The Simple Joy of Monster Hunter

You arrive at the old jungle. The sun has set. Your prey only shows itself in the darkest hours of the night. Your friends are with you. You exchange confident glances and begin making your way towards the stomping grounds of the elusive Nargacuga. After quikcly dispatching of a small heard of Veoliciprey, your party stops in a moonlit clearing for a moment to sharpen their weapons and make sure their equipment is ready for the battle to come. You playfully chastise your friend who plays his hunting horn, as if you’re worried about attracting the attention of the creature likely lurking nearby. It’s quiet; few other creatures come out this late at night.

Kitty!

That’s why the sudden roar from the dark patch of trees behind the party sends chills of both excitement and terror up your spine. The Nargacuga bursts into the moonlight, raising its formidable tail and bellowing out a challenge before charging forward. The hunter in the rear of your party raises his shield and stops the beast in its tracks, following up with a blast from his gunlance (yes GUN-LANCE!). You throw a flash bomb in front of the creature, blinding it and sending it into a fury. It lashes out blindly, unable to land a swipe on any of your friends. One of them takes this opportunity to lay a pitfall trap while the others land occasional strikes on it, breaking scales off of its wings and severing the end of its tail. The Nargacuga stops for a moment and shakes its head as its vision returns before charging straight at you. You draw your impossibly massive great sword with confidence and watch the huge monster topple into the pit trap just a few feet in front of you. You grin and deal a massive blow to the creature’s head, cracking its skull. It shrieks in pain, thrashing around and still unable to escape the trap as one of your friends throws a tranquilizing bomb.

Mission accomplished.

My entire summer last year was Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with my friends. Two or three times a week, we’d get together in my living room with our PSP’s to hunt into the wee hours of the morning. The series has a premise so awesome that its barely cult status in the United States baffles me to no end. This is a series about hunting down dinosaurs, dragons, and awesome mixes of the two using oversized medieval weaponry, traps, and explosives… with your friends! Every time I whack a creature a hundred times my size with a sword twice my size and watch it stagger backward roaring in pain as one of its massive horns shatters, I feel pure, fucking glee. I defeated this creature with my wits, weapons, skill, and pure testosterone. Nothing was scripted. I got my gear together, ventured out into the wilderness, and returned with a carcass larger than my house. Few other moments in my personal gaming history have brought such simple joy.

Now how do I get this home...

That joy is simple because Monster Hunter doesn’t fuck around with behind-the-scenes dice rolls or spreadsheets. Everything feels exactly like it should. Just hit that triceratops-dragon with your giant hammer and watch it roar in agony. Where’s your auto-target!? This ain’t no MMO you pussy! You have to aim your strikes! Numbers aren’t going to dodge for you! Are you hurt? Drink a potion! Of course it isn’t instant! It takes a second to drink liquid from a bottle and flex your mighty muscles! That giant enemy crab isn’t going to wait for you! Your flash bombs don’t have a hit ratio! Throw it in the monster’s face! If it doesn’t work, good, now you know this monster isn’t affected by them! Tired of that wyvern’s wing beats knocking you off your feet? There’s an armor augmentation for that! Want a bigger health meter? There’s an aug for that! Sick of being damaged by puny lava? There’s an aug for that! There’s an aug for just about everything! Attach it to your armor and presto! It’s not a percentage! It just works!

This guy brought the right weapon.

It’s just refreshing to play a game in which everything is as it seems. I’m not against the hand-holding that dominates most modern games, but I can enjoy it when a game forces you to learn by doing. It can be frustrating when you realize that the weapon you brought with you is way too slow to hit your target creature, but that allows you to adapt. Setting a trap that temporarily immobilizes the monster or throwing a blinding flash bomb can create an opening for some powerful hits. Placing bombs and luring the monster into their detonation range can work as well. Hell, if you don’t want to try any of that, come back with a faster weapon. Whenever I encounter a problem in Monster Hunter, the solution is always clear; even if that means doing some grinding.

Normally I loathe grinding, but I’m more than happy to kill monsters ad nauseum for that one special drop since it’s so damned fun. Since the combat is much more entertaining and complicated than clicking on my prey and hitting a few hot keys, it can be incredibly rewarding to fight the same creature over and over again. This is especially true when you’ve got friends to hunt with. Eventually you’ll have your group tactics down to a science. To quote a certain gentleman, “I love when a plan comes together.” I’ve killed so many Nargacugas that I can crack one’s beaky face open within ten minutes on a good hunt. For my efforts I was rewarded with armor and weapons that I crafted from its very flash and bones. It’s satisfying to walk around clad in the remains of your conquered foes. Your very equipment is a testament to your exploits.

This mighty creature's tusks will soon be grafted to your shoulder pads.

Obviously, I have a lot of good things to say about Monster Hunter. Unfortunately, the series has a few warts that have kept it from reaching its truly epic potential. The bar for entry is a tough one. For new hunters, you’re looking at at least 20 hours before things get really interesting. With friends, it’s more like an hour, but not everyone has a bunch of friends with PSP’s. The controls absolutely beg for a second joystick, and with the camera controls being tied to the PSP’s directional pad one must either must form a finger claw or grow a third arm. Online play is also limited to using the unwieldly Ad Hoc Party application on the PS3.

That said, the future of the series could potentially be very bright. Monster Hunter Tri had an awesome marketing campaign and was considered by many critics to be the best online experience the Wii had to offer. Sadly we’re not quite there yet. The bar for entry needs to be lowered. Also, the best games in the series, including the completely online Monster Hunter Frontier for PC and a high definition PS3 port of Monster Hunter Portable 3, remain exclusive to Japan and remain unavailable to American hunters. We can’t use the same arguement that the wonderful folks at Operation Rainfall use either since Monster Hunter games actually do sell better in Japan than here. Petitions have come and gone, but given Capcom’s recent dealings with their fans I wouldn’t judge the publisher for not having anything to say on the matter.

It’s a shame, but at least I still have over 50 quests to complete in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in spite of the 300+ hours I’ve put into the game.