Is Wilds taking streamlining a bit too far?

[Terron]

Just to be clear I think wilds looks insanely fun and its my second most anticipated release (behind silk song obv) but with all the streamlined aspects they listed (many which are great) two stood out to me as overstepping the mark. Wondering does anyone else feel the same.

1. Your HP bar starts pulsing wildly to let you know when a monster is gonna do a big attack so its basically a big visual effect to warn you but I think that makes learning the bosses moveset less necessary as you can spam roll whenever you see that warning and frankly I think it might take some of the tension away. Essentially it makes the game easier more so than simply a quality of life change. Not a fan of it.

2. There is a type of auto heal mechanic where you press the button and it will automatically choose the correct heal for the job depending on current hp instead of you needing to cycle through items. So say you have a small bit of hp missing then press the auto heal it will use a potion but if you just got smacked by a big heavy attack and press the auto button it will use a mega potion or max potion thus removing the need to cycle through items. Dodging attacks and creating distance while using the radial menu or whatever to choose your item is an important part of combat imo and adds to the tension. I am aware you don't have to use the auto item but if its the most efficient way then we will use it. Not a big fan of this one either but who knows, maybe wilds is so intense we will be singing the praises of this one if the pace in the end game gets crazy or something.

3. This ones a question more than a criticism.
You can have a team of 3 npc characters alongside you now even offline if you wish and I dont know if the game scales the monsters up with this? I know it scales with real human players but does it scale up if I have 3 npc characters alongside me? I kinda hope it does because otherwise Im gimping myself by not having 3 AI companions at all times.

Hope I am not coming across too negative because I am genuinely psyched to play the game. Just wana start a discussion on some of whats been shown so far :)

Thoughts?

[GetUrAssToMars]

Originally posted by Terron:

3. This ones a question more than a criticism.
You can have a team of 3 npc characters alongside you now even offline if you wish and I dont know if the game scales the monsters up with this? I know it scales with real human players but does it scale up if I have 3 npc characters alongside me? I kinda hope it does.

This one im wondering as well. I hope it is scaled accordingly. I like the idea of having AI mates as long as its not easy mode.


The onscreen indicator for big attacks is a feature from RISE afaik, and you could disable it in the options.

[Kalavier]

Rise they would shout out warnings for big attacks, but you could disable it.
Also rise had npc hunters. Usually, IIRC it didn't scale up health too much but at the same time the NPC hunters wouldn't output the same damage a player would, so it didn't make things a cakewalk.

[GladiatorB200]

never need a pacifying statement at the start of a critique
the game is casualizing more and more and the end result isn't "more people playing" but losing its identity for mass market money for people that won't stick around cause why bother when it coddled them

series survived as long as it did by knowing its audience could handle the difficulty now is afraid of ever loosening the training wheels, same to broad design anyone can wear anything meaning characters have no value anymore

[JPM岩]

Originally posted by GladiatorB200:

never need a pacifying statement at the start of a critique
the game is casualizing more and more and the end result isn't "more people playing" but losing its identity for mass market money for people that won't stick around cause why bother when it coddled them

series survived as long as it did by knowing its audience could handle the difficulty now is afraid of ever loosening the training wheels, same to broad design anyone can wear anything meaning characters have no value anymore

The difficulty of old MH games was how clunky it played. Going back and playing older titles after putting a thousand hours into newer ones really solidifed this belief in me.

[May0]

The series has been getting more and more casualized since MHX. Based on what I've seen of wilds, it's all flashy, fast paced BS now. The series no longer has the unique combat that drew in the older fans to begin with, which is kind of sad. Wilds will still probably be fun for me, but the *kind* of fun it offers is no longer unique.

[Songbird]

I don't know enough about 1 to comment. In practice, big scary moves have generally had big scary tells, though. Gogmazios laser/explosion spam is "just farcaster" level of terrifying even if you know it's coming. Nerg divebomb has a huge tell and the whole community quickly learned to superman it. So I doubt it's really functionally a big deal. Some other big attacks I can think of MH4 Rajang Blanca Ball, which is about moving in specific ways to set up a punish and not get hit more than knowing it's coming (as it's designed to punish panic dives), and MH4 Teostra supernova, which fits under "if you are near this monster and unsheathed when it starts this attack, you are straight-up dead" (and thus the warning wouldn't matter unless it's precognitive -- and I might not even mind that if it means I don't literally have to have a 100 second timer app running every time I fight this monster).

2 is super minor. Using potions other than lifepowders/dust of life, mega and max potions is an early-game thing only. Once you have a few hundred honey banked, you just bring combine ingredients and manuals and make more of these mid-hunt if you're worried about having more healing than that. Advanced players are going to want to manually manage their healing anyway, because the automatic system is not going to be considering that max potions and lifepowders heal instantly while mega potions heal over time. If the game has supply items in any form, the system may not properly consider whether the player wants to use these first.

