With the end of 2023 just around the corner, I feel confident in saying that Monster Hunter Now is one of my biggest surprises of the year. It’s easily Niantic’s best game since Pokemon GO, and with the game’s first major update on the horizon, it’s looking like the title will stay relevant heading into 2024.
For those just tuning in, Monster Hunter Now is a GPS driven augmented-reality game based on Capcom’s Monster Hunter series. While this seems like an odd pitch, it’s an entertaining concept that stays remarkably true to its source material. Though the combat naturally makes concessions to play smoothly on touch screens, Niantic’s take on the formula does appear to have resonated with players since launch.
That said, there’s certainly room for improvement here in a lot of ways, which has raised questions about what the game’s future will look like. Sure, we’ve had a few events pop up, but will the game ever see more than a slow drip feed of new monsters and quests?
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long to see the answer to the question. On December 7, Monster Hunter Now will launch its first major seasonal update: Fulminations in the Frost. Among other improvements, this update will include four all-new monsters to hunt and two new weapon types. Ahead of the update’s launch, I was able to attend an event hosted by Niantic and check out Fulminations of the Frost for myself. And while I’ll need to spend more time with the new content to see where my feelings ultimately land, what I’ve played so far has delivered the kind of content I’ve wanted to see from the game since it originally launched, albeit with a few concerns.
Four new monsters
During my hands-on time, I was given access to a test account with paintballs spanning the four new monsters in Fulminations in the Frost. The new beasts are Zinogre, Banbaro, Barioth, and Radobaan. Niantic also confirmed that we’ll see Cortos and Wulg as new small monsters. Even if those last two just exist as more fodder to charge my special gauge, I’ll appreciate the variety nonetheless.
I got to face each monster a couple times, and, honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about them. That’s actually a good thing in my book. These are all fierce looking baddies on the larger side, so they’re closer in feel to late-game monsters like Diablos instead of, say, Great Jagras. However, their attack patterns don’t necessarily resemble anything in the game right now, aside from a few circular tail swipes we see monsters like Paolumu use. While I did my best to dodge between strikes, I did get smacked more times than I’d like to admit.
I’m frankly happy that I couldn’t fully learn these new fights in a couple of attempts. Like the core Monster Hunter games, battles in Monster Hunter Now stay engaging because you learn to optimize each encounter with repeated attempts. To say you need to repeat fights a lot to craft all the equipment you need is a massive understatement, so really, mastering each monster is a game unto itself. I liked the fights based on what I played, so I imagine I’ll get into repeating these encounters when the update officially launches.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be max rank to face off against the new monsters. Judging from what I saw, the new monsters seem to start appearing at either four or five-star difficulty. This is around the point when progression hits a wall, but just unlocking four-star monsters isn’t a particularly tough challenge. So even if you’re relatively new or early in the game, you can still enjoy Fulminations in the Frost.
Two new weapons
Conversely, I do feel comfortable giving firm feelings on the two new weapon types: Lance and Dual Blades. I used them exclusively across all the battles I tried, and I felt I got a pretty good feel for how each played.
Lance appears to be a weapon best suited for players looking for a real tanky playstyle. It’s slow, with quite a bit of reach for a melee weapon, but your mobility really falls with it equipped. Movement and dodging become very brief sidesteps, so closing the distance on far-away monsters can be a real challenge. That said, it did look more defensive than the game’s Sword and Shield, so I imagine Lance would be a great fit for multiplayer parties. For example, you could use it to get safely in a monster’s face to stun it and break its head while your friends hack away at the legs and tail.
Meanwhile, Dual Blades are just about everything I hoped they would be. These are easily the fastest weapons in the game, letting you pull off fierce combos with tons of hits. You do have to be a bit careful with your combos, as those sick flips and spins your character pulls off do put you in animation lock. Fortunately, outside of that one caveat, Dual Blade users are very adept at dodging. In fact, you can actually attack while dodging with these weapons, which I didn’t know I wanted until I saw it. Even your special move vaults your character right over the monster you’re fighting while slicing and dicing them to bits. Honestly, this gave me similar vibes to the new Thief class in Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2, which is a very good thing.
Overall, Lance appeared to be a more niche weapon option, whereas Dual Blades were easy to play and looked anime as hell in action. I’ve mained Sword and Shield until now just because I like fast weapons, so I 100% plan to switch to Dual Blades. Of course, players will have to start from scratch crafting the new weapon types, so you may need to consider whether you want to make that material investment. This won’t be a problem for new players, but for those deep into their progression already, I recommend stocking up materials now if you plan to use the new toys.
Other changes to come as well
The new weapons and monsters were obviously the main draw, but the update will come with a few other adjustments as well. One thing I noticed as I poked around the menus is that weapons were more clearly sorted by type. While the game already kind of does this, having clear sections that say “Hammer” or “Bow” cuts down on clutter. Some weapon rebalancing was teased as well, which should reward melee players a bit more. The Dual Blades felt pretty powerful during my testing period, so I do wonder if that was in part due to the balancing changes.
Niantic also teased at least one other feature that will offer “an exciting new hunting experience.” We’ll learn more about this as we get closer to the update’s launch. That said, based on this small morsel of information, I do appreciate that we’re seeing more added to the game beyond new weapons and monsters. I’m personally hopeful that a “new hunting experience” may make playing multiplayer easier. I’m still trying to rope friends and family into playing this game with me, so I have my fingers crossed.
I also do want to mention that, with the additions of the new monsters, there are naturally new armor sets and new varieties of the existing weapons as well. Notably, at least one monster’s materials can be crafted into weapons that inflict sleep. I can’t judge the viability of the new equipment, but at least those who don’t want to jump into the new weapon types may still have some gear to chase.
Finally, there was also a note of increasing “the maximum number of items you can hold at one time,” which could potentially be a big deal depending on how this is rolled out. I’m finally starting to wrestle with the item cap now that I’m facing 6-star monsters, so if this means an increase to the default cap, this is a very welcome change. However, since players can just pay outright to increase their max item cap right now, this could also simply mean that the paid item cap will increase instead. I really hope the former is true, but I suppose we’ll know what Niantic means by this soon enough.
I have some reservations, but I like what I see
Aside from the item cap point, my one main reservation about Fulminations in the Frost is that I don’t know if any of this content is time limited or not. Niantic is calling this update a “season,” which typically refers to limited time content in free-to-play games. FOMO is something that really gets to me, and one of the things I’ve liked about Monster Hunter Now is that it generally hasn’t encouraged obsessive play.
As it is, I haven’t exactly loved that monsters like Black Diablos only appear for very limited windows. Additionally, the drop rate for rare materials is still really low, which I hope gets addressed in one way or another. But either way, Monster Hunter Now works well as a slow burn, so I hope I can enjoy this new content at my own pace. I reached out to Niantic for comment, but I have yet to receive a response as of writing.
Despite that concern, I’m overall very pleased with how Fulminations in the Frost looks so far. Getting a handful of monsters and new weapons and potentially a new game mode is honestly way more substantial than I thought we’d see at this point in the game’s life, and I can only hope this is the precedent for all the game’s future major updates. If Niantic can consistently release updates of this size every few months, Monster Hunter Now will essentially double its current content within a year’s time.
Everything I demoed felt solid, so here’s hoping that any future updates will retain that level of passion moving forward. And even if the game stumbles, at least I’ll have my Dual Blades with me to keep me entertained.
Monster Hunter Now: Fulminations in the Frost will launch on December 7th.
Published: Nov 29, 2023 09:00 pm