Monster Hunter: Wilds was controversial when it came out, it still is nowadays and it will be when the Sunborne expansion releases. Business as usual, it's the classic cycle of "old game good, new game bad". I think it's a fine game on its own, far from bad. However, after completing the High Rank campaign, I finally understood the problems I have with the game. I did find certain disagreements during the main campaing/Low Rank content, but I didn't fully understand them, and thus I couldn't express them properly. As a result, this article will be an attempt at explaining what I find disagreeable with Monster Hunter: Wilds in the context of Monster Hunter, which may explain the discontent with the general public. Keep in mind that this is not an attack on the game. As I already mentioned, I think it's a good game, and in now way am I trying to persuade you that you shouldn't like it if you do. This is written from the perspective of someone who played Rise Sunbreak, World Iceborne, Generations Ultimate, Portable 3rd, 4 Ultimate, Tri and Dos.
What did Wilds do right?
This guy right here.
Despite my intent to criticize the perceived flaws of the game, I also find that it does some things right, some of which I wish were introduced in previous entries (mainly Monster Hunter: World). In order to keep the article not as negative, I'll start with the positives.
Being able to finish a quest instantly
This is a feature that exists after you kill or capture a monster. By holding Select (or whatever it's called in your preferred controller), you can move on to the results screen without having to wait a minute. This is particularly good in endgame when you no longer need to get small materials such as bones or minerals. Personally, when I finish a quest, I tend to do something else while I wait for the results screen, so this is a great addition for ADHD fellas such as myself.The immersiveness
Monster Hunter: Wilds is one of the few games that respects the evil legacy that Monster Hunter Dos left behind. That game used a season mechanic that caused certain monsters and quests to only appear depending on the season. While this was annoying, especially if you wanted to farm a specific monster, it allowed for a great deal of immersiveness that no other Monster Hunter has managed even today. Wilds is close to that, thanks to the different biomes in conjunction with the three season. It's not AS immersive (or punishing), but is good enough. There're issues with it, however...The monster roster
Wilds holds the honor of being the only Monster Hunter without a truly bad monster. Rise was close, but base Narwas is abysmally bad (Almother is really good, though). If I had to pick the "worst" it would probably be Quematrice, but only because it's unremarkably boring. The rest are, at worst, decent and, at best, amongst the best fights in the series. Rey Dau, in particular, is, as younglings say, "full of swag", and Omega is the first instance of a crossover monster that doesn't suck. I can't attest for the Savage version, though. Now, the fact that there are no bad fights might be a consequence of the difficulty, which I'll get to later, but it's still something.Slinger ammo is actually useful
Monster Hunter: Wilds brings back the slingshot ammo mechanic. Back then, they were simple proyectiles that deal negligible damage, and thus were mostly used to interact with terrain. There were a few exception, such as Crystalburst, which could stagger monsters very easily, Piercing for very large monsters, Bomb because it did some damage MAYBE Thorn because of its stun properties. Disregarding those, the rest were pitiful and had mostly support uses. In Wilds, most ammo, save for a few, deal damage bigger than a single slash of Sword and Shield. There's also the big ammo, which could be obtained from certain monsters after breaking specific parts, and those deal humongous damage. Overall, they're fun to use, especially against the Guardians when they create their structures that can explode with certain elements.Being able to grab certain materials with the hookshot
Relevant only to Wilds, and very minor in comparison to the rest, but I find using the hookshot to get materials from afar to be very fun. I wouldn't want this in older games, but I'm really glad that it's in this one at least.What did Wilds do not so well?
This guy right here (needing a whole Title Update for it to be rematchable).
Reduced difficulty
"Oh, but Wilds isn't easier, you just got naturally better as a veteran". Incorrect. Wilds IS easier than other Monster Hunter games, more so than World, more so than Rise. You get so many resources it's not even funny: for every mission I'd go with just Potions, Mega Potions and maybe Barrel Bombs for when they sleep. Rarely would I use Mega Potions. Even without taking that into account, there are other issues such as better mobility (the fact that you get movement while attacking, specially with lighter weapons such as Sword and Shield is enough proof), your health not diminishing after carting (granted, this was also on Rise, but that one had a different weltanschaung) and the Wound system (which I'll get into later), combined with pathetic monster patterns means that carting is rare, and losing a mission is outright impossible (unless we're talking about masochistic end-game content). I can assure you that this isn't as big on World and Rise (which are fairly easy games but still have some roadblocks such as Anjanath and Almudron). As I mentioned before, it's probably for this reason that no fight is truly bad. Fortunatelly, no monsters fall on the "I can't remember that monster" territory because they have cool designs.Immersiveness... but for what purpose?
