My friends know me as the girl who is obsessed with spooky, atmospheric games, and it’s true — I do love them. But I have a confession to make: I am a grade-A pansy when it comes to horror titles. I’m the most easily jump-scareable person you will ever meet, and I watch most slasher flicks from between my fingers. I am forced to play horror games from my bed, because I know that at some point, I will inevitably scream in terror and reflexively yeet my controller across the room, so it’s best if I make sure it has somewhere soft to land ahead of time.
Despite my nervous nature, I immediately jumped into Silent Hill f. It’s J-horror, it’s the first Silent Hill game we’ve had in 13 years, and it’s as breathtakingly beautiful as it is terrifying. There is no universe in which I don’t play this game. Despite my love for the genre, after taking a beating during my recent playthrough of Bloober Team’s Cronos: The New Dawn, I wasn’t sure I was up to Silent Hill f‘s challenge. But then I stumbled across the secret remedy, the silver bullet for my mounting fears: the Pink Rabbit Costume.
The Silent Hill f Deluxe Edition comes with some extra bits and bobs, including a digital artbook, the game’s original soundtrack, and an additional outfit for Hinako: a pink version of her sailor uniform, complete with bunny ears and a matching tail. This little Easter egg is a reference to Robbie the Rabbit, who first appeared in Silent Hill 3, which was also the last time the Silent Hill franchise featured a female, teenaged protagonist. Like Silent Hill f‘s Hinako Shimizu, Silent Hill 3‘s Heather Mason was young, rebellious, and found herself trapped in a twisted version of the world she grew up in. While exploring Lakeside Amusement Park, Heather had several run-ins with its creepy mascot, Robbie the Rabbit.
For most players, Hinako’s Pink Rabbit Costume is a cute little nod to the franchise’s previous female protagonist. But for me, it serves a sort of comedic armor — it’s so damned goofy looking that I can’t keep a straight face in most cutscenes. Watching Hinako’s My Melody-esque bunny ears flap back and forth as she beats Ebisugaoka’s various monsters to a bloody pulp is objectively hilarious, and just wearing the costume makes it a bit easier for me to motivate myself to explore the game’s enemy-riddled streets and dark, creepy shrines.
If, like me, you love horror, but sometimes lack the guts to make it through horror games, I recommend taking the Pink Rabbit Costume for a spin. It’s adorable, and if you have a sick sense of humor like I do, it also makes Silent Hill f‘s more stomach-churning cutscenes significantly easier to digest.
