Say Hello To The Best Video Game Character Of 2025 So Far

Enormous, savage creatures roam dense forests and sprawling deserts in Monster Hunter Wilds. They’re impressive, deadly, and the game’s ostensible main attraction. But my favorite acquaintance in the Forbidden Lands is not some hulking, ferocious beast but a ‘lil guy named Rove. Other players agree: the philosophical Wudwud has been stealing the show.

What is a Wudwud? I’ve played 50 hours of Monster Hunter Wilds and I’m still not entirely sure. They’re a local forest tribe of stubby-looking cats, but not to be confused with the series’ long-running feline Palico pals. Wudwuds have a bit more of Disney’s Stitch in them. They don’t know English well and speak in very broken sentences. Except for Rove, who instead carries himself like Sailor Moon’s Tuxedo Mask trying out for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The guy fucking rules.

Why are Monster Hunter fans losing their shit over this furball? The fact that he looks like cat Gandalf is part of it. The fact that he speaks like Sir Ian McKellen too is another. There are not many iconic lines in Monster Hunter Wilds. Rove has most of them. His big monologue comes early on when you encounter him all webbed up, Frodo-style, by a giant Nerscylla in an ice cave. It might be the best scene in the entire game.

“Ah, now death greets me with a new mask,” he says as he’s prepped for supper. “Or are you my salvation? So what shall it be, shall I leave it to fate? I squirm. I struggle. Ergo, I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive.” His English voice acting is great. The Japanese is even better.

Rove is a perfect encapsulation of Monster Hunter Wilds’ unique blend of grim Darwinism and goofy antics. It works because the game is always taking itself deadly seriously, even when it’s being purposefully absurd and silly. Players love him. Vtubers can’t get enough of him. As one person on TikTok put it: “bro talks like a dark souls boss before he whoops your ass.”

The best part is that Rove’s contributions to Monster Hunter Wilds aren’t limited to your initial meeting with him. You can bump into him out in the field and there are several side quests he’s involved in, including one particularly major story mission in the late game after hitting high rank. And every time you run into him he’s spouting stuff like, “Forget me. Go. If fate wills it, we shall meet again.” Same Rove, same.

Monster Hunter Wilds might not ultimately be most people’s 2025 GOTY, but Rove is without a doubt my current front-runner for 2025 video game character of the year. I wouldn’t take a bullet for him but I would take him to Hot Topic and we’d have a blast picking out dumb T-shirts together.