“Silent Hill f Isn’t a Soulslike—And Konami’s Producer Is Tired of Saying It

Is Silent Hill f a Soulslike? That’s the question currently setting the fandom ablaze, sparking heated debates across forums and social media. Let’s be real, anytime a game shows up with a stamina bar and a dodge roll, the internet collectively screams “Soulslike!” and moves on. But in a recent chat with IGN, Konami’s Motoi Okamoto, the producer for Silent Hill f, basically said, “Hold on a minute,” and expressed some pretty understandable frustration with the label being slapped onto his game.

Frankly, he’s got a point. Okamoto thinks calling Silent Hill f a Soulslike is “a little bit disingenuous,” and honestly, it’s about time someone in a position of power said it. The gaming community’s obsession with jamming every third-person action game into the Soulslike box has gotten out of hand.

These Things Aren’t New and Exclusive to Soulslike Games: Silent Hill f Producer Wants to Set the Record Straight on Combat

The Problem with the ‘Soulslike’ Label

Let’s get one thing straight: the term “Soulslike” is starting to lose all meaning. It’s become a lazy shorthand for any game that dares to be challenging or features certain mechanics. A stamina meter? Soulslike. A dodge button? Soulslike. A parry system? You guessed it—Soulslike. It’s a marketing buzzword that often sets the wrong expectations and can even turn players away from a game they might otherwise love.

For Silent Hill f, this is a particularly sticky problem. The franchise is a pillar of survival horror, known for its psychological dread, oppressive atmosphere, and clunky, desperate combat. Fans expect to feel vulnerable, not like an all-powerful warrior. So when words like “parry” and “counterattack” get thrown around, it’s easy to see why some long-time fans are raising an eyebrow. They’re worried the series is chasing trends instead of staying true to its terrifying roots.

But Okamoto is here to remind us that these combat mechanics aren’t some new-fangled invention from FromSoftware. He pointed out that elements like a stamina meter and charged attacks have been in Silent Hill games for ages. “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,” he explained. The man’s not wrong. These mechanics have been part of action and horror games long before Demon’s Souls ever made us throw a controller in rage.

So, What Kind of Game is Silent Hill f, Really?

Okamoto wants to be crystal clear: Silent Hill f is an action horror game, not a Soulslike. And from what we’ve seen, that description fits perfectly. Set in 1960s Japan, the game follows Hinako Shimizu, a teenager who is definitely not a battle-hardened knight. The combat is designed to feel weighty and realistic. Light and heavy attacks are slow, deliberate, and require careful timing. This isn’t about fast-paced, flashy combos; it’s about survival.

Yes, there are timed dodges and counterattacks, which IGN’s hands-on preview compared to the reflexes needed for Sekiro. But there’s also a “Focus mode” to help players who aren’t twitch-reflex gods. This mode slows things down, making counterattacks easier to pull off. It’s an accessibility feature that screams “horror game,” not “git gud.” The goal isn’t to punish you into mastery; it’s to heighten the tension and make you feel like a regular person fighting for your life.

Konami has admitted they’ve ramped up the combat to appeal to younger players who enjoy challenging action games. That comment alone was enough to send parts of the fandom into a tailspin. But a more engaging combat system doesn’t automatically transform a horror game into something else entirely. It can, if done right, make the horrifying encounters even more intense.

Let’s Give Silent Hill a Chance

The knee-jerk reaction to label Silent Hill f a Soulslike does a disservice to both franchises. It ignores Silent Hill’s own history and shoehorns it into a genre it doesn’t belong to. Okamoto’s frustration is palpable and justified. “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… we are an action horror game, but we are not a Soulslike.”

It’s time we, as a community, started looking past the surface-level mechanics and judging games for what they are trying to achieve. Silent Hill f isn’t trying to be the next Elden Ring. It’s trying to be the next great Silent Hill, and that should be more than enough to get excited about. So let’s drop the lazy labels and see what horrors the game has in store for us when it launches.

Visit Total Apex Gaming for more game-related news.

Visit Total Apex Gaming for more Silent Hill f-related news.