Monster Hunter Wilds (aka MH6) - speculations, launches early 2025

[Perkel]

Well it was heavily rumored due to Capcom leak years ago but it seems like things will get official soon. The 6th generation of long running best selling critically acclaimed and rpgcodex approved game will soon be released.

Gathered all news and rumors from all sort of places:

RELEASE DETAILS AND PLATFORMS (pretty solid rumors):
- Trailer and announcement will happen at Games Awards on December 7 2023 with PR campaign starting heavily in middle of december.
- Simultaneous worldwide release for both PC and consoles (unlike before), mostly due to World (5th gen) selling the most on PC.
- Capcom in latest investors call said that they will release MAJOR unannounced game in march 2024.
- Capcom leak from 2020 leaked both MH Rise and MH 6th gen before they were officially announced and so far every single unannounced game.
- MH6 will be launched on PC/PS4/PS5/Xboxes/Switch and Iphones.
- There will be two versions with same mechanics but different graphics.
- PC/PS5/SeriesX will get high end version.
- PS4/Switch and Iphones will get lower end version. Switch sets the bar for PS4/Iphone.
- It will run on REX engine which is heavily modified RE engine to make next gen looking games.
- there are rumors that there won't be G-rank/master version anymore it will be now tied to overarching story with live service.
- game is designed as complete live service game and game will be updated much more than it used to in World or Rise
- heavy microtransaction store shenanigans. Almost nothing gameplay wise but ton of cosmetics, wings and other garbage like decorations to player room etc.
- Capcom heavily invested into game. Huge headcount, huge sales predictions at 50mil over lifetime.
- Unlike all other MH games this is 4 year project as there will be no "portable version" like MH Rise was.

GAMEPLAY AND CONTENT(less solid rumors):
- 6th gen when it comes to combat mechanics will be more of a progression rather than big shakeup like World was
- Heavy rumors that it will have actual open world not just open zones.
- Content wise it will be the biggest MH game for new generation. Largest base MH was MH4 with 50 monsters. World had half of that.
- 16th weapon introduction (but much like in Tri it won't have full tree)
- All of weapons will get moveset refreshes. 2 weapons apparently will get major rework
- Dogs will not make comeback to mainline from Rise.
- NPCs that can join you offline on hunt will be featured again in major way. Devs apparently loved that
- Main story is focused on party of newbie hunters (including you) that will hunt with you on main quests and you will be able to take them on sidequests.
- end game will have some sort of overarching story as live service game that will progress with new monsters introduced in updates that will culminate in some event that will introduce master/grank mode upon which base end game will be removed and end game will be only in master/grank mode.
- Underwater combat makes comback but it won't be focus of whole game. Effectively a supporting role for monsters than used to have it like Laga, Ludorch or Plesioth. It will be a feature only on one part of map.
- "Portable" features like better cat management etc. will be in base version but not crazy movesets and speed known from Rise/Generations
- There will be some sort of assist mode/easy mode for phones (due to problems with input)

 

[Perkel]

honestly my biggest fear is how live service will end up.

On one hand clearly the DLC/Expansion model doesn't really work for World/Rise. You end up with jaring split between base game and g-rank version. Older games had a lot better flow as you ended campaign and there was no "endgame" until g-rank version was released and you played whole game all over again and some of g-rank features or monsters were integrated into base game.

Live service on other hand means content will be chopped up between months but once big updates will come they can make it flow much better adjusting progression etc.

Due to 4 year live service and huge multiplatform focus this might end up as absolutely humongous MH title beating Generations by big chunk.

Another thing with live service is that those kind of games hate modding so i expect modding to go away completely with mh6 which is huge shame considering ton of mods on nexus for it.

 

[Crayll]

Not sure how the live service component will turn out. World/Iceborne had some good post release content, but Rise basically releasing unfinished was gay even if it was the better game.

Any non-cosmetic microtransactions would be instant of course

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Really hoping for a true open world, and generally less downtime/busywork between quests.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Wonder if they will managed to deliver on that prototype footage with the truly dark caves, being chased by monsters that can climb and smash through trees and rocks and follow your scent.

@6:27

 

[Perkel]

Wonder if they will managed to deliver on that prototype footage with the truly dark caves, being chased by monsters that can climb and smash through trees and rocks and follow your scent.

@6:27

?

In enraged monsters already do that in mh world. They don't do that in Rise because that game cut out most of monster-environment interaction.

 

[Sentinel]

Focus on cosmetic store lol. Not surprising but disappointing nonetheless. One of my big motivations for playing MH has always been crafting good looking equipment. If they relegate the best looking shit to the store I'm out.

Fuck capcom and fuck japs.

 

[Elttharion]

Pretty much everything in the list is decline. Rise already had a terrible DLC policy, cant wait to see battle passes and premium currencies on monster hunter.

 

[Damned Registrations]

While World was fantastic imo, the way they handled it when Iceborne came out, giving everyone free armour and weapons that made the entirety of World utterly pointless to participate in (presumably so they could consolidate the player base in the expansion) was disgusting. I tried getting a couple bros to play it with me and they were just like 'So what's the point of killing this stuff if my starter weapon is better?'

