It’s not unusual to see weapons added in a new installment, as Destiny fans are aware. Creating a new installment does come with certain expectations, after all. However, those expectations can persist when the game is expected to update over time. The Monster Hunter franchise is in a similar boat, with new content coming after the launch of most entries, and in recent cases at least one major expansion. However, Monster Hunter hasn’t added a new weapon to its mainline entries in almost ten years. It might be time for Capcom to acknowledge its competitors’ best practices and add new types of weapons post-launch.
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How Destiny 2 Handles Adding Weapons
Being from the same minds that carefully designed the original Halo, the Destiny games have been stingy with adding new weapon types. Various types of sidearms started creeping into Destiny 1’s later updates, including crazier weapons like the third-person melee-focused Swords. Destiny 2 added more major archetypes like SMGs and Grenade Launchers, as well as plenty of special armaments like Trace Rifles. Post-launch updates added new weapons constantly, but even if some of these were mechanically distinct, they weren’t wholly new types of weapons.
All that changed with Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion, which brought Bows to the table. These are exactly what they sound like, being futuristic bows that deal a tremendous amount of damage, offset by the time it takes to prepare an arrow. They offered a new way to play, and raised the possibility of more weapon archetypes being added in the future. It took four years, but The Witch Queen has followed that up with Glaives. These are uniquely first-person melee weapons that offer a blend of close and long-range fighting, as well as some defense courtesy of a shield. These weapons have introduced new ways to enjoy Destiny 2, and it’s difficult to overstate how much they have contributed to making the five-year-old game feel fresh.
Monster Hunter Should Also Add New Weapon Types In Updates
The Monster Hunter franchise is similar to Destiny upon close inspection. Both have mighty warriors choosing from a set of distinct weapons and going out into the field, whether by themselves or with other players, to slay targets. After that, materials are gathered and taken back to a hub to either craft, buy, or upgrade equipment. One major difference is how much each franchise has leaned into being live-service. Destiny embraced this approach from the beginning, while it took Monster Hunter almost two decades to move beyond simply launching an installment, an upgrade to that installment, and then something new. Now that Monster Hunter World and Rise are receiving new features and monsters in patches, it’s time to extend a Monster Hunter entry’s life further with new weapon classes.
Adding a new weapon now would be a big deal for Monster Hunter. Weapon complexity has evolved to parallel that of a fighting game roster, and it can take even longer to master a new weapon class than it does to upgrade one. Still, in the years since Monster Hunter 4 on the 3DS, the global community has become comfortable with the existing weapon selection. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, or a major update for the next Monster Hunter, could introduce one new weapon type to shake things up and draw interest. Some of the last major additions Monster Hunter Frontier implemented in the years leading up to its closure were the Tonfa and Magnet Spike weapons, and the mobile Monster Hunter Explore premiered the Accel Axe. With some adjustments, these would slot in naturally to modern Monster Hunter’s mobility-focused gameplay, and could provide a new target for veteran hunters to grind toward.
Monster Hunter Rise is available now for PC and Switch, with the Sunbreak expansion set to release in Summer 2022.
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