Monster Hunter Rise Palico noises come from the developers’ own (often un-cooperative) cats
Felynes are Monster Hunter staples at this point – and this fictional race of cats Capcom created has a tangible link to our world.
For a long time now, the Monster Hunter series has had a slight obsession with cats – look at any of the official merch, the range of clothing Capcom collaborated with Uniqlo on, or any of the marketing for the recent games, and you’ll see cats. Capcom has even sold them on toilet paper holders. Yes, really.
In the Monster Hunter universe, though, these furry companions are not called cats, they’re called Felynes; they’re small in stature (but big in personality), have an appearance similar to the domestic cats from our world, are fully sentient, bipedal, and speak our language.
Once upon a time referred to as Felyne Comrades, these cute creatures have been called Palicoes since the 3DS’ Monster Hunter Generations. From the Meowscular Chef in Monster Hunter: World to the weirdly flirtatious version of the character that cropped up in the live-action film, these mascot characters have become integral to Monster Hunter’s world.
But making them quite so cat-like in-game comes with its difficulties.
“It is true that we do record the noises of cats – which are owned by the dev team – in order to get the sounds you hear in the game,” laughs Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak director, Yoshitake Suzuki, when we ask him whether the devs do indeed use their own cats to form the basis for the Felynes.
“Some of the development team's own cats appeared in adverts for the game, back in the day, here in Japan – that’s quite a long time ago now!” he explains. “Unfortunately, as you well know if you have ever seen a cat, they're not necessarily that cooperative. So you kind-of have to just take what you can get in terms of recording of performance and directing them.
“So usually we try and record them when they're in a good mood, and they’ll make some nice meowing noises.”
I told the Monster Hunter team that I’d likely run a whole article on this – and why not, it’s a great insight into an obscure bit of development! – and the entire room erupted in laughter. It seems the developers themselves are as amused by the practice of (trying) to record uncooperative cats as we are. We just needed something about Sunbreak to make it relevant…
“From the original Monster Hunter to the current Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, we have basically used the same cat sounds,” Suzuki handily added. “The original cat is owned by the original sound director of Monster Hunter – its name is Migya.
“When additional sounds are needed for new actions etc, we use some of the sounds we originally recorded, or use cats of other staff. However, it is not possible to make a real cat experience every situation that occurs in the game (for example, being attacked by a monster), so we have taken the base voice and arranged it for use, instead.
“So to summarize, some of the sounds are from other cats, but the main cat in charge is always the same cat.”
So there you have it! Every time you hear your poor little Palico pal meow out in pain as a Seregios absolutely batters it in a Master Rank hunt, think of poor little Migya providing the noises.
Monster Hunter Rise – Sunbreak releases on June 30 for Steam and Switch.