I've been a Monster Hunter fan for over a decade at this point. In fact, I've spent hundreds of hours in Monster Hunter World alone, and that's without counting Wilds, Rise, and older titles like 3U and Generations. So, naturally, when Monster Hunter Outlanders first popped up and promised to bring a full-fat Monster Hunter experience to mobile, I was intrigued.
Admittedly, despite my clear adoration for the mainline Monster Hunter games, I never really got into Monster Hunter Now. It felt like the AR form factor popularized by Pokémon Go never quite fit this series. While I've come to expect hunts to be a battle of endurance and perfect timing, this free mobile game focused on short, snappy encounters and stripped-back mechanics to keep the game convenient when on the go.
However, there's no such stripping back in Outlanders. And, after playing through the recent Monster Hunter Outlanders beta, I can safely say that it's about as close to a mainline entry as you can get.
Like other games in the series, this new Monster Hunter game follows a Fated Adventurer who works alongside the Hunter's Guild with the goal of preventing damage to the ecosystem by culling dangerous beasts. This time, your branch of the guild has arrived in the small Kulune Village in Aeosland to investigate an unusual phenomenon called Arcing Aurora, which sees strange, arrow-shaped streaks of light appear in the sky that, according to legend, may bring disaster.
These unusual anomalies appear to be tied to Radiantite, a type of crystal-like rock that's vital to the village's energy supply. However, the Radiantite also appears to be affecting nearby monsters, leading to strange and powerful mutations.
While the central narratives have never really been that important in the mainline Monster Hunter games, this one does fit the series very well, and creates an excellent backdrop for the battles. It also provides solid character development and background for the new Adventurers that you can collect and fight alongside, and explains the presence of the new Radiant Species monster variations that we fight throughout the game. To add to this, the story is predominantly told through beautiful, fully rendered and animated cutscenes, and all of them (except a few side quests) are fully voiced, too.
Of course, all of this worldbuilding mostly acts as a vehicle to carry the true heart of the game - the gameplay. Monster Hunter Outlanders imitates the general feel of a Monster Hunter game very well. From the central village that acts as your base of operations to the sprawling, open lands that you explore during hunts and expeditions, every location feels cohesive yet unique. There are also plenty of hidden secrets and interactable elements, from treasure chests and hidden stashes to endemic life and monster tracks, which all contribute to making the world feel alive.
While you don't have a Seikret or rideable wyvern to get around, Outlanders introduces a brand new building system, never seen before in the series. It's not the most advanced, but it does allow you to erect and upgrade watchtowers and camps to aid navigation and observation of the area, as well as a variety of handy structures. These include classics like the BBQ spit and item box, which you can now place anywhere you like, as well as ziplines, catapults, and wind platforms that help you traverse your surroundings. I was uncertain how I felt about this addition when I first heard of it, but it's actually very well-implemented and easy to use, and I found myself taking to it quite quickly.
With combat being the heart of any mainline Monster Hunter game, I'm also pleased to say that it's handled very well in Monster Hunter Outlanders so far. As the Fated Adventurer, you can choose from any of the available Monster Hunter Outlanders weapons (long sword, great sword, bow, dual blades, heavy bowgun, and lance as of the start of the beta, though hammer did arrive later and there are more to come in the future), and each one translates surprisingly well to mobile.
As with the mainline games, each weapon has its own unique skills and combos, and you can test them all out through training sessions. Throughout the beta, I predominantly used the long sword, but I tried each of them, and they all had unique mechanics and some satisfying attack strings and QTEs that I can see appeasing hunters of all types. In fact, this may be my favorite version of the great sword yet. Your Fated Adventurer also has an ultimate attack that stays the same regardless of your weapon choice, as well as a buddy skill that provides a buff depending on which one you have equipped.
During combat, you can hold down the lock-on icon to pull up a radial menu, then select which part of the monster to target. The weak points are highlighted both here and in a diagram of the monster at the top of the screen, and they change to reflect when you've broken the monster's parts. This flawlessly addresses one of the major concerns I had regarding how you'd be able to focus on slicing deals or breaking faces on the small screen, while still encouraging active participation and strategizing, and I genuinely appreciate it.
As usual, you have access to an item pouch while in the field, where you can select one item to display on-screen. If you need a different item, you can hold-press to open a menu and switch to it. However, the game also brings up an additional item from your bag under certain circumstances. For example, it will bring up a health potion if your HP is low, an antidote if you're poisoned, or rations if you're hungry. While this may appear a little hand-holdy for a MH game, it certainly adds an additional level of convenience, especially when hopping into a quick hunt while you're on the move.
Another interesting element is how Outlanders uses the slinger and environment interaction. Due to the UI already being very busy, there wasn't really any room for a separate slinger system. Instead, you find prompts on the screen that you can tap to interact with your surroundings, be it pulling down boulders, rupturing poisoncups, or bursting vigorwasps. Out of combat, you gain access to a net that works in a similar way, allowing you to tap a net prompt over capturable endemic life, then line-up a reticle and toss the net out. While not quite perfect yet, this system does feel intuitive, and allows for a high level of interactables without introducing too much clutter to the screen.
So far, I'm quite pleased with the roster of Monster Hunter Outlanders monsters. As of the beta, we've seen 21 returning large monsters. This doesn't count the Radiant Species variants, which come with different elemental attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. It's nice to see some iconic beasts like the Diablos, Kushala Daora, Nergigante, and, of course, the poster-boy Rathalos, as well as some of my personal favorites like the Odogaron, Pukei-Pukei, and Legiana.
