Japanese gaming publication Famitsu recently spoke with Monster Hunter Stories producer Yoshihiro Akira to discuss the decision to bring back the original Monster Hunter Stories video game. One of the prominent reasons for this decision was that Nintendo decided to shut down the Nintendo 3DS eShop which subsequently meant that it was more difficult for fans to play the series in order. Here’s what was said:
“The support we received worldwide from players who enjoyed Monster Hunter Stories 2: W ings of Ruin, released in 2021, was a big part of that. And with the discontinuation of the 3DS online store service, it became more difficult to reproduce the series in full order, so we decided to port it to the current generation.
In order to encourage the series to be played fully in order, or even to allow players who have played before to do so again, we fully voiced the game in English and Japanese, as well as made a ‘Museum’ of things such as production material and BGM tracks.”
“The process of porting an older game and running it on current platforms takes a lot of time. Development began with programs that carefully read the source code. From a systems standpoint, the biggest problem was the user interface. The 3DS version has two screens, including a touchscreen, while the smartphone version is also made with touch controls. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin which was playable on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Steam had a base that could be used for this reconstruction.
In terms of things that were simple, one area was the selection of art to be added to the ‘Museum’ as the additional content I mentioned earlier. Fortunately, the archive from that time was still well preserved, so we were able to add artwork from the development process and allow people to fully immerse themselves in the world.”
