A new era of horror: Silent Hill f returns to its Japanese roots, promising "beauty in terror"
We are used to the fact that the games of the SIlent Hill series take place in the city of the same name, which is not surprising, but the upcoming Silent Hill f will take us to Japan and the authors explained this change of vector.
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"Silent Hill was a series that combined the essence of Western horror and Japanese horror," said series producer Motoi Okamoto. "But as the series evolved, I felt that the essence of Japanese horror was lost. I began to feel the urge to create a Silent Hill with 100% of the essence of Japanese horror."
Part of what makes Silent Hill unique is that it is inspired largely by American horror - Stephen King's books, films like Jacob's Ladder - but seen through a Japanese lens. It has streets named after Dean Koontz, Robert Bloch, Richard Bachman and Ira Levine, but also borrows from books by Ryu Murakami and Kobo Abe, and the monsters you meet there and the other world you travel to have designs reminiscent of the Japanese take on Clive Barker via David Lynch.
"The hallmark of Japanese horror is not just grotesqueness, but the coexistence of beauty and the disturbing," Okamoto continued. "We are creating this game with the concept of 'find beauty in terror'."
Al Yang, Game Director of Silent Hill f, added: "A key concept in Silent Hill F is the idea of beauty in terror. We created our visual designs to be distinctly uncomfortable, but also have a terrifying charm that would make you want to keep looking." These designs are based on concepts by Japanese artist Kera, who worked on Spirit Hunter: NG and Magic: The Gathering.
Considering how poorly received some of the Silent Hill games created by American studios have been - especially Homecoming, with its protagonist being a former special forces soldier, which created a stark contrast to the regular people who have previously been in the series - having a sequel that is as Japanese as possible makes sense.
Silent Hill f is out on 25 September on PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5.
Source: Konami
