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General Chat / How Meeple Fell down the Monster Hunting Hole!
« on: April 15, 2021, 05:08:35 PM »
So...because I was musing and wanted to get it on paper (metaphorically), for some reason, I figured I'd see how I got to where I am today in this respect because...oh come on, you know me by now!
For those that haven't been in our Discord, particularly the #MMO-TPK channel, I've been talking a lot about Monster Hunter lately. It's safe to say I've become a fan of the series, at least the later parts anyway, and what's interesting is if you asked me this two years ago, I'd be saying "There's no way I'd ever get into the franchise." I should note this post is not about "YOU ALL SHOULD PLAY SHUT UP WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING IT!?" so no, there is no subtle message. I know this franchise/genre isn't for everyone, not trying to pretend it is, but you do all need to embrace the majesty that is Dodogama's chin!
(Fan-art, but it's an accurate depiction)
Good, now that the IMPORTANT part is out of the way, onto the secondary part! Namely, how did I end up getting into the series? Well, I feel the best way to handle this is go section by section, where I started off, where I ended up, and bore anyone who bothers to read this along the way.
MONSTER HUNTER 3 ULTIAMTE DEMO
So Monster Hunter was this weird niche franchise I knew little about other than it existed (in the west, anyway; I know it's been big in Japan for quite some time.) Then Capcom announced a Demo of the latest version of their game, coming to Wii U and 3DS. Wii U needs more games, and this was during an era where Capcom was making good games...and it's an action game to boot. What Capcom action games are there? Oh just things like Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, Okami...you know, really good shit!
So I get the 3DS Demo (I don't think there was a Wii U one, but my understanding is the versions were identical save for Wii U Online Functionality), loaded it up, picked...I think Sword and Shield because hey, that sounds like an easy weapon to use! Go against the "easy" monster on there which is Lagombi...
...and things go poorly. Monster never seems to die, it pulls cheap shit, my character is clunky, etc. I try some other weapons, nothing works. I talk to my friend and he goes "Oh, hit the Monster in different parts yields different damage." So I try that, aiming more for the head (I think I still used Sword and Shield), and ultimately get a win. This was a frustrating experience, and I didn't really enjoy it. So I decide to try the 2nd one either way, maybe this monster was just bad and dumb...
That second monster is Plesioth. Ok, so two things I should note about this...
-I learn Underwater Combat is a thing...and it's about what you expect in a game like this. Capcom has never revisited Underwater combat, and my friend who is a major fan of the franchise who doesn't even mind underwater combat has stated "I don't even know who it's intended for." Not good for a demo!
-IT'S FUCKING PLESIOTH. That doesn't mean anything for someone new to the series going in blind, but for those that don't know, Plesioth has a reputation for being one of the most annoying, bullshit designed, hated monsters in the franchise. WHY WOULD YOU PUT THAT IN A DEMO TRYING TO GET MORE PEOPLE TO PLAY THE GAME?!
Turns out, talking to another DLer, the Demo seemed more geared towards fans of the franchise as an appetizer for the real game than it was
to get new fans. As a result, the demo had an adverse affect to people looking into the franchise, as it really wasn't aimed at new players at all.
Interestingly, I did look at the GFAQs board to see if there was anything, and one of the first topics was someone saying "ok, people, the demo is out, let's go over some ground rules" and it was basically a bunch of "There are new players who don't know anything; let's not be dicks, but be helpful. We want this to grow! Even the most obvious question should be treated respectfully!" It showed a level of openess and welcomeness in the community, so I will give it that.
So I pretty much went "Nope!" to the game and let it go. Surely I wouldn't give the franchise a chance again right...
MONSTER HUNTER 4 ULTIMATE DEMO
So first off, let me get this out of the way: West never got base Monster Hunter 4, hence why it's the Ultimate version. That being said...
This Demo I did have a better experience with. The game actually eases you into things, in a way that feels welcoming towards new players. There's a slight bit of tutorial, so you're not "Thrown into the deep end with your feet in a cement block and told to float" and the monster they make you fight first is Great Jaggi, a low tier introductory monster that is appropriate. I picked Dual Blades in this game, and I did get through that hunt, so hey, the frustration "FUCK THIS GAME" factor wasn't there...
...but the game also wasn't clicking. There was a sense of "This isn't for me." So I just kind of brushed it off. It did well to wash away the terrible taste that Lagombi/Plesioth gave me, showing "No, not everything in the franchise is bullshit incarnate." At the same time, I just couldn't see myself caring about this franchise. It wasn't clicking, so I pushed it aside.
Now here's...where things go a little weird, and I'm going to deviate away from the franchise for a bit, because it's important in how things came full circle...sort of. Next important part is Project X Zone...kind of. Yes, Monster Hunter isn't in there despite Capcom, but something else was in it that would be relevant, namely...
God Eater Burst
Project X Zone had these characters with cool looking weapons that had me intrigued, saw it was an action game, shortly after playing Project X Zone, the game was free on Playstation Plus, so I grabbed it on my PS Vita because hey, free game, why not try it out?
So I think this game marks a landmark for me of sorts in that it's the first time I really played a game with a legit Create a Character. I actually didn't know you played a Silent Protagonist avatar (and was disappointed by this at the time), because PXZ has 3 REAL characters in Soma, Lindow and Alisa. I just kind of assumed Soma was the protagonist, but nope, he's just an emo-edgelord dipshit who is actually kind of annoying...but let's not get into the story or characters yet!
That said, I can barely remember WHAT my character looked like in this game. I think he had green hair, sunglasses, and a black outfit with some kind of red/white stripe on it. I went purely with "What looks kind of cool" more than anything else. I can't even remember what I named him...knowing my lack of creativity, it was probably just "Bob." Oh, I would become more creative...kind of...later down the line...at least in the sense of I try to come up with original names, but knowing myself back then, "Silent Protagonist with no canonical name that I know of? HIS NAME IS BOB!" is 100% what I'd do. If you need more proof, the entire Meeple Suikoverse involves 4 Tenkai Stars and a Flame Champion named Bob.
