It was almost 2 am last night when I saw something that gave me the biggest grin: A 66-second video showcasing the hunting horn in Monster Hunter Wilds. I watched it once, then again, then turned the phone to my partner to show her. "Oh that's sick," she muttered half-asleep as the horn user played a melody that created an area-of-effect buff on the battlefield.
The Hunting Horn video, part of a series of videos showcasing what's new with each weapon type in Wilds, is so short that Capcom really could've published it as a YouTube Short or TikTok, but I think the company bet on Monster Hunter fans being ravenous for any Wilds gameplay, and it was right. Since Capcom started publishing them on YouTube four days ago, these overview videos have racked up millions of views. If you had any doubt left that Wilds is gonna be the biggest Monster Hunter to date, I assume it's squashed now.
I might represent about half of those views, to be fair. I keep rewatching the overview of my favorite weapon, the gunlance. Most of the video covers basic moves that've been mainstays for the weapon for several games now, but also some new moves that look absolutely sinister. With Wilds' new Focus Strikes (which also has a dedicated video explainer), gunlancers can charge toward a monster, uncork the wyrmstake, and continuously drill into the beast like a carnivorous Dig Dug. I also spotted a new full burst combo that fires the lance's shells in a horizontal arch, which should be handy for targeting out-of-reach monster parts.
The overview videos for the insect glaive and heavy bowgun are also informative. There's Focus Skill where you plant the glaive in a monster then spin around it like Spider-Man on a flag pole, and the heavy bowgun has an "Ignition" mode that lets you fire it like a full-auto machine gun. I'm going to assume that's new territory for the bowgun, but admittedly I've always slept on Monster Hunter's ranged options.
I have high hopes for Focus Mode and Focus Strikes. The new mechanic seems to replace Switch Skills from Monster Hunter Rise, and they also appear toned down. Rise's big theme was mobility—everyone had wirebugs moves and special skills that let you get airborne whenever you wanted, which was fun, but came at the cost of some of the "heft" I associate with the series.
Wilds appears more grounded in precision attacks powered by Focus Mode. In this new stance, a reticle appears on screen that lets you "aim" attacks at specific body parts. Crucially, Focus Mode also highlights wounds you open up on monsters, making it easier to target those spots and deal extra damage. There's a particularly nasty new great sword move that you can only trigger by targeting wounds and weak spots—the hunter digs the sword into a wound and starts dragging the blade across its body with implied resistance. Ouch.
At this rate, it'll be another week or two before Capcom is done showing off Wilds weapons. Some fan favorites are yet to come: the dual blades, hunting hammer, bow, and of course, the long sword.
