Transcript of SILENT HILL f is Brilliant (And Here's Why)
RagnarRox
0:05Don’t look now, but it’s been more than a decade
since the world first caught a glimpse of P.T.,0:10the Playable Teaser for a Silent Hill sequel-that-
never-was.0:17It was the Jodorowsky’s Dune of videogames—a
brilliant, experimental, ahead-of-its-time proof0:24of concept for a game that never materialized and0:27ultimately got discarded
like yesterday’s newspaper.0:30But despite the cancellation and de-listing, this
humble hourlong experience managed to become0:35one of the all-time most influential horror games,
busting into mainstream consciousness in a way0:41that few other games have accomplished.0:43P.T. was “completely unique and without precedent,
not to mention hugely influential on the developers0:48who followed,” as no lesser a source than
Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya put it.0:53Post-P.T., there was a popular explosion of
atmospheric stalker-horror games,0:58especially across the indie development scene.1:00And this led directly to the revitalization and
(some would say) total revolution of the rival series1:06Resident Evil thanks to
game number VII, Biohazard,1:09which directly mimicked the
presentation and tone of P.T.1:13This was a charmingly ironic turn of events,
considering that Silent Hill only came into being1:18in the first place because Konami looked at the
multimillion-selling popularity of the first Resi1:23and said “Go make us a Jill Sandwich
we can slap our own branding on.”1:27The rest was history.1:29In the 10 years that followed the aborted birth of
P.T., the series went completely dormant.1:34It actually seemed as though Silent
Hill might be well and truly dead,1:38and the dream of another game would die with it.1:41Until, that is… The triumphant
return of the GOAT Silent Hill 2,1:45with the excellent 2024 remake from Bloober Team.1:48And this remake was going to be followed a year
later by Silent Hill f—1:52a proper full-fat-full- flavor new entry in
the series by the dev team at NeoBards Entertainment.1:59This game was hyped in pre-release as something of
a return to form, but also as an entirely fresh2:05take on the series’ key themes: the nuts-and-bolts
combination of mechanical disempowerment2:10and slow- burning psychological terror that gives Silent
Hill2:14such a distinct identity within the
survival horror pantheon.2:18Now, Silent Hill f has been
released into the wild.2:21And boy oh boy, is this game absolutely
primed for a themes-and-mechanics deep-dive2:26into exactly what makes it such a
strange and compelling beast.2:30So when Konami reached out and asked whether I
would be interested in partnering on a video for2:34the release of Silent Hill f, I hopped the next
express elevator down to the Otherworld, because I2:38already had a script in the
works, because this one...2:41phew...2:42I have a plethora of Big Thoughts about this game.2:45If you’ve seen any of my other sponsored videos,
then you already know my ground rules:2:48Total editorial control over the contents
of the script, and no mandatory praise.2:53I’m going to give you my honest and candid opinion
on everything this game does right,2:57as well as places where I think it comes up short.3:00But this is also not a review, plenty of people
have already given their x-outta-ten rating3:05and opinion on the quality of the game.3:07Instead, I’m incredibly excited to talk about this
game because analyzing the lore and themes of3:12Silent Hill is a big part of
how I got started on YouTube.3:15And really, now that the game has already been out
for a bit, I didn’t want to just blast out a3:20standard-issue “review and first impressions” type
of video—but I craved to dig deeper into this game3:26with the kind of serious thematic analysis that I
genuinely think it deserves.3:31Because in my view, Silent Hill f
easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder3:35with the first four games
by the original Team Silent.3:38It’s a slickly presented action-horror thrillride
that puts a new spin3:42on the core elements of the series in
quite bold and effective ways.3:46It also might be the most edgy and
provocative this series has ever been,3:51and hoo boy am I excited
to talk about that as well!3:54So let’s get cozy, grab a portable
radio, and watch the fog roll in3:58as the world dissolves into a
