question for monster hunter fans

[BigTony]

Monster Hunter Wilds looks bad I'm not monster hunter fan so maybe I just don't get it but an open world monster hunter game sounds like a terrible idea especially in RE engine. Is this something Monster Hunter fans want?

 

[DunkeyKong]

Not sure, but a lot of fans are pretty okay with it. I think an open world Monster Hunter is nothing new since Monster Hunter World already have a big open space kind of setting, but it'll definitely be much bigger in Wilds

The graphics though? I don't mind really, not that bad I guess. If it plays like Monster Hunter then that's good enough for me

 

[RustySK]

Personally I'm definitely partial to the older, stiffer and more compartmentalized style of classic MH, but I do also absolutely see the appeal of what open world design might add to the experience.

I think in large part it comes down to which part of the MH experience appeals to you - is it the tight combat, the well-designed battles?
Well, in that case open world design introduces a whole bunch of potential (but not unsolveable!) problems to the equation that break design integrity and balance and generally change the entire dynamic between the player, their resources and the bosses.

Is it the fantasy of being a scrappy Hunter of fantastical looking giant Monsters that are designed with at least some degree of evolutionary and behavioral logic?
Well then the open world GREATLY enhances the experience for you (at least potentially) in that you get to see how all of these various different creatures behave, hunt, sleep and generally spend their days as you methodically research and/or stalk them.

Again, I'm more of a fan of the older titles, but I do get what makes the newer, more free-form/open world titles so appealing to so many people.

In any case, I'm definitely looking forward to Wilds, but I'm also a long-time addict, so my judgment is utterly tainted.
(In my ideal world we'd get a Frontier resurgence or something though)

 

[Tonberry]

I loved World (except for the clutch claw) but didn’t like Rise very much at all, so I’m interested in seeing if they manage to evolve ”big Monster Hunter” (as me and my friends call the World style) in a good way.

I’m not gonna buy it immediately since I want to see how it performs, but I know that I’ll have a good time with my friends down the line, no matter if it’s a weak or strong entry.

That being said, I’m still not sold on a non RE game in the RE engine, since both Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Street Fighter 6 have their fair share of issues, from technical to stylistic.

 

[BigTony]

I loved World (except for the clutch claw) but didn’t like Rise very much at all, so I’m interested in seeing if they manage to evolve ”big Monster Hunter” (as me and my friends call the World style) in a good way.

I’m not gonna buy it immediately since I want to see how it performs, but I know that I’ll have a good time with my friends down the line, no matter if it’s a weak or strong entry.

Performance is definitely a concern my brother was asking me how much hes gonna have to spend to get a pc that can run it all i could say was "a lot"
RE Engine is pretty cool but I'm afraid Capcom is doing the same thing EA did with the frostbite engine in the 2010s forcing all their developers to use it even in projects that would be better off in unreal

 

[Prism_Red]

I'll hold on any sort of judgment until I try it myself, which is maybe a year or two from now, when they already release all of the DLC and stuff.

 

[Tonberry]

RE Engine is pretty cool but I'm afraid Capcom is doing the same thing EA did with the frostbite engine in the 2010s forcing all their developers to use it even in projects that would be better off in unreal

Yeah that’s probably a good comparison.
I think it’s a really good engine for games like Resident Evil, but I’m not completely convinced it’s good for open-ended environments yet, or arcadey stuff like SF. Hopefully Wilds will be a good iteration and maybe they learned some lessons with DD2.

 

[moonbits]

whatever Chad Warden, you don't get it. Stick to shooting games or slick black PS3

 

[RustySK]

whatever Chad Warden, you don't get it. Stick to shooting games or slick black PS3

Ballin'.

 

[sysuah]

I loved World (except for the clutch claw) but didn’t like Rise very much at all, so I’m interested in seeing if they manage to evolve ”big Monster Hunter” (as me and my friends call the World style) in a good way.

I’m not gonna buy it immediately since I want to see how it performs, but I know that I’ll have a good time with my friends down the line, no matter if it’s a weak or strong entry.

