With a game that’s as complex as Monster Hunter, learning the ropes requires a lot of patience and a guiding hand. The Monster Hunter community is one of most dedicated groups of players around, and, from personal experience, nobody ever hesitates to give out advice or mentor first-timers through the early stages of the game.

In Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, the early tutorials that teach you the basics of the game are abundant and cover everything from the basic controls to cooking meat and delivering items. It’s all done while you’re on specific quests, and they are definitely helpful when you don’t know a Nitroshroom from a Scatternut. But there was something we had an issue with…

If you can’t read Japanese, this message translates to “Do you want to hear that again?”, and automatically appears after every tutorial message. The cursor also defaults to Yes, so if you’re mashing buttons to get through the tutorial, you can accidentally select Yes and you’re sent through the entire thing again.

This was one of the first issues I brought to the Monster Hunter team, because I felt Western gamers wouldn’t respond well to it. After the director, Fujioka-san, explained their reasoning, I understood why they had made this decision. During the development of Monster Hunter 4, the team was directed to aim for a younger audience because the Nintendo 3DS’ market is younger than other platforms. To make sure the younger kids knew what do to, they added that question at the end of each tutorial just to be safe.

Overseas, the audience for Monster Hunter is older and more experienced with games, so they typically don’t need to read things twice to get the gist. With that in mind, we asked the team if we could remove that from our version of the game and they agreed. Woohoo! Victory #1! We also were able to naturally cut down on the tutorial length through shorter, but still entertaining dialogue – and no, we didn’t cut out anything from the tutorials – which means you can get back to the action a lot faster.

This is just one of the many subtle ways that we tweaked Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for its Western release to make it more enjoyable to play. I’ll go into detail about other things we did in future posts!

For now, let’s talk about monsters and Harth, the second village you’ll visit in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate !

The Troverian Town

When you first arrive in Harth, it’s a depressing run-down place, but that’s because the Troverian inhabitants have a ton of monster-related problems, and it’s your job as a hunter to solve them! Help them get back on their feet and the village will revert back to its bustling, fiery self!

In the Japanese version, the village was called Naguri, which roughly translates to “ striking things ”, in this case with a forging hammer. When we localized the title we had to go with a slightly different idea because I don’t think anyone wants to visit a place called Village of Hammering  Bros . Or maybe you do, who knows? Anyway, well-read people (or Blizzard fans) probably got this right away, but the name Harth is based on a traditional forging hearth, so we stuck with the original Japanese concept, but made it more intuitive for most non-Japanese speaking gamers.

Tetsucabra

One of the first monsters you’ll face after you arrive in Harth is Tetsucabra, a gigantic toad-like beast with massive tusks. Not only can it dig up and toss giant boulders at you, it also has a spit attack that drains all of your stamina, leaving you helpless as it bulldozes right through you. The naming process for Tetsucabra was a bit longer than we had anticipated. The monster’s Japanese name alludes to iron (hence “ tetsu ”), and character traits such as stubborn and demonic, so we aimed for a stubborn, tough-sounding name, and came up with Cabrado and Testaran. The former was based on a combination of obstinado (Spanish for stubborn) and an attempt to keep the cabura (ã‹ã¶ã‚‰) part of the Japanese name, which is a type of ogre-like tile found on Japanese rooftops. Testaran was conceived by combining testardo (Italian for stubborn, bullheaded) and Ranidae, the scientific family name for true frogs.

Cabura is a type of Onigawara, classic tiles found in Japanese architecture. There are ones that resemble demons too!

When we ran these names by Fujioka-san, he rejected both of them and asked for a couple of new proposals. The names themselves weren’t bad at all, he said, but Tetsucabra (and its subspecies) was designed with some Japanese overtones. Believe it or not, many of Tetsucabra’s attacks are based on sumo techniques, such as the sidestomp, which mimics a traditional shikogeri (四股蹴り), and his kanji name (鬼蛒) was created to appear more Japanese in nature. Knowing this information really helped, and we decided that if the monster was designed to be more Japanese, we ought to stick with the Japanese name for MH4U.

