Monster Hunter Wilds Demo Impressions

Capcom released a playable demo for Monster Hunter Wilds where you experience the game's first mission, get a feel for the world, and hunt several monsters including Rey Dau. I don't have much experience with the Monster Hunter series, but I've always heard good things so I was excited to dive in and give things a try for myself. My initial thoughts? Even the demo is overwhelming! There are icons all over the place, tons to interact with, and 14 weapons each of which has fairly complex combos! However, it was also awesome to see the attention to detail within the world and the various environments.

Introduction to Wilds

After going through the character customization, to tweak the look of your Hunter and Palico, it's time to get started. You begin with a mission briefing, where Fabius (one of the leaders of the Hunter's Guild) assigns you to lead the Forbidden Lands Research Commission. Your mission is to accompany the mysterious boy Nata and help him reunite with his people. Don't worry there are lots of monsters to fight, including a mysterious creature known as the "White Wraith."

After setting the stage, the Monster Hunter Wilds demo wastes no time getting you into the action. This is where your Seikret is introduced, a highly intelligent creature who acts as your mount. Then, there is a short on-rails tutorial before you go on your first hunt.

Hunting the Chatacabra

I found the Chatacabra hunt to be a great introduction to the world of Monster Hunter. Several tutorials pop up during the fight, introducing the basics of combat and the wound system. But for the most part, it was just me, my Palico, and the Chatacabra.

At first, I had a bit of difficulty with the combat. I'm used to games with a "lock on" style of gameplay such as Dark Souls, but I rarely play free-aim melee combat games. However, the fight was forgiving enough that I got a good bit of time to get comfortable aiming at different parts of the monster with Focus Mode. After a little practice, landing hits was easy but targeting wounds or pulling combos off was more difficult.

Each of the 14 weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds has a variety of moves, many of which are combo dependent. Throughout the demo, I struggled with this. I found myself mashing B or Y a lot instead of trying to understand the different combos. It worked well, but I could see this being a problem later on more demanding fights.

Wounds and Part Breaks

Wounding monsters, and breaking their body parts is one of the ways in which the Monster Hunter franchise sets itself apart. You aren't just fighting against a massive, dangerous creature, you're cutting it down to size with your massive weapons! As you do battle with a monster, you inflict wounds. These show up as red marks on the monster's body, target the mark to break it dealing bonus damage and giving you additional materials. When you break wounds you stun the monster, giving you a good opportunity to really unload.

In addition, you can break monster parts to disable some of their moves. For example, if you break a monster's tail, it can't use tail swipe attacks anymore. Part breaks are more difficult to pull off and can involve mounting the monster but they may significantly change the course of a fight. After breaking a part, remember to collect any materials that get cut off the monster!

Despite several of my swings missing the monster entirely, it was very satisfying to land blows on wounds! I always went out of my way to target them both because breaking a wound deals more damage and also because you're rewarded with extra monster parts (used to craft better gear). Later in my gameplay, I even managed to sever a tail while fighting against a Balahara. This was absolutely the high point of the Monster Hunter Wilds demo for me, because in that moment I felt like a pro instead of a lost noob!

Finishing the Hunt

Several times throughout the fight, the Chatacabra ran to a new location, giving a good amount of breathing room to recover between the intense bouts of action. I felt like the fight got easier the longer it went on, with the Chatacabra becoming weaker, and my growing confidence leading me to take more aggressive action.

The latter half of the fight included 2 new tutorials. One for Iaijutsu which I tried (and failed) and then gave up on, and one for environmental hazards which unfortunately I also messed up. Despite mistiming the first hazard, I did successfully use the environment against other monsters later on. Shortly after this I took the Chatacabra down and brought the first hunt to a close. After carving it for a few extra materials, I returned to base to fully complete the quest.

Overwhelming World

After the first hunt, the Monster Hunter Wilds demo turns you loose to explore the Windward Plans, try various weapons, and hunt more monsters. Personally, I found this to be overwhelming. There was a lot of cool and shiny stuff, I wanted to do all of it and I had no idea where to start. For a bit, I just wandered around on my Seikret, taking in the sights. The Seikret does a great job of navigating everything from rock formations to sandy dunes. You can also call your Seikret to swap weapons, heal up, or sharpen your blade.

Ultimately I decided to hunt an Alpha Doshaguma and try the SoS Flare system to team up with other players. This is where I ran into my first (and only) major technical issue of the demo. When using SoS flares, there was always a huge lag spike (and 3-4s game freeze) when other players began joining the party. This happened a few times, but aside of that I had no major technical issues. With that said, I have a fairly strong computer with an i7-12700k and RTX 3080, so your own results may vary.

