In a recent closed-door demo, we played a portion of Monster Hunter Wilds and asked the developers about the changes made to weapons and other systems, the biggest of which was the separation of loadout skills between weapons and armor. Read on for more details.
While playing the demo, I realized that there were major changes to the skill system, where damage-boosting skills and weapon-specific skills such as Attack Boost and Focus can only be found on or applied to the weapon itself – quite an impressive change.
Watch fresh Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay above, including footage of Seikret and camp customization.
This is the fresh equipment skill system. In interviews, the development team referred to weapon skills simply as weapon skills. Using this unofficial terminology, let’s call equipment skills weapon skills and equipment skills armor skills. This means that equipment skills in Wilds are divided into these two categories. Weapon Skills typically include skills that affect actions and damage, while Armor Skills facilitate in other ways.
Armor skills include support skills such as Quick Food and Divine Blessing. This fresh system also affects slots, with the developers confirming that weapons can only utilize decorations with skills classified as Weapon Skills, while armor can only utilize decorations with skills classified as Armor Skills.
In Monster Hunter Wilds you can now take two weapons with you when hunting, which must have been another reason for this change. Since you can now swap out your secondary weapons mid-hunt, it’s great to be able to continue hunting while retaining the skills you need to enhance your damage to the appropriate level or become better at using your weapon.
There is one thing that still interests me. While I’ve been able to confirm that skills like Guard are indeed on weapons that can block, I’m still not sure which type of gear uses skills like Dodge and Ranged Dodge.
Weapon balance
The next step is to balance the weapon. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto confirmed that there will be significant changes to weapon balance in Wilds. He told me, “There will be major changes not only from what we saw in the open beta, but also in the form of changes that we always planned to add to the final product.”
Tokuda said: “In particular, we plan to put a lot of work into Lance, Switch Axe, Insect Glaive, and Sword and Shield, based on feedback from the open beta.”
He continued: “We have improved overall values related to weapon damage and overall balance, including balance regarding end-game content.” In addition to these numerical changes, the four weapons mentioned above have (and I quote) put “a lot of work into how they are used.”
While the development site is certainly listening to players’ voices, they have already taken a proactive stance regarding weapon balance changes and it appears that an announcement will be made at a later date. Seeing their attitude, I calmed down; the game is clearly in good hands. We’ll see how their intentions play out when the final version of the game is released in February 2025.
The team then told me about the direction and concept of the Switch Ax and the Insect Glaive.
Changes to the insect glaive and the return of the vault dance
The Insect Glaive is one of my main weapons and my first impression was that there were fewer air attacks available. I wondered if the concept was to reduce the relative number of air attacks and make it a primarily ground-based weapon. I brought this up with Tokuda and he started by telling me that Vaulting Dance is back! This is one of the actions that was so critical to opening up the possibilities of aerial combat with the Insect Glaive.
On why it wasn’t there before, Tokuda said: “We were concerned that introducing it this time would result in players only using existing moves rather than focusing on new parts of the game. That’s why we’ve decided to remove the Vault Dance for a while.”
As for the reason for bringing back the game, he replied: “Many players at gamescom and Tokyo Game Show told us that it’s not about how strong or weak it is, but that Vaulting Dance is part of Insect Glaive’s identity. We realized this. We weren’t on the same page as our players, so we immediately decided to bring back Vaulting Dance while balancing skills.”
As an Insect Glaive user, I was happy to hear about this balance decision. That said, I had some difficulty controlling the new charge attack during the open beta, and I hope these will make it easier to use as well.
Updated the Switch Ax to make it more attractive to players
I then asked what direction they wanted to go with Switch Axe. Tokuda told me that the concept of the Switch Ax hasn’t fully sunk in to players and that the development team is working on balancing it to show what makes it a good weapon. Specifically, he said: “The Full Release slash, which comes at the very end of the attack, doesn’t fully stand out in both feel and number, making it less attractive compared to similar attacks using other weapons. We will certainly take care of it.”
After hearing about the developers’ plans to rebalance the Switch Ax to make it a more attractive weapon, it became clear to me that it was being properly discussed. Their decision-making process to make changes to Switch Ax further confirms this, so I don’t think it should be a cause for concern anymore.
I’m sorry to say that I can’t go into as much detail about the Switch Ax as I can with the Insect Glaive as it’s not one of my main weapons, but there were other mediums present in this hands-on session and I’m sure some of them are players who are heavily into the Lance, Lance, Bow, Long Sword and more, so stay tuned online for more information on your favorite weapon!
Translated by Ko Ransom.
