Slitterhead: Everything We Know

Bokeh Game Studio—a firm established by Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren director Keiichiro Toyama and other industry elites—has lifted the veil on Slitterhead, an “action-oriented” survival-horror game that’ll bring nightmarish parasites to a rich and engrossing Japanese locale. Think The Evil Within, complete with all of its twisted spider-like characters and bloodshot eyes, and you’ll have a good idea of what it’s getting at. For the record, it’ll be gory, grungy, and evidently grotesque — three core nodes that make up, well, just about every award-winning scare fest, ever.

To put you in the picture, Slitterhead is Bokeh Game Studio’s debut IP, and is currently due to arrive on “as many console platforms as possible” at some point in 2024. Not entirely satisfied? Here’s everything else we can tell you about the upcoming horror based on the information provided to date. Let’s jump right in.

What Is Slitterhead?

Slitterhead is an upcoming survival-horror game, and more importantly, a product that just so happens to stem from the mindset of Keiichiro Toyama, whose previous works have included Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren. The game, whilst still largely under wraps, will aim to conjure a mixture of elements, with some leaning more towards combat, and others focusing on exploration and, if we’re on the money, puzzle-solving, to list just a few.

“I wanted a game that could be enjoyed for its action, yet whose concept doesn’t solely revolve around killing enemies,” Toyama explained back in 2021. “It conflicts with the mind, making the players reluctant to enter certain fights. I want to achieve both action and drama with this game.”

As it turned out, that was the last we really heard from the folks over at Bokeh Game Studio. Since then, the developer did go on to say at the end of 2022 that the game was “nearing its climax,” suggesting that it was almost ready to distribute. However, with nothing but radio silence since then, we can’t really pin our hopes on seeing the game arrive anytime soon.

Story

There’s still a huge amount we don’t actually know about Slitterhead — especially in the plot department. However, the CGI trailer that was teased back in 2021 did shed light on a couple of things: a city infested with humanoid parasites with beastly features, and a couple of characters, neither of whom were exactly “hero“ material. For what it’s worth, then, it appears that the storyline will center itself around said parasites, and will ultimately have players take to the streets of this world to confront them, no matter how nightmarish they might be.

From what we’ve seen so far, it seems a great deal of the story will revolve around a local populace’s undying efforts to banish these parasites, which, judging from the footage that was shown a ways back, attach themselves to others to “pilot” their actions and emotions. As for what role you will play in this whole scenario remains unclear, though.

Gameplay

It’s hard to tell what sort of game Slitterhead will be, what with its trailer revealing next to no gameplay details. In our minds, it’ll be something of a love letter to Forbidden Siren, or Siren Blood Curse; there’ll be a third-person perspective, and a myriad of ghastly creatures to sift through and light puzzles to complete. That said, until the devs actually go on to describe the game in full detail, we can’t really go much further than mere speculation at this point.

Development

In our latest Dev Diary, we dive into a motion capture session recorded from earlier this year. Our cutscene team takes us through the process of mocap in our upcoming title Slitterhead, and the challenges with action/creature sequences. Watch here: https://t.co/WKfrK9dn4Q pic.twitter.com/uDBu4vHUm8

— Bokeh Game Studio (@BokehGameStudio) September 27, 2023

Bokeh Game Studio initially announced that it was working on its debut horror game back in 2021, at which point the team made it clear that the project would be shaping up for a release on multiple platforms. However, with the original launch window of 2023 having come and gone, it seems that fans of the project will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on the final product.

As a reminder, Bokeh Game Studio was formed by Keiichiro Toyama, whose credits include Silent Hill, Forbidden Siren, and Gravity Rush. Suffice it to say, the next game in the industry veteran’s portfolio is in good hands. Or at least, nothing has led us to believe otherwise, anyway.

Trailer

Aside from the fact that there’s barely any details on the storyline or gameplay features, there is, at least, a good old-fashioned teaser trailer to help whet the whistle, so to speak. You can check it out for yourself in the video embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Seeing as 2023 has already come and gone, it’s fair to say that Bokeh Game Studio has pretty much missed the initial deadline. And so, it goes without saying that, as far as a concrete release date goes, a mid-to-late 2024 window is looking to be the most likely. If all goes according to plan, then we should, realistically speaking, see the game arrive on a multitude of platforms before year’s end. On that note, we can expect to see it on the likes of Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

As we’re still a few months away from seeing Slitterhead arrive on its chosen consoles, we aren’t able to say whether or not there’ll be any special editions outside of its standard version. If anything of the sort does pop up ahead of its launch, however, then the announcement is likely to come about via Bokeh Game Studio’s social feed.

Interested in staying up to date with Bokeh Game Studio’s debut project? If so, then be sure to check in with the team over on their official social handle for all the latest updates here. If anything does change ahead of its promising 2024 launch, then we’ll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

So, what’s your take? Will you be picking up a copy of Slitterhead when it arrives on its chosen platforms? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.