Monster Hunter Wilds DLC Announced, Is Lao-Shan Lung Coming Back?

According to Gamersky, Monster Hunter Wilds officially unveiled its major expansion, Ascendance, during today's Summer Game Fest. The reveal trailer confirms the return of Kushala Daora, an Elder Dragon missing from the base game, and also brings back the colossal Elder Dragon Lao-Shan Lung. For now, the catch is that the related video is still marked "under review," so early discussion is forming around a limited slice of footage.

More striking than the title itself is the trailer image of a hunter facing down a giant dragon. It taps into a kind of pressure this series has always been good at creating. Monster Hunter rarely needs a lot of speechmaking to sell its drama; it does it better through scale, positioning, and the environment, showing exactly why someone would step forward and take on something enormous.

The article says Ascendance carries the meaning of "rising," and the trailer also shows terrain resembling floating islands. That matters because it suggests more than just a new map. It points to a more vertical approach to hunt design. Chasing a monster across open ground creates one kind of tension; adding height changes that relationship, and with it the rhythm players may be used to.

The trailer's most memorable move is pairing Kushala Daora with Lao-Shan Lung. Kushala Daora was absent from the base game, so its return is a very direct signal that this expansion is not just dressing itself up with a new setting. It also seems designed to tap into the series history longtime players already carry with them. Lao-Shan Lung, meanwhile, changes the mood the moment it appears. A monster like that doesn't come across as a standard hard fight. It feels more like a large-scale threat than a typical hunt.

The one thing holding this back, for now, is the incomplete rollout. With the video still sitting in "under review" status, the available information is limited. For a game that relies heavily on presentation and atmosphere, smooth trailer distribution matters. That directly affects how much early momentum the reveal can build. Right now, the main talking points are Kushala Daora's return, Lao-Shan Lung's reappearance, and whether those floating-island-like areas will be the expansion's main mechanical hook.

If you already play the base game and especially enjoy the ritual of Elder Dragon hunts and oversized monster encounters, this DLC is clearly worth watching. If you care more about story setup, companion interactions, or the specifics of new systems, waiting for a proper official video and more gameplay footage is probably the smarter move. A single shot can create excitement, but it can't sustain it on its own. What matters is whether the full expansion still looks worth following once Capcom shows more of it.

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