Topic: Monster Hunter Thwii

[Halbred]

So it's Capcom's Pokemon?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

B+ confirmed.

[that Baby guy]

I agree with Pro, and I'm shocked to see the post.  Basically, it feels like an early last-gen game with better graphics, but unpolished gameplay.  The reality, if I've read correctly, is the LOOOOOOOOOONG action delays are meant to add strategy, but for at least anyone new to the series, they're just long periods of time where control is removed from the player, and often, devastating things occur at the same time.

That said, I'm shocked to find the online play is tolerable, which is something that rarely happens for me.

[Stratos]

I hate it when I accidentally hit the action button that causes you to use an item when you fight because then my character pauses to sharpen his sword or whatever and I get hit...grrr

[Sundoulos]

So it's Capcom's Pokemon?

Probably more like it's becoming Capcom's Dragon Quest.   

[NWR_insanolord]

So it's Capcom's Pokemon?

Probably more like it's becoming Capcom's Dragon Quest.   

Yeah, but Pokemon is Nintendo's Dragon Quest, so by the transitive property he's still correct.

[Halbred]

I'm correct by proxy.

[that Baby guy]

I hate it when I accidentally hit the action button that causes you to use an item when you fight because then my character pauses to sharpen his sword or whatever and I get hit...grrr

I think it was a bad design decision to map the "Item" button and the "Sheath" button to the same button.  Really a poor decision for newcomers to the series.

[Adrock]

Right, a franchise that is massive in Japan doesn't count? So I guess the Dragon Quest series isn't big either. The illogic boggles the mind, it isn't huge here so of course it isn't big. ::rolls eyes::

The game has been getting great scores, comparable to that of FF13. Sounds like it is a case of "I don't like it so it is a B+ game".

That's very reductive, but fine... I'll elaborate. I would think that Capcom, like most companies, prioritizes their resources. Monster Hunter Tri is based on a very unrefined formula that hasn't evolved much since its PS2 debut. I don't think Capcom is too concerned with changing that though. The series sells extremely well to who it's intended to sell primarily to. Capcom made a B+ game because they wanted to make a B+ game. They could have pumped more time, effort, and money into Tri, but would that help it sell heaps more? Probably not. I suspect lower development costs was one of the main reasons Tri's development was moved to the Wii in the first place.

[bustin98]

This game has some awesome environments. And I love how the lion creature's mane rolls around as it jumps and attacks.

[noname2200]

Well, the game's certainly gotten better, and I'm starting to enjoy it now, but MAN does it have some seriously stupid flaws. The camera will always annoy me, and while I know it's part of the "challenge" it just strikes me as a stupid artificial limitation that was placed there so enemy patterns and player capabilities could be restrained as well. Some of the zones are too small and empty to have any good purpose: they mostly just slow down the action. Requiring so much farming of basic items feels like padding. And I absolute hate how limited the inventory is, especially in light of the extensive farming.

That said, I think I'll get my money's worth out of this. I'm looking forward to playing it with friends once I get a better grip on the mechanics. Does anyone have any suggestions for a weapon besides the Sword and Shield? I tried and liked the lance, but because of its narrow range and the stupid camera system, it's nearly useless against the numerous small enemies.

My brother is digging it though he said it took a couple hours to "get good." While that's not a universal sentiment at all, I think that's a bad sign. With anything (film, literature, gaming etc.), in order to gain/maintain an audience, it really needs to draw people in immediately.

Apparently, that's not as much of an issue as it appears to be, or the game would never have gotten so monstrous ( ;-) ) as it did in Japan. I'd also point out that plenty of other big titles, like most Zeldas post-Ocarina, take a long time to get going too. That's just the nature of the game for any title that tries to have complexity in its control scheme. I think this will turn off the mainstream gamer, but my guess is that the title will probably find a decent-sized following in the West in spite of its slow start.

I think I rushed through something important...I have no idea how to get money.

Kill stuff and sell the remains. Monster Guts seem to be the best way to raise cash early on: kill those herbivore swimming dinos in zones 10 and 11 (they barely fight back) to make some decent cash fairly quickly. When you enter quests, try to complete the subquests as well.

* The boss monsters are synced among players in online play, but the smaller critters are not.  Excuse me?  On another player's screen, I could be chasing GHOSTS, that we can't really coordinate about?

Wait...what?!

[Adrock]

Apparently, that's not as much of an issue as it appears to be, or the game would never have gotten so monstrous ( ;-) ) as it did in Japan. I'd also point out that plenty of other big titles, like most Zeldas post-Ocarina, take a long time to get going too. That's just the nature of the game for any title that tries to have complexity in its control scheme. I think this will turn off the mainstream gamer, but my guess is that the title will probably find a decent-sized following in the West in spite of its slow start.

Well, Zelda is Zelda. I think people are more forgiving of Zelda because of its gaming legacy. They'll burn through the boring tutorial (and Sweet Spaghetti Monster was it boring in TP) simply because it's a Zelda game. Monster Hunter has no such luxury. The slow start hurts MH more than is does Zelda and other franchises already established in the west.

