Monster Hunter Wilds Player Counts Frames to Explain Why Combat Feels Off
ign.comThe Monster Hunter Wilds beta gave fans a first chance to play the game before its release in 2025, and while it proved enormously popular it also sparked a debate about combat.
Some fans have complained that Wilds’ combat feels floaty, or not as impactful as it is in other Monster Hunter games. This feeling, according to one player who has analyzed frame data for Wilds and compared it to that of prior Monster Hunter games, has to do with hitstop — or, in this case, the lack of.
Hitstop in action games pauses an attack animation on hit for dramatic effect, usually to emphasize the weight of an attack landing. Accompanied by various visual and sound effects, hitstop helps to give attacks a sense of power, as opposed to waving around a virtual weapon that feels like it fails to connect.
Increasing the number of frames (and thus time) devoted to a weapon’s hitstop is traditionally used to increase the feeling of its power, as it leaves the player character in this paused state. Monster Hunter has used this to great effect over the years with many of its oversized weapons, and it’s this comparison to Wilds that YouTuber Blue Stigma has made to suggest a significantly reduced hitstop in Wilds is making the combat feel different.
“If you felt like the combat in the MHWilds beta felt ‘off,’ it's not just you!” Blue Stigma tweeted. “As this short comparison video shows, Capcom seems to have reduced hitstop on most (if not all) weapon types in Wilds, leading to some weapons
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