SILENT HILL f

Silent Hill f doesn't lose the series core psychological horror feel at all. Turning Silent Hill into a nightmare shaped by people's inner traumas, instead of just a town, is a great choice. Also, that wedding parts is absolutely disgusting and disturbing, which fits the series atmosphere perfectly. They expanded the concept without losing the soul of the franchise.

I bear no animosity toward [i]Silent Hill f[/i]. There are many things I like about it, even. The Japanese town in the 1960s is rendered gorgeously. It runs mostly fine for a UE5 title, which isn't always the case. I like the way characters look (ex., Shu is realistically handsome, Hinako is realistically beautiful -- these are believable looking people). The Japanese voice acting is good and much more appropriate here than the English. There are elements drawn from traditional Japanese folklore, and I think someone knowledgeable would have a field day analyzing Buddhist and Shinto themes. (It's the most 'Japan' thing I've played other than [i]Okami[/i] and [i]Sekiro[/i].) Yet for all the things I like about this game, I don't like it as a whole. A few reasons why: 1. The combat system feels out of place for [i]Silent Hill[/i], and I don't enjoy it enough for back-to-back runs. It gets clunky and tedious. This works against the idea of multiple runs to see other endings. 2. There are lapses between real-life logic and what the game allows. For example, you have to find a key at the middle school to unlock a gate to the mountains, but the gate is quite short, and you've been climbing through windows of similar height. There's no reason you couldn't climb over the gate instead. Another example: your path in the mountains is blocked by a fallen tree, and you've found an ax, but you can't use the ax to cut the tree. (You also can't crawl underneath, even though there'd be enough room to do so.) 3. I think there's messaging that could be considered objectionable -- i.e., the idea that marriage and childbirth are a horrible fate you should try to avoid. They convey this rather overtly. I find it a sad point of view, though in a vacuum, you can see this as an individual story, not an ideological one: [spoiler]An individual is torn apart by addiction, manipulations, and reticence to accept pre-determined social roles, which in her situation threatens to be a cage for this individual. She ends up writhing to get free, which leads to terrible consequences -- namely, multiple homicide.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Funnily, that's where James' story in [i]Silent Hill 2[/i] begins. Feels suffocated, murders his wife. Here, that's where the story ends, at least in the first ending. Feels suffocated, murders her parents. What if that were Hinako's midpoint instead? That would give her an extra layer of things to come to grips with, and the ending would reflect how she chooses to do so.[/spoiler] Even divorced from any possible messaging, I find Hinako's story not as gripping as James'. [i]Silent Hill 2[/i] was the [i]Crime and Punishment[/i] of gaming, and James Sunderland was its Raskolnikov. ("If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment as well as the prison.") [i]Silent Hill f[/i] is no [i]Silent Hill 2[/i]. So, even though there are many things to like on a technical level, I'm not taken with the experience as a whole. Buy on sale if you're curious enough. Don't buy at full price.

Дорогие разработчики, у меня не было серьезных ожиданий от игры, но впервые найдя в тумане предмет под названием "Сушеная Туша..", мне кажется, что-то глубоко внутри меня изменилось. В тот момент её тонкие, высушенные лапки, коснулись прямо моего сердца. Этот предмет является подношением, которое нужно положить в святилище Хокора, но спустя долгие часы колебаний, я так и не смогла совершить этот акт богохульства. На данный момент мой инвентарь состоит исключительно из сушенных туш. Весь тот восторг, что я испытала, найдя в тумане очередную сушеную тушу, в миг превратился в ужас от осознания, что мне уже некуда её положить. Мой инвентарь был заполнен. Прямо сейчас я стою рядом с ней и мы плачем. Я не брошу тебя, милая сушеная тушка...

Muy Bueno y excelente arte

Although I occasionally experienced performance issues, Silent Hill f (especially considering I got it on sale for $20) was worth it. I hadn't played any SH games before, but I was quite satisfied with this one. In fact, it satisfied me even more in terms of story than RE9, which came out this year. Also, contrary to the reviews I saw, I thoroughly enjoyed the combat system and it didn't bother me. I finished the game once, but I think there are a total of 5 endings I can get, and I want to go back and play them all, if not immediately. If you see it on sale, you should definitely buy it, but if you're generous and buy it right away, it still won't disappoint you.

Si eres una mujer, este juego te va a marcar un montón, es una barbaridad de juego y trata cosas en las que muchos deberiamos recapacitar.

This was very fun to play alongside Silent Hill F and a fine addition to this survival horror series. I’m glad to see a rejuvenation of this series.

Maybe would think otherwise if it didn't have the "silent hill" label, but this aint silent hill for me...

