While Namco Bandai celebrated their weekend with the Tales Festival, and their announcement of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, Capcom also had their own share of festivities, which included a live Monster Hunter 4 demo showing off the Charge Axe and some online features with producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Kaname Fujioka.
The Monster Hunter 4 session of Capcom’s event started out with another look at the recent trailer that was shown in the latest Japan-only Nintendo Direct, where we got to see a new shark monster and its Frozen Sea habitat.
Next up, was a closer look at the newest weapon, the Charge Axe, which they showed off in a live demo against the giant-jawed Tetsukabura.
Tsuimoto and Fujioka then showed off the new village, Barubare, where many caravans from around the world gather. In the above images, a smaller screen on the right shows what’s on the lower screen of the 3DS. According to Dengeki, it displayed of a map showing various other bases (villages) that are available in Monster Hunter 4. They also mentioned that there was more to the bottom screen, but Tsujimoto mentioned it was a secret for the time being.
The two started their play with online mode via Wi-Fi, through the “Play With Everyone” menu. As the host of a room, you have options such as: Recruit Hunter, Target, description and password.
The selected map was the new Underground Cave, where Fujioka was quick to show off the Charge Axe. The Charge Axe has two modes, Sword and Axe. Compared to the traditional Sword and Shield, it is said that the Charge Axe’s Sword Mode is slower in attack and movement.
Continuously attacking in Sword Mode will accumulate energy, which can be seen as the bottles on the top left part of the screen. Once your weapon begins to glows yellow, you can stock the energy in a bottle with a charge. The energy stock can then be used once you switch to Axe Mode, which uses them for powerful attacks. To put it in short, the flow of Charge Axe attacks will be: Attack with sword, charge up energy stocks, unleash with heavy Axe Mode attacks.
At the end of the event, Dengeki were able to catch up with Tsujimoto and Fujioka for a quick interview.
Dengeki: What are your impressions on finally having announced a release date?
Tsujimoto: The first time, we had already changed the release date to sometime this Summer. We really couldn’t announce it for a while, but it ended up being towards the end of the Summer. For the amount of time we’ve made you wait, I believe that we were able to work more on the game and I am now confident in its contents.
Fujioka: It’s the feeling of finally being able to make an announcement. We’re working hard so we can release it in a much better shape and much better quality.
The two new weapons are something unique with action features that we haven’t had until now. After seeing today’s demo, I thought the Charge Axe’s movements are really cool and I believe that it will be popular.
Fujioka: We definitely wanted to include something with new play style that didn’t exist in previous weapons. This time, we’ve included weapons that correspond with the different elevation of the stages, and also simple, easy-to-use weapons. I believe that they’re weapons that you’ll have to try for yourself to understand.
At the end of the trailer, there was a familiar-looking monster, that looked kind of like an Elder Dragon we got a glimpse of…
Tsujimoto: (laughs) There was. It was kind of flying and sort of a red monster.
Fujioka: We’d like you all to feel the bulk of the game, this time around. We want it to be bursting with popular monsters. There are still plenty more monsters, so please look forward to it.
Lastly, would you care to share a message for our readers?
Tsujimoto: We were finally able to announce a release date, but we ask for you to please wait just a little longer. We’ll be sharing plenty more information from this point on until the release date, and we’d also like to touch up on different monsters in a timely manner, so please look forward to that, as well. The volume and content are going to be great, and I believe we can present something that will live up to your expectations!
Fujoka: There’s still plenty more content compared to past Monster Hunter titles. Not only the number of monsters, but it’s also packed with new communication features and more, that will allow you to enjoy even the game longer. There’s much more new content we’ve yet to reveal that we’ll be showing off by the bulk, so please look forward to it.
Monster Hunter 4 will be slated for release on September 14th, for 5,990 yen on Nintendo 3DS.
