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[Nighthawk]

I've always thought of Monster Hunter as a silly game at heart. Hunters flex when they drink potions, do a hilarious running animation when running away from monsters, and never actually die; they just get unceremoniously dumped back at base camp. When you fail a quest, it's not even because you can't get back up and keep fighting, it's essentially because the guild (or your own hunter) decides you need to git gud before trying again.

The game is obligated to give you some kind of context for beating the daylights out of all of these critters, but when half of the optional quests are things like, "Yo, I really dig the Brachydios's hairdo, could you hunt me one so I can get a closer look?" it's easy to get the impression that it's not intended to be serious on the whole.

Monster Hunter World tried to be different in this regard, but honestly, I had so much more fun with the dialogue in the older games, which was always full of charm and wit. World comes of as... bland. Serious and bland. It attempts to take on a more mature tone, but in a game that is mostly propelled by the player's desire to do things like fatally bludgeon lightning unicorns to make assless chaps out of their hides... it's not really worth the attempt.

[Retropunch]

Yeah I have to say whilst I'm loving the mechanics and the general gameplay, I really don't enjoy the story/characters/dialogue/fluff - it's got that sort of annoying 'serious but stupid' anime thing that seems to just not want to commit either way and ends up just grating. It's not even like it's a serious game with silly bits or vice versa, it's that they try to mash them together at the same time; 'This is a serious situation, the dragons are threatening the whole ecosystem of the world so now is the the time..the time for dancing cats!!!'

It's not just in the dialogue, it's also that most (basically other than Pukei and the stupid bird) monsters look serious and pretty scary and when you break them into bits they start limping/howling/etc. which clashes with the silly tone of everything else. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine if it wants to be silly and campy, I just want it to be consistent. Being on edge, crawling through the jungle hunting a Rathalos for the first time to then have the s0per-kawaii helper woman shouting 'hehehe I'm so ditzy! lol!' sort of breaks any feelings of immersion. 
 

[Nighthawk]

[Rant Warning]

It doesn't exactly help that the handler herself is a stupid character. Her entire schtick is basically going gaga over all the cool monsters and environments in the game, which, in a medium where we ourselves can see and experience all of said things, is a gigantic waste of time. Yeah, I get it, the Coral Highlands are cool, now shut up and let me play the game, you useless tag-along.

This is a painfully shallow attempt to get the player's emotional investment, and nothing like the more effective theming in 4U, where they showed you a group of capable hunters (the Aces) while you were just a noob, then allowed you to climb up the ranks and show that you are equal to, and eventually, better than them.

I'd like to see more of that sort of player-centric narrative effectively employed in future games instead of the inconsistent and completely uninteresting "We need to kill monsters because hoo boy they may or may not be dangerous to us at some undisclosed point in the future. I'm gonna go sit in my usual spot in our completely unthreatened base camp while you go hunt that Elder Dragon that will literally stare you in the face and not aggro as long as you don't attack it."

[Rant End]

[Ygdrad]

New batch of pc events, this one includes the quest for the wiggler helm! Don't miss it.

[Kagus]

So after hearing this game's praises sung from the rooftops and the windows (brain, I know you love dogs, but "wooftops" is not a word), I decided to check out a few gameplay videos to see how it all worked out.

Does it... Ah... Does it ever stop being quite so... Japanese?


I quite liked Horizon Zero Dawn despite its faults, and I'd very much like to see more in the modified hunting genre. I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking at here.

[NullForceOmega]

Dude, it's a Capcom game, it will be Nihon as fuck beginning to end.

[Nighthawk]

Dude, it's a Capcom game, it will be Nihon as fuck beginning to end.

What he said. I know I'm going to sound like a broken record saying this, but Horizon is A) completely different from Monster Hunter, and B) made by Dutch developers. Capcom is in fact, y'know. Japanese. It'd be hard for them to make a game that doesn't reflect their culture.

I'd be interested to know exactly which aspects of the game's Japanese-ness (Japanesity? Japanessence?) are turning you off, though.

On that other note, grouping Horizon in with Monster Hunter by putting them in this so-called "hunting" genre is probably not advisable unless you want to confuse yourself. It's much like saying Final Fantasy 7 and Disgaea are alike because they're both RPGs where you control a party of characters.

[Kagus]

I'd be interested to know exactly which aspects of the game's Japanese-ness (Japanesity? Japanessence?) are turning you off, though.

So far in the playlist, it's basically just been the colossally-oversized weapons (and this coming from someone who quite enjoys WH40k), the "I will duel this gargantuan beast as though it were a man-sized opponent" battle style, and the obnoxiously cutesy aspects such as Ms. Never-Shuts-Up and the magic indestructible catslaves. The LPer been skipping cutscenes and dialog and muted all voice volume, so there hasn't been much character development outside of the unavoidable comments of Ms. NSU, so I can't comment on stereotype arcs.

I'm also not particularly huge on the "slap it until numbers come out" school of combat feedback or the well-trained Chernobyl Fireflies, but that's more just a specific conflict with what I would have liked to have seen, rather than something I can pin on Japanoproximity. A high ranking on the Japanograph? Shit, none of these really work. I like Japanessence, but that makes it seem more like an inherent quality than a sliding scale...

