Monster Hunter Outlanders Preview – What if this is the best Monster Hunter of 2025?

It’s been a mixed year for Monster Hunter. Wilds released to much furore, hardly surprising when it’s the most visually impressive, mechanically complete, and approachable entry in the series to date, but Capcom have really struggled to nail down the game’s performance on PC, and players soon realised that with the lowered difficulty and small-scale updates, it was a shorter-lived game. But maybe Monster Hunter Outlanders can be the antidote?

Capcom, Level Infinite and developers Timi are hoping to change Monster Hunter’s fortunes in 2025 with Monster Hunter Outlanders. This all-new, original title is coming to Mobile (and perhaps PC if you’re smart enough to do some Android emulating), bringing with it the whole Monster Hunter experience, rather than a cut-down mobile version you’d have expected even a few years ago.

Oho ho. This is Monster Hunter. If you’ve played any of the games before, the action is immediately recognisable and fluid, and specifically, it feels like a proper Monster Hunter title. It starts, though, with choosing a character, and there’s a mix of all-new characters with their own look and special skills, alongside the traditional adventurer who’s capable of using any of the included 14 weapons.

They range from Pepe, who uses a Heavy Bowgun, leaping into the air and attacking freely while she’s airborne, through to Madelyne, who attaches spores to monsters while attacking with her Bow, detonating them when they reach a high enough stack. Midori is pegged as an ideal choice for Monster Hunter veterans, using a Long Sword, and retaining the classic Spirit Gauge mechanic, though with better mobility and more ways to build Spirit Gauge.

Staying true to type, I went with Great Sword, though after Wilds, I’m also thoroughly happy playing with the Bow. The character design is once again clearly Monster Hunter, though there’s a perhaps a slight move towards a more Eastern-influenced design rather than Western. It looks like the pre-built characters have been designed to pick up and play a little easier, and as the ones in our demo are largely ranged combatants, it feels like they’re supposed to stay out of danger.

I definitely did not stay out of danger. Our hands-on gave us two monsters to fight, the Radiant Pukei Pukei and the Radiant Rathalos. Both of them were instantly recognisable, but while much of their moveset remains unchanged, there’s a few new moves that will surprise and delight returning fans and veterans. That saw Pukei Pukei raining down poison in a larger AOE attack, while Rathalos’ flame attacks became even more dangerous.

Timi might have eyed up a little bit of Wild Hearts when it was creating Outlanders too, and there’s some new traversal mechanics to help you get around the levels faster, starting with the zipline, which takes you from A to B with ease. There’s also the Ballista, which can fire you semi-gracefully into the sky, from where you can make use of the Breath of the Wild-style glider to get above your prey before hammering down on them with a weapon blow.

There’s also a grappling hook, and maybe even more things that we haven’t seen, but they help to make getting around much easier, even without a Palamute or Seikret to ride on, which has recently become my biggest worry for any future Monster Hunter games. Seriously, do you remember when we had to run everywhere? Outlanders seems to be getting this right, and there’s also fast travel back to camp to keep frustration at a minimum and the hunts coming thick and fast.

The most interesting thing about Outlanders is that playing on a touchscreen still worked well, though if you have the option of a controller, you’re going to take that every time. Alongside your regular attacks, with standard combos coming through repeated presses, there’s a series of more mobile moves, a dodge, and then the special move, which lets you dish out some major damage as well as looking very cool.

We were joined through this hunt by an AI character, and I hope that remains an option in the full release, as it’s not always convenient to play with others, something only amplified by the mobile format. There’s also your Palico, and an owl pal called a Trillan, who can help out with some airborne healing, and other support skills, if you need it. He kept me alive once or twice in the heat of battle, and he’s pretty cute to boot. I assume you’ll be able to dress him up with some finery like the rest of your crew.

Visually, Outlanders looks smart and detailed, with lush greenery stretching off into the distance, and the monsters look as good as they have done elsewhere, at least as good as the Hi-Res PS5 version of Monster Hunter Ride. Outlanders is clearly pushing the current crop of mobile hardware pretty hard. Our test unit was an iPhone 16 Pro, and even with a cooling fan, they were running pretty warm – something the 17 Pro has tried to solve that problem. That said, they were also pulling all-day duty on the Tokyo Game Show floor, and by the time I played, they’d have been running for at least four hours, so maybe we shouldn’t put too much stock in that.

I’ve been left impressed and hopeful by Monster Hunter Outlanders. It seems like a true entry in the Monster Hunter franchise, and one which marries classic action with a more recognisable hunting loop. If they get the customisation and crafting right – and there’s not too much in the way of aggressive monetisation – then I can see it being a huge hit on mobile when it launches for iOS and Android.

If you want to give Monster Hunter Outlanders a try, closed beta registration is now open ahead of a test in mid-November.