Few games have changed the trajectory of their respective series quite like Monster Hunter World, one of the biggest smash hits Capcom has ever created. World was a vibrant, expansive, and ambitious leap that paid off in spades. It makes sense, then, that eight years later the series would still be chasing that high. Even with the time that’s passed, I find myself amazed that Monster Hunter Outlanders, essentially, manages to cram the experience of World into a mobile game. This mobile spinoff certainly isn’t attempting to reinvent the wheel, but after six hours with the game, it’s proving to be a surprisingly competent package, although I have some bubbling hesitations about the grind and encroaching gacha systems.
Anytime there’s a mobile spinoff of a major series, the first question that comes to mind is how that game will be compromised, or truncated, from that full console or PC experience. And so often, those mobile games are simplifications of a larger idea, like Fire Emblem Heroes or Diablo Immortal. What I’ve found fascinating about Monster Hunter Outlanders so far is that it doesn’t really simplify the overall gameplay loop and structure. Rather, it’s sort of a reconfigured Monster Hunter that strings out progression to support the typical framework of a mobile game, one filled with nearly a half-dozen different currencies to keep track of at any given time. But it also very much feels like Outlanders wants players to engage with it like a full-fledged Monster Hunter, and even includes all the story exposition you’d expect to go along with it.
Like most Monster Hunter games, Outlanders begins with a big cinematic opening where a group of adventurers from the Adventurer’s Guild are striking out to an uncharted part of the world – in this case, an island called Aesoland. This island is filled with Radiant species of monsters, beasts whose abilities have been enhanced by a mineral called Radiantite. This is, ostensibly, also the game’s reasoning for creating new designs of classic series monsters and tweaking their abilities to match this game specifically, like the Pukei-Pukei focusing more on head or tail attacks, which are easier to target with Outlander’s more streamlined lock-on system.
But I cannot stress enough how much Outlanders banks on the same formula as World; it’s almost as if the same game was transposed onto different locations and story elements. Even the first area of the game, like World, is a heavily forested area with a lot of verticality for climbing or setting ambushes; intentionally designed to show you the ropes. If you’ve played any Monster Hunter game, you know that core gameplay loop of what to expect – you take missions or hunts, track down monsters in an instanced map, beat them, harvest materials, and then use said materials to craft more powerful equipment.
Complementing this, you have a moderately-sized open world that you can roam around and explore to take down smaller monsters, find crafting materials, and more. Outlanders also brings back many of the elements that have become mainstays since World: scoutfly trails to guide you to objectives, buildable objects on the map like towers and ziplines, and monsters that interact and fight each other like natural predators. All these elements click together just as well as they did in World, creating a compelling loop that feels like you’re constantly doing something meaningful to that overall progress. Outlanders is also impressive in terms of presentation with environments that genuinely look stunning; playing on an iPhone 14 Plus, I had a consistent framerate with very few dips.
However, the differences start to surface as you dig deeper into the minutiae of how the game actually plays and what options are available in combat scenarios. Certain aspects of the combat have been streamlined to fit the mobile experience and accommodate a touchscreen control scheme instead of a controller (although there is controller support if you want it). Movement and actions aren’t as intricate, although the game sports two different control methods: Adventure Mode and Classic Mode. The former is intended for new players and streamlines things down to three buttons, Attack, React, and Burst. From there, the game contextually handles a lot of what you’re doing, like the React button allowing you to dodge when a monster attacks, or block if the time is right. Classic Mode, on the other hand, gives you full manual control, including traditional button-stringed combos.
It’s proving to be a surprisingly competent package, although I have bubbling hesitations about the gacha mechanics.
What I’ve found so far, though, is that Classic Mode proves to be unfit for just touch controls, as it’s too cumbersome to use all of these different options without a controller. Adventure Mode does, generally, feel good to use, but takes some of the vibrant friction out of the experience by streamlining so much. That means the ideal way to play this, if you can, is on Classic Mode with a controller – which then ultimately raises the question of why you wouldn’t just play a console Monster Hunter. There are answers to that question, of course, like if you don’t own anything else to play a Monster Hunter game on.
The other two major elements where Outlanders shifts that classic experience is with your ability to build a party of adventurers and how progression works. To try and fit the typical idea of a gacha game, Outlanders creates a group of distinct characters that take part in the story who you can then recruit and use as NPC companions. Recruiting means partaking in those traditional gacha pulls using currency called Rutacoins.
Each Adventurer has their own distinct moveset that builds on one specific weapon type, meaning playing as that Adventurer is different from just slapping any other weapon on your player-created character. This does create some incentive to try and get these various characters. Of course, the real key to this system is how easy or difficult it might be to pull Adventurers and upgrade them to be useful in combat. I was able to build a full four-person party fairly easily with the currency I earned from starting the game. Overall, I like the idea of being able to build a party with these distinct characters and play solo. The option is still there to group up with other players and friends, but the Adventurers make it easy to tackle quests and Contracts on your own. But I can already see hints of it being frustrating to pull repeat characters, let alone anyone new you might want down the line.
This leads to the area I’m not as hot on: the progression system. While almost all of the currency in the game is earnable from playing, as well as spending real money, I’m finding that the classic Monster Hunter progression loop feels a bit slower here. You need Zenny to pay for items, upgrades, and services. Rutacoins are for pulling characters and sidekicks (Palicos and the like). Research Points needed for the upgradable skill tree to unlock more buildable structures, for example. And as you might expect, there are additional materials necessary for upgrading a character or sidekick’s level, unlocking their level cap, upgrading weapons, crafting items, and more.
Monster Hunter has always had a lot of elements to juggle in terms of progression, which is arguably the biggest barrier to entry for some people. In many ways, the series has been about busy work, sifting through menus, and meticulously crafting sets of armor and weapons. Those are elements of Monster Hunter I’ve always enjoyed, but even after a half-dozen hours, I’m feeling quite fatigued by the sheer amount of stuff in Outlanders. There’s a lot of currency and whatnot to earn, and equally as much to figure out in terms of how to get things done, as well as hours of tutorials.
This has, ultimately, made the opening hours a bit more of a slog than something like Monster Hunter World or Rise. And even though I’m genuinely having a good time so far, my primary concern at the moment is how all that might affect the experience as a whole, especially as you get to the more difficult and complex hunts. I’ve played enough gacha games in my life to know that the fun can be brought to a grinding halt pretty quickly when resources become a wall you have to overcome.
I’m feeling quite fatigued by the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ in Outlanders.
Of course, it’ll take time to make a final judgement, but my overarching sentiment on Outlanders right now is surprise: for how it still leans into that essential component of timing in combat, and for how uncompromised the visuals and world design are. Those insidious mobile elements that too many games fall into are still nipping at the edges, but I’m hoping the core experience is able to stave it off in the long-run. I’ll be pouring more time into Monster Hunter Outlanders in the coming days for the full review coming soon.
