Monster Hunter Generations

Monster Hunter Generations features gameplay similar to past titles in the series. The player assumes the role of a hunter who embarks on quests to hunt dangerous creatures. A hunter's abilities are determined by the type of armor and weapons that they wear on a quest, as the hunter otherwise has no intrinsic attributes that affect gameplay. All fourteen weapon types from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, ranging from swords, hammers, bows, guns, and lances, are included in Monster Hunter Generations, in addition to the new Prowler mode which allows the player to take the role of a Felyne, a sentient cat-like species.

Each weapon has different sets of moves and abilities that can be employed while in the field. Armors grant defensive bonuses to physical and elemental damage and can boost specific skills and attack types through base attributes and the addition of special decoration gems and talismans. To make a more powerful hunter that can survive against more dangerous creatures, the player takes materials carved from monsters (either slain or captured via traps), as well as materials gathered from the various fields and purchased in village stores, to craft new armor or to craft and upgrade weapons. Defeating more powerful creatures enables even more potent equipment to be crafted, thus creating a gameplay progress through the game's loot system.

Planning for Monster Hunter Generations began during the development of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The game's Japanese title—Monster Hunter X, pronounced as Monster Hunter Cross—originated from the idea of crossing old and new elements of the series in the game. Series executive producer Ryozo Tsujimoto saw that since it had been more than ten years since the beginning of the franchise, they wanted to celebrate the occasion, putting the idea of the game as "a festival feeling, a special event". Game producer, Shintaro Kojima, noted that "the letter X looks like it divides the given space into four… so four hunting styles, four large main monsters, four villages.

They’re all crossing." The four flagship monsters featured in this title are Astalos, Gammoth, Mizutsune, and Glavenus.

Following the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association named Monster Hunter Generations as one of ten winners for the "Future Division" Award.

Prior to the game's launch, Capcom expected to sell 2.5 million copies of Monster Hunter Generations by March 2016. The game sold over 1.5 million units in its first two days, and as of December 24, 2015, the game has sold over 3 million copies. Japanese sales tracker, Media Create reported that Monster Hunter Generations sold through over 91% of its retail stock in its first week. Total software sales in Japan during the week of the game's launch were the highest recorded so far in 2015, with Monster Hunter Generations contributing over 75% of sales. The launch also led to a rise in total hardware sales, with sales of the New Nintendo 3DS XL increasing by over 360% from the previous week.