Monster Hunter Wilds Is a Bold Vision For the Series’ Future

Grappling onto a monster’s back and spinning down it like a buzz saw with my dual blades, I couldn’t help but cackle with glee. There’s a real, pure, form of joy that only a Monster Hunter game can hit – a kind of David and Goliath feeling as your tiny hunter with a couple of knives brings down a Godzilla creature that can shoot lightning bolts.

Monster Hunter Wilds deliberately builds on the overhaul brought by 2018’s Monster Hunter World, doubling down on a lot of what that game did well, while also branching out in some wild new directions. It’s a seismic shift for the franchise that gives Monster Hunter something it’s never had before, a real narrative. Everything in Wilds is built around that narrative experience, while streamlining some of the rougher elements the series has been known for. This deliberate shift in focus may not be for everyone, but one thing is clear – this is the boldest Monster Hunter game yet, and the absolute best place for newcomers to start.

I’m Here For the Plot

It’s hard to overstate how much the narrative crux of Wilds changes the entire experience, even if the formula is still technically the same. I’ve been vocal about how I’ve been bouncing off Monster Hunter games for over a decade, and this is the first one that really grabbed me – because of that story emphasis. The entire structure of the game is built around progressing through the narrative, with new hunts and mechanics layered into story progression – a far cry from the grind-y gameplay loop that even World used.

Wilds begins when a dangerous never-before-seen monster suddenly attacks a village in the Forbidden Lands, and a young boy named Nata narrowly escapes. After wandering across the desert, Nata is found by a group of explorers led by the former hunter Fabius. Hearing his tale The Guild (the governing body of the world) decides to launch an expedition into the Forbidden lands, to chart the uncharted and bring Nata home – and your character, simply called “The Hunter,” is at the heart of it.

The setting of The Forbidden Lands really lets Wilds expand upon its world and characters, letting you get to know your fellow expedition members intimately. Through liberal use of cutscenes, light exploration, and dialogue in cities, Wilds layers a lot of story in between hunts. And what’s there is generally compelling, not just for a Monster Hunter game, but even against the most well-known games out there. There’s a real sense of camaraderie that develops between characters, almost like an RPG party – from the blacksmith Gemma giving others advice so they don’t go down the same path she did, to Nata grappling with his people’s history and the responsibilities thrust upon him.

Wilds also has a real sense of culture – both in terms of exploring the diverse cultures of the Forbidden Lands, and recognizing that you’re an outsider to them. A major theme of Wilds is respecting these cultures and learning to respect their worldview and role in the wilderness of the Forbidden Lands, not forcing your own ideals upon them. While the story itself can feel slow and plodding at times, these themes generally work well. But at the same time, the linearity of the narrative experience takes out some of the ways the story was explored through exploration in past games, and learning to live off the land. You’re still collecting tons of resources and traveling vast environments, but you’re not quite inhabiting them the same way that you did in Monster Hunter World.

But the tradeoff is largely worth it, because of how the formula of Wilds is built around that narrative experience. The game is constantly hopping between story and hunting monsters, ensuring that neither one drags on for too long. The first 15-20 hours of the game are essentially one giant on-ramp that introduces players to the ideas and mechanics of the game, before really opening up to some of the more difficult hunts in the post-game.

For longtime hunters, this might be a bit disappointing, but if you’re new to the franchise, it gives you the chance to experience the story while incrementally getting more familiar with the game’s systems. This sort of ramp-up feels deliberate, meant to coincide with the way Wilds streamlines the entire gameplay experience.

Hunter’s Paradise

At its core, the gameplay of Wilds is the same Monster Hunter experience people have come to know and love, and there are essentially three phases to the game. In the preparation phase, you craft healing, traps, and whatever else you want while making sure your equipment and weapon loadout is ready for the hunt. Then you have the hunting phase where you track the monster and use the game’s action combat to take it down. Then you have the crafting phase, where you gather materials from your slain monster and use those to craft new equipment or upgrade what you currently have.

