Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance Preview – Brace for a boost combo (and the Switch 2 port)

We’re big fans of Monster Hunter here at TSA. Between us, we’ve likely played every entry in the franchise. Naturally, we liked some games more than others, with Wilds getting a very respectable 9/10 back in 2025.

There were some complaints that the game was too easy at launch, and while there is some weight to the argument, not every game needs to be punishingly hard. Plus, we’re all pretty skilled at the franchise these days, so the difficulty isn’t much of an obstacle for us. Case in point: when I sat down to play my first preview of Wilds, I blew our PR’s mind by separating Rey Dau from its tail — something not easily done with the questionable loadout used at a preview session, and something he assured us was a world first.

So it’s with this in mind that we sat down to play a preview of Ascendance, the new DLC for Monster Hunter Wilds coming some time in 2027.

Other than the usual new cast of creatures to hunt, Ascendance features a fancy new gimmick: the Boost Bracer. This is what we’re really here to try out. Laughing off the idea of testing this out on a low-powered monster in a tutorial, I jumped on my Seikret and legged it over to the new Alpha while checking what the devs had kindly chucked in my item bag. A standard cocktail of Mega and Max Potions, and a few rations, but not much else of genuine use. It was pretty much just me and my sword.

As we approached the new monster, the Alpha Araketa, we got a nifty little pop-up explaining what the Boost Bracer actually is. Essentially, once you have stock of the Boost Gauge at the bottom of your screen, you can press R1, Triangle and Circle to perform a powerful action unique to each weapon. This also enhances your weapon and unlocks new attacks — some of which were pretty devastating, though I will admit a quick run where half of the time was spent dodging wasn’t enough time to master new them.

What I can say at this point is that it is pretty satisfying filling the screen with a tonne of new attacks while pulling off new combos. I’m looking forward to a longer play session in the future where I can sit down and really explore what this new mechanic is and master a new skill for a weapon I’ve loved since the halcyon days of Monster Hunter 2 on the PSP.

The Boost Gauge replenishes over time and when you attack the monsters around you, which is very handy considering Alpha Araketa is no slouch. This fancy new bird wyvern likes to fight in packs, which means that we weren’t just fighting the Alpha, we were also trying to dance around its two buddies who were trying to attack us at the same time. As Araketa fled to new parts of the map — to get away from the flurry of Boost attacks, no doubt — it was invariably followed by this retinue.

The coolest part of fighting new monsters, of course, is learning their attacks. Araketa, it seems, was born when a torpedo and a sonic cannon had a baby. This thing is extremely fast, loves shooting you with an air-cannon-like appendage at the tip of its wings and dive bombs the hell out of you when you enrage it. This move hurts, I can promise you that.

After 30 minutes of slashing, dodging, wishing I had Earplugs and Flash Bombs, and chugging the occasional Mega Potion after getting hit by a new attack, we finally had it on the ropes. Two broken wings, a broken skull and a limping Alpha Araketa was our sign that things were wrapping up. A few minutes later, Alpha Araketa was down and our grinning PR was asking if we wanted a real fight.

Araketa was rank M2. He replenished my potions and dropped me in a fight against an M5 Teostra, telling me that the Devs said this was most likely impossible with this loadout. After 15 minutes of dodging and firing off Boost Gauges like it’s already going out of fashion, I carted, but that was fine because I was out of time anyway.

It’s safe to say that while Monster Hunter Wilds was easier than the average Monster Hunter game, there are plenty of challenging battles to keep even the most seasoned hunter engaged. Add the new mechanics that are being thrown our way, and Ascendance has really caught our eye. Undoubtedly, things like Teostra are easier with a carefully selected loadout and a practised hand when it comes to the Boost Bracer, but we don’t expect this DLC to be a walk in the park.

For now though, we’re happy to say we’re excited to get our hands on it again soon.

Despite running out of time with the PS5 version, we did have the opportunity to check out the Switch 2 version as well, which is releasing on December 4th.

Naturally, this isn’t the final build of the game and comes with the usual caveats that things are subject to change as the game code is finalised. I could tell you that the graphics aren’t as good as the PS5, that the frame rate needed an optional cap, and that the grass was a little rough, but we should all know by now what we’re getting into when we play Switch 2 ports. And as I say, this was an unfinished build, so there’s still time to keep optimising the performance and tweaking graphics settings.

The important thing is that this is absolutely playable in handheld mode. This time around we were playing the base game, going against a 4* Quematrice, so significantly easier than anything else we played that day, and we took it down in a cool 10 minutes.

This short play session threw me back to those aforementioned days of playing Monster Hunter 2 Freedom Unite on the bus to school, adopting the weirdest bird-talon-claw-grips needed to move the camera as I dodge and attack. Wilds on the Switch 2 is far more comfortable to play, but the nostalgia certainly brought the biggest smile to my face.

How the game feels (and more importantly, how your hands feel) after a longer play session, how it responds to being paused via the lock screen, and other considerations will all form part of our full Switch 2 port review later this year — for now though, we’re happy to see the game being opened out to a wider audience.

Tags: Monster Hunter Wilds, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, Nintendo Switch 2