It is a great cultural moment in Japan, when a new Monster hunter game releases, especially when made for handheld consoles. Monster Hunter: Rise is one of those, released this Friday, March 26, for the Nintendo Switch, and later arriving on the PC in 2022. One VR / AR game developer in particular, called Mark-on, noticed that many of his employees had programmed a vacation day for the launch of the game that your CEO is just giving everyone the day off.
He is celebrating this Friday as “Monster Hunter Holiday”, according to an interview with HuffPost Japan, although he clarified that the holiday is only for “non-executive” employees.
> 檜 山 さ ん に 電話 で 話 を 聞 い た と こ ろ, 「26 日 は『 早 速 モ ン ハ ン を プ レ イ し た い と い う 理由 で 休 み た い 』と い い 社員 が が複数 い た の で, 思 い 切 っ て こ の よ う な 対 応 に し ま し た.休 み に し た こ と に 対 し て は 『『 あ り が と う 』と か 、 感謝 の 言葉 を 社員 か ら 頂 い い て い い す」 と と い う 。https: //t.co / 5sPHIIfvEE
– て ん ち ょ ー / 筑 野 (ち く の) え り (@ shop_0761) March 23, 2021
The series has built a much larger global audience since the launch of Monster Hunter World, but has been popular in Japan for much longer on handheld consoles, namely the PSP. My colleague Sam Byford, who lives in Japan, wrote in 2015 that “it was almost impossible to ride a train car in Japan between 2008 and 2012 without seeing men, women and children paralyzed by Sony’s small plastic laptop. Many even twitched their fingers in a ‘claw’ to manipulate the camera’s clumsy controls. “