Monster Hunter Wilds will have a spider-free mode for those with arachnophobia

Spider dislikers, your concerns have been noted. At least by Capcom, anyway. The developers of Monster Hunter Wilds are including an option in the upcoming beast-skinning action RPG that will turn all arachnid style monsters into something much less creepy and/or crawly.

The spider-free option was spotted by players of the PlayStation Plus beta test (as noticed by Automaton). It's called "Arachnophobia assistance" in the accessibility options, and reads: "Adjusts the appearance of multi-legged creatures such as arachnids, insect-like small monsters, and endemic life." The description also notes that it won't alter the difficulty or "creature movements".

So how does it deal with eight-legged monsters? They become slimes, of course. As Automaton note, so far only small monsters appear to be accounted for. It's not clear how larger monsters with spider-like legs will be altered, if at all. What even counts as "spider-like" anyway? When your game is full of hybrid creatures that take inspiration from all sorts of wildlife, that line where a phobia kicks in may be hard to define.

Monster Hunter Wilds is not the first game to do this sort of thing. Even this week, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 came out with an arachnophobia mode in its zombies campaign. Meanwhile, shrunken survival game Grounded has an extensive arachnophobia mode that lets you disable or enable every individual element of what makes a spider scary. You can get rid of the legs but keep the fangs, for example. Or just turn it into a harmless pair of spheres.

The PC beta for Monster Hunter Wilds isn't arriving on Steam until October 31st, so we won't be able to investigate the monstrous wilderness ourselves just yet. But if you do play, you'll be able to import your character when the full game releases on February 28th next year (actual progression through the game's opening chapter will not be saved though, say Capcom).