Monster Hunter Wilds is almost here, and while its position as the successor to Capcom’s best-selling game ever suggests many players will be returning ones, there are sure to be lots of newcomers to the series, or people who bounced off previous entries. The beastie-battling RPGs have always been notorious for their layers upon layers of systems, and that’s something the studio has worked to better explain for its newest entry. When I sat down with game director Yuya Tokuda and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently, however, they told me they’d like to leave at least some techniques, tricks, and secrets for players to discover themselves.
When I had the chance to play through the opening hours of Monster Hunter Wilds at Capcom’s London headquarters a few weeks ago, I noticed much more care placed on explaining everything, from weapon crafting to the importance of eating meals before a hunt. Past games have pointed you at the armory and the canteen, but typically left it up to players to figure things out for themselves. With that in mind, I found myself wondering whether the new RPG will go as far as explaining some of its most famed ‘secret’ techniques.
One great example of this is the ‘superman dive’ – by pressing the dodge button while running away from a monster with your weapon sheathed, your character will hurl themselves forward to land on the ground. It’s a move that makes you completely immune to damage for a much longer stretch than the extremely limited invincibility frames on dodges. It was essential against World’s cover star Nergigante and, fighting Rey Dau and Chained Arkveld in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta, it’s clear this move is just as important as ever.
Another such trick is the ability to stay on the ground after you’re knocked down. By not pressing any buttons or moving the stick, your character lies in place, and that also keeps you safe from follow-up attacks. Indeed, many creatures in past Monster Hunter games have had moves that felt specifically designed to catch you out if you rushed to your feet. So, I ask Tokuda, will Capcom explain these techniques in Wilds, or are they left intentionally obscure?
“I want to divide this approach between things that I think you need to be taught or told in order to play the game and be able to finish it, and also to properly enjoy it, and things that I think you can discover by yourself but, if you didn’t come across it, wouldn’t necessarily mean you can’t progress,” Tokuda tells me via a translator.
“Things like the basics of ‘you want to think about upgrading your weapons’ – that’s so essential that we can’t just leave it to players to organically discover,” he continues. “Food buffs would be the same. But if it’s something like the fact that when you are running away from the monster with no weapon out, you change into a dash animation, or the invincibility frames of the superman dive, you don’t necessarily have to know that to get through the game but it’s a fun discovery to make.”
Tokuda also says he likes that this encourages “communication between players, as they tell each other, ‘Did you know about this or that?’ So I’ll leave those things to be discovered organically in the game.” It’s something that has worked especially well for Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator FromSoftware, as it crafts a communal sense of shared exploration and experimentation, and I’ve already seen plenty of new techniques being shared by players hanging out in the Wilds beta’s training room.
This philosophy also extends to the roster of Monster Hunter Wilds monsters, Tokuda explains. “The first few monsters, you’ll have fairly thorough conversations with NPCs about ‘This monster’s coming up, and we might want to approach it this way.’ But those stabilizer wheels will come off at some point and you’ll be relatively free to discover how to strategize [against] a monster later in the game. I think in the early game it’s more important to be explicit in telling players the kind of ‘strategizing an approach’ that they’re going to need to actually enjoy the game the way we want them to.”
Monster Hunter Wilds launches Friday February 28. You can expect a full review from PCGamesN, but if you can’t wait until then, read my conversation with Tokuda about weapon changes and whether we might see a fifteenth weapon type one day.
Be sure to check our Monster Hunter Wilds release date guide for all the details on preloading and launch times, and check our thoughts on the best Monster Hunter Wilds weapons if you’re struggling to choose what to start with.
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