Recent reviews by BigBoo

I’ve been a Monster Hunter fan for about 11 years now. I properly got into the series with Freedom Unite and played every single game in the franchise since then, all the way through WorldBorne and SunRise. Because of that, it honestly sucks to say that Wilds has been the most disappointing entry for me so far. Not just disappointing, but genuinely kind of depressing as someone who loves this series.
I’m not even going to focus on performance, because those problems are already painfully obvious. I also went in fully expecting bad performance after Dragon’s Dogma 2, so my expectations were already low in that department. Unfortunately, the real problems with Wilds go way beyond frame drops or loading issues.

Monster Hunter has always been a series with weird, sometimes annoying systems that force you to engage with them, weapons, skills, armor sets, prep before hunts, learning monsters the hard way. Since Freedom Unite, those rough edges have slowly been smoothed out. I actually think World nailed the balance: it was easier to get into, but it didn’t feel dumbed down or shallow. The problem is that Capcom kept pushing in that direction, and with Wilds it feels like they finally went too far.

The player has never felt stronger, and monsters have never felt weaker. But it’s not just that the game is easy, it’s boring. There’s barely any reason to craft new weapons or armor because the game almost never asks anything of you. Most monsters aren’t threatening, gear skills barely feel like they matter, and progression feels pointless.
Stuff that used to take effort is now just handed to you. Your Palico starts with every assist tool at once, no quests or grinding required like in World. You get tons of free healing, constant status nullification from your palico, and very little reason to bring items or build against specific monsters. On top of that, the Seikret can just swoop in and pull you out whenever you want, so sharpening and healing are basically non-issues.

Even if you decide to grind anyway, it’s over almost immediately. Rare drops aren’t all that rare, material requirements are super low, and you’re done before you know it. Weapons do have cool and complex movesets, and hitting monsters can feel good, but between buffs and focus mode letting you redirect attacks in any direction, it feels like weapons barely have weaknesses anymore. Everything just works, all the time, with no trade-offs.
Outside of combat, there’s even less motivation. There’s no real town hub like Astera or Seliana. Instead, you get a few small base camps and singular villages scattered across each map, and none of them feel like a proper home base. Upgrading facilities, unlocking new features, and seeing a hub grow over time is basically gone.
The monster roster is another big letdown, the pacing is just weird; You fight Arkveld and then immediately jump into the final boss, which completely kills any sense of buildup. After beating the final boss, your next “big” hunt is a Yian Kut-Ku pack, which feels ridiculous considering where that monster usually sits in the series.Some monsters don’t even get proper introductions or cutscenes, you accept a quest, your Seikret auto-runs you to the target, you kill it, and you progress with the story, absolute zero effort and no sense of discovery.
The title update monsters like Mizutsune, Lagiacrus, and Seregios help a bit, but overall the roster still feels weak. The updates themselves haven’t impressed me much either. Gogmazios is kind of cool, but it feels wrong to add a Black Dragon when the regular roster still feels so thin.
Maybe Master Rank will improve things, but I don’t think it can fix the core problems. The game just feels sterile and overly accommodating. Those are design choices, not things you can patch out. At this point, the main reason to keep playing is the story, which is…fine. It’s better than usual, but still nothing special. There are a few hype moments, but that’s about it (you can also finish it in 2 days or less), another reason to play is if you’re just trying to pass time and turn your brain off completely.
I really wanted to like this game, but I can’t recommend it. The gameplay feels so far removed from classic Monster Hunter that I just don’t fully enjoy it anymore. I pushed through to 9-star quests, and even those don’t feel right.
Focus mode alone changes the series in a huge way. Wounds could’ve been a great addition if they weren’t turned into glowing, click-to-win weak points, between counters, wounds, and recovery mechanics, most danger just disappears. I kept logging in for limited-time events here and there because it’s Monster Hunter, but after a hunt or two I’d lose all motivation to keep going.

Outside of fights, everything is basically free. You barely need to farm, gather, or craft anything. It messes with the whole progression loop so badly that I found myself just eating a meal and barely doing any sort of grind and minmax, not even for meal ingredients.
Tracking mechanics would’ve made way more sense here and actually encouraged exploration and investigation, giving a sense of discovery, curiosity.
Side content is either extremely stripped down or just gone. No camp or village upgrade quests, no Palico progression, no real monster research, endemic life collecting seems pointless since there’s no personal hunter’s room, no felyne kitchen, barely any fun flavor or charm, “optional quests” have no flavor text on their description. A lot of the little details that made older games special are just missing.

When you put everything together, auto-tracking Seikret, always-visible monsters on minimap, focus mode, instant recovery, overpowered Palicoes, cheap crafting, counters, offsets, wounds, mantles, environmental traps, and constant NPC voice reminders. it feels like the game is doing everything it can to make sure you’re never frustrated. The problem is that in doing so, it also makes sure you’re never engaged.

I’m sure some people will like this direction, and that’s fine. But as a long-time fan of the older games, I just can’t. I’d much rather recommend going back to older Monster Hunter titles if you relate to my frustration. They can be brutal, but they’re way deeper, way more charming, and actually are complete games.
I did enjoy parts of Wilds, but I can’t support the direction Capcom is taking the series. It sucks to see so much potential wasted in favor of hand-holding and greed.

Writing this honestly hurts because I want Monster Hunter to keep succeeding. But Wilds feels like a sign that the series needs a serious course correction. The warning signs were already there in World and Rise, and now they’re impossible to ignore. This isn’t the worst game I’ve ever played, but it is easily one of the most disappointing, especially compared to how addictive older games were.

Monster Hunter isn’t the same since World, but this time, the gameplay loop has been completely ripped apart and gutted, leaving anything but pure bliss and instant gratification, with no sense of personal discovery, progress, or achievement. And instead of focusing on fixing these issues, Capcom is just going to keep pumping out cosmetic DLC.

And as long as people keep buying it, then why change?

Half the hours consist of having it open in the background while watching tutorials.
The other half is playing around and having it crash every 2 minutes because you applied 74 subdiv modifiers on a cube. I love Blender