Official Monster Hunter Thread

Official Monster Hunter Thread

First Generation:
Monster Hunter - PS2 - 2004/2005
Monster Hunter Freedom - PSP - 2005/2006

Second Generation:
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 - PSP - 2007
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - PSP - 2008/2009

Third Generation:
Monster Hunter Tri - Wii - 2009/2010
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Wii U/3DS - 2011-2012/March 2013

Fourth Generation:
Monster Hunter 4 - 3DS - Spring 2013/TBA

Since it was recently confirmed that Monster Hunter will indeed have a future in the West with the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both Wii U and 3DS in March 2013, I thought it was about time Cubed3 had a dedicated Monster Hunter thread.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Wii U/3DS - Coming March 2013

No Wii U footage yet with the exception of one screenshot, here for bigger version.

Confirmed changes/features so far:

- This is essentially the western version of Monster Hunter Tri G released in Japan
- Wii U version will have online play, 3DS will not
- Ability to transfer save data between both versions
- Both versions are compatible for cross local multiplayer

For a rough overview of how much was added compared to Monster Hunter Tri, click here.

Monster Hunter 4 - 3DS - Spring 2013 Japan/TBA

Confirmed additions/features so far:

- Plenty of new monsters and areas (duh)
- Big focus on the terrain, climbing walls, jumping from ledges and cliffs to get around or do jumping attacks on monsters
- Monsters are smarter and well aware of the terrain
- Ability to jump and stay on monsters, continually stabbing them until you get thrown off
- Multiple villages, each with its own unique culture
- You are a nomadic hunter and travel in a caravan between villages
- Includes 12 weapons, all from previous games return
- One of the two new weapon types, an Insect Rod. It's a capable double-ended staff with fast attacks and a lot of mobility and can summon a large insect to steal useful buffs from monsters (attack, health, speed or defense)
- Unlike MH3G (MH3U in the West), MH4 will have Online Play
- The second new weapon type is called the Charge Axe, which is a hybrid between a Sword and Shield and a an Axe. The Sword and Shield mode is for quick attacks and accumulating Charge Energy, while the Axe mode is for slower, more damaging strikes and using said Charge energy for attribute attacks.

Have yet to try a MH game, will most likely jump on board with the Wii U one. ^^

Excellent, Phoenom! The general consensus seems to be that the games are a bit hard to get into if you're all by yourself and don't have others to motivate and play with you (this is most likely one reason why it's such a hit in Japan). With online play it's a whole different story though. There are enough fans on C3 to get regular hunts going when it comes out. The thought alone makes me all excited.

Here are about 20 minutes of two developers talking and showing off certain aspects of the game. Now for me the most interesting part here is at 5:10. Watch closely how long it takes to get to the next area. It might not be completely open but you can barely even look at the map and it's done loading. Much better than past loading times of easily 3-5 seconds.

This makes me wonder..maybe MH3U will have improved loading times on the Wii U? It does have a lot more RAM, so it should be possible. One can hope...

Should be good, March is so far away though. Online play has been confirmed for Monster Hunter 4 so we don't have to worry about that when it get's localised.
Also you should download the game from eShop if you want faster loading times.
Are you getting MH3U SirLink or are you going to skip it and wait for 4?

L said:
Are you getting MH3U SirLink or are you going to skip it and wait for 4?

I hope that MH3GU has voice chat/keyboard text input so you experienced Hunters can help educate us newbies.

From the perspective of someone who's pretty much clueless about the series, is it like Shadow of the Collossus? In that you hunt down giant creatures with weak points for an ultimate goal?

Well, Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii supported USB keyboards (I used one myself all the time) and they even bothered supporting Wii Speak, so it would be weird if both weren't included this time around too.

I haven't played Shadow of the Colossus yet (I know, sue me) but Monster Hunter games really don't have that much of a story, though Capcom is claiming that will change with MH4.

You basically go through sets of available quests (almost all are repeatable) and once you did the required ones, there'll be a final quest and then you gain access to more difficult ones. The first quests are all rather basic and nowhere near as exciting as the main selling point of the game because you start off killing small monsters and collecting materials. That's mainly the part that might scare off some people.

Once you get to the big, bad monsters you have to kill them and then carve their bodies for materials (or capture them, which works differently with rewards), which you can then use to make extremely awesome looking armour and weapons based on the monster design. Better equipment makes it easier to fight harder monsters but you're going to die if you rush and don't plan your moves, great gear or not. That's pretty much the basic idea of the game and it's addictive as hell and nothing beats the feeling of carefully learning a monster's patterns and eventually kicking its ass after all the hell it put you through.

