Monster Hunter has been one of the most important video games with no equal seconds, creating a genre of its own since the mid 2000s. It is one of Capcom’s biggest Intellectual properties as of date, and the developers are just gearing up to launch the next big game in the franchise, Monster Hunter Wilds.
The game is poised to reach new heights for the series, as it is being developed in Capcom’s own RE engine, which makes the game look visually impressive. But beyond that, the engine is also allowing developers to introduce a lot of new systems and mechanics that are going to be new for the franchise.
Below are seven new additions that we found very interesting, and ones that players may have missed while spending time with the Monster Hunter Wilds beta.
Key features to look out for in Monster Hunter Wilds as seen in the beta
Decomposing Monsters
Everytime a hunt is completed in Monster Hunter, the player is supposed to collect their carves before the monster carcass disappears. The developers made that experience a bit more realistic in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Instead of the 3D models disappearing they are now designed to decompose slowly. If the player stays long enough to check out the process they might catch glimpses of flies swarming around the carcass as well.
Decomposition is universal for all kinds of creatures throughout Monster Hunter Wilds, every macro endemic life, even the non-hostile monsters can die and decompose.
Additionally the developers also added the ability to scale and mount the dead monsters as you walk into them, as opposed to clipping into their bodies in almost all the previous games.
Rare Endemic Life
Beyond the regular creatures that the players are assigned by the guild to hunt down, the world in Monster Hunter games are filled with all kinds of endemic life that are also monsters, just not hostile.
Among these are some rare endemic life that are hard to come across as they require certain conditions to be fulfilled for them to appear.
In the open beta for Monster Hunter wilds a rare endemic life was found that quickly became fan favourite across the internet. This particular endemic life looks like a tailed starry furball that only appears during the night, it has been noted that it is super fast and hard to capture but not without a ghillie mantle.
We will have to wait and see more of the game to find out what other rare endemic life the game is out once it is fully released.
Butterflies Mechanic
Monster Hunter games have always had a base hub system from where the hunters prepare themselves before going out for the hunt. This changes with Monster Hunter Wilds, which takes place in the new world, allowing developers more freedom to implement systems completely new to the franchise.
Monster Hunter has had camping systems before, that can be unlocked in the overworld if found, but the developers have done something new this time.
In Wilds there are limited locations around the overworld where popup camps can be manually built, but these are all marked by a new form of endemic fauna that players might not have noticed.
Spots on the map where it is safe to build pop-up camps are marked by a glowing light, which players might miss, but it’s actually marked by glowing swarms of butterflies. Acting similar to the scout flies mechanic which has become a series staple since Monster Hunter World.
Unique Palico Interactions
For the first time in mainline Monster Hunter history, Wilds is introducing talking palicos. We are unsure as to why this change suddenly exists, as these furry friends have always talked in regular feline tongues, even though the game’s subtitles had them speaking regular language.
A lot of fans found this weird, but thankfully Capcom has also thought of implementing a way to turn them off from talking like regular humans.
Regardless it seems that Capcom has been trying to test grounds with a lot of new systems. Owing to the fact that the game takes place in uncharted regions of the New World, as mentioned in the previous pointers.
These creatures now have unique interactions that players may miss out on, like pranking the Hunters, and imitating the NPC Palico, Athos’ Sword practices back at the base. We can guess that this is just a teaser for all the unique interactions and animations the game has in store for us.
Colour variations in endemic life
The creatures in Monster Hunter usually come in the same colour or texture but varying sizes throughout the franchise history. Except Monster variations which change in colour, according to difficulty and rarity parameters.
This never extended to the regular endemic life, but it was spotted recently by fans when the beta for Monster Hunter Wilds dropped for a short period of time.
The most common endemic life found in the Windward Plains region of the beta are the Ceratonoth, herbivore monsters that move in packs. Signs of colour variations are the most prevalent among these Ceratonoths, with some players even finding rare pitch black versions of these monsters.
Other pigmentation variations include common colours such as green and gold. Unlike the target monsters of the franchise the colours do not determine the threat or rank levels of these herbivores.
Flexibility with Mantles
Monster Hunter World introduced the Mantle mechanic, which allows hunters to put on a cloak like gear that would apply various resistances or modifications to help with hunts. This eventually became a key gameplay mechanic for some of the harder monster hunts.
Although the last released Monster Hunter title never explored mantles further, they are now coming back to Monster Hunter Wilds.
So far we have only seen one type of mantle being used in the Monster Hunter Wilds, which was in the beta, the Ghillie mantle, donning this cloak allows for stealth. At first it might look like a broken mechanic to have but mantles are like consumable items that recharge over time.
In Monster Hunter World the player had to take their time in sheathing the mantle after it gets used up, for it to recharge. While there were few practical uses of Ghillie mantles in previous games, Wilds allows players to passively recharge their mantle while the hunter is still wearing it and moving around.
NPC villagers outside base camps
This new feature may not be a secret to most of the fans who have been following the news around Monster Hunter Wilds since the first trailer, but regardless it is still an interesting one.
Following official Monster Hunter lore we find that the zones outside city walls and base camp gatherings are called the Frontier. This is where the dangerous fauna known as the Monsters reside and is completely devoid of regular human life.
It seems that the New World might not be as hostile to life, as it is back in the Old World. Nevertheless it is refreshing to see the change which might further progress the narrative, as to how life is different in these uncharted regions of the Monster Hunter Universe.