I feel like the decisions they made for Rise were good because we finally get contained maps again AND you get to hunt along the town NPCs in Sunbreak, something i've always wanted in Monster Hunter since 4 onwards with how many games did to make singleplayer fun... granted you only get to hunt along side them in their own respective follower quest lists instead so that defeats the their purpose basically to tell the player to just play online and that this is just a taste of the core gameplay with more than 2 felynes (that games before it did better like Toukiden, Freedom Wars, God Eater, Soul Sacrifice)
but they just had to ruin it by showing you where the monster already is on the map with the lock-on instead of how 4th gen does the lock-on so no more of the little cat and mouse game of the previous entries
and the dog, oh the dog... it throws a wrench into the gameplay loop but you can ignore the dog completely so that's a plus from me
and I played it on the switch and regretted it really bad, it takes forever to load all the contents in (with and without mods, yes there are mods for Rise on the Switch) even if you overclock your switch and finally got my PC back so I have to remind myself to pirate Rise on PC to see how it's like with these mods I keep hearing about
I might try Wilds down the line too if they get their shit together and optimize the engine instead of telling everyone to get the newest and latest graphics cards GTX6000000 on the market for the game to run at a stable 30fps and GTX120000000SuperDuper 64GB VRAM if i want to run it in 1080p60fps with V-sync

I'll hold on any sort of judgment until I try it myself, which is maybe a year or two from now, when they already release all of the DLC and stuff.

pretty much same here

 

[RageBurner]

My take is that while Wilds is more or less the course I expected the series to take in regards to scope, it is by no means the course I'd prefer it continues heading towards, with ever more infinitely demanding hardware requirements and terrible performance that takes them from 6 months or more to fix.

I will always advocate in favor of a more focused, contained style that shone brightest in 4U and GU, but I know people would scrunch their noses at the notion. So what's the happy medium between old and new? in my opinion, it is Rise:

it scaled back the overly cluttered maps that World introduced to something more manageable (but no less interesting - pick apart a MHW map objectively and you'll see there is nowhere near as much real traversable terrain as it seems), and allowed for a fair bit of customizability with Switch skills, something I appreciate.

I know the Wirebug and Palamutes have their detractors, and in part, I'm one of these detractors, actually; I prefer fighting grounded, and the Palamute seems like a wasted means of conveyance on the more compact, focused maps Rise has. That said, it is undeniable that the wirebug adds much to the movesets with offensive and defensive options.

In some ways, Wilds seems like World 2.0, which is also what I expected. The movesets feel familiar, but interesting and mercifully the wound system doesn't get in the way, unlike the Clutch Claw did.

All that said, the RE Engine clearly wasn't made for this kind of thing, and Capcom will have to work hard if they want to get those steam reviews above the middling point they are at now.

 

[Tonberry]

That said, it is undeniable that the wirebug adds much to the movesets with offensive and defensive options.

I liked it for traversal/exploration as a one-game gimmick, but I think it kind of ruined a majority of fights because you barely had to think about positioning, and if you got hit you could always tech a billion years late and come back unscathed immediately.

The overly fast pace in Rise was, to me, worse than both the pace in Worlds/Wilds and the old games, because it made the maps feel the smallest by far (also didn’t help that it was a Switch game). Every fight feels overly formulaic, there’s zero prep it exploration, you just pick up the same twinklies when the quest starts. W/W both feel more true to the older games in this regard (even though I also don’t like how Wilds auto-marks the monster but it’s whatever to me really, I’ve always hunted in hunt quests and gathered/explored outside of them).

While Worlds/Wilds feel like natural evolutions and biggering of the core format (in both good and less good ways), Rise to me feels like some sort of weird limbo where everything is way too convenient and streamlined in a way I think feels boring and immersion-stifling.

I LOVE how the world in Wilds feels so alive, with outbreaks and forecasts, and being able to create quests from monsters you spot in the world instead of grinding the same optional quest with the same target rewards (which you still can). It feels dynamic and interactive in a way I think is great. My main complaint is still that it’s kind of too easy (wounds are great but feel slightly overtuned, even now as I’m on HR 40), but I don’t play MH for the difficulty, I play it to kill dragons with friends and have a good time.

Sorry for rambling, just got thinking more and more as I was typing :)

 

[SwordBreaker40]

Okey lets say it like this Zelda open world game to me sounded like a terrible but it kind of work and on the wii u to boot then it came to switch when it launched but still.

I will say I did enjoy breath of wild when it came out but now later I will say honestly the game was rather empty allot of the times select from a few monsters and doing shrines became rather boring.

Monster hunter open would is fun and it works decently and Monster hunter world also worked good I mean you had big open maps compared to very early games where you had smaller sections of one map.

 

[RageBurner]

I liked it for traversal/exploration as a one-game gimmick, but I think it kind of ruined a majority of fights because you barely had to think about positioning, and if you got hit you could always tech a billion years late and come back unscathed immediately.

