Silent Hill F Update Adds Casual Difficulty And Streamlined New Game Plus

Silent Hill f received a notable update this week, adding a new Casual difficulty mode designed to make New Game Plus replays less demanding. The change targets the game’s most dedicated players — those who want to see all five endings and unravel the last threads of Hinako’s story without pushing through a second full run at the original combat pace. Silent Hill f requires multiple playthroughs to reach its narrative peaks, and many who had already finished their first run found the subsequent return more punishing than expected.

Konami and NeoBards Entertainment introduced the new mode through the game’s Steam page, positioning it as a lighter option than Story mode. It affects combat only, leaving the puzzle difficulty untouched. The publisher offered no precise breakdown of what separates Casual from Story, but the in-game description frames it as a low-stress route that boosts Hinako’s abilities and, by extension, speeds up the most time-consuming encounters.

The patch goes further than a single setting. Several areas of New Game Plus can now be skipped entirely once players complete the mural puzzle and pass the door tied to the “Go through the door” objective. Skipping moves the story forward to Hinako’s second awakening in the Dark Shrine corridor. Items from the skipped stretch are forfeited, and certain trophies tied to that material won’t unlock on a playthrough that uses the feature. Branching routes and endings, however, remain unaffected.

Elsewhere, the team rebalanced the game’s pacing across all action settings. Hinako’s stamina recovers faster, the number of unskippable combat encounters has been reduced, and some sections now contain fewer enemies. Even players sticking with Hard mode will notice that Hinako absorbs slightly less damage. The adjustments narrow the gap between a first run and any return visits, giving more room for the story’s layered structure without forcing players into the same degree of repetition.

A separate set of fixes addresses issues scattered throughout the campaign: duplicated characters in specific cutscenes, broken triggers, stalled enemies, and scenarios where events halted progression despite the right conditions being met. Several bugs tied to combat areas, note collection, and input responsiveness have also been resolved. It’s a broad cleanup that smooths out rough edges in a game built around tension and interruption, two qualities that lose impact when technical problems intrude.

Silent Hill f continues to draw attention as one of the series’ most confident reinventions. Its shift to 1960s Japan brought a different atmosphere to the familiar psychological framework, giving its imagery and story a new anchor. The update reflects an effort to sustain that momentum as more players reach the end and consider the remaining routes. With five endings on offer, Silent Hill f leans heavily on repetition to reveal its full narrative shape; easing that cycle may encourage more players to push through the entire arc rather than stop short after one run.

Silent Hill f is available on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam).

Read also, Konatsu Kato’s recent livestream offered one of the starkest windows into the game’s atmosphere. Her first on-camera playthrough reached the Dark Shrine and quickly circulated among fans, highlighting how closely her reactions matched the tension she helped create. The broadcast arrived as Silent Hill f crossed the one-million-sales mark on day one, underscoring the scale of its return and the strength of its performances.

Silent Hill f Patch Notes (Patch 1.10):

• Added Action Difficulty: Casual
• Added Optional Skip Feature for Select Sections of New Game+
• 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
• Fixed bug where Shu duplicates in a cutscene
• Fixed bug where interaction icons do not display in a specific hallway
• Fixed bug where the Sakuko-like entity stops moving in combat
• Fixed bug where the Fog Monster stops moving and halts progress
• Fixed bugs across multiple levels where events do not progress despite meeting conditions
• Fixed bugs where enemies remain outside combat areas
• Fixed bugs where clumps of flesh do not spawn
• Fixed bug where notes from “Sakuko’s Diary” could not be obtained on New Game+
• Fixed bug where Hinako may become unresponsive after dodging
• Fixed bug where Hinako dies upon loading an autosave created at death
• Fixed bug where the “View Endings” option does not display after finishing the first playthrough
• Fixed bug where Indirect Lighting and Reflections revert to On during cutscenes
• Fixed bug where the cursor moves without input on the controller
• Various other minor fixes (audio, hitboxes, text errors, loading, graphics)