Monster Hunter Wilds producer explains how game has remained unique and fresh over 20 years

It's hard to improve upon a tried and true formula, especially one that has seen changes and refinement for over 20 years running.

But Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and his team at Capcom continue to find ways to do so, this time with their latest addition to the series Monster Hunter Wilds.

AsiaOne attended an interview with Tsujimoto at Gamescom Asia 2024 last October where he discussed the highly anticipated release of Wilds.

The game is slated for release on Feb 28, 2025 on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox series consoles.

Monster Hunter, true to its name, is an action role-playing game where players hunt gigantic monsters for their parts to craft and upgrade their equipment in order to hunt stronger, more difficult monsters.

The game's deceptively simple premise is complemented by its signature array of 14 weapons, providing players with a variety of playstyles to choose from.

With the upcoming release of Wilds, Capcom is aiming to add on a new slate of features and improvements.

An open beta was available for players to test out between Nov 1 and 4. Capcom has announced that they will be hosting a second open beta, allowing players another hands-on chance with a portion of the game.

The beta will have two sessions, the first one from Feb 7 to 10 and the second session on Feb 14 to 17. Both sessions start at 11am Singapore time on the first day and end at 10.59am on the last day.

When asked how his team continues to find ways to add new features to the game, Tsujimoto said: "It's a game of balance, and it's something that we put a lot of importance on in terms of not breaking the image that fans have of a Monster Hunter game, but as well as having our own concept for each game and adding new things each time."

One such feature is the focus mode, which allows players to target wounded points on the monsters to deal greater damage to them.

Another new feature that Tsujimoto highlighted is the ability to bring two weapons on monster hunts. The second weapon can be stashed on the new Seikret mounts and players can switch weapons when they are mounted.

Previously in Monster Hunter World, you could only switch if you had died and respawned at your camp during hunts.

Tsujimoto explained: "This will allow players a much freer time in choosing their weapons… we want to keep that seamless gameplay and not break the player's gameplay loop."

Tsujimoto also joked: "For me, I'm just going to bring two hammers because they're my favourite."

Voice acting and new monsters

Another addition to the game is voice acting for the protagonist and their feline companion, the Palico, which would sometimes warn the player of certain attacks and provide some support.

Tsujimoto explained this addition as a way to "increase immersiveness" of the game.

"We felt that the player running around mostly in silence limited the kind immersion that we wanted for the player."

He also explained for Palico — which only provided cues through on-screen text in previous games — that the decision to give them a voice was made so players would not have to keep looking at the text.

Players will have the option to turn off the Palico voice for a more traditional experience where the Palico speaks in 'meows', he said.

Capcom has also unveiled some of the new monsters that will be appearing in Wilds. Tsujimoto's favourite of the revealed ones being the White Wraith Arkveld that appears on the game's cover art.

While long time classic monsters such as the wyverns Rathalos and Rathian are part of what give Monster Hunter its identity, Tsujimoto explained that his team needs to think twice before deciding what monsters they bring back.

"It all comes down to whether or not the monsters will fit in the core concept of the game and the environments we want to show off," he said

Excited for players new and experienced

Tsujimoto also shared about how they've tried to make Wilds more newcomer friendly compared to past games.

Aside from choosing how detailed you want your tutorial to be, players can also call in help from non-player character hunters to assist in particularly difficult missions or if they aren't comfortable jumping into the multiplayer just yet.

When asked what aspect of Wilds he felt most proud of, he said it was the "melding of the monsters, people and the ecosystem together."

"In the past games it was mostly focused on hunter vs monster. But this time I think you can see that the direction is now involving a lot of the civilisations, past civilisations, the people, the villagers and more."

"I'm proud to have created a work that ended up well and I'm excited for people to play the game and find out more about that aspect of the game," he added.

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jordan.tan@asiaone.com