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Fans notice Silent Hill references in Kojima's OD trailer

Spelling it out for us.

Hideo Kojima waving as he walks on stage The Game Awards 2023 from a very PT-esque door
Image credit: The Game Awards
Liv Ngan avatar
News by Liv Ngan Contributor
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Eagle-eyed fans have spotted several apparent references to the Silent Hill series in the first trailer for Hideo Kojima's Xbox project OD.

Kojima debuted OD officially at The Game Awards 2023 last week, where he revealed it will feature Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier, as well as some involvement with director Jordan Peele.

Of course, Kojima was previously set to helm Silent Hills, a new Silent Hill game which would feature Norman Reedus, along with director Guillermo del Toro. Although the game was cancelled in 2015 following Konami and Kojima's split, the P.T. playable teaser gave fans an idea of what to expect.

OD teaser trailer. Watch on YouTubeWatch on YouTube

If Kojima's entrance to The Game Awards this year via the P.T. door wasn't enough to convince you he might sneak some Silent Hill references into OD, a very similar door appears in the trailer just after the minute mark, reflected in Sophia Lillis' eyes.

Sophia Lillis screams in horror - an opening door which looks suspiciously like the door in P.T. is reflected in her eyes
If you look closely at Lillis' eyes, you'll notice the open door, complete with a red exit sign. | Image credit: Kojima Productions

The trailer also contains a secret message spelt out during Udo Kier's appearance in the trailer. As compiled by GlazicBlr on the Silent Hill subreddit, as Kier talks letters flash for a split-second within his mouth. Eurogamer has verified the timestamps, and if you want to find the letters yourself you'll need to watch the trailer in 4K at 0.25 speed.

It's very easy to miss them, but the letters A, T, A, M, and I appear at 39 seconds, 42 seconds, 44 seconds, 46 seconds, and 52 seconds respectively, if you watch the trailer on Kojima Productions' YouTube channel.

As seen in the trailer... | Image credit: Kojima Productions
A brightened version of the OD trailer screenshot showing a hidden letter in a man's mouth.
...and brightened to show the 'A' hidden on the tongue. | Image credit: Eurogamer

Atami is a city in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. Shizuoka is written as 静岡 in Japanese, and separately the two words literally translate as "quiet" or "silent", and "hill" respectively.

Konami left the Silent Hill series dormant until last year, when it announced a number of new projects including a Silent Hill 2 remake. The first project kicking off Silent Hill's revival is Genvid's interactive streaming and episodic game Ascension, which is a confusing mess and definitely not written by AI.

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