Q&A: Monster Hunter World with Kaname Fujioka & Yuya Tokuda
The HBG crew got an opportunity for a Q&A session with two members of the team behind Monster Hunter World, Capcom’s best-selling game with over 10 million copies shipped worldwide – Kaname Fujioka, Executive Director/Art Director and Yuya Tokuda, Director at Gamestart Asia 2018.
Here are some of the questions asked and answers given during the group media interview session.
Q: What inspired the team to create some of the monsters in MHW?
A: We developed the monsters based on it having a certain role in the ecosystem and also in terms of gameplay. For Nergigante, it was developed based on the concept of destruction and regeneration; and when we received the concept from the design team, we started thinking on what best represents these concepts, thus the regenerating spikes on Nergigante.
Q: What has been the challenge in creating harder content such as the Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons and can we expect Arch-Tempered Nergigante at some point?
A: Nergigante is a popular monster and is definitely on the list to become Arch-Tempered. For challenging content, we’ve looked at changing up the mechanics to test the limits of the player and to ‘punish’ them for being unprepared, such as increasing the damage inflicted when a player is unable to avoid an attack.
Q: Are there any plans for new weapons?
A: At the moment there are no plans to introduce new weapons to MHW but we are constantly looking at ways to improve the experience of using the current weapons for the players.
Q: Updates and balance changes in the game are often and reactive to feedback from players, how does the team keep up so quickly?
A: The team takes pride in the game and are often looking at how to adjust and improve the game on a constant basis. The team also plays the game a lot (almost daily) and also communicate often with those in the MHW community so we receive feedback on a constant basis.
Q: Monster Hunter World has seen quite a few collaborations with games such as Devil May Cry, Megaman and Horizon Zero Dawn, can players expect more collaborations down the road?
A: The development team always wants to try something new but we can’t say anything much right now, but a key factor is considering how content from other games can merge into the world of Monster Hunter so do stay tuned for updates in the future. The team is keen on keeping players engaged so we’ll definitely look to include more of such content.
Q: Would there be an opportunity to have the MHW championships in South East Asia? (Specifically SG/MY)
A: As part of the team’s effort to reach out to fans globally, there are MHW championships organised in the US, Japan, Taiwan & Hong Kong as our first steps. And in the future, it’s in the plans to reach out to fans in all regions and on the team’s mind to reach everyone.
Q: Is there anything we can expect for the 1st Anniversary/Year 2 of Monster Hunter World coming in January 2019?
A: The first anniversary is definitely a huge achievement for Monster Hunter World so do look forward to the official announcement on our anniversary celebrations!
Monster Hunter World is currently Capcom’s best-selling game with over 10 million copies shipped worldwide. The game is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
