silent hill f spoilers! silent hill f made me feel insane when i was playing because it truly felt like somebody took my biggest fears ever and put them together and showcased them in such a meaningful way, it was cathartic but also incrediblyyy harrowing to experience it all. enough so that im still thinking about it now and then several months later.. though this is probably because i relate very heavily with hinako and her situation. especially maybe with her father. one thing i didnt expect from the game in the later runs, when i was aiming for the true ending was the fact that it showcased just how much patriarchy affects not only the women, but also the men.
the fact that it sympathises with hinakos father and makes you see that hes a victim too, while still allowing hinako to not forgive him.. incredibly good writing(and one that i probably felt a little too hard lol). i suppose i just really enjoyed how not a single character in the game was one dimensional, it was never a white or black scenario.
now i do think that because of this a lot of people really suck at understanding the story, especially people on twitter loveee pissing me off regarding this game. alas, i have come to an understanding that some people cant think about stuff unless its black and white. i think the main grip i have is the views regarding hinako and kotoyuki.. it is crazy to me that it is either 1. hinako loves him and they are endgame or whatever, or 2. he was also abusive and a villainnn and hinako hates his ass.
and not to be a you have to play the true ending to really understand, but you kind of have to, especially if youre going to say insane stuff like kotoyuki is a groomer(which is one i saw a LOT). in the true ending, and even before then if you take the time to read and think.. it becomes very obvious that hinako and kotoyuki were talking, and they were in the beginning of something at the very least. would i say they were in love? no, not really.. but thats not even the point really, the fact is they were two young people who were talking on their own premise, and that was ruined by people around them pushing their expectations onto them. uknow, thats the whole theme of the game.
hinako was pushed into rushing with kotoyuki, and i would assume thanks to that pressure a lot of the good will she had with kotoyuki vanished and turned into resentment, and fear. not even really directed towards kotoyuki himself, but towards the situation. in kotoyukis case he was also pressured into rushing, and got singleminded enough to not notice hinakos feelings about the matter(not to mention the childhood he had and how that affected everything). not that the lack of communication helped, but again these are two young people put into an extremely difficult and hard situation. it was the biggest relief to me that the good ending, the true ending, ended with both of them agreeing to taking their time and figuring out what they wanted from life before jumping into any sort of relationship. hinako was finally free to explore what she wanted without the societal pressure constantly looming over her, and kotoyuki could experience everything he didnt experience during his childhood thanks to his upbringing.
anyway the whole point of this rant/review is just to say that its an amazing game and people having such onesided takes annoy me. patriarchy affects everybody, women and men included and never in a good way. men just benefit more lol. (i could also make a whole rant about rinko, but all the hate towards her is just misoginy really)