With each new *Monster Hunter* release, players eagerly anticipate experiencing their favorite weapons in the latest iteration. Each of the 14 weapon types boasts unique characteristics, yet adapts to the design of each new game. *Monster Hunter: World* removed segmented quest areas, while *Monster Hunter Rise* introduced the dynamic Wirebug mechanic. Weapons familiar to veteran hunters reveal new facets within the context of each game's design. So, what design concepts guided the weapon tuning in *Monster Hunter Wilds*, a game striving for a seamless hunting experience?
To delve into these gameplay-defining weapon details, we spoke with *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
Our interview uncovered the design and development process for various weapons, offering insights into highly anticipated weapons and adjustments made for the final release based on November 2024 Open Beta Test feedback.
Adjustments for a Seamless World
Tokuda explained that significant weapon usage changes stemmed from *Wilds’* seamless map and dynamic weather. He highlighted substantial alterations to the Light and Heavy Bowguns, and the Bow.
Previous *Monster Hunter* titles required base returns for resource replenishment. *Wilds*, aiming for seamless play, removed this necessity. Ranged weapons traditionally use consumable ammo and coatings, potentially hindering gameplay in *Wilds* without restocking opportunities. Tokuda clarified: "That's why we designed it so that basic damage sources can be used without expending resources. 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 adjustments, particularly for ranged weapons, considered *Wilds’* new elements and overall design philosophy. Fujioka expanded on this, noting design implications beyond mechanics: "We had the idea of wanting to properly show the movement of charging a Bowgun for a special shot. 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 enabling detailed animations also influenced these changes. The ability to seamlessly swing, stow, and switch weapons, with refined transitional animations, expanded 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. Our goal was to do this particularly when you can't make any inputs."
Previously, healing required weapon stowing and movement cessation. Improved animation capabilities altered this. Fujioka added: "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."
He further highlighted technological advancements impacting gameplay: “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
A significant *Wilds* addition is the wound system, allowing monster wounding through sustained attacks on specific body parts. Wound formation generally depends on damage dealt; environmental factors (falling rocks, monster battles) inflict wounds more easily than player weapons, which require accumulated damage. Weapon type doesn't affect wound creation.
Focus Strikes in Focus Mode inflict massive damage on wounded monsters. Unique animations for each weapon type (e.g., acrobatic dual blade maneuvers) initially suggested varying abilities. Tokuda clarified whether Focus Strike effects differed beyond visuals: "For Focus Strikes, we wanted to have animations that show each weapon's uniqueness. 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 offers strategic hunting options. For example, accumulated hammer damage to the head can create a wound, enabling devastating Focus Strikes. However, the wound becomes a scar, preventing further head wounds. Players can then target other woundable body parts. Late-game scenarios introduce environmental scar creation opportunities. Tokuda described the wound system as a new strategic layer, similar to flinching and part breaking, where players anticipate wounds with further attacks.
"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."
Focus Mode and wounds facilitate powerful attacks (e.g., Great Sword's Charged Slash). We inquired about adjustments to monster health and toughness. Tokuda responded: "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. 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
Tuning 14 weapon types requires extensive development. We asked Tokuda about weapon-specific designers. He explained: "There are some staff members who oversee multiple weapon types, which ultimately makes for about six individual planners, who are responsible for player experience. 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."
Designers and artists collaborated on weapon actions, prioritizing fun and visual appeal. Fujioka highlighted Focus Strikes' impact on the art team: "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. 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 influence on animation development exceeded expectations. Tokuda continued: "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."
"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
Every hunter has preferences, yet weapon popularity inevitably varies. Player feedback is crucial if a weapon feels underpowered. Easy-to-understand strengths encourage weapon adoption. The developers prioritize individual weapon uniqueness over uniform ease of use. Fujioka explained: "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 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. 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."
Weapon effectiveness varies across monsters. The developers acknowledge this, aiming to avoid universally optimal builds. Endgame weapon specialization is expected, but flattening weapon and monster uniqueness would compromise the core *Monster Hunter* experience. 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 in *Wilds*: "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."
Build Your Own Skills
Endgame decorations impact skill builds. Tokuda described the system: "Decorations are currently similar to the system in *World*, with decorations having specific skill abilities. 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 personal anecdote from *World*: "I never ended up getting it once. My Shield Jewel 2... I ended up finishing the game without having completed my build."
Regarding weapon preferences, Tokuda favors ranged weapons (Heavy/Light Bowgun) and the adaptable Sword and Shield for observing monster behavior. He plans to explore all weapons post-release. Fujioka's preference is the Lance.
"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."
The Lance generated significant open beta feedback. Tokuda addressed this: "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. 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* creators are committed to delivering an optimal hunting experience, incorporating player feedback. Their dedication, combined with player passion, ensures *Monster Hunter* remains a leading action game franchise. Tokuda's community update video details performance enhancements and weapon changes.
