10 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About the Monster Hunter Series

Monster Hunter only allows for 4-player co-op so that each hunters input feels relevant

Have you ever wondered why the Monster Hunter series limits its hunts to only four players? Did You Know Gaming revealed that in an interview with Game Informer. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained that by having this limits, each player would feel like they actually had an impact on the outcome of the hunt and that by doing hunts together, each player grows as a hunter.

This feeling would have been lost had Capcom allowed for an army of hunters to hunt at a time and may have also led to some players letting everyone else do the work for them. This would have caused those players to become stagnant as hunters, and so every monster in each games online mode is made with four hunters in mind, and this limit has carried over to every game in the series.

This focus also extends to the rewards, which are also balanced with four hunters in mind because “if they’re distributed evenly, veteran players are more likely to encourage newcomers to contribute during the hunt,” to quote Did You Know Gaming’s video.

      The first Monster Hunter was developed because Capcom wanted to take advantage of the PS2 online capabilities

Speaking of Ryozo Tsujimioto, in the same interview with Game Informer, titled “10 Years Hunting Monsters,” he revealed that Capcom originally created Monster Hunter to take advantage of the PS2’s online capabilities. Along with Monster Hunter, Capcom also released a racing title called Auto Modellista and an RE title called Resident Evil Outbreak, which on a side note, had zombie elephants.

Tsujimoto, who was working on Auto Modellista at the time, noted that “Monster Hunter was designed based on the concept of a ‘multi-action online game that anyone can join and play’, and we made full use of Capcom’s best action game talent.”

Monster Hunter 1 turned out to be a huge success in Japan and gamers continued to play it online until Capcom turned off the servers everywhere except Japan in 2007. The Red Bull site notes that Japanese servers actually remained till 2011.

You used to be able to cut Velociprey in half and kill Kelbis

The Velociprey are often the first hostile monster that players will run into and their set is a common first set for new Hunters, but did you know that you can cut them in half in the original Monster Hunter? In order to do so, players have to kill it while the Velociprey is jumping, and it’s easiest to do with the Great Sword. Doing so cuts it in half, but it fades away afterwards, making carving impossible.

Velociprey isn’t the only example of Capcom changing how monsters die either. Since Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate, Western versions of Monster Hunter titles have the Kelbi only getting knocked out when attacked. On the plus side, this makes it easier for Hunters to get Kelbi Horns, since in previous titles, players had to knock them out to get an improved carve chance, and there was always a chance that you’d kill it instead.

       Monster Hunter Tri and 4 could have been released for non-Nintendo consoles

When the Monster Hunter series jumped from Sony consoles to Nintendo hardware, a lot of fans were disappointed. To rub salt into the wounds of Sony fans even more, Monster Hunter Tri was originally going to be developed for the PS3, bringing the series back to Sony platforms. However, it jumped ship and stuck with Nintendo. In the same Did You Know Gaming video from earlier, it’s noted that the reason why Capcom switched over to the Nintendo Wii was because they were interested in the unique features of the new console.

A similar thing happened with Monster Hunter 4 and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, as Capcom had considered developing the games for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Capcom decided against this, though, as they were interested in the Nintendo 3DS’ dual screens as well as its 3D capabilities and they didn’t want to split the resources.

        There was a Monster Hunter theme park in Japan

To say that the Monster Hunter series is popular in Japan is a bit of an understatement, but in 2014 the series was temporarily added as an attraction in Universal Studios resort. The attraction included gigantic replicas of the series’ famous monsters including an animated Tigrex statue, a paintball game, and some themed food. You can check it out in the video by wa yo above.

Speaking of Universal Studios, in July 2015, Capcom actually added a set of Universal Studios Japan armor and some weapons for both your Hunter and Palico in MH4U as free DLC. These sets were originally only available to Japanese gamers who visited Universal Studios Japan, as noted by Eurogamer back in 2015.

