Monster Hunter Wilds is just a couple of months away. The action-RPG looks great so far and is poised to be the biggest game yet in the long-running series. It also probably looks completely overwhelming and hard to parse for newcomers to the franchise. Fortunately, actor Daisy Ridley is here to explain it to you in just 10 minutes.
Monster Hunter, a game about killing things and using them to make cool armor and weapons to kill even bigger things, came out back in 2004 on the PlayStation 2. On the series’ 20th anniversary, there are now dozens of sequels, upgrades, ports, and spin-offs that have introduced new creatures, iterated on the core boss fighting design, and expanded the lore in fascinating ways. To help explain what the franchise’s universe is all about, Capcom turned to none other than Star Wars’ Rey:
“Since ages long forgotten, one word has defined our very existence: balance,” Ridley says at the beginning of the brief history of Monster Hunter. “From the humble Felon to the ferocious Tigrex, every living being across this vast land plays its part in the great cycle, including us.” She explains why players spend all their time killing stuff in the game, as well as the hierarchy of beasts, from weak packs of Jaggi to all-powerful Elder Dragons.
Monster Hunter has always walked an uncomfortable line between the necessities of repetitive arcade action loops and the narrative repercussions of the ensuing carnage. “There is no thirst for violence, just an appreciation of life,” Ridley explains. More so than any previous entry in the series, Monster Hunter Wilds seems intent on trying to convey the need for harmony, exploration, and curiosity as motivating virtues in its nevertheless brutal boss-slaying world.
The series’ first mainline entry built from the ground-up for the current generation of consoles, Monster Hunter Wilds comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 28 along with a slew of other big games in what’s already a super-packed month.
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