At the 2023 Game Awards, Capcom revealed the teaser trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds, the next major entry in the Monster Hunter series. This will be the first Monster Hunter game made for next-gen consoles (Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5) to be released simultaneously with the PC version in 2025.
As a diehard Monster Hunter fan since 2018’s Monster Hunter: World, I am beyond excited for this title. I can’t wait to see what new monsters, new locales, and most importantly – improvements Monster Hunter Wilds will contribute to the series.
I love Monster Hunter but I will admit there have been some issues with the series which I hope Monster Hunter Wilds will have addressed when it launches. So here is my wish list of gameplay improvements that I hope this upcoming Xbox title will have made when it arrives in 2025.
Implement online crossplay between consoles and PC
The first and probably most important aspect that every Monster Hunter fan wishes to see Monster Hunters Wilds improve is the inclusion of full online cross-play between all console and PC platforms.
Most Monster Hunter games don’t have online multiplayer cross-play at all and there are very few that do. These games are Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (cross-play between the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS versions), Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (cross-play between the Nintendo Switch and 3DS versions), and Monster Hunter Rise.
However, due to Monster Hunter Rise being originally made for the Nintendo Switch, Monster Hunter Rise’s cross-play capabilities were limited when it was ported to PC and consoles. Xbox players can only play with other players who play it on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Game Pass. While PlayStation players can only play with people who own Monster Hunter Rise on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. PC players who own the Steam version can’t play with console players at all.
We’ve heard your requests for Cross-Save / Cross-Play for #MHRise & #Sunbreak, but unfortunately, after looking into it throughout the development process, we found we are unable to implement it this time. As always, we appreciate your continued feedback and support.October 11, 2021
Capcom has stated that they have tried to implement cross-play when they were developing the PC version of Monster Hunter Rise but were unable to. However, Capcom is aware of the growing demand for more advanced cross-play features for Monster Hunter games, especially since Monster Hunter-esque competitors like Wild Hearts have been more successful in this regard.
So, I hope Capcom will finally be able to implement full console and PC cross-play compatibility for Monster Hunter Wilds so everyone, no matter what platform they play on, can join the hunt together.
Implement cross-save between consoles and PC
Speaking of cross-platform features, another aspect that I hope Monster Hunter Wilds will improve upon is the inclusion of cross-saves between playing the console and PC versions.
Monster Hunter games take an absurdly long time to complete the main campaign, with an even longer endgame that could keep you busy for years. Now imagine having to do all that work again when playing a Monster Hunter title on a different platform. It can be a chore to sit through all the less-stellar quests to catch up to where you were on the previous playthrough, especially in Monster Hunter World which forced players to sit through hours of unskippable cutscenes (more on that later).
Having cross-saves which can be transferred between different console and PC versions of a Monster Hunter game will eliminate the issue of having do to all those chores again and have you jump back to where you left off on the first platform you played in. Two Monster Hunter games already have this feature and use it to great effect: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (cross-saves between the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS versions) and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (cross-saves between the Nintendo Switch and 3DS versions).
As with cross-play, Capcom is aware of the demand for cross-saves. So, with any luck, they will try to implement cross-saves in Monster Hunter Wilds and help players keep their progress across all platforms.
No more unskippable cutscenes or forcing players to do any content solo
Most Monster Hunter games have their quests divided into single-player-only quests (a.k.a. Village Quests) and multiplayer quests (a.k.a. Gathering Hub Quests) which could be tackled solo or with a party up to four players. Monster Hunter World attempted to combine the two quest systems but it resulted in players being forced to watch unskippable cutscenes or do sections of a quest alone before being told by the game when they could have other players join them.
If people were playing Monster Hunter World primarily for the multiplayer aspect with their friends, this tedious system would cause the game’s pacing to grind to a halt and have players back out of their quests in progress just so they could aid their friends.
The worst example of this I experienced is when the infamous superboss Fatalis (whom I defeated and made a boss guide for) was added in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, players were forced to engage in the first phase of the boss fight alone. This caused several of my friends to quit the game out of frustration, as being forced to fight the game's hardest boss by themselves until they satisfied the game's unnecessary narrative requirements was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Monster Hunter Rise went back to the old-school structure of Village and Gathering Hub quests in response to this and allowed players to skip cinematic cutscenes if they wanted to ignore the story and jump into hunting online with their friends. It was a step in the right direction but there were still instances in Rise where players were forced to tackle Village quests solo to unlock resource-gathering mechanics.
