After years of teases and rumors, Konami announced that the Silent Hill series will be returning in a big way starting in 2023 with the release of Silent Hill 2's remake and the Silent Hill 2 film adaptation, Return to Silent Hill. While NoCode and Annapurna Interactive's Silent Hill: Townfall was also a welcome announcement, the biggest surprise of the show was the announcement of Silent Hill f, the first new main series entry since 2012's Silent Hill: Downpour.
What makes the announcement of Silent Hill f so special is the reveal of the key staff working on the title. Konami has enlisted Chinese studio Neobards Entertainment to develop the title, with Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin producer Motoi Okamoto and Spirit Hunter: Death Mark and NG artist Kera. The biggest surprise, however, was the game's lead writer, beloved visual novel author Ryukishi07, most famous for his work on Higurashi: When They Cry and Umeniko: When They Cry. Ryukishi07's hiring could be exactly what the Silent Hill series needs in order to move forward, and his inclusion gives Silent Hill f a ton of potential.
Who is Silent Hill f's Writer, Ryukishi07?
As previously mentioned, Ryukishi07 is a beloved visual novel writer known for the Higurashi: When They Cry series and, more recently, its sequel series Umeniko: When They Cry.Higurashi: When They Cry debuted in 2002 and was released in chapters until 2014. It is a series of murder mystery, psychological horror visual novel games that mainly focus on storytelling and has been released on various consoles throughout the years including the PS2, Nintendo DS, PS3, PS Vita, and most recently Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC via Steam.
The Higurashi: When They Cry series follows the story of a group of high schoolers trying to solve a murder case in their village that has continued for three years. They soon find that the murders are deeply connected to the history of their village and a series of murders that occurred throughout the 1980s. The narrative ties in elements of supernatural Japanese horror, Japanese history, and intense violence to offer one of the purest psychological horror experiences in a visual novel, all of which is translated into its many adaptations, be it anime, live-action, manga, and even more.
This style of psychological storytelling has become a trademark of Ryukishi07's work, bleeding into his work on Umeniko: When They Cry, and further spin-offs in the When They Cry series, most of which at least center around a series of murder mysteries. This indicates why Konami would be interested in the Silent Hill series.
What Ryukishi07 Can Add to Silent Hill
A major issue that fans have with the Silent Hill series following the original four Team Silent games is that, despite the series historically taking place in a fictionalized American town, the original games had a distinct Japanese charm to their approach to narrative, game design, and horror. This reason that later games like Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Silent Hill: Downpour failed to recapture the unsettling, offbeat atmosphere of the originals. While it is a surprise to see Silent Hill f pull the entire setting of the fictional town to 1960s Japan, Ryukishi07's involvement in the story makes this Silent Hill f's greatest asset.
Ryukishi07 has also been praised for his ability to balance tone, with the When They Cry series often shifting from intense, dramatic horror sequences to humor at the drop of a hat. This could be something interesting to see in Silent Hill f, as J-horror such as the works of Takashi Miike and Junji Ito have been praised for their ability to blend disturbing, dark humor amid their most horrific sequences.
For years, Ryukishi07 has been telling gripping and horrific stories of murder mysteries set in small Japanese villages like the one depicted in Silent Hill f's announcement trailer. His knowledge of Japanese folklore and ability to blend it with supernatural horror will likely to take the Silent Hill series in a brand-new direction, perhaps one more akin to the likes of Fatal Frame. This is almost certainly the right call following the series' decade-long absence and its almost two-decade-long absence from being developed in the country it originated from.
Silent Hill f is currently in development.
