newest trailer from the Silent Hill transmission and the description on platforms like Steam for Silent Hill F, the future of the series looks promising. We don't know a lot about the game yet, but there's already plenty to be excited about.

After years of silence, we got a chunk of new information about the mysterious Silent Hill F. While we didn't get a release window, we still got to see a new trailer that introduced us to Hinako, the protagonist we'll be playing. In true horror style, the latest trailer doesn't give you a lot of direct information, but it's filled with exciting details to examine.

10 Silent Hill F Will Have A Female Protagonist

A Fresh Perspective: Female Lead in Silent Hill

Heather Mason is one of the few female protagonists that you can play as in the main Silent Hill games, and she's the star of one of the most beloved games in the series. Now we're getting another female protagonist in Silent Hill F, since you step into the role of Hinako. Depending on the player, the gender of the protagonist isn't a big deal, but it's always fun to see a game built around a protagonist that the developers felt would be the best fit for the story.

As a result, her story should be fun to explore, since these qualities are a hallmark of great SH protagonists.

While the gender of the protagonist doesn't always influence the game's quality, you might look forward to Hinako's story from what you see about her in the trailers. Especially with the newest trailer, it looks like Hinako has had a complicated past, and she might've earned some ill will from others because of it. As a result, her story should be fun to explore, since these qualities are a hallmark of great SH protagonists.

9 There Could Be A Cult In Silent Hill F

The Potential for Dark Rituals

It's quick, but there's a glimpse in the new trailer that makes me suspect that there could be cult activity involved in some manner. You see Hinako sitting in a chair in a room that has several items that seem to be idols and people wearing masks. The scene ends with one masked person approaching Hinako with a knife and bringing its blade to her cheek.

This is exciting because cults are almost a requirement for a Silent Hill game, and you see them repeatedly throughout the series. Their activities tend to be among the main causes of events that happen in these games, such as a cult setting Alessa on fire to impregnate her with their god, which led to the first variation of the nightmare world we see in the original Silent Hill.

8 Hinako Might Be Having An Identity Crisis

Exploring Hinako's Mind

There are a few details that lead me to this possibility, and it's exciting to consider because an issue with identity is a great psychological horror tool. It can also mean that Hinako is an unreliable narrator, similar to the way that James can't fully be trusted to tell the truth in Silent Hill 2. In combination with psychological horror elements, an unreliable narrator adds to the confusion about what led to the events that you see unraveling.

The first hint that there might be an identity crisis going on is the voice that tells Hinako that she took everything from her. It's a vague enough statement that it's tough to guess what the speaker might mean. However, you also see Hinako's face peeling off in both trailers that have been released for the game, which tells me that an identity issue feels likely.

7 Hinako Possibly Has A Traumatic Past

Unraveling Hinako's History

We get some hints about this in the first trailer from a few years ago. Hinako stands at a grave, and it seems like something happened to her mother, but we don't receive any solid answers about the situation. The second trailer adds to the suspicion that Hinako has a traumatic past, but the identity of one writer brought onto the team for Silent Hill F, Ryukishi07, almost guarantees that the main characters you'll interact with – Hinako included – have gone through a lot of trauma.

Ryukishi07 is a Japanese author best known for the visual novel series When They Cry.

This possibility coincides with the idea that Hinako could be an unreliable narrator, since that narrator type tends to have a lot of trauma in their pasts when they appear in Silent Hill. As for details about what trauma could be haunting Hinako, I don't expect to learn more about it until the game has actually been released, since that tends to play an important role in horror.

6 Spider Lily Symbolism And Other Symbolic Details

Symbolism in Silent Hill F

It's rather common to see spider lilies used a lot, especially in Japanese media, and particularly in horror. This is because spider lilies are often symbols of death, and death tends to be prevalent in Silent Hill. While this doesn't necessarily mean that there are a lot of deaths that occurred, it does hint at death being an important and possibly overarching theme. Of course, that wouldn't be surprising for a Silent Hill game.

Another concept that you see more than once in the trailers revolves around Hinako's face and identity, which could mean that the three-face theory will be important. The three-face theory is the idea that you have three faces. One is who you appear to be to the world, one is who you are with family and friends, and the last one is your true self, which tends to remain hidden. I think that this is a great concept to include, and it has a lot of potential.

