[gamescom asia 2023] Monster Hunter Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto Highlights Aspects that Led to the Success of the Series

The Monster Hunter series has been taking the world by storm in recent years and helming the franchise is none other than Ryozo Tsujimoto.

Ryozo Tsujimoto is the producer of the Monster Hunter series and has been overseeing the franchise since 2007’s Monster Hunter Freedom 2, becoming the public face of the series. Known for his love of Hammer, Ryozo Tsujimoto is also the Managing Corporate Officer, Head of Consumer Games, and Head of Development Division 2 and Mobile Online Development Division at Capcom.

During our time at gamescom asia 2023, we had the golden opportunity to speak with Ryozo Tsujimoto about all things Monster Hunter and here is what he had to say.

Interview has been translated from Japanese and edited for clarity.

Monster Hunter is considered a pioneer of hunting action games. Many games have tried to follow in its footsteps since 2004. After all these years, Monster Hunter is still standing at the top of this genre. What is the key to the success of this genre?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: As everybody knows, Monster Hunter releases a kind of constant stream of games every couple of years. That is one of the key components for it being still so popular after all these years – the love that the development team has for the franchise and everybody constantly wanting to put out new content and new games throughout all these years.

Rather than looking outward towards other similar games for inspiration, what the Monster Hunter team does is look at Monster Hunter as a genre itself and think about how they can evolve the game. Which is the next direction the game should go. Really, I think coming together as a team and thinking about where Monster Hunter as a series should be going in the future is the key.

How do you decide which monster to bring back for each Monster Hunter game? What is the decision-making process like? For example, why did you choose Jyuratodus to return for Rise among other candidates? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: One factor, of course, is monster popularity. But that is not all, one of the most important things to consider when thinking about which monsters to bring back is to kind of strike a balance for the entire game.

For instance, the timing. Does it make sense for that monster to come back at this time? Also, does this monster fit within the general theme and scheme of the game? Is there like actual good balance of monster types that appear in the game because there are so many monsters to choose from? If the team just brought back everything that is popular, then it would not be great for the balance.

That is the reason why, for your example, Jyuratodus. It came back for Rise because it would balance out the game.

Monster Hunter has many fascinating creatures and every fan has their own favorite one. With so many creatures to choose from, what is the process like for choosing the cover or flagship monsters, such as Rathalos or Nergigante? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Basically the biggest thing that goes into deciding which is the main monster is the theme of the game. I believe everybody knows that each Monster Hunter game has a general theme, a general kind of art direction and design. So, it has to embody that.

Also, another really important factor is that the design has to be cool, right? If just has to be, has to scream like this is the main monster! When you see it, you know it. Basically.

So really, the main monster is always going to reflect the general worldview of the title, the ecology that is featured in the title, and also that the design will reflect certain parts of the story, callbacks to the story, and whatnot.

What’s an interesting or fun monster concept that you would like to include in the future Monster Hunter games or that you had to unfortunately cut from the previous games? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Of course, there are monster concepts that I want to add in the future that were scrapped and didn’t make it in the past games. I am not able to reveal them this time though. Because who knows? Maybe it might come back in the future.

There are a lot of concepts that maybe the technological advancements aren’t quite there yet, so they can’t really be added at that time. In the future, it might be possible. When these concepts do get added, I will definitely let everybody know which is the one I am talking about.

Are there any specific monsters or creature designs that you find particularly fascinating? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Khezu, yes. It’s my favorite, a little bit gross but very cute.

From your experience, what has been your most challenging situation in terms of the development process in any Monster Hunter games?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: One thing I remember very fondly, but was also a pretty challenging time for the series, was back when I was in charge of being the producer of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. That title actually did not have very much time in development. I believe it was only about 10 months to develop the title. So in order to actually push that game out in just a matter of 10 months, it was quite a challenging time.

Another thing I recalled was during the release of Monster Hunter World. It was kind of a return to high-spec console and having to develop such a large-scale game while also targeting a global release, that kind of brought the title to the next level. That was also quite a challenging time.

In June 2023, it was revealed that Monster Hunter World is Capcom’s best-selling title so far. What do you think contributed to the success of the title? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: In terms of Monster Hunter World being the best-selling title in all of Capcom’s titles, I wasn’t really thinking much about it. It is kind of a conclusion to the fact that the development team all tried to make World a game that was as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible.

For instance, World gained a large PC audience in the large global market and it was because of the development team’s effort to make it as accessible to as many fans as possible.

So, 3 out of the top 5 Capcom titles right now in sales are Monster Hunter titles, with Rise and World both being in the top 2. How does it feel being in charge of the series while it is in the middle of such a high popularity boom? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Now that Monster Hunter is hitting its 20th anniversary. It feels that a lot of gratitude, all of the support, and love from the development team to the fans have been shown. All of the effort that has been put into building the series throughout the years.

