Every single decision that goes into a Silent Hill game is deliberate – long-time fans know that there is no such thing as coincidence in the franchise. So when Silent Hill f was released, not only were many eager to figure out how it would expand upon lore, but many parallels to previous titles would start to make themselves more prominent as they dive into the game.
Ebisugoaka has much in common with the town of Silent Hill itself, to the point where they practically feel like sister cities. It makes for a unique horror experience, with fleeting hints of familiarity buried among the unknown.
These connections run deep through the classic Team Silent games, but manifest in Hinako’s story in a unique, distinct way. It keeps you hooked, addicted to figuring out the nuances that newer or non-observant players would easily miss.
In fact, there are so many similarities between the two towns that it’s almost uncanny. What started off as details players could write off as Easter Eggs turned into another storyline in and of itself – one that reshapes Silent Hill f time and time again.
Given the nature of this article, there will be spoilers for Silent Hill f and other games in the series.
10 Origins as a Coal-Mining Town
Until the Fire, Of Course
One of the first similarities that players would notice is the fact that Ebisugoaka was once a coal-mining town, just as Silent Hill was once a coal-mining town before it had to resort to tourism to stay afloat. There’s a common misconception that Silent Hill was based on another coal-mining town, Centralia, Pennsylvania, but Team Silent’s Art Director, Masahiro Ito, has debunked this multiple times (then again, that hasn’t stopped others from believing this anyway).
Not much detail is provided in the games about the coal-mining operations in either town, other than the fact that they ended up being discarded and abandoned after a tragedy. The mines were a significant source of income for these towns, so not only was it a significant loss, but the towns would no longer thrive as they used to while the mines were active.
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It seemed, however, that Ebisugaoka wasn’t able to deflect into the tourism industry in order to stay afloat, since Hinako wrote in her journal (specifically in the section about Ebisugaoka Middle School) that many simply leave town as soon as they’re old enough rather than join the labor force.
Not only is it a smart way to give players a crumb of familiarity in the game early on, but it also provides a bleak foundation for what’s to come to Ebisugaoka by the end.
9 Fog From Natural Causes
Lots and Lots of Fog
Perhaps the easiest (and most obvious) parallel between the two towns is the permafrost of fog so thick it practically leaks indoors. However, the origin of this fog for both towns provides a good amount of worldbuilding.
For Silent Hill, the fog comes from Toluca Lake, which we see in Silent Hill 2 and actually get to row across in the Silent Hill 2 Remake. Lake fog is especially common in areas with colder weather, and considering that the town of Silent Hill is in New England, specifically Maine, it makes a lot of sense.
Ebisugaoka, however, has a different reason behind its fog: due to the geysers that spew toxic gas. These geysers are more than just a hazard for the town, but they also have origins in the town’s folklore. It’s said that these geysers are the work of a wrathful water dragon, one that was calmed and quieted by the Tsukumogami – and eventually, Inari.
It’s the townspeople’s way of explaining these natural disasters to themselves, which we commonly see with folklore around the world. However, in Ebisugaoka’s case, it also provides insight into the residents’ superstitions and how tightly they’ll cling to these superstitions for the sake of harmony and maintaining the status quo. Given the game’s themes surround the fears of conformity, that’s not a coincidence in the slightest.
8 Growth of the White Claudia
A Tie-In to the Whole Canon
The White Claudia is a flower that’s indigenous to the town of Silent Hill – that is, until a Christian missionary (whom many fans, including myself, theorize that this missionary was actually a member of The Order, the main cult of Silent Hill) came to Japan. This missionary brought the White Claudia, which is known to cause hallucinations, right to Ebisugaoka, where it hides right under our noses.
In Ebisugaoka, the White Claudia takes on many different forms, most prominently in the Red Capsules that Hinako takes throughout the game for her headaches. Shu specifically gives her these capsules for the headaches, but also to purposely induce the drug’s effect: pushing you into the deepest recesses of your mind to talk with your inner self.
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These flowers (specifically, the seeds within them) are used in rituals to communicate with the gods themselves, which we see all the way back in the first game. White Claudia in the first game was made into a red liquid called PTV, which has an entire subplot on its own, with Lisa Garland being a prominent user we meet. In Ebisugaoka, this red liquid is instead called the Agura no Hotei-sama.
