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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  But is it Fun?  |  Topic: Monster Hunter 3 Tri - Capcom - Wii 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Monster Hunter 3 Tri - Capcom - Wii  (Read 10408 times)
Nonentity
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on: April 23, 2010, 09:55:35 AM

Capcom really wants this game to be successful in the US. People are scrambling all over themselves to try and tell everyone how awesome this game is, but there are some quirks and hurdles in the way that keep me from recommending this to everyone.

If you're not familiar with the Monster Hunter formula, it's basically this - you go on quests for the Hunter's Guild, doing various tasks such as hunting or capturing certain monsters, collecting resources, and so on. You catch fish, gather bugs, mine ore, harvest animals, and other forms of resource gathering. There's no leveling in this game, so to speak of, so the only progression comes in the form of using your harvested materials to craft and upgrade gear. The equipment you create is not tradeable, so the only economy between players comes in the form of parts below a certain rarity threshold.

The amount of systems in this game for creation and manipulation of items still blows my mind. There are two distinct parts to the game - the single player and the multiplayer. When you select your character, you choose whether you'd like to go to the Village or the City. You can bring the same character between both, and swap whenever you'd like.

The Village is the area where you will do all of your single-player questing. There's a big huge monster fish that is tormenting the town, and I guess the end goal is you have to kill that or something. I assume as much from how much they talk about it. Anyways, there is kind of a free-roam area where you can do some light hunting and gathering, and you trade in your kills in the town for this 'Resource' stat - you'll get a series of requests as you do more single player Hunter's Guild quests to unlock new parts of the town - there's a fishing vessel you can send out on fishing expeditions, and a farm where you can have weird Siamese cat people farm for you. There's also a commodities trader - you'll find a plethora of items that just say that they are commodities, and you trade those with the commodities trader for items that are notable more rare.

Needless to say, there are a lot of systems in place to support this game as a completely item-centric game. That's fine, but where I have most of my issues is with the combat. Some would argue that the combat is the strong point, but I'm really on the fence.

Every weapon has its own set of moves, so each weapon that you choose to use is kind of like a 'class', so to speak. There are some faster weapons, and there are some RIDICULOUSLY SLOW weapons. Like, to the point where the strategies for that particular weapon (Great Sword) are to do your unsheath + attack move, roll away, resheath, and then do the unsheath + attack move again.

There's no lock-on mechanic (to which die hard MH fans will froth and scream that it doesn't need one, but I digress), and you can't cancel an attack animation once you've started, so it creates this deliberate dance of positioning yourself perfectly to lay down a series of blows, and then rolling away to safety. It's not exactly the same, but once you fight some of the harder creatures, I really started to feel some shades of Demon's Souls, insofar as that there is a right way to kill things, but it is not unfair in how it goes about being difficult. When you die, it's your fault. Every sharpening of your weapon and drinking of a potion locks you into an animation, so you have to be free and clear of the enemy to not get smacked when you choose to take a breather like this. It feels very archaic in design, but it kind of works within the context of the rest of the game.

That's not to say that the game throws you into the shit immediately, there's a gradual tutorial as you go through the first few hours - you do some fighting, but it's not overly complicated. It does a good job of introducing you to the various mechanics in the single player as you go along, teaching you how to fish, farm, commodity trade, and so on.

Killing the big boss creatures nets you those rare materials you need to create the next big piece of armor or next sword, so there's a progression push forward, even if it isn't in the same levels and skills kind of way.

The online mode starts when you select to enter the City as opposed to the Village. Unlike the Japanese version, the American version is free to play without any kind of fee (I'm assuming the European version is as well, but I could be wrong). You just hop on and go. There is no friend code system of any kind that I've seen - you join a lobby with a guy, you add him to friends. It has Wii Speak capability, which seems like the way to do it.

There are four lobbies - an Open lobby, a Rookie lobby, a Higher Tier lobby, and a Recruiting lobby, where you can create games that are looking to get a very specific task done.

Within each of these 'Lobbies', there are sub servers, each capped at 1000 people. Then in each of THESE, there are individual games going with a player set 'mood' ('Anything goes!' 'Casual play!' etc.), which you can seach for individual 4-player games in those moods. Seems a bit over the top complicated, but it works.

The quests online can scale to multiple players, making the creatures harder but jacking up the rewards. On the big boss creatures, you all get a chance to skin it, so there's no competition on that front. The multiplayer works, but I found that I really didn't have a desire to go in and play with random people. If people I knew were playing, I'd be more inclined, but even if you just wanted to pick up and play with other dudes, it works, I just personally have no interest in it.

There's also an Arena mode that can be done online, where you get a gear preset, and you go in against larger boss creatures, which lets you bring back money and some other items back into your main game.

The world itself is pretty standard fare - the game looks good, easily one of the better looking games on Wii, and the environments are all split up by tiny load times, which really never became an issue for me.

