Articles by Michael Beckwith

Technology

Silent Hill f and Ghost Of Yōtei show pros and cons of adding foxes to your game

Silent Hill f – Fox Mask is quite the fox (Konami) Players are having very different reactions to the foxes featured in Ghost Of Yōtei and Silent Hill f, with the latter getting a sales boost from it in Japan. If we had a penny for every game to launch this year that features a historical Japanese setting and includes foxes that players have become strangely enamoured with, we’d have two pennies. Which is not a lot but, well… you know the meme. We are, of course, referring to Ghost Of Yōtei and Silent Hill f, two dramatically different games that somehow share an amusing similarity regarding their use of foxes and players’ reactions to them. (And the fact that they’re both best played with the Japanese voice track.) However, there are concerns Ghost Of Yōtei’s foxes will put players in serious danger in real-life, if they try to pet one, while fans of Silent Hill f’s fox character are also eager for some heavy petting. Can you pet foxes in Ghost Of Yōtei? Ghost Of Yōtei brings back Ghost Of Tsushima’s fox dens, where a helpful fox will appear to guide you to hidden shrines that provide you with new rewards. Foxes are very important in the Japanese Shinto religion, with the god-like Inari Ōkami being the focus of the shrines in Ghost Of Yōtei and key to the backstory of Silent Hill f. In Ghost Of Tsushima, you could give the fox a little pet on the head; a feature that was so popular that players collectively petted foxes 8.8 million times in just 10 days. This has been retained for Ghost Of Yōtei, but as reported by Automaton, there are concerns on social media that this will encourage players to try petting real foxes, should they ever be in Hokkaido – the Japanese prefecture where the game takes place (albeit in the early 1600s). 北海道羊蹄山が舞台の「ゴースト・オブ・ヨウテイ」でキタキツネをもふもふできる⁉️道民「あかん…」🦊 pic.twitter.com/vkzCroQjLG— 札幌暮らし（北海道グルメと札幌イベント）❄ (@sapporolife2021) October 1, 2025 According to non-profit website HokkaidoWilds, this is because 30% to 40% of Hokkaido foxes can potentially carry a parasitic tapeworm called Echinococcus. This parasite can be passed onto humans and can kill you without proper treatment. Obviously, you shouldn’t be trying to pet foxes no matter where you are, but it’s going to be especially tempting if you’re visiting Hokkaido, just to say you emulated a beloved game mechanic. Ghost Of Tsushima already helped promote tourism on the real-life island of Tsushima and there’re signs of this repeating with Ghost Of Yōtei and Hokkaido, with travel company Klook running a themed tour inspired by the game. Silent Hill f doesn’t have any foxes to pet but there is a very handsome man in a fox mask (for most of the game he’s referred to literally as Fox Mask) who appears throughout the game as a mysterious guide, and his presence is apparently helping to push sales in Japan. According to Japanese outlet Denfaminico, Fox Mask has made quite the splash on Japanese social media for being ‘too sweet’ and protective of protagonist Hinako… even though his actions in the the full game are often far from helpful. Some have admitted he got them into playing the game. ‘The man with the fox mask drove me crazy,’ said one player, while another added: ‘The visuals are really piercing, help me!’ How well is Silent Hill f selling? Whatever peoples’ motive for buying Silent Hill f, Konami is not going to care. Although it sounds like it’s performing very well regardless of how attractive Fox Mask is. According to Konami, Silent Hill f sold one million units in just one day; a feat the Silent Hill 2 remake took three days to achieve. Sales data from Famitsu also reveals that 57,475 of those sales were for the PlayStation 5 version in Japan, making it the country’s best selling game during its launch week. That’s especially impressive considering most horror games don’t actually sell that much, except for Resident Evil, and Silent Hill, with its US setting, has never been particularly big in Japan. In other Silent Hill news, it’s rumoured that Silent Hill 2 will be escaping its PlayStation 5 and PC exclusivity and be ported to Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Rebs Gaming noticed that the game’s website has been updated to add two unused slots, to list what platforms the game’s available for. Additionally, the ever-reliable billbil-kun at Dealabs has claimed Silent Hill 2 will be added to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue this month, which they speculate could point to a multiplatform launch since it will have been a year since the game’s initial release. Insider Dusk Golem is also convinced both an Xbox version and PS5 Pro patch will be confirmed in the near future. Plus, they’ve insisted DLC based on the Born From A Wish side story, from the original game, will be announced soon. They theorise Konami is saving it to tie-in with the new Silent Hill movie that releases in January 2026, since that too is based on Silent Hill 2. Is Silent Hill truly back? (Konami) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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