Monster Hunter Tri visuals 'put pressure on Nintendo'

Written by pikaby

Ahh...I can't believe I haven't read through the whole Iwata Asks interview for Monster Hunter Tri yet! In fact I haven't been keeping up with the game at all....it wasn't something that looked like it'd interest me right away. But then I went and read some previews, all with positive feedback. Now I'm interested. Why are the Japanese lapping it up? Better try it out for myself...but for now, an interesting tidbit from the interview regarding the graphics of the Wii.
Here's the excerpt:
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Iwata: What did you think when you first tried out Wii? For example, I imagine the first thing you thought with regard to visuals was that you might not be able to do much.

Fujioka: Yes. To be honest…

Iwata: By all means, be honest! (laughs)

Fujioka: (laughs) Graphics aren’t really Wii’s best point, so...

Iwata: So it would be hard to surprise people only with graphics.

Fujioka: I think good graphics are an incredibly attractive aspect of games. Even before people play a game, they are aware of its general appearance.

Iwata: That’s why everyone wants graphics with impact.

Fujioka: So - setting aside high resolution and other details - when it came to creating impressive visuals, I thought it would be a challenge not to compromise. So I decided to press the boundaries of the console’s functions and urged the programmers and designers to aim for making new images.

Iwata: You mean making new images that would maintain the style of Monster Hunter.

Fujioka: Right. Besides, I think the most important thing with regard to graphics is what kind of images the designer wants to make. No matter what kind of specs the hardware may have, if the designer has a clear idea of what kind of images he wants to make and concentrates hard on his work, I think he can achieve them.

Iwata: Well, having the raw skills to pull that off is one thing, but didn’t such work call for a lot of sense?

Fujioka: Yes. While this isn’t only true for Wii, the world of Monster Hunter isn’t one into which you can just throw anything you want, so judgment was necessary in determining what to put in and what to leave out.

The designers have a strong desire to turn out all kinds of stuff in order to create stunning visuals. Sometimes I had to say, “The visuals aren’t that important here. In this game they’re more important in this other area,” and get them to set something aside.

On the other hand, the programmers had moments when they wanted to keep constraints in place, and I had to say, “No, we can’t hold back on that, but this over here could be restrained a little instead.” We had to find the right balance. 

....................Skipping a few parts.

Iwata: Um, I’ll be straight with you.

Fujioka: Yes?

Iwata: I can tell Nintendo’s staff has really been galvanised by you.

Fujioka: (laughs)

Iwata: I can tell they feel like you did what they hadn’t yet. Besides, the enthusiasm you put into it is apparent in the graphics.

Fujioka: I’m extremely pleased to hear you say that. (laughs) Generating great visuals was one of our main goals in bringing out Monster Hunter Tri for Wii.

Striking visuals were originally one selling point of Monster Hunter, so when we decided to bring Tri out for Wii, to be honest, many players may have been uneasy over just how much we could do visually. We thought that unless we got those types of people to think, “Oh, it’s totally all right,” we would have failed. 

..........And then another few lines.

Iwata: Looking at the graphics objectively, I feel like the game’s visuals are one of the representative examples of what can ultimately be done with Wii.

Fujioka: Thank you very much.

Iwata: I think it has placed the Zelda team under a considerable amount of pressure. (laughs)

Fujioka: I doubt that! (laughs)

Iwata: Our work is spurring each other to new heights. 

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Full interview can be found here.

Looks like Nintendo aren't the only ones putting their hearts into developing a Wii game. For the first time in ever, a third-party dev is rivalling Nintendo's skillz with Wii graphics. Now if only more people could stand up and take notice...I sure hope they will if Tri takes off in the US successfully. Shovelware devs, you have been warned. Dev who have thought of giving up on the Wii because your games didn't do so well in sales, know that you still haven't tried your best. THIS is the perfect example of what a Wii game should be like.

And that comment on the Zelda team. Surely this means better visuals for the new Zelda Wii game, at least, better than Twilight Princess. I'm sure even Iwata knows Twilight Princess, good as the gameplay may be, had quite outdated visuals (can't be helped by the fact that it was a Gamecube port)

Since I never mentioned it here before, I'll just go ahead and say it.

Monster Hunter Tri will be released in the US later this month, on April 20. Online multiplayer is pay-to-play, just like in Japan.

NOT! Just kidding. It's free for the US version, even with Wii Speak. The only things you'll have to pay for is extra content for the game. And not a single Friend Code in sight for the online! How good can you get?

