Have You Seen This Cat?

So lately I've been playing through one
of my favorite childhood video games,

this Xbox game called Phantom Dust -
maybe you've heard of it -

and while playing, I spotted something peculiar:

while walking into the in-game shop, just
like I have hundreds of times before,

I happened to notice something I'd never seen
before:

on one wall of the shop, pinned to a shelf,

is a very, very small photo

of a kitten.

This image – a sapia-toned, low-resolution
Polaroid –

depicts this cat tilting its head inquisitively,

peeking out from behind...

...something.

Maybe the cat's resting its head on someone's
shoulder,

or maybe it's peeking over the side of a couch.

With the photo being such a low resolution,

it's hard to say what's in this photo
for sure,

other than... a cat.

But – below the photo, towards the bottom
of the Polaroid,

there are two things written in red pen:

a handful of Japanese characters,

and then, in English,

the word love.

On first spotting this photo, I was immediately
intrigued:

Who was this cat?

And also:
whose cat was this cat?

Did this cat maybe belong to someone who worked
on the game?

Maybe it belonged to Phantom Dust and Panzer
Dragoon series creator, Yukio Futatsugi.

And maybe that's jumping the gun –

I mean, taking a step back:

does this cat even really exist at all?

Maybe this was just a cute piece of world–building;

a random stock photo of a cat that belonged
to Mac the shopkeeper

within the fiction of Phantom Dust.

Sure, that was possible
– perhaps even more likely

than this being some specific
human being's cat.

But for some reason, I had a strong feeling
that this was not the case.

For one, most of the other textures scattered
around Phantom Dust are pretty innocuous:

a generic schedule for a shop's hours of operation
here,

a sheet of paper with random English keyboard-mashing
on it there;

and yeah, there are exceptions to that –

I found this really sick "Futatsugi Shipping
Company" crate hidden offscreen

when I was no-clipping through the game while
working on my documentary –

but by and large, it's just...

stuff.

Somehow, though, this photo of this cat – it
seemed different to me.

It felt personal somehow;

more human, more specific than the other stuff
in Phantom Dust.

And maybe I was wrong, but either way,

I knew that I wanted the answer.

Now, another question I had, and maybe it's
one you have too, is:

how on earth had I never noticed this cat
before?

I mean, yeah, it's a small photo,

but I've played this game on and off since
I was literally 14 years old,

for hundreds, maybe thousands of hours by
now –

and yet, somehow I'd never spotted this.

How is that possible?

That, it turned out, was the easy question
to answer.

So right here we've got an original Xbox
modded for HDMI output

running a disc image of the original Phantom
Dust game as it existed in 2005.

'This is cracking me up –'

'So I got the original Xbox here.'

'Uh, here's what the cat photo looks like
in the original game...'

(laughs) 'right here...'

'and even even looking for it purpose –'

'and keep in mind, this is like a modern computer
monitor, not like a muddy CRT that I would've

played this on as a kid –'

'Um, if I angle the camera around, you still
can like only barely make out any cat features

on that..

'...but I thought that was funny.'

As you can see, at the game's original Xbox
resolution of 640 x 480,

the cat photo is virtually invisible

especially if you didn't know
what you were looking for.

Also, keep in mind that most people playing
this game back in 2005, myself included,

were playing the game on a CRT television –

not an ultra clear, pixel–perfect 4K display
like you might find nowadays.

However, a few years back, Phantom Dust got
a remaster:

a re-release of the entire game in 4K resolution,

available for free to anybody with an Xbox
or a PC.

And while most of the actual content of the
original 2004 game went untouched,

in part due to the fact that the source code
had unfortunately been lost,

the original textures and assets had not.

Here's how Microsoft Studios creative director,
Adam Isgreen explained it to me

at the time:

In other words, every asset in the 2017 re-release
of Phantom Dust

is far crisper and far closer to the source
material than you ever could have seen

on an Xbox back in the day.

...well, almost everything.

Let's go back to that writing on the cat photo
for a second. While the 'love' part is easy

to read, the hiragana above it is not.

Because of the Japanese text's placement on
the photo and the low resolution of the texture

overall,

the resulting handwriting appears muddy and
hard to read, even to native Japanese speakers.

