All things Monster Hunter (and other Hunting Action Games)

[CMoon]

Video game strategy guides are a questionable purchase at best, but I would have picked one up for MH3U since I'd never played the game before. Thing is, I could never find one. Guys at gamefaqs were perplexed because there seemed to be one, but they couldn't find it either. How does a 524 page bathroom read go missing? When it is an e-book only...*sighs* I'm sure the current online resources are better than this, but yeah, I might have sprung for it. Regardless, the pdf is floating around the internet for free with little searching, though I imagine better people would go pay bradygames the money. I get the whole thing about wanting to save paper, but I've never found reference-type books work well in electronic formats.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Just browse through your games library in search of manuals you haven't read yet and take these to the bathroom.

[CMoon]

Well my circle pad pro showed up today and wanted to post a short bit about how it effects MH3U on the 3DS. Basically this adds the ability to control the camera with the second analog stick just like you do in every other game on every modern console. It is certainly less awkward since playing it native effectively requires a third hand, or at least taking your thumb away from the action buttons.

Looking for something more dynamic/game-breaking? Well, no. I am going to see if I can now remove the direction pad icon from the touch screen and put something more useful there...whatever that would be?

I think if you're just coming to this game for the first time on the 3DS, the investment might be worth it, but you certainly can acclimate to playing the game in its bizarre native fashion, and once there, this doesn't necessarily feel like the massive gameplay upgrade I was hoping for. That said, give me time to un-train myself, and we'll see.

[dcharlie]

Can you write up your impressions?

short version : OMG ALL OVER MY FACE

long version : will sit down and do something over the holidays.

[Ji-L87]

About the circle pad pro, I feel it's really the most useful when fighting underwater. The software d-pad works better than expected, especially if enlarged a little bit. Not saying it's not a good purchase, I mean I like it and want more games to support it but, I was surprised how well the game worked without it + the lock-on function.

[gs68]

You can also map the CPP's secondary shoulder buttons (ZL and ZR) to camera control. This is great as you can pan the camera without having to clawgrip or take your thumb off the face buttons.

[Eno]

Color me a liar, I'm hooked on MHFU even on singleplayer. PPSSPP does online 2P fine though, only problem, apart from not being able to reunite the whole gang, is my friend couldn't play from his PSP and had to grab the emulator and iso aswell.
Are there any other sites, even if japanese, with more complete info than the english wiki? I find it lacks some info on some monsters and general strategy/systems info.

Not sure if this has been brought up already but I remember someone inquiring on another thread whether MH ever hit the arcades, well it seems it did get into another coin-operated form of entertainment at least

Thus, bundling a gamepad would drive distribution costs up while screaming that the game isn't optimized for kb+m at an audience that sure loves their kb+m, not good.

At least that would be sincere. Capcom doesn't need to trick anybody into buying Monster Hunter. If the games demand both dedication and a controller to be gratifyng, why not tell it out loud?
At this point hardly anybody expects car games to be as playable with keyboard as with steering wheel or joypad, yet PC car games keep coming out. Same with flight sims and joysticks.

Sincere indeed, I just don't see it as being profitable for them.
And I don't really see how MH absolutely demands a gamepad. If it's just straight ported from a console with little care, sure it will, but were they willing to put some work into the controls or make the whole game designed around the PC it could work absolutely fine with kb+m without spoiling the experience imo, perhaps MHO will tell.
If all they wanted was to give the folks who are interested in the franchise but don't have consoles something to buy they could go with a digital-only release and count on us already owning gamepads. But if they wanted to build a more stable consumer base on the PC, I don't see they getting it without supporting kb+m at least a little better.

[professor ganson]

So I just played Monster Hunter Ultimate on the Wii U, and it was super annoying how I was supposed to find Junior to give him some dinosaur meat, and the twirp was nowhere to be found. First they said look in the woods, and then the base camp. It was so incredibly dull running around looking for the guy, I'm just not sure I'll be able to go back to this. I keep hoping that MH games will deliver the same fun I had with the Phantasy Star Portable games with their fast-paced simple formula, and I always end up disappointed. And frustrated.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Developing an attention span that's greater than five minutes would be of immeasurable help with the task.

http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/How ... 3_and_MH3U

[professor ganson]

Attention span not an issue. Finding this camp with Junior was for some reason a problem. I imagine the game picks up at some point, but it was a remarkably dull and slow start-- even without the obstacle of somehow overlooking the camp.

[professor ganson]

Btw, I realize that the failure here is my own, not game design. I'm just frustrated that I spent yet more money on the MH series and am still failing to get even a small portion of the pleasure from it that I got from Phantasy Star Portable. I guess it's not so surprising, since Alfa System made PSP and Alfa System rules.

I even found Ragnarok Odyssey more enjoyable, if mainly because of the cuteness. Oh well.