4. Staring at the Wii Remote

Iwata:

In a lot of different ways I can sense the spirit of “not wanting to lose” that Fujioka-san spoke of.

Tsujimoto:

The first project planning document that we wrote said, “Let’s make the best graphics ever seen on the Wii console!” Such statements could be found throughout that document with regard to other areas as well. It was clear there was a great deal of determination among the developers. Then Nintendo let us show a video trailer at the Nintendo exhibition.

Iwata:

You mean the 2007 Nintendo Conference³.

³Nintendo Conference Autumn 2007: A presentation held at Makuhari Messe in Japan in October 2007 for the mass media, distributors and others involved with the video game industry. On stage, a game trailer from Monster Hunter Tri was shown and demonstrations of Wii Fit were also performed.

Tsujimoto:

Right. At that time, we were able to show visuals using an actual Wii, and I was certain we would be successful. After that, all I had to do was tell the development staff to continue creating visuals of such a high standard for the game. (laughs)

Fujioka:

(laughs) Actually, even after the Nintendo Conference, we clashed with the designers several times. Since we had already released it, there was no way we could do something completely different from the trailer. The designers had always had that certain vision, so the visuals never foundered.

Iwata:

You set the bar high right at the start, and then tried to aspire to it.

Tsujimoto:

That’s why I think we were able to work from start to finish without changing that much.

Iwata:

Perhaps you could do that much more fully than a normal director because, based on your extensive experience - including your time creating pixel art - you were able to tell others; “When you do something here, something else needs to be sacrificed.”

Fujioka:

I suppose so. I am always showing off how I used to be a designer. (laughs)

Iwata:

That way they can’t pull the wool over your eyes.

Fujioka:

Yeah! You can’t fool me! (laughs) And I have the right to tell them they can do more.

Iwata:

I often do that myself with regard to programming. (laughs)

Tsujimoto and
Fujioka:          

(laugh)

Fujioka:

So if they say, “We can’t do any more,” I say, “Well, if you cut back here you should be able to.” That’s how we proceeded with our work, and that gave birth to a positive tension among the designers. The result was something we could all accept.

Iwata:

Looking at the graphics objectively, I feel like the game’s visuals are one of the representative examples of what can ultimately be done with Wii.

Fujioka:

Thank you very much.

Iwata:

I think it has placed the Zelda team under a considerable amount of pressure. (laughs)

Fujioka:

I doubt that! (laughs)

Iwata:

Our work is spurring each other to new heights.

Fujioka:

Yes. Since we were able to create something good, the development team has grown quite confident.

Iwata:

So, while you were satisfied with the visuals, were you at a bit of a loss when you first saw the Wii Remote as to how it could be used for Monster Hunter?

Fujioka:

(laughs) Well, I’m the type who gets really excited when he sees a completely new kind of device. I was like that when the Nintendo DS and Wii were announced. I knew I was going to be able to create gameplay in an entirely new way and I thought that was great. Objectively speaking.

Iwata:

Objectively. (laughs)

Fujioka:

Yeah. Objectively. (laughs) But then when I tried it out, I was like, “Hmm.” (laughs) To put it without choosing my words too carefully...

Iwata:

Please, be honest. (laughs)

Fujioka:

Well, first of all, the buttons...

Iwata:

There weren’t enough? (laughs)

Fujioka:

Monster Hunter was originally made so you used all of the many buttons on the controller. So when we decided to make Monster Hunter Tri for Wii, I just sat and stared at the Wii Remote for a long time.

Tsujimoto:

Even before we had anything to put on the screen, Fujioka was holding the controller and thinking about it day and night.

Iwata:

You couldn’t figure out how to make Monster Hunter for the button-light Wii Remote?

Tsujimoto:

When we announced at the Nintendo Conference that Tri would be for Wii, people kept asking if they would have to swing the Wii Remote.

Fujioka:

Co-workers were asking me about it, too. “You’re releasing it for Wii, right? What are the controls going to be like?” (laughs)

Iwata:

They were worried it might not work out all right with the Wii Remote? (laughs)

Fujioka:

They kept asking, “So we’re gonna have to swing the Wii Remote?”

Tsujimoto:

But from the very beginning we weren’t thinking about swinging the Wii Remote to hunt. We wanted a method of game operation that wouldn’t be tiring.

Iwata:

Because it’s a game that some people will play for very long periods.

