The voice actor behind Silent Hill f protagonist Hinako Shimizu has opened up about her experiences in working on the game. In an interview with Famitsu (via Automaton Media), voice actor Konatsu Kato spoke about feeling her own sanity slipping away from her as she portrayed Hinako through the events of Silent Hill f.
After describing her initial recording as going quite “smoothly”, Kato noted that the role starting being more psychologically demanding as the story went on. Since she also had to record a few scenes various times with different tones and emotions, Kato also started asking more questions.
“But as recording progressed, the story branches gradually increased,” she said (translation via DeepL) “While recording various developments, I’d think, “This is a similar scene to before, but the words and emotions are different… ‘Huh… where am I? What is Hinako doing right now?’”
This also came to a head when she had to record lines where Hinako was having a conversation with another version of Hinako.
“Since I was playing Hinako, and the other actor was also playing Hinako, I’d get confused about who I was—both in the role and in reality,” she explained. “There were times back then when tears would just come out even though I wasn’t thinking about anything. The confusion grew in proportion to the “time spent facing each other,” so I remember having days when I felt like I might lose my mind.”
Kato has also admitted in the interview that she hadn’t really played any Silent Hill games before, and that she isn’t generally “good with horror”, since she believes in ghosts. “First, I thought, ‘Why me…?’” she said about when she was cast in the role of Hinako. “Then, ‘I’m going to be plunged into a terrifying world…’ This might sound negative when I say it, but please take it positively? …It weighed heavily on me.”
The whole experience ultimately led to Kato not really remembering how much she was truly involved with the story of Silent Hill f. The psychological toll of playing Hinako led Kato to suppress quite a few of her memories of having worked on the horror game, with her stating that “I can only recall fragmented parts, like the voice recording sessions. Even what I’ve talked about today is something I’ve squeezed out of those memory fragments.”
Silent Hill f has proven to be quite successful for publisher Konami and developer Neobards Entertainment. The positive critical reception of the horror game led to series producer Motoi Okamoto celebrating the game’s reception, as well as the involvement of writer Ryukishi07 in the narrative of the title.
“I’m thrilled that [Silent Hill f] received a Metascore of 86, tying with the Silent Hill 2 remake,” wrote Okamoto on X (translated via Grok). “With Japan as the setting, Mr. Ryukishi07 handling the scenario, and a combat-focused game design, I had a feeling it might divide opinions given all the challenging elements, but I’m truly grateful for such high praise.”
Silent Hill f is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. And check out our thoughts on why New Game+ and further runs through the campaign are important.