kaleidoscope of rust and gore.4:02Or in this case: A sea of creeping kudzu and red
spider lily corpse-flowers.4:07It’s time to go back… To our special place…4:12(squish)4:22The core quadrilogy of
Silent Hill games4:25by the original Team Silent is well-known as being
more popular outside of Japan than vice-versa.4:30Which makes sense, considering how these games
have the unique imprint of a Japanese development4:35studio working on a western-style horror
story in a modern New England setting,4:39situated within the deeply esoteric lore
of the gnostic religions of pre-modern Europe.4:45And that’s not even getting into the incredibly
long shadow of Twin Peaks in Japanese pop-culture,4:50something that was hugely
influential to Silent Hill.4:53The original Silent Hill games were distinctly
Japanese in their survival horror mechanics,4:58but with narratives drawn from
Western locales and mythologies.5:02And so, Silent Hill f aims to perform something
like the ultimate volte-face about-face5:07for the series: A much more internationally-minded
approach to the mechanics and combat design,5:12but with a setting and narrative that
draws extensively from Japanese history5:16and the ancient customs of the Shinto religion.5:19It’s Silent Hill, re-imagined as a ‘Dark Mirror’
reflection of itself.5:24The connective through-line to the original Team
Silent is maintained here through the return of5:28longtime series composer Akira Yamaoka,
who scored the ‘Fog World’ half of the game5:32that takes place in the physical realm.5:34And taking the reins as the lead scenario writer
is Ryukishi07, the author of the legendary5:40murder mystery slash psychological horror series
Higurashi, and its many sequels and spinoffs.5:47It’s the early 1960s of Showa-era Japan.5:50This isn’t the bounteous Bubble Era of the 1980s
that we know so well in the popular consciousness,5:55but rather the poverty-stricken years
of post- World War II reconstruction6:00when so much of the country
still lived in grinding deprivation.6:03Our protagonist Shimizu Hinako lives in
the rural Japanese town of Ebisugaoka,6:07which was inspired by the location scouting the
devs did in the mountains, forests, and villages6:12of the real-world Gifu Prefecture.6:14The teenaged Hinako is a
tomboy through and through:6:17she keeps her hair trimmed short in a tidy bob,6:19she’s a star athlete at school, and
she’s got absolutely no patience6:23for all the ‘girly’ and feminine pursuits
that keep her peers so preoccupied,6:27like boys, makeup, and fashion.6:30Aside from a handful of school chums (who
secretly seem to hate her guts and consider her6:34a romantic rival), Hinako’s only close
companion is her childhood best friend Shu,6:38who is clearly nursing an unrequited crush on her.6:41At first blush, this almost sounds like the setup
to some kind of syrupy-sweet slice-of-life anime.6:46What does that ‘f’ stand for anyways?6:48Silent Hill fffffffruits Basket?!?!?!6:51But right from the start, before even the first
tendril of fog has begun to creep in,6:56the game sets up some clear
dramatic stakes for Hinako.6:59She’s constantly struggling
with society’s expectations7:02around how a young woman
her age ‘should’ behave.7:05Her father is a (seemingly) abusive
drunkard who’s terrible with money,7:09her mother acts like a totally submissive
doormat, and her sister-and- best-friend Junko7:14has been pawned off as part of an arranged
marriage to keep the family’s fortunes afloat.7:18All of this adds up to an
utterly hateful life for Hinako:7:22Her tomboyish disposition
sees her getting bullied at school,7:25and then regularly falling into
shouting matches with her parents.7:29After yet another one of her father’s
explosive daydrinking-fueled outbursts7:33(which, curiously, the player doesn’t actually see depicted
on- screen…),7:37Hinako flees the family home
and heads down the mountain7:40and into town to meet up
with her high school friends.7:43And right away, well before you’re
getting stuck into the combat or puzzles,7:47the game scatters about
collectible notes and lore-diaries7:50that tee up all sorts of
wonderful ‘red strings on the corkboard’ mysteries7:54that may (or may not!) have
some bearing on the plot.7:58There’s the traditional folkloric
worship of Inari fox statuary,8:01arsenic poisonings in
the local water supply,8:04a nearby coal mine abandoned
