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Move over, Bloodborne; a new terrifying tentacle creature is in town, Monster Hunter Wilds' Oilwell Basin Apex Nu Udra.
In a new video shared by IGN, we get a good long look at the Nu Udra, a slimy, oily octopus-looking monster that can set itself on fire. It writhes as you attack it, pulses when it grabs you and moves, and has far too many orifices that open out of nowhere. Director Yuya Tokuda is very proud of it.
"When we saw the tests, we also thought to make it the apex predator of the Oilwell Basin," Tokuda tells IGN. "While there are countless proposals that I've had rejected due to technical reasons, it feels like I'm finally getting to attempt one of those this time around."
It's hard to overstate just how impressive the monster is. Getting a creature like that to interact with the terrain properly is not easy, especially when you add all the lighting effects to it once it's on fire. It also scurries off into a hole, a moment the animators want people to pay attention to.
"When we first implemented the movement of it going inside a hole, an animator told me, 'When you weaken it and it starts heading back to its nest, please wait here for a moment,'" Tokuda remembers. "They wanted me to see it going into its little hole, and I still remember replying, 'Oh, that really is amazing!' The animator looked so satisfied as well."
The cool thing here is that everyone's fight with Nu Udra will be different, so we may not all see the same animations. "It might not be easy to get the chance to see it, but the way it squirms around while wrapped around a pipe is so well made, too," Tokuda says. "Only games are able to depict things like that in real-time instead of as some premade scene. I'm incredibly proud of it as a crystallization of the staff's efforts."
While the creature is a marvel to look at, it'll be important not to get too engrossed in its grossness. "We've made it so that it has sensory organs at the tips of its tentacles that use light to indicate when and who it's going to attack," Tokuda explains. Also, "You can cut off so many tentacles," so you'll be able to whittle the creature down and turn it into fresh calamari in no time. That improved hitstop will feel so good as it cleaves through all those tentacles.
If you want to learn more about the game, check out our own Monster Hunter Wilds preview.
