We Don’t Need To Fake It Anymore – Talking Monster Hunter Wilds With Series Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto

In a small but serviceable room in Sydney, I sat surrounded by Monster Hunter fans. We went around in a circle, introducing ourselves – and like a support group, we each admitted what weapon was our main. A Longsword here, an Insect Glaive there; it was a fellowship of battle hardened beast slayers spanning decades of gameplay experiences. On this day however, we were getting a closer look at what comes next. Monster Hunter Wilds is Capcom’s latest hunt and in these humble offices-turned-hunter dens, we were given a closer look at some of the features headed to the legendary series as well as a chance to chat with the legend himself, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto. With a lofty 12 Monster Hunter games under his belt, dating all the way back to the original 2004 debut title – it felt a little like getting the chance to ask Salvador Dali what’s with the melting clocks?

The presentation kicked off with Tsujimoto-san introducing both himself and the sprawling world of Monster Hunter Wilds, while also dropping the joyful nugget that he was happy to be here in Australia – being it was his first time visiting our sunburnt shores. The first spotlight was quite fitting – looking closely at the environments of Monster Hunter Wilds, and the expansive technology that drives them.

The focus of Wilds is one of proper living worlds, with rich natural environments teeming with life that can suddenly turn downright nasty once the harsh nature of these vistas is revealed. Each slide showed a particular biome in each of its weather-bound forms – a harsh ‘fallow’ state, where monsters compete for food and have to survive the rugged world, ‘inclemency’ that then heralds severe weather events that change the landscape, and finally the ‘plenty’ period where the world is a utopian wonderland. These weather events are far from your average spot of rain too – each of the three demonstrated biomes has its own intense occurrence that eclipses the terrifying might of a monster, with the natural forces almost stealing the stage for the fury on display.

For the three environments shown to us, we got to see the choking lightning-infused ‘Santide’ dust storm of the Windward Plains – decimating visibility and sending every lesser beast into a panic. For the Scarlet Forest, a fierce downpour turns the rivers and streams into furious rapids that later take on a malevolent crimson tint. The final biome was the Oilwell Basin, a cave network set in a dormant volcano – before the ‘Firespring’ event woke it right up. Each event is a visual feast – very easy to appreciate when you are only spectating what is going on – but I can imagine the stress will peak when you are personally trying to survive the nightmarish conditions.

As if these extraordinary natural micro-disasters weren’t enough, each of them will also awaken the ‘Apex Predator’ of their respective zone, with Tsujimoto casually introducing us to three awe-inspiring beasties:

• For the Windward Plains, the lightning dust storm brings out Rey Dau – a massive spiny wyvern that can arrange its ridged head horns to fire a railgun-like strike of lightning, turning the sandy ground into blistering spires of ashen glass.
• Within the Scarlet Forest – during the downpour, Uth Duna will appear – a massive reptile with shimmering sheets of fleshy sails. Tsujimoto told us that the appearance of these sails are very important if you are hunting Uth Duna but declined to offer more than that..
• When the Oilwell Basin basin erupts into its molten fire state, a colossal octopus covered in bubbling tar turns up – large enough to fill the screen and lift a hunter with ease. If this thing was introduced with a name, I was too busy gawking at it to properly take it in. (Edit: it was referred to as The Black Flame)

Each of these environments and their respective native beasts could easily be the focus of an entire game, but Wilds still has a starring creature – known colloquially as the Flagship Monster. This takes the form of the big bad on the cover art and plays a pivotal role in the storyline, and in the case of Monster Hunter Wilds we are meeting the incredible Arkveld.

Arkveld is a hulking quadruped covered in white scales, almost like a feathery raptor got on the juice and eventually ended up too heavy to stand on its hind legs. From these forearms, chain-like appendages of jagged rocky scales form terrifying organic flails – almost like Kratos’ Blades of Chaos – to provide the creature with a monstrous moveset that can whip and strike at opponents. It is easy to see why Arkveld is centre stage – the design is incredible. Within the story, characters refer to Arkveld as “The White Wrath” and believe the creature to be extinct – but in typical Monster Hunter fashion, it’s hard to fight something that is extinct so you better believe they are still kicking around.

