I’m such a sucker for Monster Hunter collabs. Partly because – though I am loath to admit it – I can’t help but clap like a seal anytime one of my favorite things gets mashed together with another one of my favorite things. As I write this, I’m staring at a framed comic book featuring Mickey Mouse as Iron Man hanging above my collection of custom Kingdom Hearts Pokemon cards. What can I say? I love IP.
More importantly, I love the Monster Hunter collabs because they’re incredibly well done. I’ve written before how incredible the Witcher 3 and Final Fantasy 16 collabs were, but among the dozen or so featured in Monster Hunter World and Rise, there’s hardly been any duds.
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Naturally, most of the Monster Hunter collabs feature other Capcom games, and they’re all great. Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Okami, and both Street Fighter and Mega Man crossovers were excellent. Say what you will about the Monster Hunter movie, the Milla Jovovich collab was very well done.
During this week’s Monster Hunter Wilds showcase, Capcom teased an upcoming in-house collab coming to the game in May. While there’s plenty of speculation about what that crossover will be, I think it’s fairly obvious which game Capcom will want to feature.
Fighting Monsters With The Power Of The Oni
The Capcom library has been fairly well mined already, so unless they’re planning on doing some repeats, the list of possible games to feature is pretty short. Since I don’t think the new generation of Monster Hunter is going to kick off with yet another Street Fighter crossover, I think it’s pretty safe to say the first Monster Hunter Wilds Capcom Collab is almost certainly going to be Onimusha.
Despite being out of the spotlight for many years, Onimusha is still one of Capcom’s ten most successful franchises. The samurai cousin to Resident Evil spawned four critically and commercially successful games as well as several spin-offs, and yet it’s never been featured in Monster Hunter. With the remaster of Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny coming soon, and a brand new Onimusha, now is the perfect time to bring the series to the Forbidden Lands.
Onimusha is a perfect fit for Monster Hunter, too. The game features a variety of blade weapons that perfectly match Monster Hunter’s Long Sword, Great Sword, and Insect Glaive, and the elemental system from Onimusha fits perfectly into Monster Hunter’s as well. If Capcom really wanted to go all out it could bring some of the Genma monsters into Wilds, but even just featuring some Onimusha weapons would be cool enough for a collab.
If Not Onimusha, Then What?
There’s an argument to be made that Capcom would be better off holding Onimusha back for next year’s inevitable Monster Hunter Wilds expansion to better sync with the new game, but that doesn’t leave a lot of other options for Wilds’ first crossover.
No one would love a Viewtiful Joe collab more than me, and there are even rumors of a Viewtiful Joe reboot on the horizon, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see a Palico outfit coming to Wilds at some point. I’ll be the first to shout Henshin-a-go-go, baby! If it happens.
There are other long-forgotten Capcom franchises that could show up, like Darkstalkers, Breath of Fire, and everyone’s favorite (for some reason) Dino Crisis. There are also many more iterations of Mega Man that haven’t been explored in Monster Hunter yet, like Legends, Battle Network, and Mega Man X.
Whatever Capcom has in store for Wilds’ collabs, I’m sure they’re going to be great. Even if Onimusha isn’t the first one, it will definitely show up in Wilds eventually. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit for Wilds crossovers. I’m not asking for Expedition 33 and Death Stranding 2 crossovers, Capcom, I’m demanding them.
- Released
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February 28, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence, Blood, Crude Humor