Monster Hunter 4 Developers Demo The Impressive New Charge Axe

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Kaname Fujioka recently showed off new Monster Hunter 4 features during this past weekend’s Capcom festivities. One of the things they demonstrated was the game’s new Charge Axe weapon, during their NicoNico Live event.

The gameplay demo starts out with the Hunter walking around in Barubare village with two Felynes following him, one which Monster Hunter 4 producer Ryozo Tsujimoto points out, is wearing a space suit.

The bottom screen now indicates various icons for the different parts of town, and an arrow that shows wherever you’re walking.

Here’s a look at the map screen, which can be accessed by pressing the green “World Map” icon on the bottom-right of the screen. It shows different villages such as Naguri Village and Barubare. Once you click a destination, you’ll be able to pick between a shortcut of going to the town or directly to your house.

By clicking the top-middle button on the World Map screen, called “Play solo / Play with everyone” you’ll have this screen that allows you to pick between three choices. The first is an offline solo play. The second option is local wireless play, and the third is online play.

Tsujimoto went with the online play option, which gave him three more options: Create Room, Search For Room and Friend List. As previously reported, you’ll be able to customize your rooms in terms of who can join and other options. Once others are in the room, you’ll be able to see their names, HR rank and the weapon they’re using.

It was also pointed out by Tsujimoto that you can be in different villages as the other Hunters in your room and still be connected. For example, the Hunter in the above image was alone in Naguri Village, then joined his partner in Barubare.

The demo continues in the above video, where Tsujimoto and his partner take on the giant-jawed Tetsukabura. The level of elevation is apparent the moment they jump off the cliff to start the quest. At the 2:12 mark, you can get a good look at how fluid the transition is, between the Charge Axe’s Sword and Axe Modes.

The Charge Axe will use its Sword Mode to charge up energy in the bottles located under the weapon sharpness, which will be used for powerful Axe Mode Attacks. When you have enough for a charge, your weapon will glow yellow and so will the bottle slots. At the 4:11 mark, you can see Tsujimoto convert his yellow charge to fill up 3 bottles.

Additionally, you can take it a level further by continuously attacking when it’s already yellow to change it into a red glow. Charging a red glow will fill up all five energy bottles.

This video doesn’t show anything new, but it’s a good Charge Axe demonstration against our old friend, the Gypceros. An interesting move is seen at the 3:22 mark of the video, where Tsujimoto waits for the blinding fiend on the wall to attempt a jump attack.

Monster Hunter 4 will be slated for release on September 14th, for 5,990 yen on Nintendo 3DS.