What I’m hoping for is that Wilds tries to merge the single-player and multiplayer quests into one again but this time without forcing players to watch hours of unskippable cutscenes or do any quests solo. That way, players can jump into the hunt together without any hassle or digital red tape to plow through.
Don’t have the monsters constantly run away to justify the mount system.
With the introduction of the new reptilian mount in Monster Hunter Wilds’ teaser trailer, it looks like mounts are here to stay in Monster Hunter. On the one hand, this is good as it can make traversing the large locales of Monster Hunter much easier than running on foot but on the other hand, this could lead to a potential problem that Monster Hunter Rise had.
In previous Monster Hunter games, monsters would run away to lick their wounds after taking enough damage and the player would chase after them. In Monster Hunter Rise, this went a little too far as monsters would flee way more often and would sometimes run to the opposite ends of a map, which could stretch for miles.
This is so because Rise wanted players to use the new Palamute companion mounts to chase them. Unfortunately, having monsters constantly running away severely broke the pace of some fights and dragged them out much longer than they should have taken (especially if you hadn’t unlocked the fast-travel camps in each locale).
Hopefully, Monster Hunter Wilds won’t have this issue and monsters will stick around to fight for longer before fleeing without forcing players to ride mounts all the time to pursue them.
Give elemental weapons more interactions with monsters aside from dealing more damage
One of my biggest pet peeves with the Monster Hunter series which I hope Monster Hunter Wilds improves upon is elemental weapons. In Monster Hunter, weapons can be forged with elemental properties such as fire, thunder, ice, etc., status effects like paralysis, sleep, or poison, or be made without either to create raw weapons.
I personally don’t like elemental weapons for a number of reasons:
- They cost more resources to make compared to raw and status-effect weapons as you would need to craft a weapon of each element since monsters have various elemental resistences.
- They’re not as reliably strong as raw weapons for the majority of a Monster Hunter game (even when used with weapons that synergize with them like Dual Blades, Insect Glaive, and Lance) until you get equipped with gear late in the game that boosts elemental damage to a large degree.
- Lastly, elemental weapons just aren’t as fun to use compared to status effect weapons. Aside from providing useful crowd-control, inflicting monsters with status effects can cause them to perform strange and amusingly unique animated gestures like visibly gagging from poison or struggling to move after being paralyzed.
So, what I propose is that Monster Hunter Wilds reworks elemental weapons so that in addition to dealing extra elemental damage, they inflict enemies with elemental blight status effects, similar to the ones monsters inflict on players. Monster Hunter Rise sort of played around with this concept using Endemic Life as attack items to induce elemental blights on enemies but I want Monster Hunter Wilds to take this concept further with the following ideas:
- Fire elemental weapons could set enemies ablaze with a damage-over-time status effect that causes them to flail around on the ground to put out the flames.
- Ice elemental weapons could freeze an enemy’s body so that their attacks become slower and easier to avoid.
- Thunder elemental weapons could cover enemies in harmful electricity which would make them be more susceptible to being stunned by blunt weapons like hammers.
- Water elemental weapons could cover enemies in water which would force them to randomly trip over, like Mizutsune’s Bubbleblight status effect.
- Dragon elemental weapons could inflict monsters with a debuff that prevents them from using elemental attacks, forcing them to do only physical attacks until the effect wears off.
Would these ideas be balanced? Probably not but it would certainly make elemental weapons a lot more interesting to use and would encourage me to use them throughout the whole game instead only at post-game hunts.
Bring back old weapon types or introduce new ones
While we’re on the subject of weapons, let’s talk about new or returning weapon types Monster Hunter Wilds could bring. With every new generation of Monster Hunter games, there have always been new weapon types for players to wield:
- The first generation (Monster Hunter 1 to Monster Hunter Freedom) introduced Greatsword, Sword & Shield, Dual Blades, Lance, Hammer, Light Bowguns, and Heavy Bowguns.
- The second generation (Monster Hunter 2 to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) introduced Longsword, Gunlance, Hunting Horn, and Bow.
- The third generation (Monster Hunter 3 to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate) introduced the Switch Axe and the third-generation exclusive Medium Bowgun.
