Yahtzee: Try Monster Hunter some more

Jun 1, 2010 by Joshua    No Comments    Posted under: game feature, games

Monster hunters take on the sea monster Lagiacrus. Image courtesy capcom.com.

Over half a year ago, I blogged about how much I was looking forward to the release of “Monster Hunter Tri“, even though I did not own a Wii at the time. True to my word, I purchased a Wii shortly before the game was released, and I picked up the latest addition to the franchise the day it hit store shelves.

I have been meaning to write a review of “Monster Hunter Tri” for some time, but I can never seem to pull myself away from the game for a few hours to do so. The game is so involving, there is always a handful of quests to do or necessary materials to find, I felt it would be irresponsible to review the game without getting a full experience of all that it has to offer. So it is with great interest that I saw that the game was the latest target of famous game critic Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s video blog, Zero Punctuation, last week.

I watched the video, as I have watched all of his highly entertaining videos, and I found all the points he raised to be spot-on: The game can be tedious, it requires lots of item gathering and grinding, the Wii remote control responds poorly, and the game is broken up by loading screens. I would argue, however, that Yahtzee’s review does not provide the viewer with an accurate portrayal of the gameplay experience, given that he does not look beyond the tutorial quests and completely disregards the online component of the game.

Now, I know what I am getting into here. I am not trying to say that I, a lowly blogger, know more than Yahtzee, a popular video game critic. Nor am I naive about Yahtzee’s style and purpose. He nearly always focuses on what he perceives as the faults of a game, and he gives abundant praise to no more than a select few gems – he is paid to smear games for their worst points. I also know that most consider his reviews to be little more than entertainment rather than an accurate measure of which games to buy and which ones to avoid. Anyone who would have bought the game before watching his video will still buy it, and anyone who would not will have a good laugh all the same. I will also admit to being something of a fanboy of the franchise, though I praise it for specific reasons rather than a blind love for everything Monster Hunter.

That said, I thought I would say a bit about the game, in case anyone is still on the fence about it.

“Monster Hunter Tri” – and any of the games in the franchise, as they are all fairly similar in gameplay – is not quite like most other games in the market. Yahtzee compares it to an MMORPG, stating that it draws from all of the worst parts of the genre: tedious item gathering, dungeon grinding and a crafting system that leaves the player paranoid about the importance of every random animal horn and pelt. While this assessment is not altogether wrong, it undermines the quality of gameplay found in Monster Hunter.

One might also seek to compare the game to other franchises that feature monster fighting, such as “God of War” or “Prince of Persia” – though Yahtzee does not do so. The major difference in combat between a Monster Hunter game and those other franchises, however, is the style of control. Those examples, along with a growing number of other games on the market, feature what is known as quick time events, a gameplay device that Yahtzee abhors. Such events typically involve pressing a specific button at the right moment to cause one’s character to perform some action, such as evading an attack or slicing a monster’s head off.

The combat in “Monster Hunter”, on the other hand, involves strategy and knowledge of a wide range of moves and the times at which they are most useful. The game features a number of different weapon types, each with its own move set, style, strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, the monster battles are not staged events that rely on the player’s ability to hit the right button at the right time. Players must track monsters down, lay traps, and assault their weak points as the monsters seek to slaughter the players with tail, claws and teeth.

In some ways, “Monster Hunter Tri” is more like a fighting game than an adventure RPG in that respect. A more suitable comparison would be the monster-fighting gameplay of “Shadow of the Colossus”, a game that is essentially a string of epic battles against towering creatures in which the player is a young man equipped with only a sword, a bow and a horse.

Earlier, I had mentioned that Yahtzee’s review is inaccurate because it only addresses the tutorial portion of the game. He complains that the title is misleading because he experienced very little “monster hunting”, mostly just “random item gathering”, and the first time he saw a giant sea monster the game told him he was not ready to fight it. Had he continued to play the game, he would have eventually had a chance to confront the beast and slay it in an epic battle of wits and stamina.

I say eventually because, yes, the tutorial stages of the game do linger on for quite a while. To the game’s credit, though, it is a deeply immersive and complex game, and it has a lot to introduce to new players. In actuality, the offline experience of the game pales in comparison to the online experience, particularly because most of the hardest monsters are only huntable in online quests. Yahtzee has made his stance on online gaming clear before, though, stating that a game should not be considered enjoyable on the condition that one takes into account its online component. Even so, the Monster Hunter games are the sort that are lauded for their multiplayer gaming experience, even if one has to put up with being thrown across the map every time another player catches him with a swing his giant sword. It is probably worth noting that the franchise caught its big break when it ventured from the PlayStation 2 onto the PlayStation Portable, a system that features WiFi. (It is also probably worth noting that, at least in Japan, the Monster Hunter games are some of the highest-selling titles for the PSP.)

I apologize that I am not as witty and sarcastic as Yahtzee. I also apologize that this review does not tell the reader much about the specifics of gameplay, though one should be able to gather enough information from Yahtzee’s video and other sources. I merely want to make it clear that “Monster Hunter Tri” offers a unique experience that players can find so long as they are able to overcome the tedious tutorial stages. The gathering and grinding may be uninteresting at first, but it is worth the effort to take on monsters the size of houses and to feel the rush of accomplishment when the player uses cunning and skill to take down something so gigantic. For my part, I have not enjoyed a game so much since the aforementioned “Shadow of the Colossus”.

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