The second season of Monster Hunter Now will be released Dec. 7.
This is the first content update to the augmented reality mobile game, a joint venture between Capcom and Pokémon GO developer Niantic, since its launch in September. Aside from the wintry landscape that Monster Hunter Now: Fulminations in the Frost introduces, it will also welcome four new monsters to its immersive gameplay: Zinogre, Banbaro, Barioth, and Radobaan. Two new small monsters, Cortos and Wulg, will also make their Monster Hunter Now debut.
New weaponry is a key component of the new season as well. Two additions, the Lance, which offers players an extended reach for engaging large monsters, and the Dual Blades, intended for close-range encounters, correlate to a change in the actual gameplay balance itself.
In the current iteration of the game, attacks from different distances do equal damage to Monsters. In the forthcoming update, attacks that are closer, and therefore riskier to the player, will inflict more damage. This is part of an initiative to make the game “more fair,” says Dan Inamoto, Senior Director of Global Product Marketing at Niantic.
After the success of Pokémon GO, Niantic’s release of Monster Hunter Now was the company’s first foray into action-centric gaming. It was met with an initial monstrous success; Monster Hunter Now had three million pre-registrations ahead of its release and now boasts around 10 million registrations. Monster Hunter, the Japanese intellectual property, was first a video game for the PlayStation 2 console in 2004 and has appeared in various iterations since.
Monster Hunter Now: Fulminations in the Frost will become available Dec. 7 and, according to Niantic, a major hunting experience change, plus more surprises, will be in store in the coming weeks. For more information visit monsterhunternow.com.