The overly fast pace in Rise was, to me, worse than both the pace in Worlds/Wilds and the old games, because it made the maps feel the smallest by far (also didn’t help that it was a Switch game). Every fight feels overly formulaic, there’s zero prep it exploration, you just pick up the same twinklies when the quest starts. W/W both feel more true to the older games in this regard (even though I also don’t like how Wilds auto-marks the monster but it’s whatever to me really, I’ve always hunted in hunt quests and gathered/explored outside of them).

While Worlds/Wilds feel like natural evolutions and biggering of the core format (in both good and less good ways), Rise to me feels like some sort of weird limbo where everything is way too convenient and streamlined in a way I think feels boring and immersion-stifling.

I LOVE how the world in Wilds feels so alive, with outbreaks and forecasts, and being able to create quests from monsters you spot in the world instead of grinding the same optional quest with the same target rewards (which you still can). It feels dynamic and interactive in a way I think is great. My main complaint is still that it’s kind of too easy (wounds are great but feel slightly overtuned, even now as I’m on HR 40), but I don’t play MH for the difficulty, I play it to kill dragons with friends and have a good time.

Sorry for rambling, just got thinking more and more as I was typing :)

No need to apologize, ramble on, we're sharing viewpoints here!

I agree that the pace in Rise is overly fast and a bit frantic, but like I said it seems to borrow a lot from GU and that's why I value it so highly (GU is still superior in my book, I think I mentioned it before).

The lack of preparation/excessive streamlining is certainly there, but to me it affects every game post GU equally - a lot of information and supplies is basically handed down to the player whereas before you were expected to actually observe a monster's behavior and exploit it, but no, you are often just told flat out what the weaknesses resistances are and so on. You have to fight the monster, yes, but regardless you are given a wealth of information for basically free.

Rise maps feel compressed even further than they already are due to quick traversal options, like you said, but Wilds stumbles on the same issue in a different way: the maps are large, open and beautiful, but you are actually doing very little exploring unless you purposefully ignore what I like to call "ride by wire", that is, the Seikret will just tail the monster with laser focus precision at all times, so am I really exploring, or just having downtime between monster scuffles?

All in all, Wilds is an excellent entry, mind you, save for the performance issues that are beside the point in this particular exchange, and I like it infinitely more than I do World by a huge margin.

Further, I feel Wilds adds very important and welcome changes to the core gameplay in the way weapons now work (having innate offensive skills, I feel it should always have been that way) and I also think the way armor sets now work is a net positive.

Difficulty... that's always a big can of worms isn't it? difficulty is very relative and I do think a lot of people confuse low difficulty with merely convenience. It's undeniable MH games became more and more convenient as time went on: in MH 1 the decoration system didn't exist, in Dos you couldn't remove decos once applied, in MHFU dung bombs were finicky... I could go on, really.

Does all that mean some games are harder than others? surely, but they are probably harder for the wrong reasons.

 

[Tonberry]

No need to apologize, ramble on, we're sharing viewpoints here!

I agree that the pace in Rise is overly fast and a bit frantic, but like I said it seems to borrow a lot from GU and that's why I value it so highly (GU is still superior in my book, I think I mentioned it before).

The lack of preparation/excessive streamlining is certainly there, but to me it affects every game post GU equally - a lot of information and supplies is basically handed down to the player whereas before you were expected to actually observe a monster's behavior and exploit it, but no, you are often just told flat out what the weaknesses resistances are and so on. You have to fight the monster, yes, but regardless you are given a wealth of information for basically free.

Rise maps feel compressed even further than they already are due to quick traversal options, like you said, but Wilds stumbles on the same issue in a different way: the maps are large, open and beautiful, but you are actually doing very little exploring unless you purposefully ignore what I like to call "ride by wire", that is, the Seikret will just tail the monster with laser focus precision at all times, so am I really exploring, or just having downtime between monster scuffles?

All in all, Wilds is an excellent entry, mind you, save for the performance issues that are beside the point in this particular exchange, and I like it infinitely more than I do World by a huge margin.

Further, I feel Wilds adds very important and welcome changes to the core gameplay in the way weapons now work (having innate offensive skills, I feel it should always have been that way) and I also think the way armor sets now work is a net positive.

