Monster Hunter: World

Monster Hunter: World

Monsters

Weapons

Armors

Locations

Items

Combinations

Skills

Quests

Decorations

Awards

Endemic Life

Turf Wars

Monster Hunter: World
Publisher	Capcom
Director	Yuya Tokuda
Release	Playstation 4, Xbox One January 28 2018 PC August 9, 2018
Platforms
Playstation 4 Xbox One PC
Flagship Monster
None
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Monster Hunter: World is an online hunting action game for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gaming platforms which released on January 28^th 2018 worldwide, and the fifth mainline game in the Monster Hunter series. A Steam version for PC was released on August 9^th 2018.

Premise & Story

The player takes on the role of a hunter traveling to the New World as part of the Research Commission, tasked with exploring the new continent. This uncharted land is home to a phenomenon known as the Elder Crossing, where powerful Elder Dragons migrate to this region for unknown reasons. As the Commission follows the traces of the gargantuan Elder Dragon Zorah Magdaros, the truth behind this new world reveals itself step by step.

Gameplay

Like in previous games, the gameplay of Monster Hunter: World revolves around the player hunting monsters, using their materials to craft new armor and weapons, which then allow for the hunting of new, stronger monsters using a real time action combat system. However, Monster Hunter: World presents various drastic changes to just about every facet of the game outside of that core loop.

Key Features

Faster, more accessible Gameplay
Monster Hunter: World features a quickened pace of action gameplay that allows players to react quicker to monster attacks, chain together combos more freely and move faster in general. Every weapon has its moveset altered in service of this general change, and players are on average less committed to each combat action/animation. This extends to the use of items as well: Many can be used while moving, and the time the player is left vulnerable while using them has been reduced compared to previous games. Consequently, Monsters have been made faster and more aggressive to maintain an adequate degree of challenge.

Open Maps without Loading Screens
One of the most significant changes Monster Hunter: World makes to the series pertains to the design of the Hunting Ground maps. Whereas in previous games, a map consisted of singular zones separated by a loading screen transition, the maps of Hunting Grounds in Monster Hunter: World are fully interconnected and traversible with no interruptions. This has wide-reaching effects on the gameplay, as both players and Monsters can roam these areas freely. The maps also display an increased degree of verticality, with multiple layers of elevation.

Additionally, the player can now unlock additional campsites on each map, allowing them to fast travel when not in combat. These camps provide the ability to restock items and even equip different gear mid-quest. The player can also enter these Hunting Grounds without needing to accept a Quest, through a feature called Expeditions. When on an Expedition, the player can stay in a map for an indefinite amount of time, and will not be punished for fainting. However, hunting Monsters through Expeditions yields fewer rewards than if it is done within a designated Quest. Each Hunting Ground is still separate from all other Hunting Grounds, and they cannot be seamlessly accessed between eachother.

Scoutflies and Monster Research
In order to help the player find the Monsters in the larger, more intricate locales, Monster Hunter: World introduces Scoutflies, a trained colony of glowing bugs that can lead the player to points of interest. As the player traverses a locale, the Scoutflies will highlight monster tracks that can be collected for various rewards. Primarily, collecting monster tracks reveals more information about the Monster in question, such as its position on the map, its current path and even if it is weak enough to be captured. In the long term, collecting tracks levels up that Monsters Research Level, which makes more information about the Monster available in the players Hunter's Notes, as well as reducing the amount of tracks needed to determine the Monsters position next time the player hunts for it in the wild. Collecting tracks also generates Resource Points to be used as a currency in town, and is also a primary method to unlocking a new Quest Type, Investigations. The player can also manually pin a resource node or location on their map and have their Scoutflies guide them there instead.

A more fleshed out Story
Unlike previous titles, Monster Hunter: World puts an emphasis on a traditional and direct story mode. This includes numerous characters, fully voiced cutscenes and a more explicit narrative arc. The story is progressed by completing Assignments, which function as dedicated Story Quests. Every story quest in accompanied by one or two introductory/concluding scenes that provide context and justification for the hunt taking place. Additionally, the story of Monster Hunter: World guides the player through both low and high rank difficulties, whereas previous games generally only provided narrative frameworks for the low rank mode.

