Why Monster Hunter Rise Might Be a Better Lead-Up to Wilds Than World

Highlights

Monster Hunter Rise offers faster-paced hunts, more customization, and advanced traversal, making it a suitable game to play before the release of Monster Hunter Wilds in 2025.
Rise features open environments and dynamic traversal options, allowing players to explore the world more freely compared to the older entries in the series.
The game introduces new movement changes, high-speed mounts, and Wirebugs that allow players to navigate environments in unique ways, offering a sense of speed and convenience.

Monster Hunter Wilds was announced at The Game Awards in 2023 and given a release window of 2025, leading to a resurgence of players toward previous games in the franchise. Monster Hunter Rise is the latest game in the series, but many fans have opted to return to 2018’s Monster Hunter World. World features more visually dense environments and shares a more remarkable resemblance to Wilds than Monster Hunter Rise does. In spite of this, Rise could be the better choice for players who are looking to get their Monster Hunter fix before hopping into Wilds in 2025.

Monster Hunter Rise has some limitations when compared to MH World, but it also has a number of advantages. Like World, Rise features open environments for players to hunt creatures in, as opposed to older entries, which had maps broken into separate zones. As a game that was initially made for Switch, Rise is less visually impressive than its predecessor, but the trade-off here is that its environments are wholly explorable with far more dynamic traversal options.

Monster Hunter World’s Hubs Might Have a Whole New Vibe in Monster Hunter Wilds

With Monster Hunter Wilds’ appearance of an evolving environment, the traditional style of hub may be very different than in games of the past.

Monster Hunter Rise Could Be A Lot Like MH Wilds

Rise also has overhauled movement and a high-speed mount in the form of Palamutes, both of which help to build on the player’s ability to explore the world. These movement changes and added mounts go hand in hand with the game’s faster hunts and Rise‘s overall sense of speed and convenience.

Monster Hunter Rise‘s Wirebugs allow players to navigate environments in ways never before possible in the series. With Wirebugs, players can launch themselves into the air omnidirectionally. This pairs well with the addition of climbing and wall-running, allowing players to go truly anywhere inside the boundaries of the map.

The game’s Palamute mounts have similar mobility options and provide greater speed while moving across the map. Wirebugs aren’t confirmed for Monster Hunter Wilds, but the reveal trailer showed off a bird mount that could hop between rocks and glide through the air, reprising Rise‘s focus on aerial mobility and expanded traversal. This isn’t the only thing that Wilds appears to be pulling from its predecessor, though.

Rise’s Rampages Could Have Inspired Monster Hunter Wilds

Indeed, Monster Hunter Rise added a new Rampage quest-type mode. In Rampages, players defend their village against waves of creatures. The mode pulls on mechanics from tower defense games, allowing players to place units and different tools for fending off monsters. This was one of the first times the series asked for players to contend with a whole horde of creatures at once.

In the Monster Hunter Wilds trailer, the player can be seen navigating a stampede of small monsters. Wilds‘ increases in creature density seem to be pulling some inspiration from Rampages, and it is possible that the player may be forced to contend with multiple large monsters at a time in the game.

How Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise Compare

A charging Anjanath in Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter World presents players with superior graphics and more in-depth and interactive environments. Locales like Wildspire Waste feel alive and are filled with life-like monsters. These details are ones that players are excited for the return of in Wilds, and Rise represents a step back in these regards.

Despite this, Rise‘s focus on traversal and entirely explorable environments seems to be an influence on Wilds as well. The next Monster Hunter has lessons to learn from both games, but given the substantial upgrade to player movement and the newfound freedom it introduced to combat in Rise, it seems likely that Monster Hunter Wilds will take more inspiration from it with regard to combat.

Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter World are both great games with plenty to offer players. The reveal of Monster Hunter Wilds made it clear that the next entry in the series will include elements from both games. For those who can look past a graphical downgrade, though, Monster Hunter Rise has faster-paced hunts, more customization, and more advanced traversal, making it an incredibly apt game to play between now and the release of Monster Hunter Wilds in 2025.