Silent Hill is entering a new era as the second of its two most ambitious projects – Silent Hill f – is set to release on 25th September. Following last year’s Silent Hill 2 Remake, both titles share the series’ trademark psychological horror, but they approach it from different angles – Remake is a faithful reimagining, f is a bold experiment in cultural reinvention. This feature breaks down 15 of the biggest differences between the two, exploring how each preserves and redefines Silent Hill’s celebrated legacy.
Setting
In a series first, the events of Silent Hill f will take place in Japan, within the rural, fictitious town of Ebisugoaka. Set in the 1960s, Ebisugoaka is suffering through economic decline, drawing parallels with Maine’s titular, fog-enshrouded town where the majority of mainline Silent Hill games – including 2024’s Silent Hill 2 Remake – take place.
World Design
Ebisugoaka is inspired by real-world Kanayama Gero, a location chosen by Silent Hill f scenario writer Ryukishi07 for its clustered architecture and maze-like alleyways. The real town’s tight, tangled structure imbues Ebisugoaka’s isolated atmosphere, conjuring tension similar to Silent Hill 2 Remake. Yet, Silent Hill 2’s world design draws inspiration from broader Western media: surrealist cinema, body-horror traditions, and unsettling fine art. In particular, it evokes imagery of distorted human forms and desolate landscapes that symbolize endurance and vulnerability in the face of overwhelming struggle.
Place in Series
Silent Hill 2 is, of course, a sequel, with James Sunderland revisiting the vaguely familiar town already traipsed by Harry Mason in Silent Hill’s 1999 original. Whilst technically they’re both standalone titles, Silent Hill’s 1 and 2 share narrative overlap, with Silent Hill 2 exploring the series’ signature psychological horror deeper. With its unique location and independent story, Silent Hill f is a more definitive standalone, where knowledge of the series’ backstory isn’t required. However, it’s worth mentioning that Silent Hill f exists in a post-Silent Hill 2 world; with Konami’s groundbreaking 2001 sequel – and 2024’s much-publicised Remake – likely influencing the preconceptions of every player who enters into Silent Hill f’s dread-inducing world.
Artistic Style
Underscoring Silent Hill f’s identity is its focus to ‘find beauty in terror,’ a concept rooted in quintessential Japanese horror. Coined by Silent Hill f’s writer, the celebrated visual novelist Ryukishi07, ‘Beauty in Terror’ conveys the unsettling idea that alluring beauty can coexist with grotesqueness.
Whereas earlier Silent Hill titles – including last year’s Silent Hill 2 Remake – filtered their appreciation for horror through a Western lens, Silent Hill f places this aesthetic at its core, embracing haunting imagery of decay and renewal. The result is both a return to the series’ origins and a reinvention of its identity.
Protagonist
Silent Hill f introduces high school student Hinako Shimizu to the series. She was once cheerful and energetic in her younger years before growing more reserved as a teenager. She was chosen as Silent Hill f’s protagonist by Ryukishi07 due to her juvenile age being important as younger people tend to question, and be fearful of, their reality rather than being pulled along by the situation surrounding them. Additionally, there’s potential Hinako harbours moral purity unlike James Sunderland, whose explorations in Silent Hill 2 Remake reveals a troubled personality motivated by guilt, shame, and anger.
Narrative Themes
Silent Hill f and Silent Hill 2 Remake also diverge in their narrative themes. Hinako Shimizu is growing up in Japan’s Showa era, a time when traditional and modern ideals struggle to coincide. Those living through this era were subject to growing societal pressure, represented in-game as the external forces that overwhelm Hinako’s trauma and her struggles to conform. In contrast, James’ horror festers from internal forces; past trauma akin to Hinako’s, but also in manifestations of repressed grief, denial, and moral corruption.
Combat
Silent Hill 2 Remake introduced numerous novel combat mechanics: manual firearm aiming, staggering enemies via targeting weak points, new blunt melee weaponry, and new dodge abilities – the latter two mechanics Silent Hill f is set to embellish. Furthermore, Hinako’s experience ditches firearms for more melee weapons; Silent Hill f players can expect heavy use of the series’ signature iron pipe, plus baseball bats, Ninigata polearms, sickles, and knives.
