REVIEW -- Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter Wilds is a 2025 action role-playing game developed and published by Capcom. A successor to Monster Hunter: World (2018), the game released worldwide for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, with support for cross-platform play, on February 28, 2025.

As with other Monster Hunter games, Wilds has the player control a hunter that is part of a guild assigned to explore the Forbidden Lands, a nearly uninhabitable area with multiple biomes and dangerous storms. During their exploration, the hunters are assigned quests to fight large monsters that threaten their group, either by killing or capturing them. The hunter then can collect resources from their victories, as well as from gathering in the field, to synthesize new weapons and armor with better attributes that allows the hunter to fight stronger monsters. The player has an option of using fourteen different weapon types in combat, each with different combat maneuvers. New to Wilds is the ability to carry up to two weapons into the field using their mounted bird-like Seikrets to swap gear, the ability to set up pop-up camps within the game's open world to create a more seamless hunting experience, and a wound system that allows the player to target weak points on a monster to inflict more damage. The game can be played as a single player experience, or online with up to three additional players during quests. Wilds is the first in the series to support cross-platform play between all versions.

Plot: 

*** SPOILER WARNING BELOW ***

A group of explorers led by former hunter Fabius finds a young boy named Nata in the wasteland. Nata claims to hail from the Forbidden Lands, a harsh, uncharted region of the Old World that has been isolated for over two thousand years and was presumed to be uninhabited. Nata also claims that he and his people, the Keepers, were attacked by the "White Wraith", a monster previously thought to be extinct. Fabius summons a recently promoted hunter and their palico companion to escort Nata back to his home, despite there being no information about the Keepers, as well as to investigate the White Wraith. The hunter, palico, and Nata are joined by Alma, a guild handler, and Gemma, a skilled blacksmith, forming the Avis Unit. Also on the expedition are the Astrum Unit: Olivia, a veteran hunter, Athos, Olivia’s palico, Erik, a botanist, and Werner, a guild engineer.

The Guild gradually explores the Forbidden Lands, finding and assisting small settlements and people within from aggressive monsters, apex predators, and abnormal weather conditions. Along their travels, they have several encounters with White Wraith, revealed to be an albino wyvern with chain-like appendages that is killing apex predators by absorbing their life energy.

The Guild eventually discovers that the lands are connected by a mysterious structure called the Landspine, damaged in many places and leaking a white crystalline substance known as wyvern milk or "wylk", all of which appears tied to the weather conditions in each biome. The Landspine leads them to the ruins of Wyveria, the former capital of an ancient civilization, where Nata is reunited with the Keepers. There, they learn that Wyveria created the Dragontorch, a powerful source of infinite energy which was distributed across the lands via the Landspine, and the Guardian Monsters, artificial monsters meant to defend Wyveria. The White Wraith, known as Arkveld, is also a Guardian, but has become out of control due to absorbing the traits of other monsters, and is now attacking local fauna and threatening the ecosystem's balance. The hunter is forced to put down Guardian Arkveld. The group eventually locates the Dragontorch in the ruins, but discovers another Guardian feeding directly from the torch, Zoh Shia, a dragonic Guardian. Zoh Shia was the secret weapon of Wyveria, created to defend the empire against an unknown threat, but turned on them after it was too powerful to control, causing the fall of the civilization.

After consulting the Keepers and the Allharken, a Wyverian sage, Avis Unit confronts Zoh Shia, knowing it will bring calamity to the ecosystem and possibly the world, with the hunter ultimately slaying it. Afterwards, Nata becomes an apprentice hunter in the Guild to understand monsters, with the Avis Unit later discovering an Arkveld egg, showing that the species has been reborn through Guardian Arkveld.

As Avis Unit continues to hunt monsters and protect the tribes in the Forbidden Lands, they soon discover that Gore Magala, a monster that carries the Frenzy virus (introduced in Monster Hunter 4) has arrived in the lands, spreading the virus to other monsters, which causes them to become more hostile and dangerous. Avis Unit is tasked with trying to stem the spread of the Frenzy virus alongside the other monsters in the area. Gore Magala is also able to infect the Dragontorch, showing that the artifact is actually a living being. The virus brings chaos to the entire land, changing the climate and making the apex predators of all biomes go mad. The hunter helps Fabius kill Gore Magala. Werner and Erik are able to treat the Dragontorch, but they are too late to stop the new Arkveld from being infected from exposure to corrupted energy. After seeing Arkveld slaughter multiple monsters, Nata begs the hunter to put it out of its misery, possibly making the species go extinct again.

