Series fans were surprised to find out that Silent Hill f, the upcoming new chapter in KONAMI's horror franchise, had several action elements, like dodging and a stamina meter. Now that a lot of gameplay footage is out, some of them have labeled it akin to a 'Soulslike' game, but Game Producer Motoi Okamoto strongly rejected the notion in a Gamescom 2025 interview .

This is one of the things that we see — the term soulslike — being thrown around on the internet quite a bit. And I think it’s a label that’s a little bit disingenuous. Modern players will see like, oh there’s a stamina meter, there’s a dodge, and they're like, ‘Okay, it’s a soulslike.’ But to be very honest, a lot of these things we actually pulled from classic Silent Hill titles. 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. You see it later on.

These things aren’t new and exclusive to soulslike games. They’ve been a part of action horror games for a very, very long time. If you have these things you’re labeled a soulslike. And we’d like to reiterate we are an action horror game, but we are not a soulslike.

The game developed by NeoBards Entertainment is coming out very soon, anyway, given its planned release date of September 25, exactly a month from today. It won't be long before we get our hands on Silent Hill f and decide for ourselves whether the game deserves that title, not to mention, more importantly, whether it respects the series' legacy.

As a reminder, the game is set in 1960s Japan, and Shimizu Hinako, a high-school student, is the protagonist. The story has been crafted by acclaimed Japanese writer Ryukishi07. You can read more about Silent Hill f in our roundup article .