Monster Hunter Wilds Developers Talk Weapon Changes – IGN First

Monster Hunter Wilds: Weapon Tuning and Design Philosophy

Players eagerly anticipate each new Monster Hunter installment, curious about their favorite weapon's feel. Each of the 14 weapon types boasts unique characteristics, adapting to each game's design. Monster Hunter: World removed segmented quest areas, while Monster Hunter Rise introduced Wirebug mechanics. Wilds aims for a seamless hunting experience, impacting weapon design. We interviewed Art Director and Executive Director Kaname Fujioka (director of the first Monster Hunter game) and Director Yuya Tokuda (involved since Monster Hunter Freedom) to discuss weapon tuning.

IGN First: Monster Hunter Wilds Oilwell Basin Artwork

The interview revealed weapon development details, addressing player concerns and adjustments based on the November 2024 Open Beta Test.

Seamless World Adjustments

Wilds' seamless map and dynamic weather necessitated significant weapon adjustments. Tokuda highlighted changes to Light and Heavy Bowguns and the Bow. Wilds' seamless design eliminated the need for base resupply, potentially impacting ranged weapons reliant on consumable ammo and coatings.

"That's why we designed it so that basic damage sources can be used without expending resources,” says Tokuda. “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 emphasized visual clarity:

"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 facilitated improved animations, allowing for smoother weapon transitions and enhanced hunter actions. Tokuda emphasized natural weapon usage:

"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."

Wilds allows healing while moving, a change facilitated by animation improvements. Fujioka highlighted the new 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."

Focus Strikes

Wilds introduces a wound system, allowing for massive damage with Focus Strikes in Focus Mode. Unique Focus Strike animations were created for each weapon type, though balancing ensured no extreme disparities.

"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, impacting hunting approaches. Tokuda explained environmental factors influencing wounds:

"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."

Monster health and toughness were adjusted to maintain appropriate playtime and player satisfaction, considering Focus Mode's impact.

Great Sword Tempo

Weapon development involved approximately six planners responsible for player experience, collaborating with artists and animators. The Great Sword served as a prototype, informing subsequent weapon development.

"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."

Focus Strikes inspired the art team, with the Great Sword's animations serving as a benchmark.

"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."

The Great Sword's deliberate tempo influences 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," says Tokuda.

Weapon Personality

Balancing weapon performance is a complex task. The developers prioritized unique weapon design over uniform ease of use.

"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," explains Fujioka.

Tokuda used the Hunting Horn as an example, emphasizing area-of-effect damage and unique sound-based mechanics.

"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.”

The developers aim to avoid overly efficient builds, preserving weapon and monster uniqueness. 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."

The ability to carry two weapons encourages complementary builds.

Skill Builds

The decoration system in Wilds is similar to World's, allowing for separate weapon and armor skill activation. Alchemy allows for crafting single-skill decorations, addressing skill acquisition challenges.

"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."

The developers shared their weapon preferences, highlighting the importance of weapon balance and player feedback. The Lance, in particular, underwent significant adjustments based on beta feedback.

"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 developers' dedication to player feedback and their passion for the game are central to Monster Hunter's continued success.