Tsujimoto:

So we decided to view the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as one controller, without thinking about the motion sensor. We started by asking how the game should be operated. How should the buttons function in order for the game to feel good and be fun?

Fujioka:

The unique methods of game control in the Monster Hunter series have always been a challenge.

Iwata:

They require fairly complicated use of your fingers - like pushing the stick slightly to one side while pushing a certain button.

Fujioka:

Right. But it’s also a game we’ve always wanted to be simple to play, so this time we started all over from zero with regard to game operation as well.

Iwata:

Which brings us back to what we were saying earlier about starting at ground level.

Fujioka:

That’s right. We tried to distance ourselves from the habit of thinking that a certain thing was tied to certain buttons. When we considered how to play Monster Hunter with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, we thoroughly and repeatedly thought about what would physically feel right.

5. The Fun of Cooperating

Iwata:

About when did you finalise the operability of the controller and solidify the game specifications?

Tsujimoto:

Just before the Tokyo Game Show⁴ one year ago.

⁴Tokyo Game Show 2008: A trade show held in October 2008 at Makuhari Messe focusing on video games and other fields in computer entertainment.

Iwata:

A playable version of Monster Hunter Tri was presented then, right?

Fujioka:

That’s right. I made a ROM for the presentation. Even when people were telling me I had better burn it soon or I wouldn’t finish on time, I was still playing around with it.

Iwata:

I know how that is. It’s difficult to completely finish something unless you have a deadline. (laughs)

Fujioka:

(laughs) I was like, “I want this to be just a little more like so,” and, “Let me work a little harder here.” I wrestled with it, changing game operation, up until the last minute.

Tsujimoto:

With regard to game operation, we had a policy of not announcing anything until the Tokyo Game Show. Even if we were asked about it in an interview, we wouldn’t answer. That was because rather than convey it through words, we wanted to have people actually try it out and hear how they felt. When we did, we heard what we had wanted to hear more than anything else.

Iwata:

Which was?

Tsujimoto:

“I’m relieved.” That’s what everyone said.

Iwata:

Oh, I see.

Fujioka:

That was a big relief. Our unease over how to play the game with the Wii Remote finally disappeared.

Iwata:

The fans at the Tokyo Game Show really went wild over it.

Fujioka:

It was almost scary! (laughs) First thing in the morning, I saw hordes of fans rushing towards the Capcom booth. I thought, “You’ll still get to play even if you just walk slowly,” but I was extremely happy that they came.

Iwata:

A lot of people said Monster Hunter Tri was the biggest attraction at the game show, but I think there are still a lot of gamers who have heard the name but never tried it. Could you explain a little about what elements of Tri you designed for those people?

Tsujimoto:

There’s a mode called The Arena.⁵ In this mode, the screen is split in two, and two players can simultaneously enjoy hunting together. That way people who don’t know how to play can play together with someone who does and learn the basic actions.

⁵The Arena: One of the game modes of Monster Hunter Tri. It is designed for one or two players to easily enjoy co-op gameplay. Special stages offer a variety of challenges.

Iwata:

So first you’re initiated by someone close to you, and then you enter the online world.

Tsujimoto:

That’s right. I remember playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES with my friends when I was a kid. There were times when I stood behind one of my friends, watching him play and learning the right actions to take.

Fujioka:

But for today’s games, it’s most common for one player to dominate a single console. For more and more games, it’s difficult to find a stopping point once you start playing. So even if you see a game and think, “Oh, that looks like fun…”

Iwata:

You can’t play together.

Fujioka:

Right. That’s why we made the game so that when someone thinks, “That looks fun,” they can split the screen in two, and if they have two controllers, start playing right away. There’s no need to jump right into online play. First you can play offline with the screen divided in two with your friends or family. Then you can go online.

Iwata:

That makes sense.

Tsujimoto:

I think splitting the screen is pretty common for Nintendo titles.

Iwata:

Yes, we’ve done it a lot for Super Mario Kart and such games since the days of the Super NES.

Tsujimoto:

But until now we never had that idea for the Monster Hunter series. But this time, along with bringing it out for Wii, we decided to try splitting the screen for the first time.

Fujioka:

Because of the characteristics of the Wii hardware, the console is generally placed in the living room. So we wanted to create an environment that an entire family could enjoy.

Iwata:

A MonHun (Monster Hunter) population increase within the home. (laughs)

Fujioka:

I think the effects of players recommending a game to those close to them are huge.

