Monster Hunter

[Spectere]

I didn't really have a problem with the nub, personally. I was using that to look up/down and ZL/ZR to look left/right and it worked well. I wouldn't want to use it as a critical game control since it has zero tactile feedback, but for quickly bumping the camera around it's passable.

Now the problem is that the way I had to hold the 3DS in order to comfortable reach all of the controls is so goddamn uncomfortable that my hands were aching after a single hunt. Ugh. I think I might have to design and print some grips if I want to play it for any real length of time. I even tried to do a PSP-esque claw grip, but it's way harder to do that with a circle pad than the analog nub, not to mention that the shape of the system itself makes it difficult to do.

And yeah, I totally agree that the platform held it back. Even if the system were more comfortable to hold, huddling over a 3DS for hours on end doesn't sound very appealing to me. Games like Pokémon, Ace Attorney, and Zero Escape work because their control sets are relatively minimal. They don't use every single button on a routine basis like MH does. Not to mention that the 3DS really doesn't have stellar battery life...

I wish they would have released MH4U for the Wii U or something. I still have mine hooked up (and it's gotten more playtime in the past 6 months than my XB1 and PS4 have, which is kind of hilarious). Instead the best the Wii U got was MH3U. I mean, I did enjoy playing Tri on the Wii, so I guess wouldn't be opposed to going back to 3 to pass the time until MHW/PC comes out.

[Spectere]

PC port. Two weeks. Hype!

[Spectere]

I played for about five hours last night and…yeah, it's a pretty good port!

I was hoping to be able to hit 4K/60 on my rig but I was only able to get around 40fps average. I ultimately pulled the resolution back to 1440p and it runs at a smooth 60fps. One thing that surprised me is how consistent the framerate is. Even when I was fidding around with 4K it never really dropped much below 40. If I were interested in 4K/30 it would have been more than adequate, but I'd rather have the extra FPS.

It features native XInput support (naturally), works with DirectInput, and even plays surprisingly well with keyboard/mouse! I favor an Xbox One controller, though if I ever decided to use the bowguns at some point I'd probably switch.

I'd say my biggest complaint is still that the tutorials are so overbearing. I'm pretty sure The Handler told me four separate times how to open my map, yet important movement features like swinging from vines was left completely uncovered. Having spoken to someone who picked up MHW as their first game in the series, he also feels that too much emphasis was placed on exceedingly basic controls and not enough time was spent on the nuances of armor/weapon crafting. He felt that I explained the armor upgrade system better in a handful of sentences than the long, drawn out text tutorials in the game.

The game feels best when it takes a step back and lets you figure things out, but I'm still at the point where it vocalizes some blindingly obvious stuff. Like, if I get paralyzed they make a point of saying "YOU'RE PARALYZED! You'll have to wait to recover!" as if the little lightning bolt effects on my character, the fact that he was trembling, and the fact that my controls didn't work weren't obvious. It also commits that egregious sin where you can be dodging attacks perfectly for several minutes, but the second you slip up and get smacked in the back by a little jagras it pops up this giant "A + LS" prompt on the screen and yells at you for not dodging. Yeah, no shit.

While that does make it a bit more accessible than previous titles, I still think they missed the mark. They spend so much time covering the mechanics that have been beaten into people repeatedly over the past decade that they ignore the numerous nuances that make Monster Hunter what it is. It's as if they simultaneously assume that people are beginners to video games in general, yet they know all there is to know about Monster Hunter's various systems. It just seems backwards to me.

But obviously there's far more good than there is bad. MHW resolves pretty much every complaint that I have about the series, such as reducing the menial grinding (having unlimited whetstones, BBQ spit taking significantly less time, etc), improving the fluidity of the controls, making the game world seamless and open, streamlining monster tracking (this point is probably pretty heavily contested, but I enjoy the scoutfly system significantly more than paintballs). Best of all, it manages to do all of this while still retaining its quirky and fun identity.

