Monster Hunter Wilds Hands-on Preview: I Finally Get It

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Our coverage of Gamescom 2024 included an extensive look at , the latest in Capcom's long-running series. I've been a fan of the games from afar for quite some time, having enjoyed my stay with when it came out and sinking in a decent amount of hours into. Neither game hooked me the way I know they do for so many veterans, however; not the same way that did when I met with an unfortunate demise a dozen times in a row but kept playing.

I think is going to change that stance for people like me, who bounced off previous games in spite of generally enjoying them. I certainly couldn't put it down during my preview, in spite of my middling attempts at corraling monsters and less than savvy movement across the open world map. Something about clicks in a way the other games didn't, and while I can't speak to the experience someone with countless more time spent in the franchise's ecosystem might feel, I certainly didn't find it any less challenging or skill-intensive.

Monster Hunter Wilds series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and art director and executive director Kaname Fujioka chat about the upcoming game.

There are two mechanics that stood out to me in my preview that really sold me on the future of as the series' most welcoming title: wounds and focus mode. These two systems go hand-in-hand and have already been detailed before, but for a brief summary, wounds are an accumulation of damage on a monster that appears as a bright red marking somewhere on its body while in focus mode, while focus mode itself is the ability to zoom in a reticle during combat to help better aim attacks.

Focus mode activation is the best way to target wounds, which requires conscious evaluation of a monster's appearance, since the wounds only glow during focus mode but do show up a little bit, albeit much duller, when out of it. The game's cast of co-op hunters or Palicoes also do a great job of calling out when a monster may be wounded.

Once you get the hang of it, it's satisfying to execute,