Iwata:

Word-of-mouth publicity occurs across generations within the home. It may be the only place for that.

Fujioka:

Yes. A mother may start playing because of the influence of her child. We’ve seen such occurrences a lot with the handheld series. Dividing the screen is perhaps the most important aspect of the game that we included for those who have never played this series before.

Iwata:

It will be incredibly interesting to see how the game spreads.

Fujioka:

It’s the first time we have tried it too, so we are really looking forward to seeing the results.

Tsujimoto:

Something else we’re trying for the first time is storing data in the Wii Remote so you can carry it around with you.

Iwata:

And take it with you to a friend’s house.

Fujioka:

After all, we did make the game compatible with the Wii Remote! (laughs) So you go to a friend’s house, divide up the screen and slay some monsters, and then you take those results…

Iwata:

You take them home with you.

Fujioka:

It would be too bad if you went to a friend’s house, played, and didn’t get anything from it. It wouldn’t carry over into your next session. So we made it so that you can take a controller with you and return home with the rewards you’ve gained. I wonder how that will turn out too…

Tsujimoto:

It’s hard to imagine what will happen. We’ll have to wait and see.

Fujioka:

We can’t imagine what will happen, but I think it’s something interesting we could try precisely because the game is for Wii. Going back to the NES days again, when I was a kid, I really liked going over to a friend’s house to play videogames.

Tsujimoto:

It was quite exciting.

Fujioka:

I think it would be great if the Wii Remote encourages that.

6. A World in Flux

Iwata:

Another big appeal of the Monster Hunter series is going online and hunting together with your friends. I suppose there’s a chance some players will hesitate to do that.

Tsujimoto:

Yes, but when you’re connected to the network and your friends who have gone hunting are fighting monsters, you can read the chat messages, such as “Flash Bombs work against this monster” and “It doesn’t work to drop this one in a pit.” So even if you’re off fishing alone, you’re taking in information from skillful players.

Iwata:

Oh, I see. You can learn about hunting even while you’re fishing. (laughs)

Tsujimoto:

So the next time you participate in the hunt, you think, “Oh, that’s right, they said Flash Bombs work…” (laughs)

Iwata:

Then when you go on a hunt and try it out, it must feel great to see it work.

Tsujimoto:

I think so.

Fujioka:

This software is good for skillful players to share their knowledge with beginners.

Iwata:

You want to share the fun you’ve experienced with all your friends.

Fujioka:

Like, “At first it’s all right to just go fishing, but next time let’s take on some monsters together.”

Iwata:

“Next time I’ll let you deal the finishing blow.” (laughs)

Fujioka:

Right! Like that! (laughs) Besides, if you go hunting and get hit by a monster, a good player will skillfully help you out, like, “I’ll distract it!” or “Heal yourself now!” In that way, everyone cooperates with each other, so people who aren’t very good at first will gradually get better. Then, before you know it, you’re good at action games. As you build up experience, you’ll be able to do something really impressive. (laughs)

Tsujimoto:

Your comrades in hunting are your instruction manual, your strategy guide. Even if you play without reading the instruction booklet, everyone will teach you all kinds of things.

Fujioka:

That’s a good thing about online games.

Iwata:

I suppose it’s like that because Monster Hunter Tri is structured for cooperative play. If players fought and competed against each other, a lot of their energy would go into keeping others down.

Fujioka:

Besides, if you take some kind of action, it isn’t just you who benefits…

Iwata:

It’s everyone, right? Game theory-wise, I’d say it’s extremely well-structured.

Tsujimoto:

There’s nothing negative about participating. Everything comes back to you in the form of a positive. The degree of the positives changes with the odds.

Fujioka:

So it’s okay to mess up. I think it’s great to have a world where everyone laughs and gets along whether they fail or succeed. When we were still developing it and I saw the test players trying it out, that was what I noticed more than anything. Even when someone said, “Aw, I messed up,” they said it with a smile.

Iwata:

When you see that, you think, “We did well.”

Fujioka:

Yeah. When it isn’t all right not to succeed, that creates a lot of pressure. You don’t want to go online.

Iwata:

The freedom to fail is very important. Without it, the game gets depressing.

Fujioka:

Many people who aren’t very good at games don’t want to cause the other players trouble or fall behind the others.

Iwata:

If it were structured so that when you beat a monster, the most agile person was able to gather up all the rewards, not that many people would have played this game.

Fujioka:

If you structured it to be a competition for first, it would get brutal. We didn’t want to do that.