As soon as the tutorial-related headaches pass, you're left with an incredible game with a ginormous amount of content. There's no way I can't recommend it.

[vladgd]

If you got any questions, I aughta be able to answer most. I think I ended my time with that game with over 200 hours played and over HR rank 105 or something.

And to be totally honest the entirety of low rank is basically a tutorial, when people say "the game doesn't start till high rank" they're kinda right.

I'll have to find my stats, but I played like 95% lance. 5% heavybowgun/sns/gunlance. As much variety as the game has to offer, I can't really have much fun unless I'm lancing. I loved hammer in the psp games, to the point where I played hammer over lance, but hammer feels so nerfed in this game with the multiplayer scaling effecting stun as well as monster health that hammer feels kind of worthless.

Late game I did find myself preferring certain weapons and setups for certain monsters. I'll lance everything, but I kinda like heavy bowgun against kirin, and gunlance on kushala. Tried to enjoy sword and shield, but hitting weak points with such a stubby weapon is impossible, I don't really get how people use that weapon. Maybe if I ever play again (burned out for it taking 1.5 months of my life) I'll give greatsword another go. It's a hard weapon, but it has the biggest numbers in the game.

[Spectere]

Yeah, I've been more or less skating through the low rank content. Even monsters that have always given me problems (hi, Barroth) have gone down relatively easily. Not sure if that's just because I have a lot more experience with these sort of games than I did when I played MH3 a whole bunch or if the game's learning curve is just that much more gradual, but it feels much better for me at least.

For now I've settled with the switch axe. I just really like how the weapon feels at this point. I thought I'd enjoy the dual blades since I tend to prefer mobility, but I've found that the only way to do any serious damage with them is to just stand stationary in demon mode, and that's really not feasible unless the monster is already stunned. It felt more like I was chipping them to death than doing any serious damage.

Shame to hear about the hammer getting nerfed. I wonder if the people I know who primarily used it just coped with it or if they switched off for MHW.

Tried to enjoy sword and shield, but hitting weak points with such a stubby weapon is impossible, I don't really get how people use that weapon.

I think that's my favorite part about Monster Hunter: the weapons are so varied that some of them just don't click for people at all, yet they all tend to be very effective.

I used the sword and shield when I was fiddling with the Xbox One version several months ago. For me it offered a good balance of attack, defense, and mobility. The main issue for me is that I'm bored to death of sword and shield in general when it comes to ARPGs. I also have a tendency to prefer dodging over blocking, so the switch axe fit my play style well.

Oh, I also took this opportunity to finally fiddle around with ShadowPlay. I've certainly has faster Great Jagras kills than this, but I think this is my cleanest one:

I've been recording almost all of my gameplay so far (two video files ended up getting corrupted, and I forgot to record a few minutes of some light multiplayer I did with a friend, but other than that all of the non-town stuff is there). If I end up doing anything nifty I'll at least have proof of it.

It is kind of odd that the video files turned out to be 1080p60, though. I set up ShadowPlay to record at the selected resolution at 60fps, so they should be 1440p. Similarly, a bit of Doom 2016 that I recorded turned out to be 1080p60 instead of 4K60. Gonna have to look at that.

[Spectere]

Decided to try out long swords. They're pretty fun!

I did an easy hunt just to see how greedy I could get. Turns out, I could get pretty damn greedy. I could dive in, do a decent amount of damage, and roll away.

I ended up getting further in the story as well, making my way to the Rotten Vale.

I've, uh, also figured out the format that the game's textures are stored in and wrote a quick and dirty converter. Here's some of the Great Jagras's normal map:

Hey look, a normal map! pic.twitter.com/xJrHFh3FdX

— Ian Burgmyer (@Spectere) August 18, 2018

The diffuse textures are compressed with DXT1/BC1 with 1-bit alpha (yuck) and the normal maps are compressed with ATI2/BC5. There's another format in play that I haven't worked out quite yet, nor am I entirely sure of the purpose of those particular textures. All I've sussed out so far is that the compression format in question each 4x4 block in 16-bytes.

