Highlights

  • Monster Hunter Wilds should prioritize the return of Investigations, a more immersive way to track down monsters, which is missing in Rise.
  • Monster Hunter Wilds should draw inspiration from Monster Hunter World's meals and visits to the café for pre-hunt food preparation, as they were more consistently effective than Bunny Dango in Rise.
  • Monster Hunter Wilds should feature larger, densely-packed biomes with interconnecting zones, similar to Monster Hunter World, instead of being a fully open-world game.

The announcement of Monster Hunter Wilds has led to a renewed interest in Monster Hunter World, emphasizing just how beloved that game is as well as how it served as many fans' introduction to the series. Surprisingly, the more recent Monster Hunter Rise has received less of a second wind in the wake of Monster Hunter Wilds' announcement, despite it building on top of World's foundation to add-in several important quality of life features. While there's no denying that Rise is an excellent game and an even more accessible entry in the traditionally niche franchise, there are several features from Monster Hunter World that simply didn't make it into Rise.

Little is known about Monster Hunter Wilds at this point beyond what fans have been able to analyze in its debut trailer, but the safe assumption is that it will share more in common with Monster Hunter World rather than Rise since it's being developed for consoles and PC. Monster Hunter Rise's beginnings as a Switch exclusive before being ported to the other consoles and PC undoubtedly made making certain cuts necessary to fit the game on the hybrid console, and in terms of what Wilds should take from Monster Hunter World, there are a handful of must-have features that need to see a return in the next Monster Hunter game.

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Monster Hunter World Features Needing a Return in Monster Hunter Wilds

Investigations

Monster Hunter World's Investigations had players actually hunting their assigned prey by scouring the environment for signs of life. It wasn't actually possible to have the monster show up on the mini-map until the Investigations were finished, having scanned enough footprints, droppings, or other signs of the monster's presence. Once complete, players could track the monster by following its scent, which was a much more engaging and immersive way to track down the subject of a hunt rather than just have it show up on the mini-map by default. Monster Hunter Wilds absolutely needs to see the return of Investigations, as it's sorely missing in Rise.

Meals (Instead of Bunny Dango)

Even though the Bunny Dango from Monster Hunter Rise serve a similar purpose, the meals and visits to the café in Monster Hunter World should serve as the inspiration for pre-hunt food preparation in Monster Hunter Wilds. Not only did the food itself look appetizing, getting to watch the Felyne chefs work their magic in the hub area's kitchen was always entertaining. Even better, the bonuses that the meals provided seemed to trigger more consistently and be more effective than the boons from the Bunny Dango.

Larger, Densely-Packed Biomes

One thing that is an unknown about Monster Hunter Wilds at this point is whether it will be the first truly open-world Monster Hunter game. Monster Hunter World was what can be classified as semi-open world, with large biomes that featured multiple interconnecting zones. Monster Hunter Wilds should continue this model instead of being a fully open-world game, featuring similarly large biomes that are densely packed and bursting with detail. The way that World's zones folded back in on one another via shortcuts and unexpected linking features would be a welcome thing to see return in Wilds.

Daily Log-In Rewards

Even though Monster Hunter World isn't a live-service game in the truest sense of the definition, it did still feature plenty of incentives to keep players coming back day after day and playing solo or in co-op with friends, potentially racking up hundreds of hours in its excellent world. One of these incentives were the daily log-in rewards, and Wilds should bring these back in a big way after their absence from Rise. The in-game economy of the Monster Hunter series features hundreds of items, each with varying degrees of rarity, and providing some of the rarer items as rewards for continued patronage of the title is a great way to boost player count and engagement.