Berserk Tetsucabra

The subspecies name was a lot trickier to come up with because of the information we got from the team. The kanji name changed to depict a “crazy demon frog” (è’鬼蛒), and when we talked with Fujioka-san, he wanted a Japanese-sounding name based on the term aragoto (è’事). This word has its roots in theatrical kabuki, and is a type of role the actors play. Aragoto style refers to a very wild, exaggerated acting style that focuses on loud, bold words and actions. The kabuki actors who assume this role often wear white makeup with striking red patterns, which you can even see in the Berserk Tetsucabra’s face when he gets angry. (Incidentally, the opposite of aragoto is wagoto (和事), a supporting role with a softer, gentler tone.)

  (Example of Kabuki aragoto and its counterpart, wagoto.)

The Gauntlet of Fujioka was thrown down, and we had to come up with something that was going to get this whole aragoto business through to the player. But how? In Western plays there aren’t many suitable words to describe this idea, and we had to make it sound Japanese, too.

We decided to come up with two different takes on the name. One was Chambara Tetsucabra, a term that’s associated with the samurai cinema genre in English. It’s not a widely used term for sure, but we thought enough people would know about it to make it work. We thought this was a bit of a mouthful to say, but having both words end with similar sounds would make it easier to remember – and it also sounds cool.

The other name was Magmacabra, which isn’t based on aragoto, but on the attacks the monster utilizes. The subspecies digs up and tosses molten boulders instead of plain ol’ rocks, so we thought it’d be a good fit. Yeah, it didn’t match with the aragoto theme, but it was consistent with how we normally name our subspecies by basing it on color or characteristics.

Fujioka-san didn’t like either name, as Chambara sounded a little too weird, and Magmacabra broke convention with other subspecies names, because we usually have a prefix and the monster name, not a merging of the two, so we made a hasty retreat to Castle Brainstorm! This challenge proved to be a bit too much for us, unfortunately, so we came back to Fujioka-san with just one more proposal. Instead of something Japanese sounding, we proposed Berserk Tetsucabra. It still conjures up an image of a wild, swing-for-the-fences type of monster and is also easy to understand. Given the options we threw out there, Fujioka-san agreed that Berserk was the best-sounding name out of the bunch and we went ahead with that.

Ruby Basarios

Ruby Basarios was an odd case for us because it highlighted just how different the meaning of words can be, particularly if they’re used in different cultures. We came up with a short list of possible names for Basarios’ subspecies, including Coral, Azalea and Ruby. Obviously, we loved the last one because it truly represented what this monster was – a colorful and rock-solid beast. However, Fujioka-san and lead designer Tokuda-san didn’t agree with our assessment. They thought the word Ruby sounded too cute instead of sounding hard and solid. We had to talk about this for a good half hour, but eventually we won them over thanks to the combined might of my laptop and Wikipedia!

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading! I’ll have another article ready next week, where I’ll talk about a dangerous couple and one of the new weapons in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate !

It wouldn’t be a launch party without a cosplay contest!

With that in mind, dust off your Jill / Chris / Wesker / Rebecca / Barry / literally any other REmake character outfits, wear them to our Fright Club and you might win one of the Umbrella gift packs AND a free download of Resident Evil!

We will judge the costumes on-site, during the event. The winner will receive one of the Umbrella packs (seen above, or pre-ordered over here ) and can choose a platform for a free copy of the game, available January 20th.

Everyone else: come play RE before it launches, get hands-on with Revelations 2, meet some of the REmake voice actors and more!

RSVP for the event today!

Good news for those eagerly awaiting the release of DmC: Definitive Edition this March on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game, originally slated for release beginning March 17 ^th , is now coming out one week earlier, beginning March 10 ^th!

To celebrate, how about a new batch of screens?

Be sure to follow Devil May Cry on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest and greatest in the world of Devil May Cry.

