well as Marvel’s Avengers.