Monster Hunter Wilds’ ghastly spider monster is actually key to the game’s more approachable design

Monster Hunter Wilds features an absolutely dreadful spider monster – a spider that, going by preview encounters and trailers, strives for the point on the Venn diagram between Malenia in Elden Ring and the demon arachnid from Hunt: Showdown. The spider monster is called the Lala Barina. If I saw “Lala Barina” out of context I would assume I was reading about a successor to Suzuki’s subcompact automobile the Holden Barina, whose brave and sturdy outline once graced the roads of Oceania. I would not picture a giant, greasy rose blossom with jet-black darting mandibles. I would not picture nests of scarlet silk and status effects literally out the wazoo.

The good news is that the Lala Barina isn’t just an absolute bastard spider. It’s a teacher. This is the impression given by Wilds producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Yuya Tokuda, who have been talking to Polygon about the game’s newly newcomer-friendly design. “Looking back at Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Rise, we focused on where first-time players would drop out from the game,” Tsujimoto told the site. “From there, we analyzed that player data and looked into how much we can address – that was our homework for Monster Hunter Wilds.”

The fruits of this analysis come across throughout in the addition of handholds like the Seikret, a rideable lizard who’ll guide you towards your prey. But they’re especially apparent in the game’s first few hours, which are sort of one big tutorial. While learning the ropes, you’ll tangle with the toadlike Chatacabra, the bovine Doshaguma (alas! My beloved), the Brute Wyvern Quematrice, the Rompompolo – a T-Rex crossed with a mosquito – and our lovely friend the Lala Barina.

Should you find these creatures appalling, you may rejoice in the knowledge that they are there to subtly inculcate the basics of Monster Hunting. “At the beginning of the game, you’ll first fight Chatacabra, which teaches the players how to avoid big attacks,” Tokuda explained to Polygon. “For Quematrice, the next monster that you fight, it uses its long tail. It has a very wide area attack, so it teaches you to dodge. Next is Lala Barina, which uses a lot of tricky movements; it moves out of sight of players, so it teaches them how to control their camera.” The Lala Barina harbours other lessons for new players: its many status effects result from a rich diet of forest mushrooms. Perhaps you’ll learn about those mushrooms while it’s kicking your arse.

You know, it all reminds me of how Halo: Combat Evolved taught us the basics of camera control. Halo did it by having a guy hold up a flashlight for you to look at while securely lodged in a cryopod. Seems a bit gentle by comparison. Perhaps Capcom could shore up the association by having the Lala Barina wield some glowsticks. This would also usefully prevent it from using some of its limbs to murder you.

I’m also reminded of Bloodborne, which will surely release on PC one of these days: there’s a boss in that game, Father Gascoigne, who has a terrifying launch attack that opens with him dragging his blade across the terrain in a cacophony of sparks. That move always used to paralyse me till I realised that the theatrical wind-up exists to teach you how to parry. Yes, this seems closer to the Wilds experience.

I’m writing this article partly because Wilds is making a big deal of tying the simulated ecology into the “gamier” elements, and I really like the idea that certain boss anatomies and behaviours are elaborate pedagogic devices. Perhaps building on my Animal Well review from last year, I think there is much to say about how digital interfaces may become bestial and how beasts may come to resemble HUD elements and how all that connects to older traditions of animal symbolism and heraldry. If you’re less enthused about such topics than you are bothered about having to fight a schoolmasterly tarantula, the buried lede, I guess, is that Monster Hunter Wilds has an arachophobia mode.