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Capcom is set to revolutionize the Monster Hunter series with its latest installment, Wilds, promising a more immersive and dynamic hunting experience. During a hands-on preview of the PS5 build of Monster Hunter Wilds, we explored a game that seamlessly blends familiar mechanics with groundbreaking innovations.
The World Comes Alive
Monster Hunter Wilds represents a significant leap forward in the series’ world-building and environmental design. Unlike previous installments, the game introduces a more interconnected and realistic ecosystem where human settlements feel genuinely integrated into the landscape.
Each region features its own base camp, with familiar faces like Alma, Gemma, and Nata following you throughout your journey. As you explore new regions, this core group travels with you, establishing new bases while occasionally meeting new NPCs like Werner in the Scarlet Forest. The game goes beyond simply presenting hunting grounds, instead offering a glimpse into how humans survive and interact in this challenging world.
During our hands-on preview with the PS5 build, we explored three distinct regions: the Windward Plains, Scarlet Forest, and Oilwell Basin. Transitions between these areas are remarkably smooth, facilitated by the PS5’s lightning-fast loading times that take mere seconds. This technical prowess allows players to move between regions almost instantaneously, creating a sense of a truly continuous, living world.
In our interview with Director Kaname Fujioka, he revealed this wasn’t initially planned. What started as an experimental color scheme became a defining feature of the area, leading the team to develop a complete ecological system to explain the transformation. “When we made the water red, we had to think about the entire ecology of the environment. We went back to think about the scientific and realistic reasons why the color would turn red,” Fujioka explained.
Combat: A New Hunting Philosophy
The combat system in Wilds represents a reimagining of monster hunting mechanics. The introduction of focus mode is perhaps the most significant innovation, allowing players to precisely reposition attacks, target specific monster weak points, and execute more fluid combat sequences. Unlike previous games that relied heavily on defensive strategies, Wilds encourages a more aggressive and dynamic approach to hunting.
The combat system in Wilds represents a balance between the pacing of Monster Hunter: World and the dynamic mobility of Monster Hunter: Rise. While Rise allows hunters to instantly recover using wirebug charges and zip around, Wilds takes a more measured approach to combat recovery and movement.
In Wilds, when a hunter gets knocked down, the only recovery option is summoning a Seikret mount and healing up, making combat more punishing compared to Rise’s wirebug recovery system. The overall game difficulty feels similar to Rise, but the movement and recovery mechanics are more aligned with World’s more deliberate pace.
During our hands-on preview, we experienced this new approach across multiple weapon types while battling monsters like Quematrice, Congalala, Lala Barina, Doshaguma, Balahara, Uth Duna, Rompopolo, and Nerscylla.x`
The standout feature is the new focus mode, which allows hunters to precisely reposition attacks and target specific monster weak points. For heavy weapons like hammers, gunlances, and greatswords, this mechanic is game-changing. Players can now quickly re-aim at a monster’s weak spot and continue their combo without losing momentum. Each monster has at least five weak points, encouraging a more strategic and aggressive playstyle.
All melee weapons now come equipped with timed moves like counters, blocks, and evasions that are accessible from the start of the game. This design philosophy removes previous restrictions and empowers players to be more creative and offensive in their hunting strategies. Weapon skills are now more deeply integrated with equipment skills, offering unprecedented customization and strategic depth.
Ranged weapons receive significant quality-of-life improvements in Wilds. Level 1 ammo types like piercing and spread are now unlimited, eliminating the need to restock between quests. Similarly, bow users will find their coatings are now rechargeable, reducing resource management concerns.
Monsters: A Natural Approach to Design
The monster roster in our hands-on preview showcased Capcom’s new design philosophy. Instead of drawing from mythological or extinct creatures, monsters like Quematrice (a rooster-inspired Brute Wyvern) and Uth Duna (reminiscent of a monitor lizard) feel more grounded in natural animal behaviors.
Each monster demonstrated unique characteristics: Congalala retained its mid-battle naps and item-disrupting abilities, while Uth Duna impressed with its environmental interactions, creating water waves during combat in the Scarlet Forest. Lala Barina, a Temnoceran, introduced interesting mechanics like flower-based paralysis attacks, while Nerscylla brought familiar web and jaw attack patterns from previous games.
