I spent some time with NeoBards Entertainment. Silent Hill F over the past few weeks, mostly out of curiosity about Konami's strategy to revive the critically acclaimed horror series. I spent my career observing the Tokyo-based publisher from a distance, as I didn't play much of the Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania or Silent Hill franchises.
What interested me about this revival attempt (first announced in 2023) was its strategy of outsourcing development to multiple game studios without a single visual identity. Remake Silent Hill 2 may have ridden on the bloody coattails of the original's iconic monsters, but there was no telling Silent Hill f from the same series at first glance.
But perhaps the absence of “iconic” creatures is a blessing and not a disaster, since Silent Hill f– and this tells us something about the process of revival and development of game franchises.
Why none of Silent Hill fAre monsters “cult”?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but looking around the internet I don't see any sign of monsters inspired by Japanese folklore. Silent Hill f had as much influence as their predecessors. I would attribute this to one key factor: the widespread availability of high-quality 3D visualization.
The design of this creature is still strong, meaning that NeoBard's vision of rustic Japanese horror resonated with players without cramming in any gimmicky creatures. Ayakakashi's scarecrow-like stuttering movement plays excellently in the game's open areas, and the “Unborn Monster”, a beast with dozens of pregnant bellies, disgorges enemies in a not-so-subtle manifestation of the protagonist's fear of forced marriage.
Meanwhile, Shiromuku's wedding design continues this trend, while the mysterious man known as “Fox Mask” takes a more humble approach, presenting himself as a handsome young man looking at the player through a Fox mask, made even more terrifying due to his calm demeanor and the way he guides the protagonist into dangerous situations, claiming to be helping her but seeming perfectly content to let she has to harm herself to complete the mysterious mystical rituals.
Image via Neobards Entertainment/Konami.
Again, these are all strong projects (and like all Silent Hill monsters, they are deeply tied to the psychological chaos of the protagonist), but they don't achieve “cult” status. This is probably because they exist in a world where games, even those not in the horror genre, have their own roster of bloody, monstrous creatures rendered in high graphical detail. They compete with sinister beasts Elden Ring or fresh French designs Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33.
These games aren't even horror games. Monsters are not designed to scare, they are designed to attract attention. Most of them aren't even what you'd call “iconic”. Only Elden Ringtragic knight in armor Melania and ChiaroscuroThe allied characters Monoko and Esky seem to have had some influence. This does not mean neglecting any of these projects. It just goes to show that the technology available to developers has raised the bar exceptionally high.
In 2001, PlayStation 2 hardware was so limited that Team Silent famously used the city's ominous fog to reduce the required rendering distance in a desperate attempt to squeeze out as much memory and performance as possible.
It was in this context that Pyramid Head emerged: a product of strong art direction, game design, and writing that felt particularly monstrous, especially during a period when horror games were gradually turning into action-oriented games. Someone focused on the marketable characters that could be the driving force behind future Silent Hill games might be disappointed that these creatures don't make an impression.
But Konami's trust in NeoBards' vision—combined with its multi-pronged release strategy—could be instructive for how other developers can revive dormant franchises and keep current ones fresh.
Konami can have their cake and eat it too
Series and franchises are important to the gaming business because they promote familiarity among players and can provide a stable basis for developers to work from without having to reinvent all the wheels with each new game (sometimes just a few of them).
Starting the revival of Silent Hill with Silent Hill 2 and not silent HillKonami quickly brought the series' most iconic game back into the spotlight. The success of this game brought players back to the horror franchise, and the quick sequel Silent Hill f It wasn't an unexpected diversion, but rather a seamless introduction to the “next chapter” of Silent Hill.
When a series fails—as Silent Hill did in the 2000s before going dormant for a decade—it's painful for everyone involved. Art direction Silent Hill f Shows us one way developers can breathe new life into franchises without simply rehashing hits: diversifying the types of releases and spreading the “familiarity” and “experimentation” across different games and, perhaps, different developers.
And as it prepares its next chapter – and has sold over a million copies just a week after launch – Konami has laid out a vision for Silent Hill that's bigger than one monster or episode: a carefully crafted psychological horror in which monsters emerge from players' characters… and reveal just how monstrous they are in turn.
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