Silent Hill f has been refused classification in Australia.
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts’ Classification Board (IARC) has not detailed why, exactly, the horror has been denied release, but simply invites people to contact the organisation if they want more information (so I have – I’ll update as/when I hear back).
The Australian classification board is notoriously strict – fighting game Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact was banned back in December; in a later statement, this was revealed to be due to implied sexual violence involving minors – and this isn’t even the first Silent Hill game to be banned, as Homecoming’s eye-watering “high impact” torture scene similarly saw it refused classification in 2008, too. A censored version was later released.
Hotline Miami 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Saints Row 4 are among dozens of games to have been denied an Australian release, with many thought to have been banned due to sexual violence, drug use, or “sexual activity involving a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18”.
Silent Hill f was unveiled as part of Konami’s four-game series revival back in 2022, but it took until the middle of March 2025 to get an update. Now that Bloober Team’s superb Silent Hill 2 Remake is behind us, the publisher is turning its attention to its mysterious follow-up, a new mainline instalment set in 1960s Japan.
Silent Hill f is being developed by Neobards Entertainment (which has previously served as a support studio for Capcom’s Resident Evil games), with creature and character design by Kera, and a script by When They Cry writer Ryukishi07.
As Matt recently summarised for us, Silent Hill f’s events are unfolding in the rural town of Ebisugaoka – based on Kanayama, Gero, in the Gifu Prefecture – where our protagonist Shimizu Hinako, an “ordinary teenager”, finds her home shrouded in fog and changed in “horrific” ways. As Silent Hill f play out, she’ll explore a town she no longer recognises, solving puzzles, fighting strange enemies, and eventually having to make a “beautiful yet terrifying” decision that lies at the heart of the game.