[Jonathan Ingram]

These games are 200+ hour romps and you're not even done with the tutorial yet(which is both shorter and far less annoying than what most RPGs throw at the player). I say you should stick with it at least until you are out of the low ranks before discarding it like that. Don't go in expecting anything like Phantasy Star either. Monster Hunter is an action game. Reaction skills, timing and positioning matter the most. Some of the tougher monsters can stunlock and kill you in a matter of seconds if you don't watch it, regardless of the armor you're wearing.

I even found Ragnarok Odyssey more enjoyable, if mainly because of the cuteness. Oh well.

What? Ragnarok Odyssey is like Arcana Heart to Monster Hunter's Virtua Fighter.

[professor ganson]

Reaction skills, timing and positioning matter the most. Some of the tougher monsters can stunlock and kill you in a matter of seconds if you don't watch it, regardless of the armor you're wearing.

This is helpful, as I was partly worried about exactly this. Action games that are more precise/demanding aren't usually my thing. I like the more casual romp that yields items and leveling. (Shmups are a bit different, obviously, because I don't have to deal with any camera.)

What? Ragnarok Odyssey is like Arcana Heart to Monster Hunter's Virtua Fighter.

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, ye, young Monster Hunter neophytes still clad in measly tatters, harken to my advice, for it's the most useful one you will gain on your way to the desired G-rank riches(and it's free to boot)! Ready? Here goes:

Crawling before gathering and carving considerably speeds up the process.

Impressed?

D'oh! That seems completely obvious now.

Though occasionally (i.e. when hunting a whole pack of velociprey) I find it's good to carve while standing up. (Though I suppose this might not even be one of those times, since crawling might be better for avoiding their attacks - as it is they often misjudge and fly completely over me even when I'm standing. Real answer is, just collect the fangs and stuff from the end of harvest rewards and don't try to harvest during a fight, I GUESS).

Also wow @ that first egg collecting mission in MHF (Portable 1).

[CMoon]

http://mynintendonews.com/tag/monster-hunter-4/

Interesting updates on Monster 4, the most recent being how MH4 has sold for Amazon Japan. Hopefully Capcom has done well enough from the title, they can flex their muscles a little bit and release the game stateside--though it seems they're investing it in mobile games instead. *sighs*

I watched a few videos for 4 and am getting rather excited about it, but am more than happy to wait since I've only just scratched the surface with 3U.

[BryanM]

Nah I'm sure it's going to happen, just like with any property it'll take a year. Expect an announcement this summer.

[BryanM]

Or, like, 20 days after I said that.

Monster Hunter 4G, fall for Japan, 2015 for gaijin. That's.... one really, really, fucking long wait, that.

Would be simpler to just translate the damn thing yourself, srsly

[CMoon]

Damn! Well at least that will give me a chance at MH3U. So little time to play video games lately; don't mind 4 being a little ways off.

[Frenetic]

I just got a PSP, which MH should I start with?

--F

[BryanM]

In some ways I'm ok with waiting a couple years. If it's the choice of only having one, between the premium and non-premium version.

It's like with Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 - the premium version of that game is never going to see the english world. When we're boned, we're boned for forever.

I just got a PSP, which MH should I start with?

You're not gonna like this one. Are you ready for it? Take a deep breath before continuing.

The answer is Monster Hunter 3. And you should probably just ignore the earlier games unless you become a super huge fan; basically each new game in the series just has more stuff in it than what came before.

The problem is, if you're gaijin, you can not legally play Monster Hunter 3 on the PSP. Not in the non-Japanese at least. So you'll have to acquire a Wii (the Wii version lacks weapon types that were in MH2. Boo to that. Do you want to live in a world without Gunlances, a lance that is also a gun while at the same time being a gun that is also a lance?!), Wii U, or, best idea, a 3DS for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It is the ultimate version of Monster Hunter 3. Says so in the title.

The less-than-legal means is pretty ridiculous as well. First, there's a partial fan translation patch. Then, and this where your brain will really start to hurt, the game isn't supported by emulation, but you can maybe get the patch to work on a PSP. Maybe. It could be possible certain models of PSP might not work or you'll have to bash yours against a table to get it to work, that's not something I know anything about. However. They re-released the game on the Playstation 3 download center, called Monster Hunter Portable the 3rd HD edition. That works just fine in emulation. Why? Midichlorians, that's why.

So, if you're Japanese you're good to go. Otherwise, your best options are Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (a game that's enjoyable, but I find it deeply flawed in many ways), get Tri on another platform, or become a criminal lowlife.

^ WhitePeopleProblems.txt

Addendum: They always shut down the servers of the console versions, only keeping a server for the latest version up, and so make it impossible to play multiplayer, which is a huge draw for the game for a lot of people. The portable versions still let you do local peer-to-peer multiplayer for forever; though I think MH4 is the first one that also lets you play with people over the internet.