Difficulty... that's always a big can of worms isn't it? difficulty is very relative and I do think a lot of people confuse low difficulty with merely convenience. It's undeniable MH games became more and more convenient as time went on: in MH 1 the decoration system didn't exist, in Dos you couldn't remove decos once applied, in MHFU dung bombs were finicky... I could go on, really.

Does all that mean some games are harder than others? surely, but they are probably harder for the wrong reasons.

For difficulty I mainly meant that so far in Wilds monsters feel like pushovers if you’re 4 players because they can be staggered so much. Thankfully my squad is me and 2 buddies so it doesn’t feel quite as overpowering for the poor Blangongas.

I like how people warmed up to GU over time. People felt really dismissive of original Generations due to the guild skills or whatever, but it’s great that it exists as the ultimate old MH game really.
It’s got like infinite content lol.
Only wish it’d get an official PC release.

 

[sysuah]

Rise to me feels like some sort of weird limbo where everything is way too convenient and streamlined in a way I think feels boring and immersion-stifling.

Yeah same, Rise felt like they released the game in the wrong order. The game really felt as if it should've came before World as an experimental title to test the waters with the new engine, not the other way around
Because I notice that
- the one big connected "map" to test out how RE engine would handle with a big map and returning areas from previous gen games like Sandy Plains and Flooded Forest

- You no longer have these dead air moments in between hunts anymore like in the previous gen titles where if your paintball ran out as the monster starts limping you better start marking it quick. Now it's just on your map at all times at the simple click of R3

- Heavy gameplay emphasis on wirebug to basically make the gameplay less punishing as well as introducing something new to the franchise and another means for verticality, where as you only get any form of vertical positioning and height when you run with IG or your felyne has the trampoline skill. Plus the dog acts as a traversal option to get around the map to return to the hunt as quick as possible when you're knocked out

- Infinite tools, you basically don't have to worry about running out of mega pickaxes, nets and whetstones anymore
You don't plan ahead anymore and not to mention it kills that tension that develops in a hunt when things are down to the wire, you have no carts and are running low on items. And without a doubt some of the most amazing plays often came from those desperation moments

 

[YuriSukiSan]

Generally if you liked World you will probably like Wilds and that's the majority of the modern MH community because it exploded in popularity in the West when that released. I'm obviously not a big fan of the changes that were made to streamline the game for a modern audience, to me they aren't bad games but the westernization of the franchise is something I find quite tragic. It's lost it's character and distinctive style, the charm it once had in my opinion! When I initially watched the first Wilds trailer it's the clothing of the characters that bothered me more than anything else, there's a blandess to it. I'm not sure how to describe it other than fantasy streetwear/slobwear. And while I'm aware it's not representative of the whole game and there's interesting armours, new monsters etc, it feels so alien to me.. that is the first impression they wanted everyone to have.

 

[Tonberry]

I prefer the older titles when it comes to my preferences. Generally if you liked World you will probably like Wilds and that's the majority of the modern MH community because it exoloded in the West when that released. I'm not a big fan of the changes that were made to streamline the games for a modern audience myself, to me they aren't bad games but the westernization of the franchise is something I find quite tragic. It's lost a lot of it's character and charm in my opinion! When I watched the first Wilds trailer it's the clothing of the characters in that bothered me more than anything else, there's a blandess to it. I'm not sure how to describe it other than fantasy slobwear. And while I'm aware it's not representative of the whole game and there's interesting armours.. It feels so totally alien to me.

I’m not a fan of ”modern looking fantasy wear” either, but thankfully I didn’t even have to start with the box art gear and went with chainmail instead.

 

[hazys]

Ultimately my heart belongs to classic MonHun (especially 4U), but I'm pretty happy with the direction Wilds has taken. It has definitely streamlined a lot of the prepping and survival elements of the pre-World games, but not so much as to make it feel like it cuts back on exploration. One of the things I disliked the most about Rise, for example, was the Spiribird system, which felt like a chore that added nothing to the game. In Wilds you can pick up stuff as you go with the slinger, which gives you something to do as your mount takes you to your desired location. You can even do it during those walk-and-talk cutscenes.

It's true that the game is "open world" now, but it still retains the basic design of original MonHun in the sense that you are constrained to a single map divided into multiple areas. The only difference is that there is no longer a loading screen between areas, which is honestly not a bad thing. It's true that this game provides a very useful mount with auto-tracking that can take you to a targeted place or monster with no input from the player, but when the maps become so massive and visually-detailed and vertically-integrated, it kind of becomes a necessity to have a navigator. The maps are too complex to easily commit to memory like before. (There are also many customization options regarding the functionalities of your mount.)

