Silent Hill f owes its popularity to fan art, theories, memes, and more, say leads: "Games that do get talked about even months after release are the ones that are fun to theorize about"

Silent Hill f saw a stellar start after Konami's release, between its "Very Positive" beginnings on Steam and over one million sales in just four days – but according to its developers, a big reason why the new horror game is so successful is its community.

Speaking in a recent interview with Dengeki Online (as translated by Automaton), director Motoi Okamoto and writer Ryukishi07 both explain that Silent Hill f attracted more players worldwide than the Silent Hill 2 remake – and this phenomenon is especially apparent in Japan, where people have circulated everything from fan theories about the game to memes online, perhaps contributing to the greater popularity.

Okamoto sees this – the community rallying around a title – as a potential key to long-term success, especially when hype tends to die down far more quickly now than ever before. "Recently, discourse about games has been consumed at a rapid pace," describes the director. "But games that do get talked about even months after release are the ones that are fun to theorize about and analyze, and they usually get a lot of character fan art."

He continues: "From my experience, titles which are able to show us that kind of hype tend to live on for longer." Silent Hill f, with its ability to stand apart from Konami's series thanks to its unique premise and setting, is one such example. Ryukishi07 agrees, saying games like the new horror gem "ultimately boil down to how much the player resonates with them." He says that's why protagonists in such games are less talkative – to allow for immersion.

Although these kinds of characters have a "dark kind of appeal," they're not as marketable, so to speak. Silent Hill f stands apart because its protagonist, Hinako Shimizu, doesn't follow this formula, making room for fan art, memes, and you name it. That doesn't, however, mean that Ryukishi07 wants every Silent Hill to make rounds on the web like Silent Hill f – it's not necessarily the "way the series should follow" forever.

The writer hopes it just shows there's more than one way to go about things. "If the direction we took with f is well-received, hopefully it could become one of the examples of the Silent Hill series' expressive range," as he concludes.

Silent Hill f's lead actor can't catch a break: As Konami announces new "casual mode," fans are naming it after Hinako's VO after she went viral for streaming the game in terror.