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A new episode of Capcom TV streamed earlier today, detailing a whole bunch of TASTY tidbits of information about Monster Hunter Stories – including the first ten minutes of gameplay, more details on tether genes and Myvern abilities, character customization, online battles, and yep – you guessed it – an E-Capcom exclusive collector’s edition which you can reserve as early as June 2.
The stream was scheduled to be just 2 hours, but wound up calling it a night just shy of 3. Here are the highlights from the video, posted below with proper times for your viewing pleasure!
World Background, First Ten Minutes, and Character Customization (29:28 – 53:00)
· Monster Hunter Stories and Monster Hunter share the same world. This story happens to follow people in that world who learned to develop bonds with monsters (from here on out, I’m going to call them Myverns). Riders never had reason to venture into the hunter’s world until a growing darkness pushes itself into their village.
· The game begins as three friends – Lilia (female rider), Shuval (your rival…?), and the protagonist – journey to the mysterious woods to search for Wyvern Eggs. Lilia mocks Shuval for being a scaredy-cat. The language they use in Monster Hunter Stories the same as the other main-line Monster Hunter titles. Tsujimoto jokes that the voice actors understand the language and they even own a dictionary detailing the Monster Hunter lexicon.
· Character customization starts when the group finds an egg, and Lilia mentions that you have to introduce yourself to the soon-to-by Myvern before it hatches. You can change your facial expression, mouth, hair, eyes, eye/hair color, skin tone, and voice. Voice 1 is the voice actor from the game’s accompanying anime.
· A baby Rathalos hatches from the egg and lunges at Shuval! …except instead it nuzzles with the main character. You return the village and get a stern lecture from Dan, the riders’ overseer of sorts. You go and see the village elder, who swiftly reconsiders punishment after discovering you’ve made a bond with a Myvern. Just then, the village horn sounds – a monster is attacking! (50:13)
· A Nargacuga attacks the rider village, crushing Shuval’s home and supposedly killing his mother. Your newly hatched Rathalos comes to your aid, but it takes a wicked attack from Nargacuga’s tail. The hit scars Rathalos’ left eye, and it tumbles off the cliff into the darkness below. Nargacuga leaves. A darkness awakens in Shuval as he grips his mother’s treasured mirror and vows to stop this evil.
· At 1:24:20, they show the game’s World Map by accident. It features a number of villages, including ones situated in snowy mountains (Talju Heights), a desert (Kuba Desert), a volcano range (Twin Peaks), the coast, and a mysterious island called Naobaku Island. Here’s an image:
Myvern Abilities, Hunting Horn, and Finding/Hatching Eggs (1:02:19 – 1:24:00)
· They warp further ahead in the game to a snowy mountain area, supposedly Talju Heights. In the overworld field, the player will encounter Monster Caves. These caves vary in rarity (grey are average, for example, and gold are rare), rarity meaning better tether genes and stats. Some of these caves require certain monsters to reach. For example, in the video, Qurupeco can’t swim, so Tsujimoto switches to Lagiacrus to cross a freezing lake.
· Also to note, Tsujimoto has six Myverns in his party, different from the first build of the game which only let you carry three. You can switch them out whenever you want by hitting a button on the bottom-right side of the touch screen.
· I’ll talk about this in depth another time, but, each Monster fills a unique niche. Lagiacrus can swim, but it can also roar to scare small monsters off so you don’t have to fight them in Monster Caves if you’re short on time.
· Tsujimoto reaches a Khezu’s nest. Each egg has a different pattern on it that should make it easy to see what monster it will be – but! You can re-gather eggs as long as the monster is asleep. In the video, they manage to exchange their egg four times (they ultimately decide on a Khezu egg). On the fourth draw, they are too slow and are ultimately caught by Khezu, initiating a battle.
· The Hunting Horn makes its debut! Using Power, Speed, and Technique attacks will earn you a note of that color. After completing a song, the player will auto-play the buff/de-buff after the final attack – it’s almost like a free hit.
· Lagiacrus is having a rough time fighting Khezu, so they switch to Lagombi to show off its fire moves. They explain the tether gene system I talked about earlier this week, calling it a Bingo Board. Aligning three of any color will awaken an ability in a Myvern, but, lining up three of the same color will make it more powerful and possibly change its appearance (black Zinogre, red Lagombi, etc.) Check out 1:22:22 when Lagombi uses its Bond Skill, Grindspin.
· Tether genes can be inherited by your Myverns when you bring them to Denji (a Japanese pun on the words Densho and Jiichan), an old man in the rider village. There are many, many abilities that can be gained this way, so they urge everyone to collect as many Myverns as possible.
My House (1:24:50 – 1:34:00)
· As in mainline Monster Hunter titles, you will have a home in your home village. From the item chest, you can switch your armor as well as Nabiru’s outfit. Changing Nabiru’s outfit will only affect his appearance, nothing else.
· You can change your hair, hair color, and eye color from the box whenever you’d like.
· You can choose to have your armor’s helmet off during a cutscenes. It is a purely aesthetic option. You can view these cutscenes at any time from the item box.
· Pre-ordering the title will get you a Rathalos outfit for Nabiru. Monster Hunter Generations save data will land you a Glavenus outfit for Nabiru, and a Glavenus weapon (sword and shield) for your main character.
Online and Local Battles, amiibo (1:44:10 – 1:56:20)
· Players can battle with their friends via local play or the internet. You will be allowed to bring a number of items, your own armor, and the Myverns you’ve raised into the battle. Oh, the battle theme is a Wind Waker-ish version of the Zinogre battle theme.
· The players will use a communication method similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes: using stickers of Nabiru with various messages.
· Each player has three hearts. A heart is taken away every time a monster or player faints. After a monster faints, however, it will reappear on the battlefield with full health and you can use it again.
· Tsujimoto is using his favorite weapon, the Hammer, in the battle, alongside his favorite monster, Brachydios. Brachydios’ Bond Skill is injected with a healthy does of Monster Hunter humor, having it recall Rocky-like training you undertook before delivering an explosive punch.
· These battles will earn you egg shards. The winner naturally receives more, but the loser gets some too. Collecting these will allow you to put together eggs and collect new Myverns.
· The Boy and Girl Monster Rider amiibo will cost 1800 yen. The Nabiru amiibo will cost just 1200 yen. In addition, they are also releasing a Diorama scene for the Monster Hunter Stories amiibo for 1,500 yen.
Collector’s Edition (2:21:24)
· The limited collector’s edition of Monster Hunter Stories will be sold on the E-Capcom Online Store starting June 2nd. It will come with the game, an official soundtrack, an art book, a bond stone, and a digital download code for a special Zinogre. Oh, and it looks like this:
That about covers it! The next broadcast will be on June 15 at 8:00 PM. June’s Famitsu will also be filled with information on Monster Hunter Stories, which will be released on Japan on October 8.. Stay tuned for more stories and news regarding Monster Hunter Stories here on Siliconera.