Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne Developer Diary #1, Expansion Details

In order to prepare us for the upcoming September release of Monster Hunter: World’s Iceborne expansion, Capcom’s Ryozo Tsujimoto, Kaname Fujioka and Daisuke Ichihara bring us a 20 minute long developer diary video where they discuss the expansion and its new features that include a new gathering hub, rebalanced difficulty settings, new monsters, and more. Have a look:

There’s also this new trailer that showcases Glavenus, one of the new monsters you’ll be able to hunt while playing Iceborne. Check it out:

At the same time, Game Informer continues its in-depth coverage of the snowy expansion and brings us this video where the game’s developers talk about Iceborne’s new Hoarfrost Reach area:

Then, there’s also three articles dedicated to Iceborne’s bestiary. Here are the entries for Barioth, Banbaro, and Velkhana. And finally, you can read an article-style interview focused on the game’s difficulty. An excerpt:

“I think for players who are going straight from the end of the story from World it’s going to feel a little more difficult when they’re transitioning into the new master rank for Iceborne,” says Kaname Fujioka, Iceborne’s executive director and art director. “If it’s players who have been going in-depth into the content for Monster Hunter World and the updates, then they’ll feel a much smoother transition for difficulty than other players will.”

Hunters who have dutifully kept up with all the previous updates will have an advantage over those who may have taken time off since beating the campaign or raced through it to be able to group up with friends in Iceborne. The team says they did try to make it easier for those latter players. “[S]till, we’ve taken great care to make sure that players who are just transitioning straight from World have no fear and have an easy time of getting into the game and enjoying themselves,” says game director Daisuke Ichihara.

Getting players acclimated to the new region – and difficulty – is important, but the team emphasizes that it’s not coming at the cost of end-game challenges. These are going to remain tough, Fujioka says. “We’ve taken that feedback to heart from players who wanted more difficulty and more challenge and really delivered on that,” he says.