A new interview with the game director of Monster Hunter Rise reveals that the game could have used data from the 3DS era of games. Monster Hunter Rise surprised a lot of people with how smooth its gameplay ran on the Nintendo Switch. Unlike Monster Hunter World, which ran on the MT Framework engine, Rise was the first in the series to utilize Capcom’s new RE Engine. The RE Engine is what the latest Resident Evil and Devil May Cry series entries use and the company’s engine of choice going forward. Its significant features include increased graphical capabilities with higher resolution assets and volumetric lighting tools.
Monster Hunter saw a major graphical and quality of life update with the release of World in 2018. The previous four generations looked roughly the same between the PS2, PSP, and 3DS eras. Reasons for this lie in the limited graphical capabilities of the mobile platforms that the series was most popular. With World, nearly every mechanic received updates for a more casual audience in addition to high-resolution assets. Rise would continue this on the Switch, providing the fastest gameplay the series has seen yet.
As reported by Destructoid, Rise game director Ryozo Tsujimoto said that developing the game using 3DS era Monster Hunter data would have been easier for Monster Hunter Rise. However, the results from Monster Hunter World helped with the decision to keep a more “modern” version of the series on the handheld hybrid. Tsujimoto explained that Capcom implementing the RE Engine on Switch was difficult from a technical standpoint, as the goal was to keep graphical fidelity and stable framerates. The team attempted to transfer animation data from World, but the developers also kept in mind the new animations from the Wyvern Riding mechanic Rise introduces:
On the player’s side, we included a lot of aerial actions involving Wirebug actions and additional actions using walls, so in addition to internal captures, we also had the help of Katsugekiza (action mo-cap team) to improve the quality. For the NPCs, we focused on the placement and relevance of each NPC in this game.”
Capcom’s decision for the Monster Hunter team to keep the modern version of the series was great. So far, the title is among the fastest-selling titles on the Switch platform and is among the best-selling titles in Capcom’s history. Rise is also receiving a PC port in 2022, but no other DLC besides the Capcom Collabs is known. Fans anticipate an Iceborne sized expansion for the game, as every prior entry in the series has received.
Source: Destructoid