After years of waiting and uncertainty, Silent Hill f restores the popular horror series to its former glory

Cassie Mammone

22/9/2025

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Pictures: Cassie Mammone

Silent Hill f breaks new ground for the series by moving the setting to rural Japan. Finally, the years of waiting are over and the comeback’s a huge success. The only fly in the ointment is the combat system.

The Silent Hill series reached its peak with the second and third instalments and has suffered many setbacks since then. Only last year’s remake of the second part was a ray of hope after around 20 years of waiting – especially in view of the cancelled Silent Hills demo.

Despite the successful remake, one question remains: is the new Silent Hill main part just as good? The answer to that is yes. Silent Hill f is an excellent survival horror game. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite tick all the boxes to be a masterpiece.

The new location is a perfect fit

The setting of the early Silent Hill games was inspired by cities in the US. The rural, fictional village of Ebisugaoka featured in Silent Hill f, on the other hand, is located in Japan – a complete turnaround. But that’s not a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ebisugaoka screams Silent Hill.

In Silent Hill f, you play schoolgirl Hinako. After her abusive father shouts at her for the umpteenth time, she runs away. Hinako seeks distraction from her friends Rinko and Sakuko and her best buddy Shu.

However, the journey to see her friends in their sleepy little village is an unusual one. There’s no trace of the villagers and there’s fog everywhere. Even Hinako’s friends are behaving strangely. Weird things are happening at such a pace that the friends split up. Hinako’s on her own. As if that wasn’t enough, monsters suddenly start appearing in Ebisugaoka.

At this point at the latest, I’m sure: yes, this is true Silent Hill material.

Battles take up more space than before

At the start of the game, I make my way through the village to find my friends. Along the way, I learn the game’s combat mechanics, which are much more sophisticated than in the previous main parts. Unlike James (Silent Hill 2), Heather (Silent Hill 3) and the like, Hinako can really defend herself against the monsters.

This is unusual for the series, which is otherwise known for its «weak» characters who don’t have superhuman abilities. Weird. At the same time, the revised combat system is also a necessary update. Why? Because from today’s perspective, the battles in the old games are no fun.

Hinako’s a strong girl and a talented close-combat fighter. She collects steel pipes or sickles, for example, which serve as improvised weapons in the fight against the monsters. You can also choose between going in with a light or a heavy attack. If you wait patiently, the game will show you when a monster is particularly vulnerable.

At the touch of a button, you can activate focus mode to make it easier to recognise particularly vulnerable moments in monsters. This also refills your focus bar. When that’s fully charged, you can inflict more damage with a light attack. The disadvantage of this is that you lose mental health in focus mode. Once this reaches zero, you lose health.

You also have to keep an eye on your stamina bar during fights. Strikes cost you stamina, just like dodging or running. This makes battles with several monsters at the same time particularly tricky and unpleasant. In these moments, Silent Hill f feels more like its predecessors. Personally, I’d rather avoid confrontation.

In the trailer for the game, you can see the action for yourself from minute 01:20, albeit without the bars:

All this action requires resources. On my journey through Ebisugaoka, I regularly find food or spiritual items that restore my values. Weapons also become blunt and eventually break over time if they’re used repeatedly. A tool kit slows down this process.

The resource management corresponds to the usual genre standard and is a source of stress because your inventory space is limited. To save space, you can sacrifice items at shrines and receive faith in return. Faith is needed to level up and become stronger. This creates an interesting dilemma: do you get the extra faith points for level increases and extra health, or do you want to have a few more emergency healing items in your inventory?

I’m not a huge fan of the combat system. The monsters take too much time to become vulnerable. As my patience wanes, it doesn’t feel very rewarding when I escape a threat unscathed. Hinako’s just too slow, with too little stamina for that.

So I put up with the fights like I did in the predecessors, because I like the rest all the more. For example, the grotesquely designed monsters. Anyone familiar with the Silent Hill series knows that the monsters weren’t just created for their shock value. Rather, they embody the inner demons of the characters. The bosses in particular are impressively scary.

If you’re also less keen on action, you can choose between the two difficulty levels, Story and Hard. Story mode is more like your classic Silent Hill experience, but, again, I’m not liking the battles here either.

Especially in the last two hours of the game, run-ins with monsters increase considerably, which unnecessarily drags out the game with boring filler. With a total length of eleven to twelve hours for one playthrough, this is disappointing.

Impressive puzzle design is still part of Silent Hill

Silent Hill f packs a lot of action. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that the game’s ditched those typical puzzles. In fact, the nostalgia I was missing in the combat system is made up for in puzzles. There’s something for everyone: from smaller puzzles you need to unlock a treasure chest to dungeons.

I like to compare the larger areas from older Silent Hill games with the Legend of Zelda series. In the hospital of Silent Hill 2, I make my way through a Zelda-type dungeon by solving numerous puzzles that allow me to explore more and more of the hospital. I experience this again in Silent Hill f. Moments like these are my highlights of the game.

Unlike in previous games, I’m also presented with shorter puzzle sections away from the large dungeons. They consist of a clear quest with a straightforward structure.

For example, a scarecrow field that confronts Hinako with a past trauma. I’m presented with a clue and repeatedly have to pick the right scarecrow from a row of them before being shown the way. This bit is short, eerie and challenging and a juicy puzzle snack.

Between two worlds

A foggy village, grotesque monsters dripping in symbolism, action-packed battles and exciting puzzles. Not to mention the unique selling point of Silent Hill games in the latest instalment: switching between «normal» and «nightmare».

The predecessors of Silent Hill f are often praised for those sudden switches to a nightmarish version of where you are. This nightmare world also exists in this instalment. Only this time, the game world isn’t filled with rusted metal, but with boils and blood-red flowers. It’s strangely beautiful.

This blood-red nightmarish world appears again and again – in Ebisugaoka, the dungeons and during escape sequences. Hinako is haunted by it.

But that’s not the only version of the nightmare world. As soon as Hinako falls asleep or loses consciousness, she finds herself in a place that seems to have nothing to do with Ebisugaoka. The world seems mystical and dreamlike, and it’s up to you as the player to figure out where you are in that moment.

The events that unfold in the dream world happen simultaneously to those in the real world. Hinako keeps seeing her friends there without knowing whether they’re actually there. At least she’s not alone. A mysterious man wearing a fox mask accompanies her in the dream world and puts her on the right path. Or so it seems.

In this dream world, Hinako’s confronted even more with her inner demons. Enemies appear in larger numbers and have more extreme designs. Hinako confronts her circle of friends in a way she never could in real life. This is the kind of sophisticated psychological horror I’ve come to expect from the Silent Hill series.

Another plus is that several endings await in the finale of Silent Hill f. As soon as the credits start rolling, you unlock New Game+. This means you get to keep basic things like status upgrades, collectibles and so on, and you can experience changes in the story in the next playthrough. It allows you to unlock additional endings.

Coupled with the strong symbolism of the game, it provides a lot of talking points for the gaming community. Just like the music, which was composed in part by series legend Akira Yamaoka. The Japanese sounds of misty Ebisugaoka were penned by him, while fellow composer Kensuke Inage (Dynasty Warriors) is responsible for the background music of this nightmare world.

Silent Hill f was released on 25 September 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The Steam version was provided to me by Konami for testing purposes.

Cassie Mammone

Freelance Editor

cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.com

I wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.

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