Monster Hunter

It's huge in Japan

This largely popular franchise has been hugely popular in Japan for quite some time now. With the release of the original Monster Hunter since March in 2004, this game has been thriving and getting sequels and expansions more than most other games including it's own port to the handheld consoles. The US releases haven't been as prominent in sales as they are in Japan which could mean the end of localization to fans in the west. If this actually happens, we'll lose one of the greatest franchises that we've ever seen and I don't feel like moving to Japan any time soon.

There are a LOT of monsters and these aren't even all of them.

The greatest thing about this game is the huge and varied amounts of monsters available to hunt. From ancient dragons to giant wyverns and everything in between, your selection in variety is like a buffet in Las Vegas. Generally speaking, each monster has it's own properties, attacks, elements, ailments, and weaknesses. They're all quite unique as you can see above. Although there are sub-species of some of the large monsters which are recolors who have some different properties. Then again, in the world of Monster Hunter, new and unique monsters come often. Did I mention how large these monsters can be? In the image above the human player on the very left is there just for your size comparison. These monsters can be huge and fighting them can give you the most fun you've ever had in a game.

A bit robotic looking eh?

The basis of Monster Hunter is to take and finish quests that the town gives you. Honestly, there isn't much story in any of the games, Tri being the one with the most engrossing story of trying to find out why there have been so many earthquakes in the area. What really counts in this game is the gameplay. The beginning of the game gets you going, you begin collecting monster parts from the smaller and not as dangerous monsters you kill to start to get a better weapon and armor. Now this can be slow, but when you get to the serious quests of killing the larger monsters, this is where it gets dangerous and fun. The more monsters you kill the more armors and weapons you can make. The weapons are unique, each is technically a different class and have special properties and ways to use. Different monsters have different elemental properties and ailments such as fire, lightning, water, poison, sleep, and more. Making a weapon using parts from a monster with elemental or ailment attributes can cause the weapon to gain those and become stronger.

A real Golden Rathian in Japan

 

As I said, Monster Hunter has been a huge success in Japan, sadly it hasn't had such great luck in the west. Apparently if you were to go to Japan, you would see many, many people playing Monster Hunter in their down time on their handhelds. It's so common that you'd be an outcast if you didn't play. Even Universal Studios Japan has a "real life Monster Hunter" type exhibit of sorts, the picture above is part of it and yes, it moves. Personally, I picked up this game back with it's release in the US many years ago. Unfortunately, I was never able to purchase a Playstation Portable in order to play the other versions of the games that actually do sell outside of Japan. There's even a Monster Hunter MMO for PC as well, sadly it's only open to Japan and Korea. I understand some people have put thousands of hours in this game, I myself have played over five hundred hours of Monster Hunter Tri and will definitely play more until the servers are inevitably shut down. I implore you to give this game a chance. The scenery is beautiful, the monsters are huge and the gameplay is top notch. It's difficult, it's fun, and it's great to play with friends. Such a unique game should be shared with every area of the world and not just contained in Japan. If we could show Capcom how open we are to unique games, maybe other developers would follow their steps in trying something new and giving us more experiences to enjoy. I highly recommend Monster Hunter, give it a chance and it might just grow on you.