Capcom is in fact, y'know. Japanese. It'd be hard for them to make a game that doesn't reflect their culture.

Well, Bloodborne's also Japan-made; but save for some weapon compensation, the aforementioned battle style, and some fabulous hair it's not quite the same degree of Nipponity. Some, certainly, but not the same level. There are better examples, but that's the one that comes to mind offhand.


As for the H:ZD mention and the "Hunting" genre, that was more to do with what I'd wanted to see more of, and what I thought I might find here. I'd heard Monster Hunter World talked about a fair bit in terms of "You go and dynamically hunt big monsters in an open world", but my interpretation of what that means and the game's interpretation of what that means happened to diverge a fair bit. It's definitely my own wishful thinking, and that's on me, but I wanted to see if there was something I could grab onto beneath the surface that maybe prescribed to my wishful thinking enough to keep me interested.

[Ozyton]

Honestly Monster Hunter is about the most Japanese I can stomach in media. If it's not your thing then yeah you're probably not going to enjoy it or roll your eyes right out of their sockets at every cutscene. World is even less 'Japanesey'(??) than games like Monster Hunter Generations, which have 'hunter arts' now.

If you have a Switch there should be a demo for Generations available, but I dunno what you'd get out of it that a Let's Play hasn't already.

Also note that the story has never really been a big focus for these games, if you skip the cutscenes you're probably not going to miss out on much, so if deep character development is what you're after you're out of luck. The main characters of this game are the monsters, not the hunters, if that makes sense.

[umiman]

It's also worth noting that the number-pop-out aspect is unique to World, and can be disabled. The fireflies are also unique to World, but cannot be disabled.

You can mod it out but uh... you don't really want to.

[Nighthawk]

It's also worth noting that the number-pop-out aspect is unique to World, and can be disabled. The fireflies are also unique to World, but cannot be disabled.

You can mod it out but uh... you don't really want to.

I found myself missing paintballs, honestly. The whole "follow the glowing bugs" shtick makes me feel less like a hunter and more like a drooling clone drone following an arrow to the next NPC with an exclamation point over their head.

As for the H:ZD mention and the "Hunting" genre, that was more to do with what I'd wanted to see more of, and what I thought I might find here. I'd heard Monster Hunter World talked about a fair bit in terms of "You go and dynamically hunt big monsters in an open world", but my interpretation of what that means and the game's interpretation of what that means happened to diverge a fair bit. It's definitely my own wishful thinking, and that's on me, but I wanted to see if there was something I could grab onto beneath the surface that maybe prescribed to my wishful thinking enough to keep me interested.

Yeah, calling MHW an "open world" is stretching things a fair bit; anyone who describes it as such is just using a gaming buzzword to garner attention. It's more open than previous entries in the series, sure, but it's no massive landscape. The maps are just big enough to give you and the beastie(s) you're fighting some breathing room, and the game itself, unlike Horizon, is essentially just a series of boss battles.

[Retropunch]

Honestly Monster Hunter is about the most Japanese I can stomach in media. If it's not your thing then yeah you're probably not going to enjoy it or roll your eyes right out of their sockets at every cutscene. World is even less 'Japanesey'(??) than games like Monster Hunter Generations, which have 'hunter arts' now.

I agree. I didn't mind some of the earlier Final Fantasy games, and MGS is weird but neither of them really do the 'cutesy Japanese kawaaiiiiiiiii' thing that irks me so much. The mechanics and game play more than make-up for it, but it's just so, so grating. The thing is, I could probably put up with it if the writing was half decent, or there was any sort of story. 

Lately, I've been doing an RP where I've been dragged to this island of really fucking annoying weebs and so throw myself suicidally into the jaws of any monster I can find. My desire to live conflicts with my desire to make the pain stop, which is a way better story and character development than anything they can come up with.

One day I'll feed that cat it's own fucking paws. Meowster that, bitch.

[Man of Paper]

I love when people whine about balancing weapons in a purely co-op game. I know the Switch Axe and, at least it used to be, Insect Glaive are fucking ridonk, what's it matter? Not like we're actually competing. Yet.

[Kagus]

I love when people whine about balancing weapons in a purely co-op game. I know the Switch Axe and, at least it used to be, Insect Glaive are fucking ridonk, what's it matter? Not like we're actually competing. Yet.

While this sentiment is generally true, and is fucking awesome when it is true, it's entirely possible for co-op players to get unreasonably pissed off at anyone on their team bringing down the total efficacy by picking a sub-optimal weapon "because it's fun".

[Retropunch]

I love when people whine about balancing weapons in a purely co-op game. I know the Switch Axe and, at least it used to be, Insect Glaive are fucking ridonk, what's it matter? Not like we're actually competing. Yet.

While this sentiment is generally true, and is fucking awesome when it is true, it's entirely possible for co-op players to get unreasonably pissed off at anyone on their team bringing down the total efficacy by picking a sub-optimal weapon "because it's fun".

Agreed with Kagus - it doesn't bother me a great deal, but when you're trying to do a difficult quest and someone comes in with a very sub-optimal load out it can be really annoying. I'm not skilled enough at MH to know all that (or far enough through it) so it might not be a real problem, but I've played other games where you've got someone using something which is quantitatively rubbish slowing everything down.