Watchの考え!

Plataform: Wii
Release Date: apr 20th
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Players: 1~4 (online)

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to play all released games (I really wish I had). Some games become phenomenons and I simply can’t understand why because I’ve never given it a proper chance. Last year, I gave a chance to Halo to try to understand what besides wonderful technical qualities it possesses. It ended up shaping a great gaming experience. This year I decided to understand more about Monster Hunter world and why it has become a multi-million seller hit in Japan.

It’s been a long time since I don’t write a review or impressions about games. I think my last one for Nintendo World magazine about Super Smash Bros Brawl. I do not intend on giving spoilers and making a deep analysis of Monster Hunter, which is a very complex game, so I’ll just highlight some of its characteristics.

In one sentence: Monster Hunter = Harvest Moon meets Dinosaur Park meets Phantasy Star Online.

You take the rule of a hunter which should take missions to help a village that was struck by a devastating earthquake and now fear a gigantic aquatic monster. Every mission accomplished, you earn some items and money, which should be used to upgrade your equipment and the village. The more resources and quests you clear, you improve the village making new items and upgrades available. The better your equipment is, closer you are from facing the Monster of Lake Ness.

The variety of items is ridiculously big and most of them really useful. For the collectables, you gather stuff like different types of baits for fishing, pickle axes for mining, bug net for hunting insects and so on. You will also possess different potions, hunter traps, bombs and even a BBQ Spit for cooking fresh raw meat you took from your preys and make it a wonderful meal to recover your stamina. You can choose between two main classes of hunter: blade and gunner. The former will be more a warrior type, using swords, hammers or spears. The second one will carry guns that can be loaded with different type of ammo that should be managed according to the situation for best results. You can even act like a healer for your group using heal ammo. (Interesting concept).

In my opinion what stand out on MH3 are the monsters itself and the online component. Monsters behave and sound very realistically, they call for help, run away when very hurt, make group attack, etc… The first monster you will kill is a huge herbivore breeding with its sons. I must confess I was heartbroken by that and I feel kinda sad slaying them at first, but know I understood that business is business, someone MUST do it!

The online component is by far the best you will ever see on Wii (and even on X360 or PS3). Time to kick out those stupid friend codes and rely on a server capcom is maintaining. Thanks god that even this game is charged monthly fees in japan, it’s free for America (yey!). Basically, the online play is a different hub where you meet people and then take some group quests. Your character in the single player and all your items are transported to multiplayer experience and progression on multiplayer also reflects on the single player experience. This is very rich since you are always being rewarded. You can use Wii Speak or USB Keyboard to communicate and you will do so in order to strategize your battles. Monsters aren’t just hack and slash, you will actually need to learn different patterns and use your brain to kill them.

Most missions are time based and this will add some urgent feel to them. I thought it was really old fashioned style of gameplay. But after all, Monster Hunter is all about being hardcore, everything takes time and you can probably spend over 100 hours easily on it. I found it really rewarding facing a giant dinosaur for over 30 minutes and when I thought I would kill him because he was very injured, he killed me and my partner. After I improved my equipment (no level ups at this game) I tried kill him again and it was a success. It blew my mind, really!

The main issues with MH3 are its slow pace and over complicated control scheme (even with Classic Controller). People wanting a story driven game, should skip MH3, but if you feel like becoming an incredible hunter, managing items and equipment and cooperative play, this game is for you.

I won’t give it a grade because this is not a review !

Check out the full trailer!