From new ways to jump onto monsters, to new monsters, equipment, and a returning area; Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is shaping up very nicely in terms of content. In a recent interview with Famitsu, director Kaname Fujioka and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto discussed the philosophy behind the game.

Famitsu starts the Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate discussion by asking the developers to share the concept behind the upgraded version of the game.

“Firstly, it’s a way to thank those who are currently playing Monster Hunter 4,” says Tsujimoto. “After the release of Monster Hunter 4, there were plenty of voices that said ‘we could’ve done this and that more,’ and we had more and more ideas for things that we could have done in Monster Hunter 4, and [the concept] came from all those uncomfortable feelings of wanting to make all of that happen.”

Next, Famitsu asks what the first thing the developers touched up was, when they started development of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

“Adjustments aside, one of the first things we did was to test whether we could pull off jump attacks while being vaulted into mid-air,” Fujioka replies. “When we asked the development staff if it could be done, ‘most likely, yeah,’ was their response.”

“We thought of all kinds of different reactions for those mid-air moments, but the ‘hey, you just sent me flying!’ you often hear accompanied with a laugh from your friends, is an exchange that we definitely wanted to keep.”

“However, we wanted to add a difference between being sent flying by monsters and by your buddies,” Fujioka explains. “We wanted to expand with something that could change a ‘sorry’ after being sent flying, into ‘thank you!’”

Fujioka adds with a laugh, “Additionally, we also felt that the Hammer-user in Tsujimoto would’ve been surprised more than anything when we presented it to him.”

“Up until now, Fujioka hasn’t touched-up on the Hammer that much,” Tsujimoto says with a laugh. Fujioka responds by saying that he feels the Hammer is best left with a simple design, so it’s a little difficult to adjust. Tsujimoto also mentions that the reason behind this is that there are a lot more older folks who prefer to use Hammers.

Next, Famitsu asks if the newly added G-rank quests will be in a similar format to those from past titles.

“Yes, when we started on the plans, we wanted to add something that people who’ve already played Monster Hunter 4 could enjoy, and we felt that it’d make the most sense to do this by adding more High Rank quests to singleplayer and G-rank quests for the Guild Hall,” answers Fujioka. He goes on to add that some quests might even require you to start with an ally-assisted jump attack.

Famitsu points out that in Monster Hunter 4, the guild quests of around level 100 seemed to have had their difficulty ramped up.

Fujioka replies, “One of our previous concepts was to ‘have the challenge of high difficulty hunting,’ and now that there will be G-rank quests in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, we’re preparing things that G-rank-caliber players will be able to enjoy.”

Finally, Famitsu asks exactly players will be able to start the G-rank quests in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

“Once you get to the part where you can unlock your Hunter rank at the Guild Hall, an urgent quest will appear. Once you clear that quest, the path to G-rank will open,” answers Fujioka.

Tsujimoto adds, “And of course, we’ll be adding equipment with stats that coincide with G-rank. As long as you keep up with it, you should have no problem to also keep up with the difficulty of G-rank!”

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is slated for release in the West sometime in early 2015 for Nintendo 3DS.