New Quest Structure and Seamless Multiplayer
While previous titles separated quests into singleplayer and multiplayer quests - with entirely different modes to access each - Monster Hunter: World allows every single quest to be played solo or as a team of four player hunters. Multiplayer can be done in one of two ways: A player can either open or join another players lobby (which can hold up to 16 players at once) and, once there, can accept to join any Quest the host player selects. Alternatively, a player already engaged in a Quest can fire an SOS Flare to request help from other players online, regardless of lobby connections. Players who are currently looking for SOS Quests will then be pulled into the Quest to provide aid to the host.

Instead of being divided into solo and multiplayer quests, Monster Hunter: World offers various quest types, with distinct advantages to each of them:

• Assignments: Quests that advance the story. Cannot be repeated.
• Optional Quests: Additional Quests that can be repeated. These are naturally unlocked as the player encounters Monsters in the wild or during the story. Some Optional Quests are also given by NPCs as requests, in which case they will be marked in the Quest List with a speech bubble. Capturing a Monster at least once will also add an Arena Quest to this list, where the Monster is fought in a designated battleground. Arena Quests rotate in and out and are not always available.
• Investigations: Special Quests that are generated by collecting Monster Tracks. Each Investigation is created with random objective, quest targets, special conditions, time- and faint limits. The main advantage of this Quest Type is that it offers additional rewards (shown through color-coded reward boxes) upon completion. However, these Quests can only be completed a set number of time, after which the Investigation will vanish.
• Event Quests: Unique Quests distributed by Capcom after the games release. These quests often feature special conditions, such as huge or tiny monsters, usually unseen combinations of quest targets or increased difficulty. They also include rewards exclusive to this category, such as materials to create otherwise unobtainable armor and weapons, as well as some collaboration and crossover rewards. Additionally, many Event Quests allow the player to acquire rare resources with relative ease. While thesed Quests originally rotated in and out of the list of available Quests based on a real world calendar, they were all made permanently available after the final update to the game (and its expansion) was released.
• Special Assignments: Quests associated with Title Update content, as well as major collaborations. Can generally not be repeated.

Monsters

Main article: Monsters in Monster Hunter: World

Monster Hunter: World featured 16 small monsters and 30 large monsters at launch.
6 additional large Monsters - Deviljho, Lunastra, Leshen, Ancient Leshen, Behemoth and Kulve Taroth - were added via Title Updates after the games' release.

Locales

Main article: Locations in Monster Hunter: World

Monster Hunter: World features 5 regular Hunting Ground Locations and 6 special Arena/Story Locations.
There are also two peaceful zones: Astera, the main town, and the Third Fleet Research Base, which is much smaller but offers most of the same facilities.

Development

Monster Hunter: World began development back in 2014, with one year being dedicated to mostly prototyping and conceptualizing the core of the game. The Dev Team knew right away that they would want to target a simultaneous worldwide release, a first for the series.. What was however a more difficult decision was the focus on enticing western/non-japanese audiences. In Japan, Monster Hunter games were assured 3-4 million sales due to the popularity of the series, while western sales generally lagged behind. Within Capcom and especially its foreign branches, there was an established desire to make the franchise explode in the west with a dedicated game to appeal to those markets, but this idea had to be carefully weighed against the possibility of alienating core japanese audiences in the process. The idea of a western-focused game began to take shape once Sony pledged their support for the project, who themselves hoped that the resulting game would aid in the sales of PS4 consoles.

The decision to open up the maps and remove zones separated by loading screens had wide-reaching ripple effects for the game design. For example, the traditional "Monster Hunter Flex", an animation that locked players into place while and after consuming a Health Potion, didn't mesh well with a game world where the player could be ambushed from all angles at all times. In older games, it was easy to simply leave a zone and drink a potion in peace, separated from the monster by a loading screen. This would not be possible with fully open maps and so, the "Monster Hunter Flex" was removed in favor of letting the player continue moving (albeit slower than usual) while consuming items. Additionally, the focus on a dynamic, open ecosystem led to the development of advanced AI behavior in the monsters, which could traverse the maps quickly and with various goals in mind. In order to keep up with this, players would also have to become more agile and flexible. Through this push and pull, the open maps affected nearly every facet of the game in the end.

