Emperor_Uriel
Member
Capcom has been a mess for years.
Years of trying to transform Resident Evil into a series with the mainstream appeal of an Activision or EA blockbuster. Years of experimenting with every pricing model known to man, from plain ass DLC to on-disk DLC to F2P to Early Access. Years of mediocre-to-bad spinoffs for every series. Years of cancelled (mostly Megaman related) projects and expensive vaporware (anyone remember Deep Down and it’s new engine?).
And the ultimate golden goose has been under Capcom’s nose all along: Why not just take the name of their most popular franchise and marry it to an immensely overlooked gem that utterly destroys it from a gameplay perspective?
The combination of a juggernaut IP loaded with amazing creatures (Monster Hunter) with arguably the best non-Souls ARPG gameplay of last gen (Dragon’s Dogma) and world structure that is almost universally beloved would give Capcom the fuckoff Skyrim money they’ve been desperately seeking for ages.
Most importantly for those diehard fans of past MH games: they’ll always still be worth making in the classic format on handhelds. A big DD + MH hybrid is clearly a console/PC venture, and would be impossible to transfer to a commuter-friendly portable. It makes sense that Capcom would do both, securing the Japanese fanbase (who primarily play outside of the house and on public transportation) and the Western gaming hobbyists (who prefer lengthy, in-home odysseys).
Let’s look at some key points:
-Again, from a simple sales perspective, Monster Hunter *anything* does well in Japan. Open world games like Skyrim and Fallout do well in all territories (both are huge in Japan), and even Dragon’s Dogma itself did quite well in the West for a new, totally singleplayer Japanese IP. The franchise fans would flock to this for the brand, the uninitiated would come because it’s an open world ARPG.
-Dragon’s Dogma is difficult and has deep, immensely satisfying combat that blends careful timing with Devil May Cry level responsiveness. Monster Hunter’s combat is clunky and it’s difficulty largely stems from cumbersome controls + obtuse pre-mission micromanagement. You’d catch the Dark Souls crowd (a series with strong worldwide popularity and acclaim) and character action fans based on fighting alone. And what Monster Hunter fan wouldn’t welcome the extra depth (imagine climbing onto a Diablos’s belly and hacking away DD-style!)?
-Dragon’s Dogma’s classes and skills + traditional leveling provide not only incredible differentiation in playstyles, but also a much more satisfying progression than Monster Hunter’s purely gear-based system. Compare playing a Warrior in DD to using two-handed swords in MH, right now only one of those is fun. But if we suddenly had fully fleshed-out skillsets and augments for all of the usual Monster Hunter weapons, the combat and character building would benefit immeasurably. The rewards for hunting monsters are also, somewhat ironically, far more tangible in DD thanks to traditional experience points and class discipline system.
-Dragon’s Dogma already lifts a lot of Monster Hunter’s best mechanics and rejects many of its worst. The upgrade systems are similar, giving specific rewards in battle for attacking certain parts of the beast’s body, while removing the annoying elements like monsters fleeing mid-fight (though chasing them on foot through an open world would be very cool) and weapon durability/sharpness. There’s a difference between a mechanic adding meaningful gameplay and creating annoying upkeep/busywork, DD was much better at differentiating between the two.
-People argue about the necessity of MH’s segmented world, mission-based structure and time limits, but I’m not seeing it. A new location means new guilds with new rules, and it would be immensely simple to justify the loss of the archaic mission structure and time restrictions in a larger, more populated world. Dragon’s Dogma Online already proved that Capcom is capable of creating diverse biomes populated with a variety of monsters that easily matches what we’ve come to expect from MH, while Dark Arisen proved they’re capable of crafting very challenging encounters without imposing extraneous limitations on the player.
-Open World, cooperative multiplayer on this scale would be an incredible feat. It doesn’t fit into the format of Bethesda or Bioware’s games, but it’s already a core component of MH and seemed like a missing feature in DD. For the huge swathes of gamers who lament the lack of co-op in every major open world RPG, or struggle with the unpredictability of Souls co-op, this would be a huge selling point.
The only reason not to jump into a project like this is obviously the need for a high budget, but if graphics are kept as a lower priority (as they should be, DD’s PC release still looks pretty spectacular with the right ENB), and Capcom can make it without a severely bloated, RE6-sized team, then the returns will be tremendous. Hell, get Microsoft (Japanese gamers have demonstrated a willingness to buy consoles for a single game, plus PC would be a solid backup for the JP market) or Sony (but not Nintendo, they don't do as well in the very essential Western market) to bankroll a console version and put it on PC to boot, there’s literally no way they wouldn't jump at the opportunity for an exclusive MH.
Big projects are always a gamble, but this is a much smarter, safer gamble than anything Capcom has made in the past decade.
Thoughts?
