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[Cthulhu]

It's the case in this one as well.  If an event comes up for a weapon you want that has an Iceborne upgrade (like wyvern ignition or something) go for it, but don't waste time on the big high rank armor like drachen or anything cause it's gonna be rapidly obsolete.

[DeKaFu]

Yeah, at least for my gear (SnS) it looked like the numbers on the Defender stuff are pretty close to the entry-level Master Rank gear. So even the most basic MR stuff is gonna be overpowered compared to late-game HR stuff.

On the PS4 front, they just started the first MR festival event (Holiday Joy event, seemingly Chinese holiday themed?). Apart from giving regular event tickets for logging in and completing bounties like previous festivals, this time a lot of the craftables also require "VIP Joy tickets" that you can only get as rewards for beating quests. Notably, one of the ways to get it is as a "Hunter Helper reward", which are extra rewards you get as an MR hunter helping out non-MR hunters with their Low- or High-rank quests...

I just tried actually doing that for the first time yesterday, and was kind of surprised by how hard it was to find qualifying SOS quests?! It might just be due to the event putting them in high demand, but it seemed like there actually weren't that many High-rank-quests-by-non-MR-people to go around.

Clever strategy overall, though. Reward people with the DLC for playing with people without the DLC so they can be properly jealous about the OP gear and new abilities, and then presumably rush out to buy the DLC themselves...

[Iduno]

It's worth noting that you shouldn't feel too much pressure to grind for gear in preparation for Master Rank, as the simplest armors you can craft from Master Rank monsters will likely outclass anything you have access to before Iceborne comes out.

That's how it's been in basically every previous MH game, anyway.

That's shit game design.

Clever strategy overall, though. Reward people with the DLC for playing with people without the DLC so they can be properly jealous about the OP gear and new abilities, and then presumably rush out to buy the DLC themselves...

It's shit game design that works.

This is why we have pay-to-win games.

[Dostoevsky]

It's shit game design that works.

This is why we have pay-to-win games.

Eh, for Monster Hunter specifically I think it ends up being less of an issue, as the different ranks (LR, HR, MR) function almost like New Game+. You're effectively starting over, going up through the same bosses again (sometimes spiced with some new AI or additional attacks).

And as to tempting others with the new gear, when one is properly in a higher rank there (usually) isn't much reason to go back to a lower rank. So people playing in Low Rank aren't likely to come across people wearing High Rank gear, unless the higher-ranked person is just messing around.

All that said, it can feel kind of ridiculous to have your armor crafted from world-threatening monsters suddenly become paper-thin against common nuisances.

[Nighthawk]

It's worth noting that you shouldn't feel too much pressure to grind for gear in preparation for Master Rank, as the simplest armors you can craft from Master Rank monsters will likely outclass anything you have access to before Iceborne comes out.

That's how it's been in basically every previous MH game, anyway.

That's shit game design.

Debatable. On one hand, it's a grindy kind of system that pushes you back through content you've already seen while invalidating your effort to acquire gear in the previous rank. On the other, you could easily consider the Low Rank and High Rank of Monster Hunter as the kiddie pool you practice in before you're thrown into the lake. As Dostoevsky said, ascending a rank in Monster Hunter is kind of like playing through the game again, just with enhanced difficulty. It's worth noting that this "enhanced difficulty" is not just "haha let's give the monsters more health and damage," but also involves adding new moves to their move pool that you have to learn to deal with.

I remember the first time G-Rank (Master Rank) Zinogre pulled out a breakdance spin immediately following a bodyslam, a move which I thought was safe to retaliate against after dodging. That... was a lesson learned the hard way.

To put it another way: think of it like hitting the level cap in an MMO, which, for any MMO with "post game content," is what most veterans of that MMO would call the "real game." Only it's way less grindy because there are no levels in MH—just better gear which you can acquire with relative ease if you play well.

[Dunamisdeos]

The point of this game is to choose a setpiece monster fight and then enjoy it.

It is a very simple game.

[forsaken1111]

It's also worth noting that even having THE BEST armor and equipment in the game is no guarantee to success. I've seen very good players with very good gear get in an unfortunate situation or suffer a momentary lapse and get annihilated by something. It can happen very quickly

[Ozyton]

Back when I played MH4U I had no knowledge of 'meta sets' so I just used G-rank Lagombi armor, which was considered a pretty early game monster. Didn't matter that I didn't have as much defense, I got good enough that I could just I-frame dodge everything in the game. No such luck in World however, and I don't know if I just suck that much more or if they changed the I-frames of switchaxe dodges or if the hitboxes linger for longer or what. Point is, I was able to survive longer in my 'non-meta' Lagombi gear in G-rank than a lot of people in high end G-rank armor could simply by not getting hit.

