The reason people initially hate MH isn't the monster hunter gameplay. It's the hour long fire hose of information blasted at the player as soon as they try to get into game. In Rise, the game doesn't point you towards the training ground. You have to find it...why? This is precisely where I want to be in order to figure out a weapon. It also doesn't give you a clear example of the gameplay loop. Hunt monster > make armor from monster > hunt new monster. In between all of this is a deluge of information that could all be condensed into the training ground.
The combat for me wasn’t the issue, the menus and “tutorials” were, it felt like so much information to take in and I was going to need it to actually play the game. Eventually my friend helped me through the game and I slowly started to understand everything and nowadays, making unique builds out of lesser used skills is literally my favorite thing to do.
Yeah to be fair, the menus suck. I remember playing freedom 2 not knowing a single thing, but it didn't matter, cause they got "training quests" which were basically optional, you go and do them if you wanna learn. I think window pop ups aren't good unless extremely necessary. You gotta make players figure out the game for themselves and most importantly, whenever they want to. "Oh what is a ration? Gotta check this out in the menu, or maybe im gonna try using one" Don't treat people like they're stupid
I feel you i tried most monster hunter games last week just to find the enjoyable one and i have around 20 hours in freedom unite,generations ultimate,tri and world i played portable 3rd as well and dropped it because it was freedom unite but with asian esthetic tbh i learned all those core tutorials after three games and enjoyed it far more ever since
Rise’s menu tutorials are some of the worst in gaming. They’re super dense, not intuitive, come in the weong order, and worse, are factually incorrect often. The ingame description of dual blades is just wrong for archdemon mode. The game never tells you theres a jump button. It forgets to describe the various states of stun and knockdown.
The scenario you described is exactly my experience getting into monster hunter, saw some videos of 3U, thought it looked cool, saw it had a demo, tried it out, hated it, uninstalled, tried it again some time later, still hated it, uninstalled it, tried it a 3rd time later, finally clicked, loved the series ever since
God, I hated the 3U demo too. Why is everything so damn slow? Felt like trying to pay chess with oven mitts in a pool of molasses. Had to keep playing for it to finally click. I played over 2000 hours of 3U as of today. Still one of my favorite games of all time
Its a common thing with monster hunter vets, hated it sometimes for an entire generation. Then it finally clicks and you're hooked ever since. Mine was F1. Hated it. Stopped at buldrome. Tried it again in F2 and I never looked back.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that Monster Hunter clicked for me pretty much immediately. Up until the day I decided to try the 4U demo after seeing it on shelves, I had experienced combat in video games almost exclusively in a turn based format. As a kid the idea of only taking damage when the attack visually hits me was so amazing, and revolutionary, and incredible, and... and then eventually I fought Plesioth. :(
Ah plesioth, the only monster to turn the game into a turn base battle. And by turns, I mean it's his turn, then it's his turn again, then of course! It's his turn again. And that's just him shaking his ass.
My first game was 4U and I had zero friends to play it with but I at least had an online community to help me through. There was never a point where the actual gameplay wasn't enjoyable for me, just a few monsters who I'd rather never existed at worst and just groaned and put up with at best. And maybe the occasional gathering session for one stupid ore than had a 5% chance of being mined or a 20% chance in the rare area. I'm not sure if we are a minority or not, but I can very easily see why some people might be turned off by it, even if they're a fan of similar games. I'm just glad I've stuck through it and even have gone back to play older titles like 3U, FU, and even Frontier.
@@nubbyboah My first game was world. I had a blast with the game, so much so that I too went back to the older games starting with gen u. After a bit of an adjustment period, I ended up falling in love with old monster hunter. Fast forward to today, I have played 4u, 3u and tri, freedom unite, and was even privileged enough to have a great girlfriend who tracked down a copy of monster hunter 1 on the ps2. The game is hard as hell, but I can't help but love it and the series as a whole.
Regarding MHW as a new player: I'm 12 hours in. Eeeh... I feel like it's losing me. The game has so much busywork: Every time I go fight I gotta eat a meal, and eat my rations, and eat my nutrients, and sharpen my blade, and buff my weapon, and yadda yadda... And then I can get stunlocked and 2-shot by the monster, making me respawn and then I gotta do the whooooole buffing process all over again... Blegh Healing takes ages, even chucking an antidote takes ages. Putting your weapon away or pulling it out takes ages. A single hit taken can throw you into a vortex of having to mess around with the weapon holstering and healing, tanking your uptime on the monster and then you can finally get ready to go again... and the monster can just leave... Barely any animation cancelling and very tight if even existent buffer times. Meh. Basically, the concept feels cursed: I thought the game is gonna be about hunting monsters but then it does everything in its power to push you away from hunting monsters: UI, preparations, monsters running away, that's all time you spend not fighting monsters.
Update: The rythm of the game clicked for me and I'm having way more fun now as a result. I accomplished more in the last 6 hours than in my first 13. I think it's good, even great but there's a definite adjustment period.
that was EXACTLY my first experience with MHW. I stopped playing the first time after only 6 hours. I returned to the franchise with MH Rise tho with a friend and since than I played countless hours of both rise and world. It just needed to be more accessible IMO. The UI was the biggest factor for me, it was just repulsive. But definitely learning how to prepare + finding THE weapon to use changed everything
MHW is unique in the series with how much boring busywork is often required before you can get to hunting monsters. It’s a shame because once you start hunting the game is immensely fun and satisfying.
My first game was World, about the time Iceborne came out a couple friends convinced me to get it, I didn't much like it, it seemed a bit stiff, but it was pretty fun while playing together, so i kept playing, it took me about 70 hours to beat the base game if I remember correctly, after that I decided to get iceborne, and something changed, I don't know exactly when or where, but after I beat iceborne's story I took a step back and realized that the game had wormed its way into my head and heart, and it was now my favorite game, it really is fascinating how much of a turnaround it was, nearly 500 hours spent now and I'm into my second playthrough, hunting horn only, and loving it
I know how you feel I'm at 446 Hours right now :) And still doesn't like monster hunter as much as Monster Hunter World. IceBorn added so much more fun to the already soo fun game :)
Makes me feel like a rare breed.. I remember picking up Monster Hunter for the PS2 back in the day, getting bullied by velocidrome a bunch of times, finally overcoming that "wall" and instantly being hooked to the gratification of "beat it finally and now you're telling me I can make a sword out of that bitch?". Here we are, over a decade later.
Monster Hunter essentially boils down to: A) Kill monster B) Make weapon out of the aforementioned monster C) Kill more monsters with the aforementioned weapon D) Rinse and repeat! The Circle of Life really is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Hello fellow first-gen. I have so many fond memories with the original monster hunter on ps2. I instantly hooked up on the gameplay eventhought it was most janky attack button scheme lol
@@benji1277 hey totally. Glad you came around though there's so much quality here in a world of battlefield and fallout 76 ect. Monster hunter does experiment constantly even nearly every game you could say. So there's going to be some games that aren't liked as much but it's hard to argue that any of then are totally bad or broken or don't work
@@ashenphoenix6869 Plus there are the stories games. Pretty sure I played the first stories game before I played any mainline games, and after rise I'm planning on playing the second one
@@benji1277 dude the second stories game.... it's like 100% better than the first one in every way. And I really liked the first one. But I LOVE the second one. It's what Pokémon wishes it could be Lol
I think Monster Hunter has my favorite combat of any game ever created. It’s like a fourteen character roster fighting game with higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy. The amount of depth and variety between the weapons and monsters is insanity. And the best part is you can do perfectly fine with an average skill level. Monster Hunter doesn’t demand that you master it’s weapons and speed run times, and monster patterns. You can be a “good” player and get through the whole game fine. But if you choose to master the game, you’re fuckin unstoppable. It’s industry defining stuff
Basically This. I can see why people that prefer story-heavy games with deep lore and NPCs might have their qualms with Monster Hunter as it honestly isn't as good in that regard, but it's amazing in terms of creature design. As much as I like high fantasy, not having anything with magic, gods or the afterlife but taking the pseudo-scientific path is what gives the monsters from Monster Hunter their own identity. And as weird as it would be to describe in-depth, I get what you mean with "higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy". I got into the Souls games several years after playing Monster Hunter and despite them having no actual connections, it felt familiar in a way I couldn't exactly put my finger on.
Yup. I think the only two things the game demands of you is to not be absurdly greedy and to know that you can faceplant when you have your weapon sheathed to easily avoid damage. You can have a smooth-ish ride if you do those two well.
@@nightmarishcompositions4536 there's only 2 games I'm totally in love with. one is mhw. the other is quake live. however QL is a very old arena FPS game. very few people still play it. but i still play it almost daily.
a friend bought me monster hunter world, and I tried it, fell in love, and slowly stopped enjoying it for one specific reason. the loss of control effects that would constantly happen. as I got further and further into the game, more and more attacks would cause me to completely lose control of my character for multiple seconds, now on its own thats fine but when its happening multiple times a minute, it gets frustrating I quit early into ice part, when I spent over 30 minutes out of a 50 minute fight watching my character roll on the ground, unable to interact with the game, and another 10 minutes chasing the monster after it ran away when I hit it once, rather than doing the fighting part I actually enjoyed. out of 50 minutes, there were 10 that I actually enjoyed, and that ratio was getting worse with every new monster I encountered. another thing that drove me away was the community, specifically how the community responded to any criticisms of the games design. everything I said was always met with "you just dont like it cause you are bad at the game, just get good", and I can see how getting better at reading and dodging attacks would lead to getting stunned less, but that process itself isnt fun *because* of those stuns, so for me that advice just ends up saying "you are only allowed to enjoy the game when you are actually good at it" and obviously thats not something I want to spend my time doing
a tip if you’re having issues with getting stunned and are willing to try the game again at some point: stun charm III gives you complete resistance to stun
@@mellomallo I was aware of that, and I was working towards it, but its kind of a sidestep of my issue if the best way to deal with a mechanic is to completely turn it off, why does the mechanic exist? it just feels like bad design. this was also my complaint with the cold mechanic in the area, it served no gameplay function
Stuns serve the purpose of punishing you for getting hit too many times, plus (while I know this isn’t the best reasoning considering Monster Hunter isn’t super realistic and how monsters can survive so many attacks from the weapons) it’d make sense for a huge monster to stun a hunter, especially with bigger and heavier attacks. Heat and cold are around for a similar reason, and to also put some emphasis on preparation before a hunt, though they were removed for Rise. Personally I never really ended up getting stunned multiple times a minute despite World being my first MH game (though I stopped playing at early Iceborne as well since I couldn’t see the screen well and needed glasses, so I can’t say for sure what the stun situation is like for content beyond that, though I still don’t remember getting stunned *that* much from what I played). Two more tips that probably aren’t that helpful (considering you got to Iceborne content you probably already know but possibly not) are that you can button mash to recover from stun more quickly and you can dive by running and dodging away from the monster to get a ton of invincibility frames if you know you’ll be getting hit otherwise.
Something very important to note actually is that I did have the Stun Charm III during the Iceborne content I played so that’d be why I don’t remember stuns, so ignore that (oops).
the realism argument falls flat when my complaint is that it isnt fun, if that realism gets in the way of fun, then the realism needs to go I get the "preparing for a hunt" angle on the cold, but it does not do that in an interesting way. it takes basically 0 effort to be completely immune to the cold, and never interacting with the mechanic is apparently the intended way to play, so why does it exist? if they wanted a "cold you have to prepare for" they should have made a more interesting mechanic
I'd say you need a good like... 20+ hours to really start to get it. And to actually engage with the series' systems, like he said. Making new armours and weapons to deal with walls, learning your weapon and monster's patterns. I think a lot more people would enjoy MH if they took the time and effort required to give it a proper chance.
@@JeanKP14 I bought world soon after I watched this video and gave it another shot. For some reason I feel better about my first experience this time, so I plan on giving the game the time it needs to really understand it. Thanks for the help.
I found that in my time with Monster Hunter World, my enjoyment varies drastically depending on how much of the games jank I have to deal with, and how much I like what I'm fighting. Some things were absolute nightmares to farm the equipment for because I simply hated fighting the monster in question, while farming other things was a blast. Dealing with the games jank is the only other thing that gets under my skin, and its mostly just small things that add up over the course of a session.
I just beat the Rathalos for the first time. Instantly after beating it a Rathian came down. after a bit of fighting her, she just started doing her little run move. I was basically stunlocked, as soon as I got up after she hit me, she passed by hitting me again, for 2 or 3 times until i died. That might be the clunkiest that I've felt the game to be until now. By the way right as i was killing the Rathian, another Rathalos landed. I captured this one.
@@joemency2242 You can just stay on the ground in situations like this. You're invincible while on the ground, and you can delay getting up by not pressing anything. As soon as that second charge misses, *then* get up and you'll have actual time to dodge the third one.
Honestly I started with MHFU and got into DS3 and the other Souls games later. Rise is probably the easiest one I've played though the weapons might take a little to get used to for newer players if your goal is to learn everything but that's by no means required and I'm pretty sure the dev teams have even said they wanted room for people to be able to improve with the weapons but the difficulty is tuned so min-maxing and whatnot isn't going to be required. Ultimately it's better to take it slow and not get frustrated since they go about the core gameplay very differently Funny anecdote: every Soul's game I tried I played right after I finished the previous one and I went in reverse order so DS3-BB-DS2-DSR and every time I hated it starting out so I took a few days off and then went back to it and liked it more, gotta give yourself time to reset those habits since they're different styles of games
ironically for me it was the other way around for ds i did bllodborne, loved it from the get go tiill the end of time, although i needed a hand at one point to go over a hurdle(bsb), done that, i fell in love. ds3 was a no brainer too. but ds1 on the other hand, at the start i liked it, genuinely had fun, then i got to the gargoyles. no matter how many times i beat bb and ds3, i couldn't kìll them... until i locked-off, then it clicked to me. was it fun to kill them then? yes... ish. it was fun per se, but it gave me a really bad hunch, i knew something was off with that because i knew it was due to the lack of omnidirectional rolling... anyway, kept playing and playing and, once going past o&s, obviously i started liking the game less as you might imagine why, but then came the ending and the dlc turn, and whereas normally people make a turn of opinion there due to artorias and gwyn... i guess i got spoiled by ds3 and bloodborne. i oculdn't stand either. i fought for 6 hours malenia, i fought 20 times each boss of the bloodborned platinum cursed dungeon, i fought 267 times the heroic phoenix in the death's gambit afterlife... but after 5 tries of both artorias and gwyn, i just quit ds1. i duno, maybe my build just sucked that much and due to being aware of that i couldn't bother replaying the game, but... no, i even knew i still had ariamis to do first, but i just grew bored due to how clunky the game was compared to other ones, due to how obtusely long and repetitive those two fights were if you didn't have a high enough dps build, how boring and tedious their runback was, making every retry's runback last at least 2 minutes when accounting for loading times, that at point, it had just lost me. 5 tries felt like 30 in those other games.
@@iota-09 i definitely agree about DS1, the only reason I think I did so much in it was because I knew beforehand the route to Quelana for dumping money into the flame and then basically just using Chaos Fireball and Great Combustion on everything and hoping I killed stuff before needing to roll too much. I never actually did the DLC in DSR and I have in every other game, I think DS1/R are okay games but I largely just wanted to beat it to say I did. If I had to play one of them again it'd either be DS2 since I just really like Majula
I'm very new to monster hunter and I love it. I'm playing Worlds right now. I had played quite a lot of souls games before and honestly it feels so different. At first I would try to stay close to the monsters and i-frame their attacks as you would in a souls game, but the combat really clicked when I understood that I had to take my time more. Take my time to recuperate, position myself in a position where I can punish effectively, and understanding better how to use the terrain to mount the monster, the slinger, the mantles etc. Even crafting new items mid-hunt. It's so rewarding.
One of the appeals of MH combat for me is the sheer spectacle of it. The way the combat flows and progresses allows you to spectate your own battle and appreciate the coolness that is happening onscreen. Most of the weapons have an “ultimate move” feature of this nature. It’s a move that usually takes at least 1 or 2 seconds to finish, during which time you have no input capacity, and they have recovery for maybe another second more. Three whole seconds in which you can’t do anything but watch the aftermath of your prep and combat inputs. This stresses some people. It relaxes me. It comforts me to know that once I’ve keyed in the input, there is absolutely nothing further to do until I regain control. And if that input staggers, KOs, or part breaks a monster? Even better. That’s the shit.
Awesome video, Rat! I too am in the camp of “hated it until I loved it” it’s a very common story in the community it seems. I hope people that found this channel through Elden Ring realize they might love Monster Hunter as well, a lot of knowledge can actually pass over between games despite their many differences.
@@HenshinFanatic I started with 3 Ultimate myself, and I mean it did go uphill from there. I think I was the only one in my group who didn't utterly hate water combat because I played Light Bowgun.
@@dominiccasts I preferred how swimming worked in Tri, couldn't adjust to 3U's underwater movement due to muscle memory. It was fine, but then I mained Swag Axe ASAP.
