By Kimari Rennis 

In the thick greenery of the Scarlet Forest where the treetops block your view of the sky and the area around you feels alive, I found the Doshagamas, massive bear-like monsters with the face of a hairless, droopy mastiff, scratching tree trunks and leaving clumps of fur on the forest floor. Hidden deeper in the forest, I discovered Lala Barina, a monstrous arachnid whose abdomen resembles a rose, weaving wreathes of red silk and shedding a spore-like poison that makes the rivers run red.

Monster Hunter Wilds is genuinely one of the best games I’ve ever played, one I’ll continue to play for a very long time. Coincidentally enough, the last game to hold that prestigious title in my heart was Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. I’m a big fan of the series, having spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing.

Monster Hunter Wilds features a variety of bows, lances, hammers, glaives, and greatswords the size of your body at your disposal as you battle a diverse population or vicious wyverns, leviathans, and brutes for thrilling combat. Here, as in other series offerings, there’s simple but oh-so-satisfying game loop where you hunt monsters, gather their resources, and make stronger weapons to armor to fight gargantuan dragons.

Playing on the PS5 was an ethereal experience. Yes, the trailer at the 2023 Game Awards teased sweeping landscapes with hoards of ferocious monsters in a world with harsh, changing weather. Rather than the desaturated look of Monster Hunter Rise, the trailer showed us the brightness and sharp fidelity of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. The clever camera pans revealed endless fields of sand broken up by natural obstacles traversable with a nimble, velociraptor-like mount, and I expected a rich open world that I could get lost in.

But I didn’t want to know too much more. After the reveal, I made it a mission of mine to avoid all content centered around Monster Hunter Wilds, from trailer analyses to official videos about weapons, environments and mechanics posted on Capcom’s YouTube channels. I succeeded in abstaining, keeping my expectations reigned in, and I was rewarded tenfold as Capcom had delivered on every one of their promises. From new ferocious monster designs and dazzling armors to an immersive world and refreshing game mechanics, Monster Hunter Wilds is everything I could have wished for.

Taking down big monsters requires extraordinary fantasy weapons. But in every Monster Hunter game I’ve played, including the spinoffs, I have exclusively used the hammer. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as clobbering giant, reptilian forces with a comically large mallet. I know the hammer like the back of my hand, which is why I was so stubborn about trying other weapons in previous titles. 

But with all of the alluring weapon reworks that Monster Hunter Wilds brings to the table, I stepped out of my comfort zone and learned new tools for dispatching wyverns. I tried out many weapons, but my favorite by far is the sword and shield. While I couldn’t understand the weapon in previous games, I felt like the sword and shield were extensions of my own arm in Monster Hunter Wilds. With a myriad of stabs, slashes, and attacks that easily chained into each other for vicious combos, the sword felt like the murderous knife from High on Life. The shield was an even greater boon as I could block attacks, parry strikes, shield bash to stun monsters, and initiate clashes with monsters. It all became a power struggle between a monster and my defenses during high octane, cinematic battles.

Focus Mode is a new combat mechanic that allows you to target specific parts of the monster’s body during combat. Dealing damage periodically leaves wounds in the monster and Focus Mode reveals them as luminous red spheres. Hitting a wound with a focus attack rewards you by toppling the monster, who drops useful materials such as scales and fur, and a dedicated attack animation that makes you feel badass. Pairing this with the sword and shield, the wounds I created were rapid fire and I was taking them down just as fast as when I used my hammer, perhaps faster.

The mechanic that wraps a bow around the new combat mechanics and refreshed weapons is the Seikret, your trusty velociraptor-esque bird/wyvern that allows you to swap between your selected primary and secondary weapon with the press of a button. If you take a big hit, and your hunter is pinned on the ground staring down the barrel of a monster’s incisors, just call your Seikret and it’ll scoop you up and away from the situation. While you gather your bearings on your mount, you can swiftly sharpen your weapon, quaff a couple potions and reinitiate an aerial attack with a slinger like a Bowgun.

Comparing this game to the most recent entries, Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, I would say that Monster Hunter Wilds takes the grandeur, stability, and richness of World, improves it in every aspect, and infuses it with the freeing nature of Rise without the underwhelming arcade-y feel. Combat is smooth and highly responsive while still remaining a challenging and grounded experience. In other words, it’s perfect.

Image of the Windward Plains From Capcom’s Monster Hunter Website.

