After the somewhat underwhelming Insect Glaive trailer, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance's weapon trailer series picks up the pace again with a new trailer highlighting changes to the Hunting Horn.
The Hunting Horn is a slow weapon that mixes offensive blunt attacks with musical songs that buff allied players' stats. However, the execution made the weapon feel slow and clunky compared to all the other weapon types.
Thankfully, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance is planning to fix Hunting Horn's slow playstyle by giving it a metric ton of new offensive attacks, combos, and more mechanics to make it more fun to use thanks to the DLC expansion's new Boost Bracer mechanic.
First of all, Hunting Horn will feature a new Boost Driver attack where you powerslide across the battlefield like a Rock & Roll star, and jump into the air to smash monsters in the head and let loose a sonic wave by slamming the weapon into the ground.
Once you fill a meter called the Boost Gauge with successful Boost Driver attacks, the Hunting Horn will gain the following features while active:
- Faster attacks and new combo paths.
- A new Offset Counter attack where you punch the Hunting Horn to fire a sonic wave (which can be charged for more damage), which can be followed up with an attack where you do several forward somersault slams with the Hunting Horn.
- You can now attack enemies while placing Echo Bubbles.
- Your regular Offset Counter can now be followed up with the aforementioned somersault slams.
Windows Central's take
I'll admit, I was kind of disappointed in how the Hunting Horn was handled in the base game of Monster Hunter Wilds because it felt like a downgrade compared to its predecessor, Monster Hunter Rise.
Monster Hunter Rise's version of the Hunting Horn was my favorite iteration of the weapon because it finally embraced the power fantasy of killing enemies with music attacks I always wanted, instead of just being a longer Hammer that sacrificed damage potential for short-term buffs like in most games.
It was so awesome giving enemies concussions with rock-solo super moves that it felt like I was playing Brütal Legend all over again.
So I'm happy to see Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance bring back some of Monster Hunter Rise's aggressive playstyle for Hunting Horn, and I can't wait to try its new attacks when Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
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