Monster Hunter Wilds is an ambitious new entry in the long-running Monster Hunter franchise that tries something different, building on the blockbuster success of Monster Hunter World without resting on its laurels. While World proved to be a breakout hit for Capcom, the game’s development team wanted to create a more approachable and dynamic game next, with this edict inspiring the development journey of Wilds.
One of the major changes for this game is the arrival of dynamic environments, with weather patterns and other elements changing up player hunts, and forcing new tactics. Each environment in the game will have three different climate types – Fallow, Inclemency, and Plenty – with these seasonal variants making terrain dryer, more rugged, or richer. Depending on these conditions, the types of monsters, and the techniques players need to use to hunt them, will change.
“We placed the focus on the ever-changing climate of the natural world,” Ryozo Tsujimoto, Monster Hunter producer explained in a recent media session, via translation. “Like in the natural world we live in now, there’s a lot of different things we experience. We experience the richness of the nature, as well as the harshness of the nature. We want to try to incorporate these elements into the game.”
As Tsujimoto later told GamesHub, the team was excited to change up these systems, as it always looks to create new “gaming challenges” for players, to “keep Monster Hunter evolving.” With each new game, the team aims to shake up the formula, and it’s embraced this opportunity with Wilds.
Read: Monster Hunter Wilds preview – Beauty, brutality, and birbs
“We always wanted to bring in dynamic changes, and have the fields change every now then,” Tsujimoto said. “Before that wasn’t so possible, but now … we feel like we’re able to finally do a more seamless approach to it, which is why we’re able to bring in a different approach with the climate change.”
Real world research
To create a system that reflects the real world as realistically as possible, the Capcom team undertook extensive research that was challenged by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. As Tsujimoto explained, research for Monster Hunter games usually involves travelling overseas in pre-production, to get a better sense of the natural environment, and how best to represent it. Unfortunately, Monster Hunter Wilds began development during the pandemic, and so the team wasn’t able to travel.
“What we did as a team was that at that early stage, we thought through, ‘What are the different kinds of conditions?’ You make sure to look at, ‘Oh, in this environment, this would happen, or this might happen. When it’s a very rich season, this would happen, whereas if it’s harsher conditions, this would happen.’ That’s what we thoroughly looked at.”
In creating a realistic environment, the team also analysed the flora and fauna of real world terrains, analysing specific elements to ensure new and returning monsters felt like they belonged in each world. As eagle-eyed players will note, while the monsters of Monster Hunter are grand and fantastical, they’re also heavily inspired by real world animals, with elements of appendages and adaptations included in their designs.
The fantasy of the series must be grounded by reality, and so the development team’s research extended into the animal kingdom.
“We look at the real animal and base [our monsters] on real research on the animal,” Tsujimoto said. “Whenever we look at the animals, we don’t just look at, ‘Okay, this animal is like this.’ We look at ‘How does this animal live? And in what kind of environment? And how did it adapt to live in this environment? Why is it this body shape? How come it has specific feature, such as fur? How do they live overall?’ These are the sort of things we deep dive into, while designing these monsters.”
“So when we adapt these aspects into the Monster Hunter world, we always think about, ‘How is this monster going to live Monster Hunter world?’ … By thinking about these ideas thoroughly, it makes sure the monsters have a reality to them.”
Tsujimoto expressed great excitement about this process, and how it’s allowed for Monster Hunter Wilds to be more dynamic and layered than its predecessors, as buoyed by technology change and an overall loss of limitations.
After multiple years working on the franchise, it’s this that keeps him motivated and excited about the future, as well as seeing how players approach the new game. It won’t be long now before players are invited in, with Monster Hunter Wilds rapidly approaching in the new year.
As previously announced, Monster Hunter Wilds launches for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 on 28 February 2025.