Interactive Environment

It was during my hunt with the Alpha Doshaguma that Monster Hunter Wilds really began to impress me with how detailed (and interactive) its world is. I play a lot of games, and so most video game worlds feel like video games to me. Many games have good graphics and stunning vistas, but the random bandit camps, and lootables make them feel artificial. But to my surprise, the Windblown Plains felt vibrantly alive.

During my battle with the Alpha Doshaguma, a storm blew in, immediately the surroundings darkened, lightning began striking and various grasses caught fire. This made the battle all the more epic! The weather effects are a new feature being added in Wilds. As the weather changes, locations become more dangerous, and new monsters appear to hunt.

Hazards and Clashes

Later on while hunting the worm-like Balahara, I got another taste of just how interactive Monster Hunter Wild's ecosystem is. The Balahara is able to create sand traps, which temporarily deform the terrain, pulling you in by creating a slippery slope to slide down. They can also climb up on various rock formations, while one did I took a shot at it with my Light Bowgun. I was just trying to get in a bit of damage while it held still but to my surprise, the entire rock formation crashed down! This was awesome, and after that, I went out of my way to look for environmental interactions.

From time to time, small creatures might jump in on a fight, taking some cheap shots against a wounded monster. But the last major interaction I encountered was clashes between two monsters. For example, while I was hunting the Rey Dau a Balahara tried to intervene, attacking the wyvern and taking a nice lightning blast to the face for its trouble. Each of these features combines to create an everchanging world that feels alive.

Hunting Rey Dau

To cap off my Demo experience, I decided to take on the area's big bad, Rey Dau. Despite my growing confidence, I didn't think this would go well alone, so I used the SoS flare to gather a party of companions. Rey Dau is far more dangerous than any of the previous monsters. In particular, the 'railgun' move was difficult to avoid due to its large radius of effect.

After a grueling fight (and a couple of faints), I managed to beat Rey Dau. The final area where the battle took place was a beautiful crystalline area with electricity jumping between the crystals. This fight was far more difficult than previous hunts. Rey Dau uses a mix of strafing runs, melee attacks and ranged electrical strikes. But with a bit of button mashing, help from the SoS flare, and swapping to the Light Bowgun to break wounds, I was able to persevere!

Weapons and Companions

Here are a few thoughts on the companions and the weapons I tried during the Monster Hunter Wilds demo;

• I found the Seikret to be great. With a world this big, it's great to have a mount, and the Seikret is great at navigating everything from open plains to rock formations. I did fight a bit with the controls, hitting A (dismount) to jump by mistake, and hitting D-pad Up (mount) to dismount. But the mobility and handling as perfect.
• The Palico felt great too! I have a love-hate relationship with NPC helpers, because all too often they get in the way during combat rather than providing aid. But the Palico was able to taunt monsters, provide healing, set traps and cleanse debuffs all without getting under foot.
• Alma on the other hand was a bit more disappointing. At least in the demo, she didn't do much beyond giving a couple of quests and delivering some dialogue. I hope she plays a larger part in the full game.

Weapons

I tried all 14 weapons, at least a little bit. In most games I'm pretty boring, give me a bow, let me use magic, or I'll take the sword and board due to the safety offered. But I found myself gravitating towards other weapons in Wilds.

• The Dual Blades are incredibly fast and fluid. I found it very easy to land blows on wounds while in Focus Mode, or use Demon Mode to go on a slashing frenzy.
• In terms of ranged weapons, the Light Bowgun stood out to me. I wanted to like the Bow, but struggled to properly maintain charge and execute combos. So usually, I kept a Light Bowgun as my swap weapon and used it to fire at a monster from a distance or unleash the heavier ammo to snipe wounds.
• Last up, the Greatsword, despite being a slow and heavy weapon it was surprisingly easy to use. If you can fully charge a slash, expect to see some big numbers after!

The weapon swap feature felt very natural. At first, I used it to experiment with different weapons. But then I began using it to swap between a melee weapon that was good for dealing damage and a more precise ranged weapon which I used to snipe wounds.

Video

Check out my first impressions video to learn more about my experiences with the Monster Hunter Wilds demo.

Closing Thoughts

So overall, I had a lot of fun jumping into the Monster Hunter Wilds demo. But I did find it to be an overwhelming experience. The environmental interactions blew me away, and it's genuinely impressive how Capcom has created such a vibrant world. On the other hand, I struggled a bit with the combat. Most of the time got by just mashing buttons and then dodging, but I'm not sure that works on the later hunts.

The demo offered a tantalizing hint of what's to come, and I can see why so many people love the Monster Hunter franchise. But this isn't going to be a game for everyone. Combat is much more deliberate, and you need to be able to aim manual attacks to truly succeed. So if you're new to the world of Monster Hunter, check out some reviews from an expert to learn more when the game releases on Feb 28, 2025.

Written by: Tenkiei

Reviewed by: Brogangh