Now that I've had adequate time on Monster Hunter 3G, I want to express some of my thoughts on both the series and the choice of platform. I've been a Monster Hunter fan for a very long time and will always continue to follow the series. It's the only series in this day and age I can put a lot of time in to and come out feeling highly satisfied, but even after doing most of what you can do in the games, I always pick them back up to play whether I'm on the go or just want to have a quick, fun fight. While I love the console iterations, the handheld iterations will forever hold a soft spot for the ease of getting on and getting into the action.
When I first saw Monster Hunter in a western playstation magazine some 6-7 years ago, I instantly fell in love. The review had some great screenshots of some of the beasts in the game including the Velociprey and Rathalos (Who would go on to be the icon of the series). I'm an absolute dragon and dinosaur fanatic, so obviously I was happy to see some fairly original designs focused on these animals, but nothing else was really shown. I didn't know what to make of the screenshots I was looking at and the review gave the game an overall fairly low score, so I held off buying the game.
 |
| Left: Rathalos 1st+2nd gen Right: Rathalos 3rd gen redesign |
Of course these days I don't take these arbitrary review scores seriously and actually read the reviews (I can't believe, looking back, there was a time I looked at the screenshots and score and just bought games on that). I only recently really started forming my own opinions and trying to look at games objectively. What does the game want to achieve? Does it achieve this? Is the game riddled with bugs and glitches? And generally looking at the quality of the design, including aesthetics and sound. My problem with reviews and gaming journalism in general is a topic for another day, however.
Anyway, around 2006 I found a copy of Monster Hunter on Ebay for a very small price and bought it, reminiscing of the game I saw in that magazine and hoping it would be a little better than they made out. Well, I can safely say that as soon as I set off into the Minegarde wilderness, I was hooked. Giant, tower cliff edges, fields of grazing monsters and beautiful, natural scenery caught my eye immediately. This is where it started, and 100+ hours later when I would finally beat Fatalis, the "Last boss".
Monster Hunter has a good reputation for starting off slow. The game teaches you the basics of hunting and gathering, making your own gear and supplies to last your hunting mission. These don't phase me as a long time MMO player before MMO's started losing the grind element that was once so synonymous to them. Monster Hunter is like that, I wouldn't call it a singleplayer MMO due to it's extensive multiplayer features, but an MMO in the traditional style that you can play solo. It includes grinding and lots of reading into to truly master. I immediately saw why a journalist wouldn't like this game, as they simply can't put the required time in to see the full game. Not their fault really, but still an annoyance that can be detrimental to the success, especially here in the UK where everyone seems to be completely hooked to reviewers and their scores.
The entire endgame of Monster Hunter is where the game shines. Giant, powerful boss monsters with interesting, intricate designs and hard to learn attack patterns force the player to make use of everything at their disposal. The game is a boss fighting game and excels at it, but all of the major boss fighting comes 2-3 hours into the game. Like I said, the game features an extensive but necessary tutorial, but still people continue to laud it for doing what it wants to do, simply because they cannot put the time in. Fact of the matter is, not all games should have you put straight into the action, and Monster Hunter is a slow progression game by choice. The slow progression is replaced with rapid deployment, a complete understanding of the situation and monster patterns and generally becoming a better player . The game is difficult, very difficult, even though the difficulty curve was brought down heavily this generation my experiences online on Tri were often filled with low level players asking for help with one of the low level monsters named Barroth who was the "True" first boss monster. He wasn't designed to be hard, just challenging, but people could genuinely not kill him and were not willing to reflect and figure out just why they couldn't defeat him, which is one of the many elements of Monster Hunter that makes it challenging.
Now this isn't to say the critics don't make some good points, however, all can be countered in a way that make sense. For instance, camera control is always bombarded and western gamers in general always ask for a lock-on feature of some description. To start off, Monster Hunter 3G does indeed have a fairly well implemented lock-on feature, and I'll also talk about the touch screen in general a little further down. However, on the topic of camera controls, one thing I've noticed in Japanese games is that they absolutely love letting you have full control of the camera. Monster Hunter is a game about positioning. Positioning is so vital in this game that I simply cannot stress it enough as a core element. The game isn't going to hold your hand with this, you have to master getting the camera in a position to execute an attack, and this is simply part of the skill curve of the game. This is NOT a hack and slash. Locking on has never been a necessity and really hasn't made a huge difference. Loading times have also improved drastically in this addition from the PSP games.