So playing God Eater, I found out pretty fast it wasn't an action game, but rather a Monster Hunter clone. There are key differences, however, that allowed me to latch onto this in a way I wasn't able the MH "games" before. First off, it was the FULL game, not the demo, which meant the game provides you with the necessary metaphorical training course to understand the game's fundamentals (as well as "What not to do" like "DON'T FIGHT THE GIANT MONSTER JUST BECAUSE IT'S THERE IF YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO KILL JUST SMALL FRY!" I learned that the hard way when I saw a Vajra, the game's flagship and a monster that was in PXZ, in an early mission, tried to fight it and...you can probably figure out what happened there!), so figuring out how the game works is better. For example, early on the game tells you that impact marks are indicators of "How hard are you hitting the monster", and gives you a nice detailed, easy to understand chart, and the game even color codes the impact marks making them very distinct in terms of what kind of damage you're doing.
Another key factor is just how much more like other games God Eater was, in that it's much faster paced the Monster Hunter, a lot more combo oriented, and there's even a Jump button, so having this mindset of "play it like Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts, etc." applied way better.
So I played through 99% of God Eater Burst. I say 99% because I technically never beat the FINAL Final Boss in the added Burst storyline (the version I played was technically an updated version, each God Eater getting a "Burst" variant which is equivalent to Monster Hunter's "Ultimate/G" versions) since I was playing super casually, relying heavily on allies, and didn't quite grasp the whole "THIS GAME IS A GRIND FEST INTENDED TO BE PLAYED MULTIPLAYER!"
I will make note that God Eater is ANIME AS FUCK. It's a post apocalyptic world (that much I knew from PXZ), but it follows a lot of the tropes. You know, Organization fighting off monsters is actually good, but the guy leading it is some self-righteous dick who, wouldn't you know, it MERGES WITH ARIGAMA GOD or something because shut up, humanity is doomed anyway. You have the awesome mentor character in Lindow oh wait, he gets killed except not really because that's what the Burst storyline is about because some bullshit brainwashing happened to Alisa, the foreign exchange girl who is the only other person using a Type-2 God Arc or whatever it was (God Arcs are weapons made to kill Arigama. Your character is the first one to connect with a Type-2 Model, which is special in that it can transform between a Melee and Ranged mode. This is just an excuse for how you have Sword Mode and Gun Mode in gameplay, but all your NPC allies are restricted to one or the other.) There's even a good hearted benevolent professor guy who ALWAYS HAS HIS EYES CLOSED WITH AN EXTREMELY MASSIVE SMILE MAKING HIM LOOK KIND OF CREEPY! Oh yeah, all the main characters appear to be teenagers too...like I said, it's anime as fuck.
But it's also Namco, so I'm not sure what I was expecting <_<.
Anyway, God Eater is the first Monster Hunting game I played to completion, and while I didn't quite grasp what the genre was about, it really is a very good entry point for the genre, since it feels more of a middle ground between "Action Game" and "Monster Hunter" in how it treats itself. There are some like-able characters I guess (Lindow I legit liked, just a mentor character whose mindset can be summed up as "No mission is a failure if everyone survives"; it's a positive outlook that shows he prioritizes his comrades' safety over the mission objective). It is interesting that a Monster Hunter Clone is the first thing I played but it allowed for an easier transition.
Oh, and shout to "Of Gods and Men" theme song the game has; it was weird in PXZ, but seeing how it is used, both the instrumental and vocal versions, in-game makes me appreciate it a lot more. Also the song that played against the Big Massive Vajra king (Dityus Piyuta or some shit) deserves a nod since it absolutely captures the the emotional tension going on, the "Yes, THIS is the thing that killed Lindow. KICK IT'S ASS EVERYONE!" feel to it.
That said, my next game of this style would come in an unexpected manner!
Final Fantasy Explorers
Ok, so by now I had played FF14 for about a year and a half, played God Eater, and even XBCX so I was use to Avatar Protagonists. I need to tangent on about that to highlight my mindset when I make a character:
I do not associate my created character. I do not think of them as me; I think of them as a character I personally created. "Bob" isn't one I cared for since I was thinking of him as any other silent protagonist, so my first real Avatar Character I consider myself having created, in more than just "meh, looks cool" would be Meepel in FF14 (...I said I got A LITTLE better at naming, not a lot!) I think you've all seen me talk about her enough, and you can tell what kind of character I've attributed to her if you've at all paid attention to "Stormblood Abridged" (and I don't blame you for not!)
Ok, if you want to be technical, there was Kris/Chris in FE12, but I don't count her since I 100% Hatbotted her design, leading to oddly a character that looked kind of like FF6 Terra, but I swear that was a coincidence. Interestingly, another DLer just magically assumed I was going to make some ridiculous Afro Goatee Master, but...well...that leads into the next part actually: How I decided to make Meepel, and a mindset I would apply to ALL my CaC:
-I want her to look good, because if I'm using a character, I have to not find the character distracting or unpleasing to look at. Yes, this may surprise you, but I DON'T make ridiculous looking characters, so Afros are basically never going to happen, Male or Female.
-I do NOT want her resembling a pre-existing character, at least intentionally. In Meepel's case, for example, I purposely didn't make her hair green, but more turquoise.
-Try to be creative each game.
I bring this up because when making my character in Final Fantasy Explorers, my mindset was "Fuck it, Mini Meepel!" so I basically made...well...that! It has a chibi artstyle, made creating my character easier in terms of decisions, etc.
Why did I decide to play this? Because it's a Final Fantasy game, and Terra was in it...OH COME ON YOU KNOW HOW I AM.
All I have to say about FFE is that it is kind of...eh? I played as a Black Mage because melee combat wasn't doing it for me, so at least the "occasional explosions!" felt nice, had her dressed in Lightning's Outfit because class based outfits looked dumb in that game and...yeah, the game was clearly some kind of Monster Hunter game geared towards FF11 fans. This is a very weird combination, and honestly, I'm really not surprised I didn't latch onto it. I completed what I think is the main game, didn't bother with any aftergame stuff, because honestly, fights often weren't fun (no, Diabolos having a lot of suction based attacks aren't interesting!)
There was, however, a second Final Fantasy game that hinted that I might actually like the Monster Hunter genre, one I absolutely didn't expect to do so and that is...
