The new installment will be the first main game in the series in over a decade. Silent Hill f offers a new approach: the action takes place in 1960s Japan, with a focus on melee combat, and firearms are completely excluded.
In early previews, fans compared the game to a soulslike due to its challenging combat. The game's producer expressed dissatisfaction with these statements, calling them "insincere." According to him, the current trend of hastily categorizing any challenging combat project as a soulslike subgenre is understandable.
Some journalists spent nearly an hour fighting bosses, using parrying and dodging with a stamina gauge. Motoi Okamoto confirmed in an interview that modern players see stamina bars and dodging and immediately consider the game a soulslike, although similar mechanics have long been present in Silent Hill 3 and 4 - long before the appearance of Souls genre games.
He reiterated: Silent Hill f is not a soulslike. These elements are not exclusive to the subgenre and have existed in combat horror games for a long time. The developers also noted that the complex combat system is designed for a modern audience that is interested in challenging action games, so hasty comparisons are understandable.