The Monster Hunter Wilds Devs Explain Gemma, Biggest Weapon Changes, and More – Summer Game Fest 2024

Even with the handful of Monster Hunter Wilds trailers released so far, there’s still a lot we don’t know about. Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to watch a 30-minute Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay demo and talk with three veteran developers of the Monster Hunter series: art director and executive director Kaname Fujioka; series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto; and director Yuya Tokuda.

In the interview, we discussed how they’re taking full advantage of the new high-spec technology available to them now to further their goal of creating an immersive, living ecosystem, some of the new changes players can expect, a bit about the smithy Gemma’s popularity, how Palicos have voiceover now, and more.

Check out the full interview below, and don’t miss the complete rundown of the behind-closed-doors Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay demo.

IGN: What inspirations did Wilds adapt most from World and Rise, and what might be the most surprising changes?

Ryozo Tsujimoto, Series Producer, Monster Hunter: Yeah, to kind of touch on the different concepts of all the different titles up until now…so really the concept of each kind of game has been a different approach, a different kind of feel to how you want players to experience the game. So, [Monster Hunter World] was a console-based title, which came with all of the quality that provided. And so our concepts involved having a really rich, really deep environment, but fun immersion, so that kind of theme kind of prevailed throughout World.

And then, with [Monster Hunter Rise], we went back to handheld. We were kind of aiming for a more casual experience, a bit more sporty of a feel and more playability for players, kind of easier to pick up and play kind of game. With Wilds, we’re going back again to the console, and that comes with higher specs. And again, we’re kind of trying for much richer environments than before, much more immersion, and to utilize all the different technological advances that have been made since World to further deepen the kind of action that’s available to players and to enable them to experience a much richer hunting experience in the game.

In terms of what you can expect to be surprised by in Wilds, we expect that you’re going to go into more details here, but really, we’re just hoping that players can realize, and you saw some of this in the demo, but you can do this now and you can do that now. There’s just so much more that’s available to the player to actually do. And so we’re really hoping that players kind of get that sense.

We did go into more details about some of the changes we noticed in our first impressions of Monster Hunter Wilds.

And just speaking on taking advantage of current console specs, the fights look a lot more cinematic than they have in the past. Can you tell me more about your inspirations behind that and how it ties into the gameplay, specifically?

Kaname Fujioka, Executive Director/Art Director: In the Monster Hunter series, it’s always been our goal to make sure that the core visual theme and what players feel in the game is being immersed in this kind of living ecosystem, just like a real natural environment, and there are hunters in this kind of living, breathing world. And that’s always kind of been our goal. And so now with the new high spec technology available to us, we’ve been able to express that visually through the kinds of additions of having monsters in packs and herds, the greater number of monsters that are in the field, and also the environmental changes that are happening — the color changes, the visual changes that happen constantly as you’re playing the game.

And so our goal really is to use the camera and other effects in the game to kind of shift focus as the players experience the game. We’re not trying to make it like a movie. We’re not trying to make it explicitly cinematic. It’s more that the camera work and the different kind of focus elements in the game, like the seamless transition between some of the gameplay elements and the events are kind of servicing the immersive feel that the player experiences; so creating dramatic moments, not just during story gameplay and other gameplay, but during hunts and during combat as well. That work is kind of dramatically servicing what we want players to focus on visually and to increase their immersion.

Would you say things like the new power clash mechanic and focus mode work towards that goal? And are there any other kind of gameplay elements that supplemented that as well?

KF: So, first of all, we appreciate you picking up on that. The power clash, as you said, it is a feature of the hunting, but it does serve that kind of purpose of having a dramatic element and increasing the immersion of the player into the moment of the hunt. But for the focus mode, what we have to understand is it’s not really meant for that. The point of the focus mode is more to provide more options for a more diverse player base.

So for people who only picked up Monster Hunter with World or who are coming into Wilds as new players, it’s really more of a new feature and a tool to allow players to more easily pick up and play the game, because when you use focus mode, you’ll be attacking in the direction that the camera’s facing and directing the cursor. So you can aim your attacks, you can aim your guard, things like that. But that’s really kind of to allow players who aren’t as experienced with this kind of style gameplay to accomplish that. So what it accomplishes is more of a gameplay element.

