That November 8th release date for Bokeh Game Studio’s Slitterhead is still a ways off, but the developer is still drumming up some interesting talk regarding the game. In a recent interview with Automation (which was translated from their sister site), Slitterhead director Keiichiro Toyama, composer Akira Yamaoka and character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa sat down to discuss the initial reaction to a preview of the game, which had the trio discussing whether the game was even in the horror genre.
Now obviously, given the past titles under Toyama’s resume with Siren and Silent Hill, you’d assume that Slitterhead was in a similar horror vein. However, according to one of the reporters who played the preview build, the game has a strong emphasis on action elements. When asked what genre they felt the game belonged to, the developers offered up different responses.
“What is it, an action game…?” said Yamaoka, before postulating that the game may not have any horror elements at all. On the other hand, Yoshikawa stated that the game was “horror action.” Toyama stated that Slitterhead was indeed a horror game, before comparing it to his previous titles.
“For example, Silent Hill and Siren are often discussed from the perspective of horror, but when they were released, no one ever said, ‘This is a horror game.’ There were many comments like, ‘What is this?’ For me, especially with Silent Hill, I feel uncomfortable when people say that this is one of the standards for survival horror or psychological horror. Because when I made it, I felt like, ‘There’s nothing like that, so I’ll make it.’
Toyama continued, “[Slitterhead] may not be the typical horror game that is described in [the horror] genre, where you are scared and frightened. You experience the situation and are conflicted about the choice of whether to live or die. I think that this is what horror is. This game may have strong action elements, but in that respect I think it is a ‘horror game.’”
Slitterhead is currently in development for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series.
Thanks to Gamesradar for the heads up.