As we discussed, yesterday was the Silent Hill Transmission live stream.

Although no other games were featured, we did learn more about Silent Hill f.

I went into it with nervous anticipation and came out with cautious optimism. I still have some worries, but we’ll get into that in a little bit.

First, they showed a new trailer, which gave us our first look at the protagonist, Hinako, and some story details. We also see some unsettling monster designs, what looks like an Otherworld transition (those red plants/flowers look like they’ll be the dominant theme of Hinako’s Otherworld), and a scene of what looks like some sort of ritual.

That last part is especially interesting to me, because one of my top hopes is that the game will involve the cult in some form. Granted, the masked people in the trailer don’t look like the Order we’re used to, but I’d be happy with a Japanese branch of the same cult as a connection back to the main series.

The Steam page also provides some hints about the story and themes, as it includes a content warning for “depictions of gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence.” It sounds like the psychological horror will definitely be there.

Getting back to the Transmission, they followed the trailer by talking more about the game’s writing, music (with the Fog World music being composed by Akira Yamaoka), and the overall direction.

While they didn’t show any gameplay, they did show a story summary that describes Hinako “solving puzzles” and “fighting strange enemies.” That, together with Hinako wielding a pipe at times in the trailer, makes it pretty clear that this will be a survival horror game with both puzzles and combat.

The other thing that stood out to me the most was their reason for setting this game in Japan, since the other games are set in America. Apparently, they felt the series was starting to lose its Japanese identity, so they decided to make the new entry completely Japanese.

That’s an interesting perspective, especially since it does feel like the later games were missing something.

Now, the biggest question that remains for me is whether Silent Hill f will actually connect back to the main series in some way or if it will be entirely separate. They said there will be references for longtime fans, but that still leaves it unclear. And that’s my biggest concern. It looks like it will be an interesting horror game, but if it’s being called Silent Hill despite being set in a completely different country from the town of Silent Hill, I want to see a connection.

Since we don’t even have a release window yet, I’m sure they have plenty more to show us about Silent Hill f. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it turns out to be a great Silent Hill game.

(And in unrelated news, NIS announced five new games today, including one called Shinigami Hime, which is a new game from the team behind The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and The Cruel King and the Great Hero, so you know I’ll be anxiously waiting for a localization announcement. In even more unrelated news, there’s going to be a live adaptation of The House in Fata Morgana, which… I don’t even know what to think about.)

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Silent Hill f?