Also not helping things:

the fact that I can't read Japanese at all.

So I posted this image on Twitter and asked
my followers to see if someone out there could

help.

Here's some of the responses I got.

One user said: "Kind of hard to see without
the original texture, but I'm pretty sure

the first and last characters are 'ha' and
'n'."

Another:

"I believe it says Haya-kun. I would assume
Haya-kun is the name of the cat."

A third respondent said they could say with
some confidence that the first two characters

were "haya" and the last one was "n", but
that they couldn't vouch for the characters

in between.

The more responses I got and the more people
I showed this to, the more confused I felt.

Everybody seemed to have a slightly different
take on what this image said,

and no one seemed especially confident in
their answer.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty lost,

so I decide to turn to the one guy on the
planet who I know will definitively have the

answer to my questions here:

Phantom Dust creator Yukio Futatsugi.

See, recently, while working on a video about
why Phantom Dust is my favorite game of all

time,

I unexpectedly got the chance to speak to
Futatsugi,

and between questions about the making of
this masterpiece and the possibility of a

sequel someday, I knew I had to use this opportunity
to sneak in a few questions about the really

important subject:

(laughs)

What's the deal with this cat?

'This is maybe the most specific possible
question.'

'But in playing the high definition re-release
on PC, I noticed something,

which is that if you go to Mac's shop, the
item shop,

there's something that's visible now that
was too blurry to see on the original Xbox,

which is

there's a photograph of a cat.'

'I am curious if Futatsugi-san knows anything
about this cat that is in Phantom Dust.'

This was very funny to me.

I mean, to be honest, I'd gone into this interview
feeling pretty cocky –

like, "oh man, here I am with this super-specific
question, and I've got an interview lined

up with a guy who made the game – It's a
slam dunk, I've got this one in the bag."

but it turns out...

it was not in the bag.

In fact...

the cat was very much out of the bag.

It turns out Yukio Futatsugi, the creator
of Phantom Dust,

had never seen this cat image before until
today.

For 16 years, this cat was just sitting in
this game, and the games creator had no idea

it was even in there until I showed it to
him.

At any rate, I show Yukio the photo of the
cat...

'I've posted it in the chat here.'

He disappears from his webcam for a while,

and then, from off-camera, he says this:

'Hey, sorry to interrupt.

I feel like by this point in the video, you're
probably wondering –

I'm editing the video right now, by the way
–

and I feel like by this point in the video,
you're probably wondering: why does he keep

bleeping the person's name out?

There's a really good reason for that –

uh, I don't have voiceover for it, but here's
the explanation.'

'Just so I can write it down, what's the name
of the, uh, background art designer that we

were just talking about?'

'It's all right. It's... it's a long time ago.'

Dude. "Sonic Staunchly Defends Freedom, Although
Mostly Easygoing."

I needed to use a bunch of coupons that Buyee
sent me and buy a bunch of stuff on like Japanese

auction sites like Yahoo, Japan, and Mercari
and Rakuten.

What Buyee does is allows you to buy just
all the Japanese stuff you need in one single

trip – it all gets sent to their headquarters,
it gets boxed up like this, and then you mail

it all as one big box, which saves you like
a ton of time and money and effort on shipping

internationally.

Literally, while North American copies of
Phantom Dust were selling for 200 bucks, I

bought this for like 15 bucks on Buyee.

It's an N64 game...

That is the hardest N64 cartridge cover I've
ever seen in my life.

All right, who's next? This is feeling poster-y...

This is a Domino's Pizza Japan branded piece
of work.

Very rare to see like actual merchandise with
the "Domino's featuring Hatsune Miku" app

logo on it.

Whew!

That was a lot of stuff.

That was a lot of objects, uh, I imported
from Japan.

If you'd like to try out Buyee for yourself,

head to bit.ly/buyee-nickrobinson

and new users to buy who sign up there will
get a coupon code for ¥2000 off their first

purchase.

At this point, I kind of just had to sit on
my hands.

There was little more I could do but wait
for a follow up from Yukio,

and that had me feeling a little restless.

Then again, we've now got an incredible force
of nature behind our mission:

the man who created Phantom Dust,

and he has just vowed to help me solve, as
he called it,

"the mystery of the cat."