after an industrial disaster,8:07jealous ancient spirit- guardian deities,
and even a dormant volcano in the mountains.8:14Immediately after Hinako meets up with her friends
in town, All Hell Breaks Loose (™).8:32Rather than blood and rust,
in this incarnation of Silent Hill8:36the physical manifestation of
the Otherworld is an ever-creeping8:39carpet of crimson
Spider Lily corpse-flowers8:42and scarlet kudzu vines that consumes the town.8:46After fleeing the disturbing monsters who have
taken over nearly all of the town’s narrow and8:50winding streets, Hinako falls unconscious and is
transported to Silent Hill f’s true Otherworld:8:56the mysterious ‘floating
world’ of the Dark Shrine.9:00This is an ultra-surreal scene ripped
straight out of an Ukiyo-e painting,9:04wherein a handsome young
man in a fox mask offers to take9:07Hinako’s hand and guide her
through the horror-labyrinth.9:11Hinako will spend the rest of the game running,
fighting, and puzzling across these two9:15interconnected realms: The visceral terror of the
‘Fog Town’ sequences set in the real world,9:20which focus more on straightforward
combat and exploration;9:23And the dread-inducing dream
world of the Dark Shrine levels,9:27with their emphasis on some fairly elaborate
and brain-bending lock-and-key puzzles,9:31as well as ‘combat-as-puzzle-box’
fights with ever-more9:35dark and twisted variations
on the Fog Town’s bestiary.9:39The environment and puzzles both draw heavily from
the iconography of Shintoism:9:43this game is abundant with impossibly
ornate shrines, ancient relics, divine talismans,9:49Shide paper garlands, holy protective
amulets, and ominous statuary.9:54Just like how the original four games are
rooted in esoteric European-gnostic lore,9:58Silent Hill f is equally immersed in
Japan’s ancient Shinto mythology.10:02There are no angelic choirs
here, no fire and brimstone;10:05This is a world of darkness,
decay, and creeping dread—10:09a true-to-myth depiction of Shintoism’s
Yomi-no-kuni, the Land of the Dead.10:14There’s an intensely ominous beauty to this game—10:17an enchantingly ornate world of inscrutable gods and
monsters,10:21indifferent to the struggles of
humanity, with no clear distinctions10:24when it comes to our mortal
conceptions of good and evil.10:27The setting is Japanese down to its
roots, and this is a big change for Silent Hill…10:32But it also really isn’t.10:35The Silent Hill we see depicted across
this series is conceptually much more akin10:39to the Land of the Dead (or World
of Darkness) of the Shinto mythos10:42than any resemblance it might have to a Greco-
Roman or Abrahamic version of the Underworld.10:47And just like the Otherworld of Silent Hill,10:49Japan’s Land of the Dead is both spiritually and
geographically connected to our physical world.10:56According to Shinto myths and legends, travel
between the two is indeed possible11:00for the damned souls who
were spiritually fortified11:03and/or misfortunate enough to make
the journey themselves.11:24The profusion of red Spider
Lilies is a key symbolic motif:11:28In Shinto mythology, the Spider Lily or
corpse-flower is a kind of memento mori11:33that symbolizes the spiritual connection
all living things have to the ‘other side’—11:38AKA the World of the
Dead and Land of Darkness.11:42In Silent Hill f, these flowers
carry dual layers of meaning.11:45There’s the surface layer, with
the player fighting and struggling11:49through the creeping physical
manifestation of the hellworld;11:52And there’s the symbolic-thematic layer,
where the all-consuming floral invasion11:56represents Hinako’s fear that ‘passing on’ from
childhood into adulthood is akin to death itself.12:03Almost all of the theming
and symbolism in Silent Hill f12:06speaks to Hinako’s struggle with the expectations
around a woman’s ‘proper place’ in society,12:11and her anxieties around the
imminent end of her childhood.12:14The game’s bestiary in particular speaks volumes
for itself here.12:18There’s the disturbing marionettes
who twist and contort themselves12:22in a grimy and bloody parody of ‘sex appeal’,12:25taking a page from Silent Hill 2’s nurses;12:28The creepy giggling
scarecrow- schoolchildren,12:30who stay stock-still until the
gaze of the camera is turned away12:33in order to then sneak up on
you and slash you to ribbons;12:37The disgustingly lecherous
