The Monster Hunter Wilds Review Part 1: Low Rank and the Story

Monster Hunter Wilds released a few weeks ago, and I meant to put out a review detailing my thoughts last Sunday, but some things came up and I couldn’t. This week, however, I’m finally able to sit down and give my thoughts on the game, beginning with its story and low rank.

Before I delve into the review, I want to establish that this review will only cover low rank content and the game’s main story proper. High rank, the epilogue story, and endgame content will be covered in a later review either next week or the week after.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Wilds is surprisingly story-driven, especially when compared with other Monster Hunter games, which is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Monster Hunter‘s story has generally been pretty barebones (note: my only real Monster Hunter experience consists of World and Rise so my knowledge of the earlier games is minimal at best) with a focus placed more prominently on the standard gameplay loop. Wilds‘ story takes center stage as it pushes you along to progress from area to area and monster to monster. But unlike in World where the central loop was prepare in Astera (central hub area), talk to handler to launch quest, watch cutscenes to see which monster is introduced, fight monster, return to Astera, repeat. Wilds looks more like this: prepare in base camp, talk to Alma and/or other NPCs, head out on guided Seikret section you can’t stray out of, encounter new monster, fight it, return to base camp, talk to NPCs again, repeat or move to a new location/story beat preparation to prepare again. The result is a very linear base game that gives you very little room to deviate from and play as you wish. It’s frustrating at times, especially because it glosses over the environments. The environments are expansive and breathtaking, but I feel like I’ve barely explored them because the story was so linear and railroads you into it at times. Yes you can go off and prepare before plenty of quests, but there’s very little need to. And even when you do explore, such as when my friend and I replayed a quest or two, the quest still feels very linear. When you load into a quest, story or optional, you have a central objective that’s marked on your map. Your seikret will automatically take you to the objective, whether it’s a monster or location or something else, unless you specify otherwise and take manual control (and no it’s not very intuitive). The result is that you will have to go out of your way to really explore the environment and the world’s ecology. It’s kind of disappointing really.

A similar issue is the game’s camp structure and interconnectedness. The game’s website boasts about it being open world with all of the environments being interconnected. I assume that’s true, but I really haven’t bothered to check. If I want to go from one environment to another, I just fast travel. There’s no incentive to manually travel from locale to locale, so the open world interconnectedness feels wasted. This issue is further facilitated by every region having a base camp. There’s no central hub (yet) where you can routinely return to for upgrades and to interact with NPCs. Instead, each region has a central camp, village settlements, and pop-up camps. Instead of unlocking new permanent campsites you can fast travel to or start quests from, you can unlock and build smaller campsites that serve the same functions, but they can also be destroyed. I get that it’s meant to be realistic, but it’s just an annoying feature I find myself rarely interacting with. From a story perspective, it all makes sense, but it doesn’t translate super well into gameplay. The end result is a bunch of locations that all ending feeling superfluous because they mostly accomplish the same purpose, but also some have exclusive features like being able to use the Elder Melder or smelting; interesting idea that kinda stumbles in execution.

Another glaring flaw is the game’s multiplayer. I despised how World required all players to watch the cutscenes before they could join up in multiplayer. I was not alone in this hatred of that feature. Why this awful feature returned is beyond me, especially because Capcom did listen to the fans. For example, the awful slap-on-skin weapons of World are gone, so all of the weapons in Wilds look incredible. The game has cross-play. But unfortunately, the terrible World multiplayer system is present. Sure there are minor improvements here and there with link parties, but it’s baffling to me that the system is still there in the first place, especially in a game that so heavily encourages multiplayer.

