We’re big fans of the Monster Hunter franchise. Dyed-in-the-wool veteran hunters, I’ve personally played everything from the main series Monster Hunter 2 Freedom Unite (Japan has the best names) to the latest mobile release, Monster Hunter Now. Hundreds of thousands of hours have been poured into separating Rathalos from their tails. So, the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds obviously leaves us with huge excitement, and after going hands on for two hours we must say, we are absolutely stoked.
The preview session was split into two, with the first section taken from the game’s opening and featuring the first fully-voiced main character in the franchise. You’re a hunter, tasked with exploring the dubiously named Forbidden Lands — an area thought uninhabited for 1000 years, but from which a young boy named Nata has just escaped.
What’s more, The White Wraith, a monster long thought extinct, has been spotted in the Forbidden Lands. Nata and his clan clearly need help, and help in this franchise usually means a comically large sword.
Playing through this tutorial was great fun, with the cinematics being as beautiful and intense as you’d hope. Your expedition ship is sailing through the sands, conjuring immediate flashbacks of the Jhen Mohran battle from Monster Hunter 3. Along the way, you see a young girl, riding an animal through the sands, fleeing a pack of monsters that probably have Frank Herbert’s ears burning. It turns out that the girl is Nona, the beast is a Seikret and the monsters are Balaharas — all new to the franchise. The Balahara is a sand leviathan with a drill-like tail and a tripartite mouth with three tongues and several rows of nasty-looking teeth.
Naturally, you leap off the boat, land on a spare Seikret, do some badass stuff and beat the Balaharas.
After this pretty intense opening, we came across another new monster called a Chatacabra — an ape-like amphibian that licks as hard as it punches – which we have to defeat to rescue Nona. So far, that’s two brand-new monsters with unique attack patterns that are vaguely reminiscent of monsters from previous games.
Jumping ahead to a mission a little later in the game, we were tasked with taking down an Alpha Doshaguma — a hairy, fanged beast that reminded me of Arzuros on a bad day. These monsters travel in packs, and you have to use Dung Pods to separate them and focus on taking down the one you want.
The issue, of course, is that this is open-world and we like shiny things, so naturally, we went exploring. This is when we came across Rey Dau. Rey Dau is very cool.
This large, thunder wyvern is gorgeous, covered in bony golden scales on its back, with smaller black scales on its underbelly, joints and wings. Its horns generate an arc that it can fire at you and, naturally, it can summon lightning to try to one-shot you.
This is where things got really interesting. Though our gear was under-levelled, and though we were warned that Rey Dau had killed a lot of people and was yet to be defeated, we’re made of stronger stuff here at TSA (not literally, our armour was definitely underlevelled).
We spent the next 20 minutes relentlessly chasing it down, chugging Mega Potions and eventually separating Rey Dau from its tail — something we’re assured was a world first. Such was our success that the PR is now considering swapping weapons.
Speaking of which, Monster Hunter Wilds has a cool new feature that allows you to swap weapons mid-hunt. While riding your Seikret, you can swap between a primary and secondary weapon, opening up huge flexibility in the way you hunt.
This has massive implications, as well as interesting drawbacks. Dom and I have already discussed the benefits of swapping between the Long Sword and a Hunting Horn, alternating between Slashing and Blunt Damage, while also being a Bard for your team. Similarly, dropping your Great Sword for a Heavy Bow Gun to hit massive Projectile Damage when a monster goes airborne can be a game-changer.
The drawback, of course, is that different weapons demand different skills — you absolutely want Horn Maestro or Quickload skills for the Hunting Horn or Bowguns, but these are useless when wielding anything sharper than your carving knife. How this affects builds in future will be very interesting to see.
There’s not much else to say at this point — the Seikret can auto-pilot, tracking your enemies while you focus on buffing, sharpening and healing. Likewise, it can glide short distances, helping close the gap between you and your quarry easier.
The only real concern was whether the difficulty was getting lower as accessibility increased. Let’s face it, Monster Hunter games are notoriously and deliberately difficult. This preview definitely felt challenging enough — even as a seasoned hunter, I took hits as I learned the attack patterns – and even though I didn’t die to the Rey Dau and I managed to carve its tail, it really did put up a fight.
Time will tell how Wilds eventually plays out, but I must say — I am more excited than ever to get my hands on the final game. Just like at the Meowscular Chef’s kitchen, this small taste of a gorgeous offering from Capcom has me desperately wanting more.
