Let's get this out of the way: Monster Hunter Wilds was one of the biggest disappointments I've had playing a game in a long time, which hurts me a lot to say as a die-hard Monster Hunter fan.
Unlike my colleague, Jez Corden, who somewhat enjoyed it when he reviewed it, Monster Hunter Wilds left me frustratingly bored at launch for its dangerless main campaign, inadequate performance, dull art style, nonexistent endgame content, and other quality-of-life features that went too far in catering to new players, which sucked out any form of challenge seen in previous Monster Hunter games.
Granted, it got better over time with some cool post-launch updates that added much-needed meat to its endgame content and fixed its performance issues on the Xbox and similar issues on PC. However, none of these updates have fixed the aforementioned issues that plague its main story campaign and other elements that make the base game a slog until players can unlock the post-launch content.
Which is why I'm hoping that, when the game's DLC expansion, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, launches in 2027, it will take its time to address the fundamental gameplay issues with the base game, so that the journey to Master Rank quests won't be a tedious grind to sit through. So, here are the top gameplay improvements I want to see Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance bring to the base game of Monster Hunter Wilds.
1) Make enemies tougher — encourage players to upgrade gear at every step of the journey
One of the biggest problems of Monster Hunter Wilds was that the main Low Rank campaign and early High Rank story quests were too easy compared to previous games. This problem was caused by lots of new gameplay mechanics introduced in Monster Hunter Wilds, and the monsters themselves don't feel like much of a threat.
A good chunk of the monsters died in less than five minutes with little effort, and they barely did any damage to me, and I was wearing the beginner Hope Armor set and Gunlance, which I didn't upgrade for the majority of the campaign until the end purely out of fashion rather than function.
As for the new combat mechanics such as Focus Strikes and Wounds, they were constantly trivialized as they kept knocking monsters down and chopping off a good chunk of their health.
So, what I propose is that when Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance comes out, it could introduce a major balance adjustment for the monsters so that they hit much harder and have much more health in Low Rank quests and early High Rank quests.
This way, it will encourage players not to recklessly button-mash their way to victory, as that will get them killed, and actually take the time to prepare before each fight by upgrading their equipment and studying their quarry's attack patterns and openings, as previous Monster Hunter games have done.
Additionally, I'd want Wounds to appear far less often on monsters so that when they do show up and are ready to be popped by Focus Strikes for big damage and knockdowns, it feels rewarding to be aggressive while also careful to avoid getting eaten by the newly improved monsters.
Granted, we already see elements in this post-launch High Rank monster like Omega, Gogmazios, and Tempered Monsters. But having this level of toughness for the Low Rank to early High Rank campaign quest monsters will help new players become better hunters for the greater challenges ahead and provide great satisfaction upon beating these newly improved monsters.
Not to mention, the increased difficulty will also make the story more enjoyable, as now the stakes presented by monsters in cutscenes will actually feel real.
2) Nerf the Seikret
One of the contentious additions of Monster Hunter Wilds is the new Seikret mount. This thing is designed to help players traverse the large-scale maps and aid in combat by providing a faster mode of transportation while allowing players to switch weapons, use items, or sharpen weapons on the fly.
The problem with the Seikret is that it's too good at its job. When you get knocked down, you can call the Seikret to help you get back while being invincible for a brief period, and there's no cooldown for this trick.
Plus, with the extra mobility and other features, the Seikret can make players literally run circles around monsters without getting hit and hit back twice as hard with dismounting attacks with no consequence.
While I would like to remove the Seikret entirely, unfortunately we can't. Otherwise, we would be unable to access areas that can't be entered on foot and would be unable to progress in the game.
I propose making the Seikret less of a "get out of jail free card" by limiting the number of times we can call it to escape attacks or switch weapons in battle. It could be done by using a cooldown system tied to the Seikret's stamina (similar to the Wirebugs in Monster Hunter Rise) or by having certain monsters exude such a terrifying aura that it causes the Seikret to flee, making it unusable while the player is near it.
That way, players will need to be more careful when using the Seikret in combat, learn to use other mechanics like playing dead, dodge rolling, and blocking with shields to avoid damage so they can experience more varied defensive options, and feel more rewarded for using the limited Seikret calls when trying to escape dire situations when all other options are exhausted.
3) Permanently setting the weather state of maps
One of the unique features of Monster Hunter Wilds is its dynamic weather system, which changes the look and feel of hunting biomes and which monsters appear. These weather states include:
- Plenty: A biome brightens up with gorgeous lighting and abundant wildlife roaming the fields.
- Fallow: A biome's ecosystem falls into a barren, decaying state devoid of life.
- Inclemency: A biome undergoes hazardous weather effects and draws out that biome's Apex monster.
While this weather system is designed to make each area feel more alive and immersive, it only makes the game's art direction and graphics look dull (and, in some worse cases, an unfinished mess).
The game's diverse biomes look absolutely beautiful during Plenty periods with their rich colors and contrasts, but during the Fallow and Inclemency periods, the game's art direction takes a nose dive as areas are covered in way too much fog, dust storms, and other weather effects, making the environments look so dull and grey (though they did an option to reduce volmetric fog in a post-launch update).
What makes this worse is that the game's best monsters like Rey Dau and Nu Udra only show up during the Inclemency periods, which causes all their sublimely well-done, detailed character designs to be muddied and lost in hazardous weather conditions and fog.
Sometimes I don't want to hunt these monsters in their natural habitats and would just fight them in the arena map so I can actually see them properly and take in their gorgeous details rendered by Capcom's RE Engine.
So, I propose giving players the option to set the weather state of a biome permanently to whatever state they want and have the Apex monsters show up in any weather state instead of just Inclemency.
That way, we can hunt enemies all the time in the lovely Plenty weather and feast on the visual eye-candy this game's detailed graphics can provide, instead of being forced to fight the most challenging enemies in the other weather states, which do nothing but degrade this game's artistic beauty.
Here's hoping Monster Hunter Wilds' DLC expansion can help it 'ascend' to new heights
I could rant on even more about potential improvements to the base game, such as improving certain weapon types by bringing back moves from previous games to make them more fun to use (please, give us recoil mods for Spread ammo on Bowguns and bring back Heavy Bowgun's shoulder tackle from Monster Hunter Rise).
However, judging by Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance's debut trailer, it looks to be already addressing that with the introduction of the Boost Bracer mechanic, which seems to give weapons access to cool new moves or modes, like holding a Light Bowgun in one hand and firing it like a machine gun or increasing the swing speed of the Greatsword.
Either way, whatever improvements Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance plans to bring, I will be there to experience them first-hand when it launches on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam, as I still love Monster Hunter at the end of the day.
If the DLC plays its cards right and if it takes my advice into account, Monster Hunter Wilds may finally become that awesome next-gen RE Engine Monster Hunter experience we were promised when it was first revealed in 2023.
But what do you think? Are there aspects of Monster Hunter Wilds' base game you would like to improve in Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, or are you happy with the state of the game as is and just want all the new content in the DLC expansion?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let me know through my poll, the comments section, or our Reddit page.
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