3 could be casualization, but again, let me point to MH4, where solo or two-player hunts let you bring two Palicos with Team Attack Boost that would, every five minutes or so, use Flying F-Bomb+ (yes it was literally abbreviated as F-bomb) which was basically a super flash bomb combined with a hard knockdown (think KO) that lasted something like twenty freaking seconds. (There were two other duo moves they could have instead, but they sucked in comparison.) However, advanced players would often turn Palicos off so they could learn to manipulate monsters for GS/CB punishes thanks to always being targeted. Let me also point to Rise's monster taming/fighting mechanics, and World's wallslam spam, and Star Knight IG mounting spam in MH4, and sticky ammo in the recent games. There are lots and lots of really broken crutches players can fall back on throughout the series.

Remember that the whole point of the game is to be enjoyable for a wide audience, and generally speaking, the base installment of MH games caps out as pretty easy compared to the G-rank/master rank version. If "low rank" is anything but a cakewalk, I'll be impressed. The most challenging and rewarding parts of the games has always been at the endgame and learning to solo and speedrun very difficult endgame fights, and honestly, the stuff that gets in the way of me enjoying that isn't having a bunch of NPC helpers that fall off in effectiveness at endgame, it's having mechanics like clutch claw and MH4 mounting that keep taking me out of the fight.

[NibbsNibbs]

soon it will have auto battle like mobile games all because the tourist that keep pushing their dei esg agenda are a bunch of noobs

[Remi]

As long as all the options such as flashing HP bars etc. are optional and can be turned off in the settings, I'm fine. Accessibility already exists to the point where players who don't want to engage with the game mechanics can do so (SoS, Sticky ammo, Berserk).

What irks me is how massively impactful Focus mode seems to be. Bow looks to be just like playing AC6 and having homing missiles that track and explode weakspots without having to aim anything, but that might just be how the GC demo conveys it. Who knows whether in the full game, spamming Focus wound attacks is going to be optimal to the point of it being more intrusive than tenderizing (albeit less so than claw staggers).

Too early for precise judgement I think. Until I've played a PC demo whenever that may become available, I won't doompost how Wilds is casualizing the game even more. Because I can guarantee you that if you are looking for a challenge, Wilds will most definitely have some form of it if; players might just be given more options to bypass the learning curve if they wanted to. Which doesn't affect me (until they cart in SoS flares because they skipped basic mechanics, so the same as World).

[Dr.Broot]

Totally agree on the animated pulsating health bar, it also looks horrible and out of place.

The NPCs though should be optional though and in Rise tbh they were quite smart. The same thing can be said about the Palico's in other games, it does make the game easier or harder even but again was always optional.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Dr.Broot:

Totally agree on the animated pulsating health bar, it also looks horrible and out of place.

The NPCs though should be optional though and in Rise tbh they were quite smart. The same thing can be said about the Palico's in other games, it does make the game easier or harder even but again was always optional.

Devs confirmed you can have a combination of palicos or NPCs. You can disable them separately or altogether if you want.

Provided all the things OP mentioned can be disabled, I don't see an issue.

I don't want the game deciding what potion I should use, sometimes when at like 2 HP I just use normal potions, for example the monster nova'd, I got hit, then it flew off. Why waste a max potion for that.

[Tenz]

World was the most streamlined monster hunter game so far. I doubt they will top it.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Tenz:

World was the most streamlined monster hunter game so far. I doubt they will top it.

Was Rise lmao

No drinks, one hit mines all ore/bones, terrible food/django system, can see all monsters on the map like you have GPS, the list goes on and on.

[Soji]

This series was always going to go in this direction after World. You might not have seen it as much with Rise since that game was in development around the same time or at least shortly after World, but now this being the first one Capcoms A team has made since MHW, of course they want the audience to get larger and larger so sales go up. This is something that will always happen and unfortunately that means sometimes mechanics or quirks some people call 'antiquated' or 'clunky' or w/e other word they like get axed in the name of streamlining/simplifying. Even if those things didn't need to be changed in the first place.

Capcom is no stranger to this in their other IPs btw, Street Fighter instantly comes to mind.

I don't think you're negative OP, I love monster hunter a lot too, I have since Tri on the Wii and I feel the same way. It just means you want people to enjoy MH the way you came to enjoy it instead of it becoming something it isn't. That being said, not a huge fan of how this game is shaping up either so I don't really engage with it much. Only recently watched all the weapon showcases to see if i felt different now and didn't. And honestly that's ok, i still got old Monster Hunter to play whenever I catch the hunting bug.

[Tenz]

Originally posted by Fraktal:

can see all monsters on the map like you have GPS, the list goes on and on

World did this first btw. Easy to tell world was your first monster hunter.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

No drinks

World put the hot and cold drinks right by the areas you need them, you just pick them up no need to bring them with you.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

one hit mines all ore/bones

World, you can always mine the ores, pickaxes removed and can never break.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

terrible food/django system

Every monster hunter has a new food system. Sorry it filtered you lol.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Tenz:

Originally posted by Fraktal:

can see all monsters on the map like you have GPS, the list goes on and on

World did this first btw. Easy to tell world was your first monster hunter.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

No drinks

World put the hot and cold drinks right by the areas you need them, you just pick them up no need to bring them with you.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

one hit mines all ore/bones

World, you can always mine the ores, pickaxes removed and can never break.

Originally posted by Fraktal:

terrible food/django system

Every monster hunter has a new food system. Sorry it filtered you lol.

You should look up the meaning of the word filtered.