Why Wilds is the worst mainline game so far

[BiGwalt1993]

This post does not relate to the optimisation problems - although they probably won't be fixed anytime soon they are technically fixable, whereas the actual issues with this game are not in my opinion.

Me and my brothers have been playing MH since PS2, every game/every console, so it's hard for me to accept this, given the amount of hype we had building up to release.

Every single aspect of what makes Monster Hunter unique is to some degree diminished from this game.

The hunts are now significantly easier, to the point that any half decent vet could quite easily go the full length of low rank wearing starter armour and without carting - this change alone should be enough for a pause of concern, given that on titles before World, this would be incredibly challenging.

The lax difficulty means that grinding for better equipment or even consumable items is no longer a "necessity", it has become more of a "choice" for fun or fashion reasons.

The core game-play loop has thus changed to the point where you have no longer have a "reason" to hunt anything multiple times- it's like playing Skyrim on easy and you can't level up; Your just plodding along, button mashing.

And honestly, I could have accepted this and been happy if that's all it was - I can make the game artificially harder by wearing low defence armour and I can find a reason to play by helping new players and my friends.

The material drop rates for rare items are now guaranteed and the items needed to upgrade your equipment have been reduced, which makes the above difficulty situation even harder to deal with, as the only "reason" left for me to keep playing is by helping friends and new players - which now complete their builds in far shorter time and hunts, thus diminishing the "need" to grind from the core game-play loop once again.

I won't name everything else but things like the farm, the felyne cooks, the BBQ theme song, gathering hub, the funny weapons/armour/quests, the quest structure and the overall Japanese style/theme are completely gone.

These may seem trivial to some, but when you actually think about what monster hunter is; once you take away the little things, it's just a game where you simply hunt monsters and make weapons and armour from their materials. Furthermore, once you make the "necessity" of this loop redundant and instead turn it more into a "unrewarding choice",
the "reason" has gone and your left with a "Cinematic Button Masher" instead of a "Strategic Rouge-like, Action RPG".

The westernisation of the game didn't need to strip down all these things this far- the game would have done incredibly well on the back of World, which is ultimately the start of the downfall in my opinion.

That's not to say I don't enjoy playing Wilds - I absolutely love playing it, but in my opinion, it's the worst MH mainline game, period.

I just hope the portable team never stray this far from the original idea of Monster Hunter and keep delivering honest titles.

Rant Over.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Автор сообщения: Patren

Unfortunately, they have oversimplified too many systems in this title. Simplification and increased accessibility are fine, but they should always be carefully balanced. Monster Hunter has never been a franchise that hands out mountains of materials and consumables to the player. Monster Hunter World leaned in that direction, but farming was still a core element, and, most importantly, the challenge encouraged hunters to improve their gear and builds.

In Wilds, however, not only is it far too easy to gather materials, but defeating every monster is also too simple. This is the first Monster Hunter game where I felt pity for the monsters I hunted rather than a healthy sense of respect. The creatures in this game feel more like prey than predators, and even the most difficult hunts, when tackled with low-rarity gear, rarely last more than 10-12 minutes. This makes the already overly simplified farming even faster—and ultimately unnecessary—since any monster can be taken down with ease without optimizing your equipment.

There was a time when hunting certain monsters required careful preliminary study of their weaknesses and proper gear selection. Wilds has now made this entirely optional, and that is a MAJOR mistake. Equally problematic is the fact that, as hunters, we are no longer required to understand a monster’s behavioral tendencies—something that, in past titles, helped us predict their next moves and position ourselves accordingly for a counterattack.

In previous Monster Hunter games, being a hunter meant absorbing a vast amount of knowledge through hours of gameplay. That was what made successful hunts so satisfying—the materials earned and the "Mission Complete" screen were the culmination of skill, preparation, and effort across multiple aspects of the game. Unfortunately, in Wilds, everything has been reduced to mere button-mashing, and unlike in the past, this approach is actually rewarded.

