Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-2123858-20150527220652

Hey Hunters, just have a few things on my mind I just want to express, hopefully get some helpful feedback on. To give you guys some background, my next three paragraphs are my early experience in Monster Hunter up until the last three years, if you joined recently you may not have played the games that came out and may not know what I am talking about. Also, for reference, when I am talking about the community for PSP games I am talking about the wikipedia's discussions, forums, and adhoc party for the PSP online functionalities. Also I am not heavily focused on actual attack damages and game mechanics, so if you're looking for an indepth change log on that, this is not it, it is rather me expressing my experience.

I started my hunting "career" back in late 2009, with the game Freedom Unite for the Sony PSP. I am a gunlance main, which was kinda an uncommon weapon for most people to use at the time, for the most part it was pushed to the side. However, for the most part I liked all the weapons, though I will admit I liked the Great Sword and Hammer the least. I had some rough points with the community at the time, as it seemed like if you did not main those two weapons, people would not take you seriously (excluding the HBG because people also considered that OP). I though the damage I was doing was enough, I was not trying to speed run and I did not like the judgements people had for weapons. Overall though the community was pretty awesome, the wiki was filled with pages of lore and tutorials, the people I played with seemed to have a sense of adventure and comradery that drew me into the game.

Talking more specifically about the game, Freedom Unite, it quickly became my favorite game. The world and areas were massive, the background music fit every part of the world, my friends and I often wanted an open world for it akin to Dragon's Dogma. The game was quite slow, but it never got boring, there were hidden mining points and climbing areas all over the place. The farm at the pokke village continued to suprise me as it grew along side my hunting progress. The real standouts though were the hunts. Every hunt felt terrifying, the monsters in the game not only held the advantage but they had created a sense of fear (excluding say a few of the bird wyverns). I always felt it was important to know what a monster was doing when, rather then attempting to rush in blindly (as it mostly resulted in death). There were points where I could give a hunt everything I had and still lose, it was thrilling and upsetting, often being battles of pure endurance (each hunt took more then half hour solo and maybe twenty minutes as a group). Things of course started to change for the series.

Monster Hunter Tri came out and brought quite a lot of changes, some that were good and bad (in my opinion of course). The areas seemed flater, often smaller, though much brighter and had a lot less emphasis on exploration outside of hunting within them. Monsters were brighter, and often cartoony, never really terrifying me (cept maybe deviljho the first few runs). The biggest problem for me was the fact that most of the "new monsters" just felt like older monsters in a different body (e.g. barioth and nargacuga). I felt bad that newer hunters would associate those monster as original, dispite being basically a different version of the an old monster. The game did have some of the greatest and worst gameplay changes, the system was completely updated for new moves, the customization for bowguns seemed awesome and unique, half the weapons were missing, blights were added, monster got tired making fights seem easy at times, the online had some of the best custom houses of all time, and the final bosses seemed overhyped (though the music was epic). Overall the game had charm, it set a great style, had an awesome community (cept the Elitists who judged based on hunter rank), but missed a lot of the the things I personally loved from Freedom Unite.

It took a lot of hunting and a few years (2012ish) before I got my hands on a copy of Portable 3rd. The game did monsters from Monster Hunter Tri true justice. The newer monsters got their own styles and moves, making them seem fresh. The areas started to grow on me, with the addition of the Misty Peaks. The game had the cats from Freedom Unite along with an epic farm also akin to my first game's expeirence. It felt like an adventure again, especially with the all the older weapons returning with new moves. I had some walls for the first time since Freedom Unite and the quests lasted around half hour, making me feel invested. Subspieces of monsters got customized differences (aside from lore and areas, which they already had), making fights quite a bit more interesting. It had it's glitches, but for the first time it felt balanced among all of the weapon classes, which I was very thankful for. I was mostly of absent from the community at the time, though it was a huge step for the Western community as a whole, presenting groups of hunters begging for a Western release of the game which felt unifying. In my opinion, it presented a fair level of challenge, it's own original changes, and helped me get attached to some of the newer areas and monsters.

