Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate WiiU/3DS
LEKKER amped for Friday! Going to get the digital version so I can play early, anyone else getting MH?
here is no question Monster Hunter is an under rated series of games in the united states, really anywhere outside of Japan. Simply saying "this game is awesome", or "people just don't get it" will NEVER make this game more popular here. It actually alienates the game further. In order to gain popularity, it would be best to describe exactly why MH is such a great series of games, and not vaguely tell people how they are wrong. This post is going to be a book, so get ready... For MH fans it will be preaching to the choir, but maybe, just maybe a non fan will read this and begin to understand why this game rocks so hard.
1. This is THEE most popular series of games in Japan over the last 5+ years. Last time I checked, the japanese know a thing or two about video games... Just this fact alone should raise an eyebrow or two.
2. Few Video games EVER push the hardware as hard as Monster Hunter. This game is always beautiful, always has amazing character and enemy animations, always has great music and sound design, and on top of all of this has state of the art weapon design, armor design, and enemy monster designs. All of the above states something quite obvious to me. Monster Hunter is a labor of love from its creators, designers, producers, and publisher. Capcom as an entity LOVES this game and this love comes through in the final design. The only other game I ever played that was such a clear labor of love was Steel Battalion (interestingly enough, another capcom game).
3. This game has brilliant game design. The closest metaphor for Monster Hunter is the actual game of golf. Like golf, MH has a steep learning curve, its hard to get into. Like golf, even when you learn how to hit the ball (or wield a single weapon class), the learning never ends ie, MH is skill based - just like golf. The more you play, the better you get. The more you play, the more obsessive it becomes. The more you play, the deeper it becomes. Just like golf, no two rounds are ever the same. The game is so complex it is impossible to predict an outcome. In golf this means the lie of the ball is never the same, the atmosphere is never the same, the grass is never the same - every shot is always dynamic and different. The same is true in MH, and never more so than in multiplayer, where the game shines the brightest (interestingly enough played in foursomes, EXACTLY LIKE GOLF) - the big divergence would be the need for cooperation in Monster Hunter. If you run into battle swinging your great sword wildly you will disrupt the play of other players, and work against co-op play. Monster Hunter has player etiquette, um..., just like golf. I know this comparison is getting tired, but to someone who knows nothing of MH, this comparison may help to explain its wonderful qualities. Also, if you hate the challenge, etiquette, dynamic quality of golf, MH may not be for you. MH is a skill based masterpiece of game design. A nube with the highest DPS weapon and the best armor will still get owned, and a skilled player naked with a bone club can actually do quite a lot. How many times did I need to gather the ivy and spider web in the field, because I forgot nets to make the last trap - to win the trap a rathalos level in multiplayer with friends... oh... good times. Monster Hunter is not just action, it is strategy, intelligence, planning, cooperation and... ACTION! It is taking the nube under your shoulder to show them where to gather everything on a level, showing them how to generate money, showing them how to combine the god bug + wyvern fang = life crystals + wyvern claw = life powder. Or bitterbug + honey = catalyst + dragon toadstool = immunizer + kelbi horn = ancient potion... MH is not just a game, it is a community and a life style. Monster Hunter is a world unto itself. Again, like golf, you repeat tasks, over and over again to improve skills, get better equipment as a direct result of level victory, so you can repeat tasks to get better equipment, so you can repeat tasks to get better equipment, so you can repeat tasks to get better equipment. Does it end? Well you can get every weapon and piece of armor (not that you can keep them all in a vast, but limited item box), and you can get proficient with every weapon class, and you can memorize every item combination. But there is always the ability to improve your gameplay. There is always the chance to teach a beginner how to play. There will always be something left to do in MH. And this is coming from a person with between 3 to 4000 hours of total gameplay between ps2, psp, and wii versions of the game. I have seen a rathalos killed in one strait combo by one person, I have seen alatreon fall in minutes from a massive great barrel bomb assault. I have saved the lives of other players multiple times by knocking them out of a wyverns charge by intentionally hitting them with my own weapon (while they are seeing stars). But I have not mastered the game.
4. So Monster Hunter is a MMO? No not really. It could be compared to a MMO community, where all the gameplay is played in action instances. So Monster Hunter is a hack and slash? In a word... No. True MH is a real time action game, but I feel the best genre for it to be lumped into would be action based RPG. And MH is a RPG in the truest sense of the term. It is game where the character is YOU! You choose how to look, you choose your preferred weapon class that fits your personality, you choose the armor suit that has abilities that you want to enhance. You build an avatar of yourself, how you want to achieve your goals in the MH world, and then you attempt to execute your plan. The genre RPG has become (in video games) a term where you play out the story of another character, like reading a good book, with some interactive control. It is important to understand that the term "Roll Playing Game" once meant building a character as an extension of yourself, diving into an imagined dungeon with friends, and solving problems in a real life way - a'la old school paper and dice D&D. Monster Hunter, and a few other video games (Demon Souls and Dark Souls come to mind) replicate this original meaning of RPG and build a video game world around this concept. True Monster Hunter is not a true sandbox game (yet), and it is not a true MMORPG (yet). Monter Hunter has strict and at times narrow confines, but within its world and set of rules, it is a freeing video game experience.
5. Monter Hunter does not change sequel to sequel, it simply adds more to the successful formula already established. What does this mean? A rathalos (red fire breathing wyvern) in monster hunter 3 is very similar to the rathalos from the first MH, but it has more attacks, a more sophisticated AI, and better more fluid animations. MH3 on the wii added under water battle, but still plays like all other versions of MH, just now you have a vertical element of swimming added in, and the ability to attack from above and below, not just from the sides. True, some monsters have been left in the past, like the mighty gravios, or lao shan, but new encounters are brought in sequel by sequel like nargacuga or jhen mohran. Skilled players feel right at home beginning a new game, and new players can build a character from scratch in any incarnation of the game without feeling like they missed out on earlier versions (though they have missed out on so much glory...). This style of game design is a beautiful thing. Monster Hunter grows organically from title to title like a living organism. And MH is an organic experience. You can wear a ninja suit, that gives a stealth bonus, so you can watch monsters behave an learn their "secret lives" outside of battle. Just when you think you've seen it all, you watch a melynx get put to sleep (funny!) or a barrioth eating stun tainted meat. The best part about this crazy level of depth? Each sequel takes that depth, and adds to it!
Will Monster Hunter hysteria ever take hold in the united states? Not until game reviewers fully take this game seriously. MH is not for everyone. And it clearly isn't a game for a game reviewer on a deadline, who has to play a game in a week and write a review in a day! MH doesn't work that way! Clearly it is slowly catching on. If you look at the meta ratings of MH over the years, it continues to improve, because slowly people play, and play, and play some more, and its value begins to shine through. MH will not impress immediately, but like the saying goes, you can't judge a book by its cover. Monster Hunter is not a clever title. Monster Hunter doesn't have a "lock on" button that so many people think it needs (that would completely change the grace of its deep gameplay btw), and in all fairness, the 3rd person camera has never been perfected in any version of this game - and at times can lead to unfair knock outs. But if your a hard core gamer looking for a challenge, looking for depth, looking for extended game play, and looking for GLORY! Look no further. MH is for you.
Urthpainter aka ash - if you think this description has any merit, please copy and paste (please forgive any obvious mistakes or typos). I hope this post generates debate or discussion. May Monter Hunter at last gain the popularity it truly deserves outside of Japan!
would really like to see what it looks like now..