I remember playing MH: World (my first MH) and it felt like culture shock by the fact that you can't attack while moving (using melee) since I came from a very hack-and-slashy kind of playstyle, and that yes, it is a very high-commitment sort of combat compared to a lot of hack and slash games. I almost wanted to close the game immediately because "wtf this feels so clunky", and I did, but I immediately came back because of the reason that I already paid for it a month before and I can't get a refund lmao. Long story short I now have 900+ hours on MH: World and about 300+ hours on MH: Rise
I feel like dual blades is a great gateway into getting into MH as someone more used to playing hack and slash games. I'm still struggling to clear crimson glow valstrax and some of the apex monsters with more committal weapons but I find dual blades playstyle of constantly attacking the monster and using counter or the A attack to reposition more comfortable. Ideally I want to be able to fight fast and aggressive monsters with these slower weapons but it just feels so clunky to me rn
I'm ok with the combat being slow but what I'm not ok is the arbitrary delay some actions have, For example, after I sheath my weapon, it takes around 1 second before I can pick stuff up.
I feel like my experiences were kind of different. I saw my brother playing world on his Xbox and figured I’d give monster Hunter a try on switch, with GU which had just recently released at that point. I wasn’t amazing at the combat but I managed and got to around 4 star or 5 star, but then dropped the game. Eventually after a couple years passed I picked up GU again and went all the way to Ahtal Ka and now I own GU, Rise, and 4U
Longsword: *looks at an Apex Diablos charging at full speed* “Oh look, here’s a big opening!” I say that as someone who frequently uses said charge as an opening to dish out some good damage via Iai Spirit Slash lol
I went to Monster Hunter World from playing solely Dark Souls 1-3 since getting my pc at the time. I think the mindset for monster hunter's combat is completely different in terms of how it plays out. You REALLY need to watch guides to understand how it works. Took me a while to know foresight slash can be aimed towards the attack to get a free counter. I think the major difference is Souls series is more of mastering the boss' moveset with maybe 10% of how to use weapons. Mastering Monster Hunter is more of mastering your weapon and your "options" in given situations (Countering, blocking, timing) since it's more of a combo based combat.
I don't think it's that souls is MORE of mastering the bosses movesets, I think they're just complete opposites in the way they handle boss fights and combat. In MH you master the weapon first and then the monsters second and that's where you truly get good, whereas souls you master the bosses first and then your weapon and that's where you get truly good in soulslikes. You definitely still have to learn the ins and outs of a bosses moveset in MH, but if you don't know your weapon then you're not gonna learn the monster.
@@temphy oh yea, gotta agree. I believe if you're a fan of one of the game you'll fall in love with the other fasho. But depends on whether you play souls for lore or otherwise
One thing that I think is often overlooked by folks that consider gameplay as the be-all-end-all determinant of a games worth is the value of aesthetics and setting in "getting you over the hump" and allowing you to really commit to a game. Monster Hunter is the perfect example of that idea for me. I got on the MH wagon in the first game, and if you think MH is rough to pick up now, oh boy. But I was so bought into the *idea* of Monster Hunter, the fantasy that it presented in those first cinematic trailers, that nothing would stop me from playing it. It's something I think about often when I hear about how difficult the series is to get into for people.
That's funny, because I've always hated the aesthetics of MH and only love it purely based on the game mechanics. The whole concept of a game that's just a series of boss battles and a varied set of deeply rewarding combat mechanics to tackle them with is perfect. All the anime-esque feel I have to just block out of my head, though the game levels and monsters themselves are fine
@@SepticFuddyI'm a weeb and I've never once thought of MH as being "anime-esque" feeling. Everything about it from the weapons, armor, hubs, levels, monsters, etc. feels deeply rooted in a medieval fantasy setting for me. The only thing I guess you could say is "anime-esque" is the story, characters, and dialogue but 1) no one plays monster hunter for those reasons and 2) that's just Japanese style of writing, not "anime-esque". You don't hate "anime-esque" stuff, you hate Japanese-esque stuff and that's bc you correlate everything Japanese with anime. That's not a very healthy mindset
@@temphy Wow somebody's mad. Giant weapons nobody could ever possibly wield, impossible spiky haircuts, awkward over-emoting, katana draw counters, glaive aerial attacks... definitely not anime-esque. You may be a connoisseur and prone to focusing on the distinction between explicitly anime and non-anime Japanese media. I'm an outsider turned off by many of the same aesthetic factors that turn me off to anime. Yet, I still play and very much enjoy the series. I even main IG while referring to my own aerials as "anime bullshit" like everyone elsedoes, and LS looks fun too. You're right, you don't play MH for the story (which I've always said myself), you play for the complex mechanics and brutal yet fair challenge with a very high skill ceiling. I had to look past a lot of goofiness to enjoy the MGS series, too, which is actually what pointed me over to MH. I even learned to embrace some of Kojima's madness along the way. Seems like a pretty healthy approach to me. I still don't have to like the anime-adjacent aesthetic elements that come with it because some internet weeb said so. Thankfully, after Rise cranking it up to 11, Wilds appears to be more grounded and "realistic"/"western" than ever. Looks way more aesthetically appealing so far, especially on the character front. So I'll keep enjoying the game while you keep working yourself up over some random guy on the internet not liking the same flavors you do.
Interesting.. I have a different perspective on this matter. Me and most of the people I know had a problem with the gameplay loop, not exactly the combat itself. Especially in "post Dark Souls" gaming, the combat is an easy sell IMO. But selling the concept of the game is a whole different story. "Well it's a game with barely any story in it, where you mostly kill monsters to make stronger weapons and armor to kill more monsters and that's it." Most people I know didn't get the point of doing all this, and the way I see it, that's the biggest entry barrier. I believe it's not the combat that "clicks", but the core loop.
That’s the part i really enjoy about monster hunter, there are no distractions from the meat of the game. It’s a pure video game, I get to boot up mhgu with my friends, hop into an insane hunt where we just barely scrape it out alive, and then afterwords we’ve got a wild story about a hyper deviljho hunt that nearly wiped us. The stories come from playing the game instead of from any hackneyed pretentious “hollywood” cinematic tripe. Id rather be playing a game than watching a movie about a character i don’t relate to doing things i’m can’t interacting with, that’s the opposite of video games to me. Not that narrative doesn’t have a place in games, mind you. It’s just in most cases it dramatically distracts from the gameplay experience instead of enhancing it. I dont understand how the intrinsic motivating factors of Monster Hunter’s gameplay loop are a problem. the game presents you with a challenge, slay its monsters and conquer the game. That should be more than enough I think. SIDENOTE: Not to say monster hunter games don’t have stories. I just don’t ever pay attention to them, they’re not why i’m playing. I’ve got my own stories of wild hunts that have happened and that’s what is important to me. MHW tried to cater to the cutscene gamer and it failed miserably and is the soul reason i’m probably never going to play that game (holy shit it takes four hours before you get to actually start hunting for real)
@@ElvenSonic i mean, if you're looking for a purely arcade reason to play, something sure, but that ain't what everyone always looks for in the game. like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, i'm still intrigued by the buildmaking, characters, cutscenes, the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined endgoal. fighting for fighting sake... i mean, it's not like i don't understand the fun in that, having played online fps games for years i kinda get it, but it's just not something i'm looking for anymore, and the idea of an sp game without an end goal never intrigued me, i'm the kinda guy who stops playing pokemon after the league/barely visiting the post-league content, the kinda guy who just doesn't understand the appeal of mmos, and the guy whooplays fighting games for the campaign mode while completely ignoring time attack and online. so yeah, i dunno, i just don't get the appeal of it, unless you're with friends of course, but it's not like i'd have friends to play with when i've never played it myself in the first place.
@@ElvenSonic i disagree, everything in monster hunter is a distraction from the meat of the game. Optimally monster hunter would just be walking into a boss room with just a blacksmith for prep. Instead you have dozens of npcs and tutorial dialogue and some weird ass cat ranch and collecting plants, tracking poop. And you have no fucking idea how any of it works or why you should care.
@@iota-09 “like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, im still intrigued by the buildmaking, -characters, cutscenes,- the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined end goal” Bam! you just described the appeal you should have playing monster hunter. Dumbing down what I said to “fighting for fighting’s sake” would be like saying you’ve been playing souls games for the same reason. EDIT: Also there’s an irony here in that most normal people that play souls games totally ignore the story and characters and are just playing because the game is hard and the combat is fun. Especially with Elden Ring where a bunch of important dialogue wasn’t put in the game or was poorly translated and didn’t make any sense. Tbh that’s probably why souls games tend to be a good jumping off point
Another thing you should mention is how little it really holds your hand when you choose your weapon. Yes it gives you a guide to key moves like Iai Slash or Amplified Elemental Discharge, but it doesn’t have the more complex moves like (no longer in Rise) Power Saw morph on the Charge Blade or fast Phial Reload technique on the Switch Axe. It’s dense in information for the basics but after that there’s still much to learn that the game will never tell you unless you use the training grounds or look up a tutorial video
bruh i switched to pc out of necessity, and i couldnt find any guides with keyboard, and now i cant learn anything because of how ass the weapon tutorials are like i picked up the gun lance, and it shoots out this knife thing? IT DOESN'T SAY THAT IN THE TUTORIAL, or what the cd is on the wyrm thingy etc, its just annoying, fun game still
@@evianwyner8280Ahh the kbm MH struggle. Looking for a tutorial on a combo/move and the tutorial just says "press X+A". I had to painstakingly look for a guide that actually lists all controls, but goddamn will I continue to refuse to use controller. KBM all the way baby Look at Game8 guides. They actually list every control input instead of just controller.
@evianwyner8280 bruh going through this rn , you'll find a few guides but it's not enough and this game is litered with speed junkies and charge mains, on many occasions my hands gets tired of how much bottons I'm pressing then took a big hit as soon as I rest it for a split second.
I dropped it when I tried Monster Hunter 1 but God almighty those controls were jank beyond jank. Came back to the series years later with World then went on to play GU, 3U, 4U and Rise. I now love this series so much, easily one of my favorite game series of all time.
The best part of MH combat is how it's a perfect combination between Action and RPG. The armor skills and weapons *WILL* change your playstyle. Some weapons are slower, some are faster, some even requires a specific armor skills to enhanced it's gameplay (like Focus, Quick Sheath and Rapid Morph), some forces you to go ham unga bunga, some will forces you to hold and perfect timed all attacks. There're also many approach to combats, like ailment build, pure raw build, KO build, elemental build, etc
And when you master the game, you can 100% unga bunga while dodging all the monsters' attacks. Odogaron is the first monster that I managed to do that to, using the Greatsword.
This is an exact description I use to sell my buddies on monster hunter! Every weapon is its own character and it's a matter of learning its nuances. It took me some time but learning how to compensate for the immobility of the Switch Axe from MHWORLD felt amazing. This game leaves you with such satisfaction over each step of comprehension of your weapon.
I started with World and I feel like it took me until the end of story mode (shara) before I actually clicked with the combat. It wasn't too bad before and i did just fine spamming basically 3 moves which is boring, but gets the job done. The feeling when I finally "gets it" is priceless. It's like being freed from a shackle. God I love this game so much.
When it comes to the point where I managed to git gud as the souls fan would say, I’d say that it was actually Alatreon in MHW, sure I was competent at the game at the time but I was by no means an expert, that changed with Alatreon, I fought it day 1, so no one could carry me through it, as a result; I needed to pull my own weight and not rely entirely on someone else’s skill I eventually managed to beat him after several days (with another players help) after that I started trying to get better at hunting him… Originally my “best” time was 30 minutes with a Palico, now my best time is 11 minutes solo! So yeah, despite the controversy he brought, MHW Alatreon holds a special place in my heart, alongside MHW Fatalis!
@@alexedwards5152 Big Al gets me from the metaphorical slumping position to sitting straight. Before him the monsters are highly challenging at most but I won't say they're all that difficult especially compared to souls games. When Alatreon dropped for the first time i got so exhilarated as the community scrambles on figuring out how to beat him while a good portion screamed and sobs uncontrollably. I was obsessed for the entire day, trying different stuff and failed, discussing tactics and builds on reddit, watching those who made it on tube just to learn what's possible. It was the first mon that got me thinking "this is impossible" that i commonly experience in souls games. For the first time I actually paid attention to the many facets of the game i never needed to before like the canteen food buff. I literally climb mountains to get that one last ingredient for the skill i need. It felt like a training montage of Rocky. And finally, I painstakingly managed to beat it on the second day solo, with a blast hammer the community said is impossible to beat it with to boot. And damn does it feels good. And yep, he got a special place in my heart as well. Fatalis kicked my ass harder but Alatreon was my "training partner" every single day we wait in anticipation for Fatty to drop. And it's funny how hard both myself and the alatreon (1/5 hp) got our assess kicked by Fatalis when it finally happened. Rare gaming moment I tell ya.
idk im trying world right now and the controlls feel clunky. not like dark souls clunky just. nothing feels good to press. the systems are weird and the monsters either consistently attack you or do nothing. wish i hadnt bought it at this point
I'm a longsword main users and the skill shown off in this video is beautiful, I really have to practise my timing and dodges more. One because it looks flawless and two, for the constant dps. I feel like I've let the longsword down, haha 😄
I seem to be one of the few "MH Vets" who loved the game upon playing it for the first time ever. Thank you, MH3U demo, for my love of this incredible series!
Its scary how true wat u said at the start of the vid was. I remember starting this series during mhfu. I couldn’t even kill a dam velociprey or a dam bullfango cuz i didnt get the combat style. Finally a buddy of mine found out I had it and started playing with me during lunch time to carry me and teach me things. After getting the combat down it was smooth sailing after that cuz i was hook. I came back this year since i saw this game on sales on steam. Boy it did not disappoint.
This has been the most surprising game I've ever gotten into. I don't consider myself much of a gamer and tend to hate bossfights of any sort. However my husband and his cousins are all really into it and I wanted to give it a chance so I could play with them. I was gifted MHW + Iceborn and that gift has changed my life lol. Decided to go with HBG cause I'm not good with close combat. It has been extremely overwhelming and THE most challenging game I've ever played, and also some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Even started doing more solo play recently now that I'm more confident with the controls. I'm so glad I went in with an open mind and LOTS of patience, easily one of my top 5 series ever now!
My first experience with Monster Hunter was MHW and while I did not put down the game because of how the combat feels to a new player it definitely took time for it to click with me. Most of my experience with action combat was with the DMC series and that probably influenced my initial weapon choice, the switch axe. I absolutely hated it, I couldn't wrap my mind why I couldn't change the angle of my attacks within a combo and constantly had to reposition and restart combos. I played most of low rank with dual blades since it felt to me at that point acceptably fast but I kept trying out every weapon to try and understand their strengths and how to enjoy them. I discovered how effective shields can be in a game where making effective use of i-frames is much harder than most and played the lance mostly through high rank. Once I reached end game I was getting bored of the lance, it had the defensive ability I wanted but it lacked the cool and flashy aspects that initially attracted me to the switch axe. Then I was properly introduced to the gunlance by Rurikhan and never looked back.
I first played Generations Ultimate after a friend dragged me into it, so I did have someone to help me out and show me the ropes, but holy shit did I hate parts of it. I loved the amount of maps (although I thought it was a bit weird they were sectioned off) and monsters, but the movement was rough as hell to me. Being slow as shit, having to align myself for an attack constantly, being frozen in place and unable to cancel or move direction after starting an attack, stopping in place when healing and then flexing and not being able to dodge at all during any of it, having to constantly re-align the camera because I lost sight of the monster, trying to mount but often failing because of the clunky system around it, being unable to predict what a monster was going to do because of its poorly telegraphed attacks. It felt like I wasn't fighting the monster but the movement instead, and made the difficulty feel more unfair than challenging. There were other things too, like not being able to eat or stock up on potions if you forgot to before starting a quest, or the complexity of making a build, especially because back then the weapon tree was kinda hidden and you didn't know what direction you were going in. I never ended up making a build, I just got the the full armor of the monster that gave me the most defense, got the sword with the most attack I had access to, and reluctantly played with my friend until we defeated Ahtal-Ka, ignoring almost everything aside from the essential quests (which I had to look up because the were invisible too) and the urgent quests. I was kind of done with Monster Hunter after that, just thought it was some weird, clunky series that's just too hard to get into like my friend. Only once the Rise demo released and after ALOT of convincing from my friend, I tried it again. And I loved it. That Mizutsune fight in the demo was amazing, it felt like for the first time, I didn't have to memorize the attack patterns of a monster and could just rely on my instinct, even more so now because I could rely on my movement to do what I wanted it too. Fast movement, being able to cancel attacks, being able to change direction, being able to lock on, being able to walk while healing AND cancel, having faster traversal with palamutes, the map being open with no loading screens, the monster clearly telegraphing its moves so I could react even without consciously analyzing stuff, mounting being understandable. I bought and played through World right after this, and then played through Rise when that came out too. The builds were also more comprehensible, and I really got into making my own builds to suit my own playstyle, also now if I forget to eat or take supplies with me I can always restock, and eating buffs are way more comprehensible now too. I know alot of people don't like the direction of modern Monster Hunter, but to me it's exactly what I needed to get into the series. Every problem I had with old Monster Hunter has been addressed and I can now actually enjoy everything else the series has to offer, so yeah, I think we're moving in the right direction.
