The Monster Hunter Wilds beta is unavailable at the time of writing due to the gap between the PS5 early access release and the full multiplatform beta launch later today, October 31, so after writing up my altogether positive first impressions I'm whiling away the hours by checking out the real fruit of this beta: fantastic custom characters.
Weapons and myriad systems are sure to be retouched by the time Monster Hunter Wilds actually launches, but you can bring your beta custom character directly into the full game, so now's a great time to obsess over sliders and lighting.
One of the cooler trends among players mirrors the evolution of the Monster Hunter franchise by aging up custom characters from previous games – often Monster Hunter World, which Wilds is pretty directly iterating on, but also several older entries.
Other players have turned to the Palico creator, then turned to their real-life pet cats, and then turned back to the Palico creator with a creative flame burning within them.
It's a Monster Hunter tradition at this point: bringing your real cat along for the ride so they can save you in-game too, not through invaluable companionship, but by healing you or knocking you away right before a monster knocks you flat.