On October 19th, Konami surprised fans by reviving the long-dormant Silent Hill franchise with an absolute downpour of new announcements. It’s been seven years since the cancellation of Silent Hills and the borderline legendary piece of lost media, P.T., being pulled from the Playstation store. To say expectations were low for the Silent Hill Transmission would be an understatement. My wife and I are longtime fans of this series, and we went in not expecting much but came away surprised and excited. So, let’s recap the biggest announcements.
Silent Hill 2 Gets a Remake…
The Silent Hill Transmission opened with a new, completely redone version of the intro to 2001’s Silent Hill 2. We see a very faithful recreation of those opening moments, with two explosive revelations about the project. Longtime composer of the series, Akira Yamaoka, is returning for this remake in a long overdue homecoming, as well as the art director/creature designer, Masahiro Ito. Developed by the Polish studio Bloober Team, it will be a Playstation 5 console exclusive for a year upon release but will be coming to PC.
What was shown looked very faithful to the original and somewhat promising. The new voices seem to be trying to match the same tone as the original, but the awkward acting of the original (keep in mind, there’s intentionally no Japanese VO in any of the older Silent Hill games) added to the unsettling atmosphere for some fans.
It’s worth noting that Bloober Team’s previous releases were met with a mixed reception. Could this be their big break? Silent Hill 2 is a beloved game, and fans have had restless dreams about its return. This remake has some big shoes to fill, and it will be impossible to please everyone given how loved the original is. No release date has been announced.
Continuing from this, Konami assured fans that they will “continue to work with talented creators from all over the globe to expand the world of Silent Hill”.
They then played a teaser trailer for Silent Hill: Townfall. This one is a tough nut to crack, as the trailer shown during the Silent Hill Transmission is mostly just spoken dialogue over a long shot of a flickering handheld television. The developers, No Code, have had some praise for their previous games, Untold Stories and Observation, but they are very unique experiences and definitely not for everyone. I can easily see this one being a lot smaller in scope and more experimental. Going over the trailer in a frame-by-frame manner shows some environments, a possible monster, and perhaps our main character. No gameplay was shown and hardly any other details were given, as more will be revealed in 2023.
…a Film Adaptation, and Other New Merchandise
This was followed by a lengthy discussion of the new film, Return to Silent Hill. The production of this movie has been known of for a little while, and it seems like it’s going to be an adaptation of Silent Hill 2. That said, hearing Masahiro Ito say that the game series was revived due to how much they liked the script of this new film was not on my 2022 bingo card. I have some personal, sentimental connection to the first movie, but I admit that it wasn’t exactly… good. I skipped the second movie entirely, but the storyboards shown lead me to believe that this may turn out to be decent. After all, video game adaptations have been surprisingly good lately.
From here, Konami leaned hard into merchandise for the next section of the Silent Hill Transmission. Several 1/6 scale statues were revealed of Red Pyramid Thing, James, the first official statue of Maria, and a recreation of the secret ending of the original Silent Hill 2. Next were several miscellaneous items such as articulated figurines, skateboard decks, apparel, and the Popup Parade Bubble Head Nurse figure, available for preorder from our website.
Shifting the Silent Hill Transmission back to interactive experiences, Konami then revealed a teaser trailer for Silent Hill: Ascension. Yet another weird and experimental entry, this one is promising to be a “live, real-time interactive series”. Fans will be able to change the outcome of the story, may even appear in some scenes, and have a chance to “change the Silent Hill canon forever”. The creators made sure to stress that there is no reset button, meaning that whatever choices are made cannot be reversed. This is a pretty neat idea, but it will all bank on the execution. This is currently scheduled to go live in 2023.
Finally, Konami closed the showcase with the most surprising announcement of all:
Silent Hill f — Written by Ryukishi07
The most exciting announcement from the Silent Hill Transmission came from this reveal. Bringing the series back to Japan in every possible way, Silent Hill f is a mainline entry in the franchise set in 1960s Japan and being developed by a Japanese team, NeoBards Entertainment.
The developers have a history of making Resident Evil’s multiplayer spin-offs, as well as doing ports of Devil May Cry HD Collection, Onimusha, and Resident Evil Origins Collection. Written by Ryukishi07 of Higurashi and Umineko fame, I’m expecting great things here. The imagery in the trailer was full of deeply unsettling body horror, a staple of artist Kera, who has worked on the Spirit Hunter series, Romancing SaGa, and Lord of Vermillion. Done right, this could be the best Silent Hill entry yet, but given the tumultuous history of the franchise, I’m going to wait for more before I get too attached to the idea, especially considering that we don’t even know what systems it will be releasing on and none of the footage shown was actual gameplay.
The Silent Hill franchise is back in a big way, but is it here to stay? Only time will tell. I’m happy to see it back, but the franchise has a troubled past, even before the Silent Hills cancellation. Let’s hope Konami keeps giving the franchise the push it deserves.
