It is hard to believe that it has been 7 years since Monster Hunter World took everyone by storm. Monster Hunter World being a critical hit and success, everyone wondered would the next game be able to deliver. Monster Hunter Wilds is that next big game in the Monster Hunter franchise. A franchise that just happens to be over 20 years old. Wilds, a direct sequel to World, puts emphasis on story, new mechanics, gameplay and more. Lock in as I give you my thoughts and opinions on Monster Hunter Wilds.
The Story
Unlike Monster Hunter World, in your Wilds journey, you start off as Veteran Hunter. Alongside a boy, named Nata, who we rescued from a place called the Forbidden Lands, which everyone thought had been abandoned for centuries. Your hunter’s goal is to help reunite Nata with his family and research the monster that separated him from his people, The White Wraith. With help from your palico, Alma, Gemma, and others, you traverse through different biomes and fight a mix of monsters on this journey.
You can see and feel the emphasis Capcom puts toward the story in Wilds compared to World. The noticeable focus on the characters like Nata, Alma and Gemma kept me engaged during my playthrough. Each character had their own moment, and you could talk with them to get more detailed dialogue. One thing I really love about Wilds is your player character has voice. It helped me stay immersed in the conversations and dialogue throughout the game.
Another thing I must point out is the pace of the story. It gives you enough time to enjoy and explore the area before it whisks you to the next part. Each area has an apex predator that you will have to defeat before you move on. The story does a wonderful job of merging the two together.
Gameplay
The monster hunter formula has proven to be simple but amazing. Hunt monsters, kill monsters, use materials from said monsters to craft weapons and armor and then repeat. Simple but amazing and so much fun. You have fourteen weapon classes to choose from and each has its own level of mastery. During my playthrough I used the charge blade and the dual blades. First time using the charge blade, but I enjoyed learning how to use it to its fullest. Combat is fluid and heavy and faster than Worlds. It really feels good to wake a monster with my charge blade when they are asleep.
Capcom introduced two new mechanics with Wilds. Being able to switch weapons in the middle of a fight, which I love and the addition of focus mode. I love that I can start a fight wielding the Dual Blades and change to the Charge Blade for more impact on my hits. This really adds an element to your fights, not to mention certain weapons can have an elemental or status effects.
Now let us talk about focus mode, focus mode allows you to destroy wounded weak spots on a monster for bigger damage. In focus mode you can see when a wound goes from a scratch to an open wound, open wounds are red. That is when you strike for bigger damage. I loved striking an open wound with my Charge Blade, it was truly satisfying. You are only able to accomplish this in Focus Mode.
The fights, I loved fighting these monsters; some were annoying, some were challenging but all were fun. The fights were difficult, some more than others, like Rey Du, Uth Duna and Zoh Shia. However, no matter how many times I got knocked down I came right back but I absolutely loved the challenge they posed. Each monster had patterns for their attacks, you had to learn to be successful at beating them.
Although most people come for the monsters and fights, you must take notice of the amazing scenery. Monster Hunter Wilds takes place in the Forbidden Lands, which consists of a variety of habitats and ecosystems. With the map being seamless and not having any loading times, you experience a big vast open world. Encountering big and small monsters and changing weather.
Each habitat cycles through two seasons, the Fallow and the Plenty. The Fallow, where resources are hard to find and there is nothing but scraps. The Plenty, is a time where life blossoms and resources are abundant. The shift in the seasons change is brought on by a dramatic weather event, like a thunderous sandstorm or torrential rainfall. The environments change into a dangerous space during these events. Also here is when the apex predator emerges.
With such a vast map traversal was easy because of your winged wyvern, the seikret. The seikret is a ridable bird that allows you to zip across the map, navigate the difficult terrain and it can even glide for short distances. Seikrets are also useful during monster fights, as they give you a chance to recover and follow the monster when it moves to a different location. Seikrets make travel in Monster Hunter Wilds so much fun.
In Monster Hunter Wilds, there are also villages you can travel to in each habitat. Each village is full of npc’s going about their daily life. Each village also offers a service that is unique to their village. The village in the Plains, is where you will be able to customize your seikret, another village has a melding pot that allows you to turn decorations into points.
One aspect of Wilds that consumed my time was creating armor sets. I would go on quest after quest trying to collect everything, I needed so that I could get Gemma to craft that armor set. It was gratifying killing a monster because I knew that I was going to get a new armor out of it. They also decided to not to lock the armor sets behind the gender, I am happy about that because some female pieces were better than the males.
Wilds is one of the most welcoming to fresh players. With an extensive tutorial system and guide that are accessible at any time. The feature I happened to use a large amount was the SOS flare. You were able to call for help and could be joined by people online looking for a fight. The game also had npc hunters that would also appear to help you in a fight.
Presentation and Sound
Monster Hunter Wilds have beautiful habitats and monsters for that matter. During the early gameplay you do not get to see a lot of color due to the game being in the season of Fallow. Once the game has progressed in the Plenty or you have traveled to the other habitats you begin to see a world filled with color. From plants to little monsters to big monsters like the Uth Duna, who have vibrant blues and pinks.
You get to experience a great sound design in Wilds. The cries and screams of the monsters, sound so authentic. Not only can you feel it when your weapon makes contact, but you can also hear it. Just like all the monster hunter games before, Wilds has a great soundtrack.
The Verdict
Monster hunter wilds is not a perfect game but its pretty close. I had few instances where in a fight my weapon would become sheathed. Which would cause me to either take damage or miss opportunities to land a big hit on the monster. It was not an important thing for me, but the story is linear, good but linear. I know for others that can cause them to lose interest.
I thought Wilds was an amazing experience. The vast world, the large amount of customization, the roster of monsters, I have had a tough time putting this game down. Beating the story in about 30 hours, and still there so much to do in the post-game. I love how much content that Capcom has given us with this game. I can see myself playing this game for years.
Monster Hunter Wilds was reviewed on PlayStation 5 and releases on 28th of February on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.
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