Monster Hunter has been gaining traction in the West these past few years, particularly in the case of Monster Hunter Tri and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, both of which have performed respectably. We’ve reached the point where Capcom openly acknowledge that an audience for the series exists in the West and are trying to nurture it through community events, livestreams, and even special in-game content.

While discussing the subject, we recently asked series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto about his impression of Monster Hunter players in the West, based on his experiences interacting with them in North America.

“This isn’t based on hard data, but just anecdotally, our assumption was that Americans would be more aggressive in their playstyle,” Tsujimoto shared. “But actually playing with people over here, I see that’s not the case.”

“People do tend to be very careful in their actions and they’re not actually as aggressive as I would have thought. So maybe there aren’t that many big differences [with Japan] after all.”

Tsujimoto added, “There are a lot of fighting game fans in North America, and because those games are based on a lot of the same kind of things Monster Hunter is—observing your enemy’s behaviour and trying to react against that—maybe it makes sense that that’s the way they play, because they have a fighting game culture as well.”

Food for thought:

Tsujimoto also joked that his hometown of Osaka, which is where Capcom are located, tends to have louder players than other places in Japan. He said to us: “One thing I can say as a bona fide Osakan is that people in Osaka… we like to talk. Because as a multiplayer game, you get together adhoc, and people talk a lot and they talk loud. So it’s definitely a much louder affair in Osaka than in other places.”