The variety of monsters fought during the preview – ranging from Brute Wyverns to Leviathans and Temnocerans showcase a diverse and engaging hunting experience that balances familiar and new monster types.
Storytelling: A More Immersive Narrative
Unlike previous Monster Hunter games, Wilds introduces a much more narrative-driven experience. The preview highlighted by numerous cutscenes and dialogues provide deeper context about human settlements and survival. Players can explore villages like Kunafa’s Windsong Village, observing children playing, villagers interacting with Seikret, and experiencing the challenges of living in this harsh world.
This shift in storytelling approach was intentional, as Fujioka explained in our interview: “The main theme is expressing the ecology of monsters, but this time also adding people and humans into that mix, combining monsters and humans, and relating that back to the hunter themselves.” The preview highlighted this philosophy through numerous cutscenes and dialogues that provide deeper context about human settlements and survival.
While some players might find the increased narrative pace disruptive, the developers aim to make the world feel more realistic and lived-in. Players worried about the increased narrative focus can rest easy – Fujioka assured that player choice remains paramount: “If a player did want to just focus on the action, just play Monster Hunter going from quest to quest, that’s totally possible.” However, he noted that skipping the story elements might result in “a lack of understanding of the story we wanted to tell.”
Technical Innovations and Gameplay Mechanics
The hands-on preview revealed several exciting new systems. The time and wind systems emerge as particularly sophisticated additions to the gameplay mechanics. The game’s time cycle dynamically changes during missions, with day periods lasting approximately 10 minutes, evening around 6 minutes, and nighttime extending over 7 minutes. While the full impact of these time variations remains to be seen, they promise to add depth to hunting strategies.
The wind system offers a particularly immersive environmental interaction. Players will notice dramatic changes in the landscape, such as sand movement in desert regions and varying wind types that can affect visibility and monster behaviors. During our preview, we observed how wind conditions could subtly alter the hunting environment, adding an extra layer of strategic consideration to each expedition.
Equipment customization has received a significant overhaul. The new system allows players to bring two of the same weapon, breaking previous limitations. Armor sets now offer more flexible “group skills” with a lower threshold for activation. While previous Monster Hunter games required 3-5 pieces to unlock set bonuses, Wilds introduces more variety in terms of required set pieces for bonus activation, introducing greater flexibility in armor combinations and allowing for more diverse build options.
Weapon and armor designs have also evolved. Each armor set now comes with two design variants – traditionally one for melee and one for ranged combat, each featuring different skill sets. However, in a notable change, both variants now share identical defense stats and elemental resistances, eliminating the previous disparity between melee and ranged armor. This design choice aligns with the game’s ability to carry two weapons, providing more flexibility for hunters.
Weapon-specific skills have been deeply integrated into the equipment system. Players can now combine similar skills from weapons and equipment to enhance status effects, offering unprecedented customization options. Skills like Rapid Morph and Guard are now more dynamically implemented, allowing for more nuanced character builds.
Final Thoughts
Monster Hunter Wilds appears to be more than just another iteration in the series. By focusing on more naturalistic monster designs, a more immersive world, and refined gameplay mechanics, Capcom is pushing the boundaries of what the series can be.
Monster Hunter Wilds appears to be more than just another iteration in the series. By focusing on more naturalistic monster designs, a more immersive world, and refined gameplay mechanics, Capcom is pushing the boundaries of what a hunting game can be. The enhanced focus on human drama and settlement life adds a new layer of depth to the Monster Hunter universe, helping players understand not just the ecology of monsters, but also the impact of their existence on human civilization.
Particularly impressive is how Wilds manages to strike a balance between accessibility and depth. The removal of resource management for basic ammo types and the introduction of more fluid combat mechanics make the game more approachable, while the more punishing recovery system and strategic focus mode maintain the series’ characteristic challenge. The reimagined armor system, with its shared defense stats but unique skills between variants, opens up new possibilities for build crafting and playstyle exploration.
After our hands-on session, Wilds maintains the core DNA of Monster Hunter while introducing meaningful innovations that could attract both veteran hunters and newcomers to the series. As we await the full release, anticipation continues to build for what promises to be a transformative experience for the series.
