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Yasunori Ichinose

Touch controls were a staple of many handheld Monster Hunter entries, which left many fans wondering why the control options weren’t quite as expansive in Monster Hunter Rise. In a recent interview with Nintendo Dream, Monster Hunter Rise director Yasunori Ichinose explained that as the Switch is a hybrid console, control choices largely stemmed from the fact the team had to develop with both handheld and docked play in mind.

Below is a translation of Ichinose’s full explanation, as well as other tidbits he shared about developing the game on Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine.

Monster Hunter Rise Sonic collaboration

Monster Hunter Rise features a variety of different crossover event quests and had guests from other Capcom properties like Street Fighter, Okami and Mega Man, but there was one collaboration in particular that stood out: the Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary quest. In an interview with Nintendo Dream, director Yasunori Ichinose explained how Sonic fans on the team prepared and submitted different ideas to SEGA, who ultimately greenlit the collaboration.

We’ve translated Ichinose’s account of the crossover below.

Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise director Yasunori Ichinose recently sat down with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream to share some tidbits about the game’s development. The game actually began its development back on the 3DS, with a small team experimenting with modifications to Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.

The same part of the discussion also gives insight into how the situation with COVID impacted development.

Below are a translation of Ichinose’s comments from the interview:

Monster Hunter Rise

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:

Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise marks the first time that Capcom is making a game for Switch with RE Engine. But based on new comments from the company, it wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish.

Yasunori Ichinose, the director for Monster Hunter Rise, said to Eurogamer that putting RE Engine on Switch “was definitely a new challenge for us.” A big part of the task was balancing the game’s large maps with no loading, graphics quality, and frame rate.

According to Ichinose:

Capcom has a number of new Monster Hunter games on the way, including Monster Hunter X. This one is actually pronounced “Monster Hunter Cross”.

How’d Capcom end up settling on the name? This is something that members of the development team touched on during an interview with Famitsu.

Monster Hunter X producer Shintaro Kojima started out with the following:

“Just as we said earlier, old and new elements cross over together [in the game]—so it bears the connotation of mingling. Moreover, the letter X looks like it divides the given space into four… so four hunting styles, four large main monsters, four villages. They’re all crossing.”

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto then chimed in:

“We actually hesitated a lot [when coming up with the title]. Many title candidates were brought up, but ultimate it was the power of the letter’s appearance… the force one feels from the ‘Cross’ that led to [the choice of X].”

Finally, we have these words from director Yasunori Ichinose:

“It isn’t as though there was a particular reason for the number four; it just came about naturally through discussions. It was the same when creating the main monster. Usually, we only create one monster to highlight, but by making four of them we could think about creating monsters we couldn’t make so far.”

“The same goes for the hunting styles. We though that bringing out the individual play styles of players and increasing the amount of freedom through several play styles would be nice… and that’s how the different elements diversified and each of them just so happened to total up to four. It wasn’t predetermined, but personally speaking, I feel things worked out rather nicely in the end.”

Source

The team behind Monster Hunter X shared even more details about the game while speaking with Famitsu in an interview. Mainly, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Yasunori Ichinose spoke about how this new title differs from previous entries in the series.

Here’s the latest information:

– No underwater areas
– Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s Frenzied monsters and Guild Quests will not be returning
– This is because Capcom wants to emphasize the elements that will be unique to Monster Hunter X
– Verna Village is unique to X
– The village is more open and spacious compared to previous Monster Hunter villages that have a warm and dense feel
– The kind of life depicted in Verna is different from past Monster Hunter titles
– This difference in ambiance extends right from the colors of the village all the way to the way it’s designed for players
– Capcom somewhat emphasized interactions with non-villager beings for Verna Village
– Among these is the herbivorous “Moofer” species that is kept in Verna
– The worldview of Verna is unrelated to the prior Monster Hunter games
– This is because it’s important to create a unique worldview for each Monster Hunter title
– Verna will also be the only village in Monster Hunter X with a Guild Hall that is used to access multiplayer
– Can travel between multiple villages like in 4 Ultimate
– Do so via a hot-air balloon
– Part of some sort of ecosystem investigation that you will be carrying out through the course of your adventure
– Why you’re investigating the ecosystem is related to the game’s story
– Information will be revealed at regular intervals
– With the new details, players will begin to get some idea of just how the game plays
– When they actually get to play it for themselves, hopefully they’ll say: “Oh? It’s different from what I imagined, but it’s interesting!”
– Capcom wants to have a more personal hunting experience with the customization options
– They want to betray people’s expectations in a good way

Source

Over on the official Monster Hunter X website, the project’s producer and director both left messages about the newly-announced 3DS game.

First, here’s what producer Shintaro Kojima wrote:

This is an unnumbered Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter is now in the 11th year, and for every new year there may be a possibility of seeing new hunts planned.

“Hunting” X “Exhilirating” X “Style” X ” Monster”

Despite the new challenges, please look forward to “Hunting Action” in “Monster Hunter Cross.”

Next up is director Yasunori Ichinose:


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