Home --> Hobbies and Interests --> Videogames --> Monster Hunter

Monster Hunter is a fucking awesome franchise by Capcom, which is also responsible for other titles like Mega Man and Resident Evil. I only have two games though. One is just a demo for a 3DS game (either Wilds or Stories, I think), and the other is Rise, which I downloaded together with the Sunbreak DLC when they were on sale as a bundle on the eShop.

The problem for me is the "Key Quests" you need to complete for the story to progress are WAY TOO FUCKING HARD. Multiplayer is an option, but I'm gonna guess the key quests are designed to be impossible to complete in single player mode, to incentize you to play with friends, kinda like how the 5-star raid battles in Pokemon are so fcking hard that if you want to beat them you have to play with friends because the NPCs that support you when you challenge the dens alone are fucking stupid. Especially that Gentleman with the Solrock in Sword and Shield, who only ever uses status moves, which can help if he uses moves that lower the raid Pokemon's stats, but then he also used moves that only raises Solrock's stats. I guess using Cosmic Power to boost its Defense stats so it doesn't faint helps, but I think he also uses a move to boost its Attack, which dosnt fcking help becase the Solrock dosn't fucking attack. I really hate game features that require interaction with other players, not becase it reqires you to go ot and toch grass, which evryone should do anyway, but becase I dont have any friends who play those games, and I don't like interacting with strangers ingame on line becase whether I shold or not, I do fcking care about what people think of me. I've had other players wipe the floor with my ass in Pokemon, and in shooter games like Fortnite, Vigor, Warframe, and COD where you have to work with others, I am a weak little shit, so I know I'm going to get absolutely cyberbullied by my teamates, as I probably should be. And if you can't handle shit from internet strangers, don't fucking subject yourself to it. And I can't, so I do.

That said though the smaller quests are fun. I absolutely love the traditional Japanese scenary and everything, its all so beautiful. Like, I actually wondered if there is a Monster Hunter manga. I mean there absolutely should be! I would absolutely read it! I also really want to draw the monsters too. Now, while I'm working on my own Pokemon manga, Monster Hunter is literally a whole other beast, and drawing the characters and environments requires a higher skill level in order to make a proper manga than what's required for Pokemon, so I couldn't be the mangaka for it. And I love the character custumisation. I screamed when I saw the Palamute. I have no idea how that slender thing is able to run while carrying a big hulking man on its back, but you know what, he's a good doggo. In the demo on my 3DS you get a raptor instead, but that's awesome too. I don't really care for the Palico, at least in combat, but I think it's cool to have a cat-dog duo following you around on your quests. It's fun slaughtering the smaller monsters out in the wild. I don't know why that's the case, becase of course you don't want to do that in the real world. But here at least, its just a game and they always respawn, so there's no concern for overhunting. Besides you get material from them. Maybe it's just the feeling of power you get from killing. Like, I can't for the life of me slay the larger monsters--seriously, seems no matter what I do, no matter how long I've been attacking them without fainting, I'm lucky if I knock them off their feet, and even then they just won't die...--but I can still slay these other monsters, so I'm not entirely weak. Besides, some of those monsters are nowhere near innocent. Some are, and they try to run away, but some want to poison and/or eat you. So I guess it's not too different from irl hunting, becase you don't kill for the thrill of it, you kill for resorces and population control.

Anyway, I wish the difficulty was lower in this game, because I'll be honest, I haven't played it in months. But from what I understand the final boss is even bigger than the monsters of the key quests, so to make it beatable by one person would make it even more unrealistic. Still, it's really beautiful and I wish I cold enjoy it more. I really love games and media that involve battling and taming wild creatures. Too bad you can't do the taming part in Monster Hunter, but it's still fun, and the item crafting and the wildlife attacking you reminds me of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which was my first real experience with this type of RPG, so I think that's really awsome. And MHR even has its own version of the Pokedex! It's a book that records notes on the different creatures you encounter, including the small critters that aren't hostile monsters. They feature these nice little illustrations of the creatures, but you can also take photos of the creatures and pt them in the book in place of those illustrations. I wonder if Capcom has any "Handbooks" like Pokemon does, with the names and info of all their creatures. Probably not, but I'm going to check and if not then I'll have to compile my own. Nothing fancy, just something to get me familiar with the games. I really want to get other titles in the series; maybe some of them are easier than Rise. I hope so.