Did Capcom, the developer of Monster Hunter Wilds, intend for its monsters to be something more zeitgeisty than scary, wild, fantasy creatures drawn from real-world myths and folklore? Probably not. Does that stop us from finding deeper meaning in the game? Of course not. We all have our monsters to hunt (and evade), and we’ve seen plenty of their embodiment in reality.
In these hardcore times of rising authoritarianism and declining democracy, the news is filled with so many frustrating events that it’s easy to dress all in brown (i.e., color theory in video games or just a pile of… well, you get the idea), lie quietly in a corner, and surrender without a fight. Thankfully, we have pop culture on our side, and games like Monster Hunter Wilds and Shadow of the Colossus remind us that even the smallest people can go big. Such projects inspire us to never give up, even in the face of fiercely aggressive beasts.
Like in Silent Hill 2, where monsters are projections of the characters’ subconscious fears, those in Monster Hunter Wilds are not what they seem. The same could be said about owls (à la Twin Peaks), but that’s another story. Alongside that, a significant part of the Monster Hunter series centers on colonialism, a topic that is also very familiar to modern players and news doomscrollers.
As a young and promising Hunter, we set out with our funny felyne combat companion, Palico, to an unexplored region of the Old World in search of the Forbidden Lands, its enigmatic inhabitants, the Keepers, and the mysterious apex predator, the White Wraith. This story setup is reminiscent of Avowed, GreedFall, or New World, whose developers were among the few in the gaming industry anticipating the authoritarianism’s voracious desire for more territory.
Even if Capcom’s development team never intended it this way, simply saying today that you’re playing a game that features an all-powerful guild, acts of colonialism, and battles against the world’s most fearsome beasts already makes it sound politically relevant. Such parallels feel especially inevitable in today’s pop culture, which has become increasingly reactive to global events.
Bong Joon-ho fearlessly mocks the 45th and 47th president of the US in his 2025 sci-fi black comedy, Mickey 17, while Ali Abbasi, in 2024’s The Apprentice, lays out “three rules of winning” that will profoundly shape the American people over the next four years. At the Oscars, the Best International Feature Film category of 2024 featured two fantastic films about dictatorships: Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig and Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here. The 2024 political satire Rumours (Eva and Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin) shows the helplessness of modern global diplomacy. Even Denis Villeneuve’s summer blockbuster Dune: Part Two (2024) explores the dangers of messianic leadership.
The same goes for video games. Hideo Kojima continues rebuilding America in his action-adventure game, Death Stranding 2. Hieronymus Bosch-inspired RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio delves into the usurpation of political power, while narrative-driven punk adventure Dustborn presents an alternate-reality version of an authoritarian United States in 2030—one that feels eerily close to reality. So, too, do Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Avowed, and more. Indeed, we can look at many recently released games and find a wealth of contemporary political themes.
Yet, Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most striking and intense examples, as its entire gameplay revolves around clashes with epic monsters. Even the story mode is a thrilling sequence of missions centered on boss fights, interwoven with gorgeous, action-packed cutscenes and rides through beautiful semi-open-world zones. Newcomers to the series will undoubtedly be shocked by these ferocious colossi, but there’s a trick.
As we recently saw in the so-called “Trump’s Oval Office thrashing of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy” (mocked by SNL with documentary precision), the Democrats’ 2024 election loss, the fall of Syria’s half-century-old Assad regime in December 2024, the 2022-2023 Mahsa Amini antigovernment protests in Iran, and many other recent political events—preparation and patience are everything.
To face a monster, you need to—pay attention, one of the most prominent political meme phrases of 2025 is incoming—”have the cards“, meaning: be fully prepared. In Monster Hunter Wilds, every boss encounter must be carefully thought out beforehand. Each beast fight requires well-chosen types of armor and weapons, lots of consumables and special equipment, proper tactics, and skilled teammates. Only by first studying your opponent and understanding your allies can you prevail.
You can’t just step into a battle arena and wing it—knowing your enemy inside and out beforehand is best. Monster Hunter Wilds demonstrates the power of this approach. Luckily for rookie hunters, you can also fire an SOS Flare to seek help from other players, making your boss encounters more bearable and fun. In addition to this option, you have over a dozen charismatic party members, including the hunter’s handler, Alma, the smithy Gemma, support hunter Olivia, and more.
In the spirit of Alien: Covenant, you’ll explore a new and dangerous world alongside them. At times, Monster Hunter Wilds evokes the so-called “Forbidden Lands” of Team Ico’s loose trilogy, NieR’s world of Project Gestalt, the vast landscapes of Xenoblade Chronicles’ worlds, or even Dragon’s Dogma’s Gransys. Still, it’s a unique ecosystem with some of the most diverse flora and fauna ever seen in a video game. As in real life, every thoughtless step could be fatal on these grounds.
However, what makes this game even more hardcore is its overloaded UI. Anyone new to the series will be overwhelmed by the dozens of menus popping up all over the screen. Even a flexible interface customization system doesn’t help. So, be prepared to invest hours in figuring out how this UX nightmare—complete with confusing controls and a cluttered map—actually works. Whoever said hunting the world’s most dangerous monsters would be a leisurely stroll on a sunny day?
In the end, Monster Hunter Wilds may be ideologically distant from our current struggles, but it teaches players to be strong, persistent, detail-oriented, and well-prepared. By the time you reach the endgame—after 15-18 hours of sweaty, Souls-like, er, like battles against dozens of Gojira-esque leviathans—it’s much easier to believe that even the scariest monsters don’t last forever.
Don’t hesitate to picture the faces of your least favorite politicians or bosses as you kick and beat the hell out of the monsters! It’s a good catharsis.
This post was originally published on here
