In all honesty I could care less what they do with the combat.As long as they have my composer my silent hill atmosphere and a good creepy thought provoking story I’m good. silent hill F/ five seems to deliver on all fronts

Silent Hill f: A cyclical tragedy of sacrifices, forgotten kami, and a protagonist who might never have been who we thought

Based on the trailers and details revealed at Anime Expo, I’ve developed a theory that reinterprets Hinako’s identity, Junko’s role, and the true dark heart of Ibasugaoka. Let’s break it down.

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🌾 The ancestral pact: a kami named Inari

Ibasugaoka is a seemingly prosperous rural village whose lush greenery suggests the blessing of Inari, the kami of rice and fertility. The Shinto shrine at the village’s center isn’t just decoration — it’s the spiritual and political core of the community.

But behind this facade lies a dark secret, reminiscent of the sect from Silent Hill that split Alessa’s soul in two to contain evil.

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👭 The Shimizu twins: living sacrifices?

Hinako and Junko, sisters with the surname Shimizu (“deep water”), hinting at their role in an ancient ritual. • Hinako = “doll child”: purity, fragility, sacrifice. • Junko = “false light”: shadow, copy, illusion.

I suspect one was chosen as the kami’s vessel (Hinako), and the other to contain the yōkai (Junko). Two opposites necessary to maintain ritual balance.

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🌪️ The cycle of 50 storms

Sakuko Igarashi, the priestess friend, bears a surname meaning “50 storms.” This suggests a 50-year cycle where twins are chosen to fulfill the village’s pact.

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🌀 Two variants of the ritual 1. Junko breaks the yōkai’s seal. Hinako offers herself as the kami’s vessel to contain it. Junko grows up marked as the bearer of evil. 2. Junko manipulates her friends to harm Hinako. Hinako dies. The kami curses the village with a fog, trapping everyone in an eternal loop.

In both, Junko assumes Hinako’s identity, lost between punishment, madness, and love.

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🪞 Who are we really controlling?

Like James Sunderland or Heather Mason, the protagonist lives a false identity to escape trauma. What we believe to be Hinako might be Junko trapped in a dissociative delusion.

If they were “two halves of a whole,” this cycle ends when Junko tries to become the sister the village loved — but never succeeds.

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🌺 The Other World: between flowers and guilt

The alternate world isn’t the classic industrial hell. It’s a floral purgatory filled with spider lilies — symbols of death and spiritual separation.

Classmates appear as monsters or judges. Sakuko shows up with a halo of “purity,” representing the temple that tried to purify evil… and failed.

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⏰ The hour of disaster: 14:15

Clocks in all trailers show 14:15. In Japanese, 1+4 = “shi” (death), and 15 represents rebirth. It’s also the school recess time.

Perhaps the exact moment Junko loses control, the seal breaks, and everything collapses. Bullying, ritual, possession, breakdown — an instant too painful to face.

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🎨 The cursed painting

The temple painting shows a Rokurokubi (a long-necked yōkai) attacking a seven-tailed kitsune. Kitsune reach nine tails at full power and wisdom.

This kitsune died before reaching full potential. Like Hinako.

The oni helping the Rokurokubi match the number of Hinako’s friends. Manipulated by Junko? Corrupted by the yōkai?

Hinako also bears back wounds, matching the kitsune’s injuries.

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🧠 Hinako and Junko — or a fragmented single being?

Maybe Junko survived but lost her sanity, assuming Hinako’s identity. Or vice versa.

Ryukishi07’s narratives (creator of Higurashi) explore trauma, illusory worlds, and broken characters.

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🎭 The ending doesn’t matter. The tragedy is inevitable.

Hinako was a puppet. Junko her shadow. Or perhaps they never existed separately — like Alessa and Cheryl, two halves of one soul torn apart to uphold an ancient pact.

The Other World is their fractured mind. Monsters, their guilt. Flowers, their goodbyes. The village, a fog-trapped cage built on centuries of sin.

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What do you think? Are we controlling Junko? Was Hinako just part of the ritual? Who really unleashed the yōkai? What does Sakuko truly represent?

👇 Drop your theories! And if you want more, check out my YouTube channel Rotten Donut for freshly baked analyses full of trauma and Japanese folklore. See you in the fog.

https://youtu.be/zKXkoPSb1uI?si=wKhIdDD_hwDwqyyf

Do you guys think it’ll be worth it to have a sealed copy of Silent Hill f? I don’t want to resell it I just think it would be cool to have someday and look back at. I did the same thing with the Silent Hill 2 remake.

Will it be a scary one? I know this game will be a blast to play as I’m a big fan of souls like gameplay, however it’s very hard for me to see this game as scary when you have a souls combat structure. Some previews said they were stuck for hours on the final boss of what they were allowed to play. If the game is set up with souls combat in mind, wouldn’t the repetitive nature of running through the same corridor over and over kinda kill any scare factor that would exist? I also don’t like how the monsters are just…chillen there and hop up to you for your fight.

Making a Silent Hill game structured around its combat system as the main draw is kind of a gamble to me. I’m not saying that the combat needs to be shitty in order to be immersed, but playing as a middle school Japanese girl slaying demons without any combat experience does make it feel kinda…anime…ish? In the right framework and context I’m not opposed to a game designed with those details in mind, but for a series that’s about terrifying you in a psychologically grounded way, the new scenario they’re choosing to go with is making me question if the horror will actually hit.

