Silent Hill F's Konatsu Kato claims she dropped the thought while playing Hinako

The following article contains spoilers for Silent Hill F.Silent Hill F is a fantastic return to the form of the series, which takes us out of the eponymous city and to the rural Japan in the 1960s. The game reflects the system's systemic misogyny, and our protagonist, Hinako Shimizu, gradually loses its sense of I as the story progresses.

According to Konatsu Kato, actress and face model for Hinako, the recording process was extremely mentally demanding for her as well. She opened her experience of playing Hinako in an interview with Famitsu (translated by Automaton).

Extreme stress

Silent Hill F image showing Hinakowith her face peeling off.

Kato says that her experience of playing Hinako started smoothly, but the process gradually became more demanding, not unlike Hinako's own experience with Ebisugaoka.

Kato had to record the same scenes several times to take into account different player choices and the villain's differences that are in new game+, which made the actress wonder, “what am I, what is Hinako doing now and where?”

The actress was responsible for playing both versions of Hinako, which added a layer of complexity to scenes because Kato was required to play both parts of a conversation.

“There were times when I burst into tears without even thinking about anything. The more time I spent before Hinako, the more my confusion grew. I remember that there were days when I felt I would be crazy,” explained Kato.

Silent Hill F image showing Hinakowielding a tube.

In fact, after reflecting on the experience, Kato realized that she only reminds of fragments of playing Hinako, which is a classic symptom of extreme stress. The actress says that the strongest feeling she had when she played the character was “not to know where I was or who I was.”

Suzie Yeung was responsible for playing Hinako in the English version of Silent Hill b. In advertising material for the game, Yeung described how she pulled on her own personal experiences while playing Hinako.

“I think Hinako, at this stage in life, is quite rebellious, especially during this time period, Japan in the 1960s, I felt linked to her directly because as a young woman she does not understand why she has all these pressure on her,” Yeung said.

Silent Hill F is one of the most critically acclaimed games this year and has an average critic point of 85 on Metacritic.