And sure, I could have just wrapped the compressed texture data into a DDS wrapper and called it a day, but what's the fun in that?

[vladgd]

So I'ma necro this thread because Monster Hunter Rise comes out on the 26th of march, and the more I look into it, the more I wanna play some fucking monster hunter right now.

Any of you guys have switches? I have generations ultimate on switch but only played like...20 minutes so far. I would like to get more time invested so I'm not going into rise green. Fully intend on staying lance, but instead of a 95 lance to 5 allotherweaponsinthegame ratio. I wouldn't mind spending more time with other stuff. Still, might dump a few hours into mghu (unless anyone wants to play iceborne on ps4, which im only half way through) and try to brush off some of this rust, or maybe get better...since with all the 210 hours I put into world; and the 100 hours I put into freedom unite back in the day. I think I have always been a horrible player...

Might update here if I do end up playing more generations ultimate, it is an older styled game so it's a big adjustment coming from playing world. I managed to beat Shen Gaoren with lance and hammer back in the day on psp(doing ad hoc multiplayer with an irl friend, good times), so while I am no stranger to the old hard as nails games, I have been spoiled by world.

[Spectere]

I have a Switch, and I have my eyes on MH:Rise. That said, I have a huuuuuuge backlog I need to get through, so at this rate I might get around to playing it sometime around 2024.

It's a shame MHW isn't cross-platform. I'd love to play Iceborne with you, but I'm a PC player.

[vladgd]

Not gonna lie, I really did consider buying mhw on pc...but Rise is out in like a little over 5 weeks, and I did get mhgu on sale a few months ago...so gonna dabble with that. Only real concern is how switch multiplayer is, and my internet while decent here, does like to cut out every few hours for some odd reason which could ruin a few hunts. Something I want to troubleshoot before release, but if hunts are in the sub 20 minute range like in world, 1-2 lost hunts a day due to d/c aint the end of the world. If they are harder like in freedom unite where my average hunt was going on 40+ minutes (I think the guild missions in those games were perma scaled to 4 players, and I mainly hunted with one friend of mine, so monster hp was not tuned for 2 people), losing a hunt or two like that would be concerning. Didn't really affect me playing world of warcraft that much, and monster hunter doesn't have 2+ hour dungeons, so shouldn't be a huge deal. Generations might be a good guinea pig to test the online waters, whenever I get far enough to kill anything worthwhile of grouping, and pay for the surprisingly reasonably priced Nintendo online service.

Unnecessary ramble aside, if im as into rise as I was world, I'll be playing for at least a solid month/month and a half if you find the time to get a few hunts in. Best part about monster hunter, no leveling, and the moment to moment gameplay is actually fun, so helping people out on earlier quests is always a good time.

[Spectere]

Oh jeez, I didn't even think about the Switch's multiplayer. I know it was kinda rough when it first launched, but I imagine (rather, I hope) it would have improved since then. Pretty sure it still lacks a reasonable voice chat system, but that's why Discord and tablets were invented.

I might pick this up. It would be nice to have a Switch game to play that isn't Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, especially considering how much of a slideshow Age of Calamity wound up being.

[vladgd]

Obligatory "I got the game and I can say it is gud" post.

Too early (only hr2) to really get into the nitty gritty, but I can safely say despite being on switch, this game is a worthy successor to mh world. While the maps are smaller, and the switch framerate does dip in areas, there's a ton to explore. I'd argue, with the new mobility of the dog+wirebugs, this game is a lot more enjoyable to explore the maps than in world. Especially now that we no longer have the insanely big, labyrinthian maze like, "if a monster is on that map im going to hunt something else", abomination of a map called ancient forest in mh world, the 4 maps I have access too so far are pretty good.

More to come as I play the game, only 9 hours played so far, and way too much dicking around and way too little actually making progress. If you were worried they were going to go back to old monster hunter style of generations ultimate and the past games, this game is not that, it's got all of the QoL of world and then some.

