After more than a decade of slumber, the Silent Hill franchise was revived by Konami with the Silent Hill 2 remake released last year that garnered strong sales, and even stronger reviews.
While horror fans did get a new Silent Hill game, it was one based on an old title, and not an actual new entry in the franchise. That changes with Silent Hill f, an all-new entry in the Silent Hill universe, and one that’s developed by a relatively unknown studio, NeoBards Entertainment.
NeoBards, a Japanese studio that worked on various titles as support studios for games such as the Resident Evil franchise, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, and a lot more, was tasked to craft a new entry in the series that didn’t need previous knowledge of the games to fully understand and enjoy.
Needless to say, this was a tall task for any developer — especially one that hasn’t delivered a AAA experience on its own. The latest game from the studio was Capcom’s Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, which is a reimagining of the zombie classic. It’s one thing to successfully pull a remaster off, and another to shape a game from the ground up for a beloved franchise.
The big question here is: did NeoBards bite off more than they can chew, or is this a successful new entry in the franchise? I think we can safely say, NeoBards managed to smash expectations in almost every way.
For those about to read on, this is a completely spoiler-free review, as Silent Hill f’s story is best experienced fresh.
All-New Start
In Silent Hill f, you play as Shimizu Himiko, a not-so-typical schoolgirl who is suddenly thrust into a world of monsters and sickness. It’s as simple as that: Himiko goes to a friend’s house after an argument with her parents, and then for some reason, shit hits the fan.
The game starts the horror right away, with not a lot of backstory or explanation, as these are doled out throughout your journey, keeping the mystery candle burning until the final bell rings.
One thing to note is that the game’s default voiceover is in Japanese, which I highly approve of. You can change it in the settings, but for maximum effect, I highly suggest keeping it as is. The game’s Japanese setting, story, and overall influence are made more impactful by the top-notch voice acting.
Without going into specifics, the story is engaging. Right from the start, you’ll have a ton of questions, which will slowly be answered throughout your journey. This isn’t your typical survival-horror game where you’re given guns and other weapons, as you set out to save everybody. This is more about Hinako’s journey, and how it unfolds…and unfolds it does, as there are a lot of twists and turns that do not end when you finish the game (more on this later).
Your Soul Is Mine
Comparing a Silent Hill game to a Souls-like doesn’t seem apt, but there are shades of it in the horror game. For one thing, there is a stamina bar that your character relies on to attack, dodge, and move in combat. There are also light and heavy atacks, counters, perfect dodging and all the same stuff you’d expect from a Souls-like game.
Before anyone complains, it’s not as bad as you think. Encounters in the game do require proper attack, evade, and parry to come out unscathed, but this is much more forgivable than any Souls game out there. It doesn’t feel like NeoBards shoehorned it in just to capitalize on the popularity of Souls games.
After a few fights, you’ll get used to it. While the game introduces more gameplay mechanics later on, it’s nowhere near overwhelming, and for the most part, you can do well just by sticking to the basics.
Another thing Silent Hill f has in common with the Souls games is its bosses. While the survival-horror game’s multitude of bosses are nowhere near as difficult to take out as bosses in Elden Ring or the like, they are as equally memorable. NeoBards’ creature design is spot-on. Sure, there’s no Pyramidhead in the game, but it doesn’t need it; Silent Hill f’s enemies, bosses, and even locales have a very distinct look and feel. adding to the overall experience.
The combat is broken up by some short traversal sections. When I say traversal section, it’s usually getting from Point A to Point B. Silent Hill f is entirely linear, which I’m all aboard on; not every game needs an open-world with a dozen items and side missions to do. There are branching paths in the games, and these usually yield extra items, info on the game’s story, and so on. Even after going after the items, you’ll still need to stick to the mapped out route by the developers, as again, this is a strictly linear experience.
Have a Little Faith
The game doesn’t have skill trees, upgradable weapons or anything of the sort, but what it does have is Faith. Hinako will be able to collect items in the game, or even use medicinal items to “Enshrine,” which will net you Faith — the currency used in the game to increase your health, sanity or stamina. It’s also used to upgrade how many perks you can equip all at once, but much like its combat, it’s fairly straighforward, so don’t expect anything crazy.
Silent Hill f eschews a lot of modern gaming tropes and might — on paper — seem like a simple game, but it more than makes up for it with the game’s story, visual flair, and audio design. As someone who rarely notices the music in games or admiittedly have a hard time appreciating it, Silent Hill f’s audio work is superb.
