With each new *Monster Hunter* release, players eagerly anticipate experiencing their favorite weapons in a fresh context. Each of the 14 weapon types boasts unique characteristics, subtly evolving with each iteration. *Monster Hunter: World* revolutionized exploration by removing segmented quest areas, while *Monster Hunter Rise* introduced the dynamic Wirebug mechanic. In *Monster Hunter Wilds*, aiming for a seamless hunting experience, the weapon tuning process was guided by specific design concepts.
To delve into these gameplay-defining weapon details, we interviewed *Monster Hunter Wilds* Art Director and Executive Director, Kaname Fujioka (also director of the first *Monster Hunter* game), and *Wilds* Director, Yuya Tokuda (a series veteran since *Monster Hunter Freedom*).
IGN First Monster Hunter Wilds Oilwell Basin Artwork
This interview uncovered the design and development process for various weapons, offering insights into popular weapons and adjustments made based on feedback from the November 2024 Open Beta Test.
Adjustments for a Seamless World
Tokuda highlighted significant weapon adjustments necessitated by *Wilds’* seamless map and dynamic weather. The Light and Heavy Bowguns, and the Bow, underwent major changes. Previous titles required base returns for resource replenishment, a process eliminated in *Wilds*. Ranged weapons, traditionally reliant on consumable ammo and coatings, posed a potential challenge.
"That's why we designed it so that basic damage sources can be used without expending resources,” Tokuda explained. “We balanced it around the idea that things like normal, pierce and spread ammo for Bowguns and coatings for Bows can fire unlimited times while managing your gauge. But we still wanted it to be possible to use what you’ve prepared ahead of time or what you find in the field on top of that, and so our balancing took into account the presence of design that allows you to create powerful ammo with attributes from gathered materials."
Weapon changes extended beyond mechanics, influencing design. Fujioka noted:
"We had the idea of wanting to properly show the movement of charging a Bowgun for a special shot,” he says. “Shots that cancel out a monster's attack look properly convincing as they perform that canceling. Ever since the previous game in the series, we've put a lot of work into making it visually clear to the player what they're doing in the moment."
Technological advancements significantly impacted animation improvements, refining weapon transitions and expanding hunter capabilities. Tokuda emphasized a core design principle:
"One common concept shared by all weapons is that we made sure it's possible for hunters to use them in a natural way given the situation at the moment,” he says. “Our goal was to do this particularly when you can't make any inputs."
For instance, unlike previous games, healing no longer requires sheathing your weapon. Fujioka further elaborated on *Wilds’* Focus Mode:
"The Focus Mode that we added to \[Wilds\] is something we put a lot of work into when it comes to action. You can move while facing a specified direction, making continuous attacks possible while on the move but slightly off-center from your target. Players can properly go in the direction they want. We wanted to make a game that made possible the image players have in their minds about how they want to play.
Technological advancements significantly impacted animation improvements, refining weapon transitions and expanding hunter capabilities. Tokuda emphasized a core design principle:
“There have been incredible technical leaps for the development environment in recent years, such as in managing animations, and there have been even greater changes in how games themselves are played. For action games, in particular, the question of how you meet the players’ desires to play in a certain way in the moment they actively want to make a movement is an important one. During development, we're always conscious about not being left behind by changes in the times."
Focus Strikes
Wilds introduces a wounding system, where sustained attacks on a monster's weak point inflict wounds, increasing vulnerability. While damage generally determines wound formation, environmental factors and monster battles also contribute. Focus Strikes, performed in Focus Mode, unleash devastating attacks with unique animations for each weapon type. Tokuda addressed balancing concerns:
"For Focus Strikes, we wanted to have animations that show each weapon's uniqueness,” he says. “But I admit that this also created a variation between weapons during the open beta test where some were far too strong, while feeling the strengths of others was difficult. Though we do allow differences between weapons in order to give them personality, we don't want the disparity between weapons to be too extreme, and so we're tuning them to be more standardized for the official release of the game."
