Monster Hunter Freedom 2: Release date and new details emerge

It seems like good news and bad news always arrive together when it comes to the Monster Hunter franchise. For example, the game gives you a massive sword, gun or hammer to demolish the creatures you encounter in the game. The bad news? The wyverns are 10 times bigger than you and they can shoot fireballs out of their mouths. Capcom used this week’s Gamers Day event to announce the good news of their intention to ship Monster Hunter Freedom 2 to North America and Europe this coming September. The inevitable bad news is that they also confirmed that the game will not contain infrastructure mode of any kind. According to Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, they decided to cut this feature simply because it wasn’t necessary on the PSP:

“The reason we went with Ad Hoc wireless play for the PSP version was because the reason for having a PSP is the ability to take it out on the town, or to play with groups of friends while sitting down. Like when you go to the arcade with friends, you go to play with people in the same vicinity — you don’t go to play with people across the country.”

Despite this heartbreaking news for those of use who hate the outdoors or don’t have any friends, the single player experience appears to deliver the goods. Perhaps the most exciting change made in this version concerns load times. Instead of loading every time a player enters a new “zone”, the game now seamlessly streams new information from the disk, allowing for a smoother transition between areas. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 will also differ from its console counterpart by including a farm to make it easier for players to accumulate raw materials without the benefit of online hunting parties.

New screenshots added April 14, 2007:

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