A Lot More Effort Went Into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s Localization

Localization of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was handled a little differently from previous Monster Hunter games, localization director Andrew Alfonso says in a Capcom blog post. One of the biggest differences, Alfonso says, is that this time, he actually sat in on meetings with the development team during the development of the game itself.

“We started planning the localization of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate around September 2013, when the Japanese version of Monster Hunter 4 was released,” Alfonso says. He goes on to add that, the reason these games take so long to localize is that Monster Hunter actually has more text than Ace Attorney and Dragon’s Dogma, despite suggestions that there isn’t all that much text.

Alfonso then talks about how the localization process for Monster Hunter has come a long way from the days of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and is of far higher quality today than it was back in the PSP days. In fact, in 4 Ultimate, the team even made adjustments to the game’s UI and tutorials for the Western market.

“Another thing we did with MH4U that we couldn’t do with MH3U is related to the UI and tutorials,” Alfonso writes. “We were able to tinker with them in ways that we weren’t able to do in the past. We consulted with MH4U director Kaname Fujioka and lead designer Yuya Tokuda about what we wanted to do for the western release and received their blessing to change the UI and tutorials in subtle ways that will make the experience smoother for players overseas.”

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will be released in early 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS. Alfonso says he will delve further into the intricacies of the game’s localization in the weeks to come.