At the end of The Game Awards, the announcement that everyone was waiting for! Monster Hunter Wilds will arrive in 2025.
I admit it, I’m a chronic and avid Monster Hunter player. Although I only discovered it from Monster Hunter World and had little experience with Double Cross (known to us as Generation Ultimate), I have accumulated more than 2,000 hours of gameplay on the title, adding it to Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak.
You can imagine how much I hoped for at least one trailer that could announce a sequel in continuity with World.
My expectations were not disappointed and, despite the short trailer, let’s dive into what CAPCOM made us understand.
I will not dwell on analyzes already done by others. I will try to analyze the context also thanks to Ryozo Tsujimoto’s interview.
Let’s begin!
Monster Hunter Wilds is the Next Generation
The Monster Hunter Wilds logo depicts a 6-headed dragon. Each logo from the old titles had a number of heads equivalent to the generation it belonged to.
This means that we are facing the sixth generation of the CAPCOM saga.
Ryozo Tsujimoto then announces that the title will be released simultaneously for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. As insignificant as this may seem, this is an important news. Only since Monster Hunter World has the release been global and, moreover, PC users have had to wait months to be able to play.
In the past the title was first released in Japan and then after a long time it arrived in the rest of the world. Even several titles have not seen the light of day in the West.
Obviously the over 21 million copies sold with World influenced the choice.
20 Years of Monster Hunter
Out of the blue Ryozo mentions an important anniversary. In March 2024 it will be 20 years since the release of the first Monster Hunter for PS2. An undoubtedly important anniversary that will certainly give us something. Even though CAPCOM has been producing great remakes lately, I find it difficult that they have one ready for March. On the other hand, a man can still dream. More realistically I expect some event for the recent mobile title or other surprises.
Open World and Other Details
In the interview Ryozo makes it clear to us that the title will not be cross-gen, but will belong exclusively to the current generation of consoles.
Even if the detail and the glance are not jaw-dropping, it is clear that the game is in continuity with Monster Hunter World. In addition to the aesthetic similarity, we note the care for the environment and endemic fauna just like in the previous title. So I expect a lot of variety of small and medium creatures and a strong interaction with the environment and monsters.
There is a possibility that most of the engine resources have been put into managing the open world. In fact, in this title there should be a transition from open map to open world. Our hunter also has a mount that allows him great mobility and even gliding which seems made especially for long journeys. He also has both a greatsword and a light crossbow as equipment, a tent with which he could camp (anywhere without finding camps?) and a sling.
My Two Cents
When Monster Hunter Wilds releases in 2025 it will have 8 years of development behind it, double that of World Iceborn. With the experience gained in all this time and also with a title like Rise Sunbreak for Switch in the middle, I’m sure we will have a valid product.
They have assets, monster skeletons and weapon models ready to use and can learn from the mistakes made on previous titles. CAPCOM in recent years has shown that it deserves our trust and we will see you again in March 2024 for some news.
I’m a musician (pianist), a nerd and a longtime manga lover.
My gamer life started with a copy of Pitfall (1982) for Atari 2600, and so I grew up hand to hand with this medium until now. Later I started to look for what’s behind the final product, its design and what happens behind the scenes of the video game world.