5 Silent Hill F Is Set In Japan

A New Landscape for Horror

You're probably used to seeing Silent Hill pull a lot of influence from the West, but this time, Silent Hill F is bringing the series to Japan. Not everybody is happy with this decision, but it brings with it plenty of potential for content to be excited about. It also fits with the settings of Ryukishi07's past work, and since he's been brought in as a writer for Silent Hill F, he should be right in his element with the game being set in a similar location to his series, When They Cry.

Additionally, this game can show that the heart of the Silent Hill series isn't one specific area, but the trauma of characters and the horrors that are spawned as a result of those traumas. It actually looks like the true essence of Silent Hill is the fog, which is described as causing strange events in the village where SHF takes place.

4 There's A Chance To Use Japanese Folklore

Japanese Legends in Silent Hill

If you're a fan of Japanese horror games, then you know that Japanese folklore can be used to great effect in them. Plus, there are a lot of superstitions that could appear in a game set in Japan. Both of these elements provide a unique and entertaining cultural learning experience for players who aren't familiar with Japanese folklore, and sometimes not knowing the background of these elements can make them more frightening.

Additionally, Japan has plenty of unusual ghost stories that could appear in Silent Hill F, which could be a lot of fun. This would be especially true if the way you deal with those ghosts lines up with how you can avoid being murdered by them in their related ghost story. It would be a unique way to face battles, and could even make enemies more challenging to deal with depending on their requirements.

3 A High ESRB Rating Is Great For Horror

The Importance of a High Rating

An ESRB rating means that the Entertainment Software Rating Board has decided which age group a player should be in before playing any game. For horror games, it's fairly common for the ESRB rating to be on the higher end, which makes sense because you generally don't recommend that younger players dive into these universes that tend to have a lot of dark and disturbing content. So, a horror game that has a lower rating would have to pull its punches in of content, or keep its dark elements subtle.

Silent Hill F has an ESRB Rating of M17+, for blood and gore, intense violence, and partial nudity. This is an exciting revelation, because it means that the game won't need to hold back in of its darker content. In my horror experience, this is a positive sign, and I can't wait to see what earned the game this rating.

2 Ryukishi07 Is Working As A Writer On Silent Hill F

A New Narrative Style

If you're unfamiliar with him, Ryukishi07 is the pen name of the writer behind the popular psychological horror and mystery series, When They Cry. It's always a positive sign when developers bring somebody onto a project that has proven experience with the type of story they want to tell, such as FromSoftware bringing in George R.R. Martin to help write the history of the Lands Between in Elden Ring. For the story that you start to see in the Silent Hill F trailers, Ryukishi07 is the perfect choice as a writer.

As a result, Ryukishi07 is perfect for what looks like could be an all-star horror team working on this project.

When They Cry is about a group of students in 1980s Japan who live in a small village when strange events start happening. This sounds a lot like what we know about Silent Hill F, which is set in 1960s Japan in a small village where strange events start happening after mysterious fog rolls in. As a result, Ryukishi07 is perfect for what looks like could be an all-star horror team working on this project.

1 Akira Yamaoka Returns As The Composer

Iconic Soundscapes

If nothing else excites you in this list, then this might. Akira Yamaoka is confirmed to be working on music for Silent Hill F, and if the name's not familiar to you, he's the composer behind the most iconic songs in the series. He's been the composer for the majority of the series, and he even returned to work on the remake of Silent Hill 2, which reimagined some tracks and added a bunch of new ones to fit the new version of the game.

Now, he's working on the next new project for Silent Hill, and that's a guarantee that the soundtrack for Silent Hill F will be a work of art. Sound design and music are often overlooked elements in games, but they play a huge role in setting the tone for the environments you explore. As a master of composing horror tracks, Akira working on this game alone is enough to leave me excited.

Considering that Silent Hill hasn't had much luck with new games in the past decade or so, it's understandable that you could be uncertain about Silent Hill F. However, we've only seen two trailers so far, and they both show the immense potential of this game. I haven't been excited about a new game in the series since Silent Hills, but now I absolutely can't wait to play Silent Hill F.