If hands-on time with Resident Evil and Revelations 2 wasn’t enough of an incentive to make it out to our LA Fright Club , then how about a special bundle of Umbrella goodies AND a chance to meet with RE voice actors?

Peter Jessop (Wesker, left) and Joe Whyte (right, Chris) lent their talents to the 2002 version of Resident Evil, meaning their voices will once again grace our ears come January 20 – the release date of the enhanced 2002 REmake.

Come by, say hi and mingle with these and other special guests!

Additionally, if you visit the RSVP site you can also pre-order a special Umbrella-themed gift pack that contains everything you see above for just $50. Individually these items ring in around $65 so if something speaks to you, pick it up!

And again, you’ll also be able to play both Resident Evil AND Revelations 2.

Hope to see you out in LA!

I’ve been seeing this question come up a few times on the web, so wanted to clarify here, and take the time to show a really cool piece of art. 😉

So to keep it short and sweet, we’ve updated the temporary art of the cleaning cloth with a final comp: it now features the World Map illutration from  Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate .

Beautiful, isn’t it? It might be my favorite item in the pack. BTW, we’re almost running out of Collector’s Edition units, so you should pre-order yours ASAP!

Episode 20 of our podcast is up to kick off the new year! Within, Yuri, special guest Andrew Schnorr, and I talk Devil May Cry, with a focus on the recent DmC news. 

Go here to listen.

Community Question:  Why are you  (or aren’t you ) a Devil May Cry fan? And how important do you think difficulty is to the overall Devil May Cry experience? 

One insightful commenter will receive this lovely  copy of UDON Entertainment’s  DmC Devil May Cry Visual Art. 

Ah, we all remember that classic catchy tune that played as we carefully crafted a team of 3 out of a whopping 56 character list, right…? Now thanks to Triforcefilms , we can  finally hear it in  a  capella form! Check it out:

Oh man… all this a capella jazz is just too much. But my favorite part was definitely him mimicking the announcer in the beginning of the fight. lol

(via Capcom Unity Brasil)

The soundtrack to 2014’s frantic throwback title  Strider , which as you may recall, included awesome remixes of classic Strider tunes , has just been named the number one best game soundtrack of 2014 by the game music aficionados over at Sumthing.com . Intense praise for the game’s composer Michael John Mollo abounds in Sumthing’s write-up:

Mollo’s work on Strider is no sloppy collage of various diametric applications made to fit inside a grid. Mollo is poignantly, naturally textural, and sensitive to the meter of his scenes, and while he may scrutinize, he never once manufactures.

As it happens, the game is currently half price on Steam , so if you haven’t already, you should probably pick it up, slam on some headphones, and blast off into ninja-space.

Thanks to Sumthing for the high accolades!

Starting today you can pre-purchase the 2015 update to Resident Evil on Steam and receive two digital freebies – a 30+-track Soundtrack Selects and G. Trevor Mansion Guide!

The Mansion Guide is a collection of images that take you on a virtual tour of the main mansion floor plan. It’s a nice trip around some familiar territory that now looks better than ever.

Game Informer’s most recent digital issue (Feb) contains a glowing 9.5/10 (!!) review that contains these accolades:

“A high-definition version of the phenomenal GameCube remake”

“A beautiful, atmospheric masterpiece”

“The most accessible entry point into the classic RE formula”

“One of the greatest horror games of all time becomes even better”

The game releases starting January 20!

And don’t forget you can pre-order on PS4/PS3 and Xbox One as well, should you be without a PC!

Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year! If this is the first time you’re reading one of my posts, my name is Andrew Alfonso, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s Localization Director. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for Capcom Unity, but I’m super excited to give you some insight on the development of one of Capcom’s biggest titles this year. I know fans have been waiting patiently for this title, but the wait is going to be well worth it! This is the definitive version of Monster Hunter 4, and, on top of that, you’re getting a bunch of content that doesn’t even exist in the Japanese version.