- The fourth generation (Monster Hunter 4 to Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate) introduced the Charge Blade, Insect Glaive, and the Generations-exclusive Prowler Mode (which let you play as the series' longtime hunting companion cats, Palicoes).
However, the fifth generation (Monster Hunter World to Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak) didn’t introduce any new weapon types. Instead, it introduced grappling hook mechanics in the form of the Slinger in Monster Hunter World and Wirebugs in Monster Hunter Rise. While these tools were fun to use and provided cool, flashy attacks when combined with the pre-existing weapon types, I think we’re long overdue for a new weapon type to be added to the roster.
A new weapon type I would like to see in Monster Hunter Wilds is a weapon that utilizes melee combos with long-range attacks. The Insect Glaive can kind of do this by launching its signature Kinsect bug mechanic as a projectile attack but it’s not optimal compared to using the Insect Glaive’s melee attacks.
What I’m looking for is something akin to the Prowler Mode’s gameplay in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, where you use a boomerang to slash at foes at close range and throw them to attack enemies at long range. One cool idea a boomerang weapon can do is a charge-up projectile attack where the player spin-throws the weapon so hard it conjures up a tornado that latches onto an enemy.
Then while the player is disarmed, they can drink potions to heal themselves while their boomerang is damaging the enemy at the same time, which could make the weapon synergize with support-builds that heal the party.
Aside from my boomerang idea, Monster Hunter Wilds could also use this opportunity to bring in other weapon types from Japanese-exclusive Monster Hunter games. These include the Magnet Spike and Tonfa from Monster Hunter Frontier and/or the Accel Axe from Monster Hunter Explore.
The Accel Axe is essentially a rocket-powered axe that builds up energy with each strike. Once the Accel Axe has built up enough energy, a player can use it to unleash a flurry of explosive attacks or propel them towards their target using the axe’s built-in rockets.
The Tonfa are a pair of blunt weapons that function similarly to Dual Blades except that the Tonfa can allow the player to jump in the middle of combos to perform aerial attacks. This lets them buzz around the monster like a fly and sting like a killer bee with lightning-fast attacks which can KO monsters.
The Magnet Spike is possibly one of the craziest weapons ever designed in the Monster Hunter franchise. It is a giant, heavy weapon that has the power to transform between two modes, much like the Switch Axe and Charge Blade.
Slashing Mode: In its default state, the Magnet Spike is a large sharp glaive that the player swings around to deal slow but devastating attacks like the Greatsword.
Impact Mode: Activating Impact Mode transforms the weapon into a massive two-handed hammer which the player uses to crush monster skulls.
The reason why this weapon is called the ‘Magnet Spike’ is because it uses the power of magnetism to enhance its attacks to unprecedented heights of lethality. By firing a small spike from the weapon into the monster, the player can activate the Magnet Spike’s magnets to hurl themselves toward their target.
They can also use this magnetic force to deal extra damage to a monster and perform attacks faster as the Magnet Spike’s attacks will be drawn to whatever body part it's being magnetized to. Conversely, players can use the Magnet Spike to avoid enemy attacks by reversing the Magnet Spike’s polarity to repel themselves away before they get hit.
I would love it if Monster Hunter Wilds brought any of these weapon types into the mainline games as they look extremely over-the-top and are exciting to use.
Improve the weapon designs for any monsters returning from Monster Hunter World
One of the biggest criticisms of Monster Hunter World is the lackluster weapon designs. One of the reasons people play Monster Hunter is to hunt monsters and use their body parts to create cool, flashy, cute, and even goofy armor sets and weapons. While Monster Hunter World had fantastic-looking armor sets, its weapon designs left much to be desired.
While half of Monster Hunter World’s weapon designs were unique with awesome designs, the other half were recycled Iron and Bone weapons with a piece of a monster’s flesh slapped on it. Longtime fans hated these weapon designs for how uninspired they looked and because they replaced classic weapon designs of fan-favorite monsters like Zinogre, Tigrex, Yian Garuga, Nargacuga, Brachydios, and Glavenus.
Fans fixed this issue by installing mods into the PC version of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne which brought back the iconic weaponry of the aforementioned monsters. Unfortunately, in Monster Hunter Rise, many weapons for monsters that were introduced in Monster Hunter World like Pukei-Pukei, Kulu-Ya-Ku, Tobi-Kadachi, Anjanath, and Bazelgeuse, still retained their ‘Slap-on’ weapon designs.
