Kojima’s Psyching Himself Up to Visit Silent Hill
In 2012, Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind twenty-five years of Metal Gear, revealed that Konami’s president had called the developer personally with a unique request: He wanted Kojima to create the next Silent Hill game.
Before our collective fan boners could so much as twitch, Kojima said he’d rather supervise than direct, citing an unfamiliarity with the horror genre. While he thought his internally developed FOX Engine would be the perfect candidate to rebuild Silent Hill’s rotted, fog choked foundations upon, he posited that his involvement would end there. Worse, Hideo’s a bit of chicken, apparently.
“Honestly, I’m kind of a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror movies, so I’m not confident I can do it,” he admitted.
But it would seem the notion of visiting Silent Hill hasn’t quite quieted down in his head. During an interview with Geoff “Bonus Round” Keighley in which fans could poke and prod Hideo about anything, the Kojima Productions head was asked if there were a series he would like to reboot or direct himself.
Kojima’s face tightened. His eyes immediately darted to an invisible horizon, staying there; transfixed by the unknowable. After a moment, a pocket eternity perhaps, he spoke. “Silent Hill,” he said, as if saying the words for the very first time. He then rose, put a hand gently on Geoff’s shoulder without looking at him, and left the studio never to be seen or heard from agai– All right, none of that shit went down, but he did say he’d like to reboot Silent Hill. Thought I’d spruce it up.
“Uh, there’s a problem,” he actually said. “I’m easily scared of many things.”
But Kojima no longer thinks that’s a detriment. In fact, it might his greatest asset if he were to undertake the project.
“A guy that is such a chicken and is so easily scared – making a scary game – I’m very confident something very horrifying would come out from that,” he told Keighley. “But on the other hand I would have to prepare myself to have nightmares every single day. Hopefully sometime in the future I’m able to work on this, but I would really need to prepare to have daily nightmares.”
Silent Hill: Downpour, the last main installment in the franchise, was released in 2012 under the direction of Vatra Games. Tepid reviews and middling sales have seemingly led Konami to put the franchise on hold until a new strategy is proposed. That strategy seems to be Kojima’s leadership on a revamp. You know what, Konami? I’d be willing to wait for that, too.
[via Rely on Horror]