Wccftech recently had the opportunity to get an intimate behind-closed-doors look at Monster Hunter Wilds with a 30-minute gameplay demonstration from the Director of the title himself, Yuya Tokuda. During this hands-off demo, Capcom showcased a selection of early game content, from departing the main village and venturing out into the wilds with a map size that they’re already touting as over two times larger than previous titles and featuring a seamless transition with no loading from camp to quest.
As the player Hunter ventures out from the base camp riding on a Seikret, the new pack animal and mount for Monster Hunter Wilds, both his Palico and the Handler, Alma, tag along as well. Before getting into any combat or hunts proper, Capcom took us to one of the smaller satellite villages where the townsfolk were preparing for an imminent sandstorm. The dialogue is dynamic to inform the player of world events in real-time and they won’t be static in one place either, as villagers will wander around with their own tasks to do. Once again, the localization team is peppering in puns and comedic dialogue to help set the tone of Monster Hunter Wilds. “Cheese and thank you,” so says the local Cheesemonger, thanking the Hunter for their custom.
By being accompanied by a Handler for the first time in Monster Hunter Wilds, players can get a taste for emergent quest design that was introduced in a way through Monster Hunter World’s Investigations. Map markers can lead the players to quest points, but they are just as likely to discover a quest by coming across a monster in the Wilds. The enhanced map is modeled in 3D to showcase different levels of elevation and can also be freely rotated. On the map, players can see the local Upsurges where rare materials or subspecies might be more prevalent. Time of day is also a major focus of the exploration and timelines can be broken down into colored chunks, each representing a different event or opportunity depending on the time of day.
For the quest chosen in our Monster Hunter Wilds presentation, Tokuda-san picked out an Alpha Doshaguma from the map that was nestled within a pack of normal variants. Once a target is selected and tracking begins, Scoutflies once again illuminate a path to the target monster by way of glowing trails. Even along the way towards a quest, players will get notified of other opportunities for hunts, including one popup that mentioned that a Balahara had appeared in the region and showed off a list of possible rewards (including Decorations and jewels going by the icons shown).
It appears that players can build mobile camps around the world to prepare while out on patrol, from changing weapons and gear to grilling up a meal for the usual passive stat increases. These camps cost Guild Points to build and aren’t permanent (as the camp was destroyed later on in the demo by a Doshaguma while the player was busy in combat half a mile away). Capcom hasn’t yet mentioned if these mobile camps can be built anywhere or require fixed points as they did in Monster Hunter Rise. The Meat and Kunafa Cheese meal showed off a delicious cheese pull animation and rewarded the player with a 50-minute buff that increased their health and stamina while also providing the Defender Meal (Lo) ability that activated quite often during the following hunt.
After donning a Ghillie Mantle, the hunter snuck up on his target Alpha Doshaguma from the middle of the pack and was greeted with an on-screen prompt to Sneak Attack, dealing significant damage and opening a Wound on the monster as the Quest Start banner popped up to indicate he found the correct target. The Wound system is one of the new mechanics that Capcom wanted to show off during the Monster Hunter Wilds presentation and offers more than just the typical part breaks: these wounds exist as cracks in the monster’s armor, allowing the player hunter to deal with increased damage by focusing on one of these points. Each of the fourteen weapon types in Monster Hunter Wilds features a form of Focus Mode to pinpoint these weak points on a given monster. Players can also jump onto and grapple a monster to stab it with their hunting knife, causing little damage compared to a regular weapon but capable of toppling a monster with relative ease. One of the new attacks shown off with the Great Sword was jumping onto a monster, stabbing the sword into it, and running across its back while dragging the sword and dealing a lot of damage in a short period.
Monsters rarely want to stay in one place in Monster Hunter Wilds and will routinely try to escape when getting tired or hungry, or chase the player if they decide to book a hasty retreat. Players can take advantage of these tendencies for monsters to chase by utilizing the local endemic life to trap or damage the monster, such as a bramble bush that can slow and scratch up a large monster or stalactites that can be shot down with a slinger shot to fall onto a passing monster.
