Monster Hunter Wilds’ Non-Stop Notifications Are Stressing Me Out

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I feel like I can’t go two minutes without some piece of technology demanding my attention these days. Usually it’s my phone delivering a near-constant stream of notifications at all hours of the day. Here’s a new article you might like, there’s a new Google Opinion Survey to take, it’s Roselia spotlight hour in Pokemon Go, here’s a photo collage we made for you, here’s your credit card bill, here’s your spam email, here’s your real email, an item on your Steam wishlist is on sale. Look at me. LOOK AT ME.

And if I look away from my phone, it’s my TV telling me there’s a firmware update for the remote, or my Echo announcing that there’s an update on my Amazon order, or my water machine beeping to tell me to change the filter. I can’t believe I’ve created a life where machines need so much from me, and that the thing that made me realize how big of a problem this is was Monster Hunter Wilds.

You Have 96 Unread Messages

Can Monster Hunter Wilds leave us alone and let us play the game for one God forsaken second? Why do we need a constant stream of notifications permanently cluttering up the right side of the screen? It’s as if Capcom said “hey, you know what people really hate? Let’s do that!” Maybe they thought we’re all so desensitized to notifications by now that we wouldn’t be phased by non-stop pop-up messages, but the whole thing is starting to send me over the edge.

The voice actor behind Gemma feels the same way.

Maybe they wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t so overwhelmingly useless. I don’t care if Y’Sai wants to share a meal in the Basin, I’m hunting Arkveld in the plains! I don’t care if Balahara stepped on a trap nearby, I’m still hunting Arkveld in the plains! There’s a Blue Mushroom surge in the cliffs? I don’t care! I’m hunting Arkveld in the plains! No matter what you’re doing, Monster Hunter is constantly sending you messages about something else you could be doing, and it’s not helping me enjoy the game more whatsoever.

If you really want to be cursed with notifications, try using a build that has an activated skill like Burst of Maximum Might, you’re going to get a notification every single time the Skill turns on, and another one when it turns off. For short-term skills like Peak Performance, that means near-constant notifications, on top of all the others that never stop rolling in.

Do I need to know a monster has found my camp one and a half seconds before the monster destroys the camp? Do I need to know every time a random monster shocks itself during a paratoad outbreak? 99 percent of these notifications are completely useless. The only thing I ever need to know is when I break a monster part, when the support ship arrives, and when a teammate carts. That’s it, nothing else.

The Notifications Don’t Even Make Sense

Where are these messages supposed to be coming from anyway? How would my hunter know that a villager miles away wants to share a meal with her? Text message? How on earth would I be aware that two monsters I can’t see are having a turf war? Wilds abandons a lot of the hunter simulation aspects that I loved about the older games in favor of approachability, but this notification system just spits in the face of immersion.

I saved my worst complaint for last, and I suspect anyone who has played Wilds knows exactly what I’m about to say: why did Capcom ever think it was a good idea to disable the map until the notifications are gone. Is this some kind of joke? 80 hours into Wilds and I’m still mashing the map button every five minutes wondering why it won’t open, before I remember that I have to hold the map button down to close all the notifications first.

It’s lunacy, and I’d hold responsible every playtester who ever worked on Wilds and didn’t demand the immediate removal of this totally unnecessary hindrance. Rathalos is about to leave the area? There’s a blastnut surge in the Scarlet Forest? Fulgar Anjaneth wants to connect on LinkedIn? I don’t care, just let me look at the map for Pukei’s sake.

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2025-03-15 21:06