Monster Hunter X Announced For 3DS

Capcom has officially announced Monster Hunter X for the Nintendo 3DS. The game brings back a lot of the classic weapons but also introduces lots of new moves, specials and attacks that gives the game a lot of pizzazz and flash. Check out the new announcement trailer to see what the game is all about.

Siliconera did a brief write-up on the game explaining that Capcom wanted to introduce some new moves to the player-character's repertoire as well as add some of the panache that the Monster Hunter Frontier games are known for.

You can see throughout the trailer that the game does indeed contain a lot of new animations and attacks that help give each weapon set the appearance of their own combat identity. In one of the segments while the player was dual-wielding some interesting looking blades, the combat and attacks reminded me a lot of Dragon's Dogma, Capcom's other well-regarded RPG series that was sadly relegated to the MMO genre where it may either flourish as a free-to-play game or fade into obscurity as is often the case with most other MMORPGs in today's over saturated market.

Monster Hunter X – or Monster Hunter Cross for those worried about this being Monster Hunter 10 – will be arriving on the market with very few competitors that offer the kind of gameplay that the Monster Hunter series is known for.

Speaking of what the Monster Hunter series is known for... there's a lot to discuss that was showcased in the trailer. There are a ton of new monsters on display and we see that some of them have some fairly devastating attacks at their disposal. For instance, during the end sequence we see that the dragon-type monster swinging and swatting at the player with its tail and as the player attempts to get out of the way it shoots a fireball. Now that sounds tame but it's the follow-up that had me excited: the monster proceeds to shoot a second fireball toward the player's position where they just finished the roll, causing the player character to get hit. Basically, whether it's just patterned AI behavior or adaptive AI behavior doesn't really matter, the designers have enemies who will be ready for your every attack and your every counter-attack, creating a very robust and dynamic battle atmosphere.

I suppose this is one of the things that really makes the Monster Hunter games stand out because it's not just getting a big weapon and cutting away until the monster dies, it's actually engaging in the fight and being aware of what the monster is doing so you can be ready for its attacks and stage a proper defense and counter-measure in order to get out of the fight alive.

Monster Hunter games are some of the few on the market where skill, strategy and active combat tactics are always a must. This latest Monster Hunter X is due for release this upcoming winter in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS.

Given Capcom's devotion to Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for the Nintendo 3DS and the constant stream of DLC that they release each month, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Monster Hunter X will find its way into North America and Europe shortly after launching in Japan.