Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto has called comparisons of the upcoming Silent Hill f to soulslike games “disingenuous”, insisting “a lot of these things we actually pulled from classic Silent Hill titles”.
The comment comes as more and more footage emerges in the run-up to 25th September’s launch day. And while we already knew the combat would have a “heavier focus on melee and be more action-oriented compared to last year’s Silent Hill 2: Remake”, fans have expressed concern about how enemies react, degradable weapons, and “soulslike” boss encounters.
Now, in an interview with IGN, Okamoto – who has become a familiar face having worked on all of the games since the series was resurrected in 2022, including Silent Hill: The Short Message and Silent Hill 2: Remake – insists some of the things fans have seen in the videos “aren’t new and exclusive to soulslike games”.
“This is one of the things that we see – the term soulslike – being thrown around on the internet quite a bit,” Okamoto said. “And I think it’s a label that’s a little bit disingenuous. Modern players will see like, oh there’s a stamina meter, there’s a dodge, and they’re like, ‘Okay, it’s a soulslike’.
“But to be very honest, a lot of these things we actually pulled from classic Silent Hill titles. Look at Silent Hill 4 – there’s a charge meter for your attacks, kind of like our Focus meter. And even for Silent Hill 3 there’s a stamina meter. You see it later on.”
According to IGN’s interview, Okamoto “expressed a degree of frustration with the online dialogue surrounding the game”.
“These things aren’t new and exclusive to soulslike games,” he added. “They’ve been a part of action horror games for a very, very long time. If you have these things you’re labelled a soulslike. And we’d like to reiterate we are an action horror game, but we are not a soulslike.”
Silent Hill f was unveiled as part of Konami’s four-game series revival back in 2022, but it took until the middle of March 2025 to get an update. Now that Bloober Team’s superb Silent Hill 2 Remake is behind us, the publisher is turning its attention to this follow-up, a new mainline instalment set in 1960s Japan.
It’s being developed by Neobards Entertainment (which has previously served as a support studio for Capcom’s Resident Evil games), with creature and character design by Kera, a script by When They Cry writer Ryukishi07, and music from the series’ usual composer, Akira Yamaoka. It’s set to release on 25th September.