I mentioned before that the game tries to bring back the immersiveness of Dos, but it fails completely. While monsters rotate depending on season and time, the game makes sure that you're never using the mechanic at any given point. For example, after hunting a monster, you'll get an infinitely repeatable quest, which makes hunting them on the wild(s) completely useless. And if it were just that... but more on that later. There's also a lot of pop-ups and UI elements that ruin that immersion, but that's minor.The Wound system is bad
On paper, this feature is fine: hit a monster repeatedly and a wound opens up, allowing you to do extra damage on that spot for a while (excellent against hard parts!). And then after five hunts it becomes boring because wounds open up very easily and very often, so you do more damage for the sake of doing more damage. Also, focus attacks on wounds stun lock ALL monsters for a set time (allowing other players to damage the monster in the meantime) and do a lot of damage. I'm pretty sure that the Wound system is part of why the game is so easy in comparison to other entries. Personally, I noticed that most hunts were really fast, taking at most 15 minutes on the hardest ones (with a few exceptions such as Omega).The story, world and characters are excruciatingly boring
Wilds isn't the first time Monster Hunter has tried for a more narrative approach. The first proper attempt was with 4U, and ironically it was their best attempt, if only because the Gore Magala dynamic funcioned really well. In World they tried again, with a bigger scope, and it sucked, but at least the New World was somewhat interesting, especially in contrast with the Old World. Rise had a certain semblant of narrative and, in my opinion, it had some interesting ideas but were executed poorly, but at least it wasn't intrusive, merely giving you a few cutscenes after ranking up, and were all skippable. Wilds tried to go back to the World formula and failed again. Although the main campaign is shorter it feels even worse because it's even more intrusive and, somehow, even more boring. The only thing that's better is that now you can skip cutscenes. And don't get me started on characters. For the first time in the series, every character has a name rather than a title, which should mean that they have a semblant of a personality. Rather, they are stereotypical and one note. The ones returning from 4U (Gemma and Fabius, not sure if there are others) are especially sad because 4U had really fun writing and none of that is present in Wilds. As for the world... maybe it's just me but I don't find it as interesting as previous entries. Also, because of how the story is structured, High Rank feels like postgame rather than the natural progresion (especially because the climax is pathetic).Switch Axe isn't fun
WHY IS SEREGIOS SWITCH AXE DRAGON PHIAL AND DRAGON ELEMENT???
On the other hand, Sword and Shield is the best it's ever been. Love it so much, so it's not all so bad.
The game just lacks friction
In this context, "friction" refers to opposition. Most games tend to have a certain level of friction, and it's important to find a nice level of balance so that the game is enjoyable. Too much, and it becomes frustrating. Too little, and it becomes mind-numbing and boring. Monster Hunter: Wilds is of the former. There're many examples and anecdotes of what I mean by this, but I always bring this one when explaining the lact of friction to my friends:There's a side quest which has you capturing a Doshaguma in the Scarlet Forest. It has to be in that stage, or it won't count. Sweet, I get to utilize the Season mechanic. Maybe it's not now, but after hunting for a while I should be able to find one there. No harm, no fowl. Except that the repeatable quest that you get for killing any Doshaguma has him appear in Scarlet Forest. So what's the point of the Season mechanic? There's also the case of Jin Dahaad and Zoh Shia in High Rank. After beating them during the story, there's a chance that they might appear in a specific biome, giving them a sense of grandeur an uniqueness. If you miss them, they're gone! Or you could also register them as an infinitely repeatable investigation and not bother about that.
And this is what I mean about the game lacking friction. As I mentioned before, the games ensures that the player never suffers even just a bit. Everything has to be announced, secrets are forbidden and waiting is illegal. For a series about the opposition of man vs nature and making the life of the hunter as horrible as possible, Wilds doesn't even bother.
No identity
I'll close this article off by highlighting that the game has no real identity of its own. It tries too much to cater to World fans but with the QoL features that appeared in Rise. Whenever you think of any game, chances are that you can define their identity in a sentence, such as "underwater combat" for Tri an 3U, "celebration of the series" for Generations Ultimate or "just very well rounded" for Portable 3rd. With Wilds, however, it's just "what if we made World 2 but with what made Rise unique" Hell, you even get Scoutflies but they're completely useless because you can see where the monster is at all points. Why bother? Maybe I'm too grumpy, but I can't help but feel the similarities between Wilds and Worlds... to much.
Last edited:
