Monster Hunter Wilds isn't even out for most parts of the world as I write this, but that hasn't stopped Capcom from dropping breadcrumbs of information for its first major update. We already knew bits of Wilds' roadmap from February's State of Play, like the fact that Mizutsune would be the first post-launch monster coming to the game—something I'm personally very stoked about.
We've been blessed with even more information now, though: Title Update 1 will launch sometime in early April, giving hunters plenty of time to play through the story and get some High Rank grinding in.
I also can't help but feel like Capcom is trying to placate some of the dooming that's been happening in small pockets of the Monster Hunter community. Discourse around monster difficulty, brought about by a handful of reviews sharing feelings of an easier game compared to previous series, and a lack of any player house or hut have been cropping up all over my social media. Those just happen to be two things the Monster Hunter Twitter page explicitly mentions as part of their update information.
The first tweet reads: "A New Level of Challenge! Prepare your gear, and resolve, hunters! TU1 will bring with it a monster of formidable strength at a level above Tempered! Another challenging monster will also await you!" That sounds to me like we're getting something other than Mizutsune, one that's potentially infected with a classic Monster Hunter steroid that makes it an absolute ballache to fight.
Considering how many players have been concerned about the game being too easy—a sentiment I don't necessarily share after 100 hours, though I certainly think a combination of player skill, streamlining and the wound system have removed a lot of the friction seen in previous games—it's definitely giving big 'beating the allegations' vibes from Capcom.
There's even a small tease for what I think may be either a centralised hub or personal player space, something which fans have also been expressing their disappointment about its absence in Wilds: "A Place to Gather," the follow-up tweet reads. "A new place to meet, communicate, have meals together and more with other hunters will be added to Monster Hunter Wilds in TU1! This area will be available to hunters who have completed the main story, so get hunting and be ready!"
I gotta admit, Capcom has already got me excited for what lies in Wilds' future, even with the game only just about to open its doors to the masses. If it's anything like World and Rise, I'm sure we'll be seeing all kinds of fun new activities and hunts plugged into the game over the next year or so. Before the inevitable expansion arrives, of course. The selfish part of me hopes that, with Wilds shaping up to be the most popular Monster Hunter to date, we'll get even more neat updates and changes than we've ever seen from the series. The more hunting I get to do, the better.
While our own Lincoln Carpenter didn't explicitly call out the difficulty in his Monster Hunter Wilds review, he did highlight Capcom's heavy-handed streamlining that might have gone a tad far. "Monster Hunter Wilds feels like a turning point," he wrote. "Updates like Focus Strikes add promising new dimensions to a magnificently indulgent combat design, and its seamless hunts and shifting seasons push the series closer to realizing a living ecology for its monsters. Without more room for Monster Hunter's history, however, it's a wilderness that's missing some of its soul."