In the end, the hunter explains to Nata that nature always finds a way, and suggests the new Arkveld may have the time to lay an egg before dying. With newfound enthusiasm, Nata asks the hunter if he can travel with them to look for it, which they accept.

History of the Hunter's Guild

The Hunter's Guild is the main association that governs Monster Hunters, who share a main goal of preventing damage to the ecosystem and species from going extinct. The Guild uses trained experts who are called Hunters to ensure this policy, Hunters are tasked to record down the monsters within each region and are not allowed to hunt the monsters unless they have gained approval from their Handlers. If monsters are hunted without permission, Hunters may bear punishments, with the common punishment being death from a Guild Knight. The Hunter's Guild crest contains four swords, with each sword representing a value that the association maintains. The symbol on the top represents Respect for Nature, the symbol on the left represents Life as a Community, the symbol on the right represents Prosperity from Nature, while the symbol on the bottom represents Crafting from Nature.

The Hunter's Guild Research Commission

The Research Commission was formed by The Hunter's Guild, this was done to investigate new discoveries in the world. They provide Hunters with unique equipment such as a Slinger and Scoutflies.

Fleets have also been introduced to help the Research Commission, there are currently 5 fleets within the commission. A new fleet joins the Research Commission every 10 years.

• First Fleet: The first group to have been sent to the New World and while some have left, the original 5 Hunters remained. The symbol for the First Fleet is a star upon a red banner, representing a guiding light on the black sea.

• Second Fleet: This Fleet consisted mostly of engineers and technicians, and only the technicians remained in the New World while the others had left. The symbol for the Second Fleet are flames on an orange and brown banner, representing their resolve.

• Third Fleet: This Fleet consisted of scholars, most of which did not reside in Astera but instead on an airship called the Research Base. The symbol for the Third Fleet is a chalice on a lavender banner, representing their knowledge.

• Fourth Fleet: This Fleet is a group of human resources and was requested to form the Research Commission. The symbol for the Fourth Fleet is a wheel on a green banner, representing their drive to continue their research.

• Fifth Fleet: This Fleet is the largest Fleet that made it to the New World, and consists mostly of Hunters. The symbol for the Fifth Fleet is a white ribbon on a gold and white banner, representing fair winds.

My Thoughts on the Story

Throughout Low Rank this story campaign serves as an on-the-rails mandatory tutorial of the in's and out's of the game that spans the first 10-20 hours of gameplay. Most players - both veterans and newcomers - will be able to get something out of this, even though it drags to a glacial pace at various points. Overall, I felt that serves its purpose as a sampler platter to give players to give players a sense of what to expect in each region. Each region is all interconnected, thus allowing players to travel through them freely on the back of their Seikerets by the end of the campaign. In terms of the story's narrative itself, I'm not going to try to convince anyone that the story is anything significant that Monster Hunter games are fondly remembered for. I will say that while this story isn't compelling, Capcom did make a considerable effort to attempt to change that notion that a Monster Hunter game couldn't have a compelling story. 

The story starts off with the Guild discovering a lost boy (Nata) barely hanging onto life. Once he recovers, a party sets out to aid Nata in returning back home that he escaped due to the attack of a rampaging monster (Arkveld) that is simply referred to as the "White Wraith". The story sees the Avis Unit, consisting of Alma, Gemma, and the Hunter (the player) aiding Nata on his journey to return home while investigating the mystery surrounding the White Wraith and exploring the uncharted region known as the Forbidden Lands. In typical Monster Hunter fashion, this involves a lot of aiding people against pesky monsters in these ecosystems that seem to be reacting to a bigger problem that is making these monsters more and more violent and hostile. Eventually, this provocation earns the ire of each of these regions' apex predator, thus requiring the Hunter to take it down to quell the fires of that region. This proves to be a temporary band-aid for those ecosystems as they are all connected by the essentially the lifeblood of the entire Forbidden Lands region by the Dragonheart. The Dragonheart is a mysterious power source that sustains all of the regions with its energy while simultaneously serving as Wyveria's (the sacred land that the Keepers is preserving) last line of defense against an unidentified (at least as of this posting) threat. 