Monsters do have weak points to but they aren't obvious most of the time. I'd explain more how this all works but I'd just completely digress and slip into core mechanics, lots of numbers, hitboxes etc. which would most likely overwhelm you.

MH has gorgeous worlds. A nice village as a game hub, where you get your equipment, quests, team mates etc.
Outside you have different areas you are sent to in your quests. There's this nice ecosystem of herbivores, some carnivores, etc. You can get chased around by the monsters (which often look like dinosaurs) all over the map, but you can also shake them off. Or they can flee when they're weak and you have to chase them.

It's a great game, even the single player. I think I put more time into it than a single playthrough of TP or SS.

I can't wait for MH3U on the Wii U and I also can't wait for MH4 on the 3DS. Bring it on Capcom!

Would really love to get some nice hunts going with people from C3. I know me and Link will probably play the hell out of it, so the more the merrier.

Tri was also my first MH game and I instantly became a fan. It's quite a rich and deep experience. Moreso than what first meets the eye.

I went in, expecting a generic action-RPG, but wow.. it was just so much more than that. Truly great experience for people that love to work as a team to kick ass.

( Edited 20.09.2012 23:55 by Mush123 )

SirLink said:
What kind of question is that? I'm not mad enough to live another year without a new MH game, especially since all I've played is Tri. MH3U is perfect for me. So yeah, Day 1 on the Wii U obviously.

Phoenom said:
From the perspective of someone who's pretty much clueless about the series, is it like Shadow of the Collossus? In that you hunt down giant creatures with weak points for an ultimate goal?

L said:
It's more like Phantasy Srar Online but instead of progressing through a stage you just have to fight the Boss at the start of the quest.

L said:

Cool, now we can play together. Which weapon are you going to main this time around? I'm gonna use the Gun Lance, they were pretty awesome in the PSP game.

In Tri I used to main Longswords because they are deadly and awesome looking when you know how to use them without being an annoyance to everybody else by knocking them over with spirit combo attacks (not many realised that, sadly). So satisfying when you get the spirit bar up to red and keep it there, staggering monsters like crazy. I used Sword and Shield quite a lot too, really liked the mobility and exploiting elemental weaknesses with the right gear of course. I had a great hammer and lance set for Alatreon and Deviljho respectively too though. So yeah, hard to tell. I might stick with Longsword until I'm at a point where I can effectively farm stuff to make other good sets.

I used the Switch Axe for a long while, but mostly the sword mode. It was faster than the axe mode, right?

Anyway, it's been a while since I've played it, I'm thinking about playing online.
Are you guys on European time?

SirLink said:
Well I have no experience with Bow, Gunlance, Hunting Horn and Dual Swords (though I did watch a ton of podcasts with people using them), so I might start really liking one of them. Bow and Dual Swords are certainly appealing from the looks alone.

In Tri I used to main Longswords because they are deadly and awesome looking when you know how to use them without being an annoyance to everybody else by knocking them over with spirit combo attacks (not many realised that, sadly). So satisfying when you get the spirit bar up to red and keep it there, staggering monsters like crazy. I used Sword and Shield quite a lot too, really liked the mobility and exploiting elemental weaknesses with the right gear of course. I had a great hammer and lance set for Alatreon and Deviljho respectively too though. So yeah, hard to tell. I might stick with Longsword until I'm at a point where I can effectively farm stuff to make other good sets.

Canyarion said:
I used the Switch Axe for a long while, but mostly the sword mode. It was faster than the axe mode, right?

Think I might finally give this game a go with WiiU, the original Wii's online was just too shitty for me to bother with, especially somthing as team based as this.

L said:

Oh yeah those spirit slash spammers were so annoying, I'll be charging my GS attack and then at the last second they'll trip me wasting my fully charged attack. >_< The Switch Axe/Great Sword users were even more annoying though when they'd do their up swing and send you flying.

Did you ever use bowguns? I only used them a bit in some arena quests for the fun of it but never really liked them. Bows look like a better ranged alternative to me with less micromanaging and more mobility. I did take part in some Alatreon sleepbombing runs but always left bowgunning to others while I used a Sword and Shield and carried extra ammo for them.

