Monster Hunter Wilds fans are blessed today with multiple videos showcasing more of the gameplay. One of these clips, featured inside a hefty PlayStation Blog post, shows the return of a much-requested quirk that’ll go a long way in making the action feel so much better.
That feature, which you can see yourself right here, above the section starting with “a deadly struggle”, is hit stop! Hit stop is a small but incredibly important aspect of action games where the player character stops momentarily upon landing a heavy blow. This makes the following hit feel stronger, and goes a long way in video games in making your attacks feel more impactful. It’s important!
The alternative is attacks that just kind of slosh around, hitting enemies but not really having that oomph. Games like that struggle to convey the power of a player’s attacks, the result being a underwhelming flavour to combat in general. Masahiro Sakurai, game director on the Smash Bros series, created a wonderful video explaining the importance of such a feature that we recommend watching if you’ve got some time to kill.
Funnily enough, too much hit stop can be a problem too! If things slow down too much, or stop on every hit, things can feel clunky. This was a criticism of Soulframe’s first alpha test, and was part of the reason why the team went back to tweak it. So there’s a balance you’ve got to strike.
Monster Hunter historically has been especially good at using hit stop just right, which is why its absence was a puzzling note for many players. But, y’know, it was a beta test! As the game nears its February 2025 release date, expect to see it get ample polish like this in official posts in the coming weeks.
