Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto has explained why fan-favorite monster Lagiacrus won’t be making a return in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.
Tsujimoto and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak director Yoshitake Suzuki spoke to IGN about the upcoming expansion, and detailed why Lagiacrus was passed over, even though “the desire is definitely there.”
“Unfortunately Lagiacrus is just a very technological…difficult monster to implement. It’s very snake-like, its parts are all kind of touching the ground at different moments,” Tsujimoto explained. “So it’s very like a writhing sort of ground-based monster.”
Tsujimoto continued to explain that the variety of terrain – and its many inclines and drops – in recent Monster Hunter games makes it especially difficult to implement monsters like Lagiacrus.
“We’d like to look back on it sometime, but just the technological difficulties, they are kind of daunting,” lamented Tsujimoto.
Lagiacrus was introduced as one of the first Leviathan monsters in Monster Hunter Tri as a flagship monster. Though there are other Leviathans in Rise, like Monster Hunter Generations’ Mizutsune and newcomer Almudron, Lagiacrus has a few additional design difficulties that the other Leviathans don’t seem to share.
One, neither Mizutsune nor Almudron drag their bodies on the ground quite like Lagiacrus does. Some of Mizutsune’s chest may touch the floor, and both possess special movements, but neither have as many contact points to the ground like Lagiacrus does during normal modes of movement.
Two, both of Rise’s Leviathans were created to battle it out with hunters on land. Lagiacrus on the other hand was originally designed to fight fully submerged underwater a majority of the time, to take full advantage of Tri’s unique underwater combat mechanics. It’s clearly not an easy transition to make into new games.
Lagiacrus almost made it into Monster Hunter World’s roster and even appeared in the Monster Hunter World prototype shown at a GDC 2018 panel, but was ultimately abandoned in World for similar reasons.
As reported by Gaijin Hunter, Monster Hunter World executive director Kaname Fujioka described why they didn’t use Lagiacrus for Monster Hunter World in an episode of Capcom’s Monster Hunter Radio podcast. Essentially, the problem is that much of its body is laying on the ground, echoing the explanation from Tsujimoto. Fujioka said a team even took a second shot at getting Lagiacrus to work for Monster Hunter World’s expansion, Iceborne, but were unable to make it happen. The explanation doesn’t bode well for another “snake-like” monster in the series, Najarala, whose body also has many contact points with the ground.
Contrarily, Lagiacrus did make an appearance exclusively on land in Monster Hunter Generations (and Generations Ultimate). It probably didn’t hurt that both games were built with the same engine, plus, Monster Hunter Generations was meant to be a celebration of 10 years of Monster Hunter, so the absence of a flagship cover monster would have been pretty glaring, even if the alternative was to include it with an impaired, land-only kit on mostly familiar maps.
The Flooded Forest, introduced in Tri and remade for Rise, is one such map familiar to Lagiacrus, and one of the reasons fans may have hoped for its triumphant return. In Tri, Flooded Forest featured fully underwater environments. But, by Lagiacrus’ confirmed absence, we can assume underwater combat is out for now, too.
When deciding which monsters to include, the developers said the “design goal is to ensure every monster has an impact,” and for returning monsters, “for them to mesh well with the unique gameplay elements of the new title.”
Though Sunbreak isn’t getting Lagiacrus, it is seeing the return of Monster Hunter 4’s flagship monster, Seregios, plus brand new Monster Hunter monsters, like Lunagaron. You can watch brand new gameplay of Lunagaron in the video above.
Sunbreak is described as a massive expansion for Monster Hunter Rise, similar to Monster Hunter World’s Iceborne. It includes new Master Rank quests, a new flagship Elder Dragon, Malzeno, quality of life improvements, and more. Sunbreak will be released simultaneously for both PC and Switch on June 30, 2022.