Monster Hunter Wilds dev says remaking the series' old games is hard because "trying to go back to a game that was from 2004 Internet" takes so many changes it becomes a reboot

Have you ever wanted a remake of an old Monster Hunter game? Well, that's too bad because the team would rather look to the future than try to recreate products of the Internet's past.

In an interview with Arekkz Gaming, Monster Hunter Wilds producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explains via translator Patrick that "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. So each generation of Monster Hunter game has been structured and built around the online capabilities of that generation."

The first Monster Hunter game came out in 2004 on the PS2. Yeah, the PS2 could connect to the Internet, wild to think about now. But, online capabilities looked very different back then.

"We now have a much better online infrastructure," says Tsujimoto. "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."

YouTube

Watch On

Many games are designed with regard to the technological difficulties of their time. The fog in Silent Hill is one of the most famous examples. So, remaking a 2004 online game with today's co-op capabilities would make it entirely different.

"That's not to say we rule anything out completely," Tsujimoto continues. "We just like to have an open approach to what we would do in the future. But ultimately, things like implementing crossplay in Monster Hunter Wilds, it feels like a better use of our resources to bring better features to new titles rather than to necessarily think about using resources to just bring back one of the older games."

While it would be cool to go back and experience the origins of the games, Monster Hunter feels like a series that's very much rooted in the specific time it was made, and I'm glad the team is working on making the upcoming games better rather than trying to capitalize on our nostalgia.

If you want to get stuck into another co-op experience, check out our list of the best online games you can play today.