Been waiting for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd? Hope this helps :)

A recent issue (well… 3 issues ago) of Weekly Famitsu has a big feature on the game with recycled information from their first report. But an interview with “core” members of the Monster Hunter series development team sort of make up for the disappointment of nothing really new. Read on if you would like to know what they have to say about the series in general. The result of a survey that involves 800 MH fans is also included in the feature. It doesn’t have many surprises, but you can check them out in Part II of this post.

Famitsu begins by asking the team what have changed since the first game went on sale six years ago. Series Director Kaname Fujioka (who was a designer and apparently love to drink) says while the basic principles remains the same, the introduction of partners was a big change. “Although there are plenty of areas we would like to challenge, we focus very much on ‘how to transmit our ideas to the players?’ for every new releases.” he says.

(Fans entering the Osaka Merchandise Mart for Monster Hunter Festa ‘08)

“As a multiplayer focused game, it’s very easy for the game to be affected by players’ lifestyles. How to make the game blend into their daily routines is something we have to consider deeply.” adds series Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto. “Thanks to the amount of new players we are getting, there are more stuff we can do now compare to the original game” says Planner Shintaro Kojima. “Despite changes in platforms, development environment, developers, etc, we always make sure players say ‘This is Monster Hunter’” Fujioka adds.

So what they do to look for ideas? Tsujimoto says he did so by ’staring at people’. “Even when shopping, I spent more time observing people than the goods themselves. I will ask questions like ‘why are they interested in that product?’ or ‘why they have this kind of actions?’”. As for Fujioka, he likes to watch movies, animes and visit ancient shrines. “I will try to see things that I normally don’t get to see whenever I have time” he added. “When it comes to Fujioka’s private life, he is a surprisingly normal person. Even though people might think that he is mad but he is actually relatively normal.” Tsujimoto can’t wait to tease his director.

“I like to look for interesting things from the most mundane stuff. There are temples and movies that are very popular. From watching and experiencing them, I always feel they are very ‘universal’” Fujioka adds. “We have to add the words ’super’ to Fujioka’s concentration. However, despite his concentration, he can be very indiscipline at times.” Tsujimoto continues to attack his director. Fujioka admits he can be easily put off by things that he has no interest in.

Does this shows up during development of Monster Hunter? Fujioka think it happened and say sometimes he will say okay to some illogical stuff. Thankfully there are people who provide advices to make him changed his mind. On the other hand, MHP series Director Yasunori Ichinose has a completely different style, who Fujioka think is a very organized person and can handle even the messiest stuff. “With Ichinose being the director of the MHP series, I can see a completely different Monster Hunter. Which I think is great” Fujioka praises his colleague.

(From Left, Tsujimoto, Ichinose, Kojima and Fujioka)

The attention now switch to Ichinose, who Famitsu think is the key person behind MHP success. So what is the thing that he always focus on when directing? “I think it’s team works. This is because team management is key to everything, a product with certain quality can be produced when this is solid enough. A solid team is first, and ‘How do we make this game?’ is second.” says Ichinose.

Is there anything that is of interest to him recently? “Nothing really catch my eye recently. There is still nothing that prompt me to get my hand dirty. I try to find things that makes me say ‘This is such an awesome stuff!’. Oh… I bought a DVD Recorder recently. It can record TV programs easily and it’s quite easy to use.” Ichinose says. “You only find out about DVD Recorder now?” Kojima laughs at his team mate. Fujioka is quick to admit he doesn’t have a DVD Recorder either. “Why so stubborn? What if there is a program that you want to watch?” asks new adaptor Ichinose. “I will watch programs that are currently showing. But I do watch DVD and Blu-ray.” say Fujioka.

“What if you want to watch a 7am show?” Kojima continues to ask. “I will then keep myself awakes until 7am. Because having to wake up 7am is troublesm.” Fujioka insists. The topic went on as Kojima points out that Fujioka once say mobile phone is ‘unnecessary’ but says ‘the world has changed’ when he did buy one eventually. The interviewer think that Kojima is a direct opposite of Fujioka. Which Tsujimoto agrees and say that Kojima does not lead a normal life. “As long as it’s interesting, I must check it out. I always want to find out ‘what makes it so interesting?’, ‘what kind of person feel it’s interesting?’ and ‘this thing is so popular’. Since I’m making such an interesting game, I hope people will become curious and find it interesting too.” Kojima adds.