The first half of this story concludes when the Hunter is given the choice of destroying the Dragonheart and potentially contributing to the entire collapse of the Forbidden Lands' ecosystem or merely defeating it's "guardian" - Zoh Shia. The Dragonheart survives this ordeal, but Zoh Shia's destruction vastly changes the surrounding ecosystems. This ongoing investigation serves as the basis of "High Rank" going forward after the credits. High Rank removes the training wheels and essentially put the game into players' hands as they see fit. Story quests are granted after players raise their "Hunter Ranks" (HR) to a particular threshold to trigger the next story quest. HR is increased by completing side quests for the various NPCs in all of the regions of the game and simply hunting various monsters. For example, clearing Low Rank should earn players at least Hunter Rank or HR 15-17 at the very least; while clearing High Rank to the end credits should place players beyond HR 50-55. 

Most players consider this is where the "real" Monster Hunter experience starts as the game doesn't tell you what to do anymore and players are free to conduct themselves as they see fit across the regions within the limitations of their current HR progression. 

I can't speak for other players, but this was the point of the game where I felt much more connected to my companions and NPCs, especially when I got to do more of their unique, optional side quests or brought them on as Hunting Buddies or Support Hunters in multiplayer. 

For example, during the Low Rank campaign, there was an extra dialogue with Alma where she expresses how the Hunter inspires her to take action, when previously she was more shut out from the outside world, i.e. an introvert. She shares more tidbits about herself in quests like these, such as her fondness (read: obsession) with archeology and history, which drew her into studying with the Guild in the first place. 

I will admit that I agree with a lot of players for their distaste with Nata. He's the least interesting character in this story, despite getting so much focus throughout this campaign. He's the pivotal component to the plot as the Guild doesn't have any other reason to explore and investigate the Forbidden Lands otherwise since they took up the task of ensuring that he returns home safely. I think a lot of players are overlooking how problematic the Guild's "expedition" is. Capcom has made a Monster Hunter game that is essentially a cleverly disguised story about colonization. The Guild's intentions are good on the surface, but let's face it, this region was just fine if they didn't intervene here whatsoever. The Guild and specifically the Hunter's actions directly affect the ecosystem that they are desperately trying to protect, which is ironic given the lore dump once players reach Suja to discover why the Keepers have been living in secret for so long. They wish to repent for the mistake that their ancestors made in terms of creating these "artificial" (not truly an accurate description when these creatures can find the means to sustain themselves and even reproduce like legitimate monsters) monsters to serve as their guardians, only to be destroyed by their own creations. The Guild is walking a fine line between being the protectors of this New World and ushering in another cataclysm to bring about its destruction. In that sense, I found the narrative deeply compelling to watch play out as the Guild are clearly in denial of the latter even being a possibility. This ecosystem sees the Hunters (and better yet, humanity as a whole) as a threat and the creatures that thrive off of it see this as well, hence explaining the growing hostilities the longer the Guild remains occupied in this region. This is a story that is essentially displaying the dangers of humanity attempting to play God and the consequences that come with that. The remains of Wyveria are proof of what happened to the Keepers' ancestors when they did this with the creation of the Guardians who lashed out against their creators that they were designed/programmed to protect. The Guild seems to be spearheading the Forbidden Lands to relive this catastrophe once again and I'm amazed that more people don't see this within this game's populace and the players themselves. 

As of this posting (5/17/25) and following the release of Title Update #1, the story shows no signs of the Guild correcting this course nor seeking any other alternatives. It should be stated that I don't think that the Guild are "evil" people in any capacity, but I think that they are extremely naïve in terms of the underestimating the impact of their actions in the Forbidden Lands. The Guild is merely putting Band-Aids on a problem that is going to continue escalating into a bigger and bigger problem, not just for the entire ecosystem but for all that reside there as well - human and monster alike. 

