It comes as no surprise to me that Konami has a little lore bible for Silent Hill tucked away somewhere, or hidden behind glass in case of emergencies. But it is rather refreshing that policy sees them keep it away from development teams unless absolutely necessary.
I think this hands-off approach is one of the reasons why Silent Hill’s recent games have been so successful: Konami has picked the best dev teams for the job and left the bulk of the work up to them with as little intervention as possible.
I remember talking to Al Yang, director of NeoBards Entertainment, as well as series producer Motoi Okamoto last year ahead of Silent Hill f’s release, where they explained how important it was to provide fans of the series with inventive new games and how “future titles will probably carry their own flavour”, depending on the team.
One of Silent Hill’s greatest assets is just how flexible it can be. Yes there are some things we simply can’t do without such as fog, monsters, and a location imbued with anger, depression, and regret. But once the curse of Silent Hill has been invoked, the rest is really up to whatever poor soul finds themselves at the centre of it all.
The way in which the town is shaped, the puzzles and monsters the protagonist encounters, and even how they navigate the story is all contingent on their own psyche. The curse holds up a mirror to the protagonist and reflects outward whatever horrid things are hidden deep within them.
Like the games before it, Silent Hill: Townfall understood this perfectly, and even managed to wrap this torment nexus around three characters who each shared the same trauma—albeit in different ways and to different extents. It was abundantly clear just how well Screen Burn understood the series, so with or without the lore bible, whatever Konami is doing is clearly working for this new age of Silent Hill.
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