The wound system adds strategic depth, offering choices beyond flinching and breaking parts. Wounds transform into scars, preventing repeated targeting of the same area. Tokuda highlighted environmental scar creation and potential rewards for hunting wounded monsters:
"Monsters are unwounded when a quest begins, but you can hunt monsters as you explore the locale in Wilds, so as the situation in the locale changes, monsters can have turf wars even without a hunter's involvement,” he says. “This means that a monster may already have multiple wounds by the time it interacts with the player. You can think yourself lucky and hunt a monster when it's in that state. There may also be special additional rewards for felling monsters wandering the locale. In some cases, there are even monsters that give gems as additional rewards."
The combination of Focus Mode and wounds significantly increases damage output, prompting adjustments to monster health and toughness:
"It's not as if that was our intention from the start, but health did end up being a little bit higher than World once we thought about maintaining appropriate playtimes and player satisfaction, compared to past titles,” says Tokuda. “Elements like flinch resistance are also higher, but this doesn't mean that hunts will be tedious. Part of the purpose of Focus Mode is to allow players to feel more accomplished through shorter loops. We tried to design it so that the time they spend hunting is even more concentrated than before."
The Tempo of the Great Sword
Balancing 14 weapon types is a considerable undertaking. Tokuda explained the development process:
"There are some staff members who oversee multiple weapon types, which ultimately makes for about six individual planners, who are responsible for player experience,” he replies. “We don't just have game designers, of course. We include artists and animation designers to discuss details like what kinds of movements would be good and how that may mean a weapon could be better off used in a different way as we polish the weapons. We didn't have staff members assigned to weapons from the start; their number grows as development progresses. We generally begin by developing the Great Sword as a prototype, then verify weapons like the Sword and Shield and Heavy Bowgun, applying the knowledge we get from there to the other weapons as we create them."
The Great Sword serves as a foundational prototype, influencing the design of other weapons. Fujioka highlighted the importance of the Great Sword in animation development and the Focus Strike’s impact:
"Attacks like the Focus Strike didn't exist in the series before, so now that we had this new form of expression available to us, we began by coming up with ideas while focusing on making it feel good over anything performance related,” Fujioka explains. “The Great Sword is an all-rounder weapon, so we generally begin with it when creating animations. It's one of the first weapons we created for the original Monster Hunter, and there's a strong sense of wanting to challenge ourselves with the Great Sword first. We felt excited when we first made the Focus Strike for the Great Sword, thinking that if we were able to create something that feels this good, we'd be able to do even more with the other weapons."
Tokuda emphasized the Great Sword's unique tempo and its role in shaping other weapon designs:
"I feel like weapons with a sense of heavy tempo like the Great Sword are rare in other action games. That's why it's a Monster Hunter standard to begin by making sure that the Great Sword is fun to use. The concepts for the other weapons come together in part by placing the Great Sword at the center and seeing how we can differentiate each of the other weapons from it.
“I guess you could say that once you're used to the game, you'll have noticed that the Great Sword is the most rounded of them all. While the speed of weapons like the Dual Blades or the Sword and Shield will always result in there being technical elements needed in order to earn damage in small ways, you're able to go straight to defeating a monster once you're good at using the Great Sword's style as it exists. It can even block, it has area of effect attacks, and it can create moments where you can deal solid damage. It's actually made so that you can go back and forth with a monster in the most straightforward way if you can just get used to its weight."
Fujioka added:
"Creating a game that's fun to play using the Great Sword's weight makes it easier to create weapons that fight with a quicker tempo,” adds Fujioka. “If high-tempo weapons become the focus, or if we match the speed of the monsters to them, movements will just get quicker and quicker. I think that we're able to create a game that feels like Monster Hunter when you play it by making sure that both sides are properly tuned with a weapon that has the Great Sword's tempo."
Weapons with Personality
Player preferences inevitably lead to some weapons being more popular than others. The developers prioritize highlighting each weapon's unique strengths rather than striving for perfect balance, while acknowledging the need to prevent overly powerful or underperforming weapons. Fujioka explained this approach:
Fujioka explains, "We always think that it's better to focus on how to design what makes a weapon unique rather than trying to make all weapons equally easy to use. That said, we do think it's a problem if players can't have the gaming experience we want them to have. Of course, it's not a good thing to have a weapon that's both easy to use and overpowered, so there are weapons we've made a lot of changes to for the release version of the game given what we saw in the open beta."