The Verdict

As previously mentioned, I participated in all three open beta sessions for Monster Hunter Wilds leading up to release and expressed my thoughts and concerns. I have to say that Capcom has addressed a lot of my concerns in terms of weapon balance but the game's performance on both consoles and PC (which is the platform that I am playing this entry on) is nowhere as optimized as it should be. The benchmark tool that was released leading up to launch day prior to the start of the final beta session gave me a general idea of how the game was going to perform at launch, but it wasn't that much significantly better than the beta sessions after I tweaked the in-game graphical settings. Your mileage may vary, but I turned off a lot of the "memory bloat" in terms of rendering shadows and long distance objects and characters. Some of the visuals aren't as sharp as they would look on a higher end machine or via the PlayStation 5 Pro or Xbox Series X, but I'm happy with how it runs for the most part. It's stable and that's all what matters when I'm playing. 

My PC doesn't have a SSD (solid-state drive) so I do run into an occasional instance upon first loading up the game or when fast traveling to a new/different area where it takes a few seconds for the game to load the textures and in-game models properly. As a result, the game looks like a polygonal mess until those assets load properly. 

If you wish to revisit my thoughts on the open beta session(s), you can find that article HERE.

Gameplay

At the core, Monster Hunter Wilds follows the traditional Monster Hunter series gameplay loop but with the quality of life changes found in both World and later implemented in Rise and its Sunbreak expansion. 

Support Hunters/Followers return from Sunbreak that can be set to replace or substitute the positions for human players completely whenever you wish to call for help via a SOS flare. Unfortunately, they don't have their own individual questlines/requests like in Sunbreak to strengthen your bonds with those followers nor can you recruit additional followers either. Players are unable to toggle different weapon loadouts for their followers either. This is a disappointing choice on behalf of the developers, but I will admit that the support hunters' AI is superb though. Your Palico gains the ability to use support moves and gadgets in High Rank once you complete side quest delivers for him/her. I miss being able to manually choose and control when and where my Palico would use his tools during a hunt. The lack of that here feels like a massive step down in terms of options. That absence takes away the level of control players had in Rise and Sunbreak. 

It needs to be mentioned that the entire means of how players are forced to navigate through just to engage into multiplayer/co-op hunts with friends is downright awful in this game in comparison to previous entries. The SOS system is mostly unchanged in that regard, but trying to setup a private lobby and inviting your friends into your game to hunt with you is such a time-consuming and cumbersome process that Capcom definitely needs to be called out on how ass-backwards this process is. The only saving grace is that this entry supports cross-platform play for all consoles and PC right at launch, so that's better than nothing I suppose. 

Speaking of campsites, this entry allows hunters to seamlessly and continuously hunt to their hearts' content without any lengthy loading screens and menus. You can set up "pop-up camps" in certain locales in the field, with each ranging with a different level of safety from being destroyed by roaming monsters. If you want to rebuff your food skills, your hunter can even whip out their BBQ kit and cook a meal with your gathered ingredients right there on the fly in the middle of the field to regain the benefits from food skills or regain your maximum stamina from roasting meat. Pop-up camps can be installed and repaired with Hunter points. I do appreciate the added realism that these camps can be attacked at any time by roaming monsters. Depending on the locale, some of these camps are infinitely safe though since they are so secluded and hidden from sight. Those locations are worth looking for on every map. 

Speaking of the map, the entire map can be traversed entirely on the back of your Seikret without the need for fast travel. The option is there, but for those who want to treat this like an entirely open world game can do so freely.

Seikrets are introduced in this entry as hunters' primary mode of transportation, comparable to the Palamutes that were introduced in Rise. Fortunately, the Seikrets are a fun and massive improvement over the generic mounts found in World and vastly improved over your Palamutes in Rise. They don't support you in combat offensively like the Palamutes but they are a viable option to pick your hunter off the ground to avoid being hit with follow-up monster attack from a knockdown or a means to heal and/or sharpen your weapon mid-hunt without worrying about the danger of getting hit since you're constantly moving while riding on this mount. Additionally, hunters are able to carry two different weapons in the pouch, so you're given even more freedom of how you hunt monsters in this entry. I found myself frequently changing weapons mid-hunt thanks to this feature. 

Seikrets can climb and traverse areas where hunters typically can't go so they are the perfect companions for traveling through the Forbidden Lands. They can be customized in their appearances too once you reach a certain point of the story/main quest. Seikrets also hold pouches to carry additional items gathered in the field as well. Simply put, they are essentially a mobile campsite on the go. 

The Slinger is mostly unchanged from the base version of World and it's last appearance in Rise's Sunbreak expansion. The Clutch Claw from Iceborne is long gone, so players can hunt comfortably without concerning themselves with tenderizing parts of the monsters to deal additional/adequate damage every few minutes. 