When we started work on the Monster Hunter series, most online games at the time were about trading items. A certain enjoyment could be derived from giving to others or receiving yourself, but contrary to that, we decided to make it so that basically when you receive something, the participants get it randomly. Then when we decided to structure it so that only the person who received it could use it, collaborative play became firmly established and it became an easy game to invite people to play.

Iwata:

One important condition for something to spread is how easy it is to invite others to join. I think Monster Hunter’s structure is incredibly well-designed in that respect.

Fujioka:

Thank you very much. The basic elements work well, I think.

Iwata:

While Monster Hunter Tri is a game that can be broken down into short sessions, really dedicated Monster Hunter players will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours playing. Why do you think people play it for so long?

Fujioka:

At first, I thought that if a lot is built into a game, people will spend more time playing it.

Iwata:

Right, that’s what you would normally think. There’s a lot there, so you play a lot. If there are a lot of scenarios and stages, you can play the game for a long time. That is the general way of thinking within the gaming industry that has caused game volume to inflate.

Fujioka:

But I realised that’s not true when I saw the recent phenomenon of the portable series. It really doesn’t have the volume for playing thousands of hours. When I saw those who were playing that long, they were doing the same things over and over again. They do gain some kind of materials as a result, but they’re not playing because of that. I feel like they keep playing for hours on end because they simply like playing with their friends.

Iwata:

In other words, their motivation isn’t playing a new scenario, advancing towards some kind of ending, or getting a new weapon. Lots of people play Monster Hunter games for thousands of hours because playing together with their friends in the world of Monster Hunter is fun.

Fujioka:

I think so.

Iwata:

So what have you prepared in Tri for those players who want to go at it for long periods of time?

Fujioka:

We put in a sort of “flux,” so when players play the same quest more than once, they’ll think, “It was like such-and-such last time, but this time it’s a little different.”

Iwata:

“Flux”? You mean slight changes?

Fujioka:

Yes. When you enter the same place, maybe there wasn’t anything there before, but now there is, so let’s check it out. Or there was only one monster before, but for some reason there are two now. Changes occur little by little. But it doesn’t occur consistently and according to a fixed plan. Certain little elements move randomly.

Iwata:

Oh, I see. So if you return to the same place repeatedly, something different might happen, which keeps things feeling fresh and alive.

7. Responding to Enthusiasm

Iwata:

Earlier you mentioned how hard it was to adapt the game for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Partway through development, you learned something that must have been a bit unexpected from Nintendo, didn’t you?

Tsujimoto:

Yes. (laughs) We heard about the Classic Controller Pro.

Iwata:

After you’d put all that hard work into adapting Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii Remote, were you discouraged?

Fujioka:

No, not at all. (laughs)

Iwata:

We even suggested that it would be released at the same time as Monster Hunter Tri. Until that time, that sort of proposal was unheard of.

Fujioka:

Yes, I could really tell that. This may sound a little rude, but we were like, “Nintendo is serious about this!”

Iwata:

(laughs)

Fujioka:

So we knew it wouldn’t be right if we weren’t serious, too.

Iwata:

You were already serious, weren’t you? From the beginning?

Tsujimoto and
Fujioka:          

(laugh)

Iwata:

I could really sense your seriousness. We were acutely aware of how enthusiastically you were making Tri, so we wanted it to go well no matter the cost. If there was a reason it wasn’t going well, we wanted to do whatever we could to help. I thought it would be too bad if there were gamers who couldn’t get into Tri just because they couldn’t get used to the controller. I’m just gonna go ahead and say it (laughs), but we even discussed where the best place for the analogue sticks would be.

Fujioka:

Yeah. (laughs)

Iwata:

Looking back over Nintendo’s history of development for controllers, I don’t think we’ve ever discussed it so deeply with another company.

Fujioka:

It was unprecedented for us, too. (laughs)

Iwata:

Someone within Nintendo said, “What? You’re going to ask the development staff of another company?” But since we were going to make a new controller so that people who had played Monster Hunter before could play comfortably, I thought we should at least get the seal of approval from the game developers.

Fujioka:

To be honest, when we were first asked that, I thought, “Is it all right for us to decide?” We said what we thought would be a good spot for the analogue sticks, and when it turned out just like that, I was surprised.

Tsujimoto:

While we had been designing the game for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, we had always been making it for compatibility with the original Classic Controller, too.