Comrades: Final Fantasy 15
So for those who don't know, this is the Multiplayer Expansion of FF15. I didn't know what to expect, but when I went in, I eventually figured out "Oh, this is basically Final Fantasy 15 Monster Hunter" because the gameplay loop was obvious, the structure was Mission based (though some missions weren't just "Kill monster" but stuff like Defense Missions, Escort missions (That actually were a lot of fun!), etc.), your character is whatever you wanted it to be, you ran around a basic hub, what have you. So when making my character here, originally I was thinking on making some kind of cousin of Meepel...
But when I saw the outfits, and the person watching me stream this noticed this too, we were like "That looks just like Samurai Meepel's current outfit, dosen't it?" so...I essentially made Meepel again, made her outfit Pink (because that's Samurai Meepel's color), and named her "Darosel", a combination of "Lard" and "Eos", intended to be some kind of alias. For a complete random tangent, for those reading Stormblood Abridged, the joke is "This is where Samurai Meepel was before showing up in the story: Training on Eos killing monsters, under the name Darosel." It certainly doesn't hurt that the basic weapon you start with is literally a Katana.
Comrades I had fun with, though didn't get too invested mostly because I think I joined a tad too late thus was often given AI Partners for missions instead of real players. Either way, this game did show me that I can get into this kind of gameplay loop, so it was worth noting.
Now as an aside, a few things happened that would eventually push me into FINALLY Giving Monster Hunter World a go.
First, the FF14 Collab. Fighting Rathalos in FF14 and the stuff going on there had me going "Man, would be nice to appreciate some of these references" and it was interesting to have a collaboration that was a permanent addition to FF14. Additionally, it also put Behemoth in Monster Hunter World, and the reactions to both monsters was kind of amusing!
In FF14, the reaction was "Why aren't any of my things working!?" He's a Monster Hunter fight in FF14's engine, so he randomly shuts up healing abilities, requiring you to self-heal on a limited supply. He ignores Aggro so Tanks (like myself) can't actually protect the party, his health goes down slowly until he's downed. He was made to ignore all the rules of FF14.
Behemoth in World was the opposite: A Raid fight designed in Monster Hunter, which meant a lot of player shad this "Mechanics? What the fuck are those!?" This would eventually have me go in and watch videos corresponding to it (like NHC's "Behemoth Dos and Don'ts" which is hilarious, as well as Ragegaming's Pro/Noob series against that fight) and finding it hilarious the kind of hell this fight put that fanbase too, which sounds like the exact point of the fight! This happened over the course of a few years.
Also Rathalos got put in Smash as an AT/Boss...I don't think that actually had anything to do with my decision but it happened in this time frame! More importantly, however, I was talking to one of Free Company members in Discord, he was playing MHW at the time, and I mentioned my experience with the series, etc, he said "Well, if you liked the Rathalos fight in FF14, that's a good gauge for Monster Hunter" and pointed out "The Base game is only $20 right now on PS4."
So...I finally decided to bite the bullet and grab the game. Base game only because I wasn't sure if I'd be invested enough to get Iceborne (which was out by this point.) This happened early 2020. Thus, we finally lead into the actual point of this topic after I wasted all your damn times (...actually the whole topic itself is a waste of time but shh!)
Monster Hunter World(: Iceborne)
I'm putting these two together since they're the same game, just one is an expansion of the other, yada yada yada. Anyway, my start with Monster Hunter World was a bit shaky at first, but getting ahead of myself!
So I streamed myself playing this game, so a few others in discord can watch. When making my Hunter, I made a very clear rule:
This character will in no way resemble Meepel.
I tried to avoid it in Xenoblade Chronicles X, making a joke of "if I can get watermelon hair, I'll play female"...and that existed, thus Peelxem, Meepel's Nobody was born. FFE and Comrades I already covered, so I went out of my way to make sure "THIS WILL NOT BE MEEPEL. IT WILL BE A NEW CHARACTER!" though with one caveat that I would hold true to for any characters I create, namely, "All my characters will have Purple Eyes." It's just a connecting feature that I want to give my characters, as it's an exotic rare trait and isn't all "RED EYES ARE COOL BECAUSE EVIL ANGER!" or something, but more just kind of general exotic look.
I honestly can't remember why I picked a female this time around...not that I can remember why I made "Meepel" female in FF14 either, think it had to do with "Might as well have something nice to look at while playing" but that was literally over 5 years ago OH GOD WHY DID I REMIND MYSELF OF THAT?! In any event, I think I picked female mostly because the preset options for male vs. female very much favored the latter, and I would later learn this was the right call because Females just have the better looking armor sets across the board, which is VERY important inFashion Monster Hunter.
So after playing around with options and such, I would eventually create a character that looked like this:
NOTE: This is a more modern image and some of the make-up/hair style options were changed. The original version had more waivey hair and no scars.
Then came the part that I always struggle with when making a new character: THE NAME.
I'm terrible at names, and "Meeple + Word" doesn't always work well, so I have to get creative, which I'm terrible at. Eventually I settled on "Monelepe" since it sounds close to "Penolepe" thus resembling a real name and is derived from a combination of "Meeple" and "Monster."
Then came the next tricky part: The Palico.
See, I knew I had to make a Hunter, I DIDN'T know you were expected to custom make your Cat sidekick. So naturally, I had 0 respect for it because quirky mascot sidekick, why the fuck would I respect this thing? I just went with a color scheme that looked passable and was unrealistic and came up with this:
After which, when I had to name it, and those who saw me make this can vouch for this, I essentially named him by going "Fuck it, his name is Steve!" because I aint giving this time of day or respect. He's going to be a source of a lot of ridicule and I'm sure a lot of "God damn it, Steve!" moments. He's just there so the game doesn't have to pretend you're hunting alone, but nope! NO REPLACEMENT FOR REAL HUNTERS!
...I'll get back to Steve later.
So I start the game, do the intro, pick Dual Blades because "Hey, this was the thing I used in the MH4U Demo!" and...it took me a while to get into the game, I won't lie. The fights weren't hard, my first cart was in fact when I didn't listen to the game's advice of "DON'T FIGHT THE RATHIAN!" and I went and fought the Rathian and...uhh...ouch.
This does lead into the first REAL fight in the game, the first fight that actually has a "This thing is fighting back, maybe take it seriously" in Barroth. Amusingly, this was also the fight I decided "hey, let's try this Sword and Shield out!" Things didn't go bad, just kind of amusing in that respect.
