Monster Hunter: World Fresh Gameplay

This article over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun directs our attention to roughly 20 minutes of fresh Monster Hunter: World gameplay, brought to us courtesy of Dengeki Online, a Japanese site. And while the footage itself is in Japanese, RPS’ accompanying article offers an overview of what’s being shown there. Get ready for some combat, exploration, character creation and feline companions:

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Capcom must be feeling confident too, as they’re letting everyone throw footage of the game around. The latest slab is coming courtesy of Japanese site Dengeki Online. This time, 20 minutes of hacking, slashing, cooking and character-creating. There’s a little bit of Japanese text here with no translation (yet), but this is largely footage that speaks for itself.

The first chunk of footage is largely focused on the most exciting parts of Monster Hunter – the big weapons and the even bigger monsters that you’ll be using them on – and almost exclusively focused on long-range combat using bow and gun. Perhaps not the most efficient way to deal damage in the series, but easily the best way to get a good view of a monster and learn its attack patterns from safely outside of its natural attack range, and thus a natural pick for a gameplay video.

I ended up skipping the 3DS entries in the series, but bow combat in this latest Monster Hunter iteration is looking a lot more interesting than I remember, and more than a little reminiscent of Dragon’s Dogma. No longer is a bow just an arrow delivery method, but a multifunctional launcher capable of multi-arrow charged spread attacks and launching air-detonated bombardment shells. Not traditional bow-and-arrow behavior, granted, but fitting for a world packed to the gills with nigh-invulnerable terror-beasts.

One particularly exciting featured creature in this video is the Tobi-Kadachi, a large but agile blue-white quadruped lizard with some mammalian quirks to its design, including flying squirrel-esque webbing to allow for gliding attacks, as well as a large fanned tail that it can use for broad slapping attacks. It’s also capable of channeling electricity through its body, making it likely capable of doling out the ever-frustrating paralysis status ailment. I especially love its animations for climbing up and leaping off tall trees and cliff walls – very convincingly animalistic.

The second chunk of Dengeki’s footage is far more closely focused on the nitty-gritty of Monster Hunting life, including a peek at the character creation system (both for yourself and your feline Palico companion) and a whirlwind tour of some of the non-combat things you’ll be doing, including getting your weapons tricked out at the blacksmith’s forge.

Most adorable by far is a trip to the kitchens of the famous Meowscular Chef (no, seriously, that’s the official translation), who looks like a cat better suited to punching dinosaurs in the face, but has dedicated his life to the culinary arts. The cooking animations are nothing short of phenomenal, and the food looks delicious too. Cooking and eating has always been part of Monster Hunter, but never has it left me hungry and drawing up dinner plans just from looking at pre-release footage.