Surprisingly enough, Raegonomics has come for Monster Hunter- the slamming success of Monster Hunter Wilds has trickled down to older titles, like Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, which is currently on sale for the Nintendo Switch.
Now, it’s no secret that Monster Hunter Wilds success is due in part to how it’s streamlined the kinks out of a lot of old Monster Hunter, something that started with World. While it’s great for helping new players realize their destiny as Gunlance mains, it’s hard to not feel like those creases also formed a lot of the character in older Monster Hunter games.
That’s not to say they all need to come back. You can pry the infinite whetstone out of my cold, dead hands, same with the seamless zones. I see the new generation hunters not having to deal with Gravios loading screen juggles with the same purity veterans saw the first generation not born in a time of active war. But with that in mind, here’s some older features that might spice up the gumbo of Monster Hunter Wilds:
Key Quests
If you can believe it, story didn’t used to be the center of Monster Hunter games. Back in the day, reaching a new Hunter Rank meant three or more quests being dropped on your lap, and then magically getting a notification that you were ready for your next urgent quest.
This structure isn’t entirely gone from Monster Hunter Wilds- while the game never refers to “Urgent quests”, you can always tell when the next monster feels more important than the rest. Gore Magala practically lives in the Urgent Dimension, as does Arkveld.
But rather, by presenting new Hunter Ranks as a menu of quests rather than a linear string of “main quests” it kind of sells the main appeal of Monster Hunter- that just hunting down a Gypceros is fun, rather than needing it to advance the plot. The min-maxers and beeliners will obviously just hit all the key quests first, but I think obfuscating which monster is important goes a long way towards having even the most loser bird wyvern feel special.
Transport Quests
With that in mind, I have one other request: the reinstatement of transport quests. These quests are rightfully disliked by the community: in a game called Monster Hunter, instead spend a whole hunt carrying a large object, void of your ability to run or roll, all the way back to camp.
They’re difficult, they’re boring, and I think they’re part of Monster Hunter’s charm. Fight an elder dragon? Sure! Carry a big egg back to camp? You’re joking. Back in the day we had entire armor sets built for the exact purpose of carrying these items back, because there would be entire skills to help you in that endeavor.
It’s one of those things that I feel was overly streamlined. The idea of having to do quests you don’t like was part of that original Monster Hunter charm. Heck, they don’t even have to be mainline quests- in the old games transport quests were often more associated with kitchen ingredients than stopping the Frenzy Virus or whatever.
Plus, it had a secondary function: teasing new monsters. I’ll never forget my first Deviljho- it showed up while I was carrying precious cargo, far stronger than anything I was prepared to take on. Wilds in particular has a lack of invader monsters- and the idea of completely non-combat quests being interrupted by something so out of your league feels like the kind of experience that endears you to the game altogether.
Gammoth
Look, man. Every single one of the Fated Four from Monster Hunter Generations has made the leap over into the new gen games. Glavenus? Beloved icon, shows up in World. Mizutsune? Gets to be in Rise AND Wilds. Astalos? Rise, somehow. Heck, even Valstrax, the flagship for Generations Ultimate got to hop, jump and skip over to Monster Hunter Rise.
Gammoth is just cool, man. It’s a giant mammoth, a body type sorely underrepresented in the Monster Hunter biome. Given how much more barren the Ice regions in Monster Hunter Wilds are, I think having a Gammoth or two roaming the map would be a good violent shakeup for the game.
Just imagine the kind of chaos that comes from a monster that pulls in unsuspecting players and throws them around. Given how big Wilds’ stages are you could absolutely have fun with that kind of chaos around a monster that’s largely sedentary. The new wounding system would even work great given how big Gammoth is- it’d be much easier to flinch and ultimately get those valuable tusks for yourself.
While a lot of this may just come off as old head whining I do think there’s a lot of opportunity to introduce the many, many new hunters to just how much fun the series can be. As it is Monster Hunter Wilds is impressive for how quickly it administers The Good Part to you- I think the next step for Capcom is to figure out how to create a more complex hook for players to enjoy.
That being said, for those who want the old head experience, go check out Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate- it’s a complete package in every sense of the word, and even has my favorite feature that’s been lost with the home console releases: Local Play.