If monsters from Monster Hunter World return in Monster Hunter Wilds, I sincerely hope that Wilds remake all of their weapons with new, unique designs so that they’re up to the series standards and entice people to hunt those creatures more.
Bring back old monsters that haven’t been seen in years or outside Japanese exclusive titles
Lastly, the thing I wish more than all for Monster Hunter Wilds is to bring back monsters that haven’t been seen in the main series for years or monsters that were in Japanese-exclusive titles like Monster Hunter Frontier. Now, I can go on forever listing the number of monsters I wish to return in Monster Hunter Wilds and be given an HD makeover but for the sake of brevity, I will highlight some of my most requested favorites.
The Yama Tsukami is an Elder Dragon that debuted in Monster Hunter 2 and could be best described as a living hot-air balloon with human teeth and octopus tentacles.
It can suck up players swallowing them whole, command colonies of Thunderbugs to paralyze players, and crush them to a pulp with its giant tentacles.
Nakarkos is an Elder Dragon that debuted in Monster Hunter Generations and is one of my all-time favorite monsters of the series.
This hellish, cuttlefish-like monster covers itself in the bones of other monsters and uses their abilities to hunt down players. This includes using the chin of an Uragaan as a hammer, the spine of a Lagiacrus to fire lightning bolts, the fist of a Bracydios to punch you in the face, and the tail of a Glavenus to shoot fire.
The Dalamadur is a giant snake-like Elder Dragon that terrorized players in Monster Hunter 4. It’s so gargantuan it can coil itself around mountains, rip players to shreds with its giant claws and breathe Dragon-elemental flamethrower attacks.
Monster Hunter 4 featured a few unique giant insect monsters and the ones I would most like to see come back are the Seltas and Seltas Queen. The Seltas is a giant beetle monster that hunts humans and monsters so it can bring food to the Seltas Queen, who looks like a giant scorpion.
Individually, these two monsters have simple move-sets but when they’re together, these insects become a challenging threat. The Seltas can harass players with quick charge attacks while the Seltas Queen pounds them with her razor-sharp claws and tail. They can even perform tag-team moves which are guaranteed to kill players in one hit if they aren’t wearing sturdy enough armor.
Monster Hunter 4’s Zamtrios is what happens when you take a Great White Shark and give it legs. The result is one of the coolest and most vicious monsters in the whole series. Zamtrios can freeze players solid with an ice-breath attack, cover itself in ice armor to protect its weakspots and bloat itself like a balloon to crush players under its hefty weight.
Tetsucabra is a massive frog-like monster with large tusks protruding from its huge jaw. It jumps in the air to flatten players under its body and it uses its mouth to dig up giant boulders which it uses as projectile weapons.
The Barlagual (a.k.a. Baruragaru) is a monster that debuted in Monster Hunter Frontier and made an appearance in Capcom’s free-to-play card game, Teppen. It resembles a sea lamprey and possesses the ability to suck the blood from its prey which it uses to change the properties of its breath attacks.
For example, if a Barlagual sucks the blood of a poisonous monster, its breath attack will become poisonous and if it sucks the blood of a monster with paralysis abilities, its breath attack will be able to paralyze players. Barlagual can even suck the blood of players to unleash a special blood-breath attack which not only deals a ton of damage but can also cripple the sharpness of a player’s weapon by causing it to rust.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lagiacrus. Lagiacrus was the flagship monster of Monster Hunter 3 which fans have been begging for the return of since its last appearance in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.
It is easy to see why, as this iconic Leviathan-type monster is a sight to behold. Lagiacrus has a richly detailed Loch Ness Monster-esque design and has some of the coolest gear to farm for. Not to mention Lagiacrus is a tough beast to hunt as it can hit like a truck using its lightning elemental attacks.
What improves do you wish to see in Monster Hunter Wilds?
And there you have my wish list of improvements I would like to see in Monster Hunter Wilds. Do you have your own ideas of what Monster Hunter Wilds could improve on over its predecessors when it launches in 2025 for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam?
Let us know in the comments and on social media at @WinC_Gaming on Twitter/X so we can discuss what the next chapter of the Monster Hunter series needs to accomplish to become one of the best Xbox games on the market.
