Hitstop, Aerial Attacks, and More
Capcom held private gameplay sessions for Monster Hunter Wilds where various journalists were allowed to play the first five or six hours of the game. This starts the intro we played in the beta and ends with hunting Uth Duna, the apex of the Scarlet Forest. There were also interviews with the Wilds team, providing us new information on both the current state of the game and future changes we may see before the game launches on February 27th, 2025.
The Insect Glaive Has Its Vault Dance Back
When the general public played the open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds, there was a common piece of feedback around the insect glaive: where is the midair vaulting dance? Well, for those who missed it, there is good news: Insect Glaive has its aerial attacks back. Capcom heard the feedback that the midair combo is key to the identity of the insect glaive, and the weapon just did not feel the same without it, so they decided to add it back in. The insect glaive has apparently been reworked many times throughout the development of Wilds, and a similar degree of change may be seen in other weapons before launch. Capcom has specifically mentioned potential changes to the Switch Axe, the Sword and Shield, and the Lance.
Performance Improvements and Bug Squashing
The game's performance has also improved since the open beta. Both PC and Playstation 5 are reported to run the game considerably more smoothly than they were in the open beta. Additionally, a common pain point in the beta was a bug. In the beta, players reported that monsters were running away far more quickly than in the past, and that it was disrupting the rhythm of hunts. Capcom has now stated that this was not intended, and that a bug caused monsters to change areas approximately every five minutes. The bug is now fixed, and monsters are now sticking around to fight for a standard amount of time.
Expanded Customization
While the beta had an impressive character and palico creator, that was as far as it went. In the latest build however, players were able to customize both the Seikret and the Pop Up Camp as well. Both have a wide variety of color customizations and each has some more specialized changes. The Seikret has a variety of equippable trinkets, while the camp has a range of banners, tables, and other odds and ends that can be added to the camp.
Toned Down Friendly Fire
A common experience in multiplayer Monster Hunter is being launched or staggered by another player's attacks, commonly called friendly fire. Everyone has been on the receiving end of an unfortunately timed Hammer upswing, or had their combos constantly interrupted by a longsword player's spirit slashes during a down. The Wilds team has decided to remove the more extreme knockback effects. Knock up attacks, such as the Hammer and Switch Axe's upswing attacks, and explosions, such as Wyvern Fire attacks or Cluster Bombs, will no longer knock back teammates.
Bow Shot Types May Now Be Coatings
About halfway through IGN's video footage in their article on these changes (https://www.ign.com/articles/behind-monster-hunter-wilds-surprising-skill-and-weapon-changes-preview), you can see the hunter equip a coating called a Piercing Coating. When applied, the coating seemed to make arrows behave as the pierce shot type. This suggests to me one of two things: Either that shot types are gone and are replaced by coatings, or that these coatings function as a way to allow you to change to a different shot type on the fly, for example swapping to a spread coating during a knockdown to really focus damage on the head of the monster. At this point, there does not seem to be definitive information about how these type coatings will work, but this is a very interesting question we may get more info on as release approaches.
Summary
That's it for the return of the Insect Glaive's aerial attacks, new coating information and the recent reveals from the private gameplay sessions. We do not know when we will next get new information for Monster Hunter Wilds, so stay tuned and keep your eyes on official Monster Hunter accounts as we move closer and closer to release.
Written by: Brogangh
Reviewed by: Tenkiei