Dude that's crazy cause that intro example was me too. I started, struggled through the main game, and gave up. Now I'm replaying it and having a great time! I switch between longsword, bow, and glaive. I just finished the base game again and now I'm getting ready for the dlc.
My main issue with MH has always been how terrible the camera feels. Sometimes, I move the camera and it moves where I attack. Sometimes, I move the camera and it does fuck all. Another gripe is that with greatsword, if you roll and start charging, you hit where your camera is facing. If you charge, attack, roll, and then charge, you attack in the direction of the first attack, even though your character fully turned around to roll, and your camera is facing the opposite direction! Anyways I've played for 200 hours now over the past 3 months
idk if it's just me but i really love pre mhworld combat (more specifically fu-mhgu) although the combat still remains in the new gen monster hunter (which i love very much), there's something about it that makes it somewhat difficult to control what i want to do. whenever im speedrunning, i find it difficult to understand what the monster could do next as i focus more on how i can optimize and utilize the most efficient combo with my weapon. i think i was starting to go on a rant but overall, great video!
For me it's the exact opposite. Played 3u then 4u then world and rise and when I went back to play gu I was frustrated with how unresponsive certain things are. Mainly directional inputs. You can't change the way you are facing mid combo and if you roll the first frame out of a combo it's always a roll forward.
Wooo MH content is back. I never experienced this, because I was lucky enough to have a mentor. One out of the group of three I am part of, that always plays MH together, taught me and the other guy how to play in a basic way, and then we learned the rest together.
So i tried it at launch, because people talked highly of it. i quit immediatly. i tried it next in 2022 same result. then finally here today in 2024, i gave it a shot more, tried to ignore the absolutely atrocious combat. then it all ran down to the encounter. step 1. find creature step 2. fight it for 5 min step 3. it flees step 4. repeat step 1, 2. and 3. 8 times step 5. ??? step 6. Profit? jesus christ, i can not for the life of me figure out how people like this game.
You aren't aggressive enough / doing enough damage and that's why the monster is running away. You can pretty much lock the monster into fighting you if your DPS is high enough
My first was World. I felt incredibly overwhelmed by how dense the game is, but I realized the combat could be very deep shortly into my play. I love it
I saw my friend playing MHF2 back in 2007 and the game immediately appealed to me. The PSP was the first gaming console I ever really wanted. I've have been playing the series ever since. I introduced my little brother to MHW and he got interested in the series. Soon after that, he bought MHFU for his iPad and loved it as much as I did.
Mind you there's still animation cancels in Monster Hunter, so a huge commitment like a charged slash from a greatsword can still be safe if the monster turns around to attack. A short moment after the slam, you can roll out of that part of the animation. And for lighter weapons, you can roll out of almost any attack, or use weapon attack s to dodge as well.
Hey, I just wanted to say that a while back I picked up Iceborne and while I recognized it was "good" game, at the time I was really in the mood for something with a compelling story, and I put it down (not to mention being a total noob and ruining my early experience with Defender gear - it's cheap to craft and really good! Doh!) I came back to it last week after watching your video and I've been having a blast. This game has probably the most depth in the combat of any game I've ever played. Such an addictive core gameplay loop, for people who like an immersive challenge. Thanks Ratatoskr!
Hey man, I wanted to thank you because of this vid. I love ur channel in general but this video was exactly what I needed. I bought Monster Hunter Rise around December of last year or January of this one but I simply wasn't enjoying it even tough I have previously enjoyed monster hunter with World. I simply took to much time off the franchise and forgot about everything and relearning it... Well it kinda sucks. Just the day this video went public I was thinking, "damn, MH rise is gonna get a DLC and I haven't even finished the main story I should try to play it" then BOOM the notification appears and you said just what I needed to hear. I'm not exactly the best MH player, I'm kinda new to it (got into it with World, haven't played since Iceborn came out) but thanks to this video I got the motivation I needed. I'm maining Sword and Shield and learning to play charged axe(?) My main language is Spanish so I don't know the English names soooo yeah, I'm kind screwed haha. That one chainsaw axe, that's the one. I'm still learning lots of things and having quite the fun time with your Aerial Insect Glaive video right now haha. And that's it, sorry if this is hard to read, as I said before my main language is Spanish. Hope you have a good day and thanks you very much, for real. I'm loving this game once and for all thanks to you My wallet kinda hates it though LOL
Just started playing World and it's my first MH, between my first few hours of the game and this video, I'm getting the sense that this is going to be a similar experience to Nioh once I fully get sucked into it.
Another thing I often see is how people who play monster hunter strongly urge other people to also play it. It a very interesting group of MH phenomenons.
thanks for this video I need more motivation, still in the hate phase after playing it for my first time, I gave it a chance for the combat but the tutorials, the hub and the UI are so hard to digest to me
I couldn't the game is just not for me, or that's what I thought, coming back since a friend gave me the DLC for MHW and I forced myself to get in once again, with a few tweaks like removing the minimap and playing alone for a while I'm hooked, like dangerously hooked, and just in time for a comeback from the community? how convenient, there are things I still don't like but man, I wish I have tried again before
It really is amazing just how many people have that experience with MH. I started with 3U, and got about 15-20ish hours in before giving up. Everything felt too slow for me, and I absolutely hated underwater combat. Cut to a year or so later, I try out 4U, since it removed underwater combat and the new mounting mechanics interested me. 4U is now probably my favourite game of all time, and I’ve played every MH game since.
My first experience with MH was in World with one of my best friends. He talked me into getting it and playing with him. Unfortunately he had been playing MH for a long time and was steamrolling through our playthrough. I stopped half way through. A few months later we decided to try again and he agreed to not steamroll and give me a chance to fully get into it. We got about 70% done and he stopped play, but I enjoyed it enough to finish. I didn’t play Iceborne because I was still one the fence about the series, but when Rise came out I picked it up and fell in love. I was kinda in a weird place where I didn’t enjoy gaming as much but Rise changed that completely. I got so invested. I wanted to be better, so that was I did. Rise has become one of my favorite games of all time and Sunbreak has been such a joy to play!
One thing I've learned is that it's definitely not for everybody. You can't force people to like it. I have a friend and he gave it an honest go, a real honest go, put well over four hundred hours into World, and it just never clicked. In hindsight it doesn't surprise me--he hides behind a shield in the Souls series, he button mashes in fighting games; he's not of the mindset to appreciate the entire "high commitment" movement concept you outlined. He's told me more than a few times the entire idea of 'animation lock' as he calls it has him screaming in frustrated rage and nearly breaking his controller when he plays Monster Hunter (things like drinking potions, stun, etc.) and is what ultimately caused him to quit. He played longsword and I watched him play and he never even thought to use any of the counter abilities or anything so he was a perennial novice. He was alright for the most part but when Iceborne came along he got absolutely cratered. I felt real bad for him. All of his other friends were breezing through the content and he couldn't even hope to keep up. The reason I wrote all that is because I guarantee you there are tons of players just like him. For every one of us who gels with the game there's going to be someone who runs into it like a brick wall because they just completely don't understand its design and never will because they don't like what it's going for. I've learned you can't push these games on these people. It's not fair to them.
I’ve only put about 30 hours into MHW so take this with a grain of salt- I’m someone who hates using shields in souls but I still don’t click with monster hunter. It has less to do with the pace of combat and more the feeling that I’m just whacking a massive health bar for a while, chasing, then whacking some more. I miss the feeling of my smart, well timed attacks feeling like they’re accomplishing something in the overall flow of the fight! I dunno if that feeling changes as you go on or if I’m just missing something. Curious to hear people’s thoughts
@@tay590For low to some high rank quests the monsters are generally easy but late high rank and G Rank monsters FORCE you to dodge correctly and time your attacks. Trust me lmao
@@tay590 what weapon are you using? If you want that feeling of a perfectly timed attack in the perfect position, play big weapons that have high commitment and big damage like greatsword and charge blade. With light weapons like dual blades, it will feel more like you're just tickling the monster to death.
Honestly this is me, I like the aesthetic and lore of the game but the combat is so stiff and the animation lock is infuriating and makes the game borderline unplayable imo. And I’m mostly a fighting game player
How did he put in 400 hours without enjoying it or learning the game’s systems? I accept not liking the game, but what you’re describing sounds like he wasn’t playing the same game at all. And from what you’ve mentioned about button mashing in fighting games, it also seems like he refuses to learn any system that requires a modicum of effort from the player. It’s almost like saying you don’t enjoy chess, when all you’ve done is play checkers with the chess pieces. Again, 100% understand that he might not like either type of game and he isn’t obligated to put in effort just for a game, but it just seems a little silly when he can’t grasp the basics.
While i did find the combat of MH frustrating at times when i started, or when i started to play new weapons, i've always been able to link it to my own mistakes, and so figure that it would get better as i grow better. I raged a whole lot at my own mistakes, but in the end what this feeling of frustration did for me was not push me away from the game, but make me thrive to get better What i love about MH is how well it makes you subconciously learn a monster moveset so you can react to its telegraphs in the short time needed to find openings. I dont count the number of times where i pulled up to a new encounter fully prepared just to get utterly destroyed and thought to myself "man, this is impossible". Only to grind the matchup a few times and find myself reacting to the telegraphs instinctinctively. The encounter designs are so good you passively learn the movesets, and it feels extremelly rewarding to feel the progress as you play
Honestly, none of this really addresses the main pain points I had with monster hunter the first few times I tried it; for me, the lack of proper lock on and enemy relative movement, combined with how high commitment each attack is, lead to me frequently having a lot of trouble actually swinging towards the enemy or dodging in the direction I actually wanted to. It felt very hard to get my character to actually do what I wanted them to do on the most basic level.
For me, monster hunter went from a game where I didn't know if I liked it or not (a demo on the 3ds) to being my favorite series of games. The combat is amazing, the concept is cool, and it just hits everything right for me. Going back and playing the older games, I normally don't like slow gameplay/fights, but monster hunter did it perfectly and I love it! It took me a while to learn it, but it was fun in the process. Learning how to know a monsters openings, and using whichever weapon you choose, to get in those openings is an amazing experience. And I won't lie, I already loved the games, but fatalis in monster hunter world is what firmly secured this series as my favorite. Have to get good enough to beat it and then eventually overcoming it, it was legitimately an amazing experience.
I think a barrier for entry “especially in the old games” is not only the weapons but also the monsters, environments, and random mechanics “key quests, drinks, food, etc.”.
I've played Monster Hunter for many many years now and I think of the combat as dancing. You have your dance moves and the monsters have theirs. Whenever I struggle with a new monster I break away from combat and just study how it moves while I just dodge. After a while I find openings where I can get 1-3 hits in without taking damage. As the battle continues I find more and more openings and feel comfortable taking more agressive risks. I'm not saying this is the best way to do it but it is what works best for me. As for learning your weapon I usually watch a few youtube tutorials and read a little bit in the in-game hunters notes. The hardest part is building muscle memory. No matter how much you read and watch other people playing you will never feel 100% in sync with your weapon until 20-100 hunts. It will take time and it varies from player to player.
For the fresh hunters who never played any monster hunter before, do not be overwhelmed. I started playing MH Freedom Unite back in the 2010s in my PsP with my friends and we never really learned through tutorials and there were no youtube guides back then, mostly gamefaqs. Now, I am trying to finish MH Generations Ultimate currently HR2 and just started 1 week ago. I still don't know the different mechanics of the game even 30 hours of playtime in. For the newer games I haven't tried yet, but are looking forward to play new world mh games. The game is made to be explored, be curious, learn the monsters, learn the weapons and enjoy the adventure. This isn't a story driven game where you follow a protagonist on their story. Monster hunter is about two things. The Monsters and the Hunters (YOU). Don't rush the game and take your time. Happy Hunting!
Thanks Rata, I literally just had a friend try out the Sunbreak demo who gave up on it after a couple hunts because it didn’t click with him. I’ll send him this video and see if he’ll give it some more time :D
Tell him that the demos really... don't show you what the GAME is like. Rise (and World and 4U) does a very good job at EASING you into the game and teaching you its mechanics. The demo doesn't really get that across, its JUST the action and that really isn't what MH is.
i think it took me and my friend (who played together) about 3-4 times of leaving and rejoining monster hunter for it to really click, now we can easily beat hunts we once thought near impossible (mostly elder dragons)
I always described MH combat as a series of phases. The tell which is the wind up (animation before an attack) to an attack which tells you which attack combo they'll do, The attack which is the duration of damage frames you need to avoid and, The follow up which is the variable down time in which you get to attack. There's a pattern to follow you watch for the tell avoid the attack and position yourself for the follow up then get back to watch for the next tell.
Example at the beginning is what I'm literally going through right now. Except in my case this is about my 6th time trying and after killing Anjanath yesterday, I think it's finally clicked. Turns out i just needed to try out the heavy bowgun
I was one who got into the game with world, I was obsessed with Elden ring and its combat and I was trying to find games to match that experience and I found this and it was like it was MADE for me! It’s so perfect I’m going through and playing all the older gens and I’m having SO much fun I’ve loved world and rise and I’m playing 4U rn and it’s SO good (I’m using switch axe it’s so good in 4U) this combat style just feel absolutely perfect infact it almost feels like devil may cry with all the combos 😭
My problem with this game is this: you charge up a massive attack and it almpst hits, but the enemy sneezes at you and the attack/combo completely cancels. The other verry annoying thing is: there is no way to cancel an attack even if you spam evade, there is no quick cancel/evade cancel. So you are just stuck watching your animation untill you get hit. Thats not combat btw. Its a glorified animation player that has effects when you hit something.
I used to feel the same way, but what you're describing is what makes the games combat so rewarding. There are plenty of other games available to play with animation canceling and button mashing
im sorry but the problem wouldnt be there if charge blade its animations didnt take 5 seconds per hit. You know what im talking about. The combat feels sluggish and unrewarding. You are just praying when you unleash the full charge elemental attack the monster doesnt fart at you beceause the charge up attack is taking too long.
@@bravingbrivatebrian what im doing is not button mashing. Im trying to build up combos. But when charizard decides to rotate itself towards your palicoe and it softly touches you with its tail your whole combo gets canceled. And why cant you cancel attacks? This is literally the only game i know that doesnt have it. Can you imagine cutting vegetables but your finger is in the way and you just HAVE to commit into cutting your finger? Its stupid and its an outdated combat system thats sticking around for way too long.
Also, if you're especially averse to the very high commitment to attacks in this series, try out Dual Blades. They're pretty much the exception to this rule, and they let you dodge out of nearly anything.
I played MHFU as a kid. After the first few bosses i was actually scared of fighting the tougher ones and I got stuck at tigrex for years, only farming low level stuff and running around training palicos. Untill a friend told me that i needed earplugs and a cheese spot in the mountains that I was able to beat it. That feeling of overcoming an almost impossible challenge, with the game not making it any easier, just adapting with the tools at your disposal is what makes MH so satisfying to me.
My friend passed me the controller while he was playing MHW, and I was so overwhelmed in less than 2 mins. I bought MHR, picked up SnS and just became obsessed
You know, I was thinking to myself just earlier today "gee, I've tried MonHun a few times, but every time I have I've bounced off of it; I wonder if Ratatoskr might have any thoughts on the subject" and here you go, scooping the idea right out of my skull and answering the question I hadn't even had the chance to ask. At present, I don't have the money (or disk space) for MonHun, but tons of my online friends play it, so I really want to get into it too. Maybe, when I've got a new external drive and the extra cash, I'll give the game another shot.
Just starting the video so maybe you address this. But my biggest issue with mh has always been how frequently you get tossed around. It makes sense logically considering how big the monsters often are but christ if it isn't irritating. It's not even how hard or easy the combat is in a given scenario really. Just constantly getting hit when you try to do anything against a given monster. Some are worse than others but they really all have the issue to some extent. It always felt in mhw like I spent 50% of the time getting knocked on my ass 10% actually attacking/dodging and 40% sharpening my weapon (and let's not discuss how sharpening a blunt weapon makes no sense) 😂
Thats the point. You got tossed so much cuz u havent learn the monsters your weapon, timing and overall Flow. Thats why its so satysfining to learn the combat. Once you learn it you hardly get hit and you will feel like badass. Without dark there is no light. Without hard work there is no thst big satisfaction. Just keep playing. Try to learn one weapon and be patient in fight. Dont mash buttons. You rly need to wait for openings. Also sharpening in mh makes sense. The game has so much weapons and its rpg so you need to balance this in some way. Take these 2 weapons for example. Nargacuga has always weapon that has low raw dmg, huge afinity, 40% (and it has (in high rank) white sharpness. Then you have something like ninja sword in rise it has 100% afinity and better raw dmg then nargacuga ones so how to balance that? You give the ninja sword big Green sharpness wichs is weaker than white. Sharpness is increesing your weapon dmg Green is 100% blue 110% i think white 115 or 120% im not sure but you get the point. Sharpness is here to help balance weapons. Ninja sword has such a huge Green sharpness that you will never need to sharpen it in hunt but you get lower collor so your dmg output is not that hig also with Green sharpness your weapon cna bounc of hardest part of the monster. Narcagua weapon has white sharpness so it deals more dmg but you need to sharpen it more frenquently.
