Monster Hunter Generations
The furriest cut is the deepest
3DS
Monster Hunter Generations producer Shintaro Kojima has a ritual every time a new game in the series is released. “I do this thing with a few buddies of mine,” he tells us, “where we draw straws and we have to use a certain weapon until we’ve finished all of the solo content in the game.” This time around he picked out the sword and shield. But while he’s remained faithful to his choice, he’s still been able to mix things up a bit, thanks to the selection of four different hunting styles. “I’m a little bit skittish,” he admits. “I tend to get sick of one style and move onto another. I started with Aerial, then I tried Striker, and after that I gave Adept a go.” When he fancied a return to a more traditional approach, he switched back to Guild style. “It felt comfortable,” he says. “Like a favourite jacket.” Perhaps not that comfortable, however. “After a while, I was pining for the special abilities of the Aerial [style] again, so I’ve come full circle.”
It is, in some respects, the kind of diplomatic answer you’d expect of a man keen to sell all aspects of his game. Series producer
Ryozo Tsujimoto, however, has no such qualms about declaring a personal favourite. “I’m completely monogamous to the hammer,” he says. “And I use the Aerial style.” His translator breaks off briefly to confirm the answer. “He showed us the data screen where it tells you how many times you’ve used each weapon,” he tells us. “It was just hammer all the way, for thousands of hours.” Tsujimoto, aware his secret has been revealed, lets out a childlike giggle and nods enthusiastically.
In other words, if you have any hunting baggage coming into Generations, you’ll be well catered for. And for some players, that’s quite a lot of baggage: the series has just reached its 12th anniversary, after all. Once it had passed the ten-year milestone, Tsujimoto says that the focus of the development team was to mark it with some kind of celebration. “Our kickoff point for this title was a special event feeling, like a festival to celebrate
Monster Hunter and its history thus far,” he explains. “With that in mind, we looked back at the series and how players have always brought their own unique playstyles to the game, and we wanted to make that a concrete gameplay aspect by introducing these four selectable hunting styles.”
These styles represent a significant adjustment to the game’s fundamentals, not just offering a greater degree of flexibility for the lone hunter, but also allowing teams to combine skills in unusual ways. The Aerial style, for example, allows you to use monsters as a springboard, but you can also vault off your fellow hunter. For any long-running
series, it’s rare to see such a substantial change this far down the line – which may explain why there are so many familiar elements from past games. Generations has four new signature beasts, but there are plenty of old faces, too. Only one of its four village hubs is new, with the other three taken from earlier entries, dusted off and retouched. Similarly, many of the areas in which you’ll battle will be instantly recognisable to old hands. Is Capcom concerned about changing too much at once?
“We didn’t so much include the old stuff for that reason,” Kojima says. “It’s more about celebrating the series’ history and having some fan service for people who’ve been with the series [a while], to give them warm nostalgic feelings when they recognise some of the returning elements. But as you mention, with so many gameplay changes, veteran hunters might be concerned that it’s no longer the game they know and love, so for that reason the default Guild style is essentially the Monster Hunter they’re already comfortable with.”
That said, in the six months since the game’s Japanese launch, it’s not the Guild style that’s dominating; rather, it’s the Aerial style that has become the most popular among Japanese hunters. It seems the easiest to grasp of the four, allowing you to attack monsters from above or to mount them without having to climb to higher ground. Perhaps, we suggest, it may also have something to do with the popularity of the Insect Glaive in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, which had been the only weapon to let you pull off leaping attacks from a standing start. “Yeah, it could be related to that,” Tsujimoto says. “It’s satisfying to use, and it’s easy to understand how you might work it into your [battle] strategy, so it’s very fun to work with.”
Interestingly, however, as time has passed, the balance of power has begun to shift. Since launch, Capcom has been tracking its hunters’ progress, and surveying players for their preferred approach. “Right after the game launched, Aerial style was way ahead of the pack,” Tsujimoto adds. “But the Adept style has crept up in popularity. It’s taken more time to grow because it’s quite a tricky style to use, and demands precise timing to pull off the instant attacks afterwards. Aerial style is still the most popular, but now there isn’t so much of an absolute majority.”
If there’s one feature on which most Japanese players seem to agree, it’s the return of Nargacuga, back for the first time since 2008’s Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Given this was the point at which the series reached critical mass – it hit a million sales within its first week – is the beast’s popularity, we wonder, down to its iconic status for a particular generation of hunters? “I think you’ve hit the nail on the head,” Tsujimoto nods. “It has this speedy, streamlined, ninjalike quality to it, and it was featured at a point when the series was at a turning point in terms of popularity, and that meant lots of people are familiar with it. And we had a lot of fan feedback saying they’d love to see it return. It’s one of those monsters that seems to have everything! People like the way it moves, its behaviour, and I think it means a great deal to a lot of players.”
Yet if it sounds like Capcom is only preaching to the converted, Generations has made its biggest tilt at a wider audience to date with the simplified Prowler mode, which lets you take control of a Felyne hunter. With no stamina gauge and the ability to heal and gather without tools, it offers a much gentler learning curve for beginners. “As with any
Monster Hunter title, we really wanted to have new hunters join the pack,” Kojima says. “Monster Hunter is all about observing monsters, reading their behaviour, finding tells, and then learning how to use those to your advantage. If you’re getting targeted a lot and having to manage your items, your stamina and so forth, it can be overwhelming for someone who isn’t used to the game yet. So they can take the Prowler out for a spin and it will give them a chance to really study the art of monster hunting.” He smiles. “And, of course, everyone loves cute cats.”
“Aerial style is still the most popular, but now there isn’t so much of an absolute majority”