No, the fight that almost had me say "Fuck this game" forever would be Anjanath. I remember just having a huge "HOW DO I KILL THIS THING!?" moment. I eventually beat it, but it felt absolutely terrible doing that, not wanting to repeat that experience. My friend did tell me to stick with it, and I made a decision around this time that really did change the course of things:
I dropped Dual Blades entirely in favor of Sword and Shield. Dual Blades were the problem, in that they weren't as easy to use as I thought, had a lot of problems that didn't mesh well with my style etc. Sword and Shield wasn't quite it either, but definitely was having more success with that, so I stuck with that for a while.
It was around this time I started playing more regularly too. After getting to high Rank I kind of had a "Ok, so this is suppose to be drop and play it every now and then right?" not realizing I was only half way into the story (how was I suppose to know that fighting a LITERAL VOLCANO DRAGON wouldn't be the final boss?)
Actually, as a tangent, in the first Zorah Magdaros fight, when Nergigante showed up, my reaction was "Nergigante...I've heard that name before...which probably means it'll kick my ass, NOPE!" Someone in DLChat actually had a "Ha!" moment to that.
So while doing High Rank stuff, I eventually went "So there's all these other weapons I haven't tried...let me play around with them." Tl;dr, I found Greatsword was actually fun, and later Charge Blade, and would swap to playing to one of those two for...basically the rest of World. This is around the time I really started getting into the game, which goes to show much a difference "Finding the right weapon" makes in enjoyment. I was ready to quit with Dualblades, kind of grasping it with Sword and Shield, yet started really having fun with Greatsword and Charge Blade.
It was also around this time that a stunning realization occurred to me, something I did not forsee yet was a total game changer in my mindset of Monster Hunter:
Steve was actually an incredibly valuable ally! Yes that cat I swore was going to exist just to be ridiculed and blame things on ended up being damned helpful. Saving my life plenty thanks to Vigorwasps, distracting the monsters so I had a chance to heal, getting a little extra damage in...yeah, he's not as useful as other players, but damned if he wasn't one hell of a worthwhile sidekick. It was from this point on my mindset went from "God damn it, Steve" to "Thank god for Steve!"
I got so into it, I would eventually do stuff like pick fight a Deviljho, die horribly, apply insanity try again, then farm him for his weapon, fight Nergigante, farm Nergigante despite how terrible an idea that is, and you get the idea. The game just clicked. I would eventually buy Iceborne and continue this way further.
On a different note, I noticed something else mid world: NO CHARACTER HAS AN ACTUAL NAME.
The characters all are named "Handler" "Commander" "Field Team Lead" "Admiral" etc. It did highlight an aspect about the game's lore: Hunters don't do this for pride, or glory, they do it because it's their job. The game's theme is even called "Pride of the Nameless Hunter", kind of ironic considering a nameless Hunter means his name won't go down in history beyond "Some Hunter killed the big bad dragon!" I also came to the conclusion of "Handler needs to shut up", but I think everyone who plays World agrees to that!
The game is also incredibly light on plot. The plot can be summed up as:
Act 1: Figure out what's going on with Zorah Magdaros
Act 2: Figure out what's going on Nergigante and how to stop him
Act 3: ...no seriously, what the fuck was going on OH GOD ALIEN DRAGON OUT OF NOWHERE KILL IT!!!!
Talking to someone about this, he said "Yeah, that's the most plot mainline Monster Hunter ever had" "wait MOST!?" "Yeah, and it only exists to shut up review outlets complaining about 'literally no story.'" Despite how shallow and bare the story is, this actually worked to the game's credit as you're not distracted by overarching narrative or anything, and certainly avoids the God Eater anime tropes. Yeah, if this was a Namco game, you know the Admiral, or Tracker or some Rogue Hunter would have been all "Aha, and now that Nergigante is defeated, NOTHING can stop the great XENO'JIVA from destroying everything! MWAHAHAHAH! MY MASTER PLAN TO PUNISH HUMANITY FOR THEIR EVILS HAS FINALLY COME!" You know that tired old plot to justify a final boss and forcefully tie it into the story? Yeah Monster Hunter instead says, after beating all the Elder Dragons, the random mystical guy comes and says "So...I found something we probably should investigate", you go investigate it and that just HAPPENS to be the final boss. No grand scheme, no elaborate revenge plot, just "I think we found the source of our problems, let's get rid of it now!"
Iceborne does mostly the same thing: There's a mystery regarding unusual monster actions, solve it! and it inevitably ends in "AH! KILL THE BIG SCARY DRAGON!"
Yeah, not every organization dedicated to keeping the balance, protecting the world, etc. has to have some kind of skeletons in their closet; it IS possible that things are genuine and that big scary things can happen independent of human actions. As in, no, Monster Hunter isn't trying to make some kind of "The Real Monsters are HUMANS!!!" or anything, it's just "There's big evil dragon, it can destroy eco-systems, let's make sure it doesn't."
Also, the game being light on plot means it kind of side-steps the "EVERYONE LOVES YOU BECAUSE MARY SUE!" aspect. It mostly only exists in Handler, who obsesses over you because "Hey Partner!" but Iceborne would later highlight that Hunter/Handler relationships are typically propping each other up anyway (The Excite-able A-lister hypes up Serious Handler when Handler has to leave you briefly, calling her "The Best Handler in the New World!"...I wasn't lying when I said no characters have actual names...) and the occasional justified moment like "OH you saved me from that monster, thank you Hunter!" Iceborne there's a bit more of that hype, though to be fair you've kind of earned it, being the one who took down Xeno'jiva, and thus people have declared you the "Sapphire Star" so it's not as jarring as the usual "Wow, you're special, WE LOVE YOU BECAUSE SPECIAL!"
...I can't say if this intentional writing, or just a side effect of Monster Hunter's plot being so basic and minimalistic that it doesn't provide opportunities to drool all over you, but hey, it helps!
Going to take a break from the writing here, because shut up. I'll get into the next two entries, but I figure I'd leave you with Monelepe and Steve wearing the full armor sets of the game's flagships, Nergigante and Velkhana, because I decided that every Monster Hunter game, I would farm the Flagship, get a full armor set for my characters, and screen cap. Just kind of a fun tradition thing!