By far the most important part of Monster Hunter are the monsters. Each is unique to the environment they live in. Within the arid desert and grasslands of the Windward Plains, where lightning strikes solidify and pointed spires look like acupuncture needles in the earth, live groups of Balahara. They glide through sand dunes like hungry sharks, “Dune”-style. Quematrices, fiery brutes with body of a T-Rex and frills of a fancy rooster, can be found near the dry bushes and oases starting fires with the ends of their tails.

Extreme weather change is yet another new mechanic that enhances the experience and makes hunts more thrilling. It brings out the toughest monsters and they’re ready to clash with the other titans of the region, including your hunter.

I remember being mesmerized by the fight with Uth Duna, a beast veiled in water with the facial features of a salmon and the scaly muscular build of a komodo dragon, during a deluge in the forest. As the forest flooded, the Urge Duna’s attacks were torrential, and with its control over water, the tides of battle were literally shifting as we fought. The rain was as crushing as its attack. It was a never-before-seen Monster Hunter experience.

The apocalyptic thunderstorm in the Windward Plains invites Rey Dau, a flying wyvern with control over lighting to take up residence in the chaos. Rey Dau drags the hardened ridges of its wings through the ground, electrifying the earth. It moves the horns around its head and jaw to train a devastating lightning strike onto your hunter. The monster’s erratic fighting style and unique attacks, made it the first monster in the game to knock my hunter unconscious.

Image of the Windward Plains during a Sandstorm from Capcom’s Monster Hunter Website.

To date, I think Monster Hunter Wilds has the most in-depth character creator in the gaming industry. Capcom first displayed their character creator during their beta. But to experience it myself blew me away. When I first booted up, I spent several hours creating a one-to-one replica of my face for my hunter, aided by the support of San Francisco roommates and friends dialing in across the country back in New York. The character creator in Monster Hunter Wilds yields a character so detailed that I became self conscious of how I look in real life. Are my eyebrows in a perpetual state of worry – even when I’m calm? Do I really look like a young Tyler James Williams who starred in Everybody Hates Chris? To my horror, long-time friends confirmed these newfound fears. The upside is that my authentic self is in the game, and my worried look is appropriate for fighting dragons.

Capcom went above and beyond with the interface and user experience for Monster Hunter Wilds. This is the first time in a Monster Hunter game where your health bar anticipates when a monster attack is going to strike and incapacitate you. Then, it communicates this to the player by wavering violently and flashing red. Seeing that health bar react to how the fight is going is a hair-raising experience. If you don’t heed the game’s warning and evade the draconic haymaker heading your way, you can kiss your hunter’s life goodbye. It’s the kind of UI/UX that keeps the player engaged, immersed in, and informed about what they are doing in the game.

Another change that I highly value is the ability to customize and freely craft masculine and feminine versions of the armor your character wears, regardless of their gender. So my worried little face doesn’t need to show 70 percent skin or be subjected to a stocky muscular build. My character always looks like me and feels like me, and for my most highly anticipated game in my favorite series of all time, that means quite a lot to me.

The player is fully voiced and has dialogue throughout the story – a Monster Hunter first. The natural conversation between characters surrounding the story and events happening in the world adds an incredible level of player involvement to the Monster Hunter Franchise. The wild, the hub, the villages, the characters, the monsters, the hunts – all of it feels interconnected.

I could produce a Monster Hunter Wilds Retrospective through a 15,000-word essay. It would include the intricate mechanics, clever game design, and all of the little things that came together to make Monster Hunter Wilds such a mind-blowing experience for me! There’s just that much content to explore and appreciate. If I were to fit every detail into this review, it would turn into a book, fast.

Monster Hunter Wilds is a game I know I will sink a thousand hours into. The only thing stopping me from reaching 1,000 hours in playtime at this moment is my full-time job. The games industry is in a tough space for many reasons. In the midst of heartbreaking layoffs, and underwhelming game releases. Despite the existential fear, playing Monster Hunter Wilds has brought me an indescribable amount of joy that I haven’t felt in a long time. It is a thrilling experience through and through, crafted by brilliant game creators in an industry that seems to be falling apart and needs a reset.

Monster Hunter Wilds launched with a flattering 1.3 million concurrent players on PC alone! Imagine how large that number would be if we had the statistics for console players. Those numbers show that other fans are interested, care about, and love playing Monster Hunter Wilds as much as I do. For every hour they play, gamers will unite to make memories and enjoy an amazing experience together, and I’m glad I’m a part of it. On a personal note, this is definitely my Game of the Year pick for 2025.

Circle Member and former intern Kimari Rennis, who has been with the NYVGCC for many years, is now working at Lucasfilm Games as an Assistant Producer.

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