@@lumicka6046 I appreciate the advice 🙂, couple things though, I would never claim to be great at mh games by any means but I managed to get through mhw relatively easily. The only monsters I never got past were alatreon and fatalis. I admit my dodging was never my strong suit but it always feels like the smallest things stagger you're character. One of my most hated fights was that one dragon that generated tornadoes because I constantly felt like I could barely move much less get an attack off. As for the sharpening I do get it to a certain extent but it always seemed a tad excessive how frequently one needs to do it, particularly early game when most weapons have far less bar and require much more sharpening. It also doesn't explain why sharpening a blunt weapon is necessary. From a gameplay standpoint I get it and you want the weapons to have a relatively uniform system. It's just pretty odd when one thinks about it and makes me chuckle 😂.
@@Jackraiden500 Tremor was really bad in World specifically, so that's probably part of why you got knocked on your ass so much. Roars too, kept you immobilized SO long.
I remember playing MH 1 on the playstation 2 and when I first finally killed the Velocidrome and velociprey and made my new armour and weapon I felt like a bad ass at the time lol. The sheer satisfaction of getting each new peice of armour and weapons you are after really makes all the carts worth it.
a very well described video. I bounced off MHtri in my youth and tried it again with monster hunter generations on the 3ds, something clicked as soon as i found a weapon i liked, and then BAM, 2000 hours gone to varius monster hunter games lol. one of the few single player games i could just play and play and play and never feel bored
overall I think "flow" is the main difficult part for getting into old MH games, weapons don't seem to naturally flow from one attack to another. the new generation I think you're spot on bcos one every weapon flows now and two it's obviously the souls like game play party that's most difficult for average/casual/new players to get into. but for someone like most of us here, it's that very type of gameplay that draws us in and for me makes souls games and MH my favourite type of games.
in the old games they flow too, but its a much slower pace of game. as A APlayer u also know that push the right buttons to the right time to let the charackter dance. naturlay on a low scale graphical level of course. but in the core its the same.
@@Pok-qq9lt from my experience playing GU, they really don't flow like they do now. There's obviously going to be exceptions/outliers like gun Lance or greatsword, but for example my main weapon switch axe is a completely different beast in world to GU. I do have less to no experience with all other weapons in GU but from when I tried them all back before world even existed that was my biggest issue, being able to flow from one attack to another in a intuitive way that felt natural; for World & Rise/Sunbreak I'm able to pick up any weapon and use it at least well enough without practicing it's moves, naturally finding what moves works into another, GU I couldn't do that to save my life. You are right tho that there is a slower flow that more experienced players will know all the timing for but from my experience it's clear to me that the modern games just have a flow that's more natural compared to older games and my experience isn't that far back of a game, older games might be far worse so even more understandable for people. To finish off I will say this might be limited to a smaller scale of people than the whole, but it's still a issue I've at least faced so even if it's all relegated to a opinion level experience, this is my reason why.
My favourite story is the one where people come back to find they love MH, but it's also my bane. I have and will always champion monster hunter, but that story leads me to never lose hope that my friends will love it. How can you not love it? I always believe they just arent giving the game a chance, or not actively engaging with the game to the extent required. Whether they are or aren't I would always assume they haven't if they still dislike the series. Maybe on the next release of MH they will find their love, or maybe I'm insane trying to make pigs fly.
i'm most likely not giving it a chance, but when so many of its core lements EXCEPT the weapons variety is basically the opposite of what i like in gaming(and i'm a huge ds3, bloodborne and ds3 fan btw, if that can help give any context) then why should i? i hate timed missions, i hate long fights that take a ton of time to retry, i hate having to look up guides to know how what i'm using works and how i'm supposed to use it, i hate that the only goal in the game(the only worth one anyway) is "just get stronger" and so on, it's basically mmo mentality and i really can't connect with that, just cause i like the weapon moveset variety and the idea of learning the enemy's moves doesn't mean i'll like the game. i still won't consider it bad, it's just a different kind of game for different people.
@@iota-09 I never had to face the barrier to entry as an adult with lots of things pulling my interest, so its hard for me to relate perfectly. I personally really love the fights, challenge, and mastery of souls games and that is also what I like about monster hunter. In both games its the storyline I create with ups and downs, failures and victories. Sometimes I am fighting for my life against a boss barely squeezing out the win, and sometimes its facing an old foe with a new level of mastery or power. If you like that about the souls games then you will find that in monster hunter. The long fights I can understand, but I think its a matter of perspective. A monster in MH should take an average player about 15-20 minutes to complete with of level gear. If you are taking longer than you either need to get better at the fight or get better gear. A souls boss might take around 10 minutes for a player to beat in a specific attempt. It is longer for a monster hunter boss but not by leagues. The time spent failing the quest just is because a difference in game design, such that a monster hunter attempt can go on longer because generally you have more resources to drag out a single attempt. In souls if you are not good enough to beat a boss yet you tend to die and reset more frequently. The last point on the goal of the game being to get stronger I personally don't feel is the goal that is intended. My goal is first and foremost to progress to the next awesome boss and kill it. My secondary goal is to get new stuff so I can better beat the shit out of the next boss. As far as guides and having a lot to learn, I can't deny that. It's a long running series with a lot of systems in place. The best I can say is that you don't have to interact with every system all at once. The best I can give you is trying to share my perspective. The way I view most of my friends are that they would love it if they could some how view it with the child like patience and wonder that I had when I first played, because I know that a lot of the things they love about other games are shared with monster hunter.
This is some blasphemy that I wouldn't say if I didn't think it might help, but maybe try adding the UI mod to MH World, or MH Rise on PC if that's where you have played. It might help break down some walls in fights if losing long fights is an issue. It will give you a better idea of the progress you are making in a fight.
@@krycegames i've never had a fight in a souls game last 10 minutes... even in bloodborne which was my first souls, the longest it took me to beat the longest non-obviously extreme challenge boss was logarius at 9:45 minutes INCLUDING load times, runback and an excessively passive playstyle(you can actually see that video in my channel) so i'm not sure where you get the t10 minutes figure for souls bossfights, unless you're counting retries.... but, while sure, not all souls games are devoid of this, the issue for me isn't necessarily the total time spent on a fight, as much as the amount of time it takes to retry(fuck artorias's runback, it literally made me quit ds1 after just 5 tries of him even though i was able to try for 6 hours malenia) and the boss try itself, and between a 4-5 minutes fight and a 25 minutes fight there's a world of difference, especially when you got a timer looming on your head and you can't properly tell how much damage you've dealt to the enemy(if any, in the case you really are that bad at the game) so... yeah i genuinely might try the ui mod if i find myself playing mh on pc, just for the enemy healthbar honestly(that's something that annoyed me in resident evil games too actually, but in those cases i endured it due to their surival horror game nature; if you could tell how many hits you needed to kill a boss, you wouldn't be trying to be that much more accurate with your shots to not waste ammo...) but i doubt it's gonna make the game enjoyable for me, not enough to make me a fan at least as there's also hit feedback which mh has only and exclusively(aside from the random stagger every few years of combos/tail cut) in the form of hitstop and nothing else, the slowness of the weapons REGARDLESS of the fact they are like souls in terms of non cancelable animations, the lack of a sensible goal beyond just getting stronger like it was an mmo, etc etc...
Monster hunter is a funny game for me. I remember seeing the first trailer during some presentation and hearing people go nuts over a guy cooking meat on a rotisserie. At the time I thought, I guess this is a teaser for a game people really like, not my thing though. And I didn’t think of it again until I had a college roommate playing it and I saw him take on Zorah Magdaros. It’s kind of funny to think of that now, knowing what I know now about that fight. But a guy fighting a freaking massive Godzilla with a goddamn volcano on its back was so cool to me and it got me hooked. I bought world the same day and I’ve now put thousands of hours into it across Xbox and pc as well as into rise on switch and pc. I’ll admit the combat and movement felt very clunky when I first started but the desire to go fight volcanic Godzilla kept me going. I tried hunting Great Jagras with every single weapon until I found one that I liked(ended up being the insect glaive). I was so bad at the time I considered Tobi to be a minor wall and Anjanath carted me way more than I’d like to admit. But the gameplay loop of getting slapped by a monster until I finally took it down and made its ass into a hat was really fulfilling and I always wanted to know what new skills each armor set was going to bring me.
I won't say it clicked immediately but by the time you hit the first big wall (Monster Hunter World players will know who that is) I had a decent feel for it. It finally clicked during that first big fight though. That was when I swapped from insect glaive to charge blade and CB just made total sense to me.
Fun thing about monster hunter is that grabbing a new weapon is like beginning monster hunter combat all over again The weapon feels odd, it feels sluggish but eventually it clicks and you can enjoy the new weapon to its fullest
I tried the game after putting 250 hours into Elden Ring, and didn't like it because it felt too sluggish, like I couldn't ever do what I wanted to. So I think your assessment is accurate, but I'm still not convinced I should give it another shot.
Hey there (bodies of text incoming, but I urge you to read :'D) Yea as Rata said, mh combat is not the easiest to get into. Weapons are complicated to learn/master, and you have to combine that with learning the monster that you're facing. These 2 facets make it extremely difficult for someone who is starting out, and historically, the game doesn't do a good job at teaching you all the different combos and mechanics the weapon has to offer Since mh world, efforts were made towards giving you basic combat tutorials in the 'training area'. It doesn't show you everything, but it gives you a taste for the weapon As someone who started off HATING mh combat then later coming back and putting in nearly 2k hours across all the games, here's my advice: -If you're playing either world or rise, go to the training area AND DO NOT LEAVE until you've played around with ALL of the 14 weapons and found at least one you like - once you've found the weapon you like, IMMEDIATELY go onto RUclips and find a combat tutorial for that weapon for that game. I would recommend watching Arekkz Gaming, Gaijin Hunter and Rurikhan. Do the combos and moves as they are explaining and showcasing it. They'll explain the moves well enough that you'll understand their advantages and disadvantages, and when and when not to use them - once you've gone through the weapons entire arsenal from the video, play around even more. Close the video and see if you can do all the combos and engage with all of the mechanics. It might take a while since there's a lot of mechanics to the weapon, but at this point you should at least be getting a bit more familiar - now it's the time to actually play the game and start having at monsters. At first, observe the monsters movements and attacks. It's one thing to start practicing your weapon, but if you're getting smacked around not knowing the monster's moveset, you won't make any progress. So run around them, see their attacks and the openings they leave. Once you have basic identity of their moves, start fighting them. Start executing your moves on them. It might be rough in the beginning and you still might find yourself getting smacked about, but you'll start to learn and get better. Button mashing won't get you anywhere since inputs are buffered in a way that it prevents you from pressing many inputs and expecting moves to come out the very moment you do so. Of course, if you practiced your weapon in the training area there'd be no need to Button mash since youd know the combos somewhat - Mastery will come with time :) You'll get really good at using your weapon that the only obstacles you'll have to cross is figuring out the monster. Mh combat to me is the best combat I've had to experience, and I've played many many games including the soulsborne series (at least elden ring bloodborne and ds3). I wish you the best of luck. Sorry for writing bodies of text. I just really want as many people to enjoy mh as I have. Let me know how it goes. Cheers!
@@WisdomAkpan211 Hey I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. When I played the game, I didn't try out all the weapons. I basically just picked one that looked cool and learned the basic combos with it in the training mode. Next time I come back to the game, I'll remember your advice!
@@WisdomAkpan211 I gave the game another shot, and I'm hooked this time. I'm playing with the hammer and doing everything solo while having a blast. Just beat the Pink Rathian after he defeated me on my first try. So far that's the only hunt I've failed at. It was very satisfying to retry the hunt and conquer him. Looking forward to tackling even harder foes. Honestly, it wasn't getting the hang of the combat that got me hooked. Instead, I started to get hooked when I began to understand how to use various items. Shock traps and tranqs for capturing, dung pods for making unwanted monsters flee, explosive barrels for when the monster is sleeping, etc. Once I began interacting with all that stuff, everything started to make sense.
Im the oposite. I, just an hour ago, gave up. I had one previous playthrough of the game through iceborn, i didnt grind master level afterards. I never accessed the multi-biom content. With some of my steam friends getting back into it, i was stoked at an opportunity to play again. To use different weapons than i had the first time through. But i hate it. It didn't click this time. It could be the weapons didn't have the same appeal. It could be that I'm older now and dont have the requisite patience. Or what made the game novel in the first place, doesnt carry it through the process of relearning. It could be, that after having already struggling my way to Master Rank, being defeated now, in high rank, proves i never really got gud. After Elden Ring, the attacks the monsters have in this game don't feel as fair. I recently took a hit from Rathalos which began a chain of attacks in which i never regained agency before i carted. 100 to 0 and the only attack i could say was avoidable, was the first. And it, probably landed while i was rooted from a roar or temmer. Patience is probably key. I think you have to enjoy defeat and not mind time being wasted. I for some reason, cant seem to enjoy it this time around. When you watch some hunters defeat monsters, they often keep a monster staggered and incapacitated till its dead. Sometimes they never have to avoid an attack. The sticky bowgun meta is great example of trivialising content. Anyways it may require patience I cant manage this time. I dunno. I suppose fighting the same monsters repeatedly to carve a ruby didn't help the enjoyment factor either. But fighting monsters repeatedly is kind of the concept. So.
Short answer: pick dual blades lol I didn’t really like the game with the great sword but dual blades are super fluid and have alternate dodge moves. After mastering them, I found the urge to learn other weapons and now I can appreciate them all
The reason people initially hate MH isn't the monster hunter gameplay. It's the hour long fire hose of information blasted at the player as soon as they try to get into game.
In Rise, the game doesn't point you towards the training ground. You have to find it...why? This is precisely where I want to be in order to figure out a weapon.
It also doesn't give you a clear example of the gameplay loop. Hunt monster > make armor from monster > hunt new monster. In between all of this is a deluge of information that could all be condensed into the training ground.
The combat for me wasn’t the issue, the menus and “tutorials” were, it felt like so much information to take in and I was going to need it to actually play the game. Eventually my friend helped me through the game and I slowly started to understand everything and nowadays, making unique builds out of lesser used skills is literally my favorite thing to do.
Yeah to be fair, the menus suck.
I remember playing freedom 2 not knowing a single thing, but it didn't matter, cause they got "training quests" which were basically optional, you go and do them if you wanna learn.
I think window pop ups aren't good unless extremely necessary.
You gotta make players figure out the game for themselves and most importantly, whenever they want to.
"Oh what is a ration? Gotta check this out in the menu, or maybe im gonna try using one"
Don't treat people like they're stupid
I feel you i tried most monster hunter games last week just to find the enjoyable one and i have around 20 hours in freedom unite,generations ultimate,tri and world i played portable 3rd as well and dropped it because it was freedom unite but with asian esthetic tbh i learned all those core tutorials after three games and enjoyed it far more ever since
I would absolutely not gotten into this game without my friends explaining everything as we went along
It's like you have to read a set of encyclopedias to play the game, bork all that.
Rise’s menu tutorials are some of the worst in gaming. They’re super dense, not intuitive, come in the weong order, and worse, are factually incorrect often. The ingame description of dual blades is just wrong for archdemon mode. The game never tells you theres a jump button. It forgets to describe the various states of stun and knockdown.
The scenario you described is exactly my experience getting into monster hunter, saw some videos of 3U, thought it looked cool, saw it had a demo, tried it out, hated it, uninstalled, tried it again some time later, still hated it, uninstalled it, tried it a 3rd time later, finally clicked, loved the series ever since
God, I hated the 3U demo too. Why is everything so damn slow? Felt like trying to pay chess with oven mitts in a pool of molasses. Had to keep playing for it to finally click. I played over 2000 hours of 3U as of today. Still one of my favorite games of all time
what weapons did you start with each time you restarted?
Its a common thing with monster hunter vets, hated it sometimes for an entire generation. Then it finally clicks and you're hooked ever since.
Mine was F1. Hated it. Stopped at buldrome. Tried it again in F2 and I never looked back.
The longsword made me finally love Monster Hunter. I think it’s mostly about finding the weapon that feels somewhat natural and intuitive to you.
