Slitterhead Interview: The Creator of Silent Hill Explains Their New Horror Game - Exclusive

ign.com:

In December 2020, Keiichiro Toyama announced the establishment of Bokeh Game Studio, a new development company he founded together with select cohorts from his days at Sony’s now defunct Japan Studio. With Toyama’s resume including beloved titles like the original Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush, many fans had been looking forward to seeing his next creation.

Now, four years later, Slitterhead is ready to release this November as Bokeh Game Studio’s debut title. I was fortunate enough to actually play the horror action adventure game, and you can read my impressions in our exclusive preview article. Following my session with the game, I interviewed Toyama as well as producer Kazunobu Sato and game director Junya Okura.

Many fans have been eagerly awaiting a new horror experience from you. After playing the demo, I thought it was rare for a game that leans so heavily on horror elements to have a melee combat system. Could you tell us the reason behind this?

Keiichiro Toyama, Founder, Bokeh Game Studio: We wanted players who enjoy modern action games to be able to enjoy Slitterhead, so we aimed for a game that is easy to familiarise yourself if you are used to playing recent games.

Possessing and controlling multiple different characters functions as Slitterhead’s key mechanic. How did you come up with this idea?

Toyama: With Slitterhead, we wanted to reinterpret the concept we originally had for Siren. Over the years, Siren has become somewhat of a cult classic, and I’m always honored when I hear people say they want to see it get revived. In Siren, you could dive inside the brain of other characters through a feature we called sightjacking. We wanted to evolve this idea by making it possible to possess and freely move around as other characters. This became the core of Slitterhead’s game design.

It’s unique and interesting from a gameplay perspective, but when you’re continuously possessing different characters, doesn’t it become difficult for the player to know