Here’s a hot take: is Monster Hunter Wilds losing its identity in its pursuit of accessibility? Ever since Wilds simplified much of its core systems, it seems to have lost sight of what it once was: a mountain players were meant to be overcome. A challenge.
It feels like Capcom and the new Monster Hunter dev team have significantly reduced the grind and challenge that once defined the franchise. Originally, Monster Hunter was a chaotic, messy experience. It started with grinding and farming materials with terrible drop rates, obsessing over quest rewards, being broke, and sometimes even running out of essential resources like healing potions, because you forgot to gather them between hunts.
Is Monster Hunter Wilds Becoming Too Accessible?
Yes, Monster Hunter Wilds is more accesible. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since much of what Capcom simplified were the frustrating aspects of hunting prep, it’s still a significant shift.
Farming takes less time thanks to a personal farming area, accepting quests no longer requires Zenny, and crafting materials are cheaper. Zenny itself is no longer a scarce resource in Wilds.
There are two types of Monster Hunter players: those who love the challenge, and those who thrive on the endless grind. What Capcom has done with Wilds seems to have removed the struggle that appealed to both types. As a result, the experience feels stale, with seasoned players unlocking nearly everything the game has to offer in under 100 hours.
Is Monster Hunter Wilds’ Difficulty Still Important?
Monster Hunter Wilds' challenge has been toned down, and it’s not just because players have gotten better at action RPGs. Capcom has noticeably lowered monsters’ health pools compared to Monster Hunter: World, making hunts quicker to finish. While monster fights have improved in terms of animations and hitbox accuracy, the battles still lack that intimidating threshold that once defined the series. That absence has pushed away players who crave a serious challenge.
Gone are the walls that stopped you in your tracks, like Tigrex in Freedom Unite, a one-monster army, or Anjanath in World, which was a first-time hunter’s first major roadblock. Those moments are missed in Wilds. Maybe when Master Rank arrives, Capcom will crank up the difficulty. After all, Arch-Tempered monsters have served as the benchmark for that kind of high-level content.
Is Monster Hunter Wilds Still Grindy?
When it comes to grinding, there’s hardly a need to do it in Monster Hunter Wilds anymore. It continues to streamline the process for everyone. Monster gems are basically guaranteed if you take on the right quests, Decorations and Jewels don’t need much prayers from the RNG gods, and collecting Gold Crowns for large and small monsters is much less of a chore thanks to the new binoculars feature. To be fair, Crown hunting has never been more tolerable, far better than manually measuring a monster mid-fight and risking multiple carts in the process.
READ: Monster Hunter Wilds: 5 Advanced Tips for New Hunters
But with both the grind and challenge dialed back, Monster Hunter Wilds seems to have lost a clear sense of identity. Don’t get me wrong, Wilds is still a great game, and arguably one of Capcom’s strongest entries. But in chasing accessibility, Capcom may have turned its once-demanding franchise into a streamlined action-adventure experience tailored for players who just want to dip in and out of battles.
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