For those that haven't been in our Discord, particularly the #MMO-TPK channel, I've been talking a lot about Monster Hunter lately. It's safe to say I've become a fan of the series, at least the later parts anyway, and what's interesting is if you asked me this two years ago, I'd be saying "There's no way I'd ever get into the franchise." I should note this post is not about "YOU ALL SHOULD PLAY SHUT UP WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING IT!?" so no, there is no subtle message. I know this franchise/genre isn't for everyone, not trying to pretend it is, but you do all need to embrace the majesty that is Dodogama's chin!
(Fan-art, but it's an accurate depiction)
Good, now that the IMPORTANT part is out of the way, onto the secondary part! Namely, how did I end up getting into the series? Well, I feel the best way to handle this is go section by section, where I started off, where I ended up, and bore anyone who bothers to read this along the way.
MONSTER HUNTER 3 ULTIAMTE DEMO
So Monster Hunter was this weird niche franchise I knew little about other than it existed (in the west, anyway; I know it's been big in Japan for quite some time.) Then Capcom announced a Demo of the latest version of their game, coming to Wii U and 3DS. Wii U needs more games, and this was during an era where Capcom was making good games...and it's an action game to boot. What Capcom action games are there? Oh just things like Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, Okami...you know, really good shit!
So I get the 3DS Demo (I don't think there was a Wii U one, but my understanding is the versions were identical save for Wii U Online Functionality), loaded it up, picked...I think Sword and Shield because hey, that sounds like an easy weapon to use! Go against the "easy" monster on there which is Lagombi...
...and things go poorly. Monster never seems to die, it pulls cheap shit, my character is clunky, etc. I try some other weapons, nothing works. I talk to my friend and he goes "Oh, hit the Monster in different parts yields different damage." So I try that, aiming more for the head (I think I still used Sword and Shield), and ultimately get a win. This was a frustrating experience, and I didn't really enjoy it. So I decide to try the 2nd one either way, maybe this monster was just bad and dumb...
That second monster is Plesioth. Ok, so two things I should note about this...
-I learn Underwater Combat is a thing...and it's about what you expect in a game like this. Capcom has never revisited Underwater combat, and my friend who is a major fan of the franchise who doesn't even mind underwater combat has stated "I don't even know who it's intended for." Not good for a demo!
-IT'S FUCKING PLESIOTH. That doesn't mean anything for someone new to the series going in blind, but for those that don't know, Plesioth has a reputation for being one of the most annoying, bullshit designed, hated monsters in the franchise. WHY WOULD YOU PUT THAT IN A DEMO TRYING TO GET MORE PEOPLE TO PLAY THE GAME?!
Turns out, talking to another DLer, the Demo seemed more geared towards fans of the franchise as an appetizer for the real game than it was
to get new fans. As a result, the demo had an adverse affect to people looking into the franchise, as it really wasn't aimed at new players at all.
Interestingly, I did look at the GFAQs board to see if there was anything, and one of the first topics was someone saying "ok, people, the demo is out, let's go over some ground rules" and it was basically a bunch of "There are new players who don't know anything; let's not be dicks, but be helpful. We want this to grow! Even the most obvious question should be treated respectfully!" It showed a level of openess and welcomeness in the community, so I will give it that.
So I pretty much went "Nope!" to the game and let it go. Surely I wouldn't give the franchise a chance again right...
MONSTER HUNTER 4 ULTIMATE DEMO
So first off, let me get this out of the way: West never got base Monster Hunter 4, hence why it's the Ultimate version. That being said...
This Demo I did have a better experience with. The game actually eases you into things, in a way that feels welcoming towards new players. There's a slight bit of tutorial, so you're not "Thrown into the deep end with your feet in a cement block and told to float" and the monster they make you fight first is Great Jaggi, a low tier introductory monster that is appropriate. I picked Dual Blades in this game, and I did get through that hunt, so hey, the frustration "FUCK THIS GAME" factor wasn't there...
...but the game also wasn't clicking. There was a sense of "This isn't for me." So I just kind of brushed it off. It did well to wash away the terrible taste that Lagombi/Plesioth gave me, showing "No, not everything in the franchise is bullshit incarnate." At the same time, I just couldn't see myself caring about this franchise. It wasn't clicking, so I pushed it aside.
Now here's...where things go a little weird, and I'm going to deviate away from the franchise for a bit, because it's important in how things came full circle...sort of. Next important part is Project X Zone...kind of. Yes, Monster Hunter isn't in there despite Capcom, but something else was in it that would be relevant, namely...
God Eater Burst
Project X Zone had these characters with cool looking weapons that had me intrigued, saw it was an action game, shortly after playing Project X Zone, the game was free on Playstation Plus, so I grabbed it on my PS Vita because hey, free game, why not try it out?
So I think this game marks a landmark for me of sorts in that it's the first time I really played a game with a legit Create a Character. I actually didn't know you played a Silent Protagonist avatar (and was disappointed by this at the time), because PXZ has 3 REAL characters in Soma, Lindow and Alisa. I just kind of assumed Soma was the protagonist, but nope, he's just an emo-edgelord dipshit who is actually kind of annoying...but let's not get into the story or characters yet!
That said, I can barely remember WHAT my character looked like in this game. I think he had green hair, sunglasses, and a black outfit with some kind of red/white stripe on it. I went purely with "What looks kind of cool" more than anything else. I can't even remember what I named him...knowing my lack of creativity, it was probably just "Bob." Oh, I would become more creative...kind of...later down the line...at least in the sense of I try to come up with original names, but knowing myself back then, "Silent Protagonist with no canonical name that I know of? HIS NAME IS BOB!" is 100% what I'd do. If you need more proof, the entire Meeple Suikoverse involves 4 Tenkai Stars and a Flame Champion named Bob.
So playing God Eater, I found out pretty fast it wasn't an action game, but rather a Monster Hunter clone. There are key differences, however, that allowed me to latch onto this in a way I wasn't able the MH "games" before. First off, it was the FULL game, not the demo, which meant the game provides you with the necessary metaphorical training course to understand the game's fundamentals (as well as "What not to do" like "DON'T FIGHT THE GIANT MONSTER JUST BECAUSE IT'S THERE IF YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO KILL JUST SMALL FRY!" I learned that the hard way when I saw a Vajra, the game's flagship and a monster that was in PXZ, in an early mission, tried to fight it and...you can probably figure out what happened there!), so figuring out how the game works is better. For example, early on the game tells you that impact marks are indicators of "How hard are you hitting the monster", and gives you a nice detailed, easy to understand chart, and the game even color codes the impact marks making them very distinct in terms of what kind of damage you're doing.
