While the Silent Hill franchise is making a comeback with the release of last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake and the upcoming Silent Hill f, the next entry in the horror franchise has been drawing comparisons with FromSoftware’s Souls series of titles. The comparison largely boils down to the combat in Silent Hill f focusing on slower, more methodical melee action where stamina management is important. Producer Motoi Okamoto, however, has spoken about how this comparison has been “disingenuous”.
In an interview with IGN at Gamescom 2025, Okamoto spoke about how various aspects of Silent Hill f’s combat system are much older than the Souls series – the initial outing for which was 2009’s Demon’s Souls – and how many titles have used similar styles of combat, including even older Silent Hill games.
“This is one of the things that we see — the term soulslike — being thrown around on the internet quite a bit,” he said. “And I think it’s a label that’s a little bit disingenuous. Modern players will see like, oh there’s a stamina meter, there’s a dodge, and they’re like, ‘Okay, it’s a soulslike.’”
“But to be very honest, a lot of these things we actually pulled from classic Silent Hill titles. Look at Silent Hill 4 — there’s a charge meter for your attacks, kind of like our Focus meter. And even for Silent Hill 3 there’s a stamina meter. You see it later on.”
Okamoto also spoke about how the methodical style of melee combat isn’t exclusive to Souls games, going on to talk about how older action horror games have been using them for a while. He capped off the interview by reiterating that Silent Hill f isn’t aiming to be a Soulslike game, but rather, an action horror title.
“These things aren’t new and exclusive to soulslike games,” he said. “They’ve been a part of action horror games for a very, very long time. If you have these things you’re labeled a soulslike. And we’d like to reiterate we are an action horror game, but we are not a soulslike.”
Silent Hill f is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release on September 25. More recently, the horror game got a trailer showcasing the Otherworld areas from the upcoming title. Among the things that protagonist Hinako Shimizu will have to deal with in the Otherworld are strange monsters, surreal voices from the radio, and even some form of her own trauma owing to a twisted depiction of her home.
As for gameplay, details about the combat in Silent Hill f were revealed back in August, including how the game’s weapon durability system works, and how players can make use of resources they find in the world and a crafting system to repair and upgrade these weapons. The title will also feature a progression system that revolves around special currency and equipment that can raise Hinako’s stats.
Okamoto had also previously spoken about how Silent Hill f will feature more action gameplay elements than the series is typically known for.
