Silent Hill is a franchise with a somewhat rocky history. The original game was a modestly popular competitor to Resident Evil, but it was the second game that really put the franchise on the map. It has often felt like Silent Hill has constantly been chasing the high of Silent Hill 2, with diminishing results each time. That is why Silent Hill f is such an interesting direction for the series. Eschewing the franchise's iconic small American town setting in favor of a 1960s Japanese one, it's easy to look at it and wonder why it's a Silent Hill game. Having played it, I feel that Silent Hill or not, Silent Hill f is a strong new direction for Konami's horror franchise.

Silent Hill f is set in the small fictional town of Ebisuakoka during the 1960s. It follows a teenage girl named Shimizu Hinako. She doesn't really fit in, and she's feeling oppressed and controlled by her patriarchal father. Isolated and with only a few friends, her daily life goes from boring to horror as she and her pals are suddenly attacked by a creature that appears from the fog. Escaping from the creature, Hinako finds herself alone in her hometown, which is being gradually taken over by strange flesh-like flowers and bizarre monsters. She must find her friends and find a way to escape this strange, hellish version of her home.

The 1960s Japan setting is front and center of the storytelling, and the attitudes and implicit beliefs of the society at the time — and the negative impact they have on those within them, especially women — is what the game is about. As such, it can be difficult to judge how I feel about every plot beat. There are some that seem excellent and some that left me feeling rather cold, but that may be due to cultural differences. It's absolutely a game that is going to cause a lot of discussion. Most importantly, it's not a game that you can only play once because the plot changes on a New Game+ from literally the first cut scene.

I have the feeling Silent Hill f's story is going to be very hit-and-miss for people. It's not a straightforward story, and it's wrapped in metaphor and insinuation. It leaves a lot up to the audience's interpretation, especially on your first playthrough. While this is a natural part of Silent Hill — at least since the second game — Silent Hill f thrives on ambiguity and dream logic. I feel that is what makes the game thrive, but you need to have the patience for it.

The gradual buildups and reveals are excellently done, but you really need to have patience for what the game is leading toward. Some of the earlier plot beats can come across as confusing or even incoherent, but they eventually pay off. I felt a bit disengaged with the story early on, and it was only about the halfway point that I realized I'd become quite invested in what was going on. By the time it reached the first ending, I was hooked. In this regard, it's easily the most interesting Silent Hill game since the original Silent Hill 2.

Silent Hill f doesn't feel like a Silent Hill game. The change in setting is part of it, but you could've slapped a completely different title on the game, and nobody would have noticed. Even direct references, like the mysterious fog the franchise is known for, feel kind of shoehorned in. That's a minor complaint at best, and I wouldn't complain if this started a new direction for Silent Hill that's more focused on different settings and less on the titular town.

Combat in Silent Hill f is a touch odd, borrowing more from modern action games than I would have expected. Since this is 1960s Japan, Hinako has no access to firearms and fights exclusively using melee weapons. In the "Fog Town" section of the game, you'll find various weapons scattered throughout the environment. You can pick 'em up and bash monsters with them, with each weapon having different speed and power attributes. However, they also have durability and will break relatively quickly.

This is where the game's unusual Focus system comes into play. Hinako has a "Sanity" meter in addition to a health and stamina meter. By holding down the "Focus" button, she'll charge up her attack. Charge up long enough, and you can unleash a very powerful Focus Strike that does massive damage and frequently staggers enemies. However, this drains your max Sanity, as does getting hit by an attack while you're Focusing. Lost Sanity can't be regained without items or by resting at the game's bonfire-alike shrines. (On Hard mode, you'll also have to pay resources to replenish it.) Low Sanity means you can't really charge up your attacks, and if you take psychological damage (usually from spooky environmental hazards), it will start to impact your health. Dealing big damage in one attack means you're using less durability from your weapon.

That is where the second part of Focus comes into play. Almost every enemy in the game has one or more attacks that can be countered. The enemies will briefly gain an aura around them when they can be countered, and if you hit R2 during that time frame, they'll take massive damage and be staggered. This window is pretty small by default, but if you are holding the Focus button when it comes up, the window is significantly increased, and you even get a little slowdown to make it easier to counter. Best of all, the Focus you use up replenishes over time instead of being permanently lost.

