We're reaching the home stretch of Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance's weapons showcase trailer series as we're now on to the 9th on the list, Insect Glaive.
This complex weapon type, which mixes aerial and ground-based combat with bug companion management, has some new techniques to dispatch monsters in Monster Hunter Wilds' upcoming DLC expansion, and they're somewhat subtle compared to the other weapon changes we've seen so far.
In contrast to previous weapon showcase trailers, which revealed that weapon types like Hammer and Dual Blades are getting various new aerial attacks granted by the DLC's Boost Bracer gimmick, Insect Glaive's changes keep it fairly grounded.
Some of the Insect Glaive's new Boost Driver attacks consist of spinning the glaive around while sending out the weapon type's unique 'Kinsect' bug pet to attack monsters and steal its Extract to power yourself up without manually commanding the Kinsect to do so.
While the Boost Gauge is active, the Insect Glaive gains extended ground-based combo attacks, your Kinsect can deal extra tick damage, and you perform new Offset counterattacks that can be followed up with aerial jump attacks.
Windows Central's take
Overall, this weapon trailer felt underwhelming compared to the previous ones, as most of the changes seem to focus on improving the Insect Glaive's pre-existing ground attacks without adding any flashy new aerial moves or aerial combo attacks.
I'm guessing that Capcom wants the Insect Glaive's playstyle to function more like it did back when it was introduced in Monster Hunter 4. In that game, Insect Glaive dominated the entire monster roster with its insanely powerful, acrobatic, and literally grounded glaive attacks that made you feel like Darth Maul from the Star Wars franchise.
Unfortunately, many people these days (myself included) prefer Insect Glaive to focus on aerial-based combat, as it helps it stand out from other weapon types; otherwise, it will feel like we're playing Longsword or Dual Blades but with extra steps.
Hopefully, Capcom is hiding some new cool aerial combo attacks we can pull off with Insect Glaive in the final game, when Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
