Monster Hunter

[Spectere]

30-40 hours still ain't bad. Considering how well-supported modern Monster Hunter has been, I imagine special events and the like will easily add another dozen or so hours to that count. Kinda makes me wonder how much the new movement system factors into that as well. Like I said, the movement in World was fine, but having to traverse an entire zone took a while, and that sort of thing definitely adds up when you're farming.

Heh, funny you mention LR Anjanath. That motherfucker will definitely make you humble. I ended up going back to LR Anjanath on my MHW save after beating Xeno'jiiva, got a little too cocky and aggressive, and wound up carting...on low rank. Whoops! Definitely didn't make that mistake twice.

I actually forgot how much of a hindrance the wildlife was in classic MH, but yeah, that's definitely not something I miss. It's also kind of unrealistic when you think about it. You've got a human swinging a big fuck off sword at a big fuck off predator and some little insect is going to just stick around and start poking one of them? What? Not to say that MHW doesn't have stinging, stunning insects, but they don't seem to be nearly as ruthless/annoying as they used to be. I don't recall ever having to worry about those fuckers when I decide to hunt Pukei-Pukei (I think the game might even despawn them altogether?).

Oh, also, don't forget about their nasty habit of placing smaller monsters right on top of the goddamn level load triggers just so you'd take a nigh unavoidable hit during the screen transition. asdfjkl;

And yeah, I don't miss paintballs at all. Scout flies 4 lyfe. Also, the removal of paintballs and the infinite whetstone also led to another awesome bit of QoL: since those items don't exist in their original form, they don't waste inventory space (nor do pickaxes, nets, and all that other stuff).

[vladgd]

Watching the credits right now. ~42 hours played. This game is seperated between village (single player only) and hub (the meat of the game, single or multiplayer), and progression is seperated between the two. So my time played is to get to the end of both, if you just do village...you could probably do it in 10 if you really just bee line it. I did hub first because multiplayer is where all of my monster hunter enjoyment comes from, and village is low rank only...so it's a joke finishing village with high rank gear. Funny no credits for the hub, even though it's where a vast majority of the content is located, but either way, monster hunter has never been about the "story", so don't expect much here. SPOILERS, the village eider gives you a longsword...like it's the canon weapon now or something...like getting coal for christmas, gross.

I mean It's clear I already recommend this game to any fan of the series, but having had sunk my teeth into a majority of what the game currently has to offer, I am happy with the product they put out.

And as I get to the end of this post and the credits finally end...there's still more village quests? Well I'll edit when I beat them all because this feels like a bayonetta where they rope a dope you with some credits....only for more game to be there to play for credits aga....for more game to play FOR THE THIRD SET OF CREDITS where the game story ends. Monster hunter games don't really end, but they do have a story that ends, so color me confused.

*edit*

Well that was...weird. So hub goes from HR 1 to HR 7 quests. Village goes from HR1-4, then you have credits "the story is done", but then you have HR5 quests, you do the mandatory quests for an urgent to fight an...almudron...just some normal mid tier monster and after that(a very annoying hard to hit despite him being huge, but still not that bad of a fight)...HR 6, but it just kinda stops. There are quests to do, but thats it. I mean Village monsters feel like they have 60% the health of a hub monster, so for farming certain low rank parts it's useful, but what a strange way to end a story. The story isn't over, they kind of cliffhanger it in the hub, but still, strange. But again these games aren't ones you just stop playing because the game stops giving you a story incentive to do so, so...I still got a lot of random sidequests/unfinished not mandatory for story progression quests/get my lance set fully decked out/play other weapons/arena quests/ECT ECT ECT, plenty to do. HOWEVER compared to the two monster hunters I put the most time into, freedom unite, and world, this one has by far the least amount of content...which is still a lot of content worth the price of admission in my humble opinion. YMMV, I enjoy it, play it now, wait for dlc, wait for pc, no wrong way to go at it. I'm playing it now on switch, and when im done, it'll be like world, I'll probably be done till the next new release years in the future.

Time played as of this post 46 hours 43 minutes.

More or less my "review" of the game. Going back to even playing world is probably impossible for me now. GUD GAM

*edit*

Some random notes I notice. I think part of the ease of this release is specific to wirebugs. You can do a knockdown recovery move, kinda similar to a fighting game in this game. Monster knocks you down, durring the knockback animation where you ragdoll helplessly, you can just wirebug in any direction away from danger with your weapon sheathed so you can pop a potion or something. It's a bit odd to use at first, get knocked back, hold ZL and hit A and a direction, its probably the single biggest cart prevention mechanic in the game to be honest.

*edit 4/10*

So I changed my mind AGAIN on lance sweep. I was against it, then for it, then against it, now FOR IT. 60 hours played. Here's what lance sweep don't do. ITS SLOW, doesn't hit very high up, it's not a poke so lance aesthetics.

Heres what lance sweep do, it's a sweep with a BIG AS FUCK ARC JESUS, the monster is sometimes behind me and I'll still hit, great for out of position stuff. Actual good damage for downed monsters. But something I noticed as I played, and as the community brings up, it's slow...and does a lot of damage but it's slow...you know how fast lance loses sharpness by it's poke poke poke? Very fast, but liberal usage of sweep (which I find I use it a majority of the time now) means sharpness is less of an issue than ever. Less attacks = less sharpness loss = even more damage. It may be an attack that goes against the spirit of the weapon, but I think it overall makes the weapon more fun to play after you get over the learning curve.