TiMi Studios also recently revealed Outlanders' first entirely original monster, the Elder Dragon Ruger Aidal, which fits the lineup perfectly. I'm excited to see what other beasts, both returning and new, arrive in the future, as well as what weapons and armor arrive with them.
Speaking of which, Outlanders also features the classic forge system, where you carve monsters and gather materials to create armor sets and weapons, each with their own unique stats and abilities. So far, we've seen a lot of the classic sets return to play (though we don't seem to have alpha and beta versions this time around), as well as a robust upgrade system that allows you to enhance sets that work well for you, increasing their rarity rather than forging new equipment.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that there was no energy limit on the 'Free Hunts' that reward you with monster materials and EXP. There's a daily energy system tied to specific hunts such as Hunt Requests, though, which limits how many upgrade materials you can obtain in a day for Adventurer Keepsakes (which essentially equates to character levels), Buddy EXP, and the materials you need to level up the new, artifact-like Vision sets that offer stat boosts and passive abilities.
However, it didn't take me long to get access to the new Apex Weapons, which, honestly, dwarfed the power of all other forgeable weapons for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I love the Apex Weapons and their designs, and I know similar weapons and armor sets have existed in the games for years now, but I do hope they take a little longer to obtain come the full release. Half of the fun of the early game is running back to the forge after hunting each new monster to see what new stuff you can patch together, and it'd be a shame to lose that.
Now comes the part where I need to talk about what is likely to be the most contentious element of Monster Hunter Outlanders, especially among veteran hunters. Outlanders is, indeed, a gacha game. While you have your entirely customizable Fated Adventurer, you can also pull for a variety of SR and SSR Adventurers through both a standard and limited banner.
Unlike the Fated Adventurer, each of the collectable Adventurers is tied to a specific weapon and element, but they also have access to a unique set of moves, including powerful ultimate skills. And, while you can't change their appearance, you can equip them with different weapons and armor to raise their stats.
When heading out into the field for solo play, you can make a team of up to four characters, and you're free to play as either the Fated Adventurer or one of the other Monster Hunter Outlanders characters you've obtained. As with NPC hunters in Wilds, the characters you aren't controlling are controlled by AI, and actually perform surprisingly well.
Throughout the beta, I almost exclusively played as the Fated Adventurer with the other Adventurers supporting me, and I had no trouble clearing content. I did enjoy playing as the Adventurers I acquired through the training levels and the occasional challenge, but I kept returning to the protagonist without fail, mostly due to the weapon flexibility and emotional connection.
However, I, like many others, am quite concerned about future gacha-obtained characters, particularly limited SSRs, eventually rendering the Fated Adventurer obsolete. This concern is worsened by the fact that TiMi has confirmed the Fated Adventurer's kit is fixed, meaning they can't learn or inherit new skills and ultimates. I really hope that the Fated Adventurer will continue to hold a solid place in the meta, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
On the plus side, the gacha rates during the closed beta leaned on the fairer side compared to others I've seen. It combines the 90-pull guarantee, soft pity, and 50/50 systems seen in popular games like Genshin Impact, while also inheriting the one-time 120-pull guarantee seen on the Arknights Endfield banners, where, once per limited banner, you're guaranteed to get the featured SSR within 120 pulls, even if you lose your 50/50. You're also guaranteed to get an SR-rank Adventurer or Buddy once every ten pulls, and you acquire a decent amount of currency that you can use to purchase additional pulls and other rewards from the exchange shop as you go.
That does lead me to another issue I have with Outlanders, though, and that's the overwhelming amount of currencies that were present in the beta. Almost every screen seemed to present another currency, point system, and/or exchange shop, with just as many ways to level up your account, research points, Adventurers, equipment, and Buddies. It was quite overwhelming at first, and, while I did get used to it after a while, it does concern me as someone familiar with gacha games and their monetization systems.
While there was no payment system in the beta and I can't confirm which currencies you'll be able to purchase (beyond assuming the main pull currency, Rutacoins, will most definitely be purchasable in some way), it's no secret that a lot of similar games employ all of these different currencies to intentionally confuse players into not understanding how much money they're spending in-game.
On the plus side, I will say that the game offered quite a lot of freebies, even without the beta rewards that arrived via in-game mail. You can obtain several free SR Adventurers by progressing through the main story, you get a lot of currency and items by completing quests and challenges, exploring the world, and fixing up watchtowers, and there was a decent variety of events running throughout that offered some great goodies. There's also a beginner banner with a discount and a guaranteed SSR after 50 pulls, a free SSR character selector after 300 pulls on the standard banner, and you could obtain two free SSR Adventurers (Pyro and Luka) through the events, though these are all subject to change come the full release.
I will also say that I was very impressed with the performance throughout the Monster Hunter Outlanders beta. I played exclusively on my Nothing Phone (3) (you can check out my full Nothing Phone (3) review to see the phone's specs), which is a decent phone, but far from top-range, and I managed to have everything running on top settings. I experienced next to no jittering, lag, or frame drops, and loading times were, for the most part, very snappy. My only issue was that it tended to chew through my battery quite quickly, and I found the handset would get quite toasty during long play sessions if I didn't remove the case, but it didn't seem to impact the performance at all.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter Outlanders. It does a surprisingly good job of shrinking such a massive beast of a series down to fit in the palm of your hand, and really captures the essence of the world, gameplay, and, most importantly, combat, very well. While I have my reservations about how well a live service gacha model fits into the world of Monster Hunter, I'm cautiously optimistic about the future, and am looking forward to sinking my teeth back in when the Monster Hunter Outlanders release date drops in December.