Monster Hunter Wilds is Capcom’s 2025 release with the company periodically releasing clips showcasing new mechanics, weapons and the general area. The Monster Hunter series is a franchise spanning 20 years, this upcoming title will be a follow-up to the smash hit Monster Hunter World, it will be released on all PC, PS5 and Xbox at launch and may come to the switch or switch 2 when it releases.
What’s So Good About This One?
Monster Hunter World was something of a revolution at least for western audiences, something about its gameplay and mechanics finally resonated with the majority which led to its massive success. For those unfamiliar, In Monster Hunter World, the player is tasked with exploring and killing a monster in the open world which in turn awards the player with the slain monster’s parts. These parts are crucial in crafting armours, weapons or items to enable the player to hunt even greater, more fierce monsters and so on and so forth.
Monster Hunter Wilds being considered a direct sequel is hoping to improve on this formula from MH: World by bringing in a host of improvements and new mechanics to revitalize the thirst of the player base to hunt these monsters. One of the most talked about mechanics is the dual weapon satchel, allowing players to have more than one choice when facing a monster. Another new mechanic is called the aptly titled “Focus Mode”.
What Is “Focus Mode” You Ask?
This mechanic allows the player to view the different weak points on whatever monster they are facing with each of the points being different and relative to what weapon type is being used. Periodically videos are being released on the “Monster Hunter” youtube channel showcasing all the different weapon types and the new mechanics. According to the showcase for “Focus Mode” when a player continuously hits a certain part of the monster, activating focus mode will highlight those parts and thus attacking them will deal more damage than usual, this mechanic will also work with the ranged weapons too where the character will shoot at the weak points on the monster dealing massive damage.
Other Notable Mechanics
These small mechanics introduced seem for quality of life such that each character now has a “slinger” a mini arm length crossbow that lets the player fire ammo found in the surrounding environment, as per the trailer, these are found alongside any herbs and gathered along with them to load on the slinger. It may not deal a whole lot of damage because it is meant to be used as utility, with the video showing its being used to stun the monster. Another use for it is to grab items from a distance either while standing or on the back of your mount.
A Change In The Hunting Horn’s Mechanics
While it is expected that almost all of the known weapon types are returning to Monster Hunter Wilds, the Hunting Horn has received some changes to its mechanics. In Monster Hunter World, it would double as a horn and a bludgeoning weapon with the player performing melodies that would apply some sort of buff to his or her fellow hunters, this time they made it so that performing those melodies will be much harder now, making it so that players don’t rely on the buffs provided by the Hunting Horn that much.
The Hype For More
While Capcom hasn’t released an official date as of now, players are already expecting an early 2025 release due to the quality of the game in the showcasing videos. This expectation is due to how it was for Monster Hunter World. With showcasing videos posted every so often with gameplay mechanics and weapons after which the game was released in 6 months, this coupled with the fact that Capcom has maintained a streak with releasing their Monster Hunter titles early in an upcoming year, leading fans to estimate a release between January and March. While Capcom has stated that a demo will be out, no date has been established or even mentioned since but these showcase videos keep getting posted giving more and more information about each of the weapon types and the ways to play them.