Famitsu is curious about the atmosphere in the office. “Sometimes it can be really noisy. But sometimes they need to focus too.” says Fujioka. “Our floor is currently working on MHP 3rd and it’s always noisy, which can be annoying. But if it’s too quiet, I would think: ‘Is it because the game’s content is not fun?’ and starts to get worried. If it’s happening all the time, it makes one feel ‘Oh! This should be good.’ To me, making noises while playing game is not a bad thing. Although they do get scolded sometimes.” Ichinose adds. “The first session for 4-player is always interesting. When we get excited and screamed: ‘It’s time to go for it!’, our colleagues in the same floor will ask us to keep quiet.” Kojima says. “We must make a game that lets people make noises without them realizing it. There are plenty of such moments for MHP 3rd and it feels good” is Tsujimoto’s take on this.

At this point, Katsuhiro Eguchi, the mother of Monster Hunter thanks to his role in the planning of the first ever game in the series, join the discussion. “Although there has been changes in team members, there’s not much different when it come to atmosphere in the development team.” says Eguchi. Another original member Kento Kinoshita join the fray now. “Kinoshita take care of the single player mode at the time. But since single player mode is such a small part of the original game, there is nothing that can be re-use in the following games. As a result, he always says ‘Doesn’t matter, let me just include this in the single player mode.’ And this is how Monoblos was born.” Fujioka say of Kinoshita, who is also the Chief Planner for MH3.

(Diablos in MHP 2nd G)

Apparently, Monoblos was created from a decision to create something that is different from Diablos. “If there is not even a monster that become a target, single player mode will just be a tutorial mode. Since there is some kind of story development, it was decided that Monoblos become the final monster. I even have to kneel in front of Kojima to get this.” laugh Kinoshita. “We actually have limited content at the time and making Monoblos an offline exclusive monster certainly didn’t help.” Fujioka adds. “Since there is not much reference when it comes to this kind of game at the time, we enjoyed a big amount of freedom during development. But the above changes create some rushes and always make us feel that our workload will increase every time we opened something’” complains Eguchi.

After six years, are the veterans feeling tired? “It’s easy to get bored in planning, but it is also the easiest job to hope for new features. Thanks to this, I always encounter bottleneck like ‘Is it okay for this part to be the same as the previous game?’. However, this is also due to certain areas that can’t be altered. The balance for this really required someone with experience.” says Kinoshita. So has the number of younger team members increased in the team? Fujioka says it has increased and he always talk to them to get them work harder. “We hope more people can understand our team, so whenever there is new people joining, we will hold a group education.” says Tsujimoto.

According to Ichinose, a third of the team is completely new staff with some of them joined because of their love for the series. “However, their initial skills are inadequate but their passion for the series is enough and I always hope they can express new ideas” says Fujioka. “Development team and the Director are quite close actually. Even for newcomers, they can talk directly to the Director and express their own opinions.” Tsujimoto adds. How about Fujioka and his team? “I would like them to ‘express their thoughts concisely’ because without this, there will be no direction. I always encourage them to ask me if there is anything unclear” is his answer. “If the director clearly define the goal of the game, it’s harder to get directionless. As a result, I always aim for an environment that is easy to create titles that are fun.” adds Kojima.

“I always insist on doing something based on my hobby. I always want people to say ‘I think this part is very interesting, what do you think?’ and if it’s not, then we always do think based on how other people feel. We must be confident that ‘This is interesting’ in order to spread our titles.” says Eguchi. “I always think MHP 2ndG is a complete title, which slowed me down when I worked on MHP 3rd initially. But then I think ‘Even if there are changes, it’s okay if it’s moving forward’ and my original thoughts disappeared.”

“Whenever I try to think, my brain will have a meeting. This meeting really take some time. I will then try to figure out the keywords and tell Fujioka or Ichinose about it. I will then mix their opinions with the outcome of my own meeting… it’s something like this.” says Kinoshita.

“I would like to create something that make everyone think it’s meaningful, just like this world. I hope to create something global and this will be my challenge.” is Fujioka’s last words for the interview. “I currently only have nothing else but MHP 3rd in my mind. But things are stable now and I would like to create something that surpasses MH3 and MHP 2ndG.” is Ichinose’s goals. “Even though MHP 3rd is currently the closes to us. We must also think about the future. But I always only think about them when they come anyway.” Eguchi jokes. “I’m only 36, but I always think about how much longer I can make games recently. Maybe it’s less than 10 years, so I must create more memorable games as long as my brain can provide more ideas.” says Kinoshita.

Making more people recognizing the fun of gaming is Kojima’s goal. “Thanks to the speed of information, it’s easy to get well known but it’s also easy to become uncool very soon. We must always aim at future and create titles that are fun, my senses will always stay sharp for this.” he says. “Portable gaming is quite common in Japan now, and it creates a phenomenon of ‘game entering lifestyle’. I would like to explore this area and provide more fun to these people.” is Tsujimoto last words.

Find out about the result of the survey at Part II.

Posted in PSP on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 5:44 pm | Tags capcom famitsu interview mhp mhp 3rd translation | Comments Feed | You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.