Monster Hunter Wilds is the easiest Monster Hunter ever and that's perfectly fine

I've been playing Monster Hunter since the PSP era. I've played every single version of the game since, even going back to play the PS2 version. I am INTIMATELY familiar with it. Hell, my favorite Animal Crossing character is Felyne.

And having experience playing the past games I will agree with a lot of the internet when I say that Monster Hunter Wilds is a bit easier than most. And I will DISAGREE with a lot of the internet when I say that that's fantastic.

It's a hard pill for a lot of Monster Hunter OGs to swallow but it's a good thing for the series. I loved the PSP games a LOT but I almost never got people to play with me. I even bought my friends copies of the game so we could play together and the longest one of them went was three weeks.

No NPC backup, no online hub, no mounts. Instead there were things like a much more rapidly decreasing stamina and a hunger meter that you had to sate lest your meter grows too low, you double over in pain and your stomach growls which gets the attention of monsters.

It was, admittedly, a LOT to keep track of and sometimes, when I big ass Anjanath is charging you, the last thing you want to look at is your weird zoo of status bars. And before you say "it's supposed to be a realistic sim" I'd like to posit this theory. Rathalos would fucking kill you.

But with Wilds? Wilds is just fun and, guys, sometimes fun is good. I know that ever since Dark Souls happened, y'all wanna flex nuts.

In Dungeons and Dragons there is a term that I absolutely love and it's called "The Rule of Cool". It's where the DM will sometimes let shit fly that doesn't necessarily make sense because the roll was good and it would make the game more interesting.

And Monster Hunter Wilds feels like all sorts of cool is happening. I'm hoping about in the air, causing structures to collapse, knocking massive beasts over, and all sorts of craziness and, quite frankly, as I've been a veteran of these games for a while now, having that kind of experience in an easier game makes me feel like a goddamned superhero.

For example, when I was fighting the massive Zoh Shia, I got on my not-Chocobo, dodged a series of lightning bolts and explosions, jumped on the creatures back, held on without my stamina draining long enough to get the final blow and...well...here's the video.

This is the sort of thing newer Monster Hunter games offer. I just dodged a ton of stuff and then took out a massive beast with a cinematic hammer blow. I actually feel like my character was powerful as opposed to the old games where I'd fight a monster for 20+ minutes and end the battle with the sole thought "ugh, I need to remember to refill my inventory".

And the "ease" of fighting the new monsters is still hard enough to be fun, but also easy enough for people who aren't that great at the game to enjoy it. And because of that, I have no idea what's going to happen whenever I auto fire an SOS flare. I could have some player with a 100+ Hunter Level roll in in silly armor and help me lay waist to a critter, or I could have some low level kid rolling in asking me questions and messing up, leaving me more focused on making sure they're healed while I'm teaching them the ropes.

It makes fighting the same monster over and over again far more varied and interesting. And listen, Capcom already stated tougher monsters are on the way so we'll get them and I think it works better like this. The people who enjoy Monster Hunter will get through the game and stick with it getting ready for the next wave of new monsters. The people who aren't that dedicated still get to play through a VERY fun game.