Highlights

  • Monster Hunter Wilds promises a chaotic and ever-changing environment, giving players a fresh and challenging experience.
  • Monster Hunter Wilds' dynamic weather could not only result in exciting gameplay depth, but the system could give players a way to control the elements during their hunts.
  • Players could be given a consumable that offers the ability to manipulate weather to create strategic advantages, adding a puzzle-solving element to hunts.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ dynamic weather system promises to add more gameplay depth than ever before. When the Monster Hunter Wilds trailer was released at The Game Awards 2023, many fans were quick to point out the level of care and attention Capcom was putting into environmental details and intricate, exciting weather effects. Giving players a way to manipulate that weather could allow Capcom to take the mechanic to a whole other level.

The trailer opens on a hunter riding a mount through a desert while being chased by carnivores into a herd of docile dinosaur-like creatures. Without warning, the scene is thrown into chaos as a dust cloud rolls in and the environment is enveloped in an electrical storm. Lightning strikes around the player, killing a number of monsters, changing the dynamic of the battle. As the trailer ends, the storm blows away, carrying with it the desert sands, revealing the lush plains that were hidden beneath the arid wastes. With weather seemingly being a huge focus, a tool to control and alter it seems like a must.

Trailer footage
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A Monster Hunter Game With Dynamic Weather Has Incredible Potential

The Monster Hunter Wilds trailer has had people talking since it was first shown off in December of last year. While Monster Hunter has had weather effects in the past, it has never been as dynamic or as impressive as what fans briefly got glimpses of in the trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds. Dust storms, lightning storms, and dynamic changes to the environment are already exciting additions to the franchise, and it’s likely there’s much more to come in the full release.

Previous Monster Hunter games have experimented with more rudimentary weather systems. In Monster Hunter Freedom Unite's jungle map, certain paths are inaccessible during nighttime hunts due to flooding.

Allowing Players to Control the Weather Could Add Further Depth to Monster Hunter's Gameplay

The Monster Hunter franchise is no stranger to offbeat gameplay mechanics. Whether it’s mixing and matching Dango flavours to get certain buffs, or the infamously confusing ‘tenderizing’ mechanic, Monster Hunter has always given players fun and unique ways of interacting with the world around them. Monster Hunter Wilds will likely follow in this tradition, and one interesting way of doing this could be by allowing players to influence the game’s dynamic weather effects. The Monster Hunter games have always been about preparation before a hunt, and a consumable item allowing players to perform a ritual in the game’s hub to alter their next hunt’s weather effects could go hand in hand with getting buffs from the canteen and stocking up on potions.

Letting Players Alter the Weather Could Give Monster Hunter an Element of Puzzle Solving

The dynamic weather effects revealed so far are likely to add another layer of problem-solving to Monster Hunter’s already complex endurance hunts. But, if players are allowed to directly alter the weather, Monster Hunter Wilds will have the chance to incorporate more puzzle elements than ever before and give players the chance to discover complex hidden strategies to trap or debuff their prey. Monsters which escape up the sides of mountains at low health could be countered with torrential rain that makes it impossible for them to climb away. Sandstorms could give players the cover to creep up on particularly skittish creatures. Metal arrows shot into a flying monster could act as lightning rods during a storm, bringing it down for the player to slaughter. The possibilities are endless.

Monster Hunter Wilds Looks To Make Chaos A Central Theme

The hunter watching a wyvern fly at the end of Monster Hunter Wilds' reveal trailer

With the dynamic weather effects showcased in the trailer, it’s safe to say that Monster Hunter Wilds looks like a particularly chaotic entry into the franchise. It’s exciting to speculate about what kinds of strange new creatures might thrive in such a rapidly changing environment, and how radically Monster Hunter Wilds' weather might change between (or even during) hunts.

With electrical storms tearing through herds of monsters and an environment that has the potential to change radically in an instant, the world of Monster Hunter Wilds is set to be particularly hostile. A mechanic giving players a degree of control over how that hostility manifests could be the perfect way to both empower the player and push the franchise firmly into the next-gen.