Ahead of its February 28 release, Capcom is already giving fans a tease of Monster Hunter Wilds’ first big title update coming in early April. The free post-launch patch will include even more powerful monsters for players to hunt, a relief following pre-release worries that the game might be the easiest Monster Hunter yet.
“Prepare your gear, and resolve, hunters! TU1 will bring with it a monster of formidable strength at a level above Tempered!” Capcom revealed on Thursday.
“Another challenging monster will also await you!” The leviathan Mizutsune was previously teased as one of the first post-launch beats coming to the game. The publisher also confirmed a social hub for players to meet, communicate, and eat with one another will be added in April and available to players who have completed the game’s main story.
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That’s welcome news considering that there’s currently no place to hang out with other hunters and show off cool armor and gear. The news of stronger bosses on the way is also great, considering Monster Hunter Wilds’ main story can be a cake walk and even some of the post-game content doesn’t feel too difficult if you’re correctly prepared or rolling with a full squad of other players (or AI-controlled NPCs).
A number of early reviews of the game dinged it for how streamlined it feels compared to past entries in the action-RPG series, with some critics and longtime fans especially concerned about the lack of really challenging content even in high-rank missions. That said, as I wrote in my review earlier this week, I’ve still been having a blast with Monster Hunter Wilds and there’s clearly plenty of room for more challenging content to arrive in the future. Plus series veterans have been through the same difficulty debate plenty of times before.
I’m still cleaning up the last of the side quests in the base game and have found myself occasionally getting demolished by a particularly challenging foe like a Tempered Jin Dahaad (it was also late at night and I was starting to fall asleep, which might have been a part of it). And even when Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t making me sweat, every moment has still been a joy.
It’s a pretty frictionless experience so far, yes, but also still an incredibly robust, refined, and meaty version of the Monster Hunter experience. It’s easy to see it only getting better with time. A month after launch for the first new bosses might be a long wait for some, but it gives the average player plenty of time to get through everything Monster Hunter Wilds currently has to show them, which is a lot.
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