Horror with soulslike elements? What kind of game is Silent Hill f shaping up to be

The upcoming Silent Hill f, releasing next month, is in some ways an even more significant project than last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake. The Polish studio Bloober Team did an excellent job modernizing the classic, no doubt. But the Taiwanese NeoBards Entertainment faces an even harder challenge: to prove that the Silent Hill series is still capable of delighting players with new, original stories — something many fans believe it hasn’t done since the third game. Fortunately, judging by the information about Silent Hill f that has surfaced in recent weeks, the game has a very high chance of success.

The protagonist of Silent Hill f is a schoolgirl named Hinako Shimizu, who lives in the fictional Japanese town of Ebisugaoka in the mid-1960s. The developers chose this period because they believe it is one of the most unique in the history of the Land of the Rising Sun: it was a time when the country began rapidly modernizing and transforming into one of the world’s leading technological powers, yet the spirit of old Japan was still strongly felt in architecture and culture.

This period of transition applies not only to the country but also to Hinako herself, who has just entered adolescence and now faces various challenges. She is withdrawn and confused. Yes, she has friends of her age, but she doesn’t always get along with them, and at home her parents are constantly in conflict.

After her father once again got drunk and caused a scene, Hinako ran away from home and went to meet her friends. When the group gathered, they were suddenly pulled into a dark version of their hometown — filled with fog and monsters.

In the best Silent Hill tradition, the heroine must find a way out of the mystical dimension by confronting the manifestations of her own inner demons. At the same time, she must beware not only of the monsters roaming the streets of Ebisugaoka but also of her peers who ended up trapped with her. Their behavior is strange, and fans of the series know: the Silent Hill phenomenon rarely draws in people with a clear conscience.

By the way, the game features five different endings, including a humorous UFO finale — just like in the older entries of the franchise. On the first playthrough, all players will see the same outcome, but on subsequent runs, they will be able to unlock the others. According to the developers, the distinction between “good” and “bad” endings is left entirely to personal interpretation.

Like the recent remake of the second installment, Silent Hill f stands on three pillars: atmosphere, exploration, and combat. And in the case of the new project, the most intriguing element, surprisingly, is combat, because the developers at NeoBards put an unexpected amount of effort into the battle system.

Combat in Silent Hill f is quite unorthodox for the franchise. First of all, there are no firearms in the game at all: no pistols, no shotguns. Hinako relies solely on makeshift melee weapons — rusty pipes, sickles, clubs. When the phases of the mystical dimension shift and the so-called Otherworld takes over — an even more terrifying version of reality than foggy Ebisugaoka — ceremonial daggers and naginatas appear, which Hinako can use against the most dangerous entities.

The developers admit they initially aimed to bring Silent Hill f’s combat closer to the standards of modern action games. They don’t mention the soulslike genre explicitly, but the influence of hits like Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is fairly obvious. For example, Silent Hill f places great importance on a stamina bar: every strike and every dodge consumes it — just like in FromSoftware games.

In addition, Silent Hill f features mechanics such as Perfect Dodge and counterattacks. If the player dodges at the right timing, the heroine restores all her stamina. This system adds depth to combat and encourages risk-taking for short-term advantages.

The counterattack mechanic also raises the stakes significantly. Enemies flash briefly at the end of a long combo — a signal that they can be dealt extra damage. That is, of course, if the player reacts quickly enough. In such cases, combat can be simplified a bit by activating Focus mode, which slightly slows down time, making it easier to land well-timed counters.

However, keep in mind that Focus only works if you have enough of the sanity gauge. Silent Hill f has a separate indicator for the heroine’s mental health, which is spent both when using Focus and passively during prolonged exposure to monsters.

If you play on Normal or higher, expect some tough challenges. Boss battles can be as demanding as those in any Souls game: multiple phases with different attack sets that must be memorized in order to succeed. One journalist who played Silent Hill f admitted he spent over an hour fighting a particularly dangerous foe — which is definitely unusual for the series. However, unlike Dark Souls, here the difficulty can always be lowered.

Also, it sometimes makes more sense to avoid regular enemies: they don’t drop loot, so if possible, it’s better not to engage unnecessarily.

Melee weapons break, and you can only carry three at a time, which makes it critically important to explore every corner of Ebisugaoka in order to always have some kind of defense ready. On top of that, you also need to search for healing items.

Extra first aid kits can be sacrificed at special checkpoints — shrines — to gain permanent character upgrades, such as a perk that reduces stamina consumption or random useful amulets. So players will regularly have to choose: embark on a dangerous journey with more healing items or trade them for lasting buffs.

Ebisugaoka is a fairly large town with many hidden forks and alleys. The location is full of secrets, enemies, and of course puzzles. The puzzles are reminiscent of those from previous games in the series: for example, in one task you need to use a poem to find the correct images among many scattered wooden boards with carvings. Just the way fans love it. However, if fiddling with all this doesn’t appeal to you, the options menu includes a separate puzzle difficulty setting.

Of course, it’s too early to draw conclusions about the quality of Silent Hill f, but at this stage, the game is shaping up to be extremely intriguing. It balances the old and the new in an interesting way: the series’ atmosphere is intact, all the key elements are present, but at the same time the project feels fresh thanks to the bold shift in setting from American to Japanese and the developers’ experiments with mechanics like the combat system.

How harmoniously all of Silent Hill f’s elements blend together we’ll find out very soon — the game releases on September 25 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.