While I’ve been fairly negative thus far in my critique of the game, I want to say that I do really enjoy Wilds. I think it’s a great game, even if some design choices make it feel pretty different from previous iterations in the series. As for the story itself, the first two acts are fine. All you basically do is explore the Forbidden Lands in search of a people called the Keepers and the mysterious monster, the White Wraith, that attacked them. You’re also trying to reunite the young Nata with his village because he was the only one to escape and inform the guild of the White Wraith, kickstarting the whole operation. The final act is where things get interesting: you reach the Ruins of Wyveria, the fifth location in the game, and begin to encounter Guardian Monsters. Guardians are synthetic monsters created by the kingdom of Wyveria in ages past that now roam free. They feed on something called Wyvern Milk, which is produced by the Evertorch–the source of energy that shapes the ecosystems in the Forbidden Lands. The White Wraith is called Arkveld, and it’s a Guardian version of an extinct species. You eventually defeat Arkveld, and in the process learn of another Guardian Monster that’s siphoning energy from the Evertorch. This monster’s name is Zoh Shia, and it’s the monster that destroyed Wyveria. The lore implications of Wilds‘ story is staggering. Monster Hunter lore has always been in the background. This time, the lore is front and center and I was genuinely blown away by it at times. Especially because my friend and I noticed striking similarities between Zoh Shia and the Equal Dragon Weapon. Zoh Shia is an awesome final boss, but it really sucks that you can only fight it once, and it doesn’t have armor or weapons associated with it. My fingers are crossed that Zoh Shia returns in a title update or new event quests. Overall, I enjoyed the story. Yes it was annoying to get railroaded into linear sections, but when it picks up, oh boy does it pick up.

Turning to the characters, they’re all fine. Alma is significantly better than the handler in World because she feels competent and like a stand-in for the Hunter’s Guild as she authorizes your hunts. It’s a really cool detail, and some of the moments are incredibly raw (namely the fights with Arkveld and Zoh Shia). She also genuinely does things in the field. (i.e. restocking your gear) and helps advance the plot by being knowledgeable about the things she’s supposed to be. The same is more or less true of the rest of the supporting cast. Many of them serve as necessary figures in advancing the plot, whether they’re knowledgeable members of the Guild who are there to solve the problems that arise, or they’re the villagers who experience the problems. One rather controversial character is Nata. He’s fine. Yeah he can be a little annoying at times, but I don’t hate him as a character. He’s just a kid who wants to return to his village, and then has to grapple with all of the ramifications of the truth about Arkveld, the Guardians, and the Keepers. He’s not a bad character, but I can definitely see why some players might find him annoying.

SPOILERS END

Now, for the biggest elephant in the room: difficulty. I think the complaints of the game’s difficulty being too easy are overblown. The low rank story serves as a tutorial to ease you into the world and its cast of creatures. It’s not that hard, but it’s also not supposed to be. This also isn’t my first Monster Hunter game. I remember World being tough, but World was my first game. Rise was significantly easier at times because I already had a solid handle on the game’s mechanics and controls. Wilds is similar. Don’t get me wrong, it can have some tough fights (looking at you Jin Dahaad who was the only monster to triple cart me), but nothing was a wall like it had been in World. Then again, nothing in Rise or its DLC was ever a wall to me like Anjanath and Nergigante were to me in base World. Not even World‘s Iceborne DLC had walls in it for me. My central point is this: Wilds‘ difficulty is fine. Yeah the early sections are especially easy, but the difficulty really picks up come three star quests and the Oilwell Basin.

That being said about difficulty, another observation I need to make is that fights, on average, take around ten minutes to complete. Sure some will be faster, especially as you get better gear, but the first time around, every fight took around ten minutes. I found this uniform time to be quite nice actually. It gets boring and tiresome fighting the same monster for 20+ minutes. Ten minutes meant that none of the monster overstayed their welcome, and you could see everything they had to offer. On that note, the fights themselves are all great. While I do have some gripes about the roster, I’ll save those for the next review. But the fights all feel fresh and unique, with each one feeling different from the others.

Overall, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time with Monster Hunter Wilds. Even if the game’s main story and low rank mode felt very linear and railroaded at times, it had some genuinely solid moments. I can definitely see it being a frustration for veteran players, but I think that it does a good job of easing new players into the game. Monster Hunter can be frustrating, esoteric, and overwhelming at times. The Wilds‘ story and low rank holds the player’s hand a little bit more than past entries, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.