Monster Hunter Rise was originally planned to have areas separated by loading screens

Past Monster Hunter games were known for splitting up their worlds into segmented areas with loading screens. With more recent entries though, Capcom finally started to move away from that. Loading screens have become a thing of the past with a more seamless world.

Monster Hunter Rise director Yasunori Ichinose revealed to IGN that this wasn’t always the plan for the upcoming Switch title. Originally, loading screens were going to be brought back without that sandbox environment.

Yasunori explained why this was and what change, stating:

“On the Nintendo Switch, we thought it would be difficult to preserve visual quality and detail in a sandbox environment. However, as development progressed we started realizing that open environments had become more and more the norm for blockbuster titles, and the success of (Monster Hunter) World inspired us to take on the challenge.”

Monster Hunter Rise will be making its way to Switch on March 26.