Monster Hunter Wilds Features: All We’ve Been Waiting For?

Set and primed to hit the stores in 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds has been officially revealed at this year's TGAs with a mysterious trailer. Featuring what looks like an all-new open-world arena with entire herds of animals roaming about, it's obvious that Capcom aims to keep most cards close to its chest - for now. Yet, having seen the trailer, some of the highlights imply big changes for the mainline franchise entry. Especially compared to the prior flagship, World.

Naturally, we do not yet know everything there is to know about the game. Heck, with two more years of development to go, the final product may well be very different from what Capcom's now shown off. Still, the mount itself would not have been shown off so prominently if it isn't a major feature in the game, and that's precisely what the main point of our discussion will be.

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Explaining Everything We've Seen in the Monster Hunter Wilds Trailer

Our first and obvious recommendation is for you to watch Capcom's official trailer, if you haven't yet done so. It's short - really short - and doesn't go all that much into any significant gameplay mechanics, showpieces, features, or anything of the type. It is, for all intents and purposes, a mood and announcement trailer, communicating the game's vibe well in advance of its release.

What does the trailer give us, then? Well, here's a short list of all the important tidbits we've caught a whiff of:

• a potentially huge Savannah-style open-world map, loaded with roaming (and rampaging) creatures that interact with the player
• environmental effects and aggressive weather patterns (i.e. sandstorms etc.)
• a more down-to-earth mobility system focusing mainly on...
• the raptor mount

And, really, the raptor creature that's prominently shown off is, by far, the biggest draw of the trailer. Capcom would not have focused so much on a feature if it weren't a big deal for the core gameplay loop of Monster Hunter: Wilds. At least, that's our take on the matter.

Why is Monster Hunter Wilds' Raptor Mount a Big Deal?

For one, a mainline Monster Hunter game hasn't really given players the opportunity to use mounts properly. Of course, MH: Rise did have its cool quadruped canines, but let's be real here - a feathered raptor, of all things, is way cooler than just about anything else. Except maybe a dragon, granted.

But wait - it gets better. MH: Wilds' mounts appear to be capable of so much more than just quick traversal across regular terrain. In that short trailer alone, we get to see the creature clambering across rough rocks in Parkour-like motions, sprint on all fours, and even fly. Or hover, but we'll be thrilled with either option, if we're being honest.

Further, consider this: Monster Hunter World was a bit more grounded and - dare we say it - slightly more realistic than Rise. It is possible that Wilds will reduce the players' power level ever-so-slightly to ground the world a bit more than usual, and to let the franchise's wonderful terrain and ecology shine better than ever before. A flexible and capable mount would be a perfect fit for hunters who can't really lug infinite amounts of gear for miles on end. We'll see, this is - of course - just a theory!

What Else Might Wilds Focus On?

From what we've seen, Capcom has tried to imply that Wilds will make a very big deal of its open-world environments. With mobile creature herds, rampaging packs of predators, and randomized weather patterns, Wilds could very well be the most survival-oriented Monster Hunter game we've seen yet. We don't yet know whether this is what Capcom is gunning for, mind: everything shown off about Wilds so far could easily be just a vibe check and a hype-piece. Yet, we don't think Capcom would just drop a random slice of the game willy-nilly.

Do stay tuned: here at 2Game, we're huge fans of what Capcom's done with Monster Hunter since the franchise made its PC and home console debut. Rise was great, absolutely, but it was very obviously a Nintendo Switch title first and foremost that arguably hasn't outpaced its predecessor, World. That's where Wilds comes in, and why we're so thrilled about it.

A World Follow-Up, or a Rise Follow-Up?

All of this brings us to the biggest, most important question we have about Wilds this early in its production pipeline: is Capcom trying to develop a successor to World or to Rise, first and foremost? From the visuals alone, the obvious expectation is that this should lean more heavily towards World, but we'll just need to wait and see until more promotional materials are made available.

That, too, is bound to take a long while. Jotted down for 2025, Monster Hunter: Rise may take an even longer amount of time to be available on PC. The franchise has, historically, not been available on PC on day one, which could put us in for at least a few months' worth of waiting after the game's 2025 release date.

In other words, the best we can do right now is to wait. It's gonna be a struggle, for sure, but Capcom is yet to disappoint, and we can't wait to see what else lies in store with Monster Hunter: Wilds!

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