With a Cat and a Sword: Monster Hunter Wilds was released entirely in Russian for the first time

Eight million copies in the first three days of sales — Monster Hunter Wilds has already become the fastest-selling game in Capcom's history, and this company is responsible for the iconic Resident Evil and Street Fighter series. On Steam, the game managed to enter the top ten unique releases, which were played by more than 1 million people at the same time. At the same time, the computer version of even not very powerful PCs comes with technical problems — Izvestia waited for the PS5 version, which was brought to Russia just a few days after the worldwide release on February 28. Nothing slows down there, everything looks beautiful, but this game can equally make you love yourself and hate yourself. We explain why.

Monster Hunter Wilds looks like a classic Japanese movie

The classic of Japanese cinema Masaki Kobayashi made one of his best films "Seppuku" in 1962. The prologue of this painting is impossible to forget. The impoverished ronin came to his sovereign, told about his desperate situation and asked him for permission to make seppuku as a sign of the deepest despair right in front of all the servants. Ronin hoped that the master would be amazed by this gesture, give his servant a gift and let him go in peace, but the master suddenly accepted the offer. Honor did not allow Ronin to refuse. The problem is that he pawned his ritual knife, and there was a piece of wood in the sheath. And he had to use this piece of wood, slowly and painfully.

This scene remains in the memory for decades after watching, Kobayashi is a genius of cinema. And it is this image of slow and meaningless seppuku that comes to mind while playing Monster Hunter Wilds, but not because it is also Japanese and that there are swords and knives there too. The thing is that the main feature of this series in general and Monster Hunter Wilds in particular is the very slow killing of giant monsters.

Suffice it to say that the very first battle, like a demo, a prelude to the game, lasts about ten minutes, and during all this time our chosen character does very little damage to the monster. Literally, inch by inch, it pierces the thick armor. The monster kicks, knocks the hero away, who gets to his feet and continues to chop the monster. The weapon is blunted — you need to sharpen it in real time. The beast is weakening, trying to escape, we must catch up with it and beat it further until the wounded monster collapses lifeless at the feet of the winner. After that, you need to carve the carcass to extract useful items from it. And you can start preparing for the next hunt.

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We have specially attached the entire recording of one such fight to show how it really happens. Moreover, the battle takes place not only with the enemy, but also with the complex interface of the game. Controlling a hunter is almost the same as becoming a fighter pilot. Monster Hunter Wilds, without any special warnings, immediately pours out a million menus all over the screen; a bunch of weapons that are not so easy to choose from because they have too many characteristics; a roomy inventory with so many items at once that the eyes do not know where to look. And then there will be a recipe book, because each dish affects the characteristics of the hunter, and for everything you need to look for ingredients, accessories, spare parts. In addition, the game cannot even be paused during the hunt, all decisions have to be made in real time.

It may seem that all this is some kind of nightmare for gamers, but it was this gameplay that made the Monster Hunter series iconic and divided video game fans into those who liked it and those who, at the mere mention of "Monhan", frown disgustedly, remembering these endless battles that also have to be replayed in in case of defeat, and the accumulation of objects, weapons and products, which endlessly need to dig into to choose the most effective way of fighting.

You can recall "The Witcher" or the last parts of Final Fantasy, where this also had to be done, but still there hunting was not just the main thing, but the only core of the game, it was rather a pleasant part of the process, and if the battle lasted longer than five minutes, most likely it was an optional extra-plot move, a bonus for those who wants more.

How to play Monster Hunter Wilds in Russia

Monster Hunter Wilds is the first game in the series with a twenty-year story that has been completely dubbed into Russian. A special gift for fans is that along with humans, intelligent helper seals are fighting monsters here, but here they have become speaking for the first time - and they also communicate in Russian. All this makes the game especially attractive to the Russian user — a copy for the PS5 was provided to Izvestia by the country's largest distributor of video games, Achivka.

But there is, as they say, a nuance. The fact is that Monster Hunter Wilds are most often bought all over the world for cooperative play, in other words, for joint hunting. One is holding the monster by the tail, the other is poking with an axe, the third is trying to ride it, the fourth is shooting arrows from afar, the fifth is trying to bring down stones from the ceiling of the cave on the monster. That's why, by the way, there is no pause.: then it would be impossible to play normally online. So, in Russia, you can buy a CD with Monster Hunter Wilds, but online modes require a subscription, and you can't pay for it from a domestic account for the last three years. Therefore, there are two options: either use various kinds of bypasses of this obstacle, that is, create a foreign account, work card, etc., or play single mode, thereby depriving yourself of the delights of multiplayer.

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In single-player mode, the game takes much longer (because there is no one to help in the battles), but you pay more attention to the drama. You can feel the mood of a fantastic planet where dangerous predators are found in deserts, most of the population hides in villages among rocks, rocks or giant trees, and only armed groups of hunters dare to travel, to which our chosen hero (or heroine, this does not affect anything).

Of course, there is a lot of convention here. It is necessary to accept very quickly that hunters wield heavy and inconvenient tools, wear impractical clothes, communicate with cats, and some team members look like ethnographic students who definitely have nowhere to appear in these places.

But gradually the plot begins to drag on, and I really want to help the boy from the secret tribe of Guardians find his family, especially since all this is connected with another grandiose threat hanging over the planet. And only you (us?) you can save the world, but for this you just need to cut up many, many animal carcasses, which for the most part have done nothing wrong to anyone, just happened to be on our way and we need them to make potions or a new strong armor.

And everything would be fine, but every time during the numerous battles, the image of the unfortunate Ronin pops up. And this, on the one hand, makes me uneasy, but on the other, well, it means that the authors of the game were able to touch a nerve, since it hurts so much.