This is the first Monster Hunter game in my life that, after just 60 hours, has nothing left to offer me. And it's not because of a lack of monsters, but because excessive simplification has stripped this franchise down to its bare bones—just like a superpredator picking a carcass clean.

we should have special quests that would be considered "hardcore" as in we dont have all those simplifications. Like hunts without the monsters location being shown, no sekreit, maybe the monster doesnt even show if you dotn collect enough clues, hunts that have no fireflies and so on, and obviously all combined.

I would dig that so much and honestly wouldnt be super hard to code, but I doubt execs would ever approve such endeavor even considering the minimal resources it would take.

[Guts]

It has 500% less playthrough value than any other title unfortunately. There's just nothing to do end game at all.

[BiGwalt1993]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Steam discussions have really become a fu**ed up place lately.

A lot of you have called me a loser and an idiot for expressing my factually based opinion (even though I stated I still enjoy the game)

It's great the game is popular now but when most of the new playerbase are casual gamers who want to feel overpowered, under-stressed and get dopamine hits every 5 minutes, the game was always going to destroy itself.

Hey at least MHGU is still goes hard in 2025 - me and my bro's just started back on that and honestly, just playing that for 30 minutes makes you realise how much has vanished with Wilds.

Over it all now - waiting for MHWU with bated breath.

[Altaschweda]

I completely understand what you mean. I've been a MH player since Freedom 2. Now after the campaign aka the tutorial I'm finally having a bit of fun again but something is still missing. I actually had the most fun when I started the first HR mission a bit unprepared and had to collect and craft everything during the mission.

Now I'm looking for mods to deactivate the mini map, a few HUD elements and a mod so that the scout flies only react to the paint ball. So that you have to hunt and pursue the monsters a bit like in the old titles.

[The Dapper Dragon]

This isn't Monster Hunter.
This is monster fighter.

[AuraFlash]

Автор сообщения: GamingWithSilvertail

Автор сообщения: Kiririn

Feels very much like that. The entire game being just a single component of World/Iceborne.

How many times do I have to tell you that this game has more end game then world did when world launched?.....

Cause you're blantantly lying through your teeth here.

Answer me this, how many quests do you have in MHwilds then answer how many quests you get in MHWorld? and no investigations don't count (as they're player generated) however Arena quests DO.

[Siracco]

Автор сообщения: AuraFlash

Автор сообщения: GamingWithSilvertail

How many times do I have to tell you that this game has more end game then world did when world launched?.....

Cause you're blantantly lying through your teeth here.

Answer me this, how many quests do you have in MHwilds then answer how many quests you get in MHWorld? and no investigations don't count (as they're player generated) however Arena quests DO.

Also was Xenojiva base world, because if it was wilds doesn't even have that

[Travis Touchdown]

Don't disagree that much with your post as another MH1 boomer, but I really don't know what you mean by Japanese style/theme being a prevalent MonHun thing. Only a few games like P3rd and Rise were noticeably Japanese in style and theme.

[BiGwalt1993]

Автор сообщения: Travis Touchdown

Don't disagree that much with your post as another MH1 boomer, but I really don't know what you mean by Japanese style/theme being a prevalent MonHun thing. Only a few games like P3rd and Rise were noticeably Japanese in style and theme.

Japan was their biggest audience in the early days and some games never released in the West so of course they felt Japanese...

How...well t's hard to explain in writing but it's things like the village theme, the sounds/grunts people made in convo, the NPC's, the musical score and the general anime vibe....it's more of a feeling than an observation in truth.

[2D神]

Again with the Japanese vs Westernization. Just used the term casual. You act like all Japanese are Hardcore gamer or something. If theme is what you are talking about then MH was never Asian based theme until MH3P. If the quirks is what you are talking about then sure, maybe it lost some.

[Katitoff]

Автор сообщения: Killance

Your profile pic is fitting.

He he right tho, I havent lost a single quest yet, not even got downed once in Wilds.

In World, 5th monster was farming players(Anjanath) to the point forum was full of normies crying for nerfs and even experienced players needed at least 2 attempts to get it.

Wilds is laughably easy, Low Rank is gaming journalist difficulty now.
High Rank used to be a spike in difficulty, it is not.