Back in the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta, something felt off. No, I don't mean the inconsistent framerates or the outbreak of polygonal origami monsters. I mean the baffling decrease in hitstop—an animation technique that intentionally pauses combat animations at the frame where an attack makes contact to add an additional sense of impact. Luckily, Capcom's already been readjusting the amount of hitstop for Wilds's launch in February, according to game director Yuya Tokuda.
For many people with cool, good opinions, Monster Hunter's liberal use of hitstop over the years has been a key ingredient in its combat formula, providing delightful jolts of dopamine to punctuate the moment in the lizard-battling ballet where you find an opening to land an attack. In the Wilds beta, however, hitstop had been noticeably reduced for attacks across Monster Hunter's 14 weapon types, substantially altering the visual feedback of moment-to-moment combat.
"Some of the changes to hitstop were obviously intentional," Tokuda said, speaking via interpreter during my hands-on Monster Hunter Wilds preview in Osaka. In other cases, Tokuda explained, the hitstop reduction was due to the beta being built from an earlier version of the game; some of the intended hitstop triggers simply hadn't been implemented yet.
The deliberate reductions in hitstop, however, were apparently made in response to complaints from Western players of Monster Hunter: World. "When Monster Hunter: World was released, many of the users from overseas commented that the hitstop was way too [intense]," Tokuda said. "It made it difficult for them to play."
Since the beta, though, Capcom's received plenty of input from hunters who thought that those reductions were too severe. To Tokuda, those responses were a reassuring confirmation of Monster Hunter's appeal.
"It was very positive feedback listening to [beta players] saying that they missed the hitstop that they were experiencing in the past titles," Tokuda said. "It's a very unique Monster Hunter experience, being able to experience that hitstop. It's very positive feedback from my perspective."
In my five hours of play time with the more up-to-date preview build of Monster Hunter Wilds, I'd definitely felt a bit more of the old hitstop magic when my hammer strikes hit home. Tokuda confirmed that Capcom had already made further hitstop tweaks, and that more would be on the way before launch.
"In the current version that I think you guys had your hands on gameplay with today, there was obviously a little bit of adjustment compared to the OBT," Tokuda said. "And also for the full product version there will be adjustments. For example, the finishing moves will have adjustments to hitstop as well."
Monster Hunter Wilds launches on February 28, 2025.
