The town is a crucial aspect of any Silent Hill game, including the series' latest installment Silent Hill f, which ditches Americana to instead cattle prod its tortured protagonists in the fictional Ebisugaoka. But developer NeoBards tells me the haunted mountaintop – based on a real Japanese location – barely existed when it first started working on the horror game.
Director Al Yang knew whatever NeoBards pitched to publisher Konami had to ensure "the story would undoubtedly feel like a 'Ryukishi07 work,'" he tells GamesRadar+. Scriptwriter Ryukishi07, celebrated horror writer behind the When They Cry manga series, had already outlined his sympathetic story for Silent Hill f – and the development team had to honor it.
