Monster Hunter World: First Impression

Monster Hunter World has been Capcom’s best selling game to date with it shipping over six million copies when it’s only been out just over two weeks now. This took me by surprise because I always think of games like Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Okami and Devil May Cry being more popular than Monster Hunter.

I remember playing Monster Hunter 1, Monster Hunter 2 and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP with my brothers. I only found out recently that it originally came out on the PS2 – I’ve only ever known it to be on the PSP. I think these games prior to Monster Hunter World were more popular in Asia than in Europe and USA. Nintendo started to release some games on the 3DS and Wii U which then gained more popularity. I haven’t had much opportunity to really play them on Nintendo (I don’t include Monster Hunter Stories as it isn’t a traditional Monster Hunter game) but I loved the sound of being able to get armour for your Felyne from other video games like Dante from Devil May Cry.

I watched my partner play before I was able to have a chance to play myself. I have to say I can see why the game was so successful. A mixture of new and old monsters that I knew from the PSP this game is exactly the online multiplayer I’ve been waiting for. The world is vast, the monsters are challenging and designed well – they take no prisoners. I could see some obvious problems in the game but it hasn’t been out for very long. I’m sure what is currently causing problems now will hopefully be fixed in the future.

My experience begins with the good old typical Monster Hunter start up – customising your character. There are lots of options (more than on the PSP may I add) to customise to what you desire. Capcom have obviously seen how gamers enjoy customising their characters for hours and they have given the tools for you to do so. As for me, I like to spend some time customising my character but not for it to take up my valuable gaming time. I tried to make her look like me (minus the glasses) and I think she looks related to me now XD. The major thing was what to name my character and I wasn’t inventive ok. I just haven’t got the energy to be pondering about a name and I decided to call her my name Siân XD – I know I went all out.

To my amazement I wasn’t finished customising yet and I had yet more to do. You could customise your Palico. A Palico is a Felyne (basically a small cute cat) who has made a pact with humans to aid them in whatever means necessary. They are mainly used in the Monster Hunter games to be your companion in battle, Housekeepers and Chefs. I was really happy to get a opportunity to customise mine because from previous Monster Hunters I’ve played you had to buy them and choose which attributes suited you best. I had designed my Palico and I thought it looked adorable as a White Palico with some light markings. I spent more time deciding on what I was going to call my Palico than for my own character!! I went to the good old Google for some inspiration and it didn’t fail me. I thought as this was a Japanese game my Palico should be given a Japanese name. I called my Palico Shiro which mean white in Japanese.

Me and Shiro were set for our adventures together in Monster Hunter World. The storyline seems really interesting and more interesting than the ones I’ve played on. In Monster Hunter Worlds it’s focused about learning about the island and which should lead onto the discovery of the Elder Dragons. I have progressed to two areas in the game and I’m not trying to rush it. I wanted to take my time and enjoy the world by doing side missions. Most Monster Hunters have expeditions and side missions like collecting items, killing an allocated type of monster or killing one big monster etc. I also wanted to focus on getting good armour for me and Shiro.

It’s such a great game to get side tracked and immerse yourself in the Monster Hunter World. I mean I think I have spent more time doing the side missions than the main story. The main story is good for the tutorial side but I found even if you don’t for some of the missions they do give you a tutorial as such. I think the main thing I love about the side missions is how there are options to help other players who are struggling in the game. It’s best to help other players because you can kill a monster that you need to but  also make friends online who could help you later on. There are SOS Flares where you can join into another players game to help them but also you can just join in even they haven’t requested when you post it online. I just generally enjoy helping other players and it’s great that we can have a game that will allow for us to grow a solid community with other players.

I don’t mind other players joining me but there was one situation where I wished that I password protected my session. A random player joined me on my first capture mission which is fine the more the merrier I say. At the point of which they joined in the monster was weak and I was trying to capture it (it is beneficial at times to capture because you tend to get better rewards). Instead of seeing the screen that it was weak and needed capturing they just killed it. This made us fail the mission which annoyed me a bit and I would much rather if other players don’t join my session if they have no intention of completing the purpose of the mission – that being said I can understand if it happened by accident.

Once you have killed a monster(s)/collected the necessary items you can create various armours, weapons and Palico armour. It’s important to understand the armour and weapons because the more you advance in the game the more important your choice of weapons/armour. There are monsters in the game that are weak to certain elements but are strong in another. My advice is if you have the relevant information about a Monster in your Hunter Notes look it up before going on the quest or expedition. It will help take the main stress off defeating the monster. I would also include your little Palico as well, the amount of times Shiro has helped me by poisoning the monster for me is unreal.

There is a lot to talk about in Monster Hunter and the systems in the game but I think it is important for you to discover it for yourself. I think Monster Hunter World is going to be the best MMO you can get currently. I can definitely see why it’s Capcom biggest seller and me personally it’s worth buying. I feel that there is so much potential as well as possibly DLC options that Capcom could do for this game. It’s a fun game to play on your own, with friends or other players online. It doesn’t feel limited like with other games that you have to rely on being friends with other players in order to do a mission. Capcom have hopefully shown the potential of how MMOs can be for future games.