Every Akira Yamaoka game: the Silent Hill composer from Contra to Silent Hill f

Akira Yamaoka scored almost every Silent Hill game, and for a lot of players that town's fog still sounds like his synths and guitar. But Silent Hill is only part of the list. Since 1991 he has worked on more than sixty games: Contra, Konami football, Suda51's mad action games at Grasshopper, other studios' horror like The Medium and Slitterhead, the Silent Hill 2 remake and 2025's Silent Hill f.

Below are all his games, era by era: what he did on each, how they scored, why the music in the new Silent Hill: Townfall is not his, and the full list at the end so you do not have to dig through wikis.

Konami, 1993-1998: Contra, Sparkster and football before Silent Hill

Yamaoka was born in Niigata in 1968 and studied product and interior design at Tokyo Art College, then became a musician instead. The first game on his list, Smart Ball from 1991, predates Konami. He joined Konami on 21 September 1993 and went straight onto Contra: Hard Corps and both Sparkster games.

The next five years were the work of a staff composer at a big company: the PC Engine and Sega CD versions of Snatcher, Gradius, Ganbare Goemon, International Superstar Soccer Pro 98, the Nagano Winter Olympics. Seventeen games in the 1990s, almost all shared with other composers. Nothing there hinted that a couple of years later he would write one of the most recognisable soundtracks in horror.

Silent Hill, 1999: the composer who asked for the job

When Silent Hill's original composer left the project, Yamaoka volunteered to take over, because, as he put it, he thought he was the only one who could write that soundtrack. He was hired for the music, but soon ended up in charge of all of the game's sound.

He worked in an unusual way. He did not watch the cutscenes and wrote the music separately from the visuals. He went with industrial music to give the game a cold, rusty feel, and left noise in the tracks on purpose. The team objected at first and only came round once Yamaoka explained why the noise was there. Silent Hill came out on PlayStation in 1999 and scored 86 on Metacritic.

Silent Hill 2, 2001: an 89 and his favourite soundtrack

The second game is still the series' highest score on Metacritic: 89 on PS2 from 34 reviews. Of all his soundtracks, it is also the one Yamaoka likes best himself. As on the first game he handles all of the sound, and you can hear it: music, footsteps, radio static and scraping metal blend into one texture.

That is why the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack feels strange on its own: half its power comes from sounding like it is inside the town.

Silent Hill 3 and 4, 2003-2004: now a producer too

On the third and fourth games Yamaoka was a producer as well as sound director. Silent Hill 3 brought in songs sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and her voice became as much a series signature as the static-filled radio. The two later performed those songs together in concert.

Silent Hill 3 scored 85 on PS2. Silent Hill 4: The Room, with its locked apartment, got 76, the low point of the Japanese-made games.

Origins, Homecoming and Shattered Memories, 2007-2009: Western studios and leaving Konami

After the fourth game Konami handed the series to Western studios, and Yamaoka stayed on as composer. Silent Hill: Origins on PSP came out in 2007 (78), Homecoming on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008 (71 and 70), and Shattered Memories on Wii at the end of 2009 (79). In the same years he also scored Silent Hill: The Arcade and the phone game The Escape.

On 2 December 2009 Konami announced Yamaoka was leaving. The next Silent Hill games, Downpour and Book of Memories, were scored by Daniel Licht; all that is left of Yamaoka in Book of Memories is guitar on one track. Here is how the Silent Hill games with his music scored:

Grasshopper, 2010-2016: Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer Is Dead

On 3 February 2010 Yamaoka joined Grasshopper Manufacture and Goichi Suda, better known as Suda51. He has called Suda his favourite game creator and No More Heroes his favourite game, so the move made sense. The music here is completely different: punk, electronica and pure madness instead of fog.

Other studios' horror, 2021-2026: The Medium, Slitterhead and more

In the 2020s other studios started bringing Yamaoka into their horror games, and those invitations turned out to matter more than they seemed at the time.

Back to Silent Hill, 2020-2025: the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f

The comeback started carefully. In 2020 Yamaoka scored the Silent Hill chapter of Dead by Daylight, the one that brought in Pyramid Head. In January 2024 came the free Silent Hill: The Short Message on PS5, also with his music.

Then on 7 October 2024 Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake arrived, and Yamaoka returned to his favourite soundtrack twenty-three years later. Critics gave it 86 on PS5 and 87 on PC, and on Steam it has 95 percent positive from 65,700 reviews, the best of all his games on Steam. Silent Hill f followed on 25 September 2025, moving the setting to 1960s Japan. Yamaoka scored it with Kensuke Inage, Dai and Koichi Sakita (Xaki). It scored 86 on PS5.

Why the music in Silent Hill: Townfall is not Yamaoka's

Plenty of people assume Yamaoka scores everything that carries the Silent Hill name. Townfall, which came out in September 2026 to good reviews, is an exception. On 7 April 2026 Konami and Screen Burn named Canadian musician Pilotpriest, the filmmaker and composer Anthony Scott Burns, as its composer. His score is dynamic and shifts with what the player and the enemies do. Pilotpriest lists Yamaoka's early Silent Hill work among his main influences.

Yamaoka himself is reportedly busy with the remake of the first Silent Hill, which Bloober Team has had in development since June 2025. We found no official confirmation of his involvement, so for now it is a rumour, if a logical one: they made the Silent Hill 2 remake together.

Where the Silent Hill sound comes from

Yamaoka names Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails as his main inspiration. Silent Hill, he says, was shaped directly by Angelo Badalamenti's music for David Lynch, Twin Peaks above all, and by the more atmospheric work of Depeche Mode and Metallica. His favourite film is Dario Argento's Suspiria.

One more detail from his interviews: he wants Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" played at his funeral. A surprisingly bright choice for a man who has spent nearly thirty years scoring nightmares. In the video above he tells IGN why Silent Hill 2 matters so much to him.

Every Akira Yamaoka game: the full list

Yamaoka's busiest decade was the 2010s, his Grasshopper years. The 2020s are catching up: fourteen games in under seven years. Here is the full list by year, based on his official filmography.

Where to start

Of the first four Silent Hill games, only the fourth is officially sold on PC right now, on GOG, so for many people the remakes are the only way in. If you like this format, we have the same deep dives into every John Carpenter game and every Clive Barker game.

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Silent Hill: Townfall reviews: 81 on Metacritic, 89 from PC Gamer, and a stealth complaint