Interview: Monster Hunter Wilds Director and Producer on the most important change to the game
What were the things that Capcom learned from World and Rise to development Wilds? We got the sccop!
During our extended hands-on time with Monster Hunter Wilds in Bangkok, we also got the opportunity to interview series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and game director Kaname Fujioka. For a franchise that has been going strong for more than 20 years and counting, those folks at Capcom must be doing something right. The franchise has always remained consistent with its formula for the longest time. It wasn’t until 2018’s Monster Hunter World where it received a significant shakeup. Given that Monster Hunter Wilds is a direct follow up, we asked Tsujimoto and Fujioka about how they went about navigating massive expectations and still delivering a game they’re proud of.
The main question in our minds was “What were the most significant learnings they’ve had from the development and release of both Monster Hunter World and Rise that would inform the design and direction of Wilds?” Here’s what they had to say:
One of the first major focuses when designing Monster Hunter Wilds were seamless gameplay and immersion in the playable map.
“A lot of players were experiencing difficulty in terms of not having enough direction on where to go or what were the objectives. The lesson learned from that is to have a dedicated support to traversal. That’s where the Seikret came to be. The environment and level design in Wilds is a huge step up from World’s in terms of scale.” they said.
Another aspect that the team heavily looked into was player progression. Capcom noticed that a lot of players in World would stop playing after the very beginning. “To keep the players playing and interested in the game, we took a lot of care to make sure that the level design and progression is a little bit more clear to help guide the player on where to go and what to do.” they said. It’s all about having a really good and balanced feedback loop, right from the very beginning.
We all know that the very core Monster Hunter experience happens when hunting in higher ranks or even endgame level monsters. So, the first few opening quests were really just filler. This time, the developers want to help bring players to that core faster and in a much more satisfying manner.
Monster Hunter Wilds will be releasing on February 28, 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.