What is Monster Hunter?
It is a hack and slash, strategy, adventure game. The game is a simulation of hunting in a world filled with deadly monsters. Like actual hunting, successfully killing or capturing a monster requires the use of strategy, skill and provided items.
The player takes the role of a Hunter, slaying or trapping large monsters across various landscapes as part of quests given to them by locals. Some of the quests involve the gathering of a certain item/s, which may put the Hunter at risk of facing various monsters. As part of its core gameplay loop, players use loot gained from slaying monsters, gathering resources, and quest rewards to craft improved weapons, armor, and other items that allow them to face more powerful monsters. It features a multiplayer (usually up to four players cooperatively) mode, but can also be played single player.
Monster Hunter is an action role-playing game that takes place in a shared low fantasy setting, where the human-like species have a pre-industrial level of technology such as steam power, but continue to study the ruins of a long-past advanced civilization. In the setting’s less populated regions, monsters roam the landscape and threaten small villages or research bases that have been established to study the ruins and these monsters. Players take the role of a Hunter that serves to help protect the villages and bases from these monsters, typically aiding in researching these. This is generally presented through a series of quests to slay or trap a monster but can include numerous optional challenges.
Basics of the game
The core feature of Monster Hunter is its compulsion loop. Unlike traditional computer role-playing games, a player’s Hunter does not grow and has no intrinsic statistics or attributes whatsoever. Rather, the Hunter’s abilities are instead defined by the specific weapons and armor selected. The player can equip weapons, armor, and items most beneficial towards completing a given mission, and if successful, the Hunter is awarded in both in-game money (“zenny”) and loot representing parts from the monster. These parts, along with other resources collected while on missions or through mission rewards, can be used to forge or upgrade new weapons and armor which then can be used in against more powerful monsters and tackle more difficult missions, completing the compulsion loop.
Harder missions are typically restricted by a hunter’s rank, which cumulatively increases as the player completes specific missions designated by the quest giver. Mission rewards are often generated randomly, often requiring the player to grind the same monster repeatedly to get the right parts. Weapons and armor have intrinsic bonuses or penalties towards certain types of elemental or physical damages, and may provide special skills which can be fine-tuned through the mix-and-matching of equipment pieces.
Game features
The game features a variety of different weapon classes, ranging from swords, hammers, and bows. Each weapon class has a unique set of combat maneuvers and reflect a number of different play styles based on speed of attack, damage strength, range and the application of buffs and debuffs to monsters and allies. Monster Hunter uses an “animation priority” combat, committing the player to a move until the animation is completed and leaving them potentially vulnerable to a monster’s attack.
Further, players are encouraged to watch their Hunter’s health and stamina. Losing all health will force a retreat to a base camp, and after three such retreats, the mission is deemed a failure. Performing most combat actions consumes stamina, which recovers in a short amount of time; once exhausted of stamina, the Hunter becomes vulnerable as they pause to catch their breath.
Combats, Companion, and Status Effects
Monsters and other environmental hazards can also inflict blights and other negative status effects that impair combat abilities. Combat is centered around watching for a monster’s tells prior to an attack to be able to dodge it and/or make a counterattack. You also need to look for openings to unleash strings of attack combos, depending on the Hunter’s current weapon. Unlike most other action games, Monster Hunter fights have been compared to a series of boss fights.
In single-player mode, the Hunter is often accompanied by a Felyne or Palico. It is a sentient cat-like creature that provides support and limited offensive abilities in combat. The game has a main quest line, called “Low Rank” or “Village Quests”. These quests can take up to fifty hours to complete. Once completed, the game opens up with new “High Rank” or “Gathering Hall” quests. These quests feature stronger versions of monsters the Hunter have previously faced. New monsters that are yet seen and unique variants of these foes are also available in these quests. All of these will provide better components for more powerful weapons and armor sets. These will also provide hundreds of hours of potential gameplay following the main quest.
Walkthroughs:
Here’s the link to the game walkthrough for offline quests.
Here’s the link to the game walkthrough for online quests.
Release Date: March 11, 2004 (JP), September 21, 2004 (NA), May 27, 2005 (EU)
Genres: Action role-playing
Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Windows, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS