Monster Hunter 3's New Monster and Stage

Capcom shared new screenshots of Monster Hunter 3 earlier today. Here are some details so that you can at last know what you're looking at.

Typical of a Monster Hunter 3 update, the screens introduce us to two new elements of the game, a stage and a monster.

The new stage is "Suibotsu Bayashi," or Submerged Forest. This thick, tropical forest is covered mostly in shallow waters, but thanks to an unending flow of water from downstream sources, its rivers and lakes never dry up. It's hot and humid -- in other words, heaven for its large variety of water creatures, fungi, bacteria, and plants.

It's common to find rare metals submerged here, so hunters who are skilled with swimming often choose to hunt in this area (that will probably include you!).

And joining this introduction to the Submerged Forest is one of its finest residents, Chanagaburu the water dragon. It looks like a fish and has a reflective head, and has thus been given the nickname "Light Fish Dragon" (this is just an approximation of the Japanese on my part -- I'm sure Capcom USA will come up with something much cooler).

Chanagaburu is classified a water dragon just for convenience. Its ecology is still largely unknown.

In addition to the new monster and stage, Capcom provided a final look at the Monster Hunter 3 box art. Look for this at your favorite game shop on August 1.