I realize if I'm actually gonna get to the
bottom of this mystery and ID this kitten,

it's hard to imagine a better guy in my corner
than the dude who oversaw the entire game's

development

and knew the names of every single person
involved.

So I wait...
and wait...

and then, suddenly, one of the best sentences
I've ever read in my life materializes in

my Gmail inbox.

It's another email from Yukio, and it reads,
quote:

(laughter)

...I forgot how good this was...

"Nick-san.

I understand the mystery of cats.

This was drawn by Zyoko-san, who created the
background for this shop.

I heard from a game designer who worked with
her at the time.

She has a cat, and I think this is a picture
of the cat at that time.

I don't know Zyoko's contact information,
so I can't confirm it,

but I confirmed it with multiple people, so
I think this answer is correct.

Yukio Futatsugi.

'Zyoko'. We have a name.

So, then: who is 'Zyoko-san'?

That's where it gets a little bit blurry.

In researching for this video, I watched the
entire credits of Phantom Dust over and over,

looking for any name that even remotely resembled
Zyoko...

but found nothing.

I even, no exaggeration, did a deep dive on
every single name

credited as a contributing artist on Phantom
Dust:

Yamamoto Takehiko, Yoshida Kayo, Mimori Junko,
and...

...nada.

None of these people have ever gone by the
name Zyoko, or are associated with the name

Zyoko.

And while this is far from the conclusive
answer I'd wanted –

we still weren't able to learn the cat's name,
for example –

this is better than nothin'.

I mean, even if we weren't destined to learn
this cat's name,

at least we know it was owned by somebody
who, I guess, went by Zyoko.

I sent Futatsugi-san a "thank you" email,

gently suggesting that I wished we knew just
a little bit more,

and then I tried to put the whole thing out
of my mind.

And in the time since sending that email,
I've been trying to talk myself into

believing that this was closure – that
this was a good enough answer.

And, y'know, maybe it is.

I mean, look:

was every little question I have about this
cat

totally answered to my satisfaction? Maybe
not.

But at the end of the day, I...

...hang on.

Whoa, what?!

"Excuse me."

"Addi..." (laughter)

"Additional research by team members revealed
that the cat mystery is different."

Just as I think I'm done with this story,
I get a third and final, totally unexpected

email from Yukio.

And I just about jumped out of my chair when
I saw it.

He continues:

"This is Mimori–san's cat, who was the art
lead of the background team."

On reading this, I pause and cross-check the
credits,

and there she is:

"Junko Mimori, 3D art lead."

This explanation made sense, and even fit
perfectly with what Yukio told me in our initial

interview:

It makes perfect sense that Mimori-san was
the person who would've had the chance to

sneak this image in.

But there was still one gnawing mystery left:

the cat's name.

I wanted, now more than ever, to finally identify
this cat.

So I continued reading.

Quote:

"This is Mimori-san's cat, who was the art
lead of the background team...

and the name...

is...

Hyanyan."

I wish you could have been there when I first
got this email,

but trust me when I say,

I was overjoyed.

"Hyanyan."

Somehow, despite all the guesses from friends
and strangers,

and all the translation attempts we'd fielded,

not one single person had actually correctly
read this name:

"Hyanyan."

Briefly, I take a moment to savor this victory.

At the very start of this process, I'd set
out to answer three questions:

whether this cat really existed,

who it belonged to,

and what its name was.

When this process began, solving even one
of these mysteries had felt like a complete

longshot –

and yet, thanks to the help of one of my video
game heroes, Yukio Futatsugi,

we'd managed to uncover the answers to all
three.

I continue reading.

Quote: "The text also says 'Hyanyan love.'

This was also confirmed directly by Mimori.

This is the truth.

However...

the cat Hyanyan died two years ago.

–Yukio Futatsugi."

Look, on some deep, subconscious level,

I think we all must have known this would
be the outcome.

This image was buried in a game that was released
in 2005,

and was probably put in the game even earlier
– and that's 16 plus years ago now.

So realistically, logically...

of course this was the case.

Despite that, the logic of it didn't make
this news easier to swallow.

It didn't make solving this mystery any less
bittersweet.

Now, normally when working on a story like
this,

I would want to reach out to everybody involved
and talk to them,

but ultimately, I decided not to reach out
to Mimori to interview her about this... easter

egg, I guess.

