Since the release of the first game in 1999, Keiichiro Toyama's dark psychological horror series has garnered legions of fans, fast becoming one of the most important franchises in gaming history. Ignoring the poorly received mobile game The Short Message, interactive TV show Ascension, and the remake of Silent Hill 2, there hasn't been a new Silent Hill game proper since Downpour in 2012. It's been even longer since a really good one.
That all changed with Silent Hill f, a fully fledged, mainline Silent Hill game, but one that exists separately from the well-known worlds of James Sunderland and Heather/Cheryl Mason. Instead of being set in Silent Hill, the psychological prison that descends on the aforementioned characters' town is instead found in 1960s Japan, as schoolgirl Hinako faces her own demons in the horror game. As you can read in our Silent Hill f review, we consider it among the series' best, and we've got everything you need to know about it right here, including some useful Silent Hill f guides.
Silent hill f guides
Here are all our detailed Silent Hill f guides to help you through the challenging puzzle game:
- All Silent Hill f Omamori and locations
- Silent Hill f altar puzzle solution
- Silent Hill f Shrine Path - find the correct Ema
- How to escape the Silent Hill f scarecrow field
- Silent Hill f puzzle box solution
- Silent Hill f locker codes and combinations
- Silent Hill f light puzzle solution
- How to defeat the Silent Hill f Rinko boss
- Silent Hill f mural puzzle solution
- How to get all the Silent Hill f endings
- How to get and purify the Silent Hill f Sacred Sword
- How long is Silent Hill f?
- Is Silent Hill f on Game Pass
- Silent Hill f voice actors and cast list
Silent Hill f release date
The Silent Hill f release date was Wednesday, September 24, 2025, at 9pm PDT, and September 25 at 12am EDT / 5am BST, following a 48-hour early access period for preorders.
The horror game is available on PC via Steam and Epic Games, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles.
Team Silent, the Konami-owned development team behind the original trilogy of games, disbanded in 2024, which may be why we have never seen the same quality or love for Silent Hill games since 3. Since then, SH games have been developed by multiple studios, including Bloober Team, Double Helix, and Vatra Games. Silent Hill f marks the first time NeoBards Entertainment has taken the helm, and it is their first original game. However, the team had previously worked on the likes of Resident Evil Re: Verse, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster.
Silent Hill f reception
Surprisingly for a new Silent Hill game, Silent Hill f recieved an incredible reception on its release, garnering a critical score of 86 on metacritic, matching that of the Silent Hill 2 remake at the time of writing.
Many, PCGamesN included, thought that the story was poignant and moving, while addressing important issues. While some didn't like the new focus on combat, we praised Neobards' efforts at maintaining many beloved elements of the Silent Hill f series while making something entirely new and fresh at the same time.
Trailers
The first teaser trailer was shown during a Silent Hill Transmission back in 2022. Briefly introducing the game's protagonist and Japanese roots, the teaser trailer is a trypophobe's worst nightmare, as red weeds grow from fleshy holes and blossom into something akin to Japanese honeysuckle. Here, we can already see the red, floral imagery that runs through every other Silent Hill f trailer, and the game itself. This imagery seems to depict a sick, suffocating growth, but rather than using mold or disease, these flowers represent the beauty within terror, a common Japanese horror theme.
Among the most striking things about this first teaser trailer, though, is a scene around the 30-second mark, as an injured Hinako stumbles along, dragging a steel pipe behind her. The sound heard as the pipe scrapes across the floor mimics that of Pyramid Head's knife being dragged behind him, instantly cementing this new world as a part of Silent Hill's history.
Nearly three years later, a longer reveal trailer was shown during another Transmission broadcast in March 2025. Continuing the themes from the teaser trailer, this video shows more overwhelming infestation of flora, but delves deeper into Japanese history and culture. We see shrines, kabuke paintings, and a garden bridge, most often associated with passing from life into death.