Turf Wars are back in Monster Hunter Wilds and just about every other monster has one reason or another to stroll up and pick a fight with both the player and his intended foe. The Balahara, a new monster introduced in Wilds that appears to be a sandy variant of the Almudron, created a quicksand pit to trap the Alpha Doshaguma and deal a modest 300-400 damage, saving the player’s sharpness from having to do a few extra strikes. While the two monsters were wrestling with each other, the sandstorm that the small village was preparing for rolled in, instantly changing the environment to a twilight setting as a weather anomaly struck. Lighting bolts rained down on the field of battle as the Balahara departed, but Alpha Doshaguma remained. The lightning also heralded the apex of the windward plains, which Capcom explained would only show up during one of these storms. The apex monster of the region rolled up as another contended and did heavy damage with its lightning attacks, striking the Alpha Doshaguma for some 3,800 damage with a bolt.
Players could reap the rewards of this new kind of turf war and collect a variety of endemic life that would only appear in weather conditions such as this. A large number of Great Thunderbugs, Wiggly Litchi, Vigorslugs, and Sparkflint (perhaps a new type of Slinger Ammo given the icon when picked up) were all gatherable by Seikretback as the hunter darted around to evade lightning bolts and keep his target distracted by the apex wyvern that showed up briefly.
After that apex departed and the Alpha Doshaguma was once again on the move, the clock showed 9 minutes had passed out of the full 45-minute duration. At this point in the demo, Tokuda-san fired an SOS flare to bring in 3 NPC support hunters to help even the odds. The Alpha Doshaguma ran into yet another Turf War with the Balahara with two of them latching onto the Doshaguma, one grappling it while the other bit onto the monster. The Alpha Doshaguma was eventually able to break free and grab one of the offending Balahara, ripping its lower jaw before tossing the monster aside. Meanwhile, the player resupplied during the hunt and changed weapons to the Heavy Bowgun. It was still a relatively early-game weapon, featuring the following ammo types: Normal 3, Pierce 1, Spread 1, Sticky 2, and Cluster Bomb 1. There was also a rapid-fire attack on the Heavy Bowgun that didn’t consume any ammo but rather a separate resource gauge. Of the three NPC supports brought in, one brought a Lance, another brought a Hammer, and the third also brought in another Heavy Bowgun and would use that gatling fire ability to try and pin and stun the Alpha Doshaguma in place.
Even during combat, the Hunter was able to fast-travel out and change his primary weapon to a Long Sword. Sometime during this phase, the sandstorm dissipated and the environment entered a phase of abundance called The Plenty that changed up the endemic life once more. A great number of Vigorwasps showed up during this phase. It didn’t take long for the Hunter and squad to chase down the Alpha Doshaguma one last time (a skull icon appears when the target is near death, just like the previous titles) and a variety of LS techniques, including a Crimson Slash that chained from level I to level III with repeated use. Only a few seconds of fighting remained before the Alpha Doshaguma finally succumbed to its injuries, allowing the Hunter to carve up precious resources from its body.
Upon besting the foe, a quest completion popup appeared, and rather than returning to a lobby screen following a successful hunt, players can stay out in the Wilds and hunt down other opportunities. There were various awards and even a nameplate unlocked for quest completion, but Capcom didn’t allow us to look deeper into what those could have been. Instead, they showed off a quick tease of a new monster with three large spikes on its back and harassing it with a large barrel bomb. New for Monster Hunter Wilds, players can tip their barrel bombs over and roll them into the monster rather than always waiting for the target to approach.
Everything shown during the hands-off demonstration for Monster Hunter Wilds felt like a natural evolution from Monster Hunter World. It introduced mechanics and systems that I’ve wanted for a long time including the multiple weapon switching and being able to continue questing in an area even after completing a hunt. If anything, this brief demo only pushed Monster Hunter Wilds to the top of my most anticipated games of 2025. Capcom doesn’t have much else to say on Monster Hunter Wilds beyond a vague 2025 release date and full crossplay across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC (cross-save, however, still doesn’t seem likely).
