In a recent interview, Ryozo, the producer of the Monster Hunter series, thought about why Monster Hunter was such a huge success.
It is difficult to overstate the scope of Wild’s achievements. As Thegamer points out, Wilds had over 1.3 million simultaneous players at its peak… just steam. And that platform was the worst option for playing Monster Hunter, given performance issues.
Such success doesn’t come from anywhere. When asked, Tsujimoto had some things in mind that drive everything we were seeing. First of all, the immersion promoted by the increased focus on the game’s story.
Monster Hunter has always placed a lot of value on immersion, but traditionally used something like ecology as the main way to achieve it. Now the game is fully expressed – one of many ways that the game emphasizes its story as a way to attract people.
Secondly, Tsujimoto particularly liked the game’s cross-play capabilities, with Hunter teaming up over console barriers.
Of these two, the former certainly stands out more in the eyes of Monster Hunter fans. Crossplay is something people like quite commonly – it’s hard to hate the freedom of more players. But what about the transition to a plot-driven experience? That’s very new to Monster Hunter.
Monster Hunter Wilds embraces a new direction
Monster Hunter games have always been driven by gameplay. Although it never appreciated gameplay beyond its own, its world is a solid background feature.
It’s a particularly well-made background – pay attention to the details at a level that jealous most story games – but it was still the background at the heart of it. Now even cats will talk to you.
The new focus on the story is easy to see, but the actual quality of the story doesn’t seem to leave a strong impression. Our own review of the game actually begins by mentioning the story, but in the end we call it “pretty good, but nothing really groundbreaking.”
The game’s Steam Review page brings similar emotions. There is little complete negativity around the Monster Hunter Wild story, but there is a slight little praise.
Tsujimoto’s comments seem a little strange from this perspective. There cannot be denied the effectiveness of stories in supporting immersion. But it remains to be seen whether the story, for example, contributed to it more than the voice acting in the game.
Anyway, in addition to the net positive emotions people have about the Monster Hunter Wild story, the epic sentiment from the people behind the project means that future Monster Hunter titles are likely to have more narrative focus. And, hey, every story needs to start somewhere, even if there’s room for quality to grow.