‘licker-man’ enemies12:40who want to paw at and slobber all over you;12:43And the monstrously fleshy ‘birthing-beasts’,
complete with an in-game codex entry that says12:48“I would rather die than
become one of these things.”12:51So yeah, the sociological symbolism of these monsters12:54is about as subtle as the
Abstract Daddy or the Closer!12:58Silent Hill f may be thousands of miles and
multiple decades away from Silent Hill, Maine,13:04but we’re still exploring some
incredibly disturbing subject matter,13:07on the same thematic terrain that is the series’
own brand of deeply personal psychological horror.13:13Far from being “Silent Hill in
Name Only”, this is peak Silent Hill,13:17with a use of visual motifs and
symbolic language that easily rivals13:21the best games put
out by the original Team Silent.13:24Which is quite appropriate indeed,
considering just how much Silent Hill f13:27has in common with the game I consider to be
the absolute pinnacle of the series...13:32In so many ways, it’s incredibly
on-the-nose appropriate that Silent Hill f13:36is the next game to come
out after the Bloober remake of13:39Jimmy Sunderland’s Big
New England Spookathon.13:42Because, moving in chronological order, after
Silent Hill 2 comes 3: The story of Heather Mason,13:48secret daughter of the first game’s protagonist
and unwitting-unwilling vessel for the rebirth of13:52the Order’s demented Holy Mother and Lord of
Serpents.13:56- [Heather] Looks like God didn't make it...13:59- Just on the surface level alone,
the parallels are easily apparent:14:03Both games feature
a female protagonist;14:05Both offer refreshed and slicked-up
presentation and mechanics14:08compared to what came before;14:10And both take place in a new setting,
outside of the geographical bounds of Silent Hill14:14that we saw depicted in prior games.14:16But going even deeper: 3 and f are both games that
deal heavily with female-coded and highly gendered14:23themes of adolescence, identity, motherhood and
birth, sexual violence, and the struggle to14:28achieve personal agency despite a restrictive
social environment.14:31And hey, I mean, they even included a Robbie The
Rabbit ‘pink bunny’ outfit for Hinako14:35as a bonus for the game’s deluxe edition.14:37Hinako is 1960s-Japan Heather,14:40the f is a twisted and stylized 3 in reverse,
Quod Erat Demonstrandum!14:44But seriously.14:46The inclusion of the pink rabbit costume here is
quite intentional, because the game’s creators14:50obviously want to draw the player’s attention to
all of the parallels between f and 3.14:55The most obvious parallel here is how
both games put a much greater focus14:59on their action mechanics,
compared to what came before.15:02I’m old enough to remember that one of the main
critiques of Silent Hill 3 when it first came out15:07was that the combat “feels too good”!15:09Which is to say: The game gave you more options
for self-defense and recovery15:13like the decoy jerky
and the block ability,15:16and improved the movement controls so
that things no longer felt15:18quite so much like you were lugging the
player character through waist-high wet cement.15:23Yeah... the consensus among series
superfans back in the mid-2000s was15:27that Silent Hill 3 might be a good game to play,15:30but 2 was the real-and-true
masterpiece of effective psychological horror15:34thanks to the greater
sense of disempowerment.15:37So it’s just about the supreme-ultimate
irony that the General Gaming Discourse15:41is now having this exact same debate all over
again about the newest Silent Hill game.15:47In the run-up to the release of Silent Hill f,
there were endless hyperventilating hot-takes15:51about how the presence of a
dedicated dodge move and a stamina bar15:55meant that “Silent Hill
has gone Soulslike!”15:58So much so that the devs actually felt
compelled to put out a pre-release statement16:03clarifying that Silent Hill f is not a
soulslike.16:07Not like that stopped anybody, though.16:09Setting aside that Soulslike is perhaps the most
reductionist and artless term to grace gaming16:14since Metroidvania (and ‘Doom Clone’ before
it)—there was a certain beloved survival horror16:19psychological thriller that had both
a stamina system and a dodge move,16:23which came out while FromSoft’s Hidetaka