New Monsters were designed using a hierarchy process: First, the team decided on a specific gameplay challenge they wished to impose on the player. After this, monster and level designers would collaborate to create terrain that fit the monster, and a monster that fit the terrain. The actual visual design process for a Monster only started once both its core challenge to the player and its niche in the environment had been sufficiently blueprinted. Kaname Fujioka has stated that the visual designs usually don't start around wanting to mimic a specific real world animal. Rather, the design is also inspired mostly by the core challenge, and the designers are encouraged to "zoom out" and take inspirations from any possible source that might relate to the core challenge. For example, when designing a monster whose core challenge is its speed and agility, designers may use anything from rabbits to cars as inspirations.

After development began, it took a team of 50-70 developers & staff 18 months to complete a first prototype build in November 2015. This early build included no combat mechanics and focused instead on all the actions a player can perform without drawing their weapon. The prototype was divided into two halves: The first half featured a forest environment shrouded in darkness, which was a way to test how the light from the Scoutflies could be used to highlight objects and pathways. The player character was designed to react to the various monsters that roam this dark forest. The second half by contrast took place in a brightly lit forest, with the player hunter being chased by an Anjanath. This half was primarily used to test how the player interacts with Monsters and the environment simultaneously. Mounting, hiding and environmental destruction can all be seen in this section. The prototype concludes with the Anjanath engaging a Lagiacrus in a turf war. This early build impressed upon the dev team the need to scale back some of their plans, as especially the density of foliage and small monsters on screen, coupled with all the ways the hunter and Scoutflies react to all of them, were deemed extremely overwhelming. The prototype did however reinforce the "feel" the team wanted to achieve with the final game.

Reception

Monster Hunter: World is generally considered both a critical and commercial success. As of June 30^th 2024, the game has sold over 20 Million copies and is considered Capcoms best selling game of all time. It is generally credited with being the game that truly brought Monster Hunter to universal, mainstream acclaim across the globe.

Most review outlets scored the game extremely highly, with numerous grades of 8 and 9 out of 10.

Review & Aggregate Scores
Metacritic (PS4)	90/100
Metacritic (XONE)	90/100
Metacritic (PC)	88/100
Famitsu	39/40
IGN	9.5/10
GameSpot	8/10
GameInformer	9.5/10
The Telegraph	5/5
GamesRadar+	5/5
The Guardian	5/5
Polygon	90/100

Trivia

※Monster Hunter: World is actually Monster Hunter 5, and is considered the fifth mainline game. The numbered title was omitted to avoid alienating new players. Since Monster Hunter: World was intended to be the entry point for an entire new generation of players, the team was worried that a 5 in the title might turn them off, having them think that it's too late to start with the series without having played any of the previous games. Thus, with Monster Hunter: World (and so far, all subsequent titles), the numbers are absent, with the games instead having a subtitle loosely related to the core gameplay identity of the entry.

※VIZMedia released an official art- and lorebook of for the game titled Monster Hunter World: The Official Complete Works on January 21^st 2019 in Japan.
It was later translated and released in english on August 11^th 2020, and made available worldwide. It is, as of 2024, one of only four Monster Hunter books to receive an official english release.

※On December 11^th 2023, the official Monster Hunter Twitter/X account announced #ReturntoWorld, a campaign focused on getting both new and veteran players to return to playing Monster Hunter: World 5 years after its release. The aim of this campaign was to keep the community active and growing in the months leading up to more news regarding the next game in the series, Monster Hunter Wilds. This campaign included regular posts of previously unseen concept art, community livestreams on Youtube and Twitch, as well as regular deep discounts on the game across various platforms. In January 2024, over 160000 players had returned to Monster Hunter: World on Steam alone. The average amount of players in the year prior had hovered between 30000-40000, by comparison.