Silent Hill f Review — One of the Best Games in the Series, but with a Catch

Silent Hill f is a project of extraordinary importance. Its creators faced the difficult task of proving that the franchise has truly returned. One could argue that this was already accomplished last year by Polish studio Bloober Team with their release of Silent Hill 2, but remaking a cult classic is not the same as building a successful new game from scratch. We haven’t seen a worthy original Silent Hill since, arguably, the third installment. But at long last, the wait is over: Silent Hill f truly is the kind of release fans have dreamed about for decades. The catch is, not everyone will embrace it.

Silent Hill f takes place in 1960s Japan, in the small town of Ebisugaoka. At the center of the story is a young girl named Hinako, who, together with her friends, is drawn into a surreal nightmare come to life: the townspeople mysteriously vanish, a thick fog rolls in, and monsters begin roaming the streets. Gradually, all of Ebisugaoka becomes covered in ominous red flora and pulsating organic growths.

Given the radical shift in setting, the biggest question on fans’ minds before release was how Silent Hill f would fit into the series. And here, things get complicated.

The game fully dives into psychological horror — Silent Hill’s hallmark. Hinako is a character with a heavy burden: she clashes with her abusive, alcoholic father, despises her mother for enabling him, and faces immense pressure from patriarchal Japanese society in the mid-20th century. Her friends dislike her because as a child she preferred playing with boys, while adults try to force a conservative gender role upon her — to become a submissive wife and abandon her own interests and ambitions. Her trauma manifests as monsters and visions, which is entirely in line with Silent Hill.

Another crucial part of the narrative is the strange rituals Hinako undergoes. She meets a mysterious man in white, his face hidden behind a fox mask, and follows his instructions to cleanse and ascend. Religious themes are nothing new for the series. The first and especially the third installments revolved around sinister deities and a cult seeking to resurrect their god through dark ceremonies.

However, the rituals shown in Silent Hill f — and the entire religious layer of its story — are tightly interwoven with Japanese mythology rather than the established Silent Hill lore. I found no direct connections to other games in the franchise. Perhaps future analyses (and there will certainly be many) will uncover parallels, but it’s far from guaranteed. The writers of Silent Hill f seem to embrace the idea that Silent Hill is more a state of mind than a literal town in the U.S. — or even a paranormal phenomenon, as suggested in Silent Hill: The Short Message.

Silent Hill f isn’t just disconnected from the franchise in terms of lore — it feels different in spirit, too. The classic Team Silent games represented an Eastern perspective on Western horror. The new project, however, is pure Japanese horror. There’s no “Americana,” no influence from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, nor Stephen King’s The Mist.

Atmospherically, Silent Hill f feels closest to its predecessors when wandering through Ebisugaoka’s foggy streets, but even then the distinct visual style — Japanese backdrops consumed by invasive flora — starkly contrasts with anything we’ve seen before.

When Hinako travels to the Dark Shrine, the equivalent of the Otherworld, the ties to Silent Hill grow even weaker. This dimension of traditional Japanese temples lacks the rusted industrial hellscape fans are used to.

In other words, purists will likely see Silent Hill f as too much of a departure. The thematic overlap is real, but the differences are major, and without direct lore connections, the game often feels like a standalone product.

That said, when judged on its own, without nostalgia or canon loyalty, it’s hard not to praise the work of writer Ryukishi07 and Neobards Entertainment. Silent Hill f’s story is deeply engrossing — both in Hinako’s personal suffering and the unusual folklore surrounding her.

The plot is delivered obliquely, in the best tradition of Silent Hill 2, but the ambiguity doesn’t frustrate. Quite the opposite: psychological horror works best when the narrative can be interpreted in multiple ways. And for players who want clear answers, there’s New Game+, which unlocks secret endings and changes many dialogues to clarify the story.

