Monster Hunter Wilds lets you fight monsters inspired by Dune and Godzilla

The massive map is double the size of Monster Hunter: World

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

There’s a giant sandworm in Monster Hunter Wilds, and just like in Dune, it can collapse the ground from under you.

Capcom recently walked me through an hour-long demo of its latest game in the long-running Monster Hunter series, revealing some of the biggest threats you’ll face in the new land of Windward Plains. 

It’s two times the size of the previous largest map and free from loading screens, so you can seamlessly travel in and out of settlements. It’s also filled with a menagerie of deadly new creatures. 

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

Among the most spectacular is the sand leviathan, which resides in the desert biome. Minutes before the encounter, the player is locked in a tense engagement with another one of the game’s new monsters, the doshaguma. It looks like a cross between a pit bull and a muppet, and is covered in thick, flowing fur. One hit to the alpha causes the entire pack to give chase.

The player flees across the windswept dust bowl with a herd of furious doshaguma in hot pursuit. Suddenly, there’s a deep rumble. The sand starts to shift, pouring from all sides towards a darkening middle. One by one, the doshaguma sink beneath the surface. They’ve fallen prey to the region’s apex predator, the balahara, aka Capcom’s Dune monster. 

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

This wyvern-like leviathan can deftly swim through the sand with its scaled, serpentine body, and its sand trap is frighteningly effective at thinning out herds. In fact, only one doshaguma remains: the alpha. 

The player leads it to a cave from the back of their trusty seikret mount. This is basically a Final Fantasy chocobo crossed with a lizard. Faster and more agile than previous mounts, it also has an auto-run feature that whisks you straight to any pinned destination.

Inside the cave, the player uses their hook slinger to bring down overhanging rocks on the doshaguma’s head, then swings up onto its back and slashes away. 

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

Meanwhile, a pack of smaller raptor monsters, sensing weakness, swoop in and latch on. If that wasn’t enough, another monster joins the fray, this one resembling an amphibious bear with the head of a snapping turtle. There’s a surprising amount of ways you can damage your target. It takes more than a rock and another beast to bring down the doshaguma, however.

Outside, a violent sandstorm rolls in, turning the ambient hue a deep blue like in Mad Max: Fury Road. At random intervals crackling bolts of lightning strike the ground with a snap, damaging anything unlucky enough to be standing there.

Lightning has the opposite effect on another nearby leviathan with glowing blue fins. It actually charges up when hit by a bolt, letting out a furious roar like a fully powered Godzilla. The player wisely avoids it. Death here after 45 minutes spent trying to bring down your target would frustrate, although if you’re quick, you can find it again upon respawning and finish the job. 

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

The sandstorm ends as quickly as it starts, leaving the environment in a sunny, spring-like state Capcom calls ‘plenty’. This means the area now contains an abundance of resources, so if you’re looking to farm items, this is the best time. 

To finish the doshaguma, the player calls in help from three companions. Ideally, they’ll be other players, but in this case, Capcom wants to show off its improved AI, which helpfully matches your playstyle.

For instance, when the player places flammable material next to the monster, an AI companion rolls a powder keg into it and sets off a ground-shaking explosion. Later, the player lays a grass trap and an AI buddy leads the doshaguma into it, pinning it to the floor so everyone can start flailing.

Monster Hunter Wilds / Capcom

That’s enough to fell the beast for good, but it’s not the end. In Monster Hunter Wilds, instead of being forced back to camp following a quest’s completion, you can continue exploring. There’s also no need to hit up a quest board - you can start quests straight from the field using an in-game menu. 

The end of the demo comes as the player picks a new quest and gets ready to do it all again, having miraculously survived a brush with an alpha doshaguma, an electrified leviathan, and a giant sandworm. Although there’s no shame if you just wanted to head back to camp and have a nice lie down instead. 

Monster Hunter Wilds releases in 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.