The music is haunting, yet not too much that it gets on your nerves, and that little musical ditty when an enemy is nearby is spine-chillingly well-made that even if I know I can kick that enemy’s ass without breaking a sweat, the accompanying music with it still manages to make that encounter a lot more tension-filled than it really is.
The audio work cascades into the sound effects and voice work as well. Watching the events unfold, you’ll be treated with sound design that kicks up the horror feeling a notch just by hitting the right note at the right time.
Silent Hill f’s sound design is easily one of the best I’ve seen in a horror game; from the music, enemies, voice-overs, it’s second to none.
The Rose’s Thorns
While most of what we’ve experienced in Silent Hill f has been stellar, it does stumble a fair bit when it comes to performance, and in some cases, the controls. Playing on the PS5, there is this weird hitching or janky feeling (controls) when you start running. It’s not a major issue, but it is a bit annoying the first few times you experience it.
The visuals themselves are nothing to scoff at, but they’re carried by the excellent visual design. The tendrils, roots, and overall art design are to be commended, as it doesn’t feel like NeoBards copied any horror game out there, as they stretched their legs to branch out a little bit.
While the PS5 version of the game runs well for the most part, the same can’t be said for the PS5 Pro. Where the base PS5 has a performance and quality mode, the PS5 Pro is locked into a mode called “enhanced,” which combines the two modes and adds additional features. So what you play on the PS5 Pro is essentially quality mode at 60 FPS. The differences are pretty day and night when you put them side-by-side, especially comparing the base PS5’s performance mode to it, where it almost looks like you’re playing on low settings versus high, maybe even ultra.
It’s easily one of the best uses of the extra power we’ve seen out of the PS5 Pro, though it’s far from”perfect.” Almost immediately upon starting the game, we noticed minor hitches whenever the character would move through the world. Didn’t matter if they were running or walking, these hitches persisted, though we did eventually get used to them.
But there is one particular instance in the game, and we suspect every platform has issues here, and it’s towards the end when a lot of stuff starts happening. The frame rate dips damn near to the single digits, and that’s not a joke or an overexaggeration.
For those curious, the base PS5 seems to run the game better, as there’s no — or minimal — stuttering when running on performance mode.
Surviving the Horror
Silent Hill f is a survival horror game through and through, which means inventory management comes into play, and players can expect puzzles as well.
Compared to other recent survival-horror releases, the inventory won’t feel like another enemy you have to fight the entire time you’re playing the game. Sure, there are instances wherein you have to make a decision on whether to discard an item or run back to your shrine to save and possibly enshrine stuff, but for the most part, it’s manageable and doesn’t border on being an irritation.
The game’s puzzles is one of the stars of the game, as this isn’t your standard fetch a valve to open a door. Sure, there are some of that, but the majority of the puzzles in the game are hard, and will require your brainpower to actually do some thinking. As an added layer to the puzzles, each difficulty level has a different solution for each puzzle. The way they’re presented is well done as well, since the clues are presented via poems, short stories, or something similar, which makes it feel more organic.
You Can’t Keep Silent About This One for Long
Silent Hill f seems to hit the nail in the head for a lot of things. Be it the atmosphere, combat, sound and overall graphical designs, it has a lot of things going for it. But there’s even more to it. Clocking in at 11 to 14 hours for your first playthrough, the game is meant to be played more than once. Without going into spoilers, you won’t just be playing the game again to try and catch all the trophies/achievements you’ve missed, but rather, to expand on the story.
Not only does the game have multiple endings, but there are certain elements to New Game+ that further expand the story, and will give you a better understanding of why things happen. Needless to say, the ending is quite a trip, and you’ll want to replay it to see what the “real” ending is.
This means that the 11-14 hours of playthrough is in reality, a lot more, since you will want to replay the game to know more about the story.
I admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Silent Hill f after seeing the first trailers, but nothing could have prepared me for this. NeoBards managed to not only deliver an excellent horror game, but one that dares to be its own without relying on its brand to carry it forward. If future Silent Hill games are made with this kind of love and attention, then horror game fans are in for a wild ride.
Silent Hill f isn’t just the best horror game of the year so far, it’s one of the best games released in 2025.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Pros:
- Amazing sound design, and might be one of the best I’ve heard in a horror game in recent memory
- Compelling story and amazing voice-over work
- Doesn’t make backtracking a chore.
- Tense atmosphere and sense of dread
- Multiple endings and how it expands the story means it has more replayability than your usual story-driven horror game
Cons:
- Some performance issues, which we’re hoping gets patched
- Some of the puzzles might be a bit too obscure for some
Silent Hill f was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
