We knew that Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise, was working on a mysterious project for Xbox alongside Death Stranding 2. After months of speculation, he finally shared the first details of OD, his new game with an unknown release date. The community discovered that the reveal trailer contains a very intriguing secret.
The trailer was showcased with great excitement at The Game Awards 2023, confirming that Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier will be part of the project. As uncovered by Central Xbox (via VGC), the first trailer has a reference to Silent Hill, the famous psychological horror game series.
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Official OD trailer makes a reference to Silent Hill
The hidden message is found in the section featuring German actor Udo Kier. Fans discovered small letters in the actors mouth in 5 separate frames. To see them, its necessary to increase screen brightness and reduce playback speed.
According to the information, the letters spell out the word Atami, which is a Japanese city located in Shizuoka. In kanji, it is written as "静岡," and its interesting that it can be separated into 2 different kanji. "静" translates to "calm," "quiet," or "silent," while 岡 means "hill."
If we translate these words and combine them, we get Silent Hill. Its a very interesting Easter egg, especially when considering that Hideo Kojima previously worked on a game in the franchise alongside Guillermo del Toro before leaving Konami amid friction and controversy.
Unfortunately, the ambitious Silent Hills was canceled, and the PT demo disappeared from the PS Store. Since then, the Japanese creator founded Kojima Productions to work on Death Stranding and its sequel, as well as the new OD.
Details about OD, previously known as OVERDOSE according to leaks, are very scarce. Beyond some information about its main cast, all we know is that it is developed with the support of Xbox Game Studios and will utilize Microsofts cloud technology.
But tell us, were you aware of this reference? Do you think it means something? Let us know in the comments.