In October of last year, developerKonami(of medical equipment andpachinkofame, among other things) issuedSilent Hill Transmission, a livestream showcasing news and updates for the long-dormantSilent Hillseries. Featuring a full trailer for Bloober Team’s upcomingSilent Hill 2 remake—not to mention the fully unexpected announcement of a brand new Silent Hill movie from director Christophe Gans—the transmission was already bliss for Silent Hill fans the world over. Barring any final announcements, it couldn’t get any better than this… could it?
With two minutes left before the transmission ended, Konami producer Motoi Okamoto raised his finger somewhat pointedly and declared that “in fact, there [was] one last announcement to make for Silent Hill.”
When the livestream cut away, it cut away to imagery that reminded me of the horror sound novelHigurashi When They Cry, while here and there I felt echoes ofIwaihime, a visual novel which I’d recently played for no reason other than that it was written by the author of Higurashi When They Cry. Neither of these impressions were unfounded, as it turned out. ThetrailerforSilent Hill Fended with the reveal that its story would bepenned by Ryukishi07, the writer of both Iwaihime and the entirety of the When They Cry sound novel series — Higurashi When They Cry included.
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First released over the span of four years as a sound novel in eight parts, Higurashi When They Cry is acclaimed today for its writing, which features an evocative atmosphere, a staggeringly deft handling of sensitive topics, and—most famously or notoriously, depending on who you ask—a rather novel juxtaposition of visual cuteness with psychological horror.
Though the title ‘Higurashi When They Cry’ may read like word salad to those outside of otaku circles, the sound novel itself has had more of an effect than you’d realize on horror media both Japanese and Western. Above all else, we can thank (or blame) Higurashi for giving rise to the likes ofPuella Magi Madoka Magica,Doki Doki Literature Club, and even an episode ofScooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
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The problem is that since Higurashi When They Cry released in 2002, every revisit, expansion, and spin-off added to the Higurashi canon has proven to be, um,vagrantin quality. Higurashi fans everywhere are still trying to forget that the Higurashi Gou and Higurashi Sotsu animeever happened, while the 2016 live-action television drama adaptation sits at adismal IMDb rating of 5.6/10, hampered as it is byquestionable casting choicesand tacky special effects (Halloween contact lenses, anyone?).
Ryukishi07 has indeed written other, non-Higurashi stories in recent years, such as Ciconia When They Cry: Phase One in 2019, and last year’s Loopers, both of which were met with praise and acclaim from visual novelfansandcriticsalike. And yet. Ryukishi07 harks back and again to Higurashimore oftenthan he focuses on writing new, original stories. (Don’t mind the sound of sobbing in the distance: that’s just the collectiveCiconiafanbase, who continue to be starved of Ciconia When They Cry Phase Two.)
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Alas, having studied the Silent Hill F trailer numerous times since its release, I’m beginning to worry that the game will end up grappling for that Higurashi essence rather than carving out its own identity. The reveal trailer is a short one, yes, but so freaking much of it features Higurashi-like imagery: the weaponized pipe, high school girls in horrific situations, and a rural Japanese town circa the Showa era, like we’re gonna revisit Higurashi’s Hinamizawa all over againall over again. Even those seemingly unique elements such as the kimekomi dolls and torii are ripped straight from that other Ryukishi07 visual novel I mentioned earlier, Iwaihime, which itself has beenrightfully criticizedfor cheaply knocking-off (you guessed it) Higurashi When They Cry.
Mistake me not, I do want a Silent Hill game by Ryukishi07. He has a talent for writing not just compelling horror, but compelling characters, characters whose struggles we can feel compassion toward even as we’re repulsed by the atrocities they commit. It’s the kind of character writing that skins horror down to something more guttural andreal— the kind of character writing that would meld masterfully with the Silent Hill series.
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IwantRyukishi07 to write a Silent Hill game. But I don’t want Ryukishi07 to write a Silent Hill game as if he’s rewriting Higurashi for the umpteenth time. And yet with the trailer’s insistence on invoking so much of Higurashi’s identity, I worry that this is what Silent Hill F will be—yet another Higurashi rehash.
Ryukishi07 is a master writer of psychological horror and human interest when he tries. If he were to script an all-new, completely original entry in the Silent Hill series, we might just end up with a Silent Hill F that gives us pause as well as thrills — and let’s be honest, no Silent Hill game has done this in well over a decade.
With a glossy remake of Silent Hill 2 to release later this year, and bothAscensionand Townfall both set to be spin-offs, it is Silent Hill F alone that will take the next step for the mainline series. I just hope that it’ll be a step forward.
NEXT:Silent Hill F Trailer Breakdown And Analysis
