Monster Hunter Tri impressions

[Julius Seeker]

I am having a lot of fun with this one, it has stolen a lot of free time from me lately =)

* A LOT like Rune Factory Frontier in certain aspects - with the exception that it is far more vast with a way higher production, etc... The resource aspect reminds me of this game. But yeah, Rune Factory is much smaller and has a strong farming element. There's also a lot more to Monster Hunter Tri.

* You can hack apart monsters, hmmm?

* Monsters are VERY well done, unique behaviours and such. Lots of dinosaurs, but also mammals and sea monsters as well.

* At the beginning, building things (like the base camp) and expanding the area you can travel around is the main focus.

* Towns and stuff are very much like an RPG, but combat is Action Adventure based.

* Interesting feature is you have a stamina bar which depletes when doin heavy physical work (running, rolling around and such) and can restore during slower states (walking, idle, etc..), the stamina bar shorten the longer you are out and awake.

* There's lots to do in this game, if you enjoy the first 6-10 hours of learning (tutorials and training quests, etc...), you'll love what comes after.

* I have spent some time looking at the scenery, night skies are particularly nice.

You can get the classic controller pro-bundle, or a regular copy: two control methods - free-style (Wiimote + nunchuck) and Classic Controller Plus style.


If you liked Rune Factory Frontier (which is one of my alltime favourites) - get this game; it is a must buy.


Here's the launch trailer:

(note, the cheesy singing only lasts like 30 seconds in this trailer before the ingame music kicks in)

[Lox]

I'll probably be getting this sometime in the future. I'd probably own it right now if my one friend could afford a copy. haha

[Julius Seeker]

I have yet to attempt any multiplayer; but it looks to support both local and online.

I'll probably have some multiplayer impressions by the end of the weekend.

[Lox]

Yeah, let me know how the MP is. It's supposed to support 4 player online with voice chat. I'm curious how their pairing system works, too, since they don't use Friend Codes.

[M'k'n'zy]

I really wanna pick up this one as well, may find a way to get it tomorrow with some tradeins.

[Julius Seeker]

Alright, so I played some multiplayer yesterday (I didn't get a wireless router up and running here until yesterday took me a while since I had some issues with it - new temporary place).

The game has a very robust online world.

* The multiplayer runs very smoothly. No lag, slowdown, or anything like that. The experience is the same as singleplayer in performance (which is excellent).

* Online and Offline share game data; what you do in either place impacts your character - you're the same character online as offline; same money, skills, etc...

* You can use Wii Speak or a USB keyboard as other communications methods.

* You enter different cities online (much bigger than your offline Village). Each city has a capacity of 100 people; most of the ones at the top of the list were full or had 98-99. When in that section, you select a gate which will take you to an area with 3 other players (or if it is less than 3, it will very soon be 3, from my experience. 4 people who you can go on missions with. You can wander around, eat at the pub, buy materials and equipment at the shop, etc... and then when ready - jump on the quest. Think a b-net room, except visual, like a Final Fantasy 12 city instead of your IRC-like chat room.

* The locations online were different than those I traveled to (so far) offline. I am unsure if this is because there is no access restriction in online Monster Hunter; or if there are different locations to hunt. My first quest was Ludroth hunting (they're like 10-15 foot long monitor lizards who are faster in water), we had to take out 10; with the side quest of taking out 7 giant catfish. The second was capturing a very large bird thing )it was like a 25 20 foot tall flying dinosaur, that was very strong, we failed that one; it was a little tough for 4 rookies.

* In online as well as offline, you can be surprised by running into a monster (independent of the quest) well more powerful than your current means; And you'll have to run, it makes me panic every time still; particularly since it happened most times in water and it is like accidently finding jaws - except worse.

I think the worst time for me was early on before I knew the warning indicators and I saw this strange large rock formation in the murky waters of a swamp area. I investigated, but then the jaws-like music came on to warn me. I wasn't quite sure what to do, I figured something was coming since this wasn't the first time a large monster wandered in to hunt; I decided to swim towards the rock formation to hide, I wanted to see it afterall before I escaped from the area. The rock formation seemingly came to life and I was face to face with a VERY large demonic looking sea monster.

* Cities are tiered, there are Open cities (for all manner an levels) Rookie cities, and cities for other levels of player. The game may be new, but a lot of people have put in LOTS of time so far.

* Overall, online is like offline except with different and bigger locations. The experience is similar enough to the offline experience to make me probably switch back and forth on a semi-regular basis. People were ALL mature, no one mouthing off or even using any profanity. From what I understand, people have the option to build their own cities if they wish to.

[Julius Seeker]

So yeah, for online play, there are already lots of good people out there; you don't really need to worry about playing with friends as much as a game like Starcraft for example.

Kind of surprising that this quality of experience is all free.


One last thing; this game likely had more dev resources poured into it than any other Wii game to date. Capcom did a very good job with this game. I'll let you know how my adventuring goes later this week. I got some new weapons I need to to try out - I have only used the great sword and the regular sword classed weapons to date. Great swords are very large and heavy weapons, best for heavy 1-hits. I prefer the much weaker, but faster used regular sword which allows for combos and such. You can KO monsters with a shield smash, and get some unique items from them that way (although they will wake up eventually).

[M'k'n'zy]

You didn't mention it but I presume that there is an option to input a friend code or something of the like in order to play specificly with your friends? I am hoping to pick the game up soon, and would love to have the chance to play together with ya

[Lox]

The way I understand it is that you register a Capcom account and build a Friends List (no Friend Codes though. Yay!). And then you can see if that person is online and can jump into a game with them.

[Julius Seeker]

That would be cool, just let me know when you have an hour.

