Ascendance Has Me Hyped to Obsess Over Monster Hunter Wilds Again

When Capcom announced Monster Hunter Wilds’ upcoming expansion, Ascendance, would be playable at Tokyo Game Show, it immediately became the top title on my list to get my claws into.

Monster Hunter has been one of my favourite video game series since Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate launched back in 2013, and it’s been incredible seeing the franchise's popularity grow while Capcom continues to innovate with each new release.

Now, with its latest expansion coming to Wilds next year, I was very excited to jump back into the game and see what Capcom's been cooking up.

Continuing on from Wilds’ main story, the expansion brings new locations, Master Rank Quests, expanded weapon abilities, quality-of-life changes, and, of course, more monsters.

There were three quests available in this hands on session: beginner, intermediate, and expert, each with a 20-minute time limit. I skipped the beginner quest as I wanted to jump straight into the madness, but I was pleased to see they had it available for newer players.

The first intermediate quest I picked up was to hunt an Araketa, a new large bird-wyvern. This fight takes place in a locale named Skybound Eyrie, and just as the name suggests, it’s a set of floating islands high in the clouds. I made my way to the monster on my Seikret mount, using updrafts to soar high, gliding and jumping through the beautiful new location, taking it all in before the carnage kicked off.

After tracking it down, I was faced with not just one monster, but a whole pack. The Araketa fight alongside each other, zooming and dashing around, making for a very fun and chaotic fight.

One Araketa move in particular really reminded me of Valstrax, for those familiar with the series. They fly up high and come crashing down towards you at high speed, which had me panic-jumping out of the way to avoid a collision.

The main weapon mechanic being added to Ascendance is Boosted Actions. These are new moves unique to each weapon type. You charge up and activate the Boost Bracer, which then gives you powerful new attacks for a limited amount of time.

I was apprehensive about how these would play, as I’m used to my current moveset and was worried it would break up my usual flow. But after using the boosted moves a couple of times, it immediately felt natural.

Boosted is the perfect name for these moves, as they feel incredibly powerful and upgraded. Even activating it feels exciting, with each hit feeling super impactful and satisfying. It really ups the pace of a fight and can make for insanely fun combat.

I picked the Hunting Horn as my weapon of choice in my playthrough. I mained this throughout the base game, and was keen to see how they could improve its already incredible moveset.

Placing Echo Bubbles is a huge part of playing the Hunting Horn, creating select areas on the ground that grant buffs and damage. The boosted version of this is my personal favourite. You quite literally launch your weapon through the air, spinning it over your head, while simultaneously bashing the enemy as it twirls and creates an Echo Bubble. Incredible stuff.

After taking down the pack of Araketa, I knew what danger I had to face next: the expert quest for this demo session was to slay a familiar foe. Teostra is an aggressive, fiery Elder Dragon that has been in previous Monster Hunter games, but was announced for Ascendance in the recent Capcom TGS Showcase. As I waited for my session to start, I was watching other players give this quest a go, and so far, no one had successfully taken him down.

The fight was intense to say the least. Even with my prior knowledge and experience, I went through a lot of potions very quickly. While getting slaughtered, though, I could still appreciate how gorgeous this fight was. Teostra is terrifyingly beautiful in design, combined with flames and particles all around, adding to the intense atmosphere. It's topped off with an epic rendition of his theme song, which perfectly adds to the building pressure of trying to survive.

I wished I could sit here and brag, claiming I was the first person in the preview session to slay Teostra. Sadly, however, that wasn’t the case. The good news was I didn’t triple cart, although I did faint twice. Owch. The bad news is I failed the quest by running out of time, which felt slightly anticlimactic.

Capcom also revealed a bunch of upcoming quality-of-life changes. A couple really stood out to me: the first being the ability to swap weapons without having to actually mount your Seikret. Now they simply run over to you, letting you grab your weapon from them, which is much more seamless.

The second is the removal of Character Edit Vouchers. In Wilds, if you want to edit your character design beyond minor changes, you have to buy a voucher. Yes, buy a voucher. With real money. Not Zenny. For a game that has such incredible gear designs, paywalling a character editor was a terrible choice. Fashion hunters like myself can now thrive, being able to change looks as we please without having to splash out each time.

As a consolation for players who did previously pay for a voucher, they’re gifting a special Thank-You Pendant Set, which, to be honest, is very cute.

My time with Ascendance flew past, and once my hour was over, I just wanted more. I cannot wait to get fully stuck in once it launches next year, and finally get that Teostra kill!

Are you looking forward to jumping back into Monster Hunter Wilds with the upcoming Ascendance expansion? Let us know in the comments below.