I think the biggest improvement to the Slinger in this entry is the ability to use it to interact with environmental hazards with precision and gathering items from the comfort of riding on the back of your Seikret. 

Focus Mode

In Monster Hunter: Wilds, a groundbreaking new mechanic has been introduced to enhance your hunting experience—Focus Mode. This innovative feature is designed to give hunters greater precision and strategic depth in battle, making it easier to exploit a monster's vulnerabilities and maximize damage output.

Focus Mode is a special feature that allows you to carefully aim your attacks or defensive moves. When activated, any actions you perform in this mode will be directed based on where your camera is currently facing. This added precision can make a significant difference in battles, especially against monsters with specific weak points or vulnerable area.

My concerns with this Focus Mode mechanic during the open beta sessions proved to be fruitful. Not only is it a vital component of gameplay, there's absolutely no way around it. It still cumbersome and awkward to use at times, despite numerous hours dedicated to the game by the time of this review and changing my controls accordingly. Some weapons have absolutely amazing Focus Strikes while others that are flat out awful and a pain to use/trigger in the heat of battle, despite them being so essential to success. At the same time, I do appreciate the additional layer of depth and control to combat with this addition. It sucks when I want to love this mechanic when it adds more control to players in terms of finely tuning their attacks for additional precision in terms of where players want their attacks to land; i.e. no more Great Sword users missing/whiffing their True Charged Slashes on sleeping monsters. Instead, Focus Mode and the Focus Strikes leave the impression on me that it's just another annoying gimmick that players have to deal with like the Clutch Claw in World and the wirebugs in Rise. I don't absolutely hate it, but I don't love it either. 

Weapons

One of the main appeals of Monster Hunter is the weapon variety. IF you can't find something you like out of the 14 available weapon types then that's a personal problem more than a game problem. I've "mained", or more accurately "dedicated/devoted" my playtime exclusively to two weapons for my nearly 50 hours of gameplay up to this point - whole considering a third (Bow)and a fourth (Long Sword) to be honest. Every weapon has its perks and downsides but that tends to keep things mostly balanced as it is possible to commit to just one weapon and complete EVERY hunt in the game. 

Artian Weapons

Artian Weapons is a new weapon type for all categories that become available in the endgame of Monster Hunter Wilds. All of these weapons offer base stats that are higher than your standard weapons at the smithy, and on top of that, the Artian Weapons can also roll with a set of randomized Skills through special Materials. These special materials are needed to craft and customize Artian Weapons and will help determine the perks that the weapon will roll. The Artian Weapons are generally better with Elemental Damage compared to the Standard Weapons from the Smithy, however, this will depend on the materials that you will be using to craft the Artian Weapon.

The Artian Weapons will become available after completing the quest "Wyvern Sparks and Rose Thorns" where you will be hunting  the Guardian Fulgur Anjanath and Tempered Lala Barina. Upon completing this quest, you will receive Damaged Weapon Shard that lets you craft Artian Tier I Equipment, along with other rewards. Once this feature is unlocked, your next step is to collect materials needed to craft Artian Weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds.

To forge an Artian Weapon, visit the Smithy and select Forge Artian Weapons from the menu. Choose from the 14 available weapon types, then select three Artian parts to combine. Once you've placed all the required parts, the required cost will be displayed before you forge the weapon.

Each Artian part has a different element type and Artian bonus. The weapon's elemental properties are determined by the most dominant element among the 3 selected parts. Using three parts of the same element type will greatly enhance the weapon’s elemental power, while selecting parts with different elements will result in a weapon with no elemental properties. Note that forging an Artian Weapon requires you to use the Artian Parts of the same rarity.

Artian weapons are easily the strongest options available in the game at launch - BEFORE the first title update and festival additions coming up/pending as of this posting. I don't mind them, unlike most players, but I am concerned with the developers providing such a powerful option like this before even the potential expansion or even Master Rank is even on the horizon. These weapons are often seen as the "meta" options for potentially every weapon class just for their slot capacity (which is highly desired for customizing armor/weapon skills for your hunters) and additional perks. I would have preferred for this option to drop in the final title update as it pretty much kills any variety and desire to hunt for anything that doesn't drop components for crafting these powerful weapons. The game already has a big problem in terms of not knowing what to do with Frenzy monsters afflicted with the Frenzy Virus. It's mentioned in the story briefly, only for Gore Magala to show up towards the end of High Rank and yet those monsters are EXTREMELY scarce and glass-cannons as is. 

