Monster Hunter Wilds -7 Hidden Details From the Latest Trailer
Jan. 7, 2024Monster Hunter Wilds -7 Hidden Details From the Latest Trailer
In this Monster Hunter Wilds article, we will be going through 7 details we found in the Monster Hunter Wilds Trailer, the next Monster Hunter game in the 20 year long Monster Hunter franchise being developed and published by Capcom.
But before we start analysing, in case you were confused as to why this game is being called Monster Hunter 6 despite tons of other Monster Hunter titles being released, Wilds is going to be a Mainline game in the series. Mainline games are essentially the bread and butter of the MH series, while other games are a little more spin-offy with some distinct mechanics and combat differences from the basic Monster Hunter formula. The last MH game released was Monster Hunter Rise, but the last Mainline game was Monster Hunter World, the 5th mainline game in the franchise, thus making Wilds the 6th game. With that out of the way, let’s get started with the details.
In this very first scene of the trailer, it already doesn’t look much like a normal Monster Hunter game. We can see this desert-like area which is actually a golden savannah covered in dust, and most notably, it’s covered with tons of monsters. The armadillo-like monsters showcased here are new and not something that has been shown in previous games, but the most interesting thing about this shot is the monster density. We have never really seen more than 8 monsters at once on the screen, so this kind of mob density with 20 or 30 monsters is definitely something new that we can look forward to. The next scene also shows us a bunch of tiny birds perched on top of these armadillo-like monsters, co-existing for food, and the scene after that shows a herd of small dinosaurs racing past another pack of large monsters that resemble a bipedal version of theAptonothfrom Monster Hunter World.
From all these herds and amount of monsters showcased in just the first 10 seconds of the trailer, we can assume there will probably be herds of specific monsters that roam around certain areas of the map. If this is the case, there is definitely a possibility of missions or quests centered around capturing unique creatures in the herd, separating the herd or shepherding them to another location using the various hunting methods in your disposal.
The next detail is the new mount that the hunter is riding. At this point in the trailer, a lot of people actually thought that this was another Final Fantasy game given the amount of enemies, and that this mount looks exactly like a Chocobo. The hunter is shown riding it while it runs away from a stampede of yeti-like monsters chasing him into the herd of armadillo monsters. Throughout the trailer, we see that the mount has 3 different modes for traversal; a bipedal walking mode with its wings folded back, a quadrupedal running mode where it sprints with all 4 legs, and a gliding mode which unfurls the mounts wings and allows it to glide over short distances.
That’s not all there is to the mount though, as if you look closely at the back of the mount near its tail, there appears to be a bunch of supplies and decorations that make this mount seem special. It’s very possible that these decorations could be hinting that the mount will act as a sort of portable camp to replenish supplies, or maybe even do things that were only previously available in the hub like crafting, cooking or smithing. There is also another special supply on the side of the mount and on the hunter himself that we will take a look at later.
The next scene in the trailer is when the yeti monster is chasing the hunter. He navigates through a herd of armadillos in an attempt to get away from them, and seems to successfully distract them by provoking the aggressive yeti monsters to attack the small armadillos. This isn’t exactly a new feature in the franchise, as we have seen territory wars between colliding monsters before, which usually ended up in a monster running away and dropping some nice items. However, this time around, it seems like the monster was led to a herd and distracted into eating the armadillos and throwing them around with their bare teeth. Definitely, an interesting feature that probably confirms that there will still be monster versus monster spectacles to see in the game, and that they will perhaps be more common, and maybe even with a bit more variety.
Once the dust cloud goes over the monsters and the hunters, we can see that the weather of the landscape suddenly changes into a harsh thunderstorm, with lightning raining down on the hunter and monsters periodically. Intriguingly, the armadillos from before seem to have a method of catching the lightning, specifically the armadillos that have evolved to grow spikes on their backs to act as lightning rods. This feature could lead to a bunch of possibilities from a gameplay standpoint.