[M'k'n'zy]

Well it will have to be when I can afford my copy first, which may be a while 8^(

[Julius Seeker]

Alright, I think this game may end up being my top game of the year until the end of the summer. I liked it at first, but it has grown further on me. It is also getting to be more exciting too in terms of monsters and such; I am wondering how much crazier they can get.

[ManaMan]

I was pondering picking this one up... you may have just sold me! Now, about the matter of money to pay for it...

[Julius Seeker]

Some Jaggi (Velociraptors cratures) stealing fish from a Qurupeco (the aerial-dinosaur that kicked our ass on Sunday when 4 of us tried to capture it). Jaggi are fairly easy, there are three levels of Jaggi I have seen so far Jaggi, Jaggia, and Great Jaggi - these are the small ones. Fairly entertaining =)

[Shellie]

Looks like a game I would maybe like. But I wouldn't be able to get it until everyone has already grown bored with it and moved on to the next game

[M'k'n'zy]

OK I got a copy today, so I will get started sometime this evening after my raid and hopefully we can play some online together before too long.

[Julius Seeker]

Excellent! I'd recommend going through the 1 star quests first, playing around and getting a feel for the game. Until maybe the first Great Jaggi Hunt; which will be very hard (stock up with lots of potions, whetstones, rations, and meat). Save cash and resources for weapons and armour upgrades which will come in quickly.


Warning, goldenfish fishing can be frustrating =P
if you do well (took me ~40 minutes) let me know what sort of strat you used. I went into the quest with worms rather than proper bait and caught lots of tuna instead of goldenfish - these goldenfish are worth a lot of cash when openly fishing (they're worth ~1000 each. On the bright side, I can fish very well now with all that practice.

[M'k'n'zy]

I will do so, I also picked up Record of Agarest War so it may be a bit before I REALLY get into it.

[Julius Seeker]

I just completed my first capture quest (Great Jaggi capture). It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Essentially, what I did:

Pick up your supplies at the Blue box, it contains traps and tranquilizer bombs

1) Attacked it, stayed off to an angle, and circled using both control sticks; keeping it in range; to keep out of its attack - they rush forward and bite or try to tail whip. Just keep away from the front of the thing.
2) The Great Jaggi will often call out for help; this is a good opportunity to lay into the thing with heavy attacks. Attack the smaller Jaggi during this time too, they can get to be a hassle when their numbers exceed 4.
3) With enough attacks, the Great Jaggi will limp, and attempt to retreat. Attack him a bit on the way. Make sure it is a limp, and not running or the next phase won't work. Follow it to the next area.
4) Get a distance away, and set the trap; try and get the Great Jaggi's attention (you probably just need to wait until it sees you, or one of its other smaller Jaggi's calls it over)
5) Stand on the other side of the trap, the Great Jaggi will eventually charge; the trap will hit it imobilizing it for a period of time.
6) Take out your tranq bombs (I believe 5 of them are supplied to you, but you can make them by this point too) face the Great Jaggi, and throw them at him; I only needed two - both hit, and then the Mission was complete.

It was easier than I thought it would be, easier than my first hunt. Although I had much weaker equipment (I believe I have 10 defense with everything, or 12; and a Sword which is somewhere around 150 attack.

For those wondering what a Great Jaggi looks like, they're about Allosaurus sized, while the small Jaggi are a bit smaller than humans (velociraptor sized):

[M'k'n'zy]

OK so I have gotten started, and I have basicly done the tutorial quests and just opened up the guild. I'm defidently enjoying it so far, but am not sure that its really going to be able to pull me away from Record of Agarest War, which is turning out to be an unexpected batch of awesome for me.

[Julius Seeker]

Got the first Switch-axe. It is a weapon that switches between an axe and a sword. I recommend going for it as soon as it becomes available. It is the most fun weapon to use in my opinion, and it is very powerful - you can take out hordes of monsters with ease, and the great Jaggi becomes a lot easier. It is large, you can swing it around and gain momentum swinging wildly around; though it drains stamina.

[Julius Seeker]

My character is starting to look like Steiner from FF9. He looks like he has about 240 pounds of armour on.

Anyway, I played a couple of hunts with a few others today. One way (probably the easiest. Way) is to just walk up to them, talk to them, and click the Add Friend option in the message area.

Online works very well for this game; it is the best I have yet played online. Essentially:

1. Pick a server (Right now, Open, Rookie, and Advanced servers)
2. Pick a city (each holds up to 100 people at a time)
3. Choose a gate.
4. Hang out around town (bigger with more people and shops than your home village offline), usually in the tavern, go on hunts with parties up to 4 people.
5. Keep your ass alive; if you win the quest everyone gets rewarded.
6. Win or lose you end up back in the tavern,
7. There are set built in hunts which will unlock as players go through the game, and event hunts put online for limited times by Capcom (I did a 4 Great Jaggi event hunt, which was an event, and a monster I am familiar with).
8. Your character that you use online will be the same across all servers, and the same character you use offline (not anything advanced or complex/frustrating about travelling around; it's simple and logical). You can have multiple characters though.
9. There are surprises online too, where a much more powerful monster enters the grounds you are hunting on; they can complicate things =)

[Julius Seeker]

Just a tip, upgrade a weapon until it gets to the green phase (ie. An upgraded Bone Switch Axe) before taking on Qurupecos and tougher monsters, otherwise they will block many hits with tougher body parts.

After I upgraded my Switch Axe, I took down a Qurupecos and a Royal Ludroth fairly easily.

With the Royal Ludroth, I found it actually easier to take him on in the water than on land. Despite the water being where he is supposedly more effective, it is easier to swim to the bottom, find a crevice, hide in it, get his attention, then give him hell when he tries to ear you.