It’s been an unexpectedly rough year for Monster Hunter Wilds. The game, which many assumed would be a massive success after the juggernaut sales of Monster Hunter World, has floundered a little post-launch. Capcom has been eager to point the finger on various factors, such as the price of a PS5 being a high barrier to entry, but the fact remains that the game’s sales are lagging behind the ageing Street Fighter 6 and Monster Hunter Rise’s DLC.

Now, in an interview with IGN, Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda has appealed to players to consider jumping back into the game again, promising various tweaks the devs have made – and are planning to make – have righted the wrongs the game suffered at launch.

“We analyzed what kind of places beginners were stuck in, including Monster Hunter: World,” Tokuda explained. “We have worked on these points in turn to make it easier for new users to clear hurdles such as being able to reach certain monsters or to craft certain types of armour.

“In addition, we have tried to adopt as many new elements as possible that are beneficial for both beginners and existing users, such as Focus Mode. This time, as a result of making the game easy to beat even for new players and players who could not clear it before, I think the difficulty curve was a little lacking for existing users.”

This point is notable: many (assumedly now lapsed) players found the game far too easy, especially by Monster Hunter standards. The resultant ‘overwhelmingly negative’ plunge on Steam is partially to blame for the game’s lack of stickiness with players, which must have come as something of a shock to Capcom given how loyal MonHun fans typically tend to be.

On the upside, though, various free updates have added more difficult gameplay to the title over the course of the year, and recently we saw a Final Fantasy 14 crossover go live with an absolute nightmare of an encounter in the form of Omega Planetes – something even end-game veterans struggled to put down.

“If you beat the game immediately after its release and stopped playing, I would appreciate it if you could pick it up again.”

Need more motivation? You’re in luck: Capcom today announced the next Monster Hunter Showcase will air on Monday, 8th December 8. The showcase will cover Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 4 and provide us with another look at Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection.

It’ll be broadcast on YouTube and Twitch at 2 PM PT / 10 PM GMT. So far, we know Monster Hunter Wilds TU4 will re-introduce us Gogmazios (an oil-slicked Elder Dragon we’ve not seen since Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate), expand end-game content, bring in new weapon buffs, start a new seasonal event, apply performance improvements, and more besides.

It launches on December 16 for all platforms. Just in time for the holidays, then.