The weapon that garnered a lot of attention in the demo version of Monster Hunter Rise, released in January, is the Hunting Flute. The Hunting Flute plays the role of a healer and buffer at a party, but it is considered a non-mainstream because it is difficult to handle and has many combos to memorize. However, in Rise, the hunting flute was evaluated as a’performance weapon’, not a weapon of affection, and in fact, in the last trial version, it ranked third in the most used weapon after attitude and great sword. Healing and buffs were easier to manipulate, and attacks were said to be quite damaging.
What is the background that the hunting flute, which was evaluated as a non-mainstream, became a performance weapon at Rise? The answer to this was heard through an interview with the development team of Monster Hunter Rise. Yasunori Ichinose, director of Capcom, said, “When developing Rise for the first time, we were asked to reduce weight such as the action and convenience of a game specialized for portable devices. Among them, weapons such as hunting flutes combine action and performance effects to make it a more aggressive play form.” Said.
In fact, when the production crew made Rise, the top priority was the portable mode play. Director Ichinose explained, “After making it possible to play as a portable device, it is proceeding so that it can be played in TV mode.” PD Ryozo Tsujimoto also mentioned, “It’s a monster hunter you can do when you think you’re going to sleep for about 30 minutes to an hour before going to sleep on the bed.”
In other words, it is explained that the hunting flute has also become a more convenient and powerful weapon than before, while making it a good way to enjoy it when it is free, while making use of the unique taste of hunting giant monsters in the action part. Director Ichinose said, “In the case of the hunting flute, the usage rate has increased very much, but I think it is because the motion and structure have changed. The use rate of twin swords and Charge X was also high,” he said. “It is possible to rank in relation to other weapons, but a low ranking does not make a difference.”
Lastly, the part that caught my eye in the trial version was that it was able to use environmental creatures to attack monsters, such as lighting a monster. Previously, it was only possible for a monster to put a state abnormality on the hunter, but this time the player can also cause the monster to become a state abnormality. The key is whether it is possible to inflict an abnormal state attack with an elemental weapon the hunter wields.
In conclusion, this is impossible. Director Ichinose said, “It is not possible with an attribute weapon, but it is a characteristic when using environmental creatures and dragon control (attacks by riding on monsters). During the game, I wanted to make it a game that could be advantageously hunted using environmental creatures or other monsters. “We wanted to expand the play factor so that we could make it a state abnormality when a fight between monsters or a power battle occurs, so we added a state abnormality to the monsters.”
Monster Hunter Rise will be released on the switch on March 26th and officially support Korean. Players are Kamura Village Hunters with advanced seasonal skills, and perform several missions to prevent the cataclysmic’White Dragon Night’, where numerous monsters attack the village. In addition to the rope bugs described above, a new companion, Garuk, will appear, and a large number of new monsters will appear, including Magaimagado.