The Artian weapons' inclusion in this entry feels as absurd of a choice by the developers as making the Thunder Serpent Narwa armor set at the end of the base game of Monster Hunter Rise feel reminiscent of the Fatalis armor set(s) from the end of the Iceborne expansion. Sure, you're rewarding players for defeating the "final" boss of that iteration of the game, but in this game, players are able to start crafting Artian weapons VERY early into High Rank, which is even more insane in hindsight. The talk of the community has been a constant debate on whether or not the game is "too difficult" or "too easy". Choices like this make it hard not too see why a lot of the veteran players feel like this entry is too easy, especially when players are allowed to craft powerful weapons like these very early on and there's nothing else that either outclasses them nor challenges them (outside of a few of the tempered monsters) enough to put their skills to the test.

Performance

Performance has been an ongoing issue, especially on PC during the open beta. Even players with high-end machines are still reporting crashes and numerous bugs/slowdowns while playing the game. I am experiencing this entry on PC myself, but I will admit that it is playable and thoroughly enjoyable for the most part. Since I'm using a traditional hard drive on my machine instead of the recommended solid-state drive (SSD), I will always have an occasional instance where I have to wait for additional textures and environments to load briefly upon first starting/booting up the game or moving to a new region in-game that will cause all of the models and environments to look like low-quality sprites for a few seconds. I don't mind that, but the only issues I have ran into was the few instances where I went into multiplayer lobbies and the game slowed to a crawl from how many players and avatars were trying to be loaded at the same time. To the developers' credit, that issue has mitigated to being non-existent from how bad it was during the first week(s) of play. On the other hand, I have had the fortune of not running into the wealth of game-breaking bugs and crashes that certain players on both PC and consoles have reported and continuing to report. It has been a rough road to get this game to at least this state in terms of performance, but Capcom still has a long way to go as they could still do some more work under the hood in terms of optimization, such as shaving down how much VRAM this game uses for absolutely no reason while running. 

To the game's credit, when it's working and firing on all cylinders with the weather/environmental effects on display in these various regions, this is a GORGEOUS game to look at in action. I won't take that away from it in the least. On the PC end, it just takes a lot of internal tweaking in terms of settings for each players' individual machines to get this looking and working to the desired outcome to make the visuals really pop. 

Closing Thoughts

As I'm preparing to farm Arch-Tempered Rey Dau for the final weekend - both for crafting materials and for the free challenge quest rewards - I have been reflecting on Monster Hunter Wilds as a whole for quite some time since release. Currently, the game is this weird state of flux. The player base has died down considerable since the launch week, but that is to be expected with banger after banger of major releases dropping in terms of other noteworthy video games no matter where your interests may lie that can distract players from sticking with the game. On top of that, I know a lot of people personally who stopped playing once the credits rolled at the end of Low Rank and didn't even bother committing to continuing to play like most other Monster Hunter series veterans or those who have played at least World to know that there's more than the opening portion of the game. 

Then there's the elephant in the room that has to be addressed that has the community as a whole arguing back and forth about to the point of hostility - the game's difficulty. Truth be known that I'm NOT a Monster Hunter series veteran. Like a lot of newcomers to this series, I started in World and later its Iceborne expansion, then continued into Rise and it's Sunbreak expansion. (Laughs) I dabbled in a little of Generations Ultimate since it was on sale for Nintendo Switch and one of my veteran friends wouldn't shut up about it. It was interesting enough, but the slog of its grind turned me off to it and never went back to it in all honesty. In terms of the difficulty, I don't feel like Wilds is as brain-dead as Rise's difficulty felt throughout majority of it's campaign in both Low and High Rank outside of a few exceptions. Nor was it difficult as G-rank/Master rank difficulty was expected to be in Iceborne and Sunbreak expansions. I think the problem lies in the Wound system where monsters are essentially rendered helpless and incapacitated due to being in stun-lock from wounds being popped left and right. Add on top of that is the fact that both poison and paralysis status ailments are highly potent to monsters in this entry which makes them even more susceptible to being bullied by players into submission. You would think that's enough, but there's more. Add in the Artian weapon tree, which is ripe of the best weapon options in the game for every class, essentially trivializes anything players could possibly run into since you can craft for status ailments and elemental damage to optimize for every possible match-up. When you add all of these factors together, I don't think that the game as a difficulty problem but a problem where the developers have made the players stronger than the monsters can hope to fight against without any sort of compromise to the wound system (I think the frequency of how much wounds appear would be a step in the right direction with 'cooldowns' on popping them too). 

