As beautiful and engaging as Silent Hill f is, there’s no way to get the full story unless you complete the game more than once. The first time players finish the game, they get an ending that, while interesting, raises far more questions than it answers. To fully unravel the truth about Hinako and see the game’s other four endings, players must take Silent Hill f for a spin in New Game Plus mode. For impatient players, Konami and developer NeoBards Entertainment have some relief. A new update that adds a new “Casual” difficulty setting will make the New Game Plus experience less time-consuming.
Silent Hill f initially launched with two combat difficulty settings: “Story” and “Hard.” The game’s new Casual combat setting is easier than Story mode, and is only applicable to combat difficulty, not puzzle difficulty. Konami announced the new mode via an update on Silent Hill f‘s Steam page, but the update doesn’t share many details on how exactly Casual mode differs from Story mode.
In-game, Casual mode is described as a mode “for players looking for a low-stress combat experience,” noting that the mode “boosts Hinako’s abilities.”
The update also added the option to skip a few select combat encounters when playing New Game Plus, and reduces overall combat difficulty for other game modes as well. Hinako’s stamina now replenishes more quickly, unskippable combat encounters have been “reduced across multiple sections,” fewer enemies are placed throughout the game overall, and Hinako now takes slightly less damage when combat difficulty is set to Hard.
Silent Hill f is available on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. You can read the patch notes for patch 1.10 below.
Silent Hill f Game Update (Patch 1.10)
New Features
・Added Action Difficulty: Casual
The Casual action difficulty will be playable when starting a game from “New Game” on the main menu or from a New Game+ save file.
For players on the Story action difficulty or higher, the Casual action difficulty will be selectable upon reaching the Game Over screen multiple times.
・Added Optional Skip Feature for Select Sections of New Game+
Upon completing the “Go through the door” objective after solving the mural puzzle on New Game+, the game will display the option to skip. The game will resume at the scene where Hinako awakens at the corridor of the Dark Shrine for the second time with the “Proceed” objective if skipped.
– Items from the skipped sections will not be collected.
– “Thankful to Be Here,” “Grateful for a Worthy Foe,” and “Clear Skies” do not unlock on a playthrough that uses the skip feature.
– The skip feature does not impact branching paths or endings.
System Changes
・Hinako’s stamina replenishes slightly faster
・Unskippable combat encounters are reduced across multiple sections
・Fewer enemies are placed across multiple sections
・Hinako’s line when an enemy is defeated plays at a slightly later time
・Hinako takes slightly less damage on the Hard action difficulty
Bug Fixes
・Fixed bug where Shu duplicates in the cutscene that plays when heading from Sennensugi Shrine to Rinko’s house during the “Head to Rinko’s house” objective
・Fixed bug where interaction icons do not display on the hall leading to the room with the naginata during the “Enter the inner room” objective
・Fixed bug where the Sakuko-like entity stops moving in combat during the “Defeat the Sakuko-like entity” objective
・Fixed bug where the Fog Monster stops moving and halts progress during the “Chase after the Fog Monster” objective
・Fixed bugs across multiple levels where events do not progress despite meeting the required conditions
・Fixed bugs across multiple levels where specific enemies remain outside of the combat area and cannot be defeated
・Fixed bugs across multiple levels where clumps of flesh do not spawn
・Fixed bug where some notes from “Sakuko’s Diary” could not be obtained on New Game+
・Fixed bug where Hinako may become unresponsive to player input after dodging
・Fixed bug where Hinako dies upon loading an autosave file if Hinako died during an autosave
・Fixed bug where the “View Endings” option does not display on the title screen after finishing the first playthrough (may require loading New Game+ data to fix)
・Fixed bug where Indirect Lighting and Reflections revert to On during cutscenes even when set to Off in the Graphics menu
・Fixed bug where the cursor moves without player input when playing on the controller
*Various other minor bugs have been fixed, including bugs related to audio, hitboxes, text errors, loading, and graphics.