I ended up getting Iceborne on a deep sale and it seems a little thin on content compared to the base game, given it's price. Haven't bothered with Rise.

It's funny, I stated for years how awesome it would be to have the game on PC with proper online functionality and stuff. By the time it got there, PC games had been infested with micro transaction, daily login marketing bullshit and expansions had become a total scam.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

On one hand clearly the DLC/Expansion model doesn't really work for World/Rise.

Says who, my nigga?!

- end game will have some sort of overarching story as live service game that will progress with new monsters introduced in updates that will culminate in some event that will introduce master/grank mode upon which base end game will be removed and end game will be only in master/grank mode.

I'm ending it all if they go the way of Destiny 2.

 

[Perkel]

On one hand clearly the DLC/Expansion model doesn't really work for World/Rise.

Says who, my nigga?!

I am talking about how base flows into expansion. You have effectively two end games at the same time, not how good/bad expansion is. Moreover iceborne was not integrated at all into base.

 

[Perkel]

Apparently MH6 will be called Monster Hunter Wild and like in thread start it will be announced at game awards in about 4 hours.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Damned Registrations]

'Gameplay" my ass.

 

[Crayll]

Not much to go off from the trailer, but I'm not a big fan of what I'm seeing so far. Until "Capcom Presents" showed up you could've convinced me this was one of those shitty knock-off MHs. Nothing really screams Monster Hunter.
Watching again it does get better at the end when you get some actual color in the environment instead of a sea of grey and brown, but I'm going to need more info before I let myself get optimistic.

Hopefully if it does turn out to be shit we still get more good traditional MH from the portable team

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I’m kind of surprised they’re showing this off before Dragon’s Dogma 2 comes out in a few months, (especially since it comes out in just a few months) given this game will probably bury DD2 since on the surface they look pretty similar. They don’t play alike... but if you’ve never played Dragon’s Dogma, and you know Monster Hunter: World (and given the sales it’s way more likely someone’s play World) you probably think DD2 is some Monster Hunter game in medieval fantasy setting.

That footage also makes it seem even weirder there aren’t horses in DD2.

 

[HoboForEternity]

They add horses to dogma 2, then they'd be justifying it ny making an even larger map, which is decline.

 

[Perkel]

You dofus didn't notice that "the desert" from early in trailer was entirely dynamic. That and proper mounts pretty much confirms big open world instead of open zones from MHW or MHR.

Also same release on all platforms.

The weirdest part here is 2025. It will be first MH in 20 years that will not release ever 2 years. I am guessing covid did its own thing and they are going crazy with it. With open world you need more animations supporting various monsters in various environments.

 

[HoboForEternity]

You dofus didn't notice that "the desert" from early in trailer was entirely dynamic. That and proper mounts pretty much confirms big open world instead of open zones from MHW or MHR.

Also same release on all platforms.

The weirdest part here is 2025. It will be first MH in 20 years that will not release ever 2 years. I am guessing covid did its own thing and they are going crazy with it. With open world you need more animations supporting various monsters in various environments.

Also capcom do major release a year. So each year they'd have an ace in the finance. 2024 was dragon's dogma 2 which they surprisingly pushed very hard for a cult hit of 2011.

Monster hunter has always been the exception, since MH is so big they just allow the team to do whatever, but both reasons can be true.

 

[Perkel]

I know this is a lot of hype in me speaking but i feel they are cooking something great.
The team they have has insane ability to create shitload of content in very small amount of time.
Usually they release base game and then next year they effectively double content of base game with G-rank.
With this extra year they might go for g-rank from get go and provide 3-4 years of support later mentioned in rumors.

MH team is yet to missfire even once and with each new generation they improved massively core formula they are tirelessly improving since 2004.

 

[Perkel]

Some stuff from MH6 trailer:

- dude has a slinger. Game will be probably set still in new world (from 5th) but in different part of it.
- dynamic environment changes, dust --> duststorm with thunders removes dust and savan underneath shows.
- natively supported mounts. Both Word and Rise had them as option.
- massive herds of animals for mh game
- some automatic traversal on stalagmites ala World.
- more than 3 monsters at the same time (mhworld limit, (1 and 2 for previous gens)). In onc scene group of mh like large monsters was running after hunter and herds.
- azuros like monster
- rathalos
- 3 different mounts in trailer Maccao from Monster Hunter XX and two new small monsters
- everything points out to be true open world game

 

[Perkel]

Looking closer at graphics it seems that their choice to present dust --> savanna and weather caused a lot of people to think this is some kind of rise like game.

Asset wise it is mhworld level if you look at geometry, shadows and special FX. Game was hurt by incredibly poor and flat lighting model without any sub surface scattering. Which might be explained by that game is nearly 1+ from release. Game should improve graphically till release.

 

[Perkel]

4k shot without shitty stream compression. Yeah it looks better than world.

 

[Perkel]

i also like that this game tries to achieve what always all mh intros wanted present game to be:

 

[Perkel]

seems like your ride will also work as mini-camp and true camp will be dynamic.

- additional set of weapon
- bedroll

So probably something like ride on it to get to area where monster X could be and then set up a proper camp, do camp stuff and take one weapon as main and one as swap