How World’s FFXIV and The Witcher 3 Collabs Inspired Monster Hunter Wilds – IGN First

Monster Hunter Wilds introduces many changes, new features, and quality-of-life improvements to the Monster Hunter series. But did you know the developers were experimenting with ideas for this behemoth of a new installment all the way back during Monster Hunter World’s crossover events? Specifically, suggestions from Final Fantasy 14’s director, Naoki Yoshida, made during the FFXIV crossover and positive reception to The Witcher 3 crossover directly affected new gameplay elements in Monster Hunter Wilds.

In short, conversations with Yoshi-P while collaborating for the FFXIV crossover inspired a change to Monster Hunter Wilds’ heads-up display (HUD): introducing attack names appearing on screen as you perform them. As for The Witcher 3 crossover, players’ positive reception cemented the inclusion of more dialogue options and a speaking protagonist in Monster Hunter Wilds.

How Final Fantasy XIV’s Director Influenced Monster Hunter Wilds

While working together on the Monster Hunter: World and FFXIV crossover, at a reveal event, Yoshi-P told Monster Hunter Wilds Director Yuya Tokuda that players like to be able to see the name of the attack they’re doing as they do it. And so, the new HUD feature was born, which you can see highlighted in the image above.

We got a tiny taste of this feature during the 2018 FFXIV crossover event in Monster Hunter: World. It was a pretty huge collaboration that featured catchable Cactuars, a giant Kulu-Ya-Ku with a crystal hunted to the Chocobo music, incredibly cool Drachen armor, and a lot more. Most notably, the collab featured a notoriously difficult fight in Monster Hunter: World – Behemoth. As in most MMORPGs, you can see boss Behemoth’s moves appear in text on screen as it casts them in the World collab, which you can see in action in the video below.

After completing the repel quest for Behemoth, you unlock the Jump emote, directly inspired by the Dragoon’s movements in Final Fantasy. When using the emote, text pops up on the screen: “[Hunter] performs Jump.” This was the only other instance of an “attack” name appearing on screen in this way before in Monster Hunter, as far as I know.