It takes the entire game into question, with players wondering what’s reality and what’s supernatural – and showing the ripple effects that The Order has even on the other side of the world.
7 Hilly, Sleepy, Quiet Towns
Not Many People Here
While the towns were once bustling and lively, both Silent Hill and Ebisugaoka have faded into quiet. In Japanese, gaoka means “by a hill,” showing that both regions are so hilly; it was incorporated into the town’s names. Not to mention, Japan is pretty mountainous, so for an area to be considered hilly, it would need to be pretty drastic – and that’s exactly how Ebisugaoka twists and turns.
These towns don’t have many people living there anymore, a stark contrast to how they had started (back when they were coal-mining towns). In fact, we never see other residents genuinely just living in the towns other than the characters we interact with, and this is deliberately done to show the loneliness that’s seeped into the very ground. Yes, this includes the gossiping ladies at the start of SHf – we never see them, just hear them, and this gossip changes on each new playthrough.
This is done to create a crushingly isolating atmosphere, a permeating sadness that resonates everywhere you walk. When you take Hinako’s situation and subsequent fears into account, you’ll end up feeling that sadness deep in your chest.
6 Multiple Layers of the World
The Bleeding of Reality and Supernatural
There is a very common theory that’s turned into a consensus among the fandom: there are multiple Silent Hills, divided into two (some might even say three) layers. These layers are the Fog World and the Otherworld (with the third option being the normal town itself, unaffected by any supernatural happenings). Ebisugaoka operates in the same way.
The difference is in Silent Hill f, the Otherworld is referred to as the Dark Shrine, which appears to be more of a literal nightmare for Hinako rather than the town itself transforming. Regardless, if you remember what Harry Mason said in the first game (he specifically referred to the Otherworld as “a world of someone’s nightmarish delusions come to life”), it’s a perfect fit. These are Hinako’s nightmarish delusions in their purest form.
When I had interviewed NeoBards (the team behind SHf), the game’s director, Al Yang, had emphasized the bleeding of information, the bleeding of reality and fiction in the Silent Hill franchise, and how they really wanted to showcase that in this game as well. This is done through the radios, documents, and other elements that dip in both worlds.
It ends up making an experience unlike any other, regardless of where you jump into the franchise.
5 Water is More Important Than You Think
An Unassuming Component of the Town
Sure, the inclusion of water may seem like nothing at first, until you consider how this water directly affects the town and its residents. In the classic Silent Hill games, Toluca Lake is our main exposure to water, being the cause of the fog, but also being one of the most popular endings for James Sunderland (the In Water ending). Deep within these waters, it’s implied that there are old gods with the power to bring back the dead, as we see in the Rebirth ending of Silent Hill 2.
In Silent Hill f, we find various documents that allude to a malevolent water god that controls the geysers in town – the very same Water Dragon that causes the fog in Ebisugaoka. However, this Water Dragon covets and can only be appeased by a ritualistic sacrifice of five young girls. The Tsukumogami ended up subduing this god, with Inari following soon after, rendering those sacrifices obsolete.
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However, if Hinako runs away from both the Tsukumogami (represented by her doll) and Inari (the foxes), like how she does in The Fox Wets Its Tail ending, nothing can contain the wrathful Water Dragon. In the after-credits scene, we see that the geysers had burst, forcing the residents of Ebisugaoka to evacuate lest they be killed by the toxic fumes.
The fact that this water element was incorporated into both towns’ history (with the Water Dragon for Ebisugaoka and the Lady of the Lake story in Silent Hill 2) just deepens the similarity.
4 People Being Spirited Away Is a Common Motif
Mystery Hidden in the Fog
For the longest time in the Silent Hill fandom, nobody knew what truly happened to Mary and James Sunderland – that is, until we get to Silent Hill 4: The Room, when we realise that nobody else knows, either.
Henry Townsend, the protagonist, is trapped in his apartment in a complex owned by Frank Sunderland, James’s father. Frank had given Henry a photo of Silent Hill, and Henry remarks that he heard his son and daughter-in-law “disappeared” there a few years prior. Simply put, they were spirited away – vanished without a trace.
