Today during their Silent Hill Transmission livestream, Konami finally revealed the future of their venerable horror franchise, and you can’t accuse the oft-criticized publisher of playing it safe. Sure, they unveiled the long-rumored Silent Hill 2 remake, but they also announced Silent Hill Townfall from Annapurna Interactive and the daring-looking spin-off Silent Hill f.

　　Konami promises Silent Hill f will deliver a “completely new story set in 1960's Japan,” which will be written by the main mind behind the cult visual novel Higurashi When They Cry and other “When They Cry” titles. The game is being developed by Hong Kong and Taiwan-based studio NeoBards, who are mainly known as a port house as well as the developer of recent Resident Evil multiplayer titles like Resident Evil Resistance and Re:Verse. It will be interesting to see how they adapt to more story-driven, artistically-challenging project. You can check out the first debut trailer for Silent Hill f, below.

　　Interesting stuff, to be sure. The 1960s setting should be a breath of fresh (horrifying) air, as long as they don’t lean too heavily into anime tropes. The gross fleshy creepers, fungus-like growths, and the girl’s face peeling off at the end are definitely a new brand of horror for Silent Hill, but I’m willing to give the new direction a chance. I just hope the psychological underpinnings of the series aren’t abandoned in favor of an overdose of weird imagery.

　　Of course, some will likely be concerned about NeoBards taking the helm due to the iffy quality of their Resident Evil games, but those were clearly made with rather limited resources, so I won’t judge them too harshly for them. Silent Hill f is also being produced by Nintendo veteran Motoi Okamoto, so hopefully, he can steer the project in the right direction.

　　Platforms and a release window for Silent Hill f have yet to be revealed. What do you think? This spinoff have you excited or should Konami stick to the horrors it knows?