Is Silent Hill f a soulslike? It’s a question the Silent Hill fandom has been debating for some time now. But in a recent interview with IGN, Konami insisted it’s not, and expressed a degree of frustration with the ongoing debate.
Silent Hill f takes us to 1960s Japan, where we follow Hinako Shimizu, a teenager struggling under the pressure of expectations from her friends, family, and society. As IGN reported in our Silent Hill f hands-on preview, its combat has a similar feel to Silent Hill 2 Remake’s close-range combat. You can dodge enemy attacks with the DualSense’s circle button and activate a light and heavy attack with R1 and R2, respectively. Your limited reach and lengthy attack motions give a realistic, weighty feel to combat. Heavy attacks, especially, feel slow and need to be timed well, “contributing to the feeling that Hinako is just a teenager with limited strength.”
On top of that, Silent Hill f’s combat also features timed dodges and counterattacks, with the latter particularly important in combat sequences. Enemies briefly show a sign when a counterattack can be utilized, but we suggested that “unless you have trained your reflex skills by playing games like of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you will likely have a hard time reacting.” That’s where the Focus mode comes in, which can be triggered by holding L2. It allows counterattacks to last longer, while also charging up a power attack that staggers an enemy.
Talk of parries and counterattacks has come as a surprise to some Silent Hill fans, and Konami’s suggestion that Silent Hill f’s combat sequences were ratcheted up because “challenging action games are gaining popularity among younger players nowadays” has split the fandom.
But in an interview with IGN at gamescom 2025, Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto set the record straight. He insisted Silent Hill f is not a soulslike, despite the mechanics at play in its combat, and even said applying that label to the game is “disingenuous.”
“This is one of the things that we see — the term soulslike — being thrown around on the internet quite a bit,” he began. “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.”
Okamoto went on to say Silent Hill f’s combat mechanics aren’t exclusive to the soulslike genre, expressing a degree of frustration with the online dialogue surrounding the game.
“These things aren’t new and exclusive to soulslike games,” he said. “They’ve been a part of action horror games for a very, very long time. If you have these things you’re labeled a soulslike. And we’d like to reiterate we are an action horror game, but we are not a soulslike.”
Silent Hill f comes out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on September 25.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
