Fire Emblem: Three Houses devs explain why there's so many cats in the monastery

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is filled to the brim with content to enjoy, but I think we can all agree that cat-gazing at the monastery is everyone's favorite pastime. Ever wonder why there are so many cats roaming about that area? Devs Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota explained in an interview with Nintendo Dream magazine.

Kusakihara: Actually there was a setting at the beginning where Archbishop Rhea likes small animals. There would’ve been a bathroom next to Rhea’s room and animal ornaments would be placed there, but the room was cut from the final build. I think the development staff picked the surrounding setting… Even speaking so, I did not instruct them to place that many (laughs).

Yokota: We also felt it would be lonesome if there were only people, so we thought to place living creatures. At first there were only cats but we later added dogs, but ultimately the balance is at around 5:1… I’m sorry to fans of dogs. Maybe that’s a world where there are more cats.

Kusakihara: The breed names – that became visible after an additional update – were originally planned to be personal names like Mike or Chibi. However, we turned them into breed names because there are multiple existing cats with the same pattern. The names sound like royal names because the idea came out from the development [staff]. We also received a proposal to show a ‘ranking of dogs & cats played with’ from Koei Tecmo Games.

Yokota: I was surprised at how cute the line “Woof-Meow Ranking” looked like at first (laughs). It’s also interesting to be able to hear their cries from the first place onwards in order.