Took me three times on Freedom 2 myself.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that Monster Hunter clicked for me pretty much immediately. Up until the day I decided to try the 4U demo after seeing it on shelves, I had experienced combat in video games almost exclusively in a turn based format. As a kid the idea of only taking damage when the attack visually hits me was so amazing, and revolutionary, and incredible, and... and then eventually I fought Plesioth. :(
Ah plesioth, the only monster to turn the game into a turn base battle. And by turns, I mean it's his turn, then it's his turn again, then of course! It's his turn again. And that's just him shaking his ass.
My first game was 4U and I had zero friends to play it with but I at least had an online community to help me through. There was never a point where the actual gameplay wasn't enjoyable for me, just a few monsters who I'd rather never existed at worst and just groaned and put up with at best. And maybe the occasional gathering session for one stupid ore than had a 5% chance of being mined or a 20% chance in the rare area. I'm not sure if we are a minority or not, but I can very easily see why some people might be turned off by it, even if they're a fan of similar games. I'm just glad I've stuck through it and even have gone back to play older titles like 3U, FU, and even Frontier.
@@ACBGames the one monster (alongside gravios) that forced me to make an elemental bow...
@@nubbyboah My first game was world. I had a blast with the game, so much so that I too went back to the older games starting with gen u. After a bit of an adjustment period, I ended up falling in love with old monster hunter. Fast forward to today, I have played 4u, 3u and tri, freedom unite, and was even privileged enough to have a great girlfriend who tracked down a copy of monster hunter 1 on the ps2. The game is hard as hell, but I can't help but love it and the series as a whole.
Ah the good ol Hip Check
Also seeing the World and Rise footage side by side makes me miss the weightiness of the hitstop even more than I already knew I did.
Regarding MHW as a new player:
I'm 12 hours in. Eeeh... I feel like it's losing me.
The game has so much busywork:
Every time I go fight I gotta eat a meal, and eat my rations, and eat my nutrients, and sharpen my blade, and buff my weapon, and yadda yadda...
And then I can get stunlocked and 2-shot by the monster, making me respawn and then I gotta do the whooooole buffing process all over again...
Blegh
Healing takes ages, even chucking an antidote takes ages.
Putting your weapon away or pulling it out takes ages.
A single hit taken can throw you into a vortex of having to mess around with the weapon holstering and healing, tanking your uptime on the monster
and then you can finally get ready to go again... and the monster can just leave...
Barely any animation cancelling and very tight if even existent buffer times. Meh.
Basically, the concept feels cursed:
I thought the game is gonna be about hunting monsters but then it does everything in its power to push you away from hunting monsters:
UI, preparations, monsters running away, that's all time you spend not fighting monsters.
Update:
The rythm of the game clicked for me and I'm having way more fun now as a result. I accomplished more in the last 6 hours than in my first 13.
I think it's good, even great but there's a definite adjustment period.
What happened that made it click for you?
that was EXACTLY my first experience with MHW. I stopped playing the first time after only 6 hours. I returned to the franchise with MH Rise tho with a friend and since than I played countless hours of both rise and world. It just needed to be more accessible IMO. The UI was the biggest factor for me, it was just repulsive. But definitely learning how to prepare + finding THE weapon to use changed everything
@@HighLanderPonyYT
It's been a year
Any update man?
MHW is unique in the series with how much boring busywork is often required before you can get to hunting monsters. It’s a shame because once you start hunting the game is immensely fun and satisfying.
My first game was World, about the time Iceborne came out a couple friends convinced me to get it, I didn't much like it, it seemed a bit stiff, but it was pretty fun while playing together, so i kept playing, it took me about 70 hours to beat the base game if I remember correctly, after that I decided to get iceborne, and something changed, I don't know exactly when or where, but after I beat iceborne's story I took a step back and realized that the game had wormed its way into my head and heart, and it was now my favorite game, it really is fascinating how much of a turnaround it was, nearly 500 hours spent now and I'm into my second playthrough, hunting horn only, and loving it
The large part of the game clicking with you is finding your favourite weapon.
I know how you feel I'm at 446 Hours right now :) And still doesn't like monster hunter as much as Monster Hunter World. IceBorn added so much more fun to the already soo fun game :)
Based HH player
It was the exact opposite for me haha
Makes me feel like a rare breed.. I remember picking up Monster Hunter for the PS2 back in the day, getting bullied by velocidrome a bunch of times, finally overcoming that "wall" and instantly being hooked to the gratification of "beat it finally and now you're telling me I can make a sword out of that bitch?". Here we are, over a decade later.
Monster Hunter essentially boils down to:
A) Kill monster
B) Make weapon out of the aforementioned monster
C) Kill more monsters with the aforementioned weapon
D) Rinse and repeat!
The Circle of Life really is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Yeah..i remember having no clue whatsoever and starting the with the guild quests instead of the village ones...what a pain in the ass.
Hello fellow first-gen. I have so many fond memories with the original monster hunter on ps2. I instantly hooked up on the gameplay eventhought it was most janky attack button scheme lol
@@MrOneneft oh god the control scheme... What an abomination... Kokoto Hunters unite!
@@DerAykac so Did i haha i Actually kind of miss being bad at monster hunter, took me 40 min to hunt a great jaggi back in 2014
Me who doesn't need this video because I love it already. But totally watches it anyway to hear someone talk about why the love the franchise
I used to be that person that thought it was boring and clunky lol. He hit the nail on the head
@@benji1277 hey totally. Glad you came around though there's so much quality here in a world of battlefield and fallout 76 ect. Monster hunter does experiment constantly even nearly every game you could say. So there's going to be some games that aren't liked as much but it's hard to argue that any of then are totally bad or broken or don't work
@@ashenphoenix6869 Plus there are the stories games. Pretty sure I played the first stories game before I played any mainline games, and after rise I'm planning on playing the second one
@@benji1277 dude the second stories game.... it's like 100% better than the first one in every way. And I really liked the first one. But I LOVE the second one. It's what Pokémon wishes it could be Lol
I think Monster Hunter has my favorite combat of any game ever created. It’s like a fourteen character roster fighting game with higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy. The amount of depth and variety between the weapons and monsters is insanity. And the best part is you can do perfectly fine with an average skill level. Monster Hunter doesn’t demand that you master it’s weapons and speed run times, and monster patterns. You can be a “good” player and get through the whole game fine. But if you choose to master the game, you’re fuckin unstoppable. It’s industry defining stuff
Basically This. I can see why people that prefer story-heavy games with deep lore and NPCs might have their qualms with Monster Hunter as it honestly isn't as good in that regard, but it's amazing in terms of creature design. As much as I like high fantasy, not having anything with magic, gods or the afterlife but taking the pseudo-scientific path is what gives the monsters from Monster Hunter their own identity.
And as weird as it would be to describe in-depth, I get what you mean with "higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy". I got into the Souls games several years after playing Monster Hunter and despite them having no actual connections, it felt familiar in a way I couldn't exactly put my finger on.
Totally agree. I've yet to find a game that has more satisfying combat.
Monster hunter is 🐐
Yup. I think the only two things the game demands of you is to not be absurdly greedy and to know that you can faceplant when you have your weapon sheathed to easily avoid damage. You can have a smooth-ish ride if you do those two well.
@@nightmarishcompositions4536 there's only 2 games I'm totally in love with. one is mhw. the other is quake live. however QL is a very old arena FPS game. very few people still play it. but i still play it almost daily.
a friend bought me monster hunter world, and I tried it, fell in love, and slowly stopped enjoying it for one specific reason. the loss of control effects that would constantly happen. as I got further and further into the game, more and more attacks would cause me to completely lose control of my character for multiple seconds, now on its own thats fine but when its happening multiple times a minute, it gets frustrating
I quit early into ice part, when I spent over 30 minutes out of a 50 minute fight watching my character roll on the ground, unable to interact with the game, and another 10 minutes chasing the monster after it ran away when I hit it once, rather than doing the fighting part I actually enjoyed. out of 50 minutes, there were 10 that I actually enjoyed, and that ratio was getting worse with every new monster I encountered.
another thing that drove me away was the community, specifically how the community responded to any criticisms of the games design. everything I said was always met with "you just dont like it cause you are bad at the game, just get good", and I can see how getting better at reading and dodging attacks would lead to getting stunned less, but that process itself isnt fun *because* of those stuns, so for me that advice just ends up saying "you are only allowed to enjoy the game when you are actually good at it" and obviously thats not something I want to spend my time doing
a tip if you’re having issues with getting stunned and are willing to try the game again at some point: stun charm III gives you complete resistance to stun
@@mellomallo I was aware of that, and I was working towards it, but its kind of a sidestep of my issue
if the best way to deal with a mechanic is to completely turn it off, why does the mechanic exist? it just feels like bad design. this was also my complaint with the cold mechanic in the area, it served no gameplay function
Stuns serve the purpose of punishing you for getting hit too many times, plus (while I know this isn’t the best reasoning considering Monster Hunter isn’t super realistic and how monsters can survive so many attacks from the weapons) it’d make sense for a huge monster to stun a hunter, especially with bigger and heavier attacks. Heat and cold are around for a similar reason, and to also put some emphasis on preparation before a hunt, though they were removed for Rise. Personally I never really ended up getting stunned multiple times a minute despite World being my first MH game (though I stopped playing at early Iceborne as well since I couldn’t see the screen well and needed glasses, so I can’t say for sure what the stun situation is like for content beyond that, though I still don’t remember getting stunned *that* much from what I played).
Two more tips that probably aren’t that helpful (considering you got to Iceborne content you probably already know but possibly not) are that you can button mash to recover from stun more quickly and you can dive by running and dodging away from the monster to get a ton of invincibility frames if you know you’ll be getting hit otherwise.
Something very important to note actually is that I did have the Stun Charm III during the Iceborne content I played so that’d be why I don’t remember stuns, so ignore that (oops).
the realism argument falls flat when my complaint is that it isnt fun, if that realism gets in the way of fun, then the realism needs to go
I get the "preparing for a hunt" angle on the cold, but it does not do that in an interesting way. it takes basically 0 effort to be completely immune to the cold, and never interacting with the mechanic is apparently the intended way to play, so why does it exist? if they wanted a "cold you have to prepare for" they should have made a more interesting mechanic
I tried my first monster hunter game recently and found it difficult to get into, so this upload timing is perfect.
I'd say you need a good like... 20+ hours to really start to get it. And to actually engage with the series' systems, like he said. Making new armours and weapons to deal with walls, learning your weapon and monster's patterns. I think a lot more people would enjoy MH if they took the time and effort required to give it a proper chance.
@@JeanKP14 I bought world soon after I watched this video and gave it another shot. For some reason I feel better about my first experience this time, so I plan on giving the game the time it needs to really understand it. Thanks for the help.
you are not just playing a game bro
you are in a commitment now if you want to continue
I found that in my time with Monster Hunter World, my enjoyment varies drastically depending on how much of the games jank I have to deal with, and how much I like what I'm fighting. Some things were absolute nightmares to farm the equipment for because I simply hated fighting the monster in question, while farming other things was a blast. Dealing with the games jank is the only other thing that gets under my skin, and its mostly just small things that add up over the course of a session.
I just beat the Rathalos for the first time. Instantly after beating it a Rathian came down. after a bit of fighting her, she just started doing her little run move. I was basically stunlocked, as soon as I got up after she hit me, she passed by hitting me again, for 2 or 3 times until i died. That might be the clunkiest that I've felt the game to be until now. By the way right as i was killing the Rathian, another Rathalos landed. I captured this one.
@@joemency2242 Which mh? What’s clunky about what you’re describing?
@@joemency2242 You can just stay on the ground in situations like this. You're invincible while on the ground, and you can delay getting up by not pressing anything. As soon as that second charge misses, *then* get up and you'll have actual time to dodge the third one.
Well rise has less jank it seems everything in monster hunter keeps getting less janky
Great commentary as always! I'm currently in an exam phase, but now I'm even more hyped to get back to Monster Hunter 🎉
Happy to see you making MH content again! I hated my first one too, and now I am 10k hours into the series.
Excellent video!
@@legendslaboratory6820 Okay.
@@theartoflongsword2622 Don't you mean 1k?
@@brojakmate9872 No.
@@theartoflongsword2622 dont think people understand that there's like 12 different mh games and the series itself is like nearly 2 decades
Honestly I started with MHFU and got into DS3 and the other Souls games later. Rise is probably the easiest one I've played though the weapons might take a little to get used to for newer players if your goal is to learn everything but that's by no means required and I'm pretty sure the dev teams have even said they wanted room for people to be able to improve with the weapons but the difficulty is tuned so min-maxing and whatnot isn't going to be required. Ultimately it's better to take it slow and not get frustrated since they go about the core gameplay very differently
Funny anecdote: every Soul's game I tried I played right after I finished the previous one and I went in reverse order so DS3-BB-DS2-DSR and every time I hated it starting out so I took a few days off and then went back to it and liked it more, gotta give yourself time to reset those habits since they're different styles of games
ironically for me it was the other way around for ds
i did bllodborne, loved it from the get go tiill the end of time, although i needed a hand at one point to go over a hurdle(bsb), done that, i fell in love.
ds3 was a no brainer too.
but ds1 on the other hand, at the start i liked it, genuinely had fun, then i got to the gargoyles.
no matter how many times i beat bb and ds3, i couldn't kìll them... until i locked-off, then it clicked to me.
was it fun to kill them then?
yes... ish.
it was fun per se, but it gave me a really bad hunch, i knew something was off with that because i knew it was due to the lack of omnidirectional rolling... anyway, kept playing and playing and, once going past o&s, obviously i started liking the game less as you might imagine why, but then came the ending and the dlc turn, and whereas normally people make a turn of opinion there due to artorias and gwyn... i guess i got spoiled by ds3 and bloodborne.
i oculdn't stand either.
i fought for 6 hours malenia, i fought 20 times each boss of the bloodborned platinum cursed dungeon, i fought 267 times the heroic phoenix in the death's gambit afterlife...
but after 5 tries of both artorias and gwyn, i just quit ds1.
i duno, maybe my build just sucked that much and due to being aware of that i couldn't bother replaying the game, but... no, i even knew i still had ariamis to do first, but i just grew bored due to how clunky the game was compared to other ones, due to how obtusely long and repetitive those two fights were if you didn't have a high enough dps build, how boring and tedious their runback was, making every retry's runback last at least 2 minutes when accounting for loading times, that at point, it had just lost me.
5 tries felt like 30 in those other games.
@@iota-09 i definitely agree about DS1, the only reason I think I did so much in it was because I knew beforehand the route to Quelana for dumping money into the flame and then basically just using Chaos Fireball and Great Combustion on everything and hoping I killed stuff before needing to roll too much. I never actually did the DLC in DSR and I have in every other game, I think DS1/R are okay games but I largely just wanted to beat it to say I did. If I had to play one of them again it'd either be DS2 since I just really like Majula
I'm very new to monster hunter and I love it. I'm playing Worlds right now. I had played quite a lot of souls games before and honestly it feels so different. At first I would try to stay close to the monsters and i-frame their attacks as you would in a souls game, but the combat really clicked when I understood that I had to take my time more. Take my time to recuperate, position myself in a position where I can punish effectively, and understanding better how to use the terrain to mount the monster, the slinger, the mantles etc. Even crafting new items mid-hunt. It's so rewarding.
One of the appeals of MH combat for me is the sheer spectacle of it. The way the combat flows and progresses allows you to spectate your own battle and appreciate the coolness that is happening onscreen. Most of the weapons have an “ultimate move” feature of this nature. It’s a move that usually takes at least 1 or 2 seconds to finish, during which time you have no input capacity, and they have recovery for maybe another second more. Three whole seconds in which you can’t do anything but watch the aftermath of your prep and combat inputs.
This stresses some people. It relaxes me. It comforts me to know that once I’ve keyed in the input, there is absolutely nothing further to do until I regain control. And if that input staggers, KOs, or part breaks a monster? Even better. That’s the shit.
I mained Dragoon in ff14, I know all about long animations that get you killed when done at the wrong time lol.
Awesome video, Rat!
I too am in the camp of “hated it until I loved it” it’s a very common story in the community it seems.
I hope people that found this channel through Elden Ring realize they might love Monster Hunter as well, a lot of knowledge can actually pass over between games despite their many differences.
I started with Tri, and fell in love with the franchise instantly.
@@HenshinFanatic I started with 3 Ultimate myself, and I mean it did go uphill from there. I think I was the only one in my group who didn't utterly hate water combat because I played Light Bowgun.
@@dominiccasts I preferred how swimming worked in Tri, couldn't adjust to 3U's underwater movement due to muscle memory. It was fine, but then I mained Swag Axe ASAP.
@@HenshinFanatic OH! I didn't realize Tri and 3U handled that differently.
@@dominiccasts yeah, you also couldn't make a swag axe until Village ☆☆☆
I remember playing MH: World (my first MH) and it felt like culture shock by the fact that you can't attack while moving (using melee) since I came from a very hack-and-slashy kind of playstyle, and that yes, it is a very high-commitment sort of combat compared to a lot of hack and slash games. I almost wanted to close the game immediately because "wtf this feels so clunky", and I did, but I immediately came back because of the reason that I already paid for it a month before and I can't get a refund lmao.