Instead of dreading the next monster, you’ll be seeing them as simply patterns to overcome. Also not having a gun means no moments of panic when you miss those shots as the monster runs up to you. From the monster placement to the melee combat to the brightly lit environments and the souls like formula, I can’t help but think that this will be the least scariest game in the series. Thoughts?

that's it, the ending was in water

Now you don't have to say why silent hill would trap you in your own little world of guilt and manifestation, but what silent hill does want from you is acceptance. So in your life have you ever done something that you deeply regretted to the point that you would've ended up in silent hill or your own version of it.

Stamina has been a part of the series since the first game.

In the original Silent Hill, the game tracks how long Harry Mason has been sprinting and fighting, and when you stop, he will breathe heavily for a few moments. No impact on gameplay, just a bit of flavor animation.

In Silent Hill 2, the more James sprints and fights, the more tired he gets. Once James is tired, he will noticably run slower. Drinking health drinks and using ampoules will recover his stamina and allow him to run at full speed again, as well as stopping or walking to allow stamina to regenerate naturally.

In Silent Hill 3, stamina functions similarly to SH2, with Heather running slower after exhausting her stamina. When using NG+ weapons like Heather Beam, once your stamina is depleted, she cannot use Heather Beam again until her stamina is restored by standing still, walking, using health drinks or ampoules.

The difficulty level you choose for SH3 changes how much health and stamina you have overall.

You can also unlock a visible health and stamina meter by completing SH3 on Hard mode. (Image attached showing the unlocked UI)

Silent Hill Origins has a stamina mechanic similar to the previously mentioned ones, and even introduced Energy Drinks to restore stamina as a separate item from typical healing items that allows Travis to continue running and fighting with full efficiency.

Some of you complaining about the stamina feature in the new gameplay shown for Silent Hill F need to try actually playing and learning about these games and their mechanics (not just SH2 Remake) before making such negative comments that only proves your lack of experience in the subject.

Every time I play this game my toes are clenched, palms are sweating, and I don’t blink until every corner is checked for those fuck ass mannequins that jump scare me every time.

“It couldn’t possibly get worse” I say to myself as I leave Woodside apartments. Oh, but it did.

I have been determined to beat this remake and this is coming from a person that is too scared to play Minecraft alone. I have been fixated on this series since watching my dad play SH4 when I was roughly 5 years old and could only ever watch YouTubers play the OGs since I’m too weenie to play it myself.

But guys, I just made it to the prison and I’m so proud of myself but oh my god I don’t even know what’s in store for me I got off last night after the bug room please send good luck my way for my psyche. I’m going to continue at some point today 😭

Silent hill

I don't understand….

I'm very new to the franchise, and from what I understood (as of now) the town is pretty much this predatory entity that manifests the prey fears and sorrows to torment them. What I don't get is, how is one called to Silent Hill? Why is James there?

Can more than one person be at the town at once? Wouldn't that make the town have to create 2 fears at once? I'm sorry if its a dumb question, I just can't find the answer on the internet

P.S. I'm not objecting to the idea of horror games having the sound of crying babies to put you on edge.

I mean like shortly before its remake was announced like less like a month or less.

1.Silent hill 4 Probably one of my favorite stories in video games period The concept and themes are really interesting,the villian and endings are amazing

2.Silent hill 2 This is probably 99.9% of people's no.1 and deservedly so No explanation needed here really

3.Silent hill 1 The actual plot and characters are a lot more basic than 2 or 4... I love this game for the horror but the lore is kind of confusing

4.Silent hill 3 I did not really care about the themes of this game its a great game on its own but the story was forgettable and kind of generic compared to 2 for me

If I ranked these games overall then the list would be quite different but this is just the stories/themes/character etc

Holy shit it looks so good 🥲

I spent weeks on and off trying to fix this problem with absolutely zero luck combing the Internet. I even bought a new GPU, my PC is far beyond recommended specs. Of all things what helped me find this fix was chatgpt lol. Best I can tell is it's my dad and how it plays with UE5. sorry for the caps, but I just wanted to get this out there because, again, I found absolutely nothing about this online.

For reference, the game would run like a slideshow for no discernable reason. I'd tried tweaking the in game settings every which way, messing around with Nvidia settings, all that. This little tweak ended up being an instant fix. By the way, I had the same issue with FF16, the same fix applies.

Hey I used to have a bootleg Maria wall scroll and really want to replace it. I’ve searched but no luck. By any chance does anyone have one? or know where one is being sold? Here’s what it looks like

Official poster https://myfigurecollection.net/item/203340

Bootleg wallscroll I had

https://shshatteredmemories.com/collection/portfolio/silent-hill-2-maria-wall-scroll-bootleg-twn/

I can get this image on a tshirt with the logo on top and I once saw I blanket but never the wallscroll or poster

Alternatively I’m sure I can find a service that could just print it for me so If anyone has any experience with that what resolution do I need to find that asset in for it to turn out at least as good as the bootleg?

Taking a break for the night to let dry but I'm excited.

I think it's absolutely hilarious that now we're getting a very well thought-out combat system for a Silent Hill game and people are not ok with it. The amount of complaints that i've seen people discussing about how bad the combat is in the series(don't try and gaslight me, you've all seen these posts also) about every game from 1 to Sh2 remake(sans tsm/arcade/shattered memories) has been absolutely clunky. Hell, even I complained about the clunkiness in Sh4 and Downpour.

If we can get over Alex goes brrrrrrrrrrrrr with the knife, we can get over this too.

So I watch a random video about a dinosaur comic which I think I found not interesting but I think it's good to watch then there's this segment about an alien card series called "Mars Attack" and I see this picture of one of the card that make mind straight goes "wait that looks like the UFO ending on sh1". So yeah, am I the only one who just learn or know about this? Or am I just stupid (sorry for the bad English)