The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Master Gatherer in Monster Hunter: Unleash Your Inner Sim!

Highlights

The upcoming sequel to Monster Hunter World should strongly consider reintegrating the significance of gathering and crafting, allowing the player's choices outside of combat to have a greater impact.

Although Monster Hunter Rise focuses primarily on fast-paced, mobile combat, this does not imply that future games in the franchise, including the sequel to Monster Hunter World, cannot coexist and revive the immersive aspects of previous titles.

Monster Hunter has become one of Capcom's most unique franchises in nearly twenty years, with each game introducing its own innovations. Over the years, Monster Hunter has experimented with different gameplay styles and gimmicks. In 2018, Monster Hunter: World revitalized the series with a fresh and accessible approach, sparking anticipation for its upcoming sequel.

While Monster Hunter Rise is the latest release, Monster Hunter: World is often regarded as a significant moment for the franchise in the modern era. Rise puts a greater emphasis on combat, introducing new mobility options that have transformed the gameplay. World, on the other hand, still focuses on taking down monsters but also offers more diverse experiences. Its expansive maps, filled with gatherable items and quests that prioritize item collection over creature defeat, evoke a sense of nostalgia that could enhance the immersion in its successor.

The Legacy of Monster Hunter's Survival Mechanics

Monster Hunter games are renowned for their epic battles against towering beasts, but the series encompasses more than just sheer violence. Although the hunting aspect of the game has taken a backseat in comparison to the classic entries, early releases in the series, including the inaugural game in 2004, effectively utilized items like Hot Drinks for environmental resistance, Paintballs for tracking monsters, and limited Whetstones for weapon sharpness. However, the latest installments, World and Rise, have streamlined these features to focus primarily on battling monsters, leading some players to reminisce about the past more than ever before.

Monster Hunter Dos, one of the most controversial additions to the series, deviated greatly from the modern game design. It prioritized the survival mechanics of being a hunter more than any other game in the franchise. Dos has both received acclaim and criticism for its refusal to allow players to simply charge into battle, as seen in Rise and World. With a dynamic world where items are influenced by the day/night cycle and changing seasons, Dos required meticulous preparation and optimal utilization of available resources, potentially shaping the future of Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter World 2 Can Improve On More Than Just Combat

The benefits of streamlining the franchise's classic item-gathering and crafting systems in World become apparent when considering the quality of the game's monster encounters. However, this doesn't mean that future games of its style have to follow the same trend. While many players may prefer to quickly get into the action of hunting, there are already action games that solely focus on combat and bosses. If the next game in the Monster Hunter franchise truly wants to capture the spirit of the classics, the player's decisions outside of battle should have a significant impact by giving gathering the same importance as hunting.

Rise has already shifted the franchise in a different direction with its highly mobile combat, but there's no reason why two separate lines of games can't coexist and highlight the different aspects of the Monster Hunter franchise. If Rise eventually receives a sequel that leans even more towards pure action, it's reasonable to expect that Monster Hunter: World's own sequel could pay homage to the past in a unique way, living up to its namesake like never before.