Throughout many Monster Hunter entries, a fictional language – known among fans as the Monster Hunter language – has been used as a “common language” in the in-game universe. It serves as a valuable world-building element – with its own bits of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics. However, the language has, for the most part, been removed from the series’ newest, story-focused installment Monster Hunter Wilds. A linguist and passionate Monster Hunter fan dedicated to researching and documenting the language has expressed their concern over the topic, explaining that the remaining bits of it that appear in the game negatively affect the relevance of all of their research so far.
In the earlier Monster Hunter titles, the language spoken by NPCs was created by making the voice actors pronounce words in a way that fits the games’ vibe or by playing Japanese voice lines in reverse. However, with the release of Monster Hunter Stories in 2016, the Monster Hunter language evolved into a full-on language with its own grammar and vocabulary. From there, major entries like Monster Hunter world and Rise continued the tradition.
However, with the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, the option to switch to the Monster Hunter language was gone, possibly due to the sheer volume of dialogue in the new game. Even though there are still some hints of the language scattered throughout the dialogues between the NPCs and in the lyrics of the song performed by the Diva that appears in the Grand Hub, it is very clear that the Monster Hunter language doesn’t have such an impactful presence as it had in the previous titles.
In a recent X post, Moofah Melody expresses concern about her research project losing relevance, stating that she is not sure if it’s worth continuing, given that the Monster Hunter language is practically not included in the new title. Moofah Melody is a linguist whose passion project is research of the Monster Hunter language, and so far, she has created a dictionary with over 600 entries and over 50 pages of learning material on the topic, thoroughly explaining the phonetics and grammar of the fictional language.
In a follow-up post, she explains that another reason why Monster Hunter Wilds is negatively impacting her research is because the already scarce Monster Hunter language that appears in Wilds is completely different to the one that appears in the previous games. This would affect not only the relevance of her research, but it could also possibly break the world-building continuity of the Monster Hunter universe. On the other hand, many fans expressed their support for Melody, encouraging her not to give up on her passion project.
In an interview with Denfaminicogamer, the executive director of Monster Hunter, Kaname Fujioka, explained that rather than scrapping the Monster Hunter language completely, the new game is more akin to a “localized version.” He also mentioned that the developers tried to preserve the vibes of the language throughout many of the NPC’s voice lines, and that the Monster Hunter Language is far from gone. So far, there have been no official news about a potential addition of the full Monster Hunter language voiceover option to Wilds, but as the developers confirmed that the language hasn’t been completely scrapped, there might be a chance of the language reappearing in future updates or entries.
