Monster Hunter 4: "simply adding new monsters had its limits", Capcom discusses new gameplay features

Monster Hunter 4 developer Capcom could have just pumped a Noah's ark worth new beasts into its 3DS romp, but that'd be pretty lazy. Instead, the studio has explained to Famitsu why it needed to go one step beyond and throw in a wedge of new gameplay mechanics as well.

Speaking with Famitsu, main planner Yuya Tokuya stressed, “As a development team, we thought that simply adding new monsters had its limits, so I’m glad we continued on the direction of adding new action.”

New actions including jumping attacks, increased traversal up vertical landscapes and improved underwater combat from Monster Hunter Tri all make for a game that's more fun to play, and also more fun to watch someone else play, the group claimed.

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained, "When it comes to working on the Monster Hunter series, there’s always one thing I’m conscious about. It is ‘being able to see how fun it is by watching others play it’. With that in mind, I thought that rather than having flat lands, you’ll be looking up and down if you have slants and level differences, which adds more variety to movements, in turn, making it look more fun, in my opinion.”

Jumping attacks and climbing were then added to make both the environments, and the player's control feel more engaging. What do you think? The Japanese populous seems to have responded well, with over 1 million pre-orders of the game rumoured ahead of launch.

Monster Hunter 4 hits Japan September 14. It has not been dated for Western markets.

Via Siliconera.