Outside of the "difficulty" issue and the fact that a "true" endgame for this game feeling nonexistent at this point of its shelf life, there's a few things that I feel is lacking in comparison to the last two outings in this franchise. The lack of a proper cook at the canteen/camp (I miss the Grandmother chef in Iceborne and the Dango chefs in Rise/Sunbreak greatly) makes preparing meals for your hunts feel stale to the point where I'm skipping that cutscene more (and much more adamantly) than I ever did in the last two releases. 

The lack of proper "home" for your hunter feels lazy, especially when the game still encourages you to engage in fishing and capturing endemic life, yet you have no place to share/display your findings. The few customization options for your camps and Seikret feels hollow when compared to the last few entries in this series. 

Last but not least, I miss having my Poogie too. Sure, you can pet and engage into the minigame at Suja with the one lone poogie there, but I miss dressing up mine like Dodogama in Iceborne and petting him for luck before every hunt. He was always the first thing that ran up to greet your hunter when you came back from hunts. It makes a lot of these actions in this game feel hollow in response when a lot of these small towns were ripe with life and activity on lower performance technology no less. 

That being said, I still can't give Capcom a pass on the fact that the Gathering Hub wasn't available at launch nor was the proper "final boss" for high rank in Zoh Shia. Imagine if there was another delay or something else in development and we didn't see that included until a later title update. All of this just adds to a laundry list of things that cumulatively makes this game was rushed out just to make it for the launch date. We can't complain too much when the title updates are free with new additional content being added every few months, but I can't deny that this game feels lacking in content or in better words, "depth", to make me engage with it more than the main story quest or out of sheer habit.

Free Title Updates

As someone who finished the Master Rank campaign of Sunbreak literally weeks before the launch of this game, I wasn't really enamored with the idea of fighting Mizutsune again in this entry. I love the monster design and its battle theme, but this hunt was a massive letdown in its initial encounter in this title update. That being said, the tempered version is the much preferred version of this monster that I enjoyed hunting. The normal version is too much of a cakewalk, even with the introduction of bubbleblight in this first title update. 

Arch-Tempered Rey Dau released this week of this posting and I soloed that hunt the night of its arrival on my first attempt. The developers gave it some of Kirin's tricks from World and some AOE (area of effect) explosive properties to a lot of its attacks to minimalize the strength of "Counterstrike" playstyles and builds. I can see that being a source of frustration for players who may be struggling with that hunt, but for any weapon with a shield, I can't see them having too many issues with this monster once you get its new tricks down. A part of me wishes that this was the default iteration of Rey Dau as it's already one of my favorite hunts in this entire game. It's even crazier to me that it's merely a region apex monster instead of an Elder that can be captured.

Play It or Don't Bother?

This is the part of this review where I was sum up my thoughts on the game and tell you whether it's worth your hard-earned money or not. That's the thing. These Monster Hunter games, at least with World and Rise, are set up like an ongoing service model. The current base/raw package of this game is fine enough, but I feel like Capcom could have done more in terms of making this game a worthy successor to the amazing ride that was World and its expansion, Iceborne, before it. A lot of people jumped into this entry to recapture the magic and fond memories that they had with that game and as much as I have been having fun with this entry, I can confidently say that this quite isn't it, fam'. That being said though, I'm anxious to see what Capcom is going to do to change my mind by the end of this base version of the game going into the expansion at the end of the free content rollouts. I'm going to continue playing and see where it goes. As a result, I'm keeping this review open-ended until the end of the free title update rollouts. It is the start of May 2025 when I'm publishing this review, so keep an eye on this page for any updates and future updates. 

Credits & Special Thanks:

• Monster Hunter Wilds Portal (Capcom)

• Monster Hunter Wilds Wiki (FextraLife)