Overall, if you can stomach the combat and the somewhat steeper learning curve, there's plenty of loot-lust to fart around with, and all the various combining and fiddling you can do with items. It's fun to play in short bursts, because you can hop into the single player, harvest your fish and farm, set those up to go off and do their thing, do a little hunding, and feel like you've done something in a relatively short period of time.

-----

TL;DR Version: Do you have a Wii and like Diablo-style play? This might be fun for you, if you can stomach learning the combat and wrapping your head around the item systems.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2010, 10:12:46 AM by Nonentity »

But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg?

[20:42:41] You are halted on the way to the netherworld by a dark spirit, demanding knowledge.
[20:42:41] The spirit touches you and you feel drained.
Valmorian
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Reply #1 on: April 23, 2010, 02:13:00 PM

How "anime" is it?  Is the weeaboo strong in it?  I like the IDEA of Monster Hunter, but the "cat people" thing set off alarm bells for me.
Nonentity
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Reply #2 on: April 23, 2010, 03:09:08 PM

It's actually not TOO bad with the anime stuff. The little cat people helpers are probably the worst of it, for the most part the item and weapon design feel quite western, and everything has this sort of grittiness to it, from the way the areas themselves look to the creature design.

The localization is good, to the point where it was clear the writers were having some fun with it. It's fairly light in tone, which meshes well with the almost harshness of the rest of the world.

But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg?

[20:42:41] You are halted on the way to the netherworld by a dark spirit, demanding knowledge.
[20:42:41] The spirit touches you and you feel drained.
Ironwood
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Reply #3 on: April 25, 2010, 06:58:37 AM

Well, that all sounds good, so long as I want the sweat sucked off my balls.

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Valmorian
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Reply #4 on: April 27, 2010, 08:19:47 AM

It's actually not TOO bad with the anime stuff. The little cat people helpers are probably the worst of it, for the most part the item and weapon design feel quite western, and everything has this sort of grittiness to it, from the way the areas themselves look to the creature design.

The localization is good, to the point where it was clear the writers were having some fun with it. It's fairly light in tone, which meshes well with the almost harshness of the rest of the world.

I watched a couple of videos on youtube.  Ludicrously oversized swords?  Funky porcupine hairstyles?  Looks very Anime to me.. ugh.. pass.
Nonentity
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Reply #5 on: April 27, 2010, 08:33:14 PM

It's actually not TOO bad with the anime stuff. The little cat people helpers are probably the worst of it, for the most part the item and weapon design feel quite western, and everything has this sort of grittiness to it, from the way the areas themselves look to the creature design.

The localization is good, to the point where it was clear the writers were having some fun with it. It's fairly light in tone, which meshes well with the almost harshness of the rest of the world.

I watched a couple of videos on youtube.  Ludicrously oversized swords?  Funky porcupine hairstyles?  Looks very Anime to me.. ugh.. pass.


So you wanted to hate this game already, and nothing I will say will convince you otherwise. Thanks for playing!

But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg?

[20:42:41] You are halted on the way to the netherworld by a dark spirit, demanding knowledge.
[20:42:41] The spirit touches you and you feel drained.
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Reply #6 on: April 28, 2010, 07:33:26 AM

It's actually not TOO bad with the anime stuff. The little cat people helpers are probably the worst of it, for the most part the item and weapon design feel quite western, and everything has this sort of grittiness to it, from the way the areas themselves look to the creature design.

The localization is good, to the point where it was clear the writers were having some fun with it. It's fairly light in tone, which meshes well with the almost harshness of the rest of the world.

I watched a couple of videos on youtube.  Ludicrously oversized swords?  Funky porcupine hairstyles?  Looks very Anime to me.. ugh.. pass.
Less stupid, please.
Valmorian
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Reply #7 on: April 28, 2010, 08:44:45 AM

So you wanted to hate this game already, and nothing I will say will convince you otherwise. Thanks for playing!

No. I was hoping it was going to be a more western themed game.  "Wanted to hate this game already" doesn't make any sense.  If I did, I wouldn't have bothered to investigate it.  I dislike the Anime-style, and was hoping that in translating this to a western audience they'd keep the gameplay elements I was interested in and re-theme it to take out the rediculous swords and stupid anime crap.  They didn't, so I'm passing.

It's nothing against people who DO like that stuff, I'm just not one of them.
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Reply #8 on: April 28, 2010, 08:50:24 AM

...the rediculous swords and stupid anime crap. 

It's nothing against people who DO like that stuff...

Don't be disingenuous.

That said, I don't like anime art style, but I don't like 2/3rds of Picasso either yet somehow refrain from sounding ignorant when commenting on it :P

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Valmorian
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Reply #9 on: April 28, 2010, 08:58:34 AM

Don't be disingenuous.