Long story short I now have 900+ hours on MH: World and about 300+ hours on MH: Rise
I feel like dual blades is a great gateway into getting into MH as someone more used to playing hack and slash games. I'm still struggling to clear crimson glow valstrax and some of the apex monsters with more committal weapons but I find dual blades playstyle of constantly attacking the monster and using counter or the A attack to reposition more comfortable. Ideally I want to be able to fight fast and aggressive monsters with these slower weapons but it just feels so clunky to me rn
Bro I payed too for this game and the combat is hitting me so hard, I felt like is exaggerated difficult and boring
I'm using Switch Axe
the feeling of beating alatreon and fatalis first time after 12 hours of retries is the best feeling i'll never forget.
Something thats really cool about the series as well is that the older titles hold up so well and have things to offer in their own right
They were more unforiving. The game made you feel the pain before you earn your reward. Eventually you master it and feel real comfy.
I'm ok with the combat being slow but what I'm not ok is the arbitrary delay some actions have, For example, after I sheath my weapon, it takes around 1 second before I can pick stuff up.
I feel like my experiences were kind of different. I saw my brother playing world on his Xbox and figured I’d give monster Hunter a try on switch, with GU which had just recently released at that point. I wasn’t amazing at the combat but I managed and got to around 4 star or 5 star, but then dropped the game. Eventually after a couple years passed I picked up GU again and went all the way to Ahtal Ka and now I own GU, Rise, and 4U
"...and what a each weapon considers an opening is different." SwitchAxe:Everything is an opening if you try hard enough!
Longsword: *looks at an Apex Diablos charging at full speed* “Oh look, here’s a big opening!”
I say that as someone who frequently uses said charge as an opening to dish out some good damage via Iai Spirit Slash lol
meanwhile, chargeblade main "everything is NOT an opening and something will just hit you anyway"
@@muhwyndhamthe unholy amount of times I've been hit out of an SAED...
If anyone is going to convince me to like this game, it’s you
I went to Monster Hunter World from playing solely Dark Souls 1-3 since getting my pc at the time.
I think the mindset for monster hunter's combat is completely different in terms of how it plays out. You REALLY need to watch guides to understand how it works. Took me a while to know foresight slash can be aimed towards the attack to get a free counter.
I think the major difference is Souls series is more of mastering the boss' moveset with maybe 10% of how to use weapons.
Mastering Monster Hunter is more of mastering your weapon and your "options" in given situations (Countering, blocking, timing) since it's more of a combo based combat.
I don't think it's that souls is MORE of mastering the bosses movesets, I think they're just complete opposites in the way they handle boss fights and combat.
In MH you master the weapon first and then the monsters second and that's where you truly get good, whereas souls you master the bosses first and then your weapon and that's where you get truly good in soulslikes. You definitely still have to learn the ins and outs of a bosses moveset in MH, but if you don't know your weapon then you're not gonna learn the monster.
@@temphy oh yea, gotta agree.
I believe if you're a fan of one of the game you'll fall in love with the other fasho.
But depends on whether you play souls for lore or otherwise
This is the best description of the Monster Hunter combat system I've seen, big props, GREAT!
Me, who loved Monster Hunter combat the first time I played (Tri): "Fascinating"
One thing that I think is often overlooked by folks that consider gameplay as the be-all-end-all determinant of a games worth is the value of aesthetics and setting in "getting you over the hump" and allowing you to really commit to a game. Monster Hunter is the perfect example of that idea for me. I got on the MH wagon in the first game, and if you think MH is rough to pick up now, oh boy. But I was so bought into the *idea* of Monster Hunter, the fantasy that it presented in those first cinematic trailers, that nothing would stop me from playing it. It's something I think about often when I hear about how difficult the series is to get into for people.
That's funny, because I've always hated the aesthetics of MH and only love it purely based on the game mechanics. The whole concept of a game that's just a series of boss battles and a varied set of deeply rewarding combat mechanics to tackle them with is perfect. All the anime-esque feel I have to just block out of my head, though the game levels and monsters themselves are fine
@@SepticFuddyI'm a weeb and I've never once thought of MH as being "anime-esque" feeling. Everything about it from the weapons, armor, hubs, levels, monsters, etc. feels deeply rooted in a medieval fantasy setting for me. The only thing I guess you could say is "anime-esque" is the story, characters, and dialogue but 1) no one plays monster hunter for those reasons and 2) that's just Japanese style of writing, not "anime-esque". You don't hate "anime-esque" stuff, you hate Japanese-esque stuff and that's bc you correlate everything Japanese with anime. That's not a very healthy mindset
@@temphy Wow somebody's mad. Giant weapons nobody could ever possibly wield, impossible spiky haircuts, awkward over-emoting, katana draw counters, glaive aerial attacks... definitely not anime-esque.
You may be a connoisseur and prone to focusing on the distinction between explicitly anime and non-anime Japanese media. I'm an outsider turned off by many of the same aesthetic factors that turn me off to anime.
Yet, I still play and very much enjoy the series. I even main IG while referring to my own aerials as "anime bullshit" like everyone elsedoes, and LS looks fun too. You're right, you don't play MH for the story (which I've always said myself), you play for the complex mechanics and brutal yet fair challenge with a very high skill ceiling. I had to look past a lot of goofiness to enjoy the MGS series, too, which is actually what pointed me over to MH. I even learned to embrace some of Kojima's madness along the way. Seems like a pretty healthy approach to me. I still don't have to like the anime-adjacent aesthetic elements that come with it because some internet weeb said so. Thankfully, after Rise cranking it up to 11, Wilds appears to be more grounded and "realistic"/"western" than ever. Looks way more aesthetically appealing so far, especially on the character front.
So I'll keep enjoying the game while you keep working yourself up over some random guy on the internet not liking the same flavors you do.
Interesting.. I have a different perspective on this matter. Me and most of the people I know had a problem with the gameplay loop, not exactly the combat itself.
Especially in "post Dark Souls" gaming, the combat is an easy sell IMO. But selling the concept of the game is a whole different story. "Well it's a game with barely any story in it, where you mostly kill monsters to make stronger weapons and armor to kill more monsters and that's it."
Most people I know didn't get the point of doing all this, and the way I see it, that's the biggest entry barrier. I believe it's not the combat that "clicks", but the core loop.
this is also another point to which mh never appealed to me, it's basically the same reason i never played mmos.
That’s the part i really enjoy about monster hunter, there are no distractions from the meat of the game. It’s a pure video game, I get to boot up mhgu with my friends, hop into an insane hunt where we just barely scrape it out alive, and then afterwords we’ve got a wild story about a hyper deviljho hunt that nearly wiped us. The stories come from playing the game instead of from any hackneyed pretentious “hollywood” cinematic tripe. Id rather be playing a game than watching a movie about a character i don’t relate to doing things i’m can’t interacting with, that’s the opposite of video games to me. Not that narrative doesn’t have a place in games, mind you. It’s just in most cases it dramatically distracts from the gameplay experience instead of enhancing it.
I dont understand how the intrinsic motivating factors of Monster Hunter’s gameplay loop are a problem. the game presents you with a challenge, slay its monsters and conquer the game. That should be more than enough I think.
SIDENOTE: Not to say monster hunter games don’t have stories. I just don’t ever pay attention to them, they’re not why i’m playing. I’ve got my own stories of wild hunts that have happened and that’s what is important to me. MHW tried to cater to the cutscene gamer and it failed miserably and is the soul reason i’m probably never going to play that game (holy shit it takes four hours before you get to actually start hunting for real)
@@ElvenSonic i mean, if you're looking for a purely arcade reason to play, something sure, but that ain't what everyone always looks for in the game.
like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, i'm still intrigued by the buildmaking, characters, cutscenes, the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined endgoal.
fighting for fighting sake... i mean, it's not like i don't understand the fun in that, having played online fps games for years i kinda get it, but it's just not something i'm looking for anymore, and the idea of an sp game without an end goal never intrigued me, i'm the kinda guy who stops playing pokemon after the league/barely visiting the post-league content, the kinda guy who just doesn't understand the appeal of mmos, and the guy whooplays fighting games for the campaign mode while completely ignoring time attack and online.
so yeah, i dunno, i just don't get the appeal of it, unless you're with friends of course, but it's not like i'd have friends to play with when i've never played it myself in the first place.
@@ElvenSonic i disagree, everything in monster hunter is a distraction from the meat of the game. Optimally monster hunter would just be walking into a boss room with just a blacksmith for prep. Instead you have dozens of npcs and tutorial dialogue and some weird ass cat ranch and collecting plants, tracking poop. And you have no fucking idea how any of it works or why you should care.
@@iota-09 “like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, im still intrigued by the buildmaking, -characters, cutscenes,- the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined end goal”
Bam! you just described the appeal you should have playing monster hunter. Dumbing down what I said to “fighting for fighting’s sake” would be like saying you’ve been playing souls games for the same reason.
EDIT: Also there’s an irony here in that most normal people that play souls games totally ignore the story and characters and are just playing because the game is hard and the combat is fun. Especially with Elden Ring where a bunch of important dialogue wasn’t put in the game or was poorly translated and didn’t make any sense. Tbh that’s probably why souls games tend to be a good jumping off point
Another thing you should mention is how little it really holds your hand when you choose your weapon. Yes it gives you a guide to key moves like Iai Slash or Amplified Elemental Discharge, but it doesn’t have the more complex moves like (no longer in Rise) Power Saw morph on the Charge Blade or fast Phial Reload technique on the Switch Axe. It’s dense in information for the basics but after that there’s still much to learn that the game will never tell you unless you use the training grounds or look up a tutorial video
bruh i switched to pc out of necessity, and i couldnt find any guides with keyboard, and now i cant learn anything because of how ass the weapon tutorials are
like i picked up the gun lance, and it shoots out this knife thing? IT DOESN'T SAY THAT IN THE TUTORIAL, or what the cd is on the wyrm thingy etc, its just annoying, fun game still
@@evianwyner8280Ahh the kbm MH struggle. Looking for a tutorial on a combo/move and the tutorial just says "press X+A". I had to painstakingly look for a guide that actually lists all controls, but goddamn will I continue to refuse to use controller. KBM all the way baby
Look at Game8 guides. They actually list every control input instead of just controller.
@@temphy big problem is my gaming mouse doesnt let me input yhe side buttons and main mouse buttons at the same time, its so annoying
@evianwyner8280 bruh going through this rn , you'll find a few guides but it's not enough and this game is litered with speed junkies and charge mains, on many occasions my hands gets tired of how much bottons I'm pressing then took a big hit as soon as I rest it for a split second.
I dropped it when I tried Monster Hunter 1 but God almighty those controls were jank beyond jank. Came back to the series years later with World then went on to play GU, 3U, 4U and Rise. I now love this series so much, easily one of my favorite game series of all time.
The best part of MH combat is how it's a perfect combination between Action and RPG. The armor skills and weapons *WILL* change your playstyle. Some weapons are slower, some are faster, some even requires a specific armor skills to enhanced it's gameplay (like Focus, Quick Sheath and Rapid Morph), some forces you to go ham unga bunga, some will forces you to hold and perfect timed all attacks. There're also many approach to combats, like ailment build, pure raw build, KO build, elemental build, etc
And when you master the game, you can 100% unga bunga while dodging all the monsters' attacks.
Odogaron is the first monster that I managed to do that to, using the Greatsword.
This is an exact description I use to sell my buddies on monster hunter! Every weapon is its own character and it's a matter of learning its nuances. It took me some time but learning how to compensate for the immobility of the Switch Axe from MHWORLD felt amazing. This game leaves you with such satisfaction over each step of comprehension of your weapon.
I started with World and I feel like it took me until the end of story mode (shara) before I actually clicked with the combat. It wasn't too bad before and i did just fine spamming basically 3 moves which is boring, but gets the job done. The feeling when I finally "gets it" is priceless. It's like being freed from a shackle. God I love this game so much.
When it comes to the point where I managed to git gud as the souls fan would say, I’d say that it was actually Alatreon in MHW, sure I was competent at the game at the time but I was by no means an expert, that changed with Alatreon, I fought it day 1, so no one could carry me through it, as a result; I needed to pull my own weight and not rely entirely on someone else’s skill
I eventually managed to beat him after several days (with another players help) after that I started trying to get better at hunting him… Originally my “best” time was 30 minutes with a Palico, now my best time is 11 minutes solo!
So yeah, despite the controversy he brought, MHW Alatreon holds a special place in my heart, alongside MHW Fatalis!
@@alexedwards5152 Big Al gets me from the metaphorical slumping position to sitting straight. Before him the monsters are highly challenging at most but I won't say they're all that difficult especially compared to souls games.
When Alatreon dropped for the first time i got so exhilarated as the community scrambles on figuring out how to beat him while a good portion screamed and sobs uncontrollably. I was obsessed for the entire day, trying different stuff and failed, discussing tactics and builds on reddit, watching those who made it on tube just to learn what's possible.
It was the first mon that got me thinking "this is impossible" that i commonly experience in souls games. For the first time I actually paid attention to the many facets of the game i never needed to before like the canteen food buff. I literally climb mountains to get that one last ingredient for the skill i need. It felt like a training montage of Rocky.
And finally, I painstakingly managed to beat it on the second day solo, with a blast hammer the community said is impossible to beat it with to boot. And damn does it feels good.
And yep, he got a special place in my heart as well. Fatalis kicked my ass harder but Alatreon was my "training partner" every single day we wait in anticipation for Fatty to drop. And it's funny how hard both myself and the alatreon (1/5 hp) got our assess kicked by Fatalis when it finally happened. Rare gaming moment I tell ya.
idk im trying world right now and the controlls feel clunky. not like dark souls clunky just. nothing feels good to press. the systems are weird and the monsters either consistently attack you or do nothing. wish i hadnt bought it at this point
Try switching to another weapon, gameplay varies drastically from a weapon to another
I'm a longsword main users and the skill shown off in this video is beautiful, I really have to practise my timing and dodges more. One because it looks flawless and two, for the constant dps. I feel like I've let the longsword down, haha 😄
I seem to be one of the few "MH Vets" who loved the game upon playing it for the first time ever. Thank you, MH3U demo, for my love of this incredible series!
Its scary how true wat u said at the start of the vid was. I remember starting this series during mhfu. I couldn’t even kill a dam velociprey or a dam bullfango cuz i didnt get the combat style. Finally a buddy of mine found out I had it and started playing with me during lunch time to carry me and teach me things. After getting the combat down it was smooth sailing after that cuz i was hook. I came back this year since i saw this game on sales on steam. Boy it did not disappoint.
This has been the most surprising game I've ever gotten into. I don't consider myself much of a gamer and tend to hate bossfights of any sort. However my husband and his cousins are all really into it and I wanted to give it a chance so I could play with them. I was gifted MHW + Iceborn and that gift has changed my life lol.
Decided to go with HBG cause I'm not good with close combat. It has been extremely overwhelming and THE most challenging game I've ever played, and also some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Even started doing more solo play recently now that I'm more confident with the controls.
I'm so glad I went in with an open mind and LOTS of patience, easily one of my top 5 series ever now!
My first experience with Monster Hunter was MHW and while I did not put down the game because of how the combat feels to a new player it definitely took time for it to click with me. Most of my experience with action combat was with the DMC series and that probably influenced my initial weapon choice, the switch axe. I absolutely hated it, I couldn't wrap my mind why I couldn't change the angle of my attacks within a combo and constantly had to reposition and restart combos. I played most of low rank with dual blades since it felt to me at that point acceptably fast but I kept trying out every weapon to try and understand their strengths and how to enjoy them. I discovered how effective shields can be in a game where making effective use of i-frames is much harder than most and played the lance mostly through high rank. Once I reached end game I was getting bored of the lance, it had the defensive ability I wanted but it lacked the cool and flashy aspects that initially attracted me to the switch axe. Then I was properly introduced to the gunlance by Rurikhan and never looked back.
I first played Generations Ultimate after a friend dragged me into it, so I did have someone to help me out and show me the ropes, but holy shit did I hate parts of it. I loved the amount of maps (although I thought it was a bit weird they were sectioned off) and monsters, but the movement was rough as hell to me. Being slow as shit, having to align myself for an attack constantly, being frozen in place and unable to cancel or move direction after starting an attack, stopping in place when healing and then flexing and not being able to dodge at all during any of it, having to constantly re-align the camera because I lost sight of the monster, trying to mount but often failing because of the clunky system around it, being unable to predict what a monster was going to do because of its poorly telegraphed attacks. It felt like I wasn't fighting the monster but the movement instead, and made the difficulty feel more unfair than challenging. There were other things too, like not being able to eat or stock up on potions if you forgot to before starting a quest, or the complexity of making a build, especially because back then the weapon tree was kinda hidden and you didn't know what direction you were going in. I never ended up making a build, I just got the the full armor of the monster that gave me the most defense, got the sword with the most attack I had access to, and reluctantly played with my friend until we defeated Ahtal-Ka, ignoring almost everything aside from the essential quests (which I had to look up because the were invisible too) and the urgent quests.
