Beginners Guide to Monster Hunter
Why I made this guide: The Monster Hunter Series of games (by Capcom) has been growing in popularity (particularly in Japan) every since it was ported to the PSP in late 2005 and especially since it was announced that the Wii was getting the sequel (Monster Hunter 3), there have been a lot more posts about this game. I see lots of people posting saying this game is an RPG and classifying it incorrectly, so it dawned upon me to write this guide, for the users of VG Chartz, so that as Monster Hunter 3’s release draws near, and the hype for this game reaches near-epic levels, users will be able to refer to this thread to learn information about the series.
Series Background: The original Monster Hunter was developed and published by Capcom, and released on Sony’s PlayStation 2 console in March 2004 in Japan, September in America, and May 2005 in Europe. The game was exceedingly mediocre if review sites are to be believed, and sales were fairly lackluster (VGC only has Japanese Data in), but for some reason, Capcom decided to give this game a sequel. Monster Hunter G was developed and published by Capcom, and released only in Japan in January of 2005, just ten months after the original was released. The game was a mild upgrade from the original. A few new monsters, weapons, and tweaks here and there, but no real reason to upgrade aside from improved online play from the first (more on that later). Again, lackluster sales (50k less than it’s predecessor), but for some reason, Capcom keeps the series going. Monster Hunter 2 was announced, along with Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP. Monster Hunter 2 was the actual sequel to the original Monster Hunter, while Monster Hunter Freedom was a port of Monster Hunter G. Monster Hunter Freedom was released on the PSP in Japan in December of 2005. This game was different though. It sold better than it’s predecessors after only four weeks on the market. Capcom had a bona-fide hit on it’s hand.
Monster Hunter 2 was released for the PlayStation 2 only in Japan in February of 2006, and again, a sales success. Monster Hunter 2 was able to outsell Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter G, and beat Monster Hunter Freedom’s first week sales all in it’s first week. So what’s next in the developer/publisher book of games that sell really well? Milk it! Monster Hunter Freedom was localized for American and European audiences and released in May of 2006. The game did not go over well for these audiences, with total sales of the two only adding up to less than 1/3 of the game’s total sales. But that didn’t matter, the game sold astoundingly well in Japan. In 2006, Capcom announced Monster Hunter 3 would be developed and published on Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 console, and that Monster Hunter Freedom 2 would be released in Japan in February of 2007.
So February of 2007 rolls around, and Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is released. Mass hysteria ensues. The game managed to sell 740k in it’s first week of sales, and went on to outsell every other game in the franchise by selling 2.19 million units around the world, 1.75 million of those being in Japan. This feat was very big, as the PSP was never a very good software selling system, and this game defied the odds by selling extremely well. So again, what to do with a game that sells well? Sequelize it! Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd G is what Monster Hunter G was to the original Monster Hunter. A semi-sequel that allows you to keep your game save, as the game is really unchanged from MHF; Same engine but a couple of new monsters and weapons.
The game launched in Japan on March 27, 2008 to great commercial success. First week sales were amazing (the best of 2008, according to VG Chartz, so far) at 857k in the first week. But second week sales were even more astounding. With the game having that kind of opening, one would expect the drop-off in the second week to be huge, but it only fell to 580k the second week. The game has been out for ten weeks, and is already the best selling Monster Hunter game to date. With 2.25 million in sales, without having been released in America or Europe.
Capcom has recently announced that the Monster Hunter Series has gone on to sell over 6.3 million units so far, becoming one of their best selling franchises ever.
About the Game: First off, I see many people referring to this game as an “RPG” or some variation thereof, and I’d like everyone to know that this game is about as far from an RPG as you can get. First, there is no storyline to be had in this game. This is a game that relies solely on it’s excellent gameplay, and has been critically panned for the reason above, there’s no driving reason that your character hunts monsters, other than “the hell of it.” If you would like to classify the game (I tend not to), it’d be safe to call it an Action/RPG-slash-Sim-slash-Strategy game.
