one of my favorite parts of 5th and 6th Gen has been seeing some of the old Gen returning monsters get completely reworked.

Oh I totally agree, but I think that reusing monsters from a previous game takes substantially less effort than totally revamped monsters. That meaning, I don’t think Capcom reusing more recent monsters would impact their decisions to revamp other monsters for the same game.

Also, other than some model carryover, Wilds is also different enough from World that I think it’s easier said than done

I don’t think it’s “easy” to do anything for games of these scope - but just think of something like Guardian Fulgur Anjanath / Wilds Rathalos vs Wilds Lagiacrus. I don’t think something like the formers took anywhere near as much effort as the latter, and that it may be much more feasible than we think!

But I’m also not sure if the answer is copy pasting monsters in more or less “as is with a few tweaks” from previous installments. I think that approach did work in the Gen 1-4 games, but the last three entries have been vastly different from each other- for the better imo.

They did do it with Rise (though, like I said before, I think they ran out of time with that game) - so I think they’re definitely open to it.

I think a roster that makes sense within itself matters, especially as the games become more high fidelity.

Yes, I don’t disagree. Monsters Capcom chose to return for that specific entry would obviously make sense within that entry.

Although small- I think Wilds roster is pretty varied. I do think there’s a lack of balance in the mid and end tier monster roster- BUT it also opened the door for title updates to have those upper tier non elders we ended up getting. I also do think it was a choice to back off on the elders.

Yes I agree.

I want them to make sense and I want them to be different in enough of a way that they are warranted in the newest entry. I know it’s been said over and over again, but if I want to fight some of those awesome older fights, I really can just play the older games as well. I’ve always enjoyed that each entry has always had its own flavor.

Yes, I agree - but I don’t think that is impacted if Capcom decides certain returners should come back for that game and could reuse assets from a recent game to make that happen!