Another key factor is just how much more like other games God Eater was, in that it's much faster paced the Monster Hunter, a lot more combo oriented, and there's even a Jump button, so having this mindset of "play it like Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts, etc." applied way better.
So I played through 99% of God Eater Burst. I say 99% because I technically never beat the FINAL Final Boss in the added Burst storyline (the version I played was technically an updated version, each God Eater getting a "Burst" variant which is equivalent to Monster Hunter's "Ultimate/G" versions) since I was playing super casually, relying heavily on allies, and didn't quite grasp the whole "THIS GAME IS A GRIND FEST INTENDED TO BE PLAYED MULTIPLAYER!"
I will make note that God Eater is ANIME AS FUCK. It's a post apocalyptic world (that much I knew from PXZ), but it follows a lot of the tropes. You know, Organization fighting off monsters is actually good, but the guy leading it is some self-righteous dick who, wouldn't you know, it MERGES WITH ARIGAMA GOD or something because shut up, humanity is doomed anyway. You have the awesome mentor character in Lindow oh wait, he gets killed except not really because that's what the Burst storyline is about because some bullshit brainwashing happened to Alisa, the foreign exchange girl who is the only other person using a Type-2 God Arc or whatever it was (God Arcs are weapons made to kill Arigama. Your character is the first one to connect with a Type-2 Model, which is special in that it can transform between a Melee and Ranged mode. This is just an excuse for how you have Sword Mode and Gun Mode in gameplay, but all your NPC allies are restricted to one or the other.) There's even a good hearted benevolent professor guy who ALWAYS HAS HIS EYES CLOSED WITH AN EXTREMELY MASSIVE SMILE MAKING HIM LOOK KIND OF CREEPY! Oh yeah, all the main characters appear to be teenagers too...like I said, it's anime as fuck.
But it's also Namco, so I'm not sure what I was expecting <_<.
Anyway, God Eater is the first Monster Hunting game I played to completion, and while I didn't quite grasp what the genre was about, it really is a very good entry point for the genre, since it feels more of a middle ground between "Action Game" and "Monster Hunter" in how it treats itself. There are some like-able characters I guess (Lindow I legit liked, just a mentor character whose mindset can be summed up as "No mission is a failure if everyone survives"; it's a positive outlook that shows he prioritizes his comrades' safety over the mission objective). It is interesting that a Monster Hunter Clone is the first thing I played but it allowed for an easier transition.
Oh, and shout to "Of Gods and Men" theme song the game has; it was weird in PXZ, but seeing how it is used, both the instrumental and vocal versions, in-game makes me appreciate it a lot more. Also the song that played against the Big Massive Vajra king (Dityus Piyuta or some shit) deserves a nod since it absolutely captures the the emotional tension going on, the "Yes, THIS is the thing that killed Lindow. KICK IT'S ASS EVERYONE!" feel to it.
That said, my next game of this style would come in an unexpected manner!
Final Fantasy Explorers
Ok, so by now I had played FF14 for about a year and a half, played God Eater, and even XBCX so I was use to Avatar Protagonists. I need to tangent on about that to highlight my mindset when I make a character:
I do not associate my created character. I do not think of them as me; I think of them as a character I personally created. "Bob" isn't one I cared for since I was thinking of him as any other silent protagonist, so my first real Avatar Character I consider myself having created, in more than just "meh, looks cool" would be Meepel in FF14 (...I said I got A LITTLE better at naming, not a lot!) I think you've all seen me talk about her enough, and you can tell what kind of character I've attributed to her if you've at all paid attention to "Stormblood Abridged" (and I don't blame you for not!)
Ok, if you want to be technical, there was Kris/Chris in FE12, but I don't count her since I 100% Hatbotted her design, leading to oddly a character that looked kind of like FF6 Terra, but I swear that was a coincidence. Interestingly, another DLer just magically assumed I was going to make some ridiculous Afro Goatee Master, but...well...that leads into the next part actually: How I decided to make Meepel, and a mindset I would apply to ALL my CaC:
-I want her to look good, because if I'm using a character, I have to not find the character distracting or unpleasing to look at. Yes, this may surprise you, but I DON'T make ridiculous looking characters, so Afros are basically never going to happen, Male or Female.
-I do NOT want her resembling a pre-existing character, at least intentionally. In Meepel's case, for example, I purposely didn't make her hair green, but more turquoise.
-Try to be creative each game.
I bring this up because when making my character in Final Fantasy Explorers, my mindset was "Fuck it, Mini Meepel!" so I basically made...well...that! It has a chibi artstyle, made creating my character easier in terms of decisions, etc.
Why did I decide to play this? Because it's a Final Fantasy game, and Terra was in it...OH COME ON YOU KNOW HOW I AM.
All I have to say about FFE is that it is kind of...eh? I played as a Black Mage because melee combat wasn't doing it for me, so at least the "occasional explosions!" felt nice, had her dressed in Lightning's Outfit because class based outfits looked dumb in that game and...yeah, the game was clearly some kind of Monster Hunter game geared towards FF11 fans. This is a very weird combination, and honestly, I'm really not surprised I didn't latch onto it. I completed what I think is the main game, didn't bother with any aftergame stuff, because honestly, fights often weren't fun (no, Diabolos having a lot of suction based attacks aren't interesting!)
There was, however, a second Final Fantasy game that hinted that I might actually like the Monster Hunter genre, one I absolutely didn't expect to do so and that is...
Comrades: Final Fantasy 15
So for those who don't know, this is the Multiplayer Expansion of FF15. I didn't know what to expect, but when I went in, I eventually figured out "Oh, this is basically Final Fantasy 15 Monster Hunter" because the gameplay loop was obvious, the structure was Mission based (though some missions weren't just "Kill monster" but stuff like Defense Missions, Escort missions (That actually were a lot of fun!), etc.), your character is whatever you wanted it to be, you ran around a basic hub, what have you. So when making my character here, originally I was thinking on making some kind of cousin of Meepel...