TLDR: If I could have a middle option for a "mixed" review, I would. This game does a lot of things right, but for every single thing I loved, there was something I equally kind of hated. Have realistic expectations when you buy this. You play as Hinako, a rebellious teenage girl who hates being told what to do or how she should adhere to society's standards. You leave home after a heated encounter with your parents so you can go talk to your friends. After meeting up with them however, you find your home town empty, slowly filling with fog, and terrifying monsters suddenly appear. Pretty solid set up, right? So, how does this game succeed, and how does it fail? - Silent Hill? In a brand new setting? Count me in. Does it stray from the traditional Silent Hill experience? Ehhh, a tad, but sometimes fresh ideas are needed to keep a series relevant. In this case, I think it was a good idea. - The main setting, the town, was beautifully designed. Exploring it, and some of the available houses, was a real treat, and honestly left me wanting more. From the school, to the farms, all the way to the mountain, I loved it. However... there's "dream" sequences where you enter an entirely different world, often filled with twisted corridors, shrines, and borderline mazes. I get it. I understand why we go there, and how its a cool idea on paper. But honestly, every time I got sucked into these sequences, I was impatiently waiting to go back to the town. - I'm not gonna sugar coat it; the combat was kind of annoying. While I was never afraid of dying due to having a constant supply of healing items, it was frustrating getting stun locked by enemies hitting me over and over, or getting locked into a swing animation only to lose half of my HP bar because I couldn't stop it once I pressed the button. The stamina system especially made it feel like a drag. Hit, hit, dodge, pause for stamina, hit. It's not difficult, but it's just not fun. - The puzzles... ugh. Now before you think I'm just some goober shuffling single digit brain cells around, no, the puzzles were not impossible. They were simply vague, most of them require you to go on fetch quests, and they're not set up very well. Actually, if I had to put my finger on it, I'd say its a translation issue, because if the hints and clues were worded differently, most of these would've been a breeze to get through. Two examples that stand out are: 1) The scarecrow puzzle... I don't know if it's glitchy or what, but you're given letters, and each one tells you what to look out for. However, every single time you follow the clue, it ends up being wrong. Like one letter mentions a boy never looking their way, and that's the hint, so you pick the one scarecrow that fits, and boom, wrong answer? And it does this every step of the way. 2) The mural puzzle is just as bad. It gives you a poem, but it makes no sense sometimes. "the white bird flies free" but then you're supposed to put the token for it in a cage? How does that equal flying free? How would you ever guess that? - Okay, time for the meat and potatoes of the stew... the story! Massive spoilers ahead, so if you're interested, stop reading now please. [spoiler]I adore the main themes and topics this game tackles. Hinako is treated poorly and is heavily misunderstood by a majority of the people in her life. They want her to fit social norms, they want her to be obedient, and she's frequently judged from every direction. The game does an amazing job of making you feel paranoid of everybody, even your own friends, as your faced with conflicting information on how they view you. Your abusive father, who fell into immense debt, is trying to marry you off, which adds another factor; how women were (and ARE) expected to marry and have their identities reduced to "wife." [/spoiler] [spoiler]Meanwhile, Hinako is just chasing her own happiness. Part of her wants to stay a carefree child, who can keep her promises to her friends and always stay with her best friend, Shu. The other half of her looks forward to a potential future with her husband. Ultimately, this kind of conflict is something a lot of women, and even men, are faced with. It's hard to leave your childhood behind. It's hard to sacrifice parts of yourself for the sake of growing up, and its even harder sacrificing them to make room for an entire other person you love. Will you regret it? Is it for the best? Don't both options terrify you in one way or another? That's the questions this game likes to ask, and its questions we've probably all had to subconsciously ask ourselves in the past.[/spoiler] [spoiler]However, as beautifully approached as this all is... Yes, there's some problems. Some of these things are far too cryptic, or have to be over-analyzed to see through the symbolism. It's not everybody's cup of tea. In order to even see all of the content to piece everything together, you have to play the game multiple times. For reference, a single playthrough of this took me roughly 12ish hours without rushing. Do you want to sit through 4 playthroughs to see and understand everything? No? Cool, neither did I, which is why I thank the people on YouTube that did. When I reached the end, I was originally very confused, because it turns out your absolutely tweaking on pills that Shu gave you and you're going on a massacre and being chased by police. From what I've gathered, you're locked into this bad ending for your first playthrough too. Yes, I understand the symbolism in doing that, but its not satisfying for the player![/spoiler] Did I enjoy playing it? Yes. Did some parts disappoint me? Yes. Will I play through it again? Only for the achievements, otherwise I wouldn't.

This is a good game. For reference, I played this game on close to max graphics settings and hard/hard on my first playthrough, then litf/litf on ng+. For this review, I'm evaluating the game on its own and not in relation to the Silent Hill franchise (I've only ever played SH2 remake before this, that's why.) At its core, this game is about telling a story. Think of it as an interactive novel more so than a gameplay first type of experience. That is not to say there is a lack of gameplay or mechanics, rather that the story is central to the design of its systems. Storytelling/narrative design gives you enough to pique your interest, but never enough to answer all your questions. My first playthrough had me guessing and theorizing all the way through. Enough to make me enter ng+, which I very rarely do. For reference, I practically never play ng+ in souls games (Lies of P an exception, holy hell that game is good). I can tell you though that ng+ contains a significant amount of new stuff to feel worth it if you enjoy the narrative and storytelling. It has several quality of life features in addition to new lore and mechanics that makes your extra time feel appreciated. Sound design and music is well done. Just gonna leave it at that. Better than 90% of games I've played. The game knows when to be silent and when to emphasize the narrative, rather than to overdo it. I've mostly enjoyed the combat. It is slow and methodical, like DS1-2. The game punishes you for panicking and spamming dodge or attack buttons. But fights are slow enough to where you have time to heal, use other consumables and plan your next move. You are NOT meant to fight every single enemy that you encounter. The game also tells you this. You don't really gain anything (at least not early on) from killing enemies other than the fact that they're gone (unless they respawn in a set amount of time, which certainly sucks). It is reminiscent of soulslike type combat with stamina management, light/heavy attacks, stuns and counters; I found it much more forgiving with timings and such though, and there aren't that many different enemy types to a point where it feels tedious to learn how to deal with them. I would say the combat *slightly* overstays its welcome, and maybe a 10-15% reduction in encounters would've done the game a favor. The game also looks quite incredible.