[Ji-L87]

^ I think BryanM is right. But it pains me to say so, because there are a couple of things I really, REALLY miss from MHP3rd compared to MH3U on the 3DS:
* Feline comrades (these Shakalaka...things pales in comparion).
* Sharp textures. For some reason, I find the 3DS version looking waaay to soft compared to MHP3rd on PSP. Textures just kinda blend together too much sometimes and just lacks a certain feeling of "definition".

* The farm. MHP3rd works pretty much like it did in Freedom Unite, but more fun. Also cats.
* The setting - the autumn village was really cozy and had nice BGM. While eating food is nice, I enjoyed taking a dip in the onsen for my pre-hunt buffs.

* Less complicated, better UI/icons (icons & text harder to read on 3DS) and overall more slim. Better for on the go.


I really wanted Capcom to release MHP3rd over here.

[Ed Oscuro]

I've started with Monster Hunter Freedom, and MH Tri on the Wii. *ridiculous flex pose*

It isn't a bad game at all, and I'm sure the primitiveness will make me appreciate later outings more. But I have enjoyed the new quests I've gotten once I got to Desert missions - like the Felyn Arena. For me, being somebody who is interested in exploration of virtual places often moreso than combat, repetitive picking and fetch questing, missing out on those unique (I THINK) places would be a great shame. Of course this probably means that I'll quit the game as soon as I've seen each place. That might be a number of years from now, at the pace I'm going...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Any rumours of Tri netplay getting pirated? If Metal Gear Solid 3 could be restored online, here's hoping older Monster Hunters can.
Konami, Capcom and every publisher swinging their way have had it coming. Then again, if Valve could get away with effectively disabling offline Source games on older PCs, Capcom and Konami look almost angelic by comparison.

[BAD]

Hey, CMoon, this where the Monster party is?

[BAD]

"Any rumours of Tri netplay getting pirated? If Metal Gear Solid 3 could be restored online, here's hoping older Monster Hunters can.
Konami, Capcom and every publisher swinging their way have had it coming. Then again, if Valve could get away with effectively disabling offline Source games on older PCs, Capcom and Konami look almost angelic"

There's actually a full-blown site devoted to it; did you know about it?

[CMoon]

Hey, CMoon, this where the Monster party is?

My god! You still exist??!! Well I just saw posts from Ceph, so yes I suppose all things are possible.

[BryanM]

I like how MH:Frontier is apparently this rampagingly successful beast that's gone on and on for decades and has more expansions than there are stars in the sky... and our version of Wikipedia is just like "Monster Hunter Hunter Frontier is a game." I still have no idea what it's about or how exactly its expansion model works.

It reminds me of Hitchhiker's entry on Earth.

Code: Select all

  ~~~
<(-_-)>

[BAD]

Hey, CMoon, this where the Monster party is?

My god! You still exist??!! Well I just saw posts from Ceph, so yes I suppose all things are possible.

Haha, yeah, I'm still here! Surprise, I know, considering my self-destructive tendencies! Been playing a lot of MH3 Tri lately; what about you?

[CMoon]

Hey, CMoon, this where the Monster party is?

My god! You still exist??!! Well I just saw posts from Ceph, so yes I suppose all things are possible.

Haha, yeah, I'm still here! Surprise, I know, considering my self-destructive tendencies! Been playing a lot of MH3 Tri lately; what about you?

Been trying to buy a house lately, which basically means very little time for video games. Still, was playing 3U but took a break for it. Thing is, Strider comes out tuesday, and Dark Souls 2 follows in a few weeks. Don't know how much time I'll have for MH, but seems great.

[Jonathan Ingram]

basically each new game in the series just has more stuff in it than what came before..

Not quite. MHTri has a dearth of content compared to MH2Dos, MHP2nd and MHP2ndG. MH3U is no match for MHP2ndG either.

However. They re-released the game on the Playstation 3 download center, called Monster Hunter Portable the 3rd HD edition.

Actually, it was originally released on Blu-ray and made its way to PSN only two years later.

I like how MH:Frontier is apparently this rampagingly successful beast that's gone on and on for decades and has more expansions than there are stars in the sky... and our version of Wikipedia is just like "Monster Hunter Hunter Frontier is a game." I still have no idea what it's about or how exactly its expansion model works.

Monster Hunter: Nickel-and-Dime Edition. MMO structure, subscription, microtransactions, MH2Dos graphics engine and gameplay mechanics, the least consistent art direction in the series. That's it pretty much. You shouldn't really want it unless you hate yourself.

There's actually a full-blown site devoted to it; did you know about it?

Seems largely unnecessary considering that MH3U has all the content of MHTri and then some. Personally, I'd appreciate it much more if someone restored the online for the PS2's Monster Hunter 2 Dos. Although most of its content ended up in the PSP Monster Hunters, it still has enough unique features(a day and night cycle, changing seasons, traveling merchants and an unlockable village from the first MH, to name a few) to stand its own.