Konami's psychological horror contains elements the Australian Classification Board has historically frowned on.
Silent Hill f may not release in Australia thanks to a decision by the country’s Classification Board. The horror reboot has been “Refused Classification”, which means its content is too extreme for an R18+ rating and is thus banned. As of right now, the organisation hasn’t explained what’s behind the ban.
It’s not hard to join the dots ourselves, though, and Steam’s mature content description for Silent Fill f is the best place to start. According to that listing—which is filed by Konami—”The game contains depictions of gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture and graphic violence”.
That covers two areas the Australian Classification Board doesn’t like: drug use and abuse—whether implied or otherwise—of minors. Fallout 3 famously fell afoul of the board’s distaste for drugs, before the game was tweaked to accommodate Australia’s rules. As for the latter, Blade Runner: Enchanted Edition and Omega Labyrinth Z are recent examples of offenders.
Set in the 1960s, Silent Hill f will take place in the remote rural town of Ebisugaoka. Protagonist Shimizu Hinako “must navigate the twisted paths of Ebisugaoka, solving complex puzzles and confronting grotesque monsters to survive”. According to Konami’s mature content description, the game reflects the “customs and culture” of 1960s Japan.
This isn’t the first time a Silent Hill game has been banned in Australia: Silent Hill: Homecoming was refused classification in 2008, mainly because of its extreme graphic violence—before Australia introduced an R18+ rating in 2013, games that depicted detailed body dismemberment tended to be frowned upon.
Homecoming was altered and ended up releasing in Australia, which is the way these things tend to go with some rare high profile examples: Devolver refused to edit Hotline Miami 2 for Australia, and it remains officially banned in the country. The same goes for the drug use depiction in Sludge Life – that game remains unavailable for Australians on Steam.
Whether Silent Hill f will be tweaked is hard to say: the areas the Classification Board takes issue with seem like prominent themes in the game. I’ve reached out to the Classification Board for more details, and will update when a response comes in.
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