The armadillo could be buffed as a result of the lightning, and deal extra elemental damage if it hits you with its shiny pointy spike. It could be that if you defeat it, you can get a unique lightning spike crafting material which could be used to create a special lightning weapon or armour piece. It could also just be a way that the armadillos in the world have evolved to protect the rest of the herd from dangerous lightning strikes in thunderstorm scenarios, which would explain why there are only a few of them scattered throughout the herd. Regardless of what the related gameplay feature could be, the weather dynamic looks like a super exciting feature that is hinting at introducing special weather mechanics that could change how monsters behave or attack based on the current climate.
In that same scene with the lightning spike, we get the clearest image of what is on the side of the hunter’s mount. This is very likely a Light Bowgun, given that the shape of the stock is a perfect match and that the pouch containing the weapon is about the right size to contain the rest of the bow. This is an important detail because throughout the trailer, we can also see that the hunter has a greatsword on his back at the same time. Previous installments in Monster Hunter have never allowed the Hunter to have more than 1 active weapon at once, so this could be a huge departure, one that could change what we know about the fundamentals of MH combat.
There are a few possibilities; the first is that the Hunter only has the Bowgun as an optional weapon which they can equip upon resting at the portable camp with the supplies on his mount. This would basically be the same system as Monster Hunter World, where you could swap weapons at the camp, but this time you would only be able to swap between 2 weapons you bring out into the world, in this case the Greatsword and the Bowgun. Another possibility is that the Hunter is allowed to bring both the Melee Weapon and a Ranged Weapon into combat at the same time, and switch between them seamlessly. The last possibility I can think of is that the Hunter can have any 2 weapons of his choice on himself at the same time regardless of whether it is ranged or melee, such as a Greatsword and a Lance, which would be the most game changing out of all possibilities in terms of how combat would work when compared to a traditional Monster Hunter game.
The scene right after we see the mount being used to hop over the terrain gives us a nice close up as to what the Hunter is wearing, and what he looks like. We can see the things we already talked about, the Greatsword and supplies on the mount, but if we take a closer look at the glove we can see that the Slinger from Monster Hunter World will be returning, though it looks slightly smaller now. If the new slinger is going to be anything like the one we saw in World, it will be able to load and sling projectiles you can find throughout the map, or distract and interrupt monsters, or capture monsters with the Capture net etc.
The other thing we can see on the Hunter’s apparel is a small lamp resembling the Scoutfly Cage from MH World. We also saw a small snippet of some Scoutflies in the previous scene where the mount jumped around the environment, pretty much confirming that the games navigation system will not be using the new system from Monster Hunter Rise, and will be sticking to the Scoutfly system to show which way to go that that was first introduced in World.
In the final frame we see an epic landscape shot of the world, with the dust now uncovered from a strong breeze, unveiling a beautiful golden savannah under what looked to be a barren desert. This landscape shot is insane to most Monster Hunter fans, as the scale of what we can see in a singular zone is massive. Capcom have not confirmed whether the game will be open-world or not, but from what we can see, it’s definitely going to be the biggest area we have ever seen in a Monster Hunter game regardless.
There is a little more to this image though. The big structures in the centre of the image and in the left side of the image could be fossils of a monster, perhaps the main monster in the game, but as of now it’s unclear. We can see that there are more of those lightning rods from the thunderstorm scene scattered throughout the map, which maybe tells us that thunderstorms are going to be the main weather theme of the game and that humans have adapted to it by constructing these giant lightning rods throughout the world. Overall, the world that we can see just from this one shot looks massive for a Monster Hunter title, and between that and the things we see on the mount, it just gives the impression that the game is going to be much more open, and perhaps even open world.
There hasn’t been much info about Monster Hunter Wilds except for the trailer, and a small interview with Ryōzō Tsujimoto, who simply stated that their goal for Wilds was to create “new levels of detailed creatures and ecosystems”, a very vague but promising statement. The game looks to be perhaps a step in a new direction for the franchise, which could end up as either disastrous or amazing depending on how they handle it. Given Capcom’s clean track record of positive feedback from the games in the Monster Hunter, it’s safe to say that whatever they are cooking, it’s probably going to be well worth the wait, and I am excited to see more details next summer.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
