I beat the Great Jaggi and Qurupeco (helluva challenge for just a demo!) using the long sword.

No visible meter, but its behavior changes as you get it down there. It'll start to pant and drool, and you can also notice critical junctures when it'll sorta collapse on the ground and convulse, then get up again.

Also it'll run away more frequently as it grows weaker.

I got the demo and I love this game. I played with the Wiimote + nunchuk and it was kind of hard to play with, I switched to the classic controller and it was much easier. I beat the 2 quests with the classic controller and used the switch axe 1. I will pre-order MH3 tomorrow with black classic controller Pro tomorrow. Can't wait!

What are the controls with the CC?

@bolded

Wait, what? I found the nunchuck Wii controller to work quite well. You just need to keep your wii controller with the buttons face up (to the ceiling because sometimes face up towards is another attack command) the whole time and you can twist the controller left, right, towards you, or waggle (which works brilliantly on the sword and shield) to do another attack command or even lead to a combo.

If you have shaky hands and can't handle the pressure while fighting tediously for 20 minutes max, then yeah, maybe you should use the classic controller. Otherwise this freestyle control works well when you don't have time to memorize button combos and want to use a pick up and play style (and this being demo works well).

^ I played the japanese demo a little while back and found the wiimote + nunchuk hard to use even though I had the button layout in front of me. There's no way I could keep my controller perfectly level while playing for any extended period of time. It works poorly from my experience, so it's no wonder they're bundling this with a classic controller.

just got it, and i agree. this game is damn hard. but it's still fun as hell. cant wait to get the real thing.

Great demo for what seems to be a great game.
They were giving out the demo before release and didn't push a pre-order although they made sure to tell me about all the pre-order bonuses after giving me the disc.
The game kinda reminds me of Demon's Souls in that you have to learn how the character moves and his combos before you become effective at slaying beasts. I found the dodge button to be my best friend as I romped around with the switchblade. Long sword rocks too but have yet to try the other weapons. Had no problems with the wiimote/nunchuck combo but I'm pretty used to the combo by now so that may help  ;)

The long sword is absolutely ridiculous once you start getting the hang of the R combo. If you get the last swing to hit the damage of all your attacks starts to go up. Getting it to red and then going berserker mode slaughters the monsters.

Has anyone else gotten the dragon thingy to come on the second mission? I saw it my first time playing that mission, but I got pummeled. Since then it has just been the Jaggi. I am hoping there is a trick to it rather than just being random. Otherwise I will need to spend a lot of time hunting the same thing waiting for the rare trigger.

"The long sword is absolutely ridiculous once you start getting the hang of the R combo."

How do you do that (with the Wiimote)?