Now I'll talk about the touch screen and take some photos to show just how they've managed to make such good use of it. I was so worried that the touch screen was going to be used as some sort of gimmick in Monster Hunter as soon as they announced the 3DS version, but I fell in love as soon as I saw the wide array of customization that was actually allowed. I love playing games without a HUD and with the 3DS's small screen, it doesn't help having your health, map and inventory blocking the action. The fix is very simple, you can put it all on the bottom screen. All of it. It is completely customizable. You can even change the size of things so you can fit more in. Below is my personal setup.
I think I should wrap this up now as I'm starting to blabber. My passion for this series is higher than you could imagine. It's the series I'll always follow, even when Capcom don't want me to have it I will find a way. I'm currently 110 hours into this game and haven't even reached the end-game. Was it worth the $300 I paid for the 3DS and it? Yes, definitely yes. Considering the release of Monster Hunter 4 is probably but a year or less away, I imagine it will see much more use yet, and with 3G being a port of the Wii game Tri, I imagine they'll do wonders with the game when it's developed for the 3DS. A fantastic addition to the series, get it localized Capcom! Europe wants it, and I'm sure the US does too!
 |
| Bracchidios concept art |
Anyway, around 2006 I found a copy of Monster Hunter on Ebay for a very small price and bought it, reminiscing of the game I saw in that magazine and hoping it would be a little better than they made out. Well, I can safely say that as soon as I set off into the Minegarde wilderness, I was hooked. Giant, tower cliff edges, fields of grazing monsters and beautiful, natural scenery caught my eye immediately. This is where it started, and 100+ hours later when I would finally beat Fatalis, the "Last boss".
Monster Hunter has a good reputation for starting off slow. The game teaches you the basics of hunting and gathering, making your own gear and supplies to last your hunting mission. These don't phase me as a long time MMO player before MMO's started losing the grind element that was once so synonymous to them. Monster Hunter is like that, I wouldn't call it a singleplayer MMO due to it's extensive multiplayer features, but an MMO in the traditional style that you can play solo. It includes grinding and lots of reading into to truly master. I immediately saw why a journalist wouldn't like this game, as they simply can't put the required time in to see the full game. Not their fault really, but still an annoyance that can be detrimental to the success, especially here in the UK where everyone seems to be completely hooked to reviewers and their scores.
 |
| Barroth, one of third generations new Brute Wyvern species |
The entire endgame of Monster Hunter is where the game shines. Giant, powerful boss monsters with interesting, intricate designs and hard to learn attack patterns force the player to make use of everything at their disposal. The game is a boss fighting game and excels at it, but all of the major boss fighting comes 2-3 hours into the game. Like I said, the game features an extensive but necessary tutorial, but still people continue to laud it for doing what it wants to do, simply because they cannot put the time in. Fact of the matter is, not all games should have you put straight into the action, and Monster Hunter is a slow progression game by choice. The slow progression is replaced with rapid deployment, a complete understanding of the situation and monster patterns and generally becoming a better player . The game is difficult, very difficult, even though the difficulty curve was brought down heavily this generation my experiences online on Tri were often filled with low level players asking for help with one of the low level monsters named Barroth who was the "True" first boss monster. He wasn't designed to be hard, just challenging, but people could genuinely not kill him and were not willing to reflect and figure out just why they couldn't defeat him, which is one of the many elements of Monster Hunter that makes it challenging.
 |
| Returning Monsters include the Fanged Wyvern Jinouga and the Piscine Wyvern Plesioth. |
Now this isn't to say the critics don't make some good points, however, all can be countered in a way that make sense. For instance, camera control is always bombarded and western gamers in general always ask for a lock-on feature of some description. To start off, Monster Hunter 3G does indeed have a fairly well implemented lock-on feature, and I'll also talk about the touch screen in general a little further down. However, on the topic of camera controls, one thing I've noticed in Japanese games is that they absolutely love letting you have full control of the camera. Monster Hunter is a game about positioning. Positioning is so vital in this game that I simply cannot stress it enough as a core element. The game isn't going to hold your hand with this, you have to master getting the camera in a position to execute an attack, and this is simply part of the skill curve of the game. This is NOT a hack and slash. Locking on has never been a necessity and really hasn't made a huge difference. Loading times have also improved drastically in this addition from the PSP games.