Same thing applies here. Yes, you can go for the meta sets, but those are most of the time geared towards speedrunners who play in a specific way or will never get hit. It's probably better to go for something with skills you enjoy using or armor that you think looks cool.

As for MHW becoming 'pay to win'... uhmm... MHW is pretty much the antithesis of pay to win. Yes, you need to buy the G-rank expansion to get the G-rank equipment, but in order to get to G-rank you need to actually work your way through the lower ranks. If anything, the fact that the Defender gear exists to trivialize low and high rank is more of a problem than people doing lower rank quests in G-rank gear. Yes, previous games did have an issue where lower tier armors were outclassed by higher tier equipment, but it wasn't just the defense values, a lot of the higher rank equipment has different skills than the lower tiers. For example I saw someone talking about a sort of meta set for Iceborne that was a mix of high and master rank equipment because of the skills or slots on the equipment.

There's also the fact that this is a cooperative game in nature so it's not as if you can just Dark Souls troll newbies. I guess you could deprive them of valuable experience by cheesing the hunt for them??? The kinds of people who do that sort of thing probably aren't the kinds of people who would play MHW anyways, they're probably busy playing one of those survival deathmatch games that are popular where the objective is to screw over people who can't play as often as they can.

[Ozyton]

Iceborne is only a week away now. Last chance to get carried through the story before the expansion is out.

[nenjin]

What do you consider the "story?"

Just asking because I think I've got Kulve Taroth to do, and various Tempered Hunts. Am I through the story as it's commonly understood?

[DeKaFu]

Meanwhile, I've finally gotten to start messing around with the newest addition to Iceborne on PS4, roughly equivalent to the Kulve Taroth siege... a few thoughts and opinions.

Spoiler: Actual spoilers for endgame Iceborne content (click to show/hide)

The Safi'jiiva siege.
First of all, the negatives: I find the design of this monster honestly pretty disappointing, which is something I almost never say for MH monsters... Xeno'jiiva was fantastic because it looked so strange and alien, and the fact that it was so otherworldly and enormous as a newborn really made you wonder what would've happened if you hadn't stopped it...

...and now Iceborne has given us the answer, which is that it would've turned into an unbelievably generic western dragon approximately the same size? It looks cool, I guess, but damn... what a waste of potential.

The other thing that immediately struck me the first time I fought it was: Great. They're reusing mechanics from my least favourite fight in the game.
Namely, they're reusing the "drawing ire" red line mechanic and instant-kill-attack-you-have-to-hide-behind-rocks-to-avoid mechanics from the Behemoth fight. I was disappointed, because my experience playing with randoms for Behemoth was a nightmare of people carting left and right... but in practice, having run the Safi siege a few times, I think a combination of slightly more forgiving timing, partly-permanent rocks, and people having more of an idea of what they're doing has made it actually pretty painless in comparison.

As for the rewards of the fight: It introduces an entire new system of fully customizable weapons, which is kind of amazing. Each weapon has 5 slots you can fill with upgradeable basic skills (attack, sharpness, affinity, etc) and optionally one armour set skill (e.g. Anjanath Dominance) that counts as a single piece toward the set bonus. Adding/upgrading skills uses a bar that is filled by either using the weapon against Safi'jiiva or spending items you get as a reward from it. Apparently the weapons change appearance once you upgrade them enough, too.

Seems like a fairly fun (if annoyingly time-limited, like Kulve) endgame grind, but still... it's a bit of a shame that they all look the same and most people won't have any reason to use anything else from now on, apart from just missing the window for it.

The armour made from this guy isn't really my style, but has the unique property of changing its appearance when you have the set bonus active and your weapon drawn. Said set bonus gives you a big pile of bonuses to damage/affinity/etc with your weapon drawn, with the downside of attacking costing HP (but continued attacking restoring it). Actually extremely badass.

As for the fight itself... it's a shame it's basically arena-based rather than adding a whole new area like the KT siege, but the fight itself is pretty fun with a group. Similar mechanics to Kulve Taroth (multiple groups run it at once, it starts off very hard to kill but gets easier after multiple runs, and flees if you don't do enough damage; different reward levels for breaking parts). I've been running a blast SnS and wide-range to keep teammates alive and it seems to work fairly well.