That said, I don't like anime art style, but I don't like 2/3rds of Picasso either yet somehow refrain from sounding ignorant when commenting on it :P

It's not disingenuous to point out that I find the Anime influence of the game to be off-putting. 
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Reply #10 on: April 28, 2010, 09:09:21 AM

Don't be disingenuous.

That said, I don't like anime art style, but I don't like 2/3rds of Picasso either yet somehow refrain from sounding ignorant when commenting on it :P

It's not disingenuous to point out that I find the Anime influence of the game to be off-putting. 

I can understand that myself. I want to like this game, but for pretty much the same reasons I don't. I used to be really into JRPG's and the like but at some point the over the topness of the Anime style was lost on me and eventually just outright annoyed me. Very few games I can manage to look past that. And the OMG huge swords of this just end up irking me just enough to put me off the game. I do like the idea of the game. I find the gameplay fun. But if you're the type that overly ridiculous trying too hard to be cool weaponry bothers you. Then this game will eventually wear on your nerves.

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Nonentity
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Reply #11 on: April 28, 2010, 10:16:17 AM

On the "How Anime is it?" scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Sephiroth and 1 being Kratos, this game is only a 3, or at its worst moments a 4. There are some Japanese sensibilities as far as having big swords and cat people, but those are really minor in just how not-anime a lot of the things in the game are designed. I'm running around in very non-anime looking chainmail, fighting creatures that don't look out of place in the world.

But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg?

[20:42:41] You are halted on the way to the netherworld by a dark spirit, demanding knowledge.
[20:42:41] The spirit touches you and you feel drained.
Valmorian
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Reply #12 on: April 28, 2010, 10:22:50 AM

On the "How Anime is it?" scale of 1 to 10, 10 being Sephiroth and 1 being Kratos, this game is only a 3, or at its worst moments a 4. There are some Japanese sensibilities as far as having big swords and cat people, but those are really minor in just how not-anime a lot of the things in the game are designed. I'm running around in very non-anime looking chainmail, fighting creatures that don't look out of place in the world.

Yes, that is true.  Perhaps I should just say that it's the rediculous swords that turn me off of this.  They do in almost any game that has them, and I find it to be one of the most off-putting things about Anime stylings. 
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Reply #13 on: April 28, 2010, 11:37:11 PM

In GOW2 Kratos has a giant sword, a giant spear and a giant hammer, and in GOW3 he has giant boxing gloves.

This is really about as silly as complaints get. BlazBlue? Yeah, that's pretty high on the annoying anime scale. Monster Hunter is not.

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Valmorian
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Reply #14 on: April 29, 2010, 08:20:07 AM

In GOW2 Kratos has a giant sword, a giant spear and a giant hammer, and in GOW3 he has giant boxing gloves.

This is really about as silly as complaints get. BlazBlue? Yeah, that's pretty high on the annoying anime scale. Monster Hunter is not.

Like I said, it's the big weapons that I find off-putting for the most part.

I don't like God of War either.

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Reply #15 on: May 19, 2010, 06:26:31 AM

Val, you're fighting a losing battle.

This game's combat reminds me a lot of Demon's Souls. This has more boss battles (big plus). But there really aren't levels as much as maps. So. The story isn't as good. The loot/upgrade systems are sort of the sameish. But the accessible online? Fuck yeah.

So it's kind of what you'd expect if you wanted Demon's Souls on the Wii.
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Reply #16 on: May 21, 2010, 05:44:01 PM

How waggle is it?

I can't imagine playing any "proper" RPG-styled games on the Wii, so I'm curious.

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Reply #17 on: May 21, 2010, 05:51:53 PM

None, actually.  Get a classic controller or the new classic pro.  I don't have the pro, but have a classic.  I have to use the B button on the wiimote only when adding new monsters into my logbook, which is actually not *that* often so far. 

My issue with the game so far is that its entirely too much like an offline MMO.... that can go online.  I'm not even sure there's a significant goal to the game, other than farming and crafting.  Maybe I missed the point. 

Though, it's a game I won't trade in ever.  I can imagine myself playing this a few years from now, just in very small bursts. 
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Reply #18 on: May 24, 2010, 06:54:43 AM

Started this yesterday.  Sort of Demon's Souls meets River King, with a better item system.  Combat is not as tight as DS, of course, and fishing is simpler and of course merely a subset of the activities you can do, but I am just talking in generalities.  Might also compare to Rune Factory.  I like it, nice pacing, rather relaxing except for the time limit on quests.  I do wish it was on a real console, which is a compliment.  Some games deserve to be on the Wii, but this one does not.

I started off with the wiimote+nunchuck but after reading about combat I immediately changed to the classic controller.  Fuck that twist-attack bullshit.

I'd say that it is very Japanese, but not weeaboo.  Those aren't the same thing.  Oversized weapons, sure, but you could not see the detail on them otherwise.  Cat people, sure, but you also get to beat the shit out of them in the field.  Less weeaboo than Rune Factory, bit more than Demon's Souls.

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