Review: Monster Hunter Wilds Keeps an Audience Captive

It can feel like Capcom walks a delicate balance between Monster Hunter games geared toward the core audience and ones designed to feel inviting to those outside, looking in at people having so much fun. Monster Hunter World definitely fell into the “more approachable for everyone” category, while installments like Generations: Ultimate and Rise can feel more geared toward those who’ve spent years honing their hunting skills. With Monster Hunter Wilds, I feel like the team veered back into a game for anyone while still offering sufficient challenge, the return of some fan favorite monsters, and tons of quality of life and environmental exploration elements that will delight people who’ve stuck with the series for over 20 years.

Monster Hunter Wilds begins with us watching the rampage and assault of the White Wraith. A number of villagers are attempting to escape its fury, with a man named Tasheen ushering a young boy named Nata through a cavern’s cracks in the hopes of saving his life. He does, resulting in the child traversing even deserts until members of the Hunter’s Guild happen upon him. As a result, they learn the foreboding Forbidden Lands aren’t completely desolate. An expedition is mounted to both explore the area, return Nata to his home, and learn more about the mysterious Keepers tribe he belongs to. Naturally, players’ avatars are one of the star Hunters picked to escort him on this mission.

While I usually don’t come to Monster Hunter games for their narrative, I ended up incredibly pleased with the story Capcom had to tell in Monster Hunter Wilds. Nata is a sympathetic companion, and I did desperately want to help this kid get home and find a happy ending. The progression that stems from introducing new villages and people in the Forbidden Lands involves some pretty great pacing, as well as opportunities to tease new areas and “what’s next” via occasional excursions into certain spots before the full campaign takes us there. It also involved moments that surprised me. Not to mention it builds upon other background elements and lore past games suggested in a satisfying manner.

As usual, you head into Monster Hunter Wilds with an array of options ahead of you. There are 14 weapons to choose from, and one of the new quality of life features allows you to “store” a second one at your Seikret mount and swap to them while on assignment. When you head off on a mission, your goal will be to take a gigantic, hostile creature down. In these extended fights, you’ll often need to sharpen your weapon, heal, use items to heal your status, use other items to inflict status effects or trap an enemy, and wear the opponent down by breaking off parts. One of the other quality of life additions allows you to “focus” by holding down a trigger and target very obvious wounds to help break parts and get new materials. As you assault opponents, parts can break off. These net you specific items sometimes, as well as change the monster’s physical appearance.

Yes, like Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter Wilds features a mount in the form of the Seikret birds. The best analogy I can offer is the Final Fantasy Chocobo. Like the Palamute from Monster Hunter Rise, they’d designed to help with traversing terrain and speeding your way around the game’s large maps. However, they’re also an accessibility feature. There’s a built-in autopilot that can take you directly to your next monster or campaign objective, which is optional since you can maintain manual control. This doesn’t completely dumb down the experience, as there are moments in chapters that involve a person needing to go on-foot or actually use their own awareness and investigative skills to find someone or your target. It’s basically there as a nice option to have, especially if you fall during a hunt and want to quickly catch up, but isn’t forced upon you.

As far as weapons go, there’s been significant balancing and retooling. All of them feel more effective as options for dealing out damage to enemies. For example, I felt like the combos for the Long Sword, my main, let me more effortlessly chain attacks together and take advantage of the skills tied to it. So I had a Spirit Gauge I could fill for additional attacks. If I swapped to my Gunlance backup, I could gain more survivability while still being an offensive force that could also rely on the Wyvern’s Fire attacks and Wyrmstake Shots. If a monster was especially mobile and in a phase when it’d use AOE elemental attacks, I’d hop on the Seikret when these were being telegraphed, more nimbly move around for some strikes, then use the ability to attack while jumping of of the mount to deal more damage and perhaps even leap onto the monster. It just feels good.

In addition to building on over 20 years of experience with regards to ensuring weapons work well and combat feels tight, Monster Hunter Wilds further shows what the evolution of an open-world entry in the series looks like. We got a taste of that with Monster Hunter World, and it was great! I loved heading out at any time, without an objective, to explore and get into trouble. That’s still present here! The fast travel system comes up immediately, to further facilitate that, as does the ability to find spots for pop-up camps and pay the fee needed to place them as additional points in each of the major biomes. So you have all these options for deploying whether you want to search for specific materials or wandering monsters (which are highlighted on the map) or just look around to see what would happen. I also appreciated the realism that comes from monsters happening upon said pop-ups and ripping them apart if you don’t check in from time to time. 

Another highlight in this richer than usual open world is the seasonal effects present this time around. Capcom introduces the Fallow, Inclemency, and Plenty seasons during the campaign, with early events forcibly changing them so we can see a marked difference. There are different weather conditions, which can make hunts more challenging! When the seasons change, certain monsters might come out. I even felt like this helped lend itself to more turf war opportunities, which are still so much fun to see. (Especially when it helped me out during a fight.) It feels so much more dynamic than before and also encourages someone to take time between missions to look around. Especially since Capcom even hints at taking a moment by suggesting someone “prepare” as an option before jumping into another chapter quest.

The only thing I could see as possibly holding Monster Hunter Wilds back is that you don’t get immediate access to every biome and location on the world map or feature you may be familiar with in past games. These unlock as you go through the campaign. Also, when first venturing into spaces as part of these quests, there will be times when you’re forced to stay on the Seikret and let “things happen” instead of wandering off on your own to assess. It’s a minor annoyance sometimes, especially if you see a new mining outcrop you want to tap into or a smaller monster you want to assault for items like a Vespoid. Want Decorations to enhance your equipment? That happens once you’re invested in the story. The capturing tutorial and paintball usage? That comes up later. Adjusting your Palico too? Eventually!

The funny thing is, I didn’t miss that. I was so caught up in the story that I breezed through it. Especially since campaign quests sometimes do only take 15-30 minutes depending on your skill level, I felt like isn’t long before you’re done and able to go wander around. These story segments also provide valuable insight when it comes to exploring on your own. They all do take you through areas and are never isolated to a single “room” or “space.” So you get an idea of the ecology, maybe run into other monsters from the region you’ve seen, and can take a moment when chasing down a wounded target to do some gathering on the way. 

I will say that I didn’t start feeling like it got really challenging until I’d invested a substantial amount of time into it, with only one monster in the second chapter actually managing to completely wipe me out. Granted, I’ve been playing these games for 20 years now. I’m accustomed to things, and the quality of life adjustments here are very good in Monster Hunter Wilds. I can tell some of these monsters’ attack patterns and situations are fantastic, flashy, fun, and even cinematic. I think newcomers will even find them challenging! Those familiar with the series might not start feeling tested until they’ve faced 10-12 major opponents. Also, once you do reach the point where you’re free to do whatever you want, there are additional challenges to undertake, Tempered monsters, and incredible equipment to work on.

That some of these issues are so minor show how incredible a game Monster Hunter Wilds is. This is a fantastic installment in the series that feels filled with opportunities. There’s so much to do here, and a captivating campaign that moves along so well and properly introduces you to the monsters, region, and mechanics only helps enhance it all. Monster Hunter Wilds is a joy to play, a step forward for the series, and perhaps the best entry yet.

Monster Hunter Wilds will come to the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on February 28, 2025, and the Benchmark Tool is available now for PCs via Steam.