The Monster Hunter series is advancing on several fronts at the moment. Monster Hunter Now is still getting major updates and becoming the best micro Monster Hunter experience it can be. In February 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds will launch as the next big console MH entry. And at some point in the future, Monster Hunter Outlanders will join MH Now as a more in-depth mobile spin-off. It’s a lot to keep track of, especially with Wilds so close and Monster Hunter Outlanders still shrouded in mystery, but it’s a great time to be a fan of Capcom’s hunting franchise.
From the couple of trailers that have been released, Monster Hunter Outlanders does seem to be closer to Monster Hunter Wilds in scope than any other MH title, especially since it may beat the latter to the punch in one major way. Not only is MH Outlanders incorporate survival elements, it’s also the apparent debut of the first truly unbroken open-world Monster Hunter map, with even the thin natural hallways and numbered areas of Wilds giving way to an unbroken play space. Although that’s big on its own, it also means Outlanders is finally adopting one mechanic that Monster Hunter has long been shying away from.
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Monster Hunter Outlanders is a Logical Progression From MH Now
The newly announced Monster Hunter Outlanders looks like the ideal middle ground between MH Now and a traditional Monster Hunter game.
Monster Hunter Gliding Has Always Been Limited Somehow
Aerial mobility has been an increasing focus in Monster Hunter titles since the vertically-minded Monster Hunter 4, though it hasn’t always progressed in leaps and bounds. Monster Hunter Generations followed up MH4’s beginner-friendly pole-vaulting Insect Glaive weapon with a jump-enabling Aerial hunting style, and Monster Hunter World introduced the Glider Mantle to keep the play style around. These just made mounting monsters easier instead of aiding in navigating the environment, but that changed with the addition of Wirebugs in Monster Hunter Rise. Players could now basically fly across hunting maps, which was cool, but also outside the scope Monster Hunter usually aimed for.
Monster Hunter Wilds seems to have gotten back on track with its new Seikret mount, which helps hunters with traversal in various ways. One of those is the ability to glide, which is nice but seemingly irrelevant in what players have explored of Wilds‘ Windswept Plains ecosystem so far. More gliding opportunities will likely present themselves in Monster Hunter Wilds’ full release, but at the current end of these airborne features, it feels like Monster Hunter is just beating around the bush. If MH wants convenient aerial traversal, it only needs one simple addition, and Monster Hunter Outlanders proves it.
Monster Hunter Outlanders Gets Its Gliding Right
While navigating Monster Hunter Outlanders’ open world, players have access to a paraglider straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Genshin Impact. Synergizing with high ledges and strong updrafts, these gliders allow hunters to quickly and easily make their way across vast stretches of land while searching for supplies and monsters to fight. Given how Monster Hunter Outlanders has expanded into the survival genre, players may be able to craft even more support for this familiar tool, but the fact of the matter is that Outlanders cut straight to the heart of the gliding mechanic before mainline MH ever did.
Other Monster Hunter Entries Can Have Gliding Like Outlanders
Fortunately, that also means future Monster Hunter games have a template to build on if they want to do the same. No longer does Monster Hunter need traversal mounts or anything as complicated as Wirebugs, just as long as it designs environments around having a glider in the first place. Monster Hunter Wilds’ Seikret is approaching this level of convenience, but its gliding still seems obscured enough that it will take a future MH entry to go all the way. No matter what else Monster Hunter Outlanders does, it will at least give developers and players a glimpse at a Monster Hunter title with a straightforward glider.
