Ever wonder how long it takes to design one of Monster Hunter's titular monsters? According to one Monster Hunter Wilds dev, it's probably a lot longer than you'd think

These things aren't just bashed out in a couple minutes you know.

Ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds release in a couple months time, the game's art director has shared just how long it takes to design one of its many huntable beasts.

Considering how long Monster Hunter has been around for now - 20 years next year! - you would think that designing the titular monsters would have been condensed into an exact science, but it turns out that it actually takes quite a while just to design one of them. Art director Kaname Fujioka, who directed the very first entry way back when and numerous other titles in the series since, recently spoke with Screen Rant where he shared that each monster takes about a year from start to finish. "Many monsters are designed and created at the same time, like parallel, so it's kind of hard to tell which monsters took how long, but typically an average from planning a monster, designing it, making the models, animation, usually takes about one year for a monster."

That doesn't mean they only take a year either though, as Fujioka explained that things like small detail tweaks, potentially adding or removing certain elements, or just refining a design can add more time on top of that. Wild's signature monster Arkveld was apparently particularly difficult to implement into the game due to its complicated design, with Fujioka explaining, "The flagship monster for Monster Hunter Wilds obviously took a very long time, because it has to do with the story of the game and we wanted people to enjoy for a long time hunting this monster."

Interestingly, Fujioka also shared that when they're developing a monster, the team wants to "focus on how each person will be able to find their own favorite monster," which is a little funny to me considering Pokemon are designed in a similar manner, except with Monster Hunter you're, you know, hunting them.

You don't have all that long to wait for Monster Hunter Wilds now, as the game is currently set to be released this coming February 28, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.