The MHWilds campaign is objectively made badly.
Not because the story itself sucks… but because the characters absolutely waste your time during them, 90% of the time it feels.
There’s a boatload of meaningful information or character development possible while upholding the MH-style… but instead it’s really low quality slob.
I think the split there is because the core of the story is fun but the execution of the story is plainly spoken: dogshit.
Hrmm…
Kinda yes, kinda no.
Because lets face it, how many years will it take at the current pace for the campaign to be finished and also in a decent state?
It’s not even ‘great’ when you play the first time. Sure, the core of the story is solid (like in Monster Hunter) but the execution is beyond abhorrent.
There’s quite a lot of grating friction points where you loose immersion by the character behaving unfitting for the situation, the difficulty and the bit that it’s simply unfinished still.
That’s a boatload to fix before people can actually say ‘it’s a good campaign!’. A few major things can be fixed swiftly (like the placeholder after Act 9 progressing into Monolith which is just utter nonsense. Zero effort, even for a placeholder) and others which will simply take years from now without dedicated focus.
Are players hence supposed to have a ‘crappy experience’ for all the time?
I’m not sure. Because at the other hand I don’t trust EHG to properly re-instate the campaign when it got all the major stuff solved, and feedback would also not be adequate meaning even after re-instating it loads of balance basses would nonetheless be needed.
EHG simply put themselves in a ‘doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t’ situation with their early 1.0 release and the inadvertently following expectations (and viable ones) coming along with that.
How many reasons should I call out? (Spoilers ahead, beware!)
Balance wise off-screen enemies appear far too early (Act 1!)… that’s very grating for a new player experience. Do we have to handle that non-stop in this game hence? Doesn’t feel good.
The character is barely introduced. What’s the backstory? Does a backstory exist? Hello diplomat which is a nondescriptive ‘story blob’ you’re playing! If there’s distinct classes which have their own voicelines then make them at least distinct and give them personality!
After coming back to the Divine Era the whole story derails. The Epoch suddenly looses the position as the most powerful artifact even gods fear since now suddenly only the lance can kill gods. Consistency has been thrown a bit out the window now. Also… why search for the lance when it’s already given away? Go the heck back to when it was made and take it, you’re the holder of the Epoch! And if not back there then go to friggin Eterra before the whole shit-show happens. But… it would suffice to warn him before the fight he has happens in the first place, so he’s properly prepared and has a fighter with the lance with him… but nah. But that’s beside the point.
Yrun’s ending makes exactly 0 sense. She acts against the wills of everyone and you kill her. It’s not explained at all. Acts against everyone, motives unclear… not great from a story perspective to say it mildly.
The next is a chicken chase for the others gods… which makes no sense. Get the damn back in time finally and don’t do it while the darn world is in a complete war! Only to end in Act 9 with getting the lance… and throwing your priority overboard as another one comes up. I mean… that should’ve been done from the start, everything from returning to your timeline to that was utter and entire filler solely.
And that’s mostly story issues. Not even talking about positioning of bosses, their mechanics not leading up to Lagon and Majasa and the follow-up alternative timelines in the Monoliths having no explanation as to how they come to happen. What did change to cause em?