You ask, “How can you classify a game like that?” Simple. The game get’s the Action/RPG from the actual hunting of the monsters. You are tasked with going to a certain area, and hunting a certain monster (hunting quests), or slaying a certain number of smaller weaker monsters (slaying quests). You can use a number of weapons to get that done (more on that in the Weapons section), and are given a time limit to complete the mission.
The game gets the “Sim” label from the Farm in the village (more on that later). The farm is essentially a place that you go to mine for ore to get stronger weapons, plant and fertilize the field to grow herbs, go fishing to use for various reasons, and a bug thicket for capturing bugs to use in combining ingredients for things as simple as health, or keeping your stamina up, or increasing your attack or defense.
The game gets the “Strategy” label from what you do before each mission. Each monster you face (with the exception of one) is weak to one type of element or another. Some monsters are tall, some are short, and strategy rears it’s head here. There are ten or eleven different weapons to choose from which range from your normal sword and shield to a huge sword (called a greatsword), that is really slow, but has an amazing amount of power. But each monster has a weapon that’s best suited to kill them quickly and easily with little or no trouble, or at least, the least amount of trouble that you can complete a mission. So there, Monster Hunter isn’t an RPG, glad I put that to rest.
Home Village: The home village (known as Kokoto in Monster MHF and Pokke in MHF2 and 2G) is your HUB for the game. It consists of your house, the gathering hall, the Pokke Farm (Which we’ve already covered), shops where you can buy things, The Village Elder, and the Felyne (actually spelled like this) Kitchen. I will give a quick overview of each of these things.
House – Your home. You can save the game here, and change your equipment or take out items, and put items in your item box. You can also sell items using your item box.
Gathering Hall – This comes in offline and online sections. There is an offline gathering hall where you can complete missions by yourself. In the online section, you can complete them with someone who (on the original MH and in Japan) is online at the same time (But in America) is in the same room as you (Ad-hoc, PSP). You can play with up to four people at the same time completing missions. This is where the popularity of this game goes. This is the funnest part of the game.
Shops – There are a few shops in town. One to buy items, one to hire Felynes, and another to craft or improve your weapons or armor (More on that later).
Felyne Kitchen – You can go to the Felyne Kitchen and pay them to make food for you, there are different combinations of food, and your success can and will hinge on using them to your advantage. Everything from health and attack boosts, to resistance to different types of damage aid very much in completing quests. The more felines you have, the stronger the effects of the food.
The Village Elder – This is where you go to complete missions all by yourself. This missions are not as hard as the guild quest missions, and are only able to be done when playing by yourself. Same thing as the guild quests, but just with one person.
Weapons/Armor: The meat and bread of this game is combining everything that I have mentioned above to get the armor you want. Using the Farm to get items hard to obtain, or unobtainable otherwise, hunting monsters so that you can carve certain materials off of them all culminates here. You can create and improve your weapons while in the Home village. There are ten weapons in the games, but I’ll only go over a few.
Longsword/Greatsword – A longsword is a long, thin sword that if you get enough hits off on a foe in succession, you can unleash a Spirit Attack, dealing massive damage. It is quick, but not as powerful as a greatsword. A greatsword is the exact opposite. Not very fast, but as strong as an ox. I mean very, very strong. You have a charge attack, that when charged to the highest level, does an attack tripling that of your normal attack power.
Hunting Horn – The weapon of choice when you are hunting with more than one person. The hunting horn is able to play music that can help out your fellow teammates by giving them health, resistance to different elements, and can bring your stats up. Very necessary when hunting the harder monsters in the game.
Hammer – Another strong weapon. Slow, like the greatsword but just as strong. What differentiates it from the greatsword is being able to attack in quick succession, unlike the greatsword which is slower and cannot attack in quick succession.
And that’s it!
A general quick overview of the game for people who don’t know what the game is. There is tons more depth than this small overview that I’ve given you, I’ve merely scratched the surface of what there is in the game.
For those who are interested in the game, Gamestop is having a sale on Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the month of June, it’s only 20$ (that’s 20 bucks off the MSRP.)
Hope this helps!
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