Hello, I’m Remi Ishii, a game designer on Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

Whether you’re a green hunter or a seasoned veteran, we hope that you find new challenges and wonders with MH3U! Awaiting within the grand splendor that is the world of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a cast of strong, dreadful monsters waiting for just you! Whether you’re taking on the challenge alone with only your wits and favorite weapon to aid you, or you’re standing tall with your friends online or via local play, we hope that you enjoy learning what the thrill of the hunt is all about, and enjoy it to its fullest!

(Andrew: These bullies greet me every morning with a grunt and a snarl)

Janet Hsu, Monster Hunter Series Advisor

Hi, everyone! This is Janet Hsu, another localization director and Monster Hunter series advisor for the localized versions. I hope you are all enjoying MH3U on both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. I know I am! And for those of you who are still on the fence, I implore you to give it a try. Even after hundreds of hours across the whole series, I still get a huge rush every time I barely make it out of a ferocious battle.

Localizing a game like MH is always a challenge, but I want to give a special shout-out to the wonderful people over at 8-4 and Binari Sonori for their awesome weapon names and entertaining characterizations, especially Cha-Cha and Kayamba (Yam-BA!). I hope all you fans out there will enjoy their contribution to first MH Tri, and now MH3U, as much as me. I also want to say, “Job Well Done!” to everyone on the dev and localization teams. It ain’t only about swapping out the Japanese for other languages, that’s for sure!

Well, time to down my Cool Drink and head back into the heat of battle that is work. Take it easy, and I’ll see you online!

Green Nargacuga

We came up with a very simple moniker for the Nargacuga subspecies for two reasons. The first is because there’s a much more vicious rare species of Nargacuga in the game (who we won’t talk about ever! …Maybe), and because compared to the other subspecies in the game, we felt there wasn’t a whole lot to differentiate the original species from the subspecies other than the color. Their attacks aren’t greatly different compared to the other subspecies in the game, and because of that we went with a short, easy name.

Ivory Lagiacrus

Our first proposal to the Monster Hunter team was Ivory Lagiacrus. We thought it was a name that conveyed a sense of rarity and elegance, fitting for a Lagiacrus that spends most of its time on land, as opposed to in the water like the original species.

The team, on the other hand, wanted something that gave off a mysterious impression, so it was back to the drawing board we went! We came up with several new proposals, such as Ethereal Lagiacrus and Splendent Lagiacrus (which means shining, illustrious), but we still felt that Ivory was the best name we could come up with.

There was also the problem of giving this subspecies a name that was too close to the Lagiacrus rare species name, and we wanted to make that monster even more special than the subspecies. So while we offered up our two new proposed names to the team, we continued to push for Ivory Lagiacrus as a refined, elegant name that wouldn’t be rare for even the citizens of Port Tanzia or Moga Village to call it by.

After listening to our case a second time (golly, this is sounding like a testimony straight out of Ace Attorney!), they agreed with us and thus, Ivory Lagiacrus was born!

Goldbeard Ceadeus

Like the other subspecies, we went with a name that referred to the color of the monster, so we proposed Amber Ceadeus to the team. The team on the other hand wanted to base this monster’s name not on the color, but on its presence. Since Ceadeus was originally a boss monster in the original Tri, they wanted to make this monster stand out.

The original Japanese name for the Ceadeus subspecies directly translates to Dragon Emperor of the Sea (皇海é¾), and the team told us that the kanji “皇” has the connotation of “first king of humankind”, so it’s a monster with unparalleled authority. That’s the type of name they wanted, and so after a lengthy period of brainstorming we came up with Eldritch Ceadeus, Goldbeard Ceadeus, and Emperor Ceadeus.

We thought Eldritch would be a great fit because it was an old and grand name that was also mysterious. For Goldbeard, we based it on the monster’s appearance but it’s also a play on famous feared leaders like Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Frederick Barbarossa (Redbeard), so it captured what the team wanted while still attaching a color to the name. As for Emperor Ceadeus… that’s pretty self-explanatory!

Hallowed Jhen Mohran

Our first proposed name for this gigantic subspecies of Jhen Mohran was Fey Jhen Mohran, a name that had otherworldly and dreadful nuances to it. It was also a short prefix for a monster that has a very long name. We had to keep in mind that in the European languages, the name would become way too long if we weren’t careful. Unfortunately the MH team wanted something different from what we came up. The materials that you can carve from this monster start with the name Sacred Mountain Dragon (霊山é¾) in Japanese, so the team wanted something closer to the original Japanese meaning.

Our second proposals were Elysian Jhen Mohran, after the Elysium/Elysian fields (the dwelling place of the blessed after death), Hallowed Jhen Mohran, which has connotations of holiness, and Arcane, a word with mystical meaning. Out of these three, we stressed that Elysian was the best of the bunch, while Hallowed and Arcane sounded a bit weaker.

However after reviewing our proposals, the team liked Hallowed Jhen Mohran the best, so we went with that. One of the problems we ran into because of this name is that it’s actually too long to fit into the quest descriptions, so we had to abbreviate it in English to just “H. Jhen Mohran”, which is a bummer.

And now, for the final big reveal!

The biggest, meanest, most ferocious monster in the entire game!

Slagtoth!

I can’t even upload a picture of this fearsome beast because he’s so terrifying!

Anyway! Slagtoth came about as a result of trying to convey a slow, flaccid feel to the monster while staying true to the name of Aptonoth, the other large herbivore in the game.

And that concludes the final blog about the localization of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate! There was obviously way more work put into the game than just localizing some names, but I hope that Monster Hunter fans around the world will be able to see where we were coming from when we started working on the game and appreciate (even a little bit). I’d like to send a very big thank you to the  people at 8-4 and Binari Sonari for being our go-to partners for the localization of this game, and of course, thanks to everyone who waited a long, long time for this game. Cheers!