Sharpen you swords and ready your bombs, baby!
It's been around
20 hours invested in playing one of my favorite games: Monster Hunter 4
Ultimate.
I'm a little late
coming in since a lot of my friends have been playing the game for a while now.
They started with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate too but I didn't have my 3DS then.
Oh poor gamer problems.
I first played
Monster Hunter 2 Ultimate in the PSP and, suffice to say, it's quite a hard
game to understand at first. There's no leveling up in this game. Well at least
not in the traditional sense. Your character doesn't increase in stats the more
you play. You don't get stronger when you defeat any enemies or even as you
progress through the story... and that puts off a lot of casual players.
Especially with all the tutorials... So many tutorials.
If you’re not
familiar with how you play Monster Hunter games, here’s a simple summary. You
go on quests to collect stuff or hunt down huge or small monsters. The stuff
you collect along with your rewards for taking down a monster and/or finishing
your quests can be used to create/upgrade your equipment or items so you can
take on bigger and tougher monsters as well as harder quests.
But like I said before, your items and
equipment can only take you so far. The true evolution of your hunter relies on
you, the player. Each monster has their own set of moves and abilities. You can’t
just go charging in haphazardly. They will decimate you. J Dark Souls players can relate to this.
So the easier more reliable way of taking down
your prey would be to familiarize yourself to its moves. Knowing when to strike
and back off will do so much more for your game than all the upgrades in the
world and Monster Hunter drives this point hard.
And to be honest, I’m a little grateful for
that. It gives the game a sense of accomplishment. Taking down a colossal foe
because you managed to outsmart it does a gamer’s spirit good. It wasn’t
because you spent more money on it to get better gear or grinded so many
meaningless hours just to get better stats. It was because you took the time to
understand the game and I think that’s how we should reward our players. It’s
like the game offered you a toast for overcoming his challenge.
Monster Hunter also ups the ante if players
are up for a bigger challenge. With all the different types of monsters and
equipment, the challenges multiply. If you want to try beating a certain
monster using another kind of weapon, by all means. You will still get to learn
new tactics and evolve your own play style and trying to understand how best to
tackle a given situation. And for even more fun how to do it as a team in multiplayer :D
What do you guys think? Are there other games
that focus and reward a players understanding of how to beat the game as well
as Monster Hunter out there? Did you ever feel like the gaming experience you’ve
been having has satisfied your efforts for understanding how to beat it or has
it just been one grind after another or just screen upon screen of mindless titillation
as you blaze through the game? Let me know on the comment section :D
