Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Director On Designing The Metroid Armour And Bowgun

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will let you create Samus’ Power Suit and Zero Suit as in-game gear that you can wear. In addition to her suits, you’ll also be able to use a Bowgun weapon that is based on the design of Samus’ arm cannon and even uses appropriate sound effects. Series director Kaname Fujioka told Siliconera how the team approached designing the Metroid equipment for the game.

“When you think of Samus as a character and when you think of Metroid games, the first thing that comes to mind is the arm cannon, which is such an integral part of the character,” Fujioka said. “We knew we wanted to do not just armour but also a weapon that was themed after Metroid, and go in that direction. And then it came down to what specific type of weapon would be a match for that, visually and gameplay wise.”

Fujioka continued, “We decided on the Bowgun because we thought it would look really cool if when, as you readied your weapon, the actual arm parts of the suit transformed. There is the aspect of the Metroid games where the arm cannon does change a bit when you fire different types of attacks, and that would be cool to explore—how it would look and how it would change shape when you’re about to use it. So, it seemed like a natural fit for that kind of weapon.”

Meanwhile, the sound effects for the Metroid equipment, most of which are based on the older games, came from Fujioka’s love of Super Metroid.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Metroid myself ever since the original NES days, and especially Super Metroid from the SNES days,” Fujioka revealed. “Super Metroid left such an impression on me that I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great where even if visually it’s a 3D polygonal model in our game, what if we could use the old sound effects and make it sound a bit synthesized?’ We worked with Nintendo, who were on board and excited about it as well, so you’ll be able to hear synthesized SNES-style sound effects that go along with it, which I thought was kind of a nice homage to that title.”

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will be available in North America and Europe sometime in early 2015.