Konami recently announced a slate of upcoming Silent Hill games and a film to mark the franchise’s resurgence. Producer Motoi Okamoto spoke about this revival and explained how it will continue into the future with even more games that are “unique, highly artistic, and original.”
Okamoto talked about this future with IGN. He brought up how Konami had been trying to revive the series for some time, but had to do so in a way that redefined the brand while also keeping it all a secret. There were even pitches that didn’t come to fruition, and while he was vague, there were reports that Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games had pitched an entry that was later morphed into The Dark Pictures Anthology. Despite those nonstarters, he noted that there will be more Silent Hill on the way.
“We’ve been talking and having discussions with many creators,” said Okamoto. “Unfortunately, not all those projects got off the ground, but there should be some future announcements. The future of Silent Hill will only continue. I think what’s important about the series is that we put out titles that are unique, highly artistic, and original.”
The announced Silent Hill games are all likely to be quite different from one another, which backs up Okamoto’s point of redefining the brand and emphasizing its psychological horror roots to make it stick out in the modern era. The Silent Hill 2 remake is, according to Bloober Team, going to be a faithful remake of the iconic second entry. Silent Hill: Townfall Creative Director Jon McKellan noted No Code Studio’s title would be a different kind of Silent Hill game. No Code is known for making nontraditional horror games like Observation and Stories Untold. Silent Hill f is another mysterious entry, but takes place in Japan in the 1960s, both of which atypical for the franchise. And lastly, Silent Hill: Ascension is an interactive streaming series where the “community shapes the canon.”
He didn’t hint at what these announcements could be, but it sounds something called Silent Hill: The Short Message is coming sometime in the near future after being rated on a few ratings boards. It is alleged that this is a shorter, P.T.-like teaser for another full entry. There are also reports of another mainline entry that has yet to be revealed. Regardless, Okamoto called on developers to send their pitches to Konami and said he would “look through every one of them.”
A good portion of the interview, however, was focused on the Silent Hill 2 remake, which Okamoto called the “center” of this revival. Masahiro Ito, who has returned to the series for the Silent Hill 2 remake, also talked about making the combat more “fun” without changing the enemies too much. Series composer Akira Yamaoka spoke about remaking all the classic music for it in order to “heighten” those same feelings players had in the original. Okamoto also then explained that James looks older in the remake because the title’s fans are now older and the teams wanted to show a more weathered protagonist.
This more rugged model is also something that modern technology allows, and that tech is a big reason why it is only on PlayStation 5 and PC and not last-gen systems. Okamoto said that players had to project and use their imaginations on the PlayStation 2 to be scared, but the strength of modern hardware means those fears can be readily experienced without so much mental work.