The release date trailer, which you can watch at the top of the page, debuted during PlayStation State of Play on June 4, 2025. This trailer gives us more gameplay footage than ever, as well as a look at some of the devastatingly creepy monsters, and further explores the theme of death. It can be no coincidence that Hinako is seemingly killed by a monster at the exact midpoint of the trailer, as a stark transition then sees her awaken suddenly in a separate scene.
Silent Hill f story and setting
Spoiler alert - only read on if you want to know details about the Silent Hill f story. You have been warned.
The twisted psychology of Silent Hill tends to revolve around a person's dark past, specifically one they've tried to or have unknowingly repressed. Throughout the Silent Hill f trailers, there has been a common theme of friends, with the second trailer starting off with a voice-over saying, "Do you want to stay with your friends forever? Friends don't last forever. They will betray you, eventually. Just as they say you betrayed them." Hinako seems to be part of a friendship group of four, and the release date trailer introduces us to Sakuko, one of these friends. In this scene, as Hinako walks away, she hears a whispered "you traitor" in Sakuko's voice.
This was actually a bit of a mislead, since the main theme of Silent Hill f revolves around Hinako's fear of marriage and female oppression. Having witnessed her father's abuse of her timid mother for years, the strong and independent Hinako doesn't want to get married herself, but, being 1960s Japan, she is eventually married off anyway. It turns out that Silent Hill f takes place as Hinako regresses to before she was married, before she lost her friends, her family, and her independence to married life.
What is the f in Silent Hill f
We still don't really know why Silent Hill f was named as such, but here are some theories, with the most likely being the botanical word forme, represented by a lowercase f.
In botany, forme means a mutation of a floral variety. Given the obvious floral imagery in Silent Hill f, and the grotesque mutation of the fog world into the Otherworld, or Dark Shrine, this seems the most obvious meaning.
However, there is also a musical meaning to the letter f. Shown in a very similar lowercase style to that in the Silent Hill f artwork, in music, f stands for forte, or loud. Of course, this is the complete polar opposite of 'silent', and, again, many themes here are opposing: life and death, the real world and the Otherworld, silent and loud. As we discuss below, the Silent Hill f sound effects in these two worlds also differ to represent this duality.
The third, and perhaps least tangible theory, relates again to flora, but this time, its association with disaster and mutation in Japan. Studies have found that some Japanese plant life had mutated from radiation following the Nagasaki bombings of the 1940s, while deformed daisies in Fukushima were, for a while, blamed on the nuclear disaster of 2011.
Silent Hill f soundtrack
While legendary monster designer Masahiro Ito did not return to the franchise, composer and sound designer Akira Yamaoka worked on Silent Hill f, creating the sounds and songs for the fog world, while Kensuke Inage composed the soundscape for the Otherworld, known in Silent Hill f as 'The Dark Shrine'.
As Inage's first time working on a Silent Hill game, and the new Japanese setting, we got something a little different from the soundtrack this time around. This provides an incredible and jarring juxtaposition between Yamaoko's classic Silent Hill audio design and the new Dark Shrine.
Is Masahiro Ito involved in Silent Hill f?
Sadly, Ito himself has confirmed that he has no involvement in Silent Hill f. In a tweet in March 2025, the character designer said, "I don't know anything [about] Silent Hill f because I didn't work on it."
A fan then commented on the thread, asking whether his Sakura Head character from The Short Message would be included as it fits the aesthetic, to which Ito simply replied, "I don't know." Given Ito's work on The Short Message and the aforementioned Sakura Head, it came as a huge surprise that he was not involved in the new game. After all, Ito has worked on Silent Hill games since the first one and designed none other than the iconic Pyramid Head.
It seems there is no love lost between the artist and the franchise, though, as Ito reposted the release date announcement on X (formerly Twitter).
The character designer for Silent Hill f is known only as Kera. Her art is often based on the young girls and beautiful women, so she's the perfect artist to capture the 'beauty within terror'.
Now you're fully versed on all things Silent Hill f, why not check out some of our most anticipated upcoming games right now. You should also check out the Silent Hill f system requirements if you're considering picking up the stunning horror game.
