After years of teases and rumors, Konami announced that theSilent Hillseries will be returning in a big way starting in 2023 with the release ofSilent Hill 2’s remake and theSilent Hill 2film adaptation,Return to Silent Hill. While NoCode and Annapurna Interactive’sSilent Hill: Townfallwas also a welcome announcement, the biggest surprise of the show was the announcement ofSilent Hill f, the first new main series entry since 2012’sSilent Hill: Downpour.
What makes the announcement ofSilent Hill fso special is the reveal of the key staff working on the title. Konami has enlisted Chinese studio Neobards Entertainment to develop the title, withLuigi’s MansionandPikminproducer Motoi Okamoto andSpirit Hunter: Death MarkandNGartist Kera. The biggest surprise, however, was the game’s lead writer, beloved visual novel author Ryukishi07, most famous for his work onHigurashi: When They CryandUmeniko: When They Cry. Ryukishi07’s hiring could be exactly what theSilent Hillseries needs to move forward, andhis inclusion gives Silent Hill f a ton of potential.
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Who is Silent Hill f’s Writer, Ryukishi07?
As previously mentioned, Ryukishi07 is a belovedvisual novel writer known for theHigurashi: When They Cryseriesand, more recently, its sequel seriesUmeniko: When They Cry.Higurashi: When They Crydebuted 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.
TheHigurashi: When They Cryseries 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 onUmeniko: When They Cry,and further spin-offs in theWhen They Cryseries, most of which at least center around a series of murder mysteries. This indicates why Konami would be interested in theSilent Hillseries.
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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 serieshistorically 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 is part of the reason that later games likeSilent Hill: Origins,Silent Hill: Homecoming, andSilent Hill: Downpourfailed to recapture the unsettling, offbeat atmosphere of the originals. While it is a surprise to seeSilent Hill fpull the entire setting of the fictional town to 1960s Japan, Ryukishi07’s involvement in the story makes thisSilent Hill f’s greatest asset.
Ryukishi07 has also been praised for his ability to balance tone, with theWhen They Cryseries often shifting from intense, dramatic horror sequences to humor at the drop of a hat. This could be something interesting to see inSilent Hill f, asJ-horror such as the works of Takashi Miikeand 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 inSilent Hill f’s announcement trailer. His knowledge of Japanese folklore and ability to blend it with supernatural horror will likely to take theSilent Hillseries in a brand-new direction,perhaps one more akin to the likes ofFatal 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.
