Monster Hunter 4 devs explain why they wanted to add more action, slicker controls

Monster Hunter 4 has been discussed by Capcom in the pages of this week's Famitsu. The team has explained why it wanted to inject more action, varied landscapes and slicker controls into the mix.

Speaking with Famitsu, main designer Yuya Tokuda explained why simply adding more monsters into the game simply wasn't substantial enough. He said, "For the development team. we felt we'd be hitting the wall if all we did was give you more monsters. So instead we're trying to give you more action, and I think that's a good thing."

Director Kaname Fujioka then added, "When working on the Monster Hunter series there's one thing I always keep in mind. That thing is having the game look fun when someone else is playing it. We figured that, instead of flat landscapes, having valleys and different tiers of terrain and letting you look up and down upon them would add more variation to the action and seem a lot more fun. We knew it'd be difficult [to implement in Monster Hunter], but if we could work that into the gameplay, we thought it'd be a major new weapon for Monster Hunter 4.

The most important thing is that the controls feel good for the player. So with that in consideration, we're reworking the behavior of the hunters and the monsters. Having it feel good is really vital for us. You can jump down from higher points in this game, for example, but it's only natural that you'd want to attack in midair while you're at it, right?

"Having it feel good in a natural way like that is important to me. During development you often hear things like 'If there's no gameplay to it, then why's it in the spec?', but I think instinctual desires, like wanting to climb up walls or execute jumping attacks, are also important to pay attention to."

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto then explained that he took Fujioka's requests and added them into Monster Hunter 4's gameplay, including new latch-on attacks that let players grab hold of monsters and dish out some real damage.

He explained, "Introducing these latch-on attacks really changes the reaction people have to the game's new emphasis on a truly 3D landscape. All of a sudden they say things like 'I want to go up as high as I can from here! I want to go take a ride on as many monsters as I can!'"

What do you make of the ideas described above? Let us know below.

Monster Hunter 4 hits 3DS in Japan on September 14.

Via Polygon.