Highlights

  • Monster Hunter Wilds is set to release in 2025, building on the current popularity of Monster Hunter World.
  • Tutorials have always been a challenge in the series, with a focus on learning through experience.
  • Monster Hunter Wilds needs to prioritize informative and engaging tutorials for players, especially if it does go open world.

The next Monster Hunter has been announced as Monster Hunter Wilds, and fans are eagerly awaiting its 2025 release. Even with the mobile title Monster Hunter Now following the end of Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak’s post-launch updates, another year is still longer than one might have expected to wait for the next installment. Fortunately, Monster Hunter World and Rise are content-complete on all modern platforms, making now the perfect time to replay them or get into the series for the first time. Once Monster Hunter Wilds is ready, it should be greeted by plenty of seasoned hunters.

Capcom has encouraged this surge in popularity, particularly for Monster Hunter World. Around the time of Monster Hunter Wilds' reveal, Capcom began a “Return to World” event for the Monster Hunter community, pointing players towards World in particular due to its similar aesthetic, and possibly design sensibilities, to MH Wilds. New and old fans of the series have been preparing for Wilds together, though some newcomers are learning the hard way that Monster Hunter has trouble giving a good first impression. On top of whatever else it changes, Monster Hunter Wilds should give its tutorials another pass.

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Monster Hunter Wilds Can Evolve One Aspect of Adventuring From Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter Wilds could be in a position to rework one mechanic from Monster Hunter World and give it some fresh new utility.

Tutorials Are The Bane Of The Monster Hunter Franchise

An old saying in the Monster Hunter community is that the series has no tutorials. This is not true in a literal sense, as even the original PS2 Monster Hunter began with a tutorial, but it's sadly accurate in practice. Monster Hunter is so mechanically dense that it's difficult to explain what to do with all of its systems, and fan-made guides have had to pick up every game's slack so far. World and Rise went as far as dumping text boxes filled with pointers and control lists onto the screen for several hours straight, which only made absorbing their myriad details even more frustrating.

Monster Hunter’s Best Learning Is Through Experience

Practically speaking, there is no way to fully tutorialize Monster Hunter with player discovery and improvement being at the core of its identity. Soaking in the relatively easy Low Rank quests and Expeditions, as well as spending time with Monster Hunter's accessible co-op multiplayer, will help somewhat, but there will always be things players may never learn without a guide. It may not be possible to fill in all of Monster Hunter's informational gaps, but future games like Monster Hunter Wilds can at least make the necessary tutorials more helpful and less frustrating to deal with.

What Monster Hunter Wilds Can Do To Improve Its Tutorials

Removing as much annoyance from its learning process as possible should be Monster Hunter Wilds’ first priority. Making tutorial popups less frequent than they were in World and Rise is a good first step, although Wilds needs to ensure that the remaining tutorials are set within the first hour of gameplay to avoid repeating World’s worst sin. Prioritizing the most relevant information and keeping it digestible should be the focus, with some lip service paid to avenues that players can pursue to learn more. In general, Monster Hunter Wilds needs to anticipate player desires and questions, and address those quickly to build positive momentum.

How MH Wilds’ Possible New Format Could Affect Tutorials

Giving players just enough freedom to learn for themselves will be even more important if Monster Hunter Wilds goes open-world. A quest system and some sort of hub should still be present for the sake of multiplayer, meaning there will probably be a physical center where players can expect tutorials. Even so, MH Wilds can't hold players up there, or scatter its tutorials too far into its world. Small, instanced maps made for staged hunts may strike the best balance by guiding players through live gameplay without overwhelming amounts of text. Monster Hunter Wilds has the chance to freshen up Monster Hunter's tutorials, and it needs to make that count.