*edit*

AND I MUST SNEAK THIS IN, despite some pretty decent framedrops in areas, the load times in rise on switch are a hundred trillion times better than mh world on ps4. It's not even a comparison, loading into missions takes a fraction of the time, and entering different areas in town is maybe a second? not even. Very noticeable how fast the
load times are.

*edit*

Lance got a new move which is very un lance like in rise, and I didn't like it. Since the psp games it got a swipe move used by hitting the two attack buttons at the same time, it was a novelty move, and pretty much useless against everything. In rise it's still mostly useless (albeit, good for attacking the bushes that hide wildlife), but it has a charge version which you can do by holding the two buttons...

Lance is amongst the most precise weapons in the monster hunter series, and this swipe aint, range is meh, and its slow...but it can fit into the 3x poke combos, can be counter or guard cancelled like a poke, and does as much damage as 3 pokes combined...ACTUALLY starting to enjoy how this move fits in with the lance moveset. Sometimes I poke poke poke, sometimes ill poke poke swipe, and if I know I have a small opening, I'll change the order again, maybe swipe, poke, evade. I really hated the move coming into the game, but as I play more, it feels good to use. Not to mention on a downed monster, lance had like the lowest damage in the game, now, you can actually do some decent damage when a monster is downed. It's almost as if the game developers knew what they were doing...

[Spectere]

That sounds promising. I also heard that they revamped the potions to have a partial instant effect (like, it heals half instantly and the second half is a HoT).

I'll probably pick it up at some point. Gotta whittle down my backlog a bit first, though. <_<

[vladgd]

I am not as far as I could be, but I have hit HR 6 (High rank starts at HR 4) so I still have an incomplete, but wider view of what this game is.

This game in my opinion should be viewed as "monster hunter world 2" to people on the fence. Generations ultimate was the last of the "old" monster hunter styled games, Rise is basically refining what world did to refine the old games.

And what I mean by that is the game is really fucking good, so if you liked world, it's kinda impossible not to like rise unless you hate on the switch or something. Which in that case I actually prefer having some framedrops in areas if my loadtimes are lightning, because loading into missions/areas is very speedy.

Biggest complaint so far is that I am kind of luke warm on the Lance weapon, seems to have the least exciting changes out of the weapons that I've seen. New swipe while a good move, still doesn't fit with the lance moveset. An easy solution to this would be to add a power thrust instead of a swipe...they did this in generations ultimate already...so it's not like capcom hadn't thought of the idea. And the new toys are either redundant, require too much skill to make use of, or are uninteresting. Switch skills, one replaces the charge with...a shorter range charge that is more defensive? It's fine, and I use it over the default charge, but it isn't drastically different.

The other replaces your block with a parry styled block...so like the lance has what, 4 different counters/parries now?
-Standard counter
-power guard
-wirebug counter
-instant guard

I know the kit is designed to say fuck that monsters attack im gonna disregard that and keep attacking while all other weapons have to back off, but when is enough enough? I don't think the weapon needs 4 different counters when the two default ones fit just fine. However my skill level, despite the large time played, is kind of low, so having these new counters that if you use incorrectly, you kinda die...isn't as fun as getting a new hittey damage thing. At least with the standard counter, if I fuck up the timing (WHICH I DO ALL THE TIME EVERY SINGLE FIGHT), I can just powerguard to save my ass. Wirebug counter I can't do that, big whiff animation, and instant guard takes away normal guard...

TLDR LOOKING FOR ANOTHER WEAPON, hammer is a big maybe, gunlance is probably a no, might put together a heavy bowgun set to try that out. Still love the lance, but I got a little bit of envy looking at the cool stuff other weapons received. Not going to abandon the weapon, but instead of having 95% of my hunts played with lance...maybe lower that number to 60-70%.

