Monster Hunter Wilds Prologue Demo comes to Switch 2 on October 19

Capcom will release the Monster Hunter Wilds Prologue demo on Switch 2 on October 19, according to Eurogamer. The full game launches on the console on December 4.

Eurogamer reports that the demo covers the opening of the game and ends when players reach the start of Chapter 1-3, “To the Forest.” All 14 weapon types can be tried, and the character creator is fully available. Progress carries over to the full game, as it does with the demo on PC and other consoles.

The demo is offline only, so online four-player hunts aren’t included. The Switch 2 version does add one option the other versions lack: local multiplayer. Players with the demo installed on their own Switch 2 systems can team up nearby and take on some of the hunts together.

The demo lets players check the game’s performance on Switch 2 themselves. Eurogamer notes that many players have wondered how the hardware would handle a game this large, especially after the performance complaints that followed the game’s original launch. Since then, Capcom has changed the game in response to criticism of its difficulty, and patches have improved its performance.

Capcom has also said the work on the Switch 2 version helped improve the game on other platforms. It described getting the game ready to ship on the console as a “painstaking, seemingly endless process,” as quoted by Eurogamer.

Eurogamer says the Switch 2 release is part of Capcom’s push to make Wilds more successful than Monster Hunter World. Capcom is also working on an expansion for the game called Ascendance.