But when I saw the outfits, and the person watching me stream this noticed this too, we were like "That looks just like Samurai Meepel's current outfit, dosen't it?" so...I essentially made Meepel again, made her outfit Pink (because that's Samurai Meepel's color), and named her "Darosel", a combination of "Lard" and "Eos", intended to be some kind of alias. For a complete random tangent, for those reading Stormblood Abridged, the joke is "This is where Samurai Meepel was before showing up in the story: Training on Eos killing monsters, under the name Darosel." It certainly doesn't hurt that the basic weapon you start with is literally a Katana.
Comrades I had fun with, though didn't get too invested mostly because I think I joined a tad too late thus was often given AI Partners for missions instead of real players. Either way, this game did show me that I can get into this kind of gameplay loop, so it was worth noting.
Now as an aside, a few things happened that would eventually push me into FINALLY Giving Monster Hunter World a go.
First, the FF14 Collab. Fighting Rathalos in FF14 and the stuff going on there had me going "Man, would be nice to appreciate some of these references" and it was interesting to have a collaboration that was a permanent addition to FF14. Additionally, it also put Behemoth in Monster Hunter World, and the reactions to both monsters was kind of amusing!
In FF14, the reaction was "Why aren't any of my things working!?" He's a Monster Hunter fight in FF14's engine, so he randomly shuts up healing abilities, requiring you to self-heal on a limited supply. He ignores Aggro so Tanks (like myself) can't actually protect the party, his health goes down slowly until he's downed. He was made to ignore all the rules of FF14.
Behemoth in World was the opposite: A Raid fight designed in Monster Hunter, which meant a lot of player shad this "Mechanics? What the fuck are those!?" This would eventually have me go in and watch videos corresponding to it (like NHC's "Behemoth Dos and Don'ts" which is hilarious, as well as Ragegaming's Pro/Noob series against that fight) and finding it hilarious the kind of hell this fight put that fanbase too, which sounds like the exact point of the fight! This happened over the course of a few years.
Also Rathalos got put in Smash as an AT/Boss...I don't think that actually had anything to do with my decision but it happened in this time frame! More importantly, however, I was talking to one of Free Company members in Discord, he was playing MHW at the time, and I mentioned my experience with the series, etc, he said "Well, if you liked the Rathalos fight in FF14, that's a good gauge for Monster Hunter" and pointed out "The Base game is only $20 right now on PS4."
So...I finally decided to bite the bullet and grab the game. Base game only because I wasn't sure if I'd be invested enough to get Iceborne (which was out by this point.) This happened early 2020. Thus, we finally lead into the actual point of this topic after I wasted all your damn times (...actually the whole topic itself is a waste of time but shh!)
Monster Hunter World(: Iceborne)
I'm putting these two together since they're the same game, just one is an expansion of the other, yada yada yada. Anyway, my start with Monster Hunter World was a bit shaky at first, but getting ahead of myself!
So I streamed myself playing this game, so a few others in discord can watch. When making my Hunter, I made a very clear rule:
This character will in no way resemble Meepel.
I tried to avoid it in Xenoblade Chronicles X, making a joke of "if I can get watermelon hair, I'll play female"...and that existed, thus Peelxem, Meepel's Nobody was born. FFE and Comrades I already covered, so I went out of my way to make sure "THIS WILL NOT BE MEEPEL. IT WILL BE A NEW CHARACTER!" though with one caveat that I would hold true to for any characters I create, namely, "All my characters will have Purple Eyes." It's just a connecting feature that I want to give my characters, as it's an exotic rare trait and isn't all "RED EYES ARE COOL BECAUSE EVIL ANGER!" or something, but more just kind of general exotic look.
I honestly can't remember why I picked a female this time around...not that I can remember why I made "Meepel" female in FF14 either, think it had to do with "Might as well have something nice to look at while playing" but that was literally over 5 years ago OH GOD WHY DID I REMIND MYSELF OF THAT?! In any event, I think I picked female mostly because the preset options for male vs. female very much favored the latter, and I would later learn this was the right call because Females just have the better looking armor sets across the board, which is VERY important in
So after playing around with options and such, I would eventually create a character that looked like this:
NOTE: This is a more modern image and some of the make-up/hair style options were changed. The original version had more waivey hair and no scars.
Then came the part that I always struggle with when making a new character: THE NAME.
I'm terrible at names, and "Meeple + Word" doesn't always work well, so I have to get creative, which I'm terrible at. Eventually I settled on "Monelepe" since it sounds close to "Penolepe" thus resembling a real name and is derived from a combination of "Meeple" and "Monster."
Then came the next tricky part: The Palico.
See, I knew I had to make a Hunter, I DIDN'T know you were expected to custom make your Cat sidekick. So naturally, I had 0 respect for it because quirky mascot sidekick, why the fuck would I respect this thing? I just went with a color scheme that looked passable and was unrealistic and came up with this:
After which, when I had to name it, and those who saw me make this can vouch for this, I essentially named him by going "Fuck it, his name is Steve!" because I aint giving this time of day or respect. He's going to be a source of a lot of ridicule and I'm sure a lot of "God damn it, Steve!" moments. He's just there so the game doesn't have to pretend you're hunting alone, but nope! NO REPLACEMENT FOR REAL HUNTERS!
...I'll get back to Steve later.
So I start the game, do the intro, pick Dual Blades because "Hey, this was the thing I used in the MH4U Demo!" and...it took me a while to get into the game, I won't lie. The fights weren't hard, my first cart was in fact when I didn't listen to the game's advice of "DON'T FIGHT THE RATHIAN!" and I went and fought the Rathian and...uhh...ouch.
This does lead into the first REAL fight in the game, the first fight that actually has a "This thing is fighting back, maybe take it seriously" in Barroth. Amusingly, this was also the fight I decided "hey, let's try this Sword and Shield out!" Things didn't go bad, just kind of amusing in that respect.
