Capcom dropped the gameplay trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds during the PlayStation State of Play stream, and true to its name, it looks pretty wild. A number of seemingly important characters were introduced, with a pretty grim way to start the story of the game – quite unlike the hopeful tone that World set in its opening moments.
Of course, I’ll be ignoring most of that. This video shows gameplay after all, so let’s focus on that instead. And one of the first takeaways is the merging of the Tailrider system from World and the Palamutes from Rise in Monster Hunter Wilds, in the form of the Seikret.
From the Monster Hunter Wilds trailer, it looks like you have near control the Seikret, at least in terms of movement. You can also use it to quickly wake up from being downed and move away from danger, and while mounted, you can pick up resources and sharpen your weapon, like while mounted on a Palamute. That being said, it doesn’t look like the Seikret actively participates in a hunt, beyond you attacking while mounted.
On that note, the Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay trailer also shows that you can have your Seikret carry another weapon for you into battle, allowing you to switch up your tactics on the fly. In the trailer, the hunter with the greatsword has a bowgun stashed, and pulls it out to shoot while mounted.
Were it any other game, I would say this is a great addition. But Monster Hunter Wilds is still a Monster Hunter game. With skills so closely tied to your equipment, your backup weapon will have to synergise with your main one, at least where armour skills are concerned. So in reality, your probably won’t be using a bowgun as a spare if your primary weapon is a greatsword. On the other hand, dual blades and bows can have amazing synergy with each other, as both will probably spec into stamina-related skills.
Finally, and probably the greatest impact in terms of gameplay, is the introduction of a Focus Mode to Monster Hunter Wilds. In the trailer, this is shown as attack moves of the greatsword hunter transitioning into canned animations. Three of these are shown, and in quick succession too. The first sees a swing knocking down the Doshaguma, transitioning into a chase for a followup attack, rather than the hunter having to sheathe the greatsword and manually running up into position like in the current games.
The second of these shown in the trailer has the hunter land a swing, but rather than the greatsword finishing the swing, it transitions into a canned animation of the hunter forcing the swing through the Doshaguma, walking a few steps forward in the process. Last of these shown in the Monster Hunter Wilds trailer is the greatsword being used to stop a bite from the monster, possibly another transition animation, but this time from a successful block with the weapon.
All three of these canned animations shown in the trailer look really neat, at least on the surface. The first thought that came to my mind is that these give Monster Hunter Wilds a very cinematic flair, which some would probably appreciate in their singleplayer playthrough experience. But there are other benefits, as well as demerits, to these beyond just looking cool, especially when experiencing Monster Hunter the way it’s meant to be played – multiplayer.
On the plus side, these canned animations involve both the hunter and the target monster in question. So while the monster you are hunting is locked in place, your fellow hunters are free to dump massive damage on it. Depending on the animation, there may even be no risk of retaliation on their part.
But swinging to the other side, if the monsters can be staggered out of these canned animations, then there’s probably some jank to be expected when it happens. On a more serious note though, a hunter being locked in one such animation means that unless they are invulnerable throughout, they will be completely open to being hit by either other monsters or stage hazards.
Smaller things showcased in the Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay trailer include the Hook Slinger. Nothing much to be said about it, as those familiar with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne would know what a Slinger does. The Hook part only seems to allow you to pick up materials and ammo at range. Hopefully it is not as overtuned as in its previous incarnation that it ruined the scaling of monsters introduced post-launch.
Even smaller than that is the confirmation that the SOS flare will also be returning, as well as save data bonuses for Monster Hunter: World and Iceborne. Rise and Sunbreak are not eligible, further cementing the division of the mainline entries for the series and the portable titles. No mention of its price either, but at least these bonuses are not locked behind pre-orders, the way some missions are in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Of course, all this is just gleamed from the first gameplay trailer. It remains to be seen in what way all this will translate to the full game of Monster Hunter Wilds. And with a release window of 2025, there’s plenty of time for Capcom to either refine or change what’s being shown. In case you’ve missed it, or need to rewatch it to understand what I’m on about, the trailer is embedded above as well as linked below.
(Source: Capcom [1], [2])
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