Silent Hill f follows this exact same scenario, except we’re the ones being spirited away. However, as we play through the game, we learn that we are not the only ones who were spirited away by Inari, as demonstrated by a missing person poster for Mayumi Suzutani, who we later learn was another bride collected by the fox god for her divine power.
Hinako is following in Mayumi’s exact footsteps to be the next bride, and depending on the ending, she will be successfully spirited away next, as we see with the missing person poster for Hinako herself at the end of the game. Vanishing in these towns, it seems, is not an uncommon phenomenon.
If it’s so easy to vanish in Silent Hill and Ebisugaoka, that raises a completely different question: just how easy would it be, then, to get out?
3 Experienced a Fire/Tragedy
A Shadow of the Town’s Former Self
Fire and brimstone have been a common motif since the very first Silent Hill game, with fire (and its subsequent symbolism) returning in essentially every single game since. Not only is this a metaphor for the internal hell that these characters are subjected to, but there are often plot-related reasons attached as well.
In fact, we learn that fire was the root cause of Silent Hill’s initial plunge into obscurity when Alessa Gillespie had been badly burned during one of The Order’s rituals. Come the second game, this fire (or potentially a separate fire) is said to have burned a significant portion of the town, as we watch the Lakeview Hotel in flames while talking to Angela. In the same vein, her walking up the fiery steps is symbolic of her taking her own life.
Fire is prominent in the third and fourth games, too, as well as several side games (such as Origins), so I was wondering how it was going to make an appearance in Silent Hill f. It was a pleasant surprise to find out Ebisugaoka’s first shrine, the Sennensugi shrine (which worshiped a sacred, thousand-year-old tree), was burned to ash. Since then, the town (and the religions practiced within it) had never been the same.
Apart from fire, both Silent Hill and Ebisugaoka experienced individual tragedies, painting a bleak portrait that doesn’t spell good news for our protagonists.
2 Home to Girls with Divine Power
Hinako and Alessa Are Also Parallels
Not only are Ebisugaoka and the town of Silent Hill itself parallel with each other, but Hinako Shimizu and Alessa Gillespie are also parallel with each other. Both girls were born with an innate, divine power, and it made them the target of cults and their gods, who try to groom these girls into doing their bidding.
For Alessa, she’s being forced to birth a god. For Hinako, she’s being forced to marry a god. Neither of them wants this supernatural fate, so they use the divine power they were born with to split themselves in two.
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Womanhood and divinity (and the horrors of them) have been the very core of Silent Hill games since the start, with Alessa (eventually Heather Mason) and Hinako being the primary catalysts for these fears.
Ebisugaoka and Silent Hill just so happen to be home to these girls, but many players won’t be able to make this connection between Hinako and Alessa until they get to the game’s true ending, Ebisugaoka in Silence. From there, playing Silent Hill f takes on a completely new vibe, as if you were playing the first Silent Hill game, but from Alessa’s perspective instead.
1 The Residents Are Super Religious
Practically Cultish to Ancient Gods
The most striking similarity between Ebisugaoka and Silent Hill itself is the unique, cult-like religions that the residents in these towns follow. In Silent Hill, there is a doomsday cult called The Order that calls all the shots. It almost fell into obscurity until Claudia Wolf helped revive it with Vincent in Silent Hill 3.
Meanwhile, in Ebisugaoka, it’s a religion that comprises Inari worship, past Tsukumogami worship, and even older traditions from the Sennensugi shrine. In-game, it’s even described as being a religion unique to Ebisugaoka alone, one that Hinako sees organically evolving even more than it already has. This isn’t even considering the Tsuneki Clan, which many hypothesize as having crossed paths with The Order based on their rituals.
In both towns, these religions are oppressive, pressured onto these young girls with an expectation of conformity, of blind obedience, and following tradition to appease ancient gods. It’s not only a wonderful metaphor on how harmful beliefs can impact a child, much less ones that have actual divine powers.
Either way, the extent of these religions in both of these towns cannot be understated.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