I just think “It didn’t happen overnight, right?” It wasn’t magic. I am really just full of gratitude for all the fans and want to keep on facing Monster Hunter, letting it grow as a series with all the fans and developers from now on forward.

Do you feel any pressure going forward after the success of World and Rise? Is there a standard the game has set for yourself and the games? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: There isn’t zero pressure from the success of Monster Hunter World. As we said a little bit earlier, what is most important is where to go next for Monster Hunter as a franchise and how the team feels they should take Monster Hunter next. So, not really to compare to World, but how the series should evolve in the future.

Depending on what the team decides, that’s the kind of challenge they have when making the next game. Whether or not Monster Hunter World will become the standard for the series in general, is not necessarily the case.

It is more so that Capcom as a company has a long history of developing good action games. At the core of that, whether be a fighting game or something like Monster Hunter, the concept of making good action games is quite similar. So the team takes the improvements they’ve made, for instance, of a fighting game, and reflects on how to use the concept to improve Monster Hunter. And so, we use the know-how and expertise that we have gained as a company developing games over the years and into the future to continue improving every single title, including Monster Hunter.

Looking at how World and Rise are developed for different platforms. What is the most challenging part when developing a series for different platforms? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Of course, a really important thing to consider when you’re developing for different platforms is not necessarily the specific platform itself.  For example, in the case of World and Rise, is that one is for a platform that you usually play in front of a TV while the other is for Nintendo Switch, which is portable. These aspects of how a game is being played are factored into during development.

When developing Rise, which is for a portable gaming system, things that have to be considered is the importance of making it a quick game to play. Something that you can play when you are moving around or in between quick breaks. That is all reflected in the game’s mechanics as well.

Looking back on your experiences as the producer of the series. What has been your most memorable moment or achievement? How did that shape your vision for the franchise moving forward?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: There is really not one single moment that is defining or really jumps out. But, there was a time when I participated in an event in Japan. This was back during the release of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. A fan came up to me and told me that he wanted a quest where he could fight two Rajang at once, so I went back to the office and immediately made that happen.

Monster Hunter has built a dedicated global fan base over the years. What do you believe are the core elements of the series that have resonated with the players across different regions and cultures?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: In order to make Monster Hunter attractive to the audience in general, is to not really think about the differences of each culture, but rather think about how every player will have similar experiences.

For example, when you’re playing the game for the first time or if you’re coming back to Monster Hunter as a veteran. There’s the kind of core that I think how the game should feel. If it feels fun to a person in say one region, then it will probably be kind of similar to another region.

How they experience Monster Hunter is tied back to that sense of very great action and also the achievement in accomplishing their first hunt. Stuff like that is how it all binds together, I mean, players of any region.

One other thing is that Monster Hunter at its core is a very multiplayer-centric experience. One of the best parts of experiencing the game is having all of these hunters come together to take down one monster. I would love to thank the global communities for coming together to play Monster Hunter because they are really what makes the game great.

Us Southeast Asians, have a lot of fond memories of going out in cafés and whatnot to play games like Portable 3rd together. How does the Monster Hunter series work towards keeping this kind of feeling of enjoying hunting?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: One of the things is that multiplayer as a function is very important to Monster Hunter as a series overall.

What I want to first denote is that when you’re playing Monster Hunter, you are not really competing for rankings. You’re not winning anything, just getting around mix crafting items. You’re not really winning awards for being the top hunter. So the level playing field for all players is even, and anyone can just join anyone.

When you hunt and defeat a monster, you get the rewards for crafting. But that is not based on how fast you did the hunt or how well you did it. It is based on probability. So even if you’re a first-time player and you are not great, you still have the same probability as everybody else. From there, you grow together with everyone else at the same level.

As mentioned before, the series is known for having a very passionate and dedicated fanbase. How do you engage with or consider fan feedback when developing the games and their expansions? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Not limited to these types of events (gamescom asia 2023) where you can actually hear the voices of the fans. We do look into feedback, say for instance, from online. We have several regional offices and of course, all kind of fan feedback is looked at.

Whenever there is a game that is released, everybody, including the community managers, will see the feedback received and pass that on to the development team. And, just that, kind of absorbing the feedback and reactions from all the fans around the world.

As a producer of the Monster Hunter series yourself, do you often play the game you worked on? 

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Yes, of course. As the producer, I have maybe hundreds of hours behind the games, just playing privately by myself. Right now, I am playing the recently released Monster Hunter Now and I’m at Hunter Rank 92.

Next year Monster Hunter will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. What can fans expect especially now that the series is getting so much attention globally after the major success of World?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Although we have not really been able to make too many announcements as of yet, there are a lot of things that we’re preparing for the 20th anniversary that the fans can look forward to.

The interview concludes here. We would love to thank Ryozo Tsujimoto-san for taking the time to answer our question regarding the Monster Hunter series.

As noted, Monster Hunter will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year. For more Monster Hunter content, such as the reproduction biology of Gore Magala and many more, you can check them out here.

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