In 2013 along came Monser Hunter 3 Ultimate, at which point I had become conflicted. The game felt increadibly heavy on speed, hunts did not last long at all, there was very minimal early difficult (again in my opinion). The game was a mix of both Tri and P3 but missed what those two games had for me. It did not feel very unique, intending to be an expansion of Tri without the little parts of Tri that I found interesting (the event quests, the time of day, the houses in online, ect.). The community started to feel like a one-uping contest, most people online I played with seemed to really judge others based on HR and armor, though there were very notable exceptions. The game had an emphasis on doing hunts quickly making progress quickly, I did not have much time to appreciate or have awe for the world or monsters in it. It's online final boss made me even more upset, as it ripped off one of my favorite monsters (fatalis), but could not punish anyone for ignoring what it did. Monsters seemed to struggle to severly hurt hunters wearing appropriate gear far more then previous game installments, making them seem not at all scary or terrifying. There were some pretty epic subspieces and visually the game was a masterpiece, but it just felt like it was missing so much and added so little.

When I heard of the latest game for Monster Hunter (Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate), I had high hopes, I thought the game would take an adventure and open world role in the series. 4 Ultimate like Portable 3 and Tri brought a lot of new changes to the table: new vertical areas, mid-air attacks, more climbing, less water (though I don't hate underwater as much as some), nerfing blast (again never found it too much a problem as others), introducing virus, changing blight patterns, introducing multiple village locations, best of all bringing back old monsters and referencing old games. It does a lot right and is a great game, subjectively it is probably the best in the series. However, I have a few issues with it, all of which are my opinion. It's missing the personal customization that was found in the previous games (decorations, houses, farms), though it does make an attempt with the cat area (which is pretty cool), it does not make me feel attached to a village as a home (though this may be intentional as it is a caravan). The older monsters do not feel as threating, they cannot punish newcomers as easily and lack that fear factor personally (though this may just be from my knowledge of their prior counterparts). It also bothers me when I see a gliave wipe the floor with fatalis, a monster that felt so powerful in Freedom Unite, though that may just be my attachment to the monster. The virus is cool, but does not create a huge amount of difficulty difference with wystones and proper prepping (with the exception of rajang).The community as a whole feels toxic at times, there are always cool hunters, but most of the community feels increadibly judgemental on armor, skills, and weapons, often deeming methods of set buildings proper and improper, rather then just letting things go and having fun with people. I have not had a proper wall in this latest installment either, though that may just be because of the accessibilty with multiplayer and may need a solo play on my part for a proper test. Design wise areas very much focus on vertical climbing making them unique, though they often feel blander then the older areas missing various hidden spots and the scenery often makes them feel closed up (though I do love the heavens mount and I am so glad for the return of the tower). The game like 3 ultimate in my opinion just emphasizes quick fast hunts, leaving very little room for struggle in a fight or endurance, not necessarily worrying about having enough time or items to make it through. The build of the game also supports hunting, not so much as exploring it's world, but rather using the world for hunting. This is both good design, but it does make me miss the adventure I felt in older games. I feel conflicted, I really want to like the game, but I feel like it is missing some things that made the series to me great. However it is easily the best game in the series, it is just not providing me with the best experience for a game thus far, though I love a lot about the game too. I really want to like the game as much as I do the older games.

I have accepted I could just be a naustaglic, oldtiming, elitist hunter, who finds a lot in games that presented very little, but this was my experience for Monster as a series. So I ask anyone who was willing to read my story thus:

How has your experience been different?

What do you guys think of mine?

Am I just being foolish, if so why?

When did you start each game?

If you or I started a different game in the series first how do you think you/I would have a different opinion on it? What about each game do you find great or bad?

Do you prefer just the hunting of monsters with friends or the "story" behind monsters and world?

How was your community like and what was your hunting community?

Any additional comments or ideas, please let me know. Thanks for commenting and/or reading, even if your comment is about how stupid this whole thing is, stay awesome out there and happy hunting. 