Now I'll talk about the touch screen and take some photos to show just how they've managed to make such good use of it. I was so worried that the touch screen was going to be used as some sort of gimmick in Monster Hunter as soon as they announced the 3DS version, but I fell in love as soon as I saw the wide array of customization that was actually allowed. I love playing games without a HUD and with the 3DS's small screen, it doesn't help having your health, map and inventory blocking the action. The fix is very simple, you can put it all on the bottom screen. All of it. It is completely customizable. You can even change the size of things so you can fit more in. Below is my personal setup.
Basically, what's going on here is that I have set a virtual D-Pad in the bottom right as my second analog/camera control (Which works very well, I'm very impressed) due to the lack of the slide-pad attachment, I have the lock-on button at the top right (It displays all monsters you have seen and you tap which one you want to target, and when you tap the left shoulder button it'll center on the monster instead of behind you), the map is displayed at the bottom left and my quick inventory is in the top left. I have my HP and Stamina hidden as that's how I generally play on all versions.
When it comes to sound and aesthetic direction, Monster Hunter has a very unique style. The scenery in the game looks like a painting and I feel what they go for when designing areas is a "Hot spot" where the animals hunt, drink and live. Some of these include a Wyvern nest on a cliff edge overlooking the ocean. Monster Hunter has a very simplistic, anime-inspired art style. The game is detailed but not overly detailed instead focusing more on giving character to the world through animation. Monster animations in particular are very impressive, especially when running at 60 FPS on the 3DS, and a lot of thought has been put into how they move and connect attacks and even react when you hit them. Saying that, I go back to the anime-style and a lot of the animations are very exaggerated, such as swinging a sword twice the size of you around with a thunderous crash as it hits the floor. Armor design is exceptional and I'm grateful that G-Rank sets have been redesigned.
Sound is easy to cover for me. Monster Hunter is simply my favorite game when it comes to sound direction. The soundtracks are epic and never feel repetitive, a lot of monsters have their own theme and the thought that goes into making sure the specific theme suits the fight must be strenuous at least. The standout for me in Gen 3 has been Deviljho's theme and the theme of the Mountain Stream. Beautiful music for a beautiful game.
When it comes to sound and aesthetic direction, Monster Hunter has a very unique style. The scenery in the game looks like a painting and I feel what they go for when designing areas is a "Hot spot" where the animals hunt, drink and live. Some of these include a Wyvern nest on a cliff edge overlooking the ocean. Monster Hunter has a very simplistic, anime-inspired art style. The game is detailed but not overly detailed instead focusing more on giving character to the world through animation. Monster animations in particular are very impressive, especially when running at 60 FPS on the 3DS, and a lot of thought has been put into how they move and connect attacks and even react when you hit them. Saying that, I go back to the anime-style and a lot of the animations are very exaggerated, such as swinging a sword twice the size of you around with a thunderous crash as it hits the floor. Armor design is exceptional and I'm grateful that G-Rank sets have been redesigned.
Sound is easy to cover for me. Monster Hunter is simply my favorite game when it comes to sound direction. The soundtracks are epic and never feel repetitive, a lot of monsters have their own theme and the thought that goes into making sure the specific theme suits the fight must be strenuous at least. The standout for me in Gen 3 has been Deviljho's theme and the theme of the Mountain Stream. Beautiful music for a beautiful game.
I think I should wrap this up now as I'm starting to blabber. My passion for this series is higher than you could imagine. It's the series I'll always follow, even when Capcom don't want me to have it I will find a way. I'm currently 110 hours into this game and haven't even reached the end-game. Was it worth the $300 I paid for the 3DS and it? Yes, definitely yes. Considering the release of Monster Hunter 4 is probably but a year or less away, I imagine it will see much more use yet, and with 3G being a port of the Wii game Tri, I imagine they'll do wonders with the game when it's developed for the 3DS. A fantastic addition to the series, get it localized Capcom! Europe wants it, and I'm sure the US does too!
No comments:
Post a Comment