Monster Hunter: Wilds Final Preview: Capcom sticks to its guns and we love them for it

Monster Hunter: Wilds proves that the key to making a good sequel in a long-running franchise isn't always to innovate on everything, but being really selective on what new to actually add... and what you don't need to change. As a follow up to World, Wilds doesn't feel as ground-breaking or revolutionary as the 2018 title, but it didn't need to be.

Most of the changes Wilds brings to the formula are relatively subtle: they don't completely change the experience, but greatly improve it in many different small ways. For starters, missions can be activated on the spot, and they unravel simply by dealing enough damage to a monster you come across in the wild, without the need of selecting them first on a quest board. And when you're done, you no longer return to the camp automatically, you can keep exploring the map, searching for other monsters to slay or things to do.

It reminds us of how Super Mario Odyssey got rid of returning to the hub world after finding a star/sun/moon: a subtle addition that makes the game much more agile, with fewer interruptions, and a greater alignment to a traditional open-world RPG setup. The ritual of "going to the mission board, selecting a quest and returning to the camp once completed" is gone (or at least, is not mandatory), which makes us just a little bit sad, because it gave Monster Hunter a very unique game loop in which you felt that you were actually... well, doing a job.

But we are sure that this is a change that will benefit the game in the long run, especially with the greater emphasis on narrative, characters (a lot of voice acting, including your hunter) and also exploration. Capcom has particularly emphasised how much attention to detail they have put in the monster's behaviour, the individuality of each specimen even within the same species, and the effects the weather has on the environment. We bet those are things that will be better appreciated if you spend more time out and about, wandering around looking for monsters, instead of simply jumping in and out.

The lack of new weapons is a tad strange. Capcom has introduced a new "Focus Mode", which makes aiming the strikes easier, as well as opening the door to a few other strategies, like more damage to a monster's wound before it heals over. It doesn't feel as new as, for instance, the Wirebug in Monster Hunter Rise. However, most Monster Hunter veterans will likely prefer to stick to their favourite weapons, and if you're a newcomer, having 14 classes is still huge, with very drastic changes between those, including an easier to use crossbow that's more "shooter-like" and with infinite rounds of ammo (the standard shots, at least).

Truth be told, there was little more that could have been done to improve a combat system that is already arguably perfect. Not many franchises, outside of the fighting genre, commit to maintaining and perfecting the exact same move set over and over again throughout the span of decades. If you started using a Switch Axe, a Great Sword, or a Hammer back in the days of PSP, Wii, or 3DS, you will instantly tune in with Wilds, even if you have skipped entries. It's like learning to ride a bike: you never forget how to do it, no matter how many years pass by. It is immensely satisfying and, in a strange way few games can achieve, comforting. You feel at home playing it.

Most importantly, the act of hunting monsters and exploring the world remains the same. Even with the power of the new consoles, each biome is its own separate map, which are large, but manageable in size. Monster Hunter refuses to transform itself into an open world game like most action-RPGs nowadays, even when, on paper, it could make sense. But at the same time, we feel that it would not be right. And as it turns out, director Yuya Tokuda agrees.

"We naturally had to make the scale of the game bigger", said Tokuda in our interview during the hands-on preview event. "Ultimately, the kind of experience we want to give people requires us to form these ecosystems separate from each other because we want to have a really deep immersive experience on each map, essentially being their own living world, a desert or a forest. Making those interconnected as one large region with empty areas between them wouldn't really achieve those goals for us. Even though the game has seamless movement and transition, I just felt that it made the most sense for the Monster Hunter game design and the game experience to regionalise the ecosystems while allowing to travel between them in the same world, it made the most sense."

Another staple of the franchise is the online multiplayer. In Wilds it remains the same, with a max number of four people. Not because they couldn't add more, but because they don't think that would be good: "I think Monster Hunter is all about the relationship the player has with the monster, a one-on-one battle", producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explains. "Of course you can play with other players, but the more people you add to the experience I think that it dilutes the actual quality of what it feels like for each player to be taking on these large monsters. If we have fifty people or a hundred people all fighting the same monster, I think each individual's player contribution becomes smaller and each hunter matters less in the hunt".

So, don't expect Monster Hunter to become an MMO or a battle royale anytime soon. It may feel too indulgent to praise a game simply for what it isn't, but in the current context, where so many gaming franchises have drowned trying to copy another game's successes, or corrupted trying to profit off a more lucrative business model, it's a relief to see a series like Monster Hunter still focused on what it does best. Would you imagine Monster Hunter if it were a live-service thing, with endless updates and seasons, battle passes and crossovers? It could work... but it could also fail miserably, and distract the developers from making the best game possible every five or so years.

Thankfully, Capcom isn't like most gaming companies. It is a company that treats almost all of their franchises with the utmost care, increasing their value without betraying their core principles or letting their fans down. Monster Hunter: Wilds has big changes, and we are sure there will be more surprises along the way (just how deep is the narrative really?), but at the same time it's the same game millions of fans revere.