Capcom's had enough of all those players going around in Monster Hunter: Wilds, having fun, and not opening their wallets. It wants some microtransaction money and it wants it now. And so, dear reader, it has deployed the most dastardly tactic of all: swimwear.
That sound you hear is millions of hunters groaning as, almost unbidden, they navigate to the storepage for the upcoming Festival of Accord: Flamefete seasonal event. The summer-themed event comes with a seasonal Grand Hub, new armour sets for hunter and palico, new events and cosmetics, and then a bunch of summer outfits for certain carefully selected characters.
Handlers Alma and Erik get attractive and somewhat revealing outfits that are fairly typical summer wear: open shirts, ponchos, flowery necklaces, and heart-shaped sunglasses. Gemma the blacksmith, on the other hand, gets an itsy-bitsy teeny weeny green and rather tight bikini. She's also wearing some sort of light overalls around it, but the designers have helpfully ensured that they don't cover much.
Listen closely, and you can almost hear Capcom CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto's words on the breeze: cha-ching! All of the outfits will be worn by the characters as part of the summer event, and can be bought as part of the Flamefete DLC pack, which also includes a bunch of the usual Monster Hunter gubbins: pendants, gestures, stickers, and a Seikret decoration.
I should say that, while there are paid elements here, huge chunks of the summer event are free for all players, with things like login bonuses over the period, special foods, various vouchers for exclusive trinkets, and a huge number of rolling events and bounties (here's the official schedule).
One especially nice touch is a new gesture: Water Gun. This gives your character a water gun, and you can both move and dodge while firing as well as spamming the button to soak your comrades.
Finally, for the duration of the event Fabius (Hunter’s Guild head honcho) can now occasionally join you on missions as a support hunter. Also, it doesn't seem to mention this in the announcement, but towards the end of the release video a hunter is definitely using a gunlance that is a giant corn on the cob. The Festival of Accord: Flamefete event runs from July 23 to August 6.