Not every monster is a mythological powerhouse, however, with plenty of lesser – but still impressive – creatures to form the early part of your hunting career. Of these, Chatacabra steals my heart as the big lizardy dork resembles a gorilla crossed with a Lickitung from Pokémon. Tongue technology has come far enough in recent games that seeing an enemy that emphasises slurping always ends up more entertaining than not.

The next part of Tsujimoto’s presentation focused on characters and story, showing off the new cast of supporting friends and helpers that will get your hunter geared up and ready to save the day. A particular point of this section was the explanation of why the Palicos (anthropomorphic cat people) now have full English voice over, making the point that the kitty cat companions will now command even more emotional connection due to them conversing with you. But, jokes on you Capcom – I’d struggle to love these characters any further, but I appreciate that I no longer need to read captions for what they are saying.

Tsujimoto also made a point that the story is now a great deal more seamless when transitioning to gameplay, suggesting that perhaps key events will now be less compartmentalised. In prior games, you’d often discuss a point of narrative before shipping off to do it, with a nice hearty loading screen in between. Perhaps we can expect Wilds to instead lean more into contemporary game presentation, where more often than not the cutscene experience will give way to live gameplay at a moment’s notice. Exciting to imagine.

Gameplay changes were also explored, with the principal item being the new ‘Focus Mode’. Entering this mode essentially tightens your control over aiming, showing a reticule that allows more deliberate movement and strikes. Tsujimoto likened it to playing a First Person Shooter, where you are focused on your target in a very intimate way. Another massive impact of Focus Mode is how it will highlight wounds and weak points on a monster, prompting you to target those and increase the amount of damage you inflict. Players are encouraged to jump in and out of Focus Mode to maximise not only their damage potential but their character movement – with this delicate dance being the key to mastering your hunts.

Finally, a point was made regarding the co-operative element of Monster Hunter Wilds. For a while now, players have been able to deploy an SOS flare to essentially open their hunting session to other players – a unique feature of Wilds is that players who struggle to get a response to their flare can have an NPC hunter deployed to assist. This will particularly help late adopters of the game that might struggle with early fights if the veterans are too busy chasing more dangerous game. It is also another feather in the cap of approachability for Monster Hunter, which has seen a great many improvements in recent times – with AI helpers being another stepping stone to grow the community further. Awesome stuff. 

With the presentation done, it was time for myself to be ferried into a smaller room, similarly bedecked in all things Monster Hunter – to face off against a fabled creature of Monster Hunter lore.

Ryozo Tsujimoto himself.

WellPlayed: Let me start with a longtime question of mine – modern Monster Hunter games definitely feel a lot more accessible compared to earlier titles, is it rewarding seeing the Monster Hunter community grow with every new release?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: So one of the big things was from Monster Hunter World – We actually thought about the bigger picture. We always thought about new players coming in and putting care into it, but it seems to be like we haven’t been able to take care of them all the time, or thoroughly, so to speak. And one of the things that we decided to do was we actually thought about the actual world itself. Because in the previous titles, we always released in Japan first, and then the rest of the world – not just the game, but also the information. So we thought: Let’s stop that. Let everyone have it all at the same time.

If we look at Monster Hunter World, it was released in 2018. And it’s actually been 14 years since the first game launched. Although we see Monster Hunter World as this big rise in Hunter population, we’ve always had lots of smaller communities that enjoy the game, and we feel that because these communities existed and helped out the new players at coming into World we believe that this is how the Monster Hunter population has risen so drastically. It’s amazing.

WP: What challenges are there with changing classic features and systems, such as the introduction of being able to sharpen your weapon while on the move. Do you ever feel worried about removing some of those tougher elements, when some players feel they are defining elements of the formula?

