While deciding on a location for Silent Hill f, the production team hit a snag when they tried to use the real “Silent Hill” as the setting—Mount Fuji killed the tone.
As revealed in March 2025, Silent Hill f is all about atmosphere. The development team leaned into the idea of “finding the beauty in terror” as the guiding vision for the game’s grotesque imagery. It was also confirmed that this instalment would mark a first for the franchise: it would be set in Japan, not the fictional American town of Silent Hill. According to a new Famitsu interview with the developers (as reported by VGC), lead writer Ryukishi07 said the team initially considered Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture as the setting for Silent Hill f.
In the (Google Translated) Famitsu interview, the development team explains that finding the right location was key in developing the heavy atmosphere associated with the Silent Hill franchise. Ryukishi07 explains that using real-life settings as the basis for the title would have a heavier impact on players, so the team visited many locations in Japan to find the perfect fit. Ryukisho07 says, “I used real locations as the basis for the image. In fact, since it’s [literally] Silent Hill, we even visited Shizuoka Prefecture as a potential location (laughs).” Shizuoka can almost literally translate to “quiet” or “silent,” when put into English, so the irony wasn’t lost on Ryukishi07.
There was only one problem for the team, though: Mount Fuji’s extreme presence killed the mood. Ryukishi07 says, “However, when we actually went there, we felt that the presence of Mount Fuji as seen from Shizuoka was too overbearing and it didn’t seem suitable for a Silent Hill setting.” The development team rejected a location in Japan due to Mount Fuji’s looming presence draining the atmosphere of the setting, so they determined it would not be good enough for the horror delivered by the franchise.
As revealed in March, the setting used in Silent Hill f is based on the small town of Kanayama, in the city of Gero in Gifu prefecture. The fictional twin is known in-game as Ebisugoka, a long way from the previous US location of Silent Hill.
Silent Hill f will launch globally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC on September 25.
AloJapan.com