Just like James Sutherland’s dead wife, the Silent Hill franchise keeps making a comeback from the dead. The Silent Hill 2 Remake has proven to be highly successful both critically and financially and will likely be enough to revive the franchise and give Konami the confidence it needs to pursue more of Silent Hill.
The news of its success actually came from Konami and Bloober Team, the Silent Hill 2 Remake‘s publisher and developer, respectively. Konami has announced based on their research that as of January 23, Silent Hill 2 Remake has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
Of course, the game has also seen much critical acclaim, even raking in several prestigious awards from different events. In any case, Silent Hill 2 Remake‘s success has set the stage for a second wind for the franchise, especially with the upcoming new mainline game, Silent Hill F.
Perhaps Konami Should Reconsider Silent Hills & P.T.
Speaking of future Silent Hill titles, fans awaiting Silent Hill F don’t really have much to go on about the game’s state of development apart from the fact that it received an age rating in South Korea, which doesn’t indicate much. Ever since Konami revealed the cryptic horror game back in 2022, there hasn’t been much news for Silent Hill F.
The logical speculation points to a Halloween release, but three years is a little too short of a development time for a AAA game. Since there’s presumably plenty of time left, my hope for the new Silent Hill F is that it at least pays homage to the canceled Silent Hills game from Hideo Kojima.
Silent Hills Had Potential
Back in 2015, the Silent Hill franchise was set for a rather grand revival with Silent Hills being helmed by Kojima himself. The canceled game even featured big Hollywood names such as Norman Reedus and had a sweepingly positive and spooky demo in the form of P.T. Sadly, Kojima split ways with Konami (to put it lightly) which led to the cancelation of Silent Hills.
Looking back at the trailers and the general direction of the canceled game, Silent Hills was more similar to Silent Hill 2, taking on a more globally digestible lore about warping realities and even a touch of Guillermo del Toro. There’s also the fact that the town of Silent Hill itself is canonically a western setting.
By comparison, Silent Hill F appears to be taking on a less popular location, specifically a rural town in Japan in the 1960s. In the canon, this puts Silent Hill F as a prequel and the first in the timeline. The change in direction and the fact that it’s a little too far detached from the town of Silent Hill is a fresh but peculiar choice.
Technically, Silent Hill is a metaphor and not an actual town, but the transition in settings might make Silent Hill F a little too reminiscent of other horror games like Fatal Frame, especially with the schoolgirl protagonist. Depending on how the story goes though, that’s not necessarily a bad change for the franchise. I do remain skeptical since the next mainline game could be risking the mass appeal that Silent Hill 2 Remake built back up.
