Summary
Monster Hunter Wildswas recently announced at The Game Awards and will be arriving in 2025. The reveal trailer showcases many creatures on screen, environmental hazards, and a new bird mount that allows the player to glide. At this point,Monster Hunter Wilds’new additions to the franchise appear to revolve around immersion and scale. The environment ofWildsis, if nothing else, dynamic, and the world seems to be as formidable a threat as its monsters are. This focus on exploring a living area is a trend that started withMonster Hunter World, and one way thatWildscan push the idea forward is by featuring a truly open world.
Monster Hunter Worldwas the franchise’s big break into the mainstream here in the West, but theMonster Hunterfranchisehas been around since 2004. There have been plentyMHgames released for home consoles, but the series has historically thrived on handheld platforms like the 3DS. The result of this is that for most of the series' life, players have deployed to different biomes from a hub world, and each hunt is a bite-sized experience with a clear start and end.WorldandRisemade each locale a single world, but earlier games in the franchise broke up each map into zones that players had to travel between, each broken up by a loading screen.
More Exploration in Monster Hunter Wilds is a Logical Next Step
Monster Hunter Worldremoved the necessity to load between zones in a region, and modernized the biomes inMHgames.Risewas a step back graphically as a Switch game, but it introduced the Palamute mounts for fast traversal andWirebugs. Wirebugs function like grappling hooks that players can use anywhere, even if there is nothing to hook onto.
The addition of this ability accompanied wall running and other traversal tools. These changes made exploration the star ofRiseand its expansionSunbreak. Despite the game being more limited on a technical level, the developer still pushed the envelope in terms of exploration.Monster HunterWildswill be continuing this trend.
An Open World Makes Sense for Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds' new bird mount appears to function like thePalamutebut has added flight abilities. A grappling hook like that ofMH Worldcan be seen on the player character’s arm as well. All of this, along with the vista shown at the end of the teaser, seems to indicate thatMonster Hunter Wildswill keep pushing new boundaries in terms of exploration.
Given the level of freedom players have in Rise, the next step is to give players a fully open world to explore rather than using hub worlds.Wildsis currently confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series systems, and PC, so making small encounters to fit into the time constraints of portable gaming isn’t a must.
A Dynamic Open World Will Change Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter Wilds' trailerbegins with the player in what appears to be a desert. In the end, a gust of wind transforms the space into a prairie. This huge amount of dust and sand is hinted to have been caused by stampeding monsters.MHWorldmade it so that monsters fight one another, and having one huge open world inWildscould build on that idea.
Luring an ice monster into a warmer biome could weaken it, or players could intentionally attempt to alter a region to their advantage by attracting different beasts.Monster Hunter Wildsimplementing a fully open world would push the series to new extremes while taking advantage of the generational leap between it andMonster Hunter World.
Monster Hunter Wildsis still over a year away, but it has already shown the new heights the series hopes to reach. While little information has been provided about the game, a full-blown open world seems like the logical next step. Self-contained worlds are a long-held franchise staple, butMH Worldshowed that Capcom is willing to make radical changes to the series formula, and an open world seems possible, if not likely. Until the next chapter ofMonster Hunteris ready in 2025, impatient players can find plenty of content inMonster Hunter Riseor check outMonster Hunter Now’s newest update.
