Okay, now, I know you’ve probably read that headline and thought to yourself “why on earth would outdated UI in Silent Hill f be a good thing?” Allow me to explain! To be a contrarian for a moment, I think that a large amount of triple-A games have incredibly boring UI. It’s very much because of that late 2010s trend of simple, emboss-free graphic design you see in logo design everywhere these days, and I hate it.
Silent Hill f, however, as shown off during today’s Konami Press Start showcase, looks to have UI that would fit right at home in a PS3 game. It’s outdated, technically, but it looks like it’s been built with a lot more thought. It’s not even particularly complicated – there’s a health bar, a stamina bar, some kind of… floral and crescent moon bars. There’s a light ugliness about it that I think a lot of games on the PS3 also had, even games like Dark Souls, that I find a lot more appealing than the modern, clean aesthetic you’ll see a lot of. Just compare the original Demon Souls and its remake, for example.
The showcase did also do a bit of a deep dive into the horror game’s gameplay, which, as is typical of the series, looks like you’ll be swinging around a metal pipe a lot. Game director Al Yang did say the team is hoping to make sure the combat system is “fresh, but familiar, yet also be thematically appropriate and not overly complex.”
I couldn’t tell you if they’ve done that or not, though it doesn’t matter to me all that much. It’s not like I come to the Silent Hill series for exciting mechanics, I’m in it for the vibes. And the vibes do look good! There were some brief looks at some concept art, and the team spoke of how they set the game in the Showar era to tap into customs and superstitions “long forgotten in modern life.”
I’m certainly a lot more interested in Silent Hill f than I am the remake of the first game that was also announced. It’s the first new entry in years (no I’m not counting Ascension), so if anything I’m morbidly curious as to whether or not the world can actually be expanded in such a way or not. Plus, again, I like how unclean the UI is! I’m a simple person, with simple needs.
Silent Hill f is due out September 25th, later this year.