A few days ago, an upcoming Monster Hunter World X Final Fantasy XIV crossover was revealed during E3. New details regarding this event has just emerged through an interview IGN had with the producer/directors for both titles: Ryozo Tsujimoto and Naoki Yoshida.
For the Final Fantasy XIV event, Yoshida revealed that Rathalos from Monster Hunter would be making an appearance in-game as a trial boss requiring 8 players. He mentioned specifically that there would be more than one Rathalos fight, pointing to a high chance for the trial having multiple difficulty levels similar to other Primal fights.
Yoshida was actually the main driving force between this collaboration. In the interview with IGN, he describes how he had been a big fan of Monster Hunter since its release back in 2004. In particular, Rathalos made a huge impact on him and to this day, he still recalls the fight very clearly.
“That first time when I encountered Rathalos, the despair that I felt when I lost the first time, but also the excitement I felt after finally challenging it again and beating Rathalos, has just stuck in my mind.”
Determining which Final Fantasy enemy would make its way into Monster Hunter World involved considering a vastly different set of criteria. Instead of picking the most iconic or fan-favorite monster, Tsujimoto was instead focused on identifying the monster that would best fit in an action game. He was more concerned with the movement of the monster and the type of gameplay experience it would create for players to combat such a monster. For these reasons, he and his team decided to go with Behemoth.
In designing the fight, Tsujimoto wanted to create an experience that was entirely different from all other monster encounters, but at the same time still felt like it belonged in a Monster Hunter game.
“[In Monster Hunter, Behemoth] is very unique, something that you haven’t seen in previous battles or anything previously in Monster Hunter before. You’ll definitely have to have a very good strategy going into battle.”
Tsujimoto made sure to note that he and his team made sure to include a lot of Easter eggs that fans of both series are sure to appreciate. Music tracks from both games was an example that he touched on briefly.
“Of course with this announcement we are kind of focused on the monsters, but we definitely did put in some Easter Eggs people would smile at when they see it.”
Apparently, Tsujimoto and Yoshida have been working on this collaboration for 7 years! Ultimately, it is both of their wishes that players are able to appreciate the amount of effort that has been put into making the crossover possible. Yoshida noted:
“If players get a sense of how much we’ve put into doing [the collaboration], it would be great. We feel that fans won’t be disappointed in how extensively we’ve thought of this.”
Given the behind the scenes insight we’ve gained from this interview, I’m even more excited to play these events. Based on what has been said so far, I’m really expecting this to be one of the greatest crossover events we’ve had in recent years. Can’t wait for these to go live this summer!
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