The combat also feels very satisfying. Some of the changes to weapons are debatable, but the new "wound" system is very fun to play with without eclipsing every other aspect of combat, which was an issue I had both with World's clutch claw and Rise's wirebugs. The general gameplay loop has been smoothed out, but not robbed of the character that makes it recognizably Monster Hunter.

In terms of new mechanics, there is a sort of "get out of jail free" option analogous to the wirefall in Rise, where you can call your mount to rescue you at any time, i-frames included. But it's not nearly as dependable as the wirefall (because your mount might be far away), and I don't feel like I'm missing out by not using it. As for all the other new mechanics, I have no complaints.

My one real big issue with this game is the difficulty I guess. It's just pretty easy for veterans; even in High Rank there are no massive challenges. The eventual Master Rank expansion might fix that. But the game also presents a new potential "flow" where you can link with others online in the same environment and run around gathering, exploring, and hunting whatever monsters appear, organically. This is not the rigid prepping-and-coordinating approach of classic MonHun, but I still find it very enjoyable, especially with friends.

Also, while I will never prefer the current art direction of the series compared to the mid-poly matte richness and color (and "out-there-ness") of the classic series, I think Wilds has done a pretty good job at recapturing the vibrance and whimsy of MonHun, even making some very surprising callbacks to 4. It just doesn't make a good first impression on that front.

Overall I think this is definitely the best "modern" MonHun title so far, but I also understand if veterans don't care for it. I didn't care for Rise, or even World really.

 

[RageBurner]

Yeah same, Rise felt like they released the game in the wrong order. The game really felt as if it should've came before World as an experimental title to test the waters with the new engine, not the other way around

I never thought about this before, but I agree with you. I always felt a certain proximity in experimentation and freedom between GU and Rise; they've made more sense back to back, with World coming later, possibly on a more refined RE Engine rather than straining MT Framework like it ended up happening.

Generally if you liked World you will probably like Wilds and that's the majority of the modern MH community because it exploded in popularity in the West when that released. I'm obviously not a big fan of the changes that were made to streamline the game for a modern audience, to me they aren't bad games but the westernization of the franchise is something I find quite tragic.

I feel the same. I think you and I had this particular talking point before.

Ultimately my heart belongs to classic MonHun (especially 4U), but I'm pretty happy with the direction Wilds has taken. It has definitely streamlined a lot of the prepping and survival elements of the pre-World games, but not so much as to make it feel like it cuts back on exploration. One of the things I disliked the most about Rise, for example, was the Spiribird system, which felt like a chore that added nothing to the game. In Wilds you can pick up stuff as you go with the slinger, which gives you something to do as your mount takes you to your desired location. You can even do it during those walk-and-talk cutscenes.

Yeah I don't like the Spiritbirds in Rise either, I find it most forgettable. Unlike you I like Rise, though, as a whole but I fully agree with you that Wilds did a lot of things right; wounds are a cool extra that doesn't break the flow like the Clutch Claw did, which is a huge positive.

 

[hazys]

That's fair. I didn't hate Rise or anything, I played through the campaign and quite a bit of the post-game and DLC, I just found it made a lot of weird decisions. The wirebug system felt like it completely eclipsed the rest of combat, the raids were awful, the game felt incomplete at launch... but my overall experience with it was positive in the end.

 

[RageBurner]

That's fair. I didn't hate Rise or anything, I played through the campaign and quite a bit of the post-game and DLC, I just found it made a lot of weird decisions. The wirebug system felt like it completely eclipsed the rest of combat, the raids were awful, the game felt incomplete at launch... but my overall experience with it was positive in the end.

I like the Wirebug attacks (they are essentially Hunter Arts, in a sense, along with some Switch Skills) but I do think the wirefall in particular is overturned. Maybe larger cool downs would help fix it.

As for the defense missions, absolutely, they are the largest black eye IMO. If progression mods exist, I'd want one that disables that junk.

 

[chxshire22]

i haven't played it, but as someone who has been obsessed with monster hunter for the past decade or more, i like where it's going. the changes to the basics of the weapons are kinda jarring, but nothing a seasoned hunter can't deal with.

i find the open world tedious tbh. there's so much running, or travel, since the arenas / zones are much bigger now i just want to get in and smack things around not spend minutes chasing the monster down.

but that's just my 2 cents