Weapon Durability
Ramping up the tension in Silent Hill f’s melee-focused combat is a weapon durability mechanic. Bats, blades, and pipes will show visible wear with every blow before breaking. To counteract their degradation, Hinako carries up to three weapons that can be freely switched between. Likewise, she can use repair kits to restore a weapon’s durability, however these will be hard to find. Silent Hill 2 Remake didn’t feature a weapon durability system; instead, James was able to upgrade his scavenged arsenal.
Focus Mode
Another new mechanic in Silent Hill f is Focus Mode, which allows Hinako to slow time, react to enemy attacks, and dodge or counter more effectively. In this state, counterattack prompts linger on screen, making them easier to execute. By contrast, Silent Hill 2 Remake approached counterplay differently, relying on precise timing; well-executed dodges granted James brief invincibility frames instead of extended reaction windows.
Sanity
Using Focus Mode drains Sanity, another core mechanic embedded into Silent Hill f’s gameplay. Unlike Silent Hill 2 Remake, where James’ psychological state is conveyed through subtle visual cues, here Hinako’s stress levels must be monitored and managed. Filling her Focus Gauge enables a powerful Focus Attack, but at the cost of Sanity. As the Sanity meter depletes, it becomes harder for Hinako to re-enter Focus Mode, creating a risk-reward situation where players decide when to unleash Hinako’s most powerful attacks.
Enemies
The monsters in Silent Hill f and Silent Hill 2 Remake share thematic overlap, with both being physical manifestations of the protagonist’s fears, desires, and anguish. However, beyond a jittery, mannequin-like creature their designs and behaviors diverge. In Silent Hill f, Hinako might face demonic, scythe-wielding scarecrows in school uniform, intertwined masses of doll-like bodies, or cherry blossoms mutated into rampaging brutes, with each symbolising a deep-rooted fear. Their movements reinforce Silent Hill f’s central themes, whilst tactically, given Hinako’s vulnerability as a teenager, evasion could prove a viable strategy over confrontation.
The Otherworld
Instead of the rusty, industrial Otherworld represented in Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill f’s version of the series’ nightmare dimension is ornate, pristine, and traditional in an extension of the game’s cultural roots and ‘Beauty in Terror’ philosophy. In Silent Hill f, Hinako will explore ancient architecture, decorated cherry blossoms. Whilst journeying to the Otherworld in Remake involved James discovering a hidden truth, the means to enter Silent Hill’s signature alt-dimension in f is unclear. Based on footage, it appears a fungal-like growth elicits the Otherworld’s manifestation, although we’ll have to play the game to be sure.
Puzzles
Puzzles are an undeniable hallmark of the Silent Hill series, and they take on a role more narratively significant in Silent Hill f than they did in Silent Hill 2 Remake. In f, Hinako might attempt to solve scarecrow riddles, or decipher origami messages, rearrange sculptures, organise pottery, or locate specific objects, with each activity closely tied to her emotions, an enemy’s identity, or the game’s wider story.
Soundtrack
Celebrated Team Silent composer Akira Yamaoka is on-board to soundtrack Silent Hill f’s fog-covered overworld with a suite of original music, whilst Kensuke Inage – a musician most famous for soundtracking Dynasty Warriors – is handling audio duties for Hinako’s journey into the Otherworld. Yamaoka’s music is synonymous with Silent Hill, with his hazy soundtrack to Silent Hill 2 receiving an exceptional rework for last year’s Remake.
Intent
Whilst Silent Hill 2 Remake honors arguably the series’ most iconic story by preserving its psychological horror core and modernising it for a new generation, Silent Hill f represents the series’ boldest step forward in well over a decade. Its 1960s Japanese setting, focus on new cultural themes, and standalone narrative show Konami’s willingness to expand Silent Hill beyond the confines of its established lore. Silent Hill f’s success could well determine the creative direction of the series for years to come.
