This interview has been edited for clarity.
There’s comfort in routine, but few can pull it off as well as the Monster Hunter franchise. Where the rinse-and-repeat cycle is susceptible to monotony, the beloved Capcom series has turned its core gameplay loop into a keen edge, treating players to the familiar experience of hunting monsters for parts, crafting and upgrading gear to hunt stronger, more difficult critters, and doing everything all over again.

It’s a deceptively simple formula that promises worthwhile rewards, a great rush of satisfaction for those who are drawn to the methodical pace, and a multiplayer element welcoming more company to join in on the fun. Suffice to say, the forthcoming Monster Hunter Wilds will continue in the same vein, freshening up a tried-and-tested formula that encourages and increases player freedom.
For starters, the sequel is set in the Forbidden Lands, an unpopulated landmass rife with aggressive beasts, where each biome features an open-world design. A new type of mount called the Seikret serves as the main form of travel, allowing for seamless movement between the larger world and the hunter village, while a more realistic and dynamic environment sees monsters interacting with each other, such as predators hunting prey or certain species exhibiting herd behaviours.
The natural integration of elements is a stab at creating a livelier Monster Hunter Wilds world, representing a shift – but not a total pivot – from the monster-heavy focus to a more harmonious balance. Speaking to select media at Gamescom Asia 2024 in Singapore, producer Ryozo Tsujimoto highlighted how the expanded landscape offers the opportunity to strengthen the sense of connection.

“One of the goals is to meld the monsters, people, and the ecosystem all together,” says the respected veteran. “The past games have mostly been focused on [the] hunter versus monsters, but this time, you can peek into that direction now that it involves a lot of civilisations, people, and the villagers, that sort of thing.”
It isn’t just about forging camaraderie between humans, however. As every seasoned hunter would know, the company of their trusty Palicoes forms a core part of the experience, offering both moral support and various offensive, defensive, and restorative support abilities out in the field. Building on this iron-clad bond, the forthcoming romp seeks to flesh out their respective personalities by giving them a voice for the first time in series history.

Indeed, both the player character and Palico will be fully voiced in Monster Hunter Wilds, to deliver an added layer of immersion, which was another goal of the team. Having similar hunter behaviour to its predecessors like reacting with small grunts, according to Tsujimoto, brought “some limitations to expressing the type of immersion [we] wanted for the player”, so it was necessary to make some formula tweaks without sacrificing too much familiarity.
“We still worked hard to find that balance, to make it so that it keeps the same tone as past games, but at the same time, gives a little bit more of the hunter’s personality, so that people can self-insert more into that immersive world,” he shares.
The addition of a speech component for the Palico has been a long time coming, with the 50-year-old revealing that the team had floated the idea for several past titles. Here, it runs on a reasonable and practical rationale – audio cues make it easier for players to understand advice given by NPCs, as their attention is no longer split between keeping track of on-screen action and reading text simultaneously.

Explaining the intention to “not break the seamless flow of gameplay and action,” Tsujimoto expresses, “It’s a lot easier to take in auditory cues than processing visual cues and having to break your line of sight with the action and then the text.” A non-speaking alternative is also available for traditionalists, where the Palico’s voice can be changed to the classic “meow” sound.
While player freedom is hardly new to the series, Monster Hunter Wilds promises a higher degree of it. This, alongside the upkeep of the gameplay action loop, is described to be “two of the most important experiences” the team wants to deliver, extending to the weapon system that sees new features. The highly-anticipated entry offers the same 14 types as before, ranging from the Insect Glaive and Gunlance to Switch Axe, but players can now carry two distinct weapons while hunting monsters – courtesy of the Seikret – and execute new move sets in tandem with existing ones.

“[The freedom of weapon choice] is definitely just to expand the range of motion and choice for the player, to make things as fun as possible for your typical Monster Hunter player while keeping it a little real at the same time,” adds Tsujimoto.
“Because you can’t bring all 14 weapons with you. It’s not realistic, right?”
The mention of realism isn’t surprising, considering its significance to the series. Even with the modifications over time, a large part of the formula remains committed to crafting a natural wilderness setting. This latest outing is no exception to the rule, driven by the major concept of herds and their movement within the ecosystem. More notably, it introduces a dynamic weather environment, where meteorological conditions and time of day affect monster behaviour, causing some to appear only when the weather favours them.

And just like in real life, no two experiences will be the same. Instead of staying in a single location on the map, monsters are free to roam around, sparking random encounters from one player to another. The changing landscapes can be used to their advantage, but there’s a catch – the effects of their actions cannot be undone, even after quitting the game or returning to the settlement. Out in the field, hunters also have the option to lure alpha predators to other beasts, setting the stage for an epic showdown to take place.
The highlight, of course, still lies in the smorgasbord of monsters that Monster Hunter Wilds has to offer. As with every new instalment, there will be new and more powerful critters to slay, but longtime enthusiasts can expect several familiar faces (and claws), including the Kut-Ku, which is set to make its first appearance in a mainline game in over five years. It isn’t always easy to decide which critters to bring back, though, especially with a rich diversity cultivated from a long history, but Tsujimoto’s game plan reveals a firm philosophy – how well the design lends to a new world.

“It all comes down to whether the monsters themselves fit into the core concept of the game and the environments that we want to express,” he stresses.
“We won’t just bring back a monster just for the sake of it; it has to fit within the actual world.”
Monster Hunter Wilds comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on 28 February 2025.