I was kind of done with Monster Hunter after that, just thought it was some weird, clunky series that's just too hard to get into like my friend. Only once the Rise demo released and after ALOT of convincing from my friend, I tried it again. And I loved it. That Mizutsune fight in the demo was amazing, it felt like for the first time, I didn't have to memorize the attack patterns of a monster and could just rely on my instinct, even more so now because I could rely on my movement to do what I wanted it too. Fast movement, being able to cancel attacks, being able to change direction, being able to lock on, being able to walk while healing AND cancel, having faster traversal with palamutes, the map being open with no loading screens, the monster clearly telegraphing its moves so I could react even without consciously analyzing stuff, mounting being understandable. I bought and played through World right after this, and then played through Rise when that came out too. The builds were also more comprehensible, and I really got into making my own builds to suit my own playstyle, also now if I forget to eat or take supplies with me I can always restock, and eating buffs are way more comprehensible now too. I know alot of people don't like the direction of modern Monster Hunter, but to me it's exactly what I needed to get into the series. Every problem I had with old Monster Hunter has been addressed and I can now actually enjoy everything else the series has to offer, so yeah, I think we're moving in the right direction.
Dude that's crazy cause that intro example was me too. I started, struggled through the main game, and gave up. Now I'm replaying it and having a great time! I switch between longsword, bow, and glaive. I just finished the base game again and now I'm getting ready for the dlc.
My main issue with MH has always been how terrible the camera feels. Sometimes, I move the camera and it moves where I attack. Sometimes, I move the camera and it does fuck all. Another gripe is that with greatsword, if you roll and start charging, you hit where your camera is facing. If you charge, attack, roll, and then charge, you attack in the direction of the first attack, even though your character fully turned around to roll, and your camera is facing the opposite direction!
Anyways I've played for 200 hours now over the past 3 months
idk if it's just me but i really love pre mhworld combat (more specifically fu-mhgu)
although the combat still remains in the new gen monster hunter (which i love very much), there's something about it that makes it somewhat difficult to control what i want to do. whenever im speedrunning, i find it difficult to understand what the monster could do next as i focus more on how i can optimize and utilize the most efficient combo with my weapon.
i think i was starting to go on a rant but overall, great video!
For me it's the exact opposite. Played 3u then 4u then world and rise and when I went back to play gu I was frustrated with how unresponsive certain things are. Mainly directional inputs. You can't change the way you are facing mid combo and if you roll the first frame out of a combo it's always a roll forward.
Wooo MH content is back.
I never experienced this, because I was lucky enough to have a mentor. One out of the group of three I am part of, that always plays MH together, taught me and the other guy how to play in a basic way, and then we learned the rest together.
It's a sad time to see the Elden Ring Content go, but that day always comes. Quality stuff.
So i tried it at launch, because people talked highly of it. i quit immediatly. i tried it next in 2022 same result. then finally here today in 2024, i gave it a shot more, tried to ignore the absolutely atrocious combat. then it all ran down to the encounter.
step 1. find creature
step 2. fight it for 5 min
step 3. it flees
step 4. repeat step 1, 2. and 3. 8 times
step 5. ???
step 6. Profit?
jesus christ, i can not for the life of me figure out how people like this game.
You aren't aggressive enough / doing enough damage and that's why the monster is running away. You can pretty much lock the monster into fighting you if your DPS is high enough
My first was World. I felt incredibly overwhelmed by how dense the game is, but I realized the combat could be very deep shortly into my play. I love it
I loved monster hunter from the first moment I played it, you described really well what makes monster hunter combat unique and engaging.
I saw my friend playing MHF2 back in 2007 and the game immediately appealed to me. The PSP was the first gaming console I ever really wanted. I've have been playing the series ever since.
I introduced my little brother to MHW and he got interested in the series. Soon after that, he bought MHFU for his iPad and loved it as much as I did.
Mind you there's still animation cancels in Monster Hunter, so a huge commitment like a charged slash from a greatsword can still be safe if the monster turns around to attack. A short moment after the slam, you can roll out of that part of the animation.
And for lighter weapons, you can roll out of almost any attack, or use weapon attack s to dodge as well.
Nope, i spam evade literally every milisecond. Nothing happens, well untill the whole animation plays out and then i can move or dodge again
Great video, you convinced me to pick up the game and give it another go. Thank you so much for sharing. Look forward to playing the game.
Hey, I just wanted to say that a while back I picked up Iceborne and while I recognized it was "good" game, at the time I was really in the mood for something with a compelling story, and I put it down (not to mention being a total noob and ruining my early experience with Defender gear - it's cheap to craft and really good! Doh!) I came back to it last week after watching your video and I've been having a blast. This game has probably the most depth in the combat of any game I've ever played. Such an addictive core gameplay loop, for people who like an immersive challenge. Thanks Ratatoskr!
Hey man, I wanted to thank you because of this vid. I love ur channel in general but this video was exactly what I needed. I bought Monster Hunter Rise around December of last year or January of this one but I simply wasn't enjoying it even tough I have previously enjoyed monster hunter with World. I simply took to much time off the franchise and forgot about everything and relearning it... Well it kinda sucks. Just the day this video went public I was thinking, "damn, MH rise is gonna get a DLC and I haven't even finished the main story I should try to play it" then BOOM the notification appears and you said just what I needed to hear.
I'm not exactly the best MH player, I'm kinda new to it (got into it with World, haven't played since Iceborn came out) but thanks to this video I got the motivation I needed. I'm maining Sword and Shield and learning to play charged axe(?) My main language is Spanish so I don't know the English names soooo yeah, I'm kind screwed haha. That one chainsaw axe, that's the one. I'm still learning lots of things and having quite the fun time with your Aerial Insect Glaive video right now haha. And that's it, sorry if this is hard to read, as I said before my main language is Spanish. Hope you have a good day and thanks you very much, for real. I'm loving this game once and for all thanks to you
My wallet kinda hates it though LOL
I've tried but it is toooooo sluggish. I also hate the FOV it feels so zoomed in.
Just started playing World and it's my first MH, between my first few hours of the game and this video, I'm getting the sense that this is going to be a similar experience to Nioh once I fully get sucked into it.
Another thing I often see is how people who play monster hunter strongly urge other people to also play it. It a very interesting group of MH phenomenons.
I think a lot of people out there don't realize this game would be for them. It's addictive to so many types of people!
thanks for this video I need more motivation, still in the hate phase after playing it for my first time, I gave it a chance for the combat but the tutorials, the hub and the UI are so hard to digest to me
I couldn't the game is just not for me, or that's what I thought, coming back since a friend gave me the DLC for MHW and I forced myself to get in once again, with a few tweaks like removing the minimap and playing alone for a while I'm hooked, like dangerously hooked, and just in time for a comeback from the community? how convenient, there are things I still don't like but man, I wish I have tried again before
It really is amazing just how many people have that experience with MH. I started with 3U, and got about 15-20ish hours in before giving up. Everything felt too slow for me, and I absolutely hated underwater combat. Cut to a year or so later, I try out 4U, since it removed underwater combat and the new mounting mechanics interested me. 4U is now probably my favourite game of all time, and I’ve played every MH game since.
I never really like the MH series and never will but this gives me a good point of view on how people love the franchise.
wow dullah
you admit it
@@BroseInk oh it’s Yussuf Abdul Wahabi who lives in Al amira-
My first experience with MH was in World with one of my best friends. He talked me into getting it and playing with him. Unfortunately he had been playing MH for a long time and was steamrolling through our playthrough. I stopped half way through. A few months later we decided to try again and he agreed to not steamroll and give me a chance to fully get into it. We got about 70% done and he stopped play, but I enjoyed it enough to finish. I didn’t play Iceborne because I was still one the fence about the series, but when Rise came out I picked it up and fell in love. I was kinda in a weird place where I didn’t enjoy gaming as much but Rise changed that completely. I got so invested. I wanted to be better, so that was I did. Rise has become one of my favorite games of all time and Sunbreak has been such a joy to play!
my biggest problem was that the combat felt so floaty and slow but i can finally say it clicked for me my 3rd time trying monster hunter world
One thing I've learned is that it's definitely not for everybody. You can't force people to like it. I have a friend and he gave it an honest go, a real honest go, put well over four hundred hours into World, and it just never clicked. In hindsight it doesn't surprise me--he hides behind a shield in the Souls series, he button mashes in fighting games; he's not of the mindset to appreciate the entire "high commitment" movement concept you outlined. He's told me more than a few times the entire idea of 'animation lock' as he calls it has him screaming in frustrated rage and nearly breaking his controller when he plays Monster Hunter (things like drinking potions, stun, etc.) and is what ultimately caused him to quit. He played longsword and I watched him play and he never even thought to use any of the counter abilities or anything so he was a perennial novice. He was alright for the most part but when Iceborne came along he got absolutely cratered. I felt real bad for him. All of his other friends were breezing through the content and he couldn't even hope to keep up.
The reason I wrote all that is because I guarantee you there are tons of players just like him. For every one of us who gels with the game there's going to be someone who runs into it like a brick wall because they just completely don't understand its design and never will because they don't like what it's going for. I've learned you can't push these games on these people. It's not fair to them.
I’ve only put about 30 hours into MHW so take this with a grain of salt- I’m someone who hates using shields in souls but I still don’t click with monster hunter. It has less to do with the pace of combat and more the feeling that I’m just whacking a massive health bar for a while, chasing, then whacking some more. I miss the feeling of my smart, well timed attacks feeling like they’re accomplishing something in the overall flow of the fight! I dunno if that feeling changes as you go on or if I’m just missing something. Curious to hear people’s thoughts
@@tay590For low to some high rank quests the monsters are generally easy but late high rank and G Rank monsters FORCE you to dodge correctly and time your attacks. Trust me lmao
@@tay590 what weapon are you using? If you want that feeling of a perfectly timed attack in the perfect position, play big weapons that have high commitment and big damage like greatsword and charge blade. With light weapons like dual blades, it will feel more like you're just tickling the monster to death.
Honestly this is me, I like the aesthetic and lore of the game but the combat is so stiff and the animation lock is infuriating and makes the game borderline unplayable imo. And I’m mostly a fighting game player
How did he put in 400 hours without enjoying it or learning the game’s systems?
I accept not liking the game, but what you’re describing sounds like he wasn’t playing the same game at all. And from what you’ve mentioned about button mashing in fighting games, it also seems like he refuses to learn any system that requires a modicum of effort from the player. It’s almost like saying you don’t enjoy chess, when all you’ve done is play checkers with the chess pieces.
Again, 100% understand that he might not like either type of game and he isn’t obligated to put in effort just for a game, but it just seems a little silly when he can’t grasp the basics.
While i did find the combat of MH frustrating at times when i started, or when i started to play new weapons, i've always been able to link it to my own mistakes, and so figure that it would get better as i grow better. I raged a whole lot at my own mistakes, but in the end what this feeling of frustration did for me was not push me away from the game, but make me thrive to get better
What i love about MH is how well it makes you subconciously learn a monster moveset so you can react to its telegraphs in the short time needed to find openings. I dont count the number of times where i pulled up to a new encounter fully prepared just to get utterly destroyed and thought to myself "man, this is impossible". Only to grind the matchup a few times and find myself reacting to the telegraphs instinctinctively. The encounter designs are so good you passively learn the movesets, and it feels extremelly rewarding to feel the progress as you play
Honestly, none of this really addresses the main pain points I had with monster hunter the first few times I tried it; for me, the lack of proper lock on and enemy relative movement, combined with how high commitment each attack is, lead to me frequently having a lot of trouble actually swinging towards the enemy or dodging in the direction I actually wanted to. It felt very hard to get my character to actually do what I wanted them to do on the most basic level.
Pro tip: never lock on in monster hunter games.
For me, monster hunter went from a game where I didn't know if I liked it or not (a demo on the 3ds) to being my favorite series of games. The combat is amazing, the concept is cool, and it just hits everything right for me. Going back and playing the older games, I normally don't like slow gameplay/fights, but monster hunter did it perfectly and I love it! It took me a while to learn it, but it was fun in the process. Learning how to know a monsters openings, and using whichever weapon you choose, to get in those openings is an amazing experience. And I won't lie, I already loved the games, but fatalis in monster hunter world is what firmly secured this series as my favorite. Have to get good enough to beat it and then eventually overcoming it, it was legitimately an amazing experience.
1:15 Omg that Raiden cosplay still looks so good.
I think a barrier for entry “especially in the old games” is not only the weapons but also the monsters, environments, and random mechanics “key quests, drinks, food, etc.”.
I've played Monster Hunter for many many years now and I think of the combat as dancing.
You have your dance moves and the monsters have theirs.
Whenever I struggle with a new monster I break away from combat and just study how it moves while I just dodge. After a while I find openings where I can get 1-3 hits in without taking damage. As the battle continues I find more and more openings and feel comfortable taking more agressive risks.
I'm not saying this is the best way to do it but it is what works best for me.
As for learning your weapon I usually watch a few youtube tutorials and read a little bit in the in-game hunters notes. The hardest part is building muscle memory. No matter how much you read and watch other people playing you will never feel 100% in sync with your weapon until 20-100 hunts. It will take time and it varies from player to player.
For the fresh hunters who never played any monster hunter before, do not be overwhelmed.
I started playing MH Freedom Unite back in the 2010s in my PsP with my friends and we never really learned through tutorials and there were no youtube guides back then, mostly gamefaqs.
Now, I am trying to finish MH Generations Ultimate currently HR2 and just started 1 week ago. I still don't know the different mechanics of the game even 30 hours of playtime in.
For the newer games I haven't tried yet, but are looking forward to play new world mh games.
The game is made to be explored, be curious, learn the monsters, learn the weapons and enjoy the adventure. This isn't a story driven game where you follow a protagonist on their story. Monster hunter is about two things. The Monsters and the Hunters (YOU).
Don't rush the game and take your time. Happy Hunting!
Thanks Rata, I literally just had a friend try out the Sunbreak demo who gave up on it after a couple hunts because it didn’t click with him. I’ll send him this video and see if he’ll give it some more time :D
Tell him that the demos really... don't show you what the GAME is like. Rise (and World and 4U) does a very good job at EASING you into the game and teaching you its mechanics. The demo doesn't really get that across, its JUST the action and that really isn't what MH is.
@@JeanKP14 yeah I’ve already explained that to him :)
i think it took me and my friend (who played together) about 3-4 times of leaving and rejoining monster hunter for it to really click, now we can easily beat hunts we once thought near impossible (mostly elder dragons)
Here's hoping some of the people who subscribed for Souls content but never tried MH take this to heart and give it a go and maybe even get into it!
I always described MH combat as a series of phases. The tell which is the wind up (animation before an attack) to an attack which tells you which attack combo they'll do, The attack which is the duration of damage frames you need to avoid and, The follow up which is the variable down time in which you get to attack. There's a pattern to follow you watch for the tell avoid the attack and position yourself for the follow up then get back to watch for the next tell.
Example at the beginning is what I'm literally going through right now. Except in my case this is about my 6th time trying and after killing Anjanath yesterday, I think it's finally clicked. Turns out i just needed to try out the heavy bowgun
Been trying to convince a friend to play MH for some months now. This video might just make them play the game! Well said Ratatoskr.
I was one who got into the game with world, I was obsessed with Elden ring and its combat and I was trying to find games to match that experience and I found this and it was like it was MADE for me! It’s so perfect I’m going through and playing all the older gens and I’m having SO much fun I’ve loved world and rise and I’m playing 4U rn and it’s SO good (I’m using switch axe it’s so good in 4U) this combat style just feel absolutely perfect infact it almost feels like devil may cry with all the combos 😭
My problem with this game is this: you charge up a massive attack and it almpst hits, but the enemy sneezes at you and the attack/combo completely cancels. The other verry annoying thing is: there is no way to cancel an attack even if you spam evade, there is no quick cancel/evade cancel. So you are just stuck watching your animation untill you get hit. Thats not combat btw. Its a glorified animation player that has effects when you hit something.
that’s why people say you need to commit, can’t just spam attacks and then spam evade when a monsters about to attack.
I used to feel the same way, but what you're describing is what makes the games combat so rewarding. There are plenty of other games available to play with animation canceling and button mashing
im sorry but the problem wouldnt be there if charge blade its animations didnt take 5 seconds per hit. You know what im talking about. The combat feels sluggish and unrewarding. You are just praying when you unleash the full charge elemental attack the monster doesnt fart at you beceause the charge up attack is taking too long.
@@bravingbrivatebrian what im doing is not button mashing. Im trying to build up combos. But when charizard decides to rotate itself towards your palicoe and it softly touches you with its tail your whole combo gets canceled. And why cant you cancel attacks? This is literally the only game i know that doesnt have it. Can you imagine cutting vegetables but your finger is in the way and you just HAVE to commit into cutting your finger? Its stupid and its an outdated combat system thats sticking around for way too long.