*edit 4/13*

"cough" 77 hours "cough"

I have done all of the village quests finally, all the high rank hub quests, just need to get through the low rank hub stuff. I finally played another weapon, heavy bowgun. I don't know jack shit about it, but slap a shield on it with a few points in guard and I got through the "rajang + zinogre" quest in hr7 with minimal fear of carting. Current meta seems to be pierce, when I want to play spread...so maybe I'll figure out what I need to do spread, but pierce is fun enough. I run my lance with guard 5 evade window 4, so im mixing guard and evasion, which is something people don't do, so yknow fuck the meta. All damage does in this game is reduce the time a hunt takes, and in a lobby of 4 players, not dying is my priority. Just because the community at large believes something to be optimal, doesn't make it more fun for you as an individual.

People are complaining about the talisman rng postgame experience being horrible, but imo it's not much different than the .000001% augment droprate meta of base pre dlc world, so it is what it is. Keeps people playing, which keeps people in lobbies, so it ain't a bad thing.

A monster hunter fan who does not like this game is actually wrong. Yes an opinion can be wrong.

*edit 4/16*

Last edit to this post, about 81 hours played. Pretty much done with what I want to do with the game in it's current state, may come back later when dlc hits. To call it a "short game" would be silly. There's plenty to do.

*edit 4/19*

Uhh...85 hours played. Made a switch axe, really like it, finally finished EVERY SINGLE VILLAGE AND HUB QUEST....now I think I am done till dlc.

[Spectere]

Sorry if you already covered this, but did they improve the way that co-op questing works? Having to juggle with the monster introduction cutscenes in World was kind of a drag.

[vladgd]

It works a little different. Each monster has its own intro cutscene. If a player has not seen the intro, it'll play out(unless they skip), but by the time you're in high rank pretty much everybody has seen them, and I haven't seen one in over 50-60 hours of play, and I play PREDOMINANTLY multiplayer games.

The multiplayer experience is a lot more improved.

-You can make a lobby for people to join, and anyone can post/join quests within the lobby.
-The way I mostly play is to go to the board and join a quest in progress. I currently need Magnamalo gem to make a hunting horn, so I just go to the board, pick the quest with high rank Magnamalo, wait anywhere between 5-20 seconds, and I'm in with 3 other players good to go.
-Or if the quest you are on isn't that popular and you can't find other players, you can host one, and players will be able to join you via the second bullet point.

World multiplayer felt pretty jank with how they handled some multiplayer things, Rise feels as good as you can get it imo. Sometimes you'll eat, join a game, fail to find game...and your food meal wears off, but meals are cheap, so it's not a huge deal.

[Spectere]

That sounds like a huge improvement already. When one of my friends started playing World with me, we'd always have to go through that song and dance where he would start a quest solo, watch the cutscene, abandon the quest, and then we could play together. So...utterly...bizarre...

I'm kind of on the fence. I'd much rather play the PC port when it comes out, but everyone I know has it on Switch. Then again, by the time I get to it, my friends might have moved on to other games.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaa halp

[vladgd]

Pretty easy choice to make. If you're friends are playing it on switch right now, get it on switch. If they're waiting for pc, wait for pc. The game will get supported with dlc, and with dlc will be influx of players playing said dlc. Also, pc release will have the same influx of new pc players.

I don't think there's a wrong answer, unless you're playing solo months after release inbetween content releases.

[Spectere]

Yeah, good point.

I’ll let you know when I pick it up.

[vladgd]

The only thing I would have you hesitate on is how bad do you hate framerate drops.

They happen "enough" where you notice it, but it's not bad enough "in my opinion" to hamper the overall experience. I think I said earlier the load times are so fast the frame drops don't bother me, but if that isn't you, pc for sure.

[Spectere]

Any idea how it compares to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in terms of frame rate? I'm not super gung-ho about framerate drops as long as the game is fun, but AoC is what I'd consider at the upper end of unplayable.

If it's better than that, I don't really care if it's running on a console. Besides, it would give me a good excuse to play with my Switch.

[vladgd]

Pretty unfamiliar with that game. However I'd say a vast majority of this game runs fine, it's just certain areas, of if too many things are in one area, the frames dip and become a bit choppy. Choppy means choppy, not unplayable. Enough to notice, but enough to get used to and sorta forget about after a while. I'm used to it to the point where I can't think of any area in particular that bothers me, none of it actually impedes a hunt to be honest. It's just there, and that's a thing some people are more picky than others about, so it's definitely worth noting, I could be on the less picky side of the spectrum so I figured Id mention my own personal bias.

A majority of this game is being in combat with a giant monster, most videos you see of the game should give you a good enough representation of what to expect I'd think.

[Spectere]

Yeah, I can generally deal with that. I mean, I started off with Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii and Monster Hunter 4 on the OG 3DS XL, so if it isn't any worse than those I'm sure it'll be fine. I'd say I'm somewhere in the middle of the frame rate spectrum. I like being able to play games at 60hz+, but I don't consider games unplayable if they run at 30 with the occasional dip (that said, I'm also not prone to simulation sickness, so that probably has a lot to do with it).

I was a bit less picky when I was a kid, but I think that's all part of jumping on the FPS bandwagon very early.

Thanks for all the info!