That’s essentially the gameplay loop of Monster Hunter Wilds, constantly going through these three phases. But there are a ton of little changes and features that Wilds implements to streamline everything – making the action more readable and ensuring that there’s not too much downtime.

The biggest addition is your Seikret, a massive lizard that acts as your mount throughout the game. The Seikret gives you incredible mobility in every environment, letting you dash through areas, jump up vertical cliffs, and chase monsters as they’re fleeing. The Seikret can auto-run to your objectives, which lets you use your Slinger to gather materials from a distance. This drastically cuts down the time you have to spend gathering, as instead of deliberately setting out on gathering trips you can mostly just get what you need as your Seikret takes you to where you want. But your Seikret also brings another vital change, the ability to take two weapons into a hunt – a first for the franchise.

This gives you a wealth of build options that quite literally change the entire experience. Not being locked to a single weapon means you can be much more adaptable to these hunts, like having a ranged weapon to bring a flying monster out of the sky, then changing to a melee one once they’re grounded. It helps that the fourteen different weapons all feel completely different, with entirely unique movesets, strengths, and weaknesses. For example, picking the Dual Blades means you can be an agile fighter who weaves between blows and picks out weaknesses, while the Greatsword makes you a hulking brute who soaks up attacks while dishing out massive damage.

Each of the 14 different weapons are easy to pick up, but hold a lot of complexity in mastering them – learning how to make the most use of their strengths. A big part of that is yet another change Wilds brings: the wound system.

While wounds themselves aren’t anything new, Wilds makes them much more visual. Previously, consistently attacking a monster in the same place would simply open up a wound that, when hit, causes massive damage. Now in Wilds, these are portrayed as glowing orange spots. At the same time, you now have a special “Focus” attack mapped to the left bumper, that’s specifically used to hit wounds. This entire system makes it incredibly easy to take advantage of wounds, and boy is it satisfying. Focus attacks give you crazy combos that play out with dazzling visual and sound effects, really making you feel the blow you’re inflicting. But it also means you have a much better sense of how the battle is playing out – rather than just endlessly hacking on a monster until it falls.

The monsters themselves are another huge highlight of Wilds, and another area where the game differs. Past Monster Hunter games have focused on grand and majestic beasts, but the creatures of Wilds feel far grittier, and in some cases, even downright horrifying. The Forbidden Lands is a place dominated by intense weather and ravaged environments, and the monsters there have evolved to survive that.

One is a goopy, oil-covered octopus that breathes fire, another is a hairy pink ape that literally farts on you to attack, while another looks like you took a bunch of poison-filled balloons and glued them together. The creatures of Wilds are a bizarre mix of eldritch horrors and Saturday morning cartoon characters, and part of the fun of the game is the constant surprise you have at whatever new horror attacks you.

Embracing Change

It’s hard to overstate how much these core changes make Wilds feel different, specifically more streamlined. That’s not even to mention the dozens of other little changes across the board – like armor requiring fewer materials to craft, dynamic weather systems that can alter your strategies, an easier system for calling support hunters, and more.

Streamlined is really the most apt word to describe Wilds, and while it gains a lot in playability, the game does lose some of the friction that has made the series so special. But Wilds does what it does with such confidence and boldness that it’s hard to really fault the game for the changes it makes.

I understand that it may be a tough pill to swallow for anyone who’s enjoyed how complex Monster Hunter games have been – but it’s hard to deny that Wilds can appeal to a much wider array of players than its prequels could. And in many ways, the proof of this game’s legacy still feels like it’ll be determined by the kind of post-launch support Capcom can bring. The foundation is set, but it remains to be seen if Capcom provides what both casual and hardcore fans want as it expands the game.

More than anything, Wilds feels like an experience, a grand journey filled with a shockingly emotional story, bombastic hunts, and jaw-droppingly gorgeous vistas. It’s an adventure that tries, and mostly succeeds, in making sure that you’re having fun at all times.

The impact Wilds has on the franchise at large is still a question, but no matter how you slice it, Monster Hunter will never be the same after this – and neither will we.

8/10

Monster Hunter Wilds is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PS5 version.

INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.