A large part of the horror behind Silent Hill f comes from its setting—the fictional town of Ebisugaoka. In a new interview with GamesRadar, studio NeoBards has revealed that the town largely took shape over the course of development through discussions between it, Konami, and writer Ryukishi07. In this interview, director Al Yang said that the studio’s pitch to Konami for Silent Hill f would have to ensure “the story would undoubtedly feel like a ‘Ryukishi07 work’”.
As for the town itself, lead level designer Kaiyu Chang spoke about her experience with reading the initial draft of the game’s main script, and how the story at the time strongly resonated with her owing to the themes of constraints placed on women in society as well as the expectations that arise from this.
“I first read the initial draft of the script a few years ago,” she said. “At the time, I was pregnant, which made the story’s depiction of the expectations and constraints placed on women by traditional society resonate with me even more deeply. Many scenes struck a strong emotional chord.” While changes were eventually made to the story, “the core essence of the story never changed.” Rather, she noted that “we made a number of adjustments to its presentation.”
This is because “many of the locations in Silent Hill f did not exist initially and were carefully selected to enhance not only the script, but also the atmosphere and world of the game” Yang continued. “An example of this is the school, which was initially proposed by the team at NeoBards, and then discussed carefully with Konami and Ryukishi07.”
Even locations that would go on to be as important in the full game, like the house of protagonist Hinako, was originally envisioned as “simply a labyrinth with an otherworldly atmosphere,” according to Chang. The house would go on to become much vital to the story of Silent Hill f, being the location where Hinako would discover many secrets about her family.
“Later, we introduced the element of ‘memory,’ added multiple timelines, and allowed the space to shift depending on the route and ending,” she explained. “Throughout this process, Ryukishi07 continuously wrote new text and lore to support gameplay needs. After countless rounds of discussion and refinement, the in-game version you see today finally took shape.”
Since the release of Silent Hill f back in September, quite a few new details about the horror title have been released through interviews of the cast and crew that worked on it. Back in October, voice actor Konatsu Kato spoke about her experiences in portraying Hinako, and how she often felt like she was losing grip on her own sanity as part of this portrayal. This, she said, came down to the game having many story branches, which would then cause her to lose herself in her role. Things especially started feeling strange, she recounted, when Hinako started having conversations with herself.
Silent Hill f is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.
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