[Stratos]

I can confirm that even though the smaller monsters are not 100% synced they do share health bars. If there are three little jaggi on the screen and you hit one, it will receive damage universally. It's the same monsters but they just move around differently. So if one person were tasked with taking out the little ones while the others killed the big guy then it would not be a problem and still work out.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Still, that means you can't visually synchronize 2 cans of whoop-ass on the same small monsters.  You end up having a teammate trying to kill a small critter (on your screen he's angry at the air in front of him), while the small critter on your screen you're having a staring match with suddenly dies.

Just, weird.

[Stratos]

I rarely had moments where that became an issue. Granted, I've only played online for several hours today and we have not developed much strategy yet, but it only became very noticeable on the last hunt I did for the night.

[that Baby guy]

It can be annoying for one reason... If a small monster is attacking you on your screen, you take damage, but the same small monster can be attacking someone else on their screen, and cause damage to two players in different locations at the same time.  That's just not cool, and shouldn't happen.

Still, it's not that bad.  When it comes to it, most of the time on bigger bosses, you'll ignore the small monsters, and they just die getting caught up in the fray.  There are much bigger problems with the game than that.  Also, apparently Wii Speak quality is horrid online.  Headsets aren't supposed to be as bad, though.

[Mop it up]

Harvest points are different for each person, too. So if you see a mushroom patch on your screen, it might not be there for everyone else. This might cause problems for gathering quests, because you can't tell other players exactly where the items are.

Also, apparently Wii Speak quality is horrid online.

From my experience tonight, it was pretty bad. It sounded like everyone was talking underwater. I think that Wii Speak just doesn't work well with games that have a lot of action, as Animal Crossing is the only game that doesn't have terrible quality (but still isn't good).

[Sundoulos]

Yeah.  I bought a newer pair of USB Logitec headphones, and they didn't work.  I probably should have stuck with the simpler model that was pointed out in the matchmaking thread.   The quality of Wii Speak was pretty spotty, though it was better than nothing.  :/

It's sort of unfortunate.  I had a hard time hearing what was being said;  I had to keep the volume down on the TV because my wife and my 2 year old were already asleep in the rooms next to where we have the Wii.  I may try to move it into a different part of the house for future Monster Hunter events.

[Armak88]

I agree with Pro, and I'm shocked to see the post.  Basically, it feels like an early last-gen game with better graphics, but unpolished gameplay.  The reality, if I've read correctly, is the LOOOOOOOOOONG action delays are meant to add strategy, but for at least anyone new to the series, they're just long periods of time where control is removed from the player, and often, devastating things occur at the same time.

That said, I'm shocked to find the online play is tolerable, which is something that rarely happens for me.

I've got to ask, how far into the game are you? Before playing the game my concern was that this would be a press A until it dies game, but by the time you take down great jaggi I think the game will show you that is not the case. I faced Great Jaggi with the full hunter's gear set and the Iron Great Sword+. I managed to kill it only because of item management and stringing together combos. I didn't even know that you could do different combo's in the beginning but it really opens up the combat. I find that if I swap different moves in and out of the combo I can control not only the timing but where I end up. Connect this with the roll and block and combat is not as slow paced or as out of your control as you might think. Plus half the battle is item management.

I think I am about ready to take this online. I have just unlocked the 2 star quests, does anybody know if this is an alright place to start?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Wii Speak just sucks all around since nintendo wasnot very forward thinking with their design of the Wii. They designed it with the exact specs needed to make a certain game they were working on, and didn't think 'hey, we should include extra ram and provide a little more horsepower so that we can add stuff, like peripherals or features later on'.

So WiiSpeak will always suck, and there is nothing anyone can do about it till the next system. AC works better than the rest since it is not a processor heavy game. Every other game will suffer.

[Mop it up]

I think I am about ready to take this online. I have just unlocked the 2 star quests, does anybody know if this is an alright place to start?

That's farther along than some of us who were playing last night (myself included). If you're going to play with random people, try to find people around your rank. If you'd like to play with people from NWR, visit the Monster Hunter Club topic in the Matchmaking forum.

[Caliban]

Widescreen mode sucks for this game... so blurry/stretched. Thanks Capcom for having such low standards.

I'm having fun with the game. I'm getting used to its gameplay mechanics, as I'm a Monster Hunter rookie, but it's all fine and dandy.

I will go online as soon as I'm more comfortable with the game.

[Stratos]

I find it funny how this thread and the Monster Hunter Club thread seem to have totally different groups of people in it. All you people in this thread with the game should start playing online and join us in this thread.

[BeautifulShy]

I might pick this today I just need this question answered.
Prefered controllers. Has anybody tried all the controllers? CCPro,CC, and Wiimote and Nunchuck. I have a Classic Controller and Wiimote and Nunchuck. Do I need to get the Classic Controller Pro?
What are the price differences between the CCPro bundle and just the game?

[Stratos]

I've played with CC Pro and in the demo I used the regular CC. Both get the job done well enough but I really do prefer the Pro. I didn't think it would matter but having the handle prongs really made gameplay super comfortable. It's only $10 more for the Pro bundle so I would go with that. Never hurts to have an extra CC laying about for Smash Brothers, Mario Kart or old multiplayer VC games unless you already have 4.