Highlights

  • Monster Hunter World's story is lackluster and often tedious, with unskippable cutscenes that feel like roadblocks to content.
  • Monster Hunter Rise's pacing and smaller story are improvements, allowing players to skip cutscenes and focus on hunting.
  • With this in mind, Monster Hunter Wilds should include skippable cutscenes to improve the pacing for players who only care about hunting monsters.

Monster Hunter Wilds is one of 2025's most anticipated games, and that can be attributed in large part to the success of MH World. Monster Hunter has been around since the early 00s, but until World's release in 2018, it was a niche series. The franchise's explosion into the mainstream is the result of a number of factors. World introduced open zones, and its opening hours provided players with a better opportunity to learn its mechanics than previous entries did. The quality of life has never been higher for fans of MH games, but World missed out on some key features that Monster Hunter Wilds needs to add.

Monster Hunter Worlds is a great game because of its fantastic environments, fearsome creatures, and excellent gameplay that has been refined over the course of decades. On the other hand, the story of Monster Hunter World is lackluster and often tedious to sit through. With a long run time and unskippable cutscenes, World's story often feels more like a roadblock to content than a way to encourage players to see more of the game. A forgettable story is par for the course for the franchise, and the most recent entry, Rise, was no exception. In spite of a poor track record with regard to crafting a compelling narrative, Monster Hunter is still a captivating experience.

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Monster Hunter Wilds Needs Skippable Cutscenes

Their often shallow stories have never held back Monster Hunter games, as the appeal of the series is hunting large beasts. These beasts have consistent behavior and exist in the world much the same way actual animals might. The story in Monster Hunter World and other major games in the series often feels tacked on and isolated from the hunts themselves, seldom impacting the experience in a meaningful way. A compelling story would, of course, make Monster Hunter Wilds a better game, but what it really needs is skippable cutscenes. Monster Hunter World's pacing was often held up by lengthy cutscenes that players couldn't skip, meaning that players being able to skip over dialog and cinematics and move at their own pace is one of the advantages MH Rise has over World.

Monster Hunter Rise Gets Cutscenes Right

Monster Hunter Rise was the Switch-exclusive follow-up to MH World. It has since been ported to other platforms, though its environments and some other aspects are still a downgrade from its predecessor. The recent resurgence of Monster Hunter World shines a light on Rise's limitations, but Rise's more aggressive pacing is one of the things it gets right. Rise lets players mash through dialog, and the vast majority of its brief cutscenes are skippable. On top of this, the game has fewer superfluous quests designed to introduce different areas. Monster Hunter Rise lets players get right to hunting and has a reduced emphasis on storytelling. This might make aspects of the game less beginner-friendly, but overall, Rise's pacing and smaller story are improvements.

How Should Monster Hunter Wilds Handle Pacing?

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

Monster Hunter World's emphasis on story and its unskippable cutscenes, while annoying, were there to help onboard new players to the franchise. World launched the franchise into the mainstream because it is decidedly more accessible and more modern. Both new and old players are returning to Monster Hunter World in 2024 in no small part because it is easy to approach. Skippable cutscenes in Monster Hunter Wilds, alongside making some of the tutorial-esque missions optional, could allow for it to effectively welcome new hunters without making uninterested players sit through content they aren't enjoying.

Recent Monster Hunter games have placed a greater emphasis on quality of life and accessibility than the series ever did in the past, and its rapid growth in popularity reflects the importance of these changes. One of the things that Monster Hunter Wilds can do to improve on MH World is to include the ability to skip cutscenes as well as other similar quality-of-life changes to improve pacing. Doing so will help Monster Hunter Wilds take full advantage of the surrounding hype while pushing the series forward in new directions.