As the humidity rises in 35-degree Tokyo, so too do the dead. Ever since the Edo period, Japanese summertime has been associated with the arrival of supernatural forces – a season defined by malevolent spirits. As the country’s temperatures soar, it’s believed that the barriers separating the world of the living and the dead begin to wane, allowing once contained ghosts to slither into our realm.
It’s under this sweaty backdrop that I find myself wandering Silent Hill f’s fog-laden Japan. Set in the fictional town of Ebisugaoka during the 1960s, players are put into the dust-coated shoes of a misunderstood teenage girl named Hinako. Summer or no, Hinako’s tale begins in suitably bleak fashion. Fleeing her drunk and abusive father, Hinako miserably roams the intricately rendered streets of her rural home town. Failing to live up to the lofty standards set by her impossibly beautiful older sister, Hinako finds herself teased by classmates – lost, and struggling to understand her place in society.
