After taking part in Silent Hill f for 5 hours final month, I walked away excited concerning the recreation’s prospects, and looking out ahead to its Sept. 25 launch. However I did have a number of questions for Konami and developer NeoBards Leisure, the least consequential of which was: “Why is it referred to as Silent Hill f?”
I requested Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto the query concerning the that means of “f” within the recreation’s title whereas visiting Konami’s headquarters in Tokyo, however, as anticipated, he performed coy. “Now we have a number of completely different meanings infused into that f,” Okamoto mentioned by means of a translator, “however that is one thing we want to go away as an open-ended query for gamers to discover and are available to their very own conclusions, so I am going to chorus from elaborating on that.”
Al Yang, studio inventive director of Silent Hill f, was seated subsequent to Okamoto, and appeared to actually get pleasure from Okamoto’s rigorously worded dodging of the query, so I requested him if he’d wish to elaborate. Yang punted to Okamoto, who reiterated, “There are a number of completely different meanings that we now have envisioned, so we want gamers to take the time and attempt to discover out for themselves.”
Within the absence of any sort of official reply to Silent Hill f’s naming selections, I’ve some theories that I am going to current, beginning with the obvious.
f for 5
The final Silent Hill recreation to get a quantity in its title was 2004’s Silent Hill 4: The Room, prequel Silent Hill Origins (launched as Silent Hill Zero in Japan) however. Konami could also be subtly giving followers a touch that that is the fifth mainline Silent Hill recreation, regardless of a protracted checklist of sequels (Homecoming, Downpour, and so forth.) coming after Silent Hill 4.
Calling the brand new entry Silent Hill 5 would include a number of weight and expectations, and will doubtlessly flip off newcomers to the sequel who may be anxious they’d have to have performed “the primary 4” to grasp this one. So f could also be a delicate option to sign to followers that, yeah, Konami considers this Silent Hill 5.
f for forte
The f in Silent Hill f is definitely stylized as ƒ in its emblem, and an italicized, hooked f is used as a route in music to imply loud or robust. Loud would definitely be a distinction to the “silent” in Silent Hill, and since musician Akira Yamaoka seems intently creatively concerned within the growth of Silent Hill f, maybe a few of this was his thought.
Silent Hill is incessantly about two worlds, and Silent Hill f is not any completely different: Gamers will discover the “actual world” and an otherworld all through the sport, and maybe the f represents one half of the locations we’ll go to.
f for feminine
It’s possible you’ll wish to skip this part, in case you’re overly involved about spoilers. However one of many recurring narrative threads within the early hours of Silent Hill f contact on protagonist Hinako Shimizu’s platonic relationship together with her classmate Shu, and the way she appears in contrast to different ladies in her hometown of Ebisugaoka. We all know from the start of the sport that Hinako’s elder sister Junko is the favored daughter, and that Hinako is usually the goal of abuse from her father. Does that familial strife and Hinako’s tomboyish nature play into gender roles in Silent Hill f? Does f, shorthand for feminine, indicate questions on her gender identification?
f for mojibake
Let’s return to the character ƒ, as it’s stylized in Silent Hill f‘s emblem. The character ƒ incessantly seems in mojibake, the garbled textual content that may seem when translating sure character encodings. As somebody who used to work adjoining to language localization, I might see mojibake — a Japanese phrase that means “character transformation” — so much when engaged on Japanese-language web sites. This interpretation could really feel like a stretch, however the idea of “character transformation” feels too good to not point out.
We’ll in all probability have a a lot clearer reply to the f of all of it subsequent month, however it would possibly take 5 playthroughs to grasp all of it.