Monster Hunter Wilds finally has a demo, with big limitations

The Monster Hunter Wilds Prologue Demo gives players a chance to experience a fair chunk of the game’s opening. You’ll be able to create your Hunter and Palico, the game’s feline companion species. The demo contains everything from the game’s start through “Chapter 1–3: To the Forest,” the fifth mission. That will give you a few hours to get familiar with Wilds‘ world and decide whether it’s right for you.

For those who are convinced by the demo, progress will carry over to the full game if purchased. There are two features not available in the demo. The first is photo mode, meaning you’ll have to go without perfectly posed portraits of your lovingly crafted Hunter. More significantly, all online features are excluded from the demo. That means you won’t be able to tackle the prologue missions with friends. While that won’t make a huge difference in the game’s opening hours, it does mean players won’t get a complete picture of the franchise’s collaborative gameplay loop.

The release of the new demo coincides with a change to the Monster Hunter Wilds product lineup. Earlier this week, Capcom streamlined the different versions of Wilds available for purchase. The $79.99 Gold Edition collects several DLC and cosmetic add-ons into one bundle, while the base game has been reduced to $39.99. A paid expansion for Wilds, Ascendance, is set to be released in 2027.

Monster Hunter Wilds is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. A Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game is currently in development.