Finally, while Silent Hill f’s atmosphere may not be “Silent Hill” in the classic sense, it’s no less breathtaking. The visual style is mesmerizing, walking the line between grotesque and beautiful, while the soundtrack leaves a mark by blending dark industrial tones with traditional Japanese instruments like the shamisen.

The only real shortcoming is the monster design: sadly, there’s no creature here as iconic as Pyramid Head.

Silent Hill f is an action game with survival horror elements. From its predecessors and the genre at large, it inherits the focus on scavenging useful items and solving puzzles to progress.

Straying from the main path almost always yields rewards — new weapons or restorative items. Some restore health, others stamina or sanity (more on that shortly). The most valuable ones regenerate multiple attributes at once.

The developers also introduced a clever mechanic that forces players to make tough choices: which items to keep in your inventory, and which to sacrifice at altar checkpoints to higher powers. A bar of imported chocolate — a rare treasure in 1960s Japan — helps Hinako maintain sanity in battle, but offering it to the spirits earns a substantial boost in faith points.

Faith strengthens the character by permanently boosting attributes like max stamina. It can also be spent to draw a random charm that grants useful bonuses — for example, a mantis charm restores a bit of health after each successful parry.

Thus, players constantly face the dilemma of what to trade for faith and what to keep for upcoming battles — exactly the kind of tension survival horror thrives on.

Weapons are another reason to scour every corner of the map. Silent Hill f has no firearms; combat relies on rusty pipes, baseball bats, and axes, all of which break quickly. To avoid being left defenseless, it’s best to rotate weapons frequently and use repair kits. Only in the Dark Shrine does Hinako gain access to unique artifacts like a naginata — weapons that don’t break.

Though there’s plenty of loot, many secret paths lead nowhere. Level design is more linear than in the Silent Hill 2 remake, which is a bit disappointing. There are some complex locations, such as Ebisugaoka’s middle school, that play like “dungeons” from last year’s remake — full of rooms to explore, keys to find, and clever puzzles. But these are rarer than they should be, especially near the end, when the game leans too heavily on straight runs through enemy hordes.

In terms of “action horror,” Silent Hill f leans heavily toward action, which will again divide fans. The earlier games had their share of fights, and Bloober’s remake arguably too many, but this new entry goes further still. Fortunately, combat is fun.

The combat system is surprisingly layered. Fights aren’t just about watching your health bar; stamina is critical too. Swing a weapon carelessly or spam dodge, and you’ll burn out fast. Sanity also plays a huge role — it drops when facing especially grotesque monsters or when you use the focus mode. Focus is vital: activating it allows Hinako to deliver a heavy strike that staggers enemies. It also widens the parry window, letting you deflect attacks and stun foes.

At first, combat feels tricky, but once it “clicks,” it’s very rewarding. Its nuances shine especially during boss battles, which feel like full-fledged souls-like encounters. Developers may dislike the comparison, but honestly, it’s the best way to convey the intensity of Silent Hill f’s fights.

The decision to exclude firearms was the right one: melee battles force you to face every monster head-on, raising the stakes.

The only real drawback is how the system struggles against groups. When focused on one enemy, it’s much harder to parry attacks from the sides or back. Often, though, enemies can be lured one by one. And in situations where that’s impossible — particularly later in the game — the developers provide an effective anti-horde solution, which I won’t spoil here.

A deep combat system isn’t unusual for action games, but it is for horror. And that’s one of the reasons Silent Hill f feels fresh within the genre. Its story dives so deeply into Japanese mythology and culture (in the best way) that predicting its direction is impossible. Neobards Entertainment’s atmospheric world is equally impressive — strikingly unique. It’s possible that if the developers had made a traditional Silent Hill sequel, the wow factor would have been lost.

All in all, this is a peculiar situation. Silent Hill f is the strongest original entry in the brand in a long time. Yet it strays so far from franchise traditions that, ironically, fans will now spend years debating whether it counts as a “real” Silent Hill.

Have you played it yet? Share your impressions in the comments.