Miyazaki was still working on account management16:28best-practices for business productivity software…16:31Just a little-known gem called Silent Hill 3!16:34Silent Hill f takes the over-the-shoulder
perspective seen in the SH2 Remake16:38and supercharges it: there’s a target lock-on, a
Bayonetta-style ‘perfect dodge’16:44that restores stamina, and an
instant-stun counterattack move16:47where you press
the heavy attack trigger16:49right as the enemy is winding up and flashes
a telltale chromatic-aberration visual aura.16:55Your light and heavy attacks, dodges, and ability
to sprint all drain the stamina meter.17:00Deplete it entirely, and Hinako will become
exhausted and temporarily defenseless,17:04adding precious additional seconds to the timer
until your stamina begins to recharge itself.17:09There’s also a Sanity Meter that can be
used via the left trigger to activate Focus Mode17:14and charge up extra potency
for your melee attacks.17:18Or, you can save your Sanity to have
in reserve as an added layer of defense17:21against foes who deal spiritual damage.17:24Where f’s mechanics differentiate themselves the
most from other Silent Hills is in the arsenal.17:29There are no firearms or ranged
attacks, only the makeshift melee weapons17:33you’ll find scattered about the
environment as you explore.17:35Which, duh, it’s midcentury Japan!17:38This ain’t America, where you can walk out of a
Cabela’s with a military-grade arsenal17:42in far less time and paperwork than it
takes to see an emergency room doctor.17:46Melee weapons in Silent
Hill f have limited durability,17:49but it’s no Breath of the Wild type of situation.17:51Most weapons you find can last you
through about a half-dozen encounters,17:54and any favorites you get attached
to can have their lifespan extended17:58through the consumable repair toolkits
you’ll find scattered about.18:01There are equippable omamori
charms that offer various character perks18:04like increased stamina or weapon durability,18:07which can make a significant difference to your
playstyle, especially on higher difficulties.18:11And in a first for a mainline Silent Hill,
f also limits Hinako’s carrying capacity18:16for consumables and restoratives,
forcing the player to think purposefully18:19about which supplies they pick up, which ones they
use, and what they’re willing to leave behind.18:24Fortunately, your carrying
capacity can be upgraded,18:27alongside an interesting but
somewhat superfluous RPG progression system18:31that sees you serving up
valuable consumables as offerings18:33at the miniature Hokora shrines that double as the
game’s save points.18:37Your offerings are exchanged for faith points,
which can be used for RPG-style upgrades18:42to your health, sanity,
stamina, and omamori slots.18:46In the aggregate, all of these
systems are simply a new coat of paint18:49applied on top of the
signature survival horror formula:18:53The sense of being constantly
pressured by looming threats,18:56where the player is forced to manage multiple
interlocking resources and meters,19:00with every action they take incurring some kind of
cost that further depletes your limited arsenal,19:05inducing feelings of disempowerment,
desperation, and dread.19:10Even the oh-so-hated weapon durability system does
double duty here,19:14as both a central gameplay
mechanic, as it takes on a similar role19:17as ammo scarcity in other survival horror games,19:20since Silent Hill f doesn't feature firearms
or other weapons that require ammunition;19:24and as a key theme that is properly integrated
in the narrative and reinforces the setting.19:29‘Tsukumogami’ is the real-world folkloric belief
in Japan that tools and other household goods19:35eventually gain sentience and
become lesser gods or ‘Kami’19:38as they are used and repaired
down through the years.19:41According to most legends, by the time an
inanimate object is 100 years old,19:46it will have become a fully-fledged Kami imbued
with the spirit of its many years of service.19:52And the very reason that Hinako finds so many
common household items that can be used as weapons19:56scattered about town—baseball
bats, culinary knives, lumber axes—20:01is because the residents of Ebisugaoka
are ardent practitioners of Tsukumogami,20:05who believe that old items
nearing the end of their lifespan20:08should be left as offerings at
the Inari fox statues around town.20:12This is a seriously excellent
