During Monster Hunter Wilds’ first open beta test round at the end of 2024, players discovered one hilarious detail – their characters would look cartoonishly angry and misshapen when holding a shield. This seems to have been fixed in the meantime, as director Yuya Tokuda previously promised.
While it would be unreasonable to expect your hunter to wear a refreshing smile or poker face while fending off monsters x times their size, Monster Hunter Wilds players couldn’t help but notice that their characters looked kind of ridiculous while holding shields in the game’s initial beta period. Even the prettiest and most baby-faced characters would develop a deep, exaggerated frown, cartoon-like angry eyebrows and an impressive chin, as if they’d suddenly started mewing.
In a pre-launch community update in December, Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda said (as reported by GameWatch) that the idea was to make characters look determined while holding a shield, but that it was not his intent to make them look like that. As such, he assured players that the bug would be addressed.
The developers delivered on what they promised it seems, as Denfaminicogamer confirms that the full game introduces a much more “dignified” facial expression for characters holding a shield.
Monster Hunter Wilds will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam) on February 28.
