While Capcom has been quite proactive in bringing its older Resident Evil titles to modern platforms, either through remasters or remakes, the company has been seemingly content to let older games in the Monster Hunter franchise stay where they are.
In a recent interview with Arrekz Gaming, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto revealed the complications that might arise if the studio were to remaster older Monster Hunter games for modern platforms.
The decision seemingly comes down to the fact that, from its very beginnings, Monster Hunter has always been envisioned as a multiplayer franchise first and foremost.
And because of this, the multiplayer systems in various Monster Hunter games over the years have been designed around the platforms the games were released on. “One of the barriers to trying to remaster or remake a Monster Hunter game is that it’s always been an online game with multiplayer,” said Tsujimoto. “So each generation of Monster Hunter game has been structured and built around the online capabilities of that generation.” “We now have a much better online infrastructure,” he continued. “Trying to go back to a game that was from 2004 Internet, update it in a way that actually feel[s] good to play in the modern day, would probably end up making so many changes that is it actually meaningful to call it a remake or a remaster of the first game?
I think that that’s one of the principal reasons we generally move forward with the series rather than look back to remakes.” For context, Monster Hunter originally made its debut on the PS2, and made heavy use of the console’s online modem for its multiplayer mode.