It’s always been our goal to make sure that the core visual theme and what players feel in the game is being immersed in this kind of living ecosystem

Yuya Tokuda, Director: In terms of what kind of other things are accomplishing a more dramatic feel, there are some elements we didn’t show in the demo so far, but some monsters have unique grabbing attacks and different things that they do during hunts that kind of are dramatic.

This is something that we haven’t told anyone else before, but even some of the small monsters that come around will have binding attacks, attacks that kind of immobilize the player in a dramatic fashion. And actually, they’re even in the Windward Plains that we’ve already shown you.

Thank you! Completely different line of questioning. Did you expect Gemma to get such a big, positive reception? And also, is she in any way related to Little Miss Forge from the fourth generation of Monster Hunter?

KF: Yeah, so Gemma really is kind of like… She’s a very important character. So she’s one of the main support characters to your hunter character. She’s a smithy…She’s like a comforting presence to you as you’re going through this world. And there’s also a beautiful contrast that we’ve been able to make with her and Alma, the other character that we’d already released.

Gemma is a very kind of bright, energetic character. She’s like, “Go out and hunt. I’m supporting you.” Alma is a bit more of a gentler, grounded character. So we really feel that the contrast there is something that we hope that players appreciate, and we were kind of going into it hoping that these characters will be popular — that players will actually like these characters — but we do have to be honest that we weren’t quite expecting the level of popularity maybe that they’ve achieved with so little information that we’ve been able to give them.

But we really hope that not just with these characters, but they also focus more on what we can show in the future with other parts of the gameplay as well. And going back to your follow-up question, we have also heard the rumors about previous games as well, and all we can really say at this moment is we just leave it up to your imagination.

How do you feel about fans getting the dating sim tag added to Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam?

KF: [W]e haven’t really explained that much of the game, so it’s a bit surprising. [W]e weren’t really aware of this, so we really do appreciate the kind of focus that players have put on the characters, and we kind of realized that we actually haven’t shown so much of the characterization to really inform people how to approach the characters.

But as people who are designing NPCs and kind of trying to get players to like these characters, we are happy… We do think that we’ve accomplished something in terms of NPC design, and even if so far that’s mostly visual, we still appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to create characters that resonate with fans… Unfortunately, we have to say that we haven’t really picked up on this kind of development.

So yeah, we weren’t aware that this was a genre attached to the game on Steam, but we are happy as designers that the characters have become popular this way. And obviously, there are more characters in the game, we just haven’t really revealed them yet. So we just hope that players stay tuned for more designs.

Can you tell me why you decided to give the Palicos voiceover in Wilds?

YT: So the answer is kind of really simple. It is the fact that the Palico and the handler accompany you into the field, and this time in Wilds, there are so many different environmental changes and things happening in real time. So there’s lots more information to parse, and as support characters, the Palico and the handler, having voices helps the player to understand what’s happening, because they pick up on all the different information that the player needs to know and provide advice for the player to understand what’s going on and how to approach all the different environmental changes. And of course, you can also have it “meow, meow, meow” as in previous titles. So you can give it cat-speak in the game if you really choose.

Awesome. Thank you. Can you tell me if any of the weapons got a big overhaul, kind of similar to how the Hunting Horn got an overhaul in Rise?

YT: Yeah, so if you had to really answer this briefly, it’s really the two Bowgun types. So the Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun have received some of the most kind of broad action changes, as well as the Hunting Horn. The Hunting Horn is going back more to a World-basis of the action, but on top of that, it’s also introduced a lot of other changes. So we hope you’re looking forward to that.

Can you play through the story in co-op together seamlessly?

YT: In two player?

Or four. Multiplayer.

YT: What we can say is that, so there are going to be story elements in the game when you’re playing that you have to witness in solo mode before you can actually play together. So you won’t be able to play perfectly together in sync throughout the story with other players. But we’ve made it a lot more convenient, and we’ve introduced new features in the game, so that in the background, you’re always connected. And so as soon as you’re able to go into a quest together, it matches you up quickly and you can seamlessly go back into multiplayer gameplay. So we’ve made it a lot more convenient.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Casey DeFreitas is IGN’s Deputy Editor, Guides. You can catch her chatting about monsters on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD

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