         Waving at the Dragonseer Ballons reveals the Monsters locations

In every Monster Hunter game, if you look into the sky there’s a random chance that you’ll spot a Dragonseer balloon. It turns out that they’re not just there for decoration because if you use the Wave gesture while looking at it, it will briefly reveal the location of whatever monsters are in the surrounding area.

This can only be done once but this is still extremely useful because there’s nothing more annoying in these games than spending 20-minutes running around looking for the damn monster.

Another time-saving tip specific to MH4U is that you can actually skip the camera shot of the monsters death animations at the end of each hunt by using the skip option on the bottom screen. While this option is usually used to skip the cooking animation, this can be incredibly useful after hunting monsters with long death animations such as the Dah’ren Mohran.

 Don’t expect the Monster Hunter series to include giant open areas anytime soon

One major feature of the Monster Hunter series that has continued across every version is the series’ segmented maps. Originally they were included because of the PS2’s limitations but they have since become a staple part of the series.

The reason why they have become this according to series developer, Kaname Fujioka, is that segmented areas have become part of the series’ DNA and creating giant open areas would require changing how the series fundamentally works.

To quote Fujioka in an interview with US Gamer back in 2015:

“So, the reason we haven’t changed that yet is because—if we are going to change something like that—that gets down to the very roots of the game. If we’re going to change Monster Hunter so that it basically features one giant, contiguous area, then we have to really reformulate and rethink everything so it works correctly.”

The Monster Hunter series director’s favorite monster is the Goro Magala

The monsters in Monster Hunter are easily one of the most important part of the series and with so much time being put into each of their creation, it stands to reason that the games creator would have a favorite, and he does indeed. In the previously mentioned interview with Games Informer, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto revealed that his favorite monster was actually Monster Hunter 4 Ultimates flagship monster, the Gore Magala because of its mysterious natures. As he put it:

“I suppose it won’t come as a shock to hear that I really like the Gore Magala in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The find the dark and mysterious feel to be unique and compelling.”

As the flagship monster of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, the team spent time working on making the creature feel mysterious. This can be seen in the game’s storyline, where the NPC and even the Hunter’s Guild know every little detail about the monster and in its design. MH4U Director, Kaname Fujioka, noted that its “wings are based on the idea of a mysterious caped villain” while talking to US Gamer in the mentioned interview.

Monster Hunter 4’s Verticality was inspired by MH3 water areas

Monster Hunter Tri tried to spice up the series formula by introducing water areas. This new feature split the MH fanbase due to underwater controls feeling off, with these sections being in full 360 movement. In his previously mentioned interview with US Gamer, Kaname Fujioka commented that Monster Hunter 4 vertical focus was inspired by Tri’s underwater areas but he also commented that the inclusion of vertically to the series had to feel “natural.”

While talking to US Gamer, Fujioka said the following:

“In 4, we looked at [underwater battles] and said, ‘That idea is great, but we think we can do better. We think we can implement that in a way that’s going to be even better, more natural.'”

Fujioka also noted that one of the advantages to the verticality was that its was something that they could add to every environment naturally, without changing up the control scheme too much like with the water areas. One of the ways that the team made MH4U verticality feel more natural was by having the hunter climb up ledges and jump off them by simply running towards them.

The Monster Hunter series is set to outsell Street Fighter this year

When asked what Capcom’s best selling series is, most gamers would probably say Street Fighter, as the series is most often looked at as Capcom’s most recognizable. But despite this, many people including the gaming data analyst ZhugeEX are predicting that the Monster Hunter series will out do Street Fighter in lifetime sales by the end of this year. ZhugeEX claimed this back in May 2016 with the following tweet:

The Monster Hunter series has grown significantly as a series.

Will surpass Street Fighter series sales this year. pic.twitter.com/nFtJhdhR9t

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 16, 2016

That’s 10 facts about the Monster Hunter series that you (probably) didn’t know but do you know any facts about the Monster Hunter series that weren’t listed above? If so let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to check out our review of Monster Hunter Generations here.