Also, if you're especially averse to the very high commitment to attacks in this series, try out Dual Blades. They're pretty much the exception to this rule, and they let you dodge out of nearly anything.
I played MHFU as a kid. After the first few bosses i was actually scared of fighting the tougher ones and I got stuck at tigrex for years, only farming low level stuff and running around training palicos. Untill a friend told me that i needed earplugs and a cheese spot in the mountains that I was able to beat it. That feeling of overcoming an almost impossible challenge, with the game not making it any easier, just adapting with the tools at your disposal is what makes MH so satisfying to me.
Big respect for naming your Palamute Repede, gotta rep best boy.
Excellently done. Very inviting and accurate.
My friend passed me the controller while he was playing MHW, and I was so overwhelmed in less than 2 mins. I bought MHR, picked up SnS and just became obsessed
You know, I was thinking to myself just earlier today "gee, I've tried MonHun a few times, but every time I have I've bounced off of it; I wonder if Ratatoskr might have any thoughts on the subject" and here you go, scooping the idea right out of my skull and answering the question I hadn't even had the chance to ask.
At present, I don't have the money (or disk space) for MonHun, but tons of my online friends play it, so I really want to get into it too. Maybe, when I've got a new external drive and the extra cash, I'll give the game another shot.
the sense of wonder is what kept me playing back in monster hunter 1
Just starting the video so maybe you address this. But my biggest issue with mh has always been how frequently you get tossed around. It makes sense logically considering how big the monsters often are but christ if it isn't irritating. It's not even how hard or easy the combat is in a given scenario really. Just constantly getting hit when you try to do anything against a given monster. Some are worse than others but they really all have the issue to some extent. It always felt in mhw like I spent 50% of the time getting knocked on my ass 10% actually attacking/dodging and 40% sharpening my weapon (and let's not discuss how sharpening a blunt weapon makes no sense) 😂
Thats the point. You got tossed so much cuz u havent learn the monsters your weapon, timing and overall Flow. Thats why its so satysfining to learn the combat. Once you learn it you hardly get hit and you will feel like badass. Without dark there is no light. Without hard work there is no thst big satisfaction. Just keep playing. Try to learn one weapon and be patient in fight. Dont mash buttons. You rly need to wait for openings. Also sharpening in mh makes sense. The game has so much weapons and its rpg so you need to balance this in some way. Take these 2 weapons for example. Nargacuga has always weapon that has low raw dmg, huge afinity, 40% (and it has (in high rank) white sharpness. Then you have something like ninja sword in rise it has 100% afinity and better raw dmg then nargacuga ones so how to balance that? You give the ninja sword big Green sharpness wichs is weaker than white. Sharpness is increesing your weapon dmg Green is 100% blue 110% i think white 115 or 120% im not sure but you get the point. Sharpness is here to help balance weapons. Ninja sword has such a huge Green sharpness that you will never need to sharpen it in hunt but you get lower collor so your dmg output is not that hig also with Green sharpness your weapon cna bounc of hardest part of the monster. Narcagua weapon has white sharpness so it deals more dmg but you need to sharpen it more frenquently.
@@lumicka6046 I appreciate the advice 🙂, couple things though, I would never claim to be great at mh games by any means but I managed to get through mhw relatively easily. The only monsters I never got past were alatreon and fatalis. I admit my dodging was never my strong suit but it always feels like the smallest things stagger you're character. One of my most hated fights was that one dragon that generated tornadoes because I constantly felt like I could barely move much less get an attack off.
As for the sharpening I do get it to a certain extent but it always seemed a tad excessive how frequently one needs to do it, particularly early game when most weapons have far less bar and require much more sharpening. It also doesn't explain why sharpening a blunt weapon is necessary. From a gameplay standpoint I get it and you want the weapons to have a relatively uniform system. It's just pretty odd when one thinks about it and makes me chuckle 😂.
@@Jackraiden500 Tremor was really bad in World specifically, so that's probably part of why you got knocked on your ass so much. Roars too, kept you immobilized SO long.
@@JeanKP14 yeah that may be it, I have very little experience with any other mh games outside of world so it may be different 🙂
I remember playing MH 1 on the playstation 2 and when I first finally killed the Velocidrome and velociprey and made my new armour and weapon I felt like a bad ass at the time lol. The sheer satisfaction of getting each new peice of armour and weapons you are after really makes all the carts worth it.
a very well described video. I bounced off MHtri in my youth and tried it again with monster hunter generations on the 3ds, something clicked as soon as i found a weapon i liked, and then BAM, 2000 hours gone to varius monster hunter games lol. one of the few single player games i could just play and play and play and never feel bored
overall I think "flow" is the main difficult part for getting into old MH games, weapons don't seem to naturally flow from one attack to another.
the new generation I think you're spot on bcos one every weapon flows now and two it's obviously the souls like game play party that's most difficult for average/casual/new players to get into. but for someone like most of us here, it's that very type of gameplay that draws us in and for me makes souls games and MH my favourite type of games.
in the old games they flow too, but its a much slower pace of game. as A APlayer u also know that push the right buttons to the right time to let the charackter dance. naturlay on a low scale graphical level of course. but in the core its the same.
@@Pok-qq9lt from my experience playing GU, they really don't flow like they do now. There's obviously going to be exceptions/outliers like gun Lance or greatsword, but for example my main weapon switch axe is a completely different beast in world to GU.
I do have less to no experience with all other weapons in GU but from when I tried them all back before world even existed that was my biggest issue, being able to flow from one attack to another in a intuitive way that felt natural; for World & Rise/Sunbreak I'm able to pick up any weapon and use it at least well enough without practicing it's moves, naturally finding what moves works into another, GU I couldn't do that to save my life.
You are right tho that there is a slower flow that more experienced players will know all the timing for but from my experience it's clear to me that the modern games just have a flow that's more natural compared to older games and my experience isn't that far back of a game, older games might be far worse so even more understandable for people.
To finish off I will say this might be limited to a smaller scale of people than the whole, but it's still a issue I've at least faced so even if it's all relegated to a opinion level experience, this is my reason why.
My favourite story is the one where people come back to find they love MH, but it's also my bane. I have and will always champion monster hunter, but that story leads me to never lose hope that my friends will love it. How can you not love it? I always believe they just arent giving the game a chance, or not actively engaging with the game to the extent required. Whether they are or aren't I would always assume they haven't if they still dislike the series. Maybe on the next release of MH they will find their love, or maybe I'm insane trying to make pigs fly.
i'm most likely not giving it a chance, but when so many of its core lements EXCEPT the weapons variety is basically the opposite of what i like in gaming(and i'm a huge ds3, bloodborne and ds3 fan btw, if that can help give any context) then why should i?
i hate timed missions, i hate long fights that take a ton of time to retry, i hate having to look up guides to know how what i'm using works and how i'm supposed to use it, i hate that the only goal in the game(the only worth one anyway) is "just get stronger" and so on, it's basically mmo mentality and i really can't connect with that, just cause i like the weapon moveset variety and the idea of learning the enemy's moves doesn't mean i'll like the game.
i still won't consider it bad, it's just a different kind of game for different people.
@@iota-09 I never had to face the barrier to entry as an adult with lots of things pulling my interest, so its hard for me to relate perfectly. I personally really love the fights, challenge, and mastery of souls games and that is also what I like about monster hunter. In both games its the storyline I create with ups and downs, failures and victories. Sometimes I am fighting for my life against a boss barely squeezing out the win, and sometimes its facing an old foe with a new level of mastery or power. If you like that about the souls games then you will find that in monster hunter. The long fights I can understand, but I think its a matter of perspective. A monster in MH should take an average player about 15-20 minutes to complete with of level gear. If you are taking longer than you either need to get better at the fight or get better gear. A souls boss might take around 10 minutes for a player to beat in a specific attempt. It is longer for a monster hunter boss but not by leagues. The time spent failing the quest just is because a difference in game design, such that a monster hunter attempt can go on longer because generally you have more resources to drag out a single attempt. In souls if you are not good enough to beat a boss yet you tend to die and reset more frequently. The last point on the goal of the game being to get stronger I personally don't feel is the goal that is intended. My goal is first and foremost to progress to the next awesome boss and kill it. My secondary goal is to get new stuff so I can better beat the shit out of the next boss.
As far as guides and having a lot to learn, I can't deny that. It's a long running series with a lot of systems in place. The best I can say is that you don't have to interact with every system all at once.
The best I can give you is trying to share my perspective. The way I view most of my friends are that they would love it if they could some how view it with the child like patience and wonder that I had when I first played, because I know that a lot of the things they love about other games are shared with monster hunter.
This is some blasphemy that I wouldn't say if I didn't think it might help, but maybe try adding the UI mod to MH World, or MH Rise on PC if that's where you have played. It might help break down some walls in fights if losing long fights is an issue. It will give you a better idea of the progress you are making in a fight.
@@krycegames i've never had a fight in a souls game last 10 minutes... even in bloodborne which was my first souls, the longest it took me to beat the longest non-obviously extreme challenge boss was logarius at 9:45 minutes INCLUDING load times, runback and an excessively passive playstyle(you can actually see that video in my channel) so i'm not sure where you get the t10 minutes figure for souls bossfights, unless you're counting retries.... but, while sure, not all souls games are devoid of this, the issue for me isn't necessarily the total time spent on a fight, as much as the amount of time it takes to retry(fuck artorias's runback, it literally made me quit ds1 after just 5 tries of him even though i was able to try for 6 hours malenia) and the boss try itself, and between a 4-5 minutes fight and a 25 minutes fight there's a world of difference, especially when you got a timer looming on your head and you can't properly tell how much damage you've dealt to the enemy(if any, in the case you really are that bad at the game)
so... yeah i genuinely might try the ui mod if i find myself playing mh on pc, just for the enemy healthbar honestly(that's something that annoyed me in resident evil games too actually, but in those cases i endured it due to their surival horror game nature; if you could tell how many hits you needed to kill a boss, you wouldn't be trying to be that much more accurate with your shots to not waste ammo...) but i doubt it's gonna make the game enjoyable for me, not enough to make me a fan at least as there's also hit feedback which mh has only and exclusively(aside from the random stagger every few years of combos/tail cut) in the form of hitstop and nothing else, the slowness of the weapons REGARDLESS of the fact they are like souls in terms of non cancelable animations, the lack of a sensible goal beyond just getting stronger like it was an mmo, etc etc...
Monster hunter is a funny game for me. I remember seeing the first trailer during some presentation and hearing people go nuts over a guy cooking meat on a rotisserie. At the time I thought, I guess this is a teaser for a game people really like, not my thing though.
And I didn’t think of it again until I had a college roommate playing it and I saw him take on Zorah Magdaros. It’s kind of funny to think of that now, knowing what I know now about that fight. But a guy fighting a freaking massive Godzilla with a goddamn volcano on its back was so cool to me and it got me hooked. I bought world the same day and I’ve now put thousands of hours into it across Xbox and pc as well as into rise on switch and pc.
I’ll admit the combat and movement felt very clunky when I first started but the desire to go fight volcanic Godzilla kept me going. I tried hunting Great Jagras with every single weapon until I found one that I liked(ended up being the insect glaive). I was so bad at the time I considered Tobi to be a minor wall and Anjanath carted me way more than I’d like to admit. But the gameplay loop of getting slapped by a monster until I finally took it down and made its ass into a hat was really fulfilling and I always wanted to know what new skills each armor set was going to bring me.
I won't say it clicked immediately but by the time you hit the first big wall (Monster Hunter World players will know who that is) I had a decent feel for it. It finally clicked during that first big fight though. That was when I swapped from insect glaive to charge blade and CB just made total sense to me.
We literally just watched this happen with heyjay he went from saying he'd never play it to playing through a ton of the games
This was exactly what happened with me its wild that so many people have had the same experience with their first MH game
Fun thing about monster hunter is that grabbing a new weapon is like beginning monster hunter combat all over again
The weapon feels odd, it feels sluggish but eventually it clicks and you can enjoy the new weapon to its fullest
There are weapons other than Greatsword? ;)
i used to play dauntless because i didnt know monster hunter existed and when i found that monster hunter existed it was like a dream come true
I tried the game after putting 250 hours into Elden Ring, and didn't like it because it felt too sluggish, like I couldn't ever do what I wanted to. So I think your assessment is accurate, but I'm still not convinced I should give it another shot.
Hey there (bodies of text incoming, but I urge you to read :'D)
Yea as Rata said, mh combat is not the easiest to get into. Weapons are complicated to learn/master, and you have to combine that with learning the monster that you're facing. These 2 facets make it extremely difficult for someone who is starting out, and historically, the game doesn't do a good job at teaching you all the different combos and mechanics the weapon has to offer
Since mh world, efforts were made towards giving you basic combat tutorials in the 'training area'. It doesn't show you everything, but it gives you a taste for the weapon
As someone who started off HATING mh combat then later coming back and putting in nearly 2k hours across all the games, here's my advice:
-If you're playing either world or rise, go to the training area AND DO NOT LEAVE until you've played around with ALL of the 14 weapons and found at least one you like
- once you've found the weapon you like, IMMEDIATELY go onto RUclips and find a combat tutorial for that weapon for that game. I would recommend watching Arekkz Gaming, Gaijin Hunter and Rurikhan. Do the combos and moves as they are explaining and showcasing it. They'll explain the moves well enough that you'll understand their advantages and disadvantages, and when and when not to use them
- once you've gone through the weapons entire arsenal from the video, play around even more. Close the video and see if you can do all the combos and engage with all of the mechanics. It might take a while since there's a lot of mechanics to the weapon, but at this point you should at least be getting a bit more familiar
- now it's the time to actually play the game and start having at monsters. At first, observe the monsters movements and attacks. It's one thing to start practicing your weapon, but if you're getting smacked around not knowing the monster's moveset, you won't make any progress. So run around them, see their attacks and the openings they leave. Once you have basic identity of their moves, start fighting them. Start executing your moves on them. It might be rough in the beginning and you still might find yourself getting smacked about, but you'll start to learn and get better. Button mashing won't get you anywhere since inputs are buffered in a way that it prevents you from pressing many inputs and expecting moves to come out the very moment you do so. Of course, if you practiced your weapon in the training area there'd be no need to Button mash since youd know the combos somewhat
- Mastery will come with time :) You'll get really good at using your weapon that the only obstacles you'll have to cross is figuring out the monster. Mh combat to me is the best combat I've had to experience, and I've played many many games including the soulsborne series (at least elden ring bloodborne and ds3).
I wish you the best of luck. Sorry for writing bodies of text. I just really want as many people to enjoy mh as I have. Let me know how it goes. Cheers!
@@WisdomAkpan211 Hey I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. When I played the game, I didn't try out all the weapons. I basically just picked one that looked cool and learned the basic combos with it in the training mode.
Next time I come back to the game, I'll remember your advice!
@@WisdomAkpan211 I gave the game another shot, and I'm hooked this time. I'm playing with the hammer and doing everything solo while having a blast. Just beat the Pink Rathian after he defeated me on my first try. So far that's the only hunt I've failed at. It was very satisfying to retry the hunt and conquer him. Looking forward to tackling even harder foes.
Honestly, it wasn't getting the hang of the combat that got me hooked. Instead, I started to get hooked when I began to understand how to use various items. Shock traps and tranqs for capturing, dung pods for making unwanted monsters flee, explosive barrels for when the monster is sleeping, etc. Once I began interacting with all that stuff, everything started to make sense.
Im the oposite. I, just an hour ago, gave up. I had one previous playthrough of the game through iceborn, i didnt grind master level afterards. I never accessed the multi-biom content.
With some of my steam friends getting back into it, i was stoked at an opportunity to play again. To use different weapons than i had the first time through.
But i hate it. It didn't click this time. It could be the weapons didn't have the same appeal. It could be that I'm older now and dont have the requisite patience. Or what made the game novel in the first place, doesnt carry it through the process of relearning. It could be, that after having already struggling my way to Master Rank, being defeated now, in high rank, proves i never really got gud.
After Elden Ring, the attacks the monsters have in this game don't feel as fair. I recently took a hit from Rathalos which began a chain of attacks in which i never regained agency before i carted. 100 to 0 and the only attack i could say was avoidable, was the first. And it, probably landed while i was rooted from a roar or temmer.
Patience is probably key. I think you have to enjoy defeat and not mind time being wasted. I for some reason, cant seem to enjoy it this time around.
When you watch some hunters defeat monsters, they often keep a monster staggered and incapacitated till its dead. Sometimes they never have to avoid an attack. The sticky bowgun meta is great example of trivialising content.
Anyways it may require patience I cant manage this time. I dunno.
I suppose fighting the same monsters repeatedly to carve a ruby didn't help the enjoyment factor either. But fighting monsters repeatedly is kind of the concept. So.
Short answer: pick dual blades lol
I didn’t really like the game with the great sword but dual blades are super fluid and have alternate dodge moves.
After mastering them, I found the urge to learn other weapons and now I can appreciate them all