Monster Hunter Rise is made for the Switch, and it also comes to a computer

Capcom finds itself in an interesting position with Monster Hunter Rise, the new title for the Nintendo Switch. 2018’s Monster Hunter World was a great triumph, bringing the series to a Western audience accustomed to home consoles and computers and becoming one of the company’s best-selling games ever. But in doing so, it had to lag behind some of the biggest factors Monster HunterJapanese success: portability and local multiplayer.

Since Capcom started working Monster Hunter Worldhowever, the Switch has become a worldwide hit, and on paper it sounds like it should be a perfect system for the series. It is much more capable than the PSP and 3DS hardware made Monster Hunter a social phenomenon in Japan, while giving you the flexibility to play on your TV or on the go. It is true Stand up income.

“We think that, by releasing it on a portable console, it’s much more accessible, much easier to record and play,” says producer Ryōzō Tsujimoto. The edge. ‘Of course, it’s also easier to play with people in your immediate area. So it’s great for playing with your family at home, and you can pick it up and play whenever you want – you can do some quick quests before going to bed. So yes, we think it might bring some people back [who didn’t play World] because of how easily it is accessible, how easily it can be picked up. ”

But the Switch presents technical challenges for Monster Hunter Rise in comparison with World, which used more powerful PS4 and Xbox One hardware as a development baseline. Earlier Monster Hunter games took place in small, numbered areas, separated by loading screens, while World had complicated stages on multiple levels that you could explore seamlessly. Stand up succeed in dividing the difference – you will not mistake the environmental complexity with that of World, but the graphical fidelity is impressive for the Switch and there are no load times once you are on a level.

“In the early stages of development, we were still playing around with the idea of ​​keeping the same card system of the older games, with separate areas shared by loading screens,” says director Yasunori Ichinose. ‘But in the course of development, as we have seen how World did, we basically got the request to open all the environments as in World. So it was not something we planned from the beginning, but it is something we are definitely happy about. ”

The stages also have a much greater degree of verticality compared to previous games – Ichinose says this is what the ‘Rise’ refers to in the title – and the ability to zip around the environments with the new Wirebug or on the back of ‘ a dog to ride Palamute. companion offers further options for transversal. In fact, Ichinose says, Capcom decided to put the monsters’ locations on the map from the beginning of each search, rather than forcing hunters to track them down from scratch – in Stand upfiguring out how to get to the monsters can be a challenge in itself.

Still, I wondered if Capcom was at risk of losing some of its fans who jumped on board World and may expect another technical leap forward. Could the move to Switch affect Stand up‘s popularity in the West?

“We’re not particularly worried about that,” Tsujimoto said. ‘I mean, every time we have a Monster Hunter game, make sure it’s a good, good news Monster Hunter games. It’s not that we’ve invested less in our portable subscriptions or anything like that. It’s just that Monster Hunter Rise is a game that happens to be on a portable console, which is why we optimized it for it. But it does not really change anything from a game perspective – it’s still a lot Monster Hunter, so fans will still enjoy it. ”

Besides, as Tsujimoto confirmed at the end of our interview, Monster Hunter Rise actually also comes to a computer, with Capcom wanting a release date early in 2022. This should be a good option for anyone who is reluctant to give up World‘s smooth frame rates on modern hardware. However, if you’re planning to play on Switch, there’s only one month left – Monster Hunter Rise will be released worldwide on March 26.