Some highlights: Kaname Fujioka, Executive Director/Art Director: “And so our goal really is to use the camera and other effects in the game to kind of shift focus as the players experience the game. We’re not trying to make it like a movie. We’re not trying to make it explicitly cinematic. It’s more that the camera work and the different kind of focus elements in the game, like the seamless transition between some of the gameplay elements and the events are kind of servicing the immersive feel that the player experiences; so creating dramatic moments, not just during story gameplay and other gameplay, but during hunts and during combat as well. That work is kind of dramatically servicing what we want players to focus on visually and to increase their immersion.” “Can you tell me why you decided to give the Palicos voiceover in Wilds? YT: So the answer is kind of really simple. It is the fact that the Palico and the handler accompany you into the field, and this time in Wilds, there are so many different environmental changes and things happening in real time. So there’s lots more information to parse, and as support characters, the Palico and the handler, having voices helps the player to understand what’s happening, because they pick up on all the different information that the player needs to know and provide advice for the player to understand what’s going on and how to approach all the different environmental changes. And of course, you can also have it “meow, meow, meow” as in previous titles. So you can give it cat-speak in the game if you really choose.” “Awesome. Thank you. Can you tell me if any of the weapons got a big overhaul, kind of similar to how the Hunting Horn got an overhaul in Rise? YT: Yeah, so if you had to really answer this briefly, it’s really the two Bowgun types. So the Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun have received some of the most kind of broad action changes, as well as the Hunting Horn. The Hunting Horn is going back more to a World-basis of the action, but on top of that, it’s also introduced a lot of other changes. So we hope you’re looking forward to that.”

you’re quick on the draw, pard

How do you feel about fans getting the dating sim tag added to Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam?

KF: [W]e haven’t really explained that much of the game, so it’s a bit surprising. [W]e weren’t really aware of this, so we really do appreciate the kind of focus that players have put on the characters, and we kind of realized that we actually haven’t shown so much of the characterization to really inform people how to approach the characters.But as people who are designing NPCs and kind of trying to get players to like these characters, we are happy… We do think that we’ve accomplished something in terms of NPC design, and even if so far that’s mostly visual, we still appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to create characters that resonate with fans… Unfortunately, we have to say that we haven’t really picked up on this kind of development. So yeah, we weren’t aware that this was a genre attached to the game on Steam, but we are happy as designers that the characters have become popular this way. And obviously, there are more characters in the game, we just haven’t really revealed them yet. So we just hope that players stay tuned for more designs.

playing innocent for the public. They know