To tell you a little bit about myself, I started at Capcom in 2007 as an editor, working on titles such as Mega Man Star Force , Devil May Cry 4, Ace Attorney, and Street Fighter 4.  Eventually I became a translator and the lead on titles such as Super Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter X Tekken. I’ve been a huge fan of Capcom games since I was young, and being able to work on franchises such as Street Fighter and Devil May Cry has been a dream come true for me. It was during my time at Capcom when I started playing Monster Hunter, beginning with Monster Hunter Freedom. I didn’t know a lot of people who played the game so I didn’t get far, but that changed with Freedom Unite, when I found a friendly group of people who helped me learn the ropes. From that point on I was hooked; I put in a good 300 – 400 hours in both Monster Hunter Tri and Portable 3 ^rd, and only (?) 200 hours into Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which I played solo until the end of G-rank. Soloing MH3U was okay until I got to…

Yeah…that was not pleasant.

I’ve played a total of 600 hours across Monster Hunter 4 and 4G , with no intention of slowing down! It really is an honor to work on a series that I truly enjoy, and I can only hope I do the Monster Hunter team’s work justice with my work on the international version.

How It All Started

The last major title that I led was Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, which was released about two years ago. We started planning the localization of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate around September 2013, when the Japanese version of Monster Hunter 4 was released. We handled the localization of MH4U quite differently compared to MH3U, so before I start introducing our monsters, I wanted to touch upon that for a bit. I hope you don’t gloss over anything, but if you do, I won’t be offended. Not too much. Actually, I’ll be pretty bitter if you don’t read this. Maybe.

Now, I know a lot of fans have this idea that localizing a “simple” game like Monster Hunter should be easy. They say that there isn’t a lot of text, and you can just copy and paste stuff from the previous games and save time; you can wave a Rathian tail in the air and the game magically translates itself.

Well, let’s kill those misconceptions right here. This game has a lot of friggin’ stuff to localize. In fact, it has more text than titles such as Dragon’s Dogma and Ace Attorney. There was so much to translate that we flew a small army of translators to a remote island with only Microsoft Excel and an internet connection to get the job done.

I’m not exaggerating either. I have the receipts!

But if there were so many returning monsters in MH4U, why didn’t we just use existing translations for the relevant items, armor sets, and so on, you ask? Because we have standards, and they change over time. What was considered a good localization five or six years ago when Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was released may not be considered good now. When it comes to localization, companies like Nintendo, Atlus and Square-Enix are producing top-notch games, and if we want to keep our place at the table, we can’t have any sacred cows. Changing things for the sake of change is a bad idea, but holding on to something because that’s how it’s always been done is just as damning. As the Localization Director, I feel that if we can make things better, at the very least we need discussions about it to see if the end result is worth the effort.

Take for example, the names of materials from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Two returning monsters are Teostra and Kushala Daora, and after a hunt you could carve items such as “LthrTeostraTail” and “Str Daora Wing” from them. Now, I don’t know about you, but those names look…weird. A couple of words are abbreviated and spaces are missing between words. In Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate we came up with a new naming scheme that made things a lot easier to read, so we had to apply that to all of the returning items. Now you can carve a “Teostra Lash” and “Daora Fellwing,” which look and sound a lot better.

Under the Hood

Another thing we did with MH4U that we couldn’t do with MH3U is related to the UI and tutorials. We were able to tinker with them in ways that we weren’t able to do in the past. We consulted with MH4U director Kaname Fujioka and lead designer Yuya Tokuda about what we wanted to do for the western release and received their blessing to change the UI and tutorials in subtle ways that will make the experience smoother for players overseas. (I have a good two months of blogs planned, so somewhere down the line I’ll delve into these topics a bit more!)

During previous projects, the localization lead stayed with the rest of the localization team while handling a title, but nowadays the Localization Director joins the dev team for the duration of the project. The localization team and all of the dev teams are only separated by a couple of floors, but because so much communication is done verbally, not being physically present means you either don’t get the information you need, or you can’t see potential problems before they happen. Sitting with the team makes communication so much easier, which results in a better product. The Monster Hunter team also agreed that it would be a good idea for me to stay with the team as the Localization Director, and I think it really helped out in the long run.

