The Monster Hunter series has always offered amazingly fantastical worlds full of lush environments and uniquely striking creatures. Whether it's the environments, the monsters or the armor sets, each requires a huge amount of design to create.
Lucky for us, that means there's plenty of Monster Hunter concept art to enjoy and adore. Looking through these pieces of concept art also makes one realize just how great a job the developers did in bringing it all to life. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at some amazing concept art.
10 Ancient Forest With Jagras
Let's start off this list with this lush piece of concept art of Monster Hunter: World's first area, the Ancient Forest. This location is absolutely massive and requires a lot of exploration, but there can be danger lurking around any corner.
At first glance, the Ancient Forest presents a beautiful landscape but the deeper into the forest you trek, the eerier it gets. The forest becomes much more dangerous and it's where you'll find most monsters' dens. This piece of concept art does a great job of capturing that feeling of exploration the series is known for as well as the dangers lurking in the dark.
9 Anjanath Vine Trap
Hunting monsters often requires more than just brute strength. For some of the tougher monsters, you need to make sure to strategize to give yourself a leg up, even if it's only temporary. Take this piece of concept art, for example.
Traps are a major part of every hunter's arsenal; they stop monsters in their tracks so you could either wail on them or capture them but there are also environmental traps you can use. By jumping on a monster's back, you can guide them to a vine trap and save yourself some trouble.
8 Fighting The Gore Magala
You could play the Monster Hunter series solo and have a great experience, but it's really meant to be played with a group of friends. It's more fun and it's not as daunting to face tough monsters when you've got people with you.
For example, take a look at this piece of concept art of a group of hunters taking on a Gore Magala. The Gore Magala is terrifying to fight on your own. In a group, it's still terrifying, but it's much more manageable.
7 Trusty Felyne Sidekick
We've just got done talking about how much fun it is hunting monsters with a group of friends but if you're hunting solo, you're not completely alone. Most games in the series allow you to go into the fray with a Felyne Comrade.
Felyne Comrades are able to attack the monsters you're hunting but they're mainly used for support, like increasing defense or curing poison. Even just running support, your Felyne sidekick still needs a protective suit of armor and you can see some adorable armor variants in this piece of concept art.
6 Tigrex Having Lunch
The worlds in the Monster Hunter series are filled with vicious, carnivorous creatures, but those aren't the only creatures populating the games. The monsters need something to eat, so there are quite a number of herbivores walking around each area.
In this piece of concept art, we see a Tigrex about to chow down on a Popo, a woolly mammoth-like animal. The Tigrex is one of the most fierce monsters in the series and it's relentless in its attacks.
5 Gaia Dragon
Concept art is always cool to look at but unfortunately, not everything in the concept stage is going to make it into the final product. Such was the case for this piece of concept art from the Hunter's Encyclopedia, an official art book only available in Japan.
This concept art is for a monster called a Gaia Dragon, or Earth Dragon, and was apparently planned to be able to change weather patterns around it. It certainly has a cool design and it's a shame we haven't gotten to see it in the games but there's always a chance we'll see it in a future title.
4 Ancient Forest Area 1
Monster Hunter: World has some of the densest and most beautiful locations in the series and it all started with the concept art. This piece showcases the stunning landscape of the first area of the Ancient Forest at night with a hunter in the corner for scale.
This is just a stunning piece of art on its own and the flash flies floating around the scene give it an ethereal vibe. You can pick out just about any concept art of a location from Monster Hunter: World and you'd notice just how amazing of a job the developers did translating the art into the game.
3 Rathian
There are loads of monsters to hunt throughout the franchise but without a doubt, the most iconic monsters in the series are the Rathalos and the Rathian, male and female versions of the same wyvern-type monster, respectively.
You could tell you're looking at a Rathian in this concept art by the protruding spike on her chin and it looks like the Rathian is protecting her nest. Because this monster has been around from the start, longtime players know the strategies to defeat them like the back of their hand, but that doesn't mean you should let your guard down around it.
2 Ancient Forest Area 11
Here's another piece of concept art for the Ancient Forest area of Monster Hunter: World, this time of area 11, one of the deepest parts of the forest. Like the other pieces of concept art for this location, this is a stunning work of art.
Again capturing the eeriness of the deeper parts of the Ancient Forest, this image also includes an elusive monster's footprint and a hunter on its trail. It's a nice touch to the image that they didn't need to do but adds to it's personality.
1 On The Hunt
Finally, we have a piece of concept art that perfectly encapsulates the Monster Hunter series in a microcosm. The hunter becomes the hunted in this image as an Anjanath chases down an Aptonoth while the Anjanath is in turn being chased by a hunter.
That's what Monster Hunter is all about. Tracking a monster, learning its patterns, and finding a way to either kill it or trap it to get materials for weapons and armor before moving on to the next monster.