RT: So, in the old games, with those ‘classic’ features, we had the idea of you having to stop in order to sharpen your weapons or do a big motion when you’re healing because we have the concept of load screens separating the areas. So players have to think about the risks so to speak. For example, if I move out of the area, I can safely sharpen my weapon, I can safely heal, I can safely do these things. In battle however, there is risk to doing it without a loading screen.

Because things are a lot more seamless now, That’s why we have to think so much about risk while doing it. You can heal on the move, you can use items on the move. You still have to sharpen weapons while stationary, it is only if you’re on the Seikret mount that you can easily sharpen while on the move.

WP: So in the case of these systems changing, it’s not so much about it being a feature that was familiar in older games. It’s just as the games evolve so too do the systems?

RT: We have always had this idea of trying to have non-stop action. We want to have the actions be smoothly flowing and that has always been a big aim – so we hope now in Monster Hunter Wilds this has been emphasised and implemented.

We also have a lot of feelings from a lot of the players. For example, we hear feedback that attacks seem faster. But I think it’s because the actions become more non-stop and it’s all flowing – not just attacks but all the other actions as well – I think that’s the reason why people have been giving such feedback.

WP: Is it challenging developing a modern Monster Hunter game, given the power of new gaming systems and the expectations of players?

RT: In terms of hard, I think it’s more about what we did with what we had. So if we’ve got to put an emphasis on technology, there were many things that we wanted to do, but we were actually not capable of doing it with the older systems. For example, with this new technology in Wilds, one thing we are able to do is the idea of herds of animals. In past titles, we did have herds of animals – but we faked it, by having the group actually only be one entity, whereas now because of AI, it’s now going to actually be a small herd. Each individual monster will have their own identity and uniqueness. That was something that we wanted to implement for instance.

It’s a very small thing, but for example in the previous title your herd behaviour would all be based on that one Central monster. But now we’re all gonna have each individual one acting on its own. It’s real.

WP: How close would you say Monster Hunter Wilds is to achieving your ideal vision for a Monster Hunter game?

RT: In terms of the ideal Monster Hunter, I would say this whenever a new title is released I always think of the latest title as my ideal Monster Hunter. But at the same time – the series goes on, and I will always be thinking about how the next entry will be what I’m trying to implement as the ideal Monster Hunter.

WP: Is there a concern that the ability to utilise two weapons will mean most players will carry a Hunting Horn to access the unique buffs of the weapon?

RT: I understand the Hunting Horn was a little bit overpowered in the beta, we have addressed that. We’re working very hard for the final bit of development for day one weapons to be more balanced.

What we are trying to do is make sure weapons are characterised by their strengths and people want to utilise them.

WP: In regards to the presentation and the NPC hunter assistants that were mentioned, if an NPC hunter is knocked out in a hunt, does it use up one of your revives?

RT: Nope! Doesn’t count.

WP: What are you most excited to see players experience in Monster Hunter Wilds?

RT: One of the things that I’m really excited to have players enjoy is obviously the action of it, but the big thing, at least for me, is our emphasis on making things seamless and because we put such a focus on it we are making sure that the players are immersed into the game.

I also personally really like this new story. I’m hoping to be excited about how players are getting immersed in this new world of Monster Hunter and that they then want to know more about the world and therefore enjoy the overall experience more.

WP: Just one last one – Do you have a favorite Monster Hunter monster? Mine is Glavenus.

Tsujimoto laughs, and gestures to an aid – who holds up his phone, displaying Lao-Shan Lung from the very first Monster Hunter on his lock screen.

RT: Lao-Shan Lung! And wow, Glavenus is not a common pick.

WP: I just love the gimmick – how it ignites its own tail.

RT: A rare favourite!

WP: Thank you so much for your time today, and for sharing your incredible passion.

Monster Hunter Wilds is due to release on February 25, 2025 for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and Series X. There is also a pretty impressive steelbook edition – exclusively sold at JB Hifi, so if you are fiend for a good steelbook, keep an eye out for that majestic beast.