Functionally, you should always be aiming to counter enemies rather than Focus Strike them. This means allowing enemies to attack unhindered, which can be dangerous, especially since most enemies have powerful grab moves that deal massive damage and reduce your max Sanity. It's a balance between baiting enemy attacks to counter them and preserving Sanity or spending your Sanity to do big damage to enemies. Being in Focus Mode is risky, but Hinako also has a "Perfect Dodge" mechanic that can nullify damage, give you a slowdown, and instantly replenish all of your stamina. It's possible to remain in that mode and dodge through every enemy attack while baiting out their counter — if you time it right.

In addition, there is a segment of the game, replicating the Silent Hill otherworlds, called "Dark Shrine." In this area of the game, the durability mechanic has been removed entirely, and any weapons you get are permanent (and frequently very powerful). As the game progresses, you'll unlock some additional and very powerful moves that can only be done in this world, which makes the Dark Shrine feel a lot more aggressive.

I'm torn on the combat in Silent Hill f. It's not bad, but it feels pretty repetitive. You bait counter, counter, attack, and repeat. The resource management aspect is neat, but once you learn how to bait out enemy attacks, it becomes a waiting game. It's probably one of the better combat systems the franchise has ever had, but Silent Hill has never really been about combat.

My biggest problem with the game is that it feels a little too much like a video game. It's obviously a game, and it's always going to feel that way, but I was taken out of the world and setting by Hinako's flawless dodging and countering and special techniques. It detracted from the feeling of her being a terrified teenage girl when she fights like Neo from "The Matrix." It's not a game-ruining flaw, and at least some of that is likely intentional to mesh with the narrative, but it made the combat and story feel like they were from different parts of the world.

Silent Hill f's basic layout is linear. You'll generally follow one strict path from location to location, and there's only a small number of larger areas to explore, but those areas are pretty large. In good ol' Silent Hill tradition, they are filled with various puzzles to solve, with the game's puzzles actually offering a Story, Hard and "Lost in the Fog" level of difficulty for each. The puzzles felt quite good, and there's some interesting variety. Some required me to think a fair bit about the solutions. I got stuck once or twice because the puzzle clue was vague enough that it was unclear to be which solution the game actually wanted.

While the game is linear, it does have some nice optional areas if you go off the beaten path. These usually reward you with bonus healing items or equippable charms that can boost stats or unlock new abilities. Bonus healing items are interesting because beyond a few basic ones, they're a cost/benefit situation. You can sell the items at the game's save points for Faith, which is a resource necessary for upgrading Hinako's basic stats and for replenishing your Sanity on the harder modes. Hoarding items might make things better in a tough fight, but you'll sacrifice long-term power later on. Since you have limited inventory slots, it's usually not worth hanging onto the game's version of a mega-elixir for a rainy day instead of cashing it in to get an upgrade.

Overall, I really enjoyed Silent Hill f's gameplay, but I can't say it was exceptional. It did the job well, with the puzzles and resource management being the strongest part of the game. I could take or leave the combat, and by the end of the game, I was getting bored of the fights, but it never gets in the way. There's enough push and pull with the gameplay mechanics that I can imagine people really liking it.

Silent Hill f looks fantastic. The downtrodden 1960s Japanese village aesthetic can occasionally be repetitive, but the creepy, uncanny way it is invested by the strange red vines helps to make it shine. I was genuinely enraptured by some of the visuals. That said, be warned that it has some of the most incredibly gruesome scenes I've ever seen in a horror game, on par with the infamous Dead Space 2 eye needle. The soundtrack is also excellent, with period-appropriate background music that does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere. However, the game's dub really isn't very good. The lip syncing and timing is completely off, and a lot of the performances feel weak. Hinako's voice actress does a good job, but when I swapped from Japanese to English, I found it significantly hurt the tone and feel of the game. It's very much a case where I recommend playing in the original Japanese.

Silent Hill f is a slow-burn horror game that doesn't put its best foot forward, but once it has its hooks in you, they're not coming out. The compelling and well-crafted story does a fantastic job of drawing you in and keeping you invested, even potentially through multiple playthroughs. The combat mechanics can feel a tad overdone. I think Silent Hill f is the best entirely new entry in the franchise in ages, and while it has its flaws, it shows that there's still plenty of life in Konami's franchise.

Score: 8.5/10