No, the fight that almost had me say "Fuck this game" forever would be Anjanath. I remember just having a huge "HOW DO I KILL THIS THING!?" moment. I eventually beat it, but it felt absolutely terrible doing that, not wanting to repeat that experience. My friend did tell me to stick with it, and I made a decision around this time that really did change the course of things:
I dropped Dual Blades entirely in favor of Sword and Shield. Dual Blades were the problem, in that they weren't as easy to use as I thought, had a lot of problems that didn't mesh well with my style etc. Sword and Shield wasn't quite it either, but definitely was having more success with that, so I stuck with that for a while.
It was around this time I started playing more regularly too. After getting to high Rank I kind of had a "Ok, so this is suppose to be drop and play it every now and then right?" not realizing I was only half way into the story (how was I suppose to know that fighting a LITERAL VOLCANO DRAGON wouldn't be the final boss?)
Actually, as a tangent, in the first Zorah Magdaros fight, when Nergigante showed up, my reaction was "Nergigante...I've heard that name before...which probably means it'll kick my ass, NOPE!" Someone in DLChat actually had a "Ha!" moment to that.
So while doing High Rank stuff, I eventually went "So there's all these other weapons I haven't tried...let me play around with them." Tl;dr, I found Greatsword was actually fun, and later Charge Blade, and would swap to playing to one of those two for...basically the rest of World. This is around the time I really started getting into the game, which goes to show much a difference "Finding the right weapon" makes in enjoyment. I was ready to quit with Dualblades, kind of grasping it with Sword and Shield, yet started really having fun with Greatsword and Charge Blade.
It was also around this time that a stunning realization occurred to me, something I did not forsee yet was a total game changer in my mindset of Monster Hunter:
Steve was actually an incredibly valuable ally! Yes that cat I swore was going to exist just to be ridiculed and blame things on ended up being damned helpful. Saving my life plenty thanks to Vigorwasps, distracting the monsters so I had a chance to heal, getting a little extra damage in...yeah, he's not as useful as other players, but damned if he wasn't one hell of a worthwhile sidekick. It was from this point on my mindset went from "God damn it, Steve" to "Thank god for Steve!"
I got so into it, I would eventually do stuff like pick fight a Deviljho, die horribly, apply insanity try again, then farm him for his weapon, fight Nergigante, farm Nergigante despite how terrible an idea that is, and you get the idea. The game just clicked. I would eventually buy Iceborne and continue this way further.
On a different note, I noticed something else mid world: NO CHARACTER HAS AN ACTUAL NAME.
The characters all are named "Handler" "Commander" "Field Team Lead" "Admiral" etc. It did highlight an aspect about the game's lore: Hunters don't do this for pride, or glory, they do it because it's their job. The game's theme is even called "Pride of the Nameless Hunter", kind of ironic considering a nameless Hunter means his name won't go down in history beyond "Some Hunter killed the big bad dragon!" I also came to the conclusion of "Handler needs to shut up", but I think everyone who plays World agrees to that!
The game is also incredibly light on plot. The plot can be summed up as:
Act 1: Figure out what's going on with Zorah Magdaros
Act 2: Figure out what's going on Nergigante and how to stop him
Act 3: ...no seriously, what the fuck was going on OH GOD ALIEN DRAGON OUT OF NOWHERE KILL IT!!!!
Talking to someone about this, he said "Yeah, that's the most plot mainline Monster Hunter ever had" "wait MOST!?" "Yeah, and it only exists to shut up review outlets complaining about 'literally no story.'" Despite how shallow and bare the story is, this actually worked to the game's credit as you're not distracted by overarching narrative or anything, and certainly avoids the God Eater anime tropes. Yeah, if this was a Namco game, you know the Admiral, or Tracker or some Rogue Hunter would have been all "Aha, and now that Nergigante is defeated, NOTHING can stop the great XENO'JIVA from destroying everything! MWAHAHAHAH! MY MASTER PLAN TO PUNISH HUMANITY FOR THEIR EVILS HAS FINALLY COME!" You know that tired old plot to justify a final boss and forcefully tie it into the story? Yeah Monster Hunter instead says, after beating all the Elder Dragons, the random mystical guy comes and says "So...I found something we probably should investigate", you go investigate it and that just HAPPENS to be the final boss. No grand scheme, no elaborate revenge plot, just "I think we found the source of our problems, let's get rid of it now!"
Iceborne does mostly the same thing: There's a mystery regarding unusual monster actions, solve it! and it inevitably ends in "AH! KILL THE BIG SCARY DRAGON!"
Yeah, not every organization dedicated to keeping the balance, protecting the world, etc. has to have some kind of skeletons in their closet; it IS possible that things are genuine and that big scary things can happen independent of human actions. As in, no, Monster Hunter isn't trying to make some kind of "The Real Monsters are HUMANS!!!" or anything, it's just "There's big evil dragon, it can destroy eco-systems, let's make sure it doesn't."
Also, the game being light on plot means it kind of side-steps the "EVERYONE LOVES YOU BECAUSE MARY SUE!" aspect. It mostly only exists in Handler, who obsesses over you because "Hey Partner!" but Iceborne would later highlight that Hunter/Handler relationships are typically propping each other up anyway (The Excite-able A-lister hypes up Serious Handler when Handler has to leave you briefly, calling her "The Best Handler in the New World!"...I wasn't lying when I said no characters have actual names...) and the occasional justified moment like "OH you saved me from that monster, thank you Hunter!" Iceborne there's a bit more of that hype, though to be fair you've kind of earned it, being the one who took down Xeno'jiva, and thus people have declared you the "Sapphire Star" so it's not as jarring as the usual "Wow, you're special, WE LOVE YOU BECAUSE SPECIAL!"
...I can't say if this intentional writing, or just a side effect of Monster Hunter's plot being so basic and minimalistic that it doesn't provide opportunities to drool all over you, but hey, it helps!
Going to take a break from the writing here, because shut up. I'll get into the next two entries, but I figure I'd leave you with Monelepe and Steve wearing the full armor sets of the game's flagships, Nergigante and Velkhana, because I decided that every Monster Hunter game, I would farm the Flagship, get a full armor set for my characters, and screen cap. Just kind of a fun tradition thing!
Warrior of Light
Firion
Onion Knight
Cecil Harvey
Bartz Klauser
Terra Branford
Cloud Strife
Squall Leonhart
Zidane Tribal
Tidus
Shantotto
Vaan
Claire “Lightning” Farron
AND 
