Might Kojima’s OD be the P.T. recreation we at all times wished?

Throughout The Sport Awards final week, Hideo Kojima was given a large chunk of stage-time – alongside horror director Jordan Peele – to point out off a really temporary, unnerving teaser for Kojima Productions’ upcoming recreation, OD.

This weird teaser confirmed two characters, portrayed by Sophia Lillis and Udo Kier, as they recited poetry. After a minute or so, Lillis’ face contorts and she or he begins to scream as we hear a door open, and see its reflection in her eyes. Kier’s character, alternatively, has one thing a little bit extra elusive occurring; there are letters showing – albeit very blurred – in his mouth.

First noticed by Central Xbox, these letters finally spell out Atami. Atami is a metropolis in Japan primarily based in Shizuoka prefecture, and when Shizuoka is written in kanji, it reads as 静岡. Break up aside, 静 can imply ‘quiet’ or ‘silent’, whereas 岡 can imply ‘hill’. That’s proper; Kojima has seemingly had a Silent Hill tease quietly and discreetly inserted into OD’s teaser trailer.

Now, the chance of OD being a Silent Hill recreation is slim. Past slim, even. We’ve seen Konami’s plans for its Silent Hill reboot, and Hideo Kojima – after a troubled previous with the writer whereas being slated to develop Silent Hills – is just not part of these plans. However Kojima’s foray into making a horror recreation alongside huge names corresponding to Jordan Peele and Hunter Schafer, laced with a Silent Hill-related tease, leads me to imagine that OD and P.T. could have extra in frequent than I first thought.

This raises the query; may Kojima’s OD be the P.T. recreation we at all times wished? Is it lastly taking place, albeit a decade later? Anybody who retains updated with Hideo Kojima or Guillermo Del Toro on social media will know that yearly, with out fail, the pair will commiserate the cancellation of what P.T. was destined to be: Silent Hills. And finally, OD won’t be a Silent Hill recreation, however evidently, Kojima – like many followers of the P.T demo – has not let go of what may’ve been.

The doorway onto The Sport Awards stage through a mysterious door, Sophia Lillis’ screams, the letters in Udo Kier’s mouth, even the sport identify being OD itself; all proof factors to Kojima hopefully persevering with P.T.’s legacy, with out the shackles of Konami to restrict his studio’s efforts.

In the course of the Xbox Showcase in 2022, Kojima introduced Kojima Productions’ partnership with Xbox Sport Studios, stating: “Sure, there’s a recreation I’ve at all times wished to make. It’s a totally new recreation, one which nobody has ever skilled or seen earlier than. I’ve waited very lengthy for the day once I may lastly begin to create it.”

On the time, no person knew what recreation Kojima was speaking about. Leaks occurred, rumors of a horror recreation referred to as ‘Overdose’ emerged, and nearly all of us additionally bore witness to a topless man filming alleged OD gameplay on his cellphone. Final week, we noticed the sport formally revealed as ‘OD’, and described as “like a film, but additionally a brand new type of media,” with Kojima additionally confirming that there are different artistic collaborators on the challenge other than Jordan Peele. Fingers crossed that Guillermo Del Toro is concerned once more.

With all of that in thoughts, it’s secure to imagine that the “recreation I’ve at all times wished to make” is a horror recreation. Whether or not that horror recreation is Silent Hills, we’re unsure, however now we have an inkling – particularly following this teaser trailer – that it’s, and that Kojima Productions is lastly making it with the assistance of Xbox Sport Studios.

Whereas using the hype of P.T.’s legacy, the one problem that Kojima can be dealing with is, surprisingly, P.T.’s legacy. The cancellation of Silent Hills resulted in a whole lot of studios and modders creating their very own P.T. like experiences; there’s Layers of Concern, Visage, and even Resident Evil 7, in a method. Let’s not neglect the unending plight to get P.T. up and dealing on trendy consoles, which some succeeded with on the PS5 final 12 months.

That mentioned, you possibly can’t low cost the Social Scream techniques employed in OD that we are able to look ahead to listening to extra about, both. Maybe Kojima is increasing on his self-proclaimed ‘Strand’ style, constructing a horror recreation with social techniques for gamers to assist or warn each other, very similar to in Demise Stranding. We’ll have to attend to listen to extra, however that would definitely be refreshing – and enjoyable – to expertise.

It is also vital to notice that whereas it is simple to be enthusiastic about all of this, Silent Hill followers are additionally more and more drained. Konami’s reboot of the sequence was a shock, however after current occasions, a whole lot of hope within the writer and its plans have been misplaced. This fatigue undoubtedly carries over to Kojima Productions’ OD. Followers can solely wait and hope that OD is every little thing we would like it to be; a non secular successor to P.T. and extra. One thing to actually reignite the psychological horror-shaped gap in our weary hearts. I additionally maintain out hope that the Silent Hill 2 Remake – which is being developed by Bloober Staff – can put the fireplace in our loins once more, however it’s very straightforward to not belief or think about Konami’s path.

If Kojima actually does intend to create the Silent Hills recreation that he by no means obtained to make with the creation of OD, then he – and the remainder of the staff working at or alongside Kojima Productions – have gotten their work reduce out for them. There are P.T. clones galore and a reasonably spectacular horror revival to cope with (taking a look at you, Alan Wake 2), but when anybody’s able to capturing the sensation of P.T. in 2023 and past, I feel it’s secure to say that my wager could be positioned on Kojima and his cohort of collaborators being the one to do it.