The slow, deliberate motions of old-school Monster Hunter are a rhythm that has become completely intoxicating to me. Though the clunk and abrasiveness makes it hard to break into, whenever it hooks its claws into me I'm not coming back out for a long, long time.
The stiffness of the combat creates its own form of satisfaction; sure, it's silly that monsters still turn around 90 degrees at a time 10 years into the series, but that makes them predictable. Bringing the hammer or greatsword down right as their head flicks around the second time, and rolling away just before they charge. This sort of learning is quintessential to the experience - you're not watching for tells and just learning when to dodge-roll through or away from them, you're watching for blind spots, openings and movement patterns to take advantage of, and getting out before you get kicked into the dirt. The comparison I'm making here is pretty obvious - whilst fights in Dark Souls (and its suffocating amount of derivatives) can feel like a deadly dance in their intimate call-and-response, Monster Hunter is far more adverserial as you uncover every dirty trick in the book to break the other dancer's legs before they can finish their act.
And what's a trickster without their tools? Preparation is vital to topple a whole host of monsters without nauseating headaches - as anyone who forgot to bring Flash Bombs against a Rathalos will tell you - but it really opens up once you stop simply bringing what's expected and start bringing along whatever you think might be useful. As a simple example, bringing traps to every difficult-seeming quest and dropping it in the seconds before the monsters sights me lets me, as a Hammer, get a ton of easy damage on the head before the fight even starts; but as a trickier example, have you ever tried flashing a monster in the couple of seconds it hovers after breaking out of a pitfall? You can get a flash knockdown on monsters like Tigrex or Diablos like that, and basically double your pitfall value. Obviously the possibilities aren't endless and you do only have a limited amount of tools to work with - most are designed for specific situations, as well - but even as I'm typing this I'm thinking of new ways I can use these limited tools to my advantage. And regardless of whether you're bringing Smoke Bombs for some bizarre strategy or just bringing Cool Drinks because it's a quest in Volcanic Hollow, this active preparation effectively begins the hunt before you enter the map, by making you look at the monster and the environment and decide what you need to bring.
I realise that through all this I've only talked about Monster Hunter, and not Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The truth is, I don't actually like a lot of the new features from 4U! The village journey is, of course, great, but a lot of the new mechanics, monsters and maps aren't even all that appealing to me! (Sorry guys, but I think Zamtrios kinda sucks - you have my express permission to be mean to me in the comments.) But whenever I'm not getting my evasions ruined by all the ledges in Zone 2 Dunes, it all feels like nitpicks when put up against the greatness of the gameplay - the feeling of topping a great monster, rather than just defeating a boss. It's a heavily refined Monster Hunter experience, and what more does it need to be?
Monster Hunter is a very dear franchise to me, to the extent where I can curse getting my shit rocked for half an hour at a time and still come back to give it a near-perfect score. While its clunkiness and how punishing it can be make it a hard sell to the average person, for anyone with prior MH experience or just looking for something demanding in an interesting way, I cannot recommend this game enough.
The stiffness of the combat creates its own form of satisfaction; sure, it's silly that monsters still turn around 90 degrees at a time 10 years into the series, but that makes them predictable. Bringing the hammer or greatsword down right as their head flicks around the second time, and rolling away just before they charge. This sort of learning is quintessential to the experience - you're not watching for tells and just learning when to dodge-roll through or away from them, you're watching for blind spots, openings and movement patterns to take advantage of, and getting out before you get kicked into the dirt. The comparison I'm making here is pretty obvious - whilst fights in Dark Souls (and its suffocating amount of derivatives) can feel like a deadly dance in their intimate call-and-response, Monster Hunter is far more adverserial as you uncover every dirty trick in the book to break the other dancer's legs before they can finish their act.
And what's a trickster without their tools? Preparation is vital to topple a whole host of monsters without nauseating headaches - as anyone who forgot to bring Flash Bombs against a Rathalos will tell you - but it really opens up once you stop simply bringing what's expected and start bringing along whatever you think might be useful. As a simple example, bringing traps to every difficult-seeming quest and dropping it in the seconds before the monsters sights me lets me, as a Hammer, get a ton of easy damage on the head before the fight even starts; but as a trickier example, have you ever tried flashing a monster in the couple of seconds it hovers after breaking out of a pitfall? You can get a flash knockdown on monsters like Tigrex or Diablos like that, and basically double your pitfall value. Obviously the possibilities aren't endless and you do only have a limited amount of tools to work with - most are designed for specific situations, as well - but even as I'm typing this I'm thinking of new ways I can use these limited tools to my advantage. And regardless of whether you're bringing Smoke Bombs for some bizarre strategy or just bringing Cool Drinks because it's a quest in Volcanic Hollow, this active preparation effectively begins the hunt before you enter the map, by making you look at the monster and the environment and decide what you need to bring.
I realise that through all this I've only talked about Monster Hunter, and not Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The truth is, I don't actually like a lot of the new features from 4U! The village journey is, of course, great, but a lot of the new mechanics, monsters and maps aren't even all that appealing to me! (Sorry guys, but I think Zamtrios kinda sucks - you have my express permission to be mean to me in the comments.) But whenever I'm not getting my evasions ruined by all the ledges in Zone 2 Dunes, it all feels like nitpicks when put up against the greatness of the gameplay - the feeling of topping a great monster, rather than just defeating a boss. It's a heavily refined Monster Hunter experience, and what more does it need to be?
Monster Hunter is a very dear franchise to me, to the extent where I can curse getting my shit rocked for half an hour at a time and still come back to give it a near-perfect score. While its clunkiness and how punishing it can be make it a hard sell to the average person, for anyone with prior MH experience or just looking for something demanding in an interesting way, I cannot recommend this game enough.
faea
1 year ago