finalcake

This concept art of Ingrid was so chuuni I had to draw it

"Everything is in my grasp……

Now experience...ＣＯＳＭＩＣ ＰＯＷＥＲ！"

「全てはわしの手の中に……

Grace Ashcroft from Resident Evil Requiem

I recently 100%ed this game and I absolutely loved it. The Grace sections were my favorite, and Grace as a character I adored. A woman who deals with the consequences of personal trauma and has to push through an insanely unreasonable situation to both better herself and help others.

(Silent Hill f spoilers)

The look on her face when she goes from total despair to finally remembering which part this was 😭

From Konatsu Kato's stream:

Props to that reddit guy for even trying, because this was a very hard angle and I don't even think I got it right.

Based on fanart by SpaceDev1

This past week I finally got through ALL of Silent Hill f. All endings, every single document, all difficulty levels, all achievements.

I want to preface the upcoming wall of text by saying that the only other Silent Hill game that I played was the very first one on the PS1 26 years ago. I haven't touched any of the other games that released (though I'm going to change this with 2 Remake and possibly 3 on the PS2). I will not be making any comparisons to the rest of the series, because quite frankly I am the least qualified person to talk about the series at all.

This is not only as of now my Game of the Year, but it is also in my All Time list.

I loved nearly everything about it. Admittedly the combat was the weakest part of the game, but even then I was able to have a lot of fun with it thanks to the omamori charms and investing time in all of the mechanics (Focus can lowkey be a godsend). By the time I unlocked all charms and slots, I was literally one-shotting mobs by just standing still, and that ruled SO hard.

To say the story is its strongest point is such an understatement. After the first ending, I felt compelled to keep going. Not only is there new content and dialogue, there is content and dialogue that gradually reshapes EVERYTHING. The characters, the tone of scenes, scenes entirely, even the reason why the whole game is happening in the first place.

I enjoyed not only Hinako trying to push her way through her struggles, but also all of the side characters and their own issues in life. By the time I got to the True Ending, my perspective on all of the characters changed quite a bit. Nobody is truly a monster, but everyone is severely flawed, and this includes Hinako. The slow reveals through all the playthroughs were subtle, but even just a new page in a journal entry got me so excited.

All that said, I don't know if I can recommend this game outright. While I think that this is a masterpiece, the stipulations required to get the full story can be daunting, especially for those who end up not jiving with the gameplay. A minimum 3.5 playthroughs for the four story endings (not counting the UFO ending) can, and most certainly has, turned off a lot of people from pushing on and resort to watching youtube videos for the rest of the endings, which ends up skipping a lot of much needed context.

Personally speaking, however, this game resonated with me in a way that only Yakuza Like a Dragon could. I got incredibly emotional during the True Ending route, and one scene near the home stretch had me in tears for very personal reasons.

I guess all I can say to sum up this game, is that if you hate it then you hate it and yeah that's understandable. But if you love it, then you will REALLY love it.

Konatsu Kato, Hinako's voice actress and face model, was streaming herself playing Silent Hill f. She had a ton of great reactions, but I especially wanted to draw this part.

Hinako Shimizu