The Monster Hunter series first launched on PlayStation 2 in 2004 and has since won over many fans, evolving at a dizzying pace alongside new developments in hardware.
While it may sound like a cliché to say that the whole world has been waiting for it, it's not an exaggeration to say that hunters from around the globe have eagerly awaited the next game in the series, Monster Hunter Wilds, releasing at last on February 28, 2025.
The gameplay loop that hunters imagine when they hear about Monster Hunter has remained the same throughout the series even after 20 years.
Hunt gigantic monsters, strip them of materials, create equipment, then head back into the next hunt. At the same time, though, it seems rare for the game design of a series to so directly reflect the benefits brought about by advances in hardware.
Monster Hunter: World, released in 2018, did away with the segmented maps that players were used to seeing in the series, instead allowing them to roam about a single stage without loading times.