Monster Hunter Rise development began before Monster Hunter World released, originally had areas separated by loading screens

IGN recently sat down with Monster Hunter Rise director Yasunori Ichinose to dig into the game and see how it all came together. During the discussion, we learn that Capcom was originally going to take a much more traditional approach with Monster Hunter Rise.

Ichinose reveals that development of Monster Hunter Rise started before Monster Hunter World launched, and it was being worked on by a completely different team. That team had planned to go the more standard route for Monster Hunter games, which meant having areas that were separated by loading screens. Ichinose explains how this approach changed as development went on.

“On the Nintendo Switch, we thought it would be difficult to preserve visual quality and detail in a sandbox environment. However, as development progressed we started realizing that open environments had become more and more the norm for blockbuster titles, and the success of World inspired us to take on the challenge.”