convergence of themes and mechanics;20:16Even the legendary Breath of the Wild didn’t go
this far to try and make the player give a damn20:21about its janky weapon durability system!20:24If there’s one main aspect
where I think Silent Hill f20:27can come in for some fair and deserved
criticism, it’s the combat.20:31The game-feel is solid, with good audiovisual
feedback as your blows land on your foes20:36with one satisfying *thwack* after another.20:39(thwack!)20:40But much like the Silent Hill 2 remake, this game
leans really heavily on its combat.20:45To the point where the final 20 percent or so of
the runtime becomes an almost non-stop gauntlet of20:50combat encounters that gets a little
repetitive and tiresome by the end of things:20:55Walk into a closed arena that traps you inside,
defeat all the enemies, rinse and repeat.21:00I’d also say: While ‘Hard’ difficulty is
recommended for the puzzles,21:04set the combat difficulty to ‘Story’
for your first playthrough.21:07I went in on Hard combat
like I had something to prove,21:10since the in-game tooltip recommended this
difficulty for players experienced with action games.21:15And I definitely regretted it by the end of
things, because it makes some of the boss fights21:19and combat encounters much,
much, much more frustrating than21:23they need to be for your first time through.21:25I'd say save it for your New
Game Plus run if you do one.21:29But man, there’s just so much else to cover with
this game, it feels almost impossible21:33to do the game justice
in a one-off video like this.21:36Like, I’m sure you could
do a whole-ass video essay21:39just on how there’s a
cheeky little shout- out to P.T.21:42baked into the back half of this game, where
Hinako finds herself retreading L-shaped21:46residential hallways over and over again,
with the generic suburban-domestic scene21:50slowly twisting into
something absolutely terrifying.21:54It’s goddamn brilliant, I was hootin-n-hollerin’
in my seat like an absolute madman21:59when I came to this part of the game and
realized what was going on.22:02So while this video is my own humble offering in
the early days of the Silent Hill f discourse,22:07I’m really excited to see what kinds of galaxy-brained
analysis both the existing fandom22:13and all the newcomers are going to
restlessly dream up in the coming years.22:17It feels strange, but it’s actually
exciting to be a Silent Hill fan right now,22:22which is something we haven’t been
able to say for a long, long time.22:28If the main thing that draws you to
Silent Hill is the overarching mythos—22:32the Cult, Valtiel and Metatron,
the haunted history of the town—22:37then, honestly, I can understand why a game
like Silent Hill f might come up short for you.22:42With the exception of one key moment,
there is almost nothing connecting22:45Silent Hill f to the story and lore of the
previous games in the series.22:50And even more so than the manufactured
panic around it being a Secret Soulslike,22:54there’s been a ton of social
media ragebait-brainrot22:58(coming mostly from people who
have not and will never play the game)23:01that Silent Hill f is some kind of strident
all-caps screed bludgeoning the player23:06over the head with its raw and
unambiguous hatred of traditional gender roles.23:11Which… Just is not the case
with this game, like AT ALL.23:16Sure, on the surface level, Silent Hill f is an
extended allegory about the societal roles women23:21were expected to inhabit in Showa-era Japan,23:24when arranged marriage and ‘Yamato
Nadeshiko’ were still the norm.23:28In a country that to this day upholds some highly
rigid cultural ideals around gender roles,23:34that’s not polemic, it’s just
a plain statement of fact.23:38But Silent Hill f is about so much more than just
proclaiming “Didn’t it absolutely suck23:42to be a woman in midcentury Japan?!”23:45This game will resonate with
anyone who has at some point in23:48their life felt like there’s a disconnect between
the person society expects them to be23:53and who they actually are.23:54Which, if we’re being honest with
ourselves, is a whole lotta people these days.23:59Silent Hill f is perhaps the ultimate
interactive expression of the theme,24:03“Have I gone insane? Or is the cruel and inhuman
world I’m living in the real crazy-maker all along?”24:11The very end of the game
also features an incredible24:14mid-credits twist—the