@Mr James: It would surprise you considering what you hear about the Wii's online but MH3 actually had very good online. I've played it hundreds of hours and almost never had any lag (which is crucial not to have in MH) unless Capcom were fixing the servers. Sure, in hindsight there were some things that could have been improved like bigger lobbies or an easier to use friendslist but I never once thought "Man, I wish this wasn't on the Wii!!" because of the online mode.

( Edited 22.09.2012 08:27 by SirLink )

I don't doubt the game played well online but the major hurdle for me was

No univeral Wii friend list, this ment I cannot see who is online when playing other games.
It meant you had to go out of your way and set up times to be online.

This just in, according to Famitsu, Capcom announced at TGS that MH4 will have a second new weapon in addition to the already great looking "Insect Rod" or whatever its official localised name will be. No further details were revealed, unfortunately. I can't wait to see what else they have in store.

A weapon where you only used your fists would be cool, but tricky to integrate. Maybe boxing gloves with spikes and blades on them? That would be hilarious.

A Gunblade like Squall or Lightning from FF have would be awesome but then there's already the Gunlance. I'd love to see a weapon that's capable in both ranged and melee combat though. The Gunlance doesn't really have much range, so there could be a weapon to do that job. A Switchbow, kinda like Pit from Kid Icarus has, would be pretty cool.

I can't think of any more classic weapon types that could be added but man, the possibilities sure are getting me all excited!!

SirLink said:
Did you ever use bowguns? I only used them a bit in some arena quests for the fun of it but never really liked them. Bows look like a better ranged alternative to me with less micromanaging and more mobility. I did take part in some Alatreon sleepbombing runs but always left bowgunning to others while I used a Sword and Shield and carried extra ammo for them.

About that second weapon, a Gunblade does sound cool and I'd use it. Fist weapons are too similar to twin blades but then again they'll be doing impact damage so you can daze the monster so that might be plausible as well.
They haven't got any Weapons that represent a Whip yet so that might be a possibility?

L said:

About that second weapon, a Gunblade does sound cool and I'd use it. Fist weapons are too similar to twin blades but then again they'll be doing impact damage so you can daze the monster so that might be plausible as well.
They haven't got any Weapons that represent a Whip yet so that might be a possibility?

Hmm..I can't really imagine any good moveset for a whip. Maybe a long morning star instead? How about a rod (although that would be too similar to the insect staff/rod whatever) like Kilik from Soul Calibur or nunchaku? I'll laugh if I actually end up being right with one of my crazy guesses.

didn't expect to see an MH thread on C3.

Alot of you guys are missing out, Bowguns in MHtri are very interesting. It's the only MH game that lets you customize your gun's barrel, frame, and stock. From there you can explore your guns weight, range, folding, and load out. When paired with the right armor skills, you can do incredible damage.

As far as new weapons go something like a whip would be interesting. The MH manga had a guild member that was using a whip but since it was a prototype it broke after the quest. I could see that weapon being something like a longsword maybe even faster but lacking a meter.

My friends and I spoke on a weapon that was something like gauntlets. Even thought of designs like devil jho's jaws on the hunters fists. If the weapon was high speed it would definitely have to be low in stun damage. Wouldn't be fair to the monsters other wise it'll break the game.

Yeah, didn't see that one coming, huh? Apparently there are indeed enough MH fans here to make a dedicated thread worthwhile.

What put me off from using bowguns is exactly that customisation, needing separate armour sets and having to keep track of your ammo, crafting more etc. Even then, how it plays just isn't my style.

Gauntlets would probably be a better word for what I tried to described above, they would make a lot more sense too as weapons. Ones like Sophie from Tales of Graces f has would be quite a good fit and could make for an even more agile class than both Sword and Shield and Dual Swords.

For anyone who doesn't know yet, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is confirmed to run in 1080p on the Wii U. We only had one screenshot before, now Capcom released some more, which can be found here. Still no epic trailer, unfortunately.

The screenshots look pretty damn great, definitely better than Portable 3rd HD Version. It'll be the best looking MH game to date (not counting Frontier), though it's pretty obvious that they weren't going to create new assets for this and simply upscale and polish Tri G, a 3DS game.

Hi.

Just wanted to share this here, if you hadn't seen it. Darker shade of blue for maturer games in Japan, apparently. I hope to hell this happens over here, and hopefully for most games instead of just a few select ones. So much better than the sky blue boxes.

Capcom Unity recently tweeted this too