Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate devs on lack of Wii U version, collaborations, support from Nintendo, and more
Another interview with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate executive producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and creative director Kaname Fujioka has appeared, this time coming from Nintendo Life. The two developers tackled various topics such as the lack of a Wii U version, collaborations in the game, support received from Nintendo, and more. Check out some excerpts from the new interview below.
On the lack of a Wii U version…
Tsujimoto-san: One of the key features of the Wii U version was online multiplayer, and this time we have been able to implement online multiplayer on the 3DS so you can play local matches when you’re out and about or when you have a Wi-Fi connection you can play online, so we felt that the 3DS version was complete as it was with this feature set.
On the New 3DS…
They’re essentially the same experience on both the 3DS and the New 3DS. This isn’t a standalone gaming experience where people will play it and that’s it, we know they’re going to be playing it in multiplayer, often in person. We definitely wanted to avoid a situation where only New 3DS owners could play locally with each other because of different features or different capabilities, we didn’t want to split the base in that way, so it’s fundamentally the same gaming experience whether you have the new one or not. Of course the New 3DS has some improved features such as the face-tracking 3D effect which is visible from a greater viewing angle, and the C-Stick and the additional buttons are something that’s unique to the New Nintendo 3DS. In that sense it’s a little bit smoother and easier to play on the new hardware, but as far as fundamental gaming experience go we’ve worked hard to ensure that no matter what console they own nobody’s at a disadvantage or won’t have fun playing together.
On collaborations in the game…
Fujioka-san: We’ve put out various videos showing the various collaborations we have in mind, and we’ve announced everything that there is concerning collaborations, but we think it’ll be really fun for players to get their hands on them when they do come out and see the details that they have. It’s not just a visual skin that we’ve pushed out, you’ll have a lot of fun using them when they come out. For example (spoiler alert!) the famous sound that plays whenever Mega Man dies will play whenever a Palico dressed as him runs out of health, and his shooting sound effects are also incorporated. For Metroid Nintendo kindly lent us the Super Metroid sound effect library, so the sound she makes when she shoots and when she jumps will be from that game.
Sonic is famous for the fact that whenever he is hit he drops a load of rings with the classic sound effect and that happens in this game as well. With Isabelle, her speech is in Animalese which is again taken directly from the source material. They’re really detailed and really fun little collaborations, and whilst we’ve announced everything that we have the real fun is yet to come when people get their hands on these. Something also that we’ve done which we haven’t previous is to have non-Capcom designers to design items in the game for us. For example Tetsuya Nomura of Square Enix has personally designed some items and armour. For many of the unique designed armour we have people from outside Capcom working on their own designs, which is a first for us.
On whether Nintendo was supportive with development…
Tsujimoto-san: Yeah, they’ve been very open in lending us an ear whenever we need help, whether it be a technical issue or we need to consult them on whether or not we’re allowed to use their assets in the collaborations that we’ve done. They’ve been really supportive of the whole project.
On any surprises for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate after it releases in the west…
Tsujimoto-san: Surprises? Well, as you say it’s been out for a while in Japan, but some of these collaborations that we’ve made are going to arrive first in the Western versions, they’re not included in the Japanese ones. That’s something that no-one in Japan has seen in action and Western players will definitely be excited to see how we’ve tried to respect the characteristic of the original designs when creating them. The West will be the first market to see these in action, so we hope you look forward to seeing them!
On whether the team’s attention is now turning to Monster Hunter 5…
Fujioka-san: You know, Monster Hunter isn’t a game that just gets released and the it’s forgotten, it’s got a very long post-release life with events and such. Even though Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate has been out in Japan for a while as soon as we get back home we’re going to Monster Hunter Festa, which is an event that’s happening even though the game’s been out for months in Japan. So at the moment we’re very much focusing on the extended post-launch activities in Japan and the upcoming release in the West, and we’re seeing how we can bring the game to as many people as possible, so we’ve got our hands full with 4 at the moment thank you very much!
