YouTuber Arekkz Gaming sat down with Monster Hunter: World producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Yuya Tokuda at Gamescom 2017, where the two revealed additional details about the upcoming home console Monster Hunter.
Get the tidbits below.
Size of the Open World
Tokuda: “At the time we started developing Monster Hunter: World, there were some open world games out, but not as many as now, and certainly before Zelda was seen by anybody. For a lot of them, their selling point was the size of the open world, even if it was empty. So we weren’t going for breadth, but depth; we don’t have one big open map, but each map is open within itself and we want to go for breadth of detail within each map, so we’re not really going after the same thing.”
Quest Rank Structure
Tokuda: “We do have the same sort of Low Rank, High Rank structure, but in the older titles when you go to High Rank, the story was no longer a concern, but this time we want to make sure the story continues on a thread throughout High Rank. One big difference in the structure is that there’s no longer a separation between village hall and gathering hall quests—that distinction doesn’t exist anymore. You get a quest and you can choose whether to play it solo or online.”
Ryozo: “I think we’ve made a nice, meaty story for you guys and as mentioned, it’s something that carries throughout the entire game, so it should be a lot of fun.”
Four Players Maximum
Ryozo: “It is a four-player game. There is no secret eight-player mode, just one to four players. But we are putting little hints in the trailers where we show you a little tease of something and then we will follow up later in the campaign to give you more details.”
Downloadable Quests
Ryozo: “We’re going to continue with [the series’ traditional] free downloadable content support, but one difference coming to home console is that in the past, for portable consoles you would download the quest yourself, to your own console, but when we have a home console, we have the opportunity to do something like a time limited quest where people have to jump on during a certain time to do the quest. We have more creative opportunities for how to bring you the downloadable content.”
Collaborations
Tokuda: “We have lots of cool ideas for collaborations, so we will announce them when they are ready to be announced.”
Temporary Monster Companions
Tokuda: “We have this new system where there are these native cat creatures in the environment and unlike the previous games you only have one Palico companion that can come on a quest with you, but your Palico can make friends with these native cats, who will teach them the language of the (smaller) monsters. Once they learn a few words, your Palico will be able to make friends with a (small) monster and temporarily join forces with it.”
Ryozo: “It’s a situational thing though, they won’t join you forever, so make the most of it when it happens.”
16-Player Lobby
Tokuda: “The lobby is 16 players. You have your gathering area where you can see them on screen, in their hunter garb, but even when you’re not in the gathering area and are out in the hub town, visiting shops and things, the chat is persistent even if you can’t see them. When you return to the gathering hall, you’ll see everyone is there, you can talk to them, choose a quest, and head out.”
On the Possibility of a Weapon Testing Room
Ryozo: “Who can say… wait and see…”
Tokuda: “We do know it’s important to make it easier for people to test out the weapons, so we have thought of that.”
Egg Quests
Tokuda: “There are egg quests, but the way you carry the egg is a little different now. The previous egg quests were stressful and frustrating in the way you couldn’t do anything while you were holding the egg. There’s a more ‘action friendly’ way of holding the eggs now.”
Character Cusomization
Ryozo: “We have beards… We can’t promise 100 percent fidelity, but we do have options. The character creator is more detailed than ever. We haven’t shown it yet, but maybe sometime later we’ll have a chance to go through it together on a build and you can see just how much more detailed it is than before.”
Favorite Weapon Moves
Ryozo: “The Hammer has a new move where, if you’re charging while sliding down on an incline, you can let go and pull off a really cool attack.”
Tokuda: “I like the fact that with the Switch Axe, whenever you awaken your phials, during the elemental discharge you actually plunge your blade.”
Monster Hunter: World is due out worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in early 2018. A PC release will follow later. In Japan, the game will only launch for PlayStation 4.
If you missed it, watch all of the gameplay videos from Gamescom 2017, including of the new “Wildspire Waste” area, here.