Ohh yeah, the wirebug mechanics for movement are fantastic. It's actually really fun to zip around the environment with the wirebugs. You have an upward swing and a forward swing, and in the air you can tap A to hold onto a wirebug mid air that doesn't cost wirebug meter. So what you can do to say cross a large gap, upswing to move forward, mid air A to swing again for free, still midair upswing again, tap A to go again...you can get some pretty impressive distance without even touching the ground in some areas. Slight learning curve to it, not a lot of skill, but enough skill to feel good and fun to use. Very nice addition.

[Spectere]

I don't hate the Switch (though I'm really eagerly awaiting the next major hardware revision to smooth things out), but with the number of games I still have on my to-do list I figure I can wait a year for it to drop on PC. If the load times are fast on the Switch's eMMC storage (which is pretty slow in terms of flash storage) I figure it'll fly on a decent SSD.

I think the thing I'm looking forward to the most is playing around with the wirebugs. One of the few things that was a bit of a slog in MHW (at least until they added rideable monsters in Iceborne) was the movement, so I imagine that'll help speed things up a lot.

Gotta say, for as conservative as Capcom usually is with the Monster Hunter series, I'm surprised that they were so bold as to put out two major releases back to back with such sweeping gameplay changes. I do find it kind of funny when people complain about them removing mundane elements, though, such as having to friggin' collect whetstones. I mean, if I want to stockpile stone I'll just play Minecraft.

[vladgd]

Well if you don't need it now, pc release will replicate a "game is new everybody is playing it" environment online, so it's not a bad call. I think im already near the "endgame" content already, so it feels a bit lighter than base mh world. Mind you it's still 30-40 hours to get there instead of...I think 50-70 hours it took me to get to xenojiva in world?  So pc release will have all the addons and stuff they're bound to keep releasing over the coming months.

Still, for me, it's plenty enough content for me to chew on. Maybe it feels like less because the content is...I hate saying it, easier? I don't think this is an easy game, but for monster hunter standards, it's probably the easiest one yet. You can cart, and I have carted, but I am in HR6, HR7 is the current max, the hardest fights I have done so far are still easier than low rank anjanath (who is scarey enough to where I have avoided fighting him in this game so far), or diablos, or pink rathian, those eariler game fights timed at points in the game that felt especially challenging for me in world. And I think I have to mention high rank kirin, maybe not for current players, but when the game was new high rank kirin was a milestone, I think I uploaded a video celebrating beating it earlier in this thread. But that said, with monsters being currently more managable, it obviously means you progress through content faster. But in my eyes as a filthy casual, still plenty challenging to me, if I wasn't lancing, I would be carting a lot more.

such as having to friggin' collect whetstones. I mean, if I want to stockpile stone I'll just play Minecraft.

I put ~120 hours into monster hunter freedom unite on psp, and I do remember this. While kind of obsolete now, the biggest QoL changes in my eyes are three things that made a release like monster hunter 4 on 3ds something I put 20 hours into, compared to monster hunter world something I put over 210 hours into.

-The local wildlife fucks with you less in modern monster hunter. BULLFANGOS CHARGING YOU OVER AND OVER WHILE YOU FIGHT A RATHIAN, fucking sucks. Little mosquito guys buzzing around, PARALYZE YOU, monster charges you, cart. Goddamn bullshit, super annoying, the small monsters still fuck with you in rise, but it's barely something I notice anymore.

-Paintballs. Cool concept for the time, but mostly annoying. Monster runs away, forget to paintball...search the entire map for the monster, maybe the monster changes  zones, 10 minutes pass, can't find him. Now you just see all the monsters on the map, much nicer.

-Controls. Fuck Claw, I think I need to say no more.

But yeah having finite whetstones in essence made melee weapons had the potential to "run out", and you couldn't resupply in those games...and if you didn't bring pickaxes to mine more stones...and these axes break frequently and you can only hold so many...you get my point. Realistically speaking though I don't think it was ever an issue for me even with those hub fights with bloated hp taking almost the full 50 minutes to hunt.