Konami says Silent Hill f has more “thrilling,” action-heavy combat because youthful players are interested in “challenging action video games.”
In a latest interview with Game*Spark, transcribed by Automaton, and picked up by IGN, Silent Hill sequence producer Motoi Okamoto and Silent Hill f director Al Yang opened up about the determination to offer Silent Hill f a larger deal with melee combat, suggesting it was primarily based at the least partially on trade developments.
“Inserting more entertaining and thrilling action into Silent Hill f was an concept I had ever since the early phases of the improvement,” Okamoto mentioned.
“And, since NeoBards is an organization that’s tremendously good at making action video games, this is additionally one of the explanation why we determined to decide on them as the builders,” he added.
This elevated emphasis on combat was highlighted throughout the Silent Hill f showcase at the June 2025 Sony State of Play, at which period Okamoto mentioned the sport can have “a heavier deal with melee and be more action-oriented in comparison with final yr’s Silent Hill 2.”
“The Silent Hill sequence is not thought of a sport that has entertaining action per se, however as we’re opening our doorways to new players, we started to surprise what it will be like if we added more of these parts into the sport.” Okamoto added.
“Challenging action video games are gaining recognition amongst youthful players these days, so I believed that if we carried out such parts into the sport, it will resonate nicely even with people who find themselves new to the sequence.”
Full disclosure: Darkish Souls has by no means been my jam. I will not wade into the discourse there; I simply don’t have enjoyable enjoying them, so I often don’t. That mentioned, I’ve felt some sense of petty vindication in recent times as the topic of Soulslike fatigue becomes more and more prevalent. I don’t have anything towards these video games and perceive why some folks like them, however it’s good to see a rising refrain of folks on the whole settlement that, hey, maybe there are enough Soulslikes.
When I first heard Silent Hill f could be more combat heavy, I wasn’t nervous in any respect. I like combat! I simply don’t vibe with the Soulslike rhythm of dodging, parrying, and dealing poke injury as a giant bizarre factor lumbers round a confined combat zone for 45 minutes. That is why, when GamesRadar’s Oscar Taylor-Kent went hands-on with Silent Hill f and mentioned he is “anxious about the parry-heavy combat,” which he explicitly in comparison with the Darkish Souls sequence, I was like, shit.
He wasn’t the just one both. After various previews from other media outlets talked about this obscure FromSoftness of the combat, a spirited online discussion was spurred into movement, with many expressing the same trepidation to Oscar’s and my personal.
Alas, Yang mentioned, “We did not wish to find yourself recreating Silent Hill 2 over and over once more, and we have been conscious that there was no motive to maintain making clones of it. So, in an effort to keep away from repeating what earlier main titles did, we determined to make the action stand out more.”
I know, I know, I’m getting approach forward of myself right here. With adjustable issue choices and just about nothing connecting it to Darkish Souls past some obscure similarities in combat, Silent Hill f is not a Soulslike by any stretch of the creativeness. It is simply that Yang and Okamoto appeared to indicate that Silent Hill f’s combat was designed to chase an trade development that sounds lots like Darkish Souls that rubs me the incorrect approach.
In equity, the quotes I’m decoding have been translated from Japanese, and there’s an inherent murkiness to intent that occurs if you cross language borders like that. They might not have had Darkish Souls or Soulslikes on their minds in any respect after they mentioned that, so this might very nicely all be a complete lot of scuttlebutt over nothing. This is hoping, anyway.
Silent Hill f’s author views the sequence as a “pie crust” that hides “its true colours beneath a layer of horror and fog,” and I say let him prepare dinner
