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Monster Hunter WIlds has cast off more than a few of its shackles to become the most streamlined experience the series has seen, for better or worse. It’s got its downsides, as Lincoln noted in his Monster Hunter Wilds review: “It can feel like a wonder, but it’s not a wonder without a cost. In providing as much monster hunting as possible, Wilds has given up some of Monster Hunter’s charms.”
That’s certainly true, but there is one thing I’m glad to see Capcom taking its shears to: Those gimmicky arena fights that were undeniably the worst part of Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Rise.
If there’s a series I feel stands to benefit from dropping the frilly game modes that take the core combat and twist it into a different side beat, it’s Monster Hunter. Yet World was full of those—partly via the Zorah Magrados story quest that had me scaling up the monster, shooting cores, firing off canons all in a highly-scripted manner, all the kind of stuff I didn’t want to be doing, but also via its gathering hub arena quests.
They were, to put it bluntly, massively unfun. Pre-determined equipment, rankings, no meal benefits. It takes everything about Monster Hunter and puts it on its head, and not in any way that was enjoyable or rewarding. After all, the gear grind is half the fun, and what use is that if you can’t actually then take advantage of your builds in a challenge?
Rise went ahead and cooked up something even more diabolical in the form of Rampage mode. Capcom’s butchered idea of a tower defense mode was slow, frustrating, and worst of all, mandatory at a few points in the story.
Hell, at least you could avoid World’s gathering hub arena stuff if you wanted to, and Zorah Magrados was long but relatively autopilot by the end of it. But Rampage needed me to run around, manage different artillery and actually pay some kind of attention. I’d happily take a big Rey Dau shock to the face before being tossed into another Rampage fight.
I do have to give props to Capcom for trying different things and getting a little wacky and wild with it, but they’re concepts that I feel don’t work and aren’t exactly something Monster Hunter fans were even asking for in the first place.
It’s why I’m so damn grateful that, over 100 hours into Wilds, it’s been almost entirely driven by hunting monsters my own way, without any gimmicky faff on top. I mean, there is still a small portion of it that exists in Wilds, but it’s so minor I keep forgetting it’s there.
Ruins of Wyveria is home to the Wounded Hollow, a giant arena split by a fence. It’s only necessary for a couple of quests, with the remaining optionals being so few in number I’ve yet to exhaust myself on it. I still wasn’t totally sold on its split arena premise—raise the fence for short periods of time before the whole thing goes on cooldown and you’re forced to deal with two angry monsters for a bit—but it wasn’t so frustrating that I was dreading every time I had to dive into one.
But hey, I can still take in all my own gear, and the hunts still clock in at roughly the same amount of time I spent fighting them out in the open world. I fear that Capcom will end up making more use out of the Wounded Hollow down the line. I couldn’t help but feel like the whole thing was a little too underutilised—not that I was complaining—and I do wonder if future updates will see more fights taking place down there.
For now, though, I can celebrate this small victory. Not all streamlining is good but sometimes, it’s exactly what I need. Please, Capcom, never make me do another Rampage fight for as long as I shall live.
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Kurt Indovina
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