‘Silent Hill 3’ Designer Reveals Inspiration Behind Robbie the Rabbit Mascot

While Silent Hill 2Pyramid Head from gets the most attention from fans and media, there is always a strong contingent that won’t let you forget Robbie the Rabbit from Silent Hill 3. There’s always been something about this Lakeside Amusement Park mascot that has always pissed people off, but its origins were pretty simple.

The inspiration for Robbie the Rabbit came from Kanetake Yasunori or KY, Senior Lead Designer at Konami Digital Entertainment. In an interview with GameSpark (with translation by Automaton Media), KY talks about his career at Konami, which includes the silent Hill franchise.

When asked if there was a specific game he felt a particular attachment to in his career, KY named Silent Hill 3. “We had to create it in a short development period of just a year after the previous game, Silent Hill 2ended, so I got permission to go search for ruins and create backgrounds that fit the atmosphere of the game.”

During his research, KY observed someone dressed as a rabbit handing out balloons in a children’s area at the top of a train station in Japan. With the aim of depicting “the abnormal within the normal” Silent Hill 3KY took this idea for Takayoshi “Usagi” Tanakathe artistic director of Silent Hill 3who brought the character of Robbie the Rabbit to life.

“At the time, I never imagined that Robbie would become such a beloved character and be made into so many different products.”

Robbie’s popularity obviously hasn’t been relegated to just silent Hill franchise. In addition to his later appearances silent Hill entries, Robbie also appears in Metal equipment onlineas well as that of Behavior Interactive Dead by daylight as a costume for the Legion.