It’s hard to believe the Monster Hunter games have been going on for over 20 years now. Since 2004’s original release there have been many installments of the franchise, split between three broad categories: mainline, portable, and spin-offs. That’s a long time, and the franchise has spent it constantly evolving and trying new ideas.
Let’s take a look where this evolution started, and where it’s led, shall we?
Evocative beginnings
The year was 2004, Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 3 were still a year away, but Capcom had an unexpected ace in its sleeve. Enter Monster Hunter.
While by current standards it might seem rather clunky, MH was something fresh and exciting. It made use of Capcom’s talent for cool monsters, and engaging systems to make a hunting game unlike any before it. Rather than using a rifle to stalk a deer, we got to gear up in cool armour, grab one of seven weapons, and venture into the wilderness filled with dangerous, prehistoric-looking megafauna.
Each of several locales/biomes was comprised of several zones connected by, at the time inevitable, loading screen. While it might have slowed the action down, the physically disconnected areas gave a strong impression of them being just the most interesting slices of a much larger place, the game simply cut the travel montage. The modern biomes being one large map are great, but there is a certain appeal to the old ways.
The old game was also heavier on tracking, an element now somewhat lost, replaced largely by Scoutflies in World (and returning in Wilds). In the old days, if you wanted to know where the monster ran away to, you either had to know the monster and the region well, or tag it with a paintball.
This kind of meticulousness gave crucial importance to preparation. Crafting was much more deliberate, with no fast track to getting all your resources easily. Even figuring out consumable item recipes required effort, let alone crafting armor and weapons! It wasn’t an easy game to pick up then and it wouldn’t be easy to pick up now, but some ideas might be worth bringing back. Perhaps in a spin-off?
Surprisingly mainstream
The main series went through three more installments (and numerous spin-offs), each bringing something new to the table, but MH wouldn’t find truly mainstream success until Monster Hunter World, a massive hit from 2018.
It was the first Monster Hunter to sell 10 million, and then 20 million, copies. Its expansion, Iceborne, clocked additional 14 million. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was the first mainline Monster Hunter released on PC, although it wasn’t the only thing working in MHW’s favour.
Capcom went the John Hammond route and spared no expense making this vibrant world filled with prehistoric-looking creatures feel alive. Each biome was a single, large map, with a web of traversable shortcuts between the zones. The maps were also full of foliage, small monsters, and pet-sized endemic life that’s sometimes even useful, like the Paratoads. The ecological aspect of World was off the charts.
It also boasted the full fourteen weapon types the series has settled into over the years, minus experimental ones like MH Frontier’s Tonfas. Although sword and shield fans mourned the loss of weapon oils, the new moves definitely contributed to World’s allure as an unstoppably cool game with very high skill ceiling, especially once Iceborne rolled in.
MHW also introduced the broader audience to the joy of Palico, first introduced as active companions in 2008’s MH Freedom Unite for PSP. The adorable cat-like helpers are now an indispensable part of the series, and World cemented their reputation as incredibly helpful and unbearably cute.
MHW truly set the standard of detail, scale, and scope for the main series. Thankfully, the sequel is fully prepared to take on that challenge.
It’s getting Wild out there
Now, more than 20 years after the original, we’re getting Monster Hunter Wilds, which launched on February 28th.
MH World significantly raised the bar, but this isn’t Capcom’s first Aptonoth rodeo. The team knew exactly how to up the stakes with MH Wilds, even if it makes it harder to raise them again for future MH games. But let’s stay with the present for now, because MH Wilds is shaping up to be quite a gift.
The changes it brings might not seem like a big deal, but some are huge upgrades to immersion and general quality of life which long-time players of the series will appreciate. One of the biggest is ditching overt loading screens between biomes and base/bases. They are now all part of the same world, letting you ride between biomes, or in and out of the base at your leisure.
Yes, you get to ride out, thanks to Seikrets, large bipedal lizards serving as our mounts. They combine the self-driving of World’s Raiders with the full steering of Palamutes from Rise. It’s the best of both worlds, and they can even carry a secondary weapon in case you want to switch tactics on the fly.
Another addition which got fans buzzing with excitement is allowing players to craft and use both male and female versions of every armor, instead of locking themselves out of fully half of designs at character creation. To make fashion even better, the layered armour (MH version of transmog) now will register automatically when you craft high-rank gear, instead of requiring additional grind!
Yet another mark of evolution, the final one to be highlighted here, is Wound and Focus Strike system, which bears resemblance to Iceborne’s, but rather than being put on top of existing weapon flows, it now emerges naturally and leads to fluid, exciting moments of setting up and exploiting injuries for massive damage.
Ready for an expedition?
Monster Hunter Wilds is the culmination of 20 years of evolution, and easily one of the biggest video game releases of the spring, if not the entire 2025. If you’d like to see what Capcom cooked up, hop on over to G2A.COM and find a great deal on a key for the edition and platform of your preference. The Forbidden Lands need your aid!
