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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 happen 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 AIDS sapiotoned low
resolution Polaroid depicts depict 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 it with a 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
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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 belongs to Mack 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 Craig hidden off screen 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
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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 disk
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
right here and even even looking for it
on purpose and just keep in mind this is
like a modern computer monitor not like
a muddy CRT that I would have played
this on as a kid
um if I angle the camera around do 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 640x480 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 just
got a remaster a re-release of the
entire game in 4K resolution available
for free to anybody with an Xbox or 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 Studio's creative
director Adam ice green explained it to
me at the time when we recovered the
archives from Japan for the original
project the assets which were so high
quality at the time that the original
game was released they were actually
beyond the quality of what an original
Xbox game would uh depict assets at
normally the textures and the um the
objects are actually being shown at how
they were developed now rather than how
they ended up on the box because they
had to be compressed and um kind of res
down in order to fit on the disc 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 my immediate
reaction was that you guys had gone in
and like redone the textures or
something but you're saying these are
the original textures we just weren't
able to see them on the original Xbox at
kind of this quality at this resolution
yeah that's correct
um all of the stuff in the game the
detail work and the amount of care and
quality they put into Phantom Dust is
amazing and to be able to actually see
what the boards look like now and to
read the you know the papers in uh in
the office in Panorama right or to be
able to actually look at all the signs
in city which is one of my favorite
looking levels
um you know it's just amazing there was
all this detail that we never caught
before
um because we could actually see what
the game looked like when they were
building it which has been you know just
super fun to be able to go I'm like oh
my gosh I had no idea like you can read
everything well almost everything
oh yeah
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
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 are 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 um another I
believe it says hayakun I would assume
hayakun 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 um whether 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
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at this point I'm feeling pretty lost so
I decided 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 furatsugi 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
what's the deal with this cat this is
maybe the most specific possible
question
but in playing uh the high definition
re-release on PC I noticed something
which is that if you go to the max 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'm curious if if futatsuki-san knows
anything about this cat
that is in Phantom Dust
[Music]
foreign
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 game's 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 I've posted in the chat
here
foreign
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for a while and then from off camera he
says this
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is
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
um and I feel like by this point of 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 background art designer
that we were just talking about
foreign
dude Sonic staunchly defends Freedom
although mostly easy going
I needed to uh use a bunch of coupons
that Bayou sent me and buy a bunch of
stuff on like Japanese auction sites
like Yahoo Japan and mercari and Rakuten
what bayi 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
fanabus we're selling for 200 bucks I
bought this for like 15 bucks on body
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 postery this is a
Domino's Pizza Japan branded piece of
work very rare to see like actual
merchandise with the dominoes featuring
Hatsune Miku app logo on it that was a
lot of stuff that was a lot of objects
uh I imported from Japan if you'd like
to try out buy for yourself head to
bit.ly bye Nick Robinson and new users
to buy who sign up there will get a
coupon code for 2 000 Yen off their
first purchase
foreign
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 going to 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
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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 I forgot how good this was
[Music]
Nixon
I understand the mystery of cats
it was drawn by xyokosan 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
xioko we have a name
so then who is xiokosan
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 takahiko yoshirakayo mimori
junko and NADA none of these people have
ever gone by the names Yoko or are
associated with the names Yoko 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 nothing 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 furatsugusan a thank you email
gently suggesting that I wish 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 you 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
addition 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 memory son'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
memory map 3D art lead this explanation
made sense and even fit perfectly with
what Yukio told me in our initial
interview
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it makes perfect sense that memory song
was the person who would have 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
vote
rayson's cat who was the art lead of the
background team
and the name
is
hyonyan
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I wish you could have been there when I
first got this email but trust me when I
say I was overjoyed hyonyan
somehow despite all the guesses from
friends and strangers and all the
translation attempts we'd fielded Haya
Chan hayachin not one single person had
actually correctly read this name
hyonyan
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 long shot and yet thanks
to the help of one of my video game
Heroes Yukio futonsugi we'd managed to
uncover the answers to all three
I continue reading
quote the text also says hyonyan love
this was also confirmed directly by
mimori this is the truth
however
the cat hyonyan died two years ago
Yukio futatsugi
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look on some deep subconscious level I
think we all must have known this would
be the outcome and 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
and 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
memory 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 Laney who we'd spent over a
decade with and when I look back on our
time with Laney now and think about
things like the way she'd smile the way
she would sigh the way she looked almost
exactly like Jamie Heineman 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
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foreign I think the right thing to do is
to just stick with what we already know
we might never know the specific details
of memory and hanyon's life together I
think that's best left between memory
and hyonyan but here's what we do know
lived a long full life well above the
average for a house cat
Ian was loved strongly loved by her
owner memory so much so that memory
chose to commemorate her affection for
hyonyan 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
[Music]
entering Max shop today feels a little
different
foreign
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of course nothing's actually changed the
music is still just as goofy and Jazzy
as ever and the shopkeeper Max 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 too
as a small Shrine to hyonyan
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 hyonyan
isn't just in one place it's everywhere
foreign
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didn't just tuck this Easter egg away in
one tiny corner of Mac's shop she
plastered the yanyan 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
foreign
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
[Music]
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
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 shop
for the first time I hope you pause for
just a moment look at that photo of
hyonyan and maybe think about a pet that
you and your family have loved
foreign
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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 I have this print
hanging on my wallet 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 the
channel members on the Channel all of
whose names you see before you as we
speak uh 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
um I'm really grateful to have that 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
by the way though thank you to my
channel members thank you to Bai 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 uh
thank you again and I'll see you next
time
perhaps at the beginning
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