We asked the Monster Hunter Wilds leads about a hot fan theory the RPG is a Monster Hunter 4 throwback: "We've seen that you're speculating"

Monster Hunter Wilds' developer knows you're speculating about whether it's a direct follow-up to Monster Hunter 4, but rather than address the possibility, they're happy to let you speculate.

At Summer Game Fest 2024, 12DOVE sat down with Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda and series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto to talk about Capcom's new game. Over the past month or so, a lot of fans have been speculating that Monster Hunter Wilds is quietly a follow-up to Monster Hunter 4, mainly because of similarities in characters like Little Miss Forge and newcomer Gemma the Smithy.

"I'll leave the finer details of the character settings to players' imaginations for the time being," Tsujimoto says when asked about fan speculation, while director Tokuda merely chuckled. "Suffice it to say, there's no need to have already played Monster Hunter 4, Ultimate in the West, to understand the background or story or the characters of this game. It's a totally new title in that sense," Tsujimoto continues.

"For the other fan theories, we've seen that you're speculating, but we'll leave you to speculate. I've also seen people say that because we've mentioned the forbidden lands as part of the game's storyline that it might be a term that's like something used in a previous title, but it's really more of a generic phrase and, to me, literally, just the forbidden lands, not capital-F capital-L Forbidden Lands, the exact same place that might've appeared in previous games," the series producer concludes.

In terms of what is in the new Capcom game, though, the good news is that Monster Hunter Wilds features cross-play at launch for the first time in the series' 20-year history. Capcom might end up charging $70 for Monster Hunter Wilds, just like it did with Dragon's Dogma 2 earlier this year, but if you don't like that, the publisher says just wait until it slashes the price down to $10 or $5 after about five years or so.

Monster Hunter Wilds launches in 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Read up on our complete Monster Hunter Wilds interview for a deeper conversation with director Tokuda and producer Tsujimoto.

After 20 years, Monster Hunter Wilds gives players two weapon slots for the first time, and veteran hunters already know what to do with them: "Two Charge Blades."