kind that re-contextualizes24:17the whole narrative, all of the characters, and
everything the player thought they understood.24:22Beyond the twist ending, Silent Hill f then adds a
bunch of totally new areas, puzzles, boss fights,24:28and story sequences in New Game Plus,24:31which add further depth and color to the
narrative a la NieR: Automata.24:34And with each new revelation, the ‘truth’ behind
the story becomes even more dark, disturbing,24:40and cosmic-horror-inducing
than the player could have possibly imagined…24:44With the benefit of hindsight,24:46these twists make the theming of Silent Hill f
something of a brilliant provocation24:50on the part of the writer, Ryukishi07.24:53Discussions around gender and
social roles are particularly prominent24:56across the world today, including East Asia,24:58and SILENT HILL f explores
these ideas in its own distinctive way.25:04First, via the surface-level use of themes
drawn from the women’s rights movement25:08that emerged in 1960s Japan,
i.e. the game’s exact setting.25:12And then, by executing a magnificent rug-pull that
casts the narrative in an entirely new light,25:18and makes the story
feel all the more universal25:20through its highly effective use of
psychological horror theming.25:33The story of a vulnerable young woman… Steeped in
Japanese mythology and ghost stories…25:38Grappling with themes of psychological horror, physical
disempowerment, and externalized oppression…25:45And underpinned by a kick-ass combat
system that’s somehow strangely addictive25:49and more-ish in spite of it all…25:54So yeah, I had this feeling: Silent
Hill f is secretly the Fffffffatal Frame game26:00I’ve been waiting over a decade for!!26:02Speaking of yet another beloved survival horror
franchise that hasn’t seen the light of day26:07in 10 or more years, Silent Hill f feels like a
return to form not just for the eponymous series,26:12but also the simultaneous hidden-in-plain-sight
resurrection of the long-dormant Fatal Frame…26:18Just in a different-seeming guise,
and minus the Camera Obscura.26:23(screeech)26:26Silent Hill f is an excellent game that both sets
itself apart from the recent remake of 2,26:31while also remixing and re-contextualizing
the core elements of Silent Hill 326:36into something visceral,
compelling, and entirely new.26:40From the art and visual presentation,
to the mechanics, to the audio design,26:44it’s clear that a considerable amount
of effort was taken with this game26:48to ensure it was up to par with
the quality of previous Silent Hill games,26:52while still having
its own identity and vibe.26:54More so than maybe any other Silent Hill game.26:57In a strange and kinda wonderful inversion of how
so many horror games that came after P.T.27:02were influenced by and in conversation with it,
Silent Hill itself is now in deep conversation27:08with its own contemporaries and predecessors.27:11It’s all in Konami’s hands for the time being, and
the future is never guaranteed.27:16But right now, at this moment, Silent Hill f
represents a new lease on life for this series27:22easily akin to what Resident
Evil VII managed to accomplish:27:25bridging the past, present, and future27:28of the same survival horror
genre that it helped to create.27:31Which is also lowkey why I decided to mirror the
title of this video with the one I made on27:35Resident Evil VII many years ago.27:37I’m so excited for what’s to come.27:44If this was your first video of mine, hey, I’m Ragnar,27:47and on this channel I cover old games, indie
games, horror games and combinations thereof—27:52and if you enjoyed this
little foray, you’ll probably find27:56a ton of videos on games
that might be right up your alley!27:59If you’d like to support my channel,
the most substantial way to do that28:02is to join my fellow Patreon
supporters with a monthly donation;28:05it really helps out a great deal!28:06On my Patreon, I also regularly
release backer-only bonus videos,28:10you get access to the Patreon
exclusive Discord and overall,28:13you have my heartfelt gratitude in
helping me keep doing what I love.28:17So thanks a lot for considering, and as always,28:19I’ll say ta for now with a heartfelt
shoutout to these lovely supporters:28:23www.patreon.com/RagnarRoxShow29:40Until next time... ta ta!
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