Silent Hill f is making big changes, but that’s also earned it a mixed reception from players eyeing up if they’ll want to pre-order it, play it when it’s first released, or wait and see what others say about it before committing to a playthrough. Of course, the change that’s caused the most discourse is the game being set in a fictional Japanese village, which is quite different from the titular town with a heavy western influence that you generally associate with the Silent Hill series. However, it’s not a bad change to shift the setting like this, and it might be the exact change the series needs to revitalize its new games instead of relying too much on remakes to keep it alive.
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While information about the story of Silent Hill f has been understandably scarce, it’s confirmed that the game will be different from what you’re used to seeing from the series. It’s not uncommon for long-lived franchises to make that kind of change to keep the game feeling fresh, but it doesn’t always work in their favor. This time, it looks like it’ll be a positive change for Silent Hill as a whole.
Silent Hill Isn’t About a Town
Yes, the series is named after the town in which most of the games take place, and there’s some importance to that location. However, the town itself isn’t the root of the issues that the characters face there. Instead, the problem is the actions of people and the trauma that haunts them, as proven by Laura in Silent Hill 2, because she experiences the town as it is: just an empty town.
So, you could say that Silent Hill is actually a franchise that’s about trauma. The characters who are affected the most by the town are those who carry the most trauma and dark secrets, which means that these games don’t necessarily need to all take place in the exact same town. Resident Evil is the same in that the franchise starts in a residence filled with evil, but it’s about the viruses more than the locations. This helped that series revitalize itself when it decided to scale down the plot in Resident Evil 7, and the same idea with Silent Hill f should help Silent Hill’s future prospects.
It’s actually interesting that Silent Hill f is making a shift like this, and the game’s description says that strange events start occurring when a mysterious fog rolls into the village. With that in mind, the series is pivoting from the town being the source of events to the fog being the source instead, meaning that the developers have more freedom when it comes to the setting of future games in the franchise.
The Potential of New Settings
This change in setting is exactly what the franchise needs. First, there’s not much more that can be said about the original town. You see it often enough that you basically learn the whole history of it and its cults. With a change of setting, the mysteries and history of that location and what made the fog roll in will be unknown. It also opens up the chance to use urban legends and ghost stories from other locations to influence the environment and the monsters you encounter.
Related – Silent Hill f Release Date Is Close Based on New Update
It’s understandable that Silent Hill players are wary about the changes being made by Silent Hill f after waiting so long for a new mainline game to carry on the essence of a series they love. However, a new setting is great for Silent Hill, and it’s exactly what the series needs right now if it wants to survive beyond remakes. Silent Hill f looks like it’s going to be an amazing ride and a unique addition to the series, and it at least deserves a chance to prove itself as a worthy successor to a beloved franchise.
