Silent Hill f isn’t the first of the series to include a female protagonist, it’s not even the second really, what with the likes of Heather Mason and Cybil Bennet having graced our screen decades ago. But Silent Hill f did still manage to deliver one of the best performances and narratives with a female protagonist I’ve seen in a very long time.
The story follows Shimizu Hinako, a young woman at a crossroads in her life. Set in 1960s Japan, Hinako is forced to choose between what is expected from her traditionally and what could be possible in an emerging world where women have more rights. But the catch is in both instances someone else is choosing her future for her, and each holds its own terrors.
There is no one right answer or ‘good’ ending, that’s for the player to decide. The truth is the future can be scary no matter what path you take, and, especially for women, all tracks of life come with its own pressures and fears.
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The fears Hinako faces are genuine. Ok, maybe not literally, but figuratively speaking. A truth that’s undoubtedly achieved by the team at NeoBards looking towards female staff members for insights, instead of just guessing at it.
“The main theme is women’s rights, or how that was perceived in that time,” director Al Yang told PC Gamer’s senior editor Wes Fenlon at GDC. “We have a lot of female members on our team, and you’d always ask them questions regarding the fears Hinako had, and the monsters that represent them.
“Some of them are married, some of them have kids, some are right out of school. So you get different perspectives from different age ranges. I am not qualified to tell you how women should feel or what the pressures [they face]. I can try to understand, but that’s not on me. The most I can do is to talk to people and get feedback and try to translate that as much as possible.”
Hinako faces many fears throughout Silent Hill f, for the uninitiated that’s pretty much Silent Hill’s whole shtick, such as the fear of marriage, of turning out like her mother, of growing apart from her friends, and of staying too reliant on the small town where she grew up just to name a few. These plague Hinako throughout the game, some coming in form of flashbacks and other in horrific apparitions, which were also designed by the female staff.
“So with the monster that [represents] Hinako’s fear of pregnancy and whatnot, there was a lot of feedback from our team members, and it was drawn by one of our female concept artists too. So there’s a lot of details, this is your own personal nightmares, or the nightmares of people who’ve had children. And again, talking to our younger staff members, if they’re afraid, what are they afraid of?”
There’s no better way to create realistic fears in a game than by actually including what those working on it are afraid the most by. In the end it seems like the most effective tool NeoBards utilised was just good old fashioned feedback and communication—asking the right people the right questions.
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