Not long before I started working on this
video, my family lost a pet too –

a dog named Lainey who we'd spent over a decade
with.

And when I look back on our time with Lainey
now,

and think about things like the way she'd
smile,

the way she would sigh,

the way she looks almost exactly like Jamie
Hyneman from MythBusters –

I treasure those memories, but they're a little
bittersweet, and I'm not sure they're the

type of thing

I'd want to be interrogated about by a stranger
from halfway across the planet.

Instead, I think the right thing to do is
to just stick with what we already know.

We might never know the specific details of
Mimori and Hyanyan's life together – I

think that's best left between Mimori and
Hyanyan –

But here's what we do know:

Hyanyan lived a long, full life, well above
the average for a housecat.

Hyanyan was loved,

strongly loved,

by her owner Mimori:

so much so that Mimori chose to commemorate
her affection for Hyanyan

by immortalizing a precious moment from their
life together inside this weird cult Japanese

video game for eternity.

If you ask me, that's a really beautiful memorial,

and one that gives this image a whole lot
more meaning.

It's funny: this game Phantom Dust has been
a part of my life since I was a kid.

I've set foot in Mac's Shop hundreds of times
over the years.

But now, having solved as Futatsugi puts it,
'the mystery of cats'...

...entering Mac's Shop today feels a little
different.

Of course, nothing's actually changed:

the music is still just as goofy and jazzy
as ever,

and the shopkeeper Mac's jovial dance still
makes me smile when I look at it.

But these days, it's hard to walk in there
and not think of it as something else:

as a small shrine to Hyanyan.

See, when I first noticed the cat photo, I
spotted just that:

a single photo of this cat.

But while working on this video, I realized
something:

this photo of Hyanyan isn't just in one place...

it's everywhere.

Mimori didn't just tuck this easter egg away
in one tiny corner of Mac's Shop –

she plastered the 'Hyanyan LOVE' Polaroid
everywhere:

on walls and counters, hanging from strings
and shelves.

Load up the game and take a look for yourself:

This photo is all over the place, and I think
that's pretty touching.

So, with the help of the game's original creator,
a painstaking HD remaster, and confirmation

from the cat's owner herself,

we were able to learn the hidden significance
of this one little texture

over a decade and a half later.

This year, a whole hell of a lot of you guys
have downloaded and played this game.

And while most of my time spent talking about
Phantom Dust on this channel has focused on

a few specific aspects of it –

the impeccable game design, or the multiplayer,
or the untapped potential for a sequel –

I've barely had a chance to talk about the
single-player campaign.

And that's a shame, because Phantom Dust's
single player is a work of art:

a moody, beautiful, nihilistic masterpiece,

and a singular video game experience that
I really think everyone watching this ought

to try for themselves.

All that to say this:

if you do decide to download Phantom Dust
–

again, pretty easy, since it's totally free
on PC and on Xbox –

in the process of playing through the campaign,

when you walk into Mac's Shop for the first
time,

I hope you pause for just a moment,

look at that photo of Hyanyan,

and maybe think about a pet that you and your
family have loved.

If you enjoyed this video, here's something
else you might like:

I've got a mini-video I've created about solving
another mystery about a texture in Phantom

Dust – Here's a little clip from that:

"I have this print Hanging on my wall at home."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Wait, wait, but hold on –

It's in...

Look. Why is this in Japanese though?

Okay. This is getting interesting..!"

I created that video as a way to say thanks
to all of the channel members on the channel,

all of whose names you see before you as we
speak – you guys make this possible.

You make it so I can spend months on end working
on one single video and put it out when it's

ready.

I'm really grateful to have that privilege
on this website.

If you want access to that video, plus all
the years of bonus content I've been uploading

to this channel,

you can click the join button underneath this
video –

that'll give you access to all that stuff,

and it's the best way to directly support
the channel

and support me making more videos like this
one.

Either way, though:

thank you to my channel members.

Thank you to Buyee, of course, for sponsoring
this video.

And thanks to all of you who watch and share
these videos.

It's really rewarding making videos like this
for an audience

who seems to enjoy stuff like this.

So, thank you again and I'll see you next
time.