Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Weapon Contest

 So I've talked on the blog before about how obsessed I get with the Monster Hunter games. There is something incredibly simple yet satisfying about them. They are essentially a loot grinding type of action/action RPG subgenre which is immensely popular in Japan and the East. The games have been getting more popular in English speaking countries in Europe and USA since the release of the original games, and then Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP, and more recently Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii and Monster Hunter Tri(3) Ultimate on the Wii U and 3DS.
They have kind of found themselves at the top of this subgenre, and many games have tried to replicate the idea. With games like Gods Eater Burst, Soul Sacrifice, Lord of Arcana, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace and Toukiden: The Age of Demons attempting a similar idea. Probably the Gods Eater series succeeded the most out of them, however I am getting sidetracked.

 I am really into the Monster Hunter games as I said before, with hundreds of hours over the span of the series (in fact, I've only played a few from the series, MHFU, MHP3rd, MHTri and MH3U.)
So I was really pleased when the news came out that Monster Hunter 4 would be localised in the form of a new game, the "G" or updated version of Monster Hunter 4. They are going with the terminology they used for MH3U, calling it Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and we will see this game in 2015 at some point.
To commemorate this, they are holding a competition where fans of the series can enter a weapon of their design to potentially be in the game when it releases in English. Quite a few games have done this recently, with a lot of kickstarter projects and even big budget games like Dark Souls II holding something similar.
I had known about this contest for a while, but being busy with university, I only managed to put something together in the last day or two before the contest ended. Nonetheless, I am fairly happy with how it turned out.

Pasted from my email entry:
"Please find attached my entry for the MH4U Weapon Design contest. The name of the weapon is Sandhya and it is a Sword and Shield class weapon.
The idea behind the weapon is the balance between the sun and moon and the day and night cycle. Originally I had planned to make either the Sword or shield with the theme of solely the sun, and the other piece of the equipment would have the moon as its theme. I ended up making the balance between the two prevalent in both the sword and shield design.

How I arrived at the name, and what it means: I wanted a name that brought together the sun and the moon, i.e. a general term for the two.
Some ideas I had and weren't my final choices: "Sunrise, Sunset", "Luna and Sol", "Twilight", "Sunrise Sword", "Sunburst Sword"
I like the idea of the duality of the sun and the moon, and tried to make them equal in the design. Sandhya is a term in Sanskrit for either twilight or the transition between day and night. I don't have a set idea for the element or different sharpness levels of this weapon, but I believe Fire element, or even a dual element would a good choice.
Thanks for bringing MH4U to the west!"

The Sword and Shield is my favourite weapon class as that is what I learned with in my first game in the series (MHFU). It is a great weapon type for newcomers but it can also offer some really good support, status and elemental damage in the endgame weapons as well. Really diverse, fast, and it has the block function that I really like as well. Its a good overall weapon. So this design I had here definitely could have been better and more refined if I had more time, but I quite like the concept. Hopefully they like it. It would be really cool to have my design in the game. Although the chances of that are very slim. Only 2 weapons are chosen, 1 from Europe and 1 from the Americas.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a blog post about this now that I've sent my entry in. Unfortunately, as of writing this post, the contest is now closed. Mine was a bit of a last minute entry, but hopefully I can inspire you to do something similar, or check out the Monster Hunter games if you haven't already. They are excellent games and need some more fans around the world!

Here's a trailer for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate showing the amazing cinematics and action that can be found in these games.