No, you're not imagining Monster Hunter Wilds' beta combat feeling off - there's a good reason for it

Early door hunters say animations lack showmanship

I didn’t get much further in the extremely popular beta for the haute-couture-asaurus action of Monster Hunter Wilds than perfecting the exact orange-to-white ratio of my cat. Not because I wasn’t having fun, but because I immediately started looking up GPU prices after playing for ten minutes. As such, I didn’t spend enough time with the combat to get a proper feel for it. Cultural osmosis has once again allowed me to form an uneducated take, however, and I’m getting the sense there’s been some mixed reactions re: bonk quality. According to a clip shared on X by user Blue Stigma, there's a good reason for those misgivings. It's all about frames, you see.

The Oxford English Above Video defines 'Hitstop' as a brief animation pause the moment a weapon connects with an enemy, meant to sell you on that weapon's weight and power. The more frames in the hitstop, the more exaggerated the impact of the attack - up to a point. Blue Stigma uses the switch axe in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate as an example. The hitstop for its overhead swing lasts eight frames. The game runs at 30fps, so Blue Stigma reckons that’s about a quarter of second you’ve got to register how “pretty damn strong” the attack is.

So, what’s the problem in Wilds? Comparing the same attack across different entries, Blue Stigma offers similar results: A quarter of a second in Rise, and one fifth in Monster Hunter World. In the Wilds beta, however, there’s a grand total of zero frames of hitstop, causing the axe to feel puny in comparison. Some weapons and attacks in Wilds do have hitstop comparable to past entries, says Blue Stigma, but many have reduced hitstop, or none at all. The result is much limper and less satisfying combat across the board.

I should add that I personally have no expertise in this exact area, preferring to use much fluffier terms when talking about combat, so there might well be more - or less - going on here than the clip suggests. “Slow bonk make bonk feel good” certainly scans to me, though.

Blue Stigma makes YouTube videos under ‘Blue’, so do go show them some love if you found the breakdown interesting.