Alright guys, summer break is over, time to come back to this subreddit with my copium reserves fully restored.
Let me see if I've got this straight. During the Capcom Showcase on September 16, they'll finally show Ascendance again, and specifically announce the return of an Elder Dragon whose hunt will be playable in a demo available at TGS. As usual, the demo will apparently feature three hunts: a beginner hunt against Chatacabra, an intermediate hunt against a new monster, and an advanced hunt against the aforementioned Elder Dragon.
So, here are my predictions, mostly based on what they did with Iceborne. The Chatacabra will probably just be the standard one we already know. I don't think it'll be a variant or anything like that—Iceborne had Great Jagras in the same slot. The new monster will obviously be the Flying Wyvern we saw at Summer Game Fest. SO MAYBE WE'LL FINALLY GET A PROPER PACK HUNT, WITH ACTUAL UNIQUE PATTERNS AND MOVESETS. And the Elder Dragon will be—MAXIMUM COPIUM—Namielle. That would also give them the perfect marketing opportunity to show off the visuals by having its presence change the weather and environment of the Scarlet Forest.
There's one thing I haven't figured out, though: when are they going to start releasing those short showcases for each weapon's Boost Bracer? Because I'm almost convinced they're starting tomorrow, September 2. September 2 through September 15 is exactly 14 days... 14 days for 14 weapons. And then on the 16th, we go into the Capcom Showcase fully hyped up.
At this point, maybe—MAYBE!!!—we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and assume Ascendance is coming out sometime between February and March. The playable TGS demo will almost certainly turn into a public beta within a few weeks, a month at most, just like they did with Iceborne and base Wilds. From a marketing perspective, it wouldn't make much sense to let everyone play a beta in October and then wait until late spring to actually release the game.