Following the announcement of Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2, both exclusively coming to Switch in 2021, Capcom gave a joint interview to multiple Japanese outlets. Famitsu, Dengeki, 4Gamer, Game Watch, Game Spark each published interviews on October 7. With Monster Hunter Rise Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and Director Yasunori Ichinose. Here's a summary of everything we learned on Monster Hunter Rise through these brand new interviews.Monster Hunter World is only on consoles and PC, and a lot of players still want to play on portable. Monster Hunter Rise is here for that. As such, MH Rise was specifically developed with the Nintendo Switch's portability and characteristics in mind.

The biggest new feature in Monster Hunter Rise is how hunters use a special insect called Wirebug to move at high speed and climb on walls, rocks etc.

Monster Hunter Rise includes the 14 per-existing weapon types of current MH, with no new weapons. However, each weapon has new special moves using the Wirebug. Mastering these new movements will be the key to defeat some of the new monsters.

The title Monster Hunter Rise comes from the fact the game has a focus on nimble movements thanks to the Wirebug, and how you can run up walls, and thus "rise".

The Wirebug might look like a reference to old Capcom game Bionic Commando. but it isn't. It's not what they had in mind and it's a pure coincidence.

The idea of the Wirebug was born from trying to break the usual routine of Monster Hunter, bringing in more freedom in each subjugation, and strengthening the relationship between the hunter's movements and the monster's movements.

Monsters can't attack the Wirebug or do anything that would restricts the players' use of it.

The Monster Hunter Rise development team started thinking about which engine they'd use (the RE Engine was picked) and planning the game's concept right after finishing Monster Hunter Cross (Generations), which released on November 28, 2015. This means Monster Hunter Rise was in development since 2015. While doing the planning phase, the MH Rise team provided support for the development of Monster Hunter Double Cross (Generations Ultimate), and they also exchanged ideas with the Monster Hunter World team.

Monster Hunter Rise has a Japanese atmosphere because it's been ten years since the last MH game which did, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. They wanted to do it again. Yasunori Ichinose was also the director of MH Portable 3rd, and he really likes those kind of Japanese themes. The new monsters in Monster Hunter Rise are based on Youkai to go with the Japan feel of the game. They noted they're not making everything in the game 100% Japanese-themed though.

The new companions, the Palamute, are much more aggressive than Palicos. One way to defeat certain monsters is to properly coordinate with your Palamute. If you prefer cat-like companions, you can still pick a Palico.

Monster Hunter Rise will reward players exploring every nook and cranny of the map like JRPGs do.

Right now the development team is focusing on finishing the game's main story content, and endgame content that'll keep players busy for a long while. They're also planning to release Event Quest updates after release. For now, there are no plans for doing a big extension like MH World Iceborne.

The Monster Hunter Rise Amiibo will unlock special equipment. Amiibo from other games too will give you special items.

Tsujimoto said he wasn't told the details regarding the Monster Hunter Hollywood movie, but if possible he'd like to do a collab event with it someday.

They were also asked how big Monster Hunter Rise will be:

Ryozo Tsujimoto: "We often get asked that during interviews. I always avoid answering a specific number of hours. But I can say we consider MH Rise to have the same amount of content as a typical MH game. The volume of Monster Hunter Rise won't be very different from the rest of the series".

Overall, there's still a lot more info, new monsters, story elements etc in Monster Hunter Rise they can't reveal yet. Ichinose most notably brought up how the game's Japanese trailer includes the words 百竜夜行 which is a pun on Japanese idiom 百鬼夜行, Hyakki Yagyo, designing a horde of Yokai.

That's all the info from the latest Monster Hunter Rise interviews.

Monster Hunter Rise launches worldwide on March 26, 2021 on Switch. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is coming on Switch worldwide in Summer 2021. You can preorder MH Rise on Amazon to help out DualShockers: Regular Edition, Deluxe Edition.