Okay, so let’s talk monsters and your starting village!

The Hunter’s Mecca

The game begins with you off in Val Habar, a bustling settlement that attracts hunters far and wide, and comes complete with its own Gathering Hall. It should be obvious at first glance, but the team was aiming for something akin to a Middle Eastern marketplace or bazaar. When we were thinking about the name for this location, we felt it was a good fit but needed some tinkering to make it easier to say. Some suggestions that were thrown around were Balbary, Valvare, Valbar and Barbaary, but we thought splitting the name into two words would make it easier to say. Other than that point, this name doesn’t stray too far from the original Japanese term.

Welcome to Val Habar!

Gore Magala

The flagship monster of Monster Hunter 4 in Japan was the first to be localized into English, as the monster was scheduled to appear on select Uniqlo merchandise. This request came much earlier than the localization of the game, so we stuck with a Romanization of the original Japanese name, but I wanted to give the name some meaning to people who understand English. We proposed using Gore instead of the Romanized Goa to infer an evil, sinister monster…as if you couldn’t get that by just looking at the thing!

Gore Magala’s name was first created for use on Uniqlo merchandise.

An illustration of Gore Magala referenced during localization.

When the localization of the game began, we began thinking of some new names; we liked the “Magala” part of the name (which translates loosely to “incarnation” in Aramaic), but tinkered around with it. In the end, we came back to the original name we proposed. It seemed to fit too well with the monster’s look. We did try to play around with the Magala name; we thought of names such as Espira Magala, which was based on the French word for spirit, but I think we just liked the original name the best so we left it as is.

Kecha Wacha

Like Gore Magala, Kecha Wacha was also localized into English way ahead of the actual localization of the game. We had to give this monkey-like monster a name for the demo version of MH4 that was to debut at Tokyo Game Show 2012. While the Monster Hunter team said we were free to change it to another name, this was another case where we liked the original name a lot. It’s really fun to say, it rolls off the tongue, and it has a playful sound to it. We also thought it matched the monster’s behavior very well – it’s named after a Balinese dance called Kecak and the Taiwanese word for whimsy. Although we thought of some other names, such as Lespina, a combination of Lendama (Estonian for fly) and Apina (Finnish for monkey), and Lycapex, those never got proposed because we liked Kecha Wacha way too much.

Ash Kecha Wacha

Up until Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, we tried to give each subspecies their own unique moniker, but with so many monsters in the series, we’re running out of ways to describe them! As a general rule we try to name subspecies by color, but Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate saw a few monsters, such as Goldbeard Ceadeus and Baleful Gigginox, named after their characteristics or their status in the MH world. For the Kecha Wacha subspecies, we thought up a bunch of names and settled on three: Ash, Argent, and Ember.

Argent was based on the monster’s fur color and sounded a lot better than simply using gray. Ember was based on the monster’s attack element, Fire, and Ash was a combination of the monster’s color plus the attack element.

That’s it for now. If you’ve made it through this gigantic wall of text, thanks a lot for reading! I’ve got a lot of posts planned, and this time around we’ll touch upon not only the process of coming up with monster names, but other little tweaks that we did to the Western release of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate to make it even better!

If you are an Xbox One player eagerly awaiting the January 20th release of the remastered  Resident Evil,  you can place your digital pre-order today! Just head over to the Xbox LIVE product page and do the deed! As you may know, Xbox One pre-orders are preload supported, so the game will be ready to play as soon as it officially releases.

The folks over at NECA don’t just make licensed goods–they make licensed  greats. As proof, go check out the seven-inch Dante figure due out this March, which features Dante’s classy  Devil May Cry 1 design, thirty-five points of articulation, and his trademark Ebony & Ivory, the Shotgun, and removable muzzle flash effects. Just hook it to my veins!

The figure is only getting one run, so be sure to keep an eye on it and pounce when ready.