Fujioka:

That’s right. So even when it came to the Classic Controller Pro…

Iwata:

It came naturally.

Fujioka:

When we told you that game operation was somewhat awkward with the Classic Controller the way it was, and you eventually reflected that, we were truly grateful.

Iwata:

It was a new experience for us, too.

Fujioka:

We also had a great time as well, working it all out with Nintendo. When it comes to making a controller, you think in terms of millimeters - no, even smaller…

Iwata:

I suppose we were obsessing over strange details.

Fujioka:

No, that kind of dedication really resonated with me. I got a glimpse into a world where simply changing one tiny element has a big impact on how something feels. It was a lot like how, when we make a game, we will slightly alter the placement of a certain element so that the game feels much better to play.

Iwata:

That is what it means to be a true craftsman.

Fujioka:

It was incredibly interesting. And when you hear the reaction of people who have actually used the Classic Controller Pro, it’s extremely positive.

Iwata:

Is that so? If the team in charge heard that, I’m sure they’d be pleased. (laughs)

Fujioka:

I think making the controller during the same time period worked out really well for Monster Hunter Tri, too.

Iwata:

We had the Classic Controller Pro go on sale the same time as Monster Hunter Tri, but Nintendo would like it from now on if other software developers made use of it. We also released a new colour of the Wii console along with Monster Hunter Tri.

Fujioka:

I was really surprised when I heard that, too.

Tsujimoto:

I’ve talked about this with Fujioka before, but we wanted to make Tri one of those titles you buy together with hardware.

Fujioka:

We had a strong desire to make a game that gamers would want to buy the hardware for.

Tsujimoto:

About the time we were talking about that, we heard Nintendo was really going to bring out a black Wii. At first, we thought, “Really?” (laughs)

(Editor’s note: In Japan the black-coloured Wii console was released simultaneously with Monster Hunter Tri. In Europe, the black Wii first became available in November 2009).

Iwata:

It was something you could not believe right away? (laughs)

Tsujimoto:

Yeah. Then when we saw it, the colour change made for quite a different impression.

Fujioka:

It makes you want to sit the console in certain locations. And the colour really goes well with the blue slot illumination. It’s very cool.

Iwata:

However, when we tried to make the black hardware, the materials didn’t exist to satisfy Nintendo’s standards, so we had to make them. When I heard from the developers, I was flabbergasted. They said it was taking more than two and a half years to develop the materials. We just barely made it in time.

Fujioka:

It came out at just the right moment. In that respect, too, I think Monster Hunter Tri is an extremely blessed title.

Iwata:

If there is something that players are interested in but can’t decide whether or not to purchase, some kind of condition that stops them from buying something, I think it is our job to remove such obstacles as much as possible. Our response to such needs was the Classic Controller Pro and black Wii.

Okay, is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers in closing?

Fujioka:

Well, here at long last we’ve...

Iwata:

How many years has it been since development began?

Fujioka:

Three years since the project started. Two years since we actually started making the game.

Iwata:

So that’s why you said “at long last.”

Fujioka:

Yeah. (laughs) You can finally play it. You can finally take on Monster Hunter Tri - or, as the name implies, “try” it. I hope the series grows in popularity, and I made it in a spirit of challenging myself, so I hope people will explore every corner of it and enjoy it without any hesitation. (laughs)

Iwata:

You want players to feel free to jump right into the online world, right? (laughs) Tsujimoto-san?

Tsujimoto:

Monster Hunter Tri is a special title for us. We started all over at the ground level and made it a game that is sure to satisfy players who have been playing the series all along and will make them say, “I’m glad I ‘Tri-ed’ it.” I think new players will find it exciting too, so please give it a shot. You have my thanks in advance!

Iwata:

I’ll offer a few final comments, too. As someone who once made things myself, I can say that it is only very rarely that you find something this dense and with this degree of enthusiasm packed into it. I’ve introduced it here today because I encountered it and thought it would be great if I could convey the game’s appeals to as many people as possible.

To people who may have heard of the series but never actually played it, and of course to those who have played the series all along I want to say, “You don’t know what you’re missing if you don’t play this game,” - especially those who own a Wii. It’s a game with a great deal of breadth in gameplay, more breadth, perhaps, than it appears to have at first glance. I hope everyone comes to understand that.

Tsujimoto-san, Fujioka-san, thank you very much for today.

Tsujimoto and
Fujioka:          

Our thanks to you, as well.

Monster Hunter Tri visuals 'put pressure on Nintendo'