Those needing a little prodding (as if) to get back into Monster Hunter: World in preparation for the upcoming Iceborne expansion (featuring Geralt and company from The Witcher 3) can check out the May 30th 2019 issue of Weekly Famitsu. The issue has an interview with executive director/art director Fujioka Kaname, producer Tsujimoto Ryouzou, and director Ichihara Daisuke.
Or, if you can’t read Japanese, Frontline has you covered with a translated transcription of the interview.
Among the topics discussed, Tsujimoto says that with the Iceborne expansion, a new rank is unlocked once you finish the main story for Monster Hunter: World, and even though the majority of Iceborne’s story takes place on the new Hoarfrost Reach field, there will still be quests on the pre-existing fields as well.
When asked about his work as director of Iceborne, Ichihara says that development on Iceborne was going on at the same time as Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate for the Switch. Though since Generations was a port, he was allotted more time for Iceborne.
Speaking of which, the topic of the expansion’s story came around, to which the group refrained from elaborating on, but they said that the story of takes place after MH:W’s main story, where new discoveries are made about the new world, which leads the fifth fleet to a new area.
Elsewhere, new monsters in the expansion are discussed. The Banbaro is found in the early to mid parts of the expansion, and relies on charging attacks. The Beotodus is the first monster that the player encounters in the Hoarfrost Reach, and relies on the snow for its attacks, which means the player will have to figure out how to get it out of the snow. The group briefly discussed the ice elemental elder dragon, the Velkhana. Fujioka says that they cannot reveal a lot of the details yet, but seeing as MH:W focused on chasing after elder dragons, they felt that Iceborne needed one, as well.
You can read up on the rest of the interview from the Frontline link above.
New info on Iceborne will be available at E3 2019, while the expansion is slated for a September 9th release for consoles, with a Winter 2019 release for PC.