Tokuda illustrated this concept using the Hunting Horn:
"At the outset, I told the team that I wanted the concept of this weapon to be that it can produce proper amounts of damage when used where it performs best, the area around you,” he says. “Instead of being able to unleash one attack after the next, you can use something like an Echo Bubble to deal damage by controlling the area. Since we have this element of sound that other weapons can't produce, how do we make use of that while outputting damage? That's the kind of thing we challenged ourselves to do with the weapon. Instead of thinking that it's all about damage, we care more about making the most out of each weapon's personality.”
“Now that you're able to carry two weapons in this game, there was some discussion during the open beta about the most powerful choice being to buff yourself with the Hunting Horn before switching to another weapon and fighting. We're tuning the release version, balancing with the end content in mind, to make sure that the Hunting Horn isn't the only choice for a secondary weapon by having self-buffs be worthwhile but not too strong."
The developers acknowledge inherent weapon-monster matchup variations, aiming to avoid overly efficient builds while preserving the game's unique character. Fujioka stated:
"While I think that weapons that stand at the top in terms of time efficiency–ease of use and ease of hunting–are going to see more popularity, we have made it so that if you really care about a weapon type, you'll be able to beat a monster through enough trial and error."
Tokuda highlighted the dual-weapon system's impact on strategic choices:
"Even if you have somewhat specialized weapons, it'd make me happy if players brought two in order for them to complement one another as they play," he says.
Build Your Own Skills
The decoration system, affecting skill builds, remains similar to *World*, with alchemy enabling creation of single-skill decorations. Tokuda explained:
"Decorations are currently similar to the system in World, with decorations having specific skill abilities,” he says. “These skills are still activated by placing them into weapon or armor slots (In Wilds, weapon and armor skills can each be activated separately). However, you can make single-skill decorations through something like alchemy. So in \[Wilds\], players won't have the issue of never being able to get a specific skill."
Fujioka shared a relatable anecdote about his *World* experience:
Fujioka nods vigorously from his seat beside Tokuda before speaking about his experience with World. "I never ended up getting it once. My Shield Jewel 2... I ended up finishing the game without having completed my build." (Read more about how equipment skills work in Monster Hunter Wilds.)
The developers shared their weapon preferences: Tokuda favors ranged weapons and the adaptable Sword and Shield, while Fujioka is a dedicated Lance user. This preference highlighted the Lance's significant adjustments for the release version following beta feedback:
"I'm a Lance main, or rather, I only use the Lance,” he admits. “I think that the Lance is a weapon where positioning is very important, as you stick to a monster's feet or some other part. Until now, you had to perform this kind of positioning by walking or sidestepping, but in Wilds it's now a lot easier to make minor adjustments, like shifting over slightly as you attack. It's a simple change, but it's important for players to have more choices, so in that sense I think that's one of the positives for Lance users in this game."
Tokuda addressed the strong player reaction to the Lance during the beta:
"We received a lot of feedback during the open beta test, and to be honest, one of the largest reactions we got was that the Lance isn't embodying its concept as a weapon,” he says. “Our intention was for players to guard in a variety of ways, sticking to a monster as required and counterattacking. But there were a lot of actions that weren't working properly, such as it being hard to use and perform the right action at the right time, actions going off by mistake, actions coming out late, and so on. Surrounded by so many other actions that worked properly, it ended up feeling like a pretty dull weapon. We're now making major improvements to this for the release version, and we hope you look forward to that."
The *Wilds* team's dedication to player feedback and their passion for the game are evident. Their commitment to refining the 14 weapon types promises a truly exceptional hunting experience. The developers' commitment to incorporating player feedback is further highlighted in their detailed community update video, where Tokuda discusses performance enhancements, weapon changes, and more.