It also gains a couple points in my book for attempting to tie it in to the main story, something they seriously just didn't bother with for Kulve Taroth.

Overall my impression is positive, but it's a bit more of a mixed bag than I was expecting.

Re: Meta stuff. I always switch weapons before fights because I enjoy using custom weapon/item loadouts for each monster. I also finished the entire game wearing an upgraded Bone helmet just because I love how it looks. The game is absolutely forgiving enough to let you do whatever makes you happy, so I'd say only worry about "meta" sets if minmaxing is what you find fun.

And yeah, I wouldn't call Iceborne "pay to win" in any way because as soon as you start the new content, the HR stuff basically becomes irrelevant... and the MR content has a higher relative-to-gear difficulty across the board. The true Monster Hunter starts here, etc.

I would finish off anything HR before starting MR if you want to experience it "as intended", though. Without the Defender gear, ideally.

[ChairmanPoo]

How open/sandbox/replayable is this game?

[nenjin]

Semi-open.

Pretty sandboxy.

Fairly replayable.

It's "Open" in that you get one big large map to start with and lots of different quests to do that in that map. Outside of the main story missions there's several kinds of optional missions to do. As you progress and more areas open up, you largely get to choose what you want to spend your time doing/going after.

The replayability ultimately comes from the hunts and fighting the monsters, and whether you enjoy them. That's the meat of the game and the experience. Fighting monsters and learning them and mastering them, then getting offered harder and harder versions of them on top of the new ones that get drizzled in over the course of gameplay.

There's several areas with completely different biomes that you can spend time running around in free roaming, gathering, exploring, discovering a few things, fighting monsters off the cuff rather than as part of a mission if you like. That stuff was fairly engaging for me too, I found it a nice way to play the game but chill, just running around in Expeditions.

In terms of sandbox where you bait monsters to fight each other and what not, I don't know if MHW really delivers on that front. Some of it has a slightly scripted feel about it that the action and overall gorgeousness of the game does a lot to conceal. But it's not the kind of sandbox experience that offers a lot of SCIENCE! opportunities. Despite the fact "Research" is a word that gets thrown around liberally in game.

I dunno. I don't get tired of fighting monsters. I enjoy getting better at fighting them, even ones from the early game that are just juiced up for the end game. There's lots to explore, and a nice deep rabbit hole of gear and upgrades to fall down that is good for hundreds of hours. You can spend an incredible chunk of time just working to get all the weapons in a given weapon class....and there are many weapon classes to choose from.

I'd really watch some gameplay. Yeah it might spoil a monster fight or two for you, but it'll give you a sense of whether doing THAT for hundreds of hours looks appealing. It's not the kind of game where I can say "Oh if you enjoyed the challenge of Dark Souls etc... you'll like this." Despite a lot of the same similarities and feel and style and what not, they hit different beats.

[ChairmanPoo]

There's several areas with completely different biomes that you can spend time running around in free roaming, gathering, exploring, discovering a few things, fighting monsters off the cuff rather than as part of a mission if you like. That stuff was fairly engaging for me too, I found it a nice way to play the game but chill, just running around in Expeditions.

I was thinking more on those terms. AKA: not be railroaded into killing monsters as part of a quest (I already have witcher 3 for that), but rather be a freeroaming monster hunter.

It kind of sounds interesting tbh

[nenjin]

No, you'll totally get railroaded in to killing monsters. It's literally your job and 85% of quests are "Hunt and Kill this beast." Not the 'Oh no they're attacking a village!" kind of killing either. More "Walk up on them while they're eating some grass and start wailing on them" kind of killing. It's less heroic monster hunting and much more "Big Game" monster hunting. Although after beating some of these things you do feel pretty damn heroic.

On the plus side you can capture 90% of them rather than kill them, although that usually involves beating them almost to death and more than a little dismemberment.

Imagine.....imagine like it's the late 1800s, and a bunch of white dudes with elephant guns arrive on uncharted territory. They sample plant life. They observe and capture the local fauna and document it all in their little notebooks. And they kill the shit out of the biggest game they can find, and make armor out of them.

Now in your head, make that anime.

Now, make the monsters incredibly huge, and dangerous, and fantasy and liberally slather it all in cinematic beauty.

I was on the edge with buying MHW for a while, not sure if I even got what it was about. I got more than I bargained for, and have zero regrets.