Topic: Monster Hunter: World

@Octane

What's up with everyone making Geralt characters. Are you new to the series?

@JaxonH Well, I played a bit of Tri back in the day. I just don't like character creation in games. I usually go with the default, but whatever, I messed around a bit since I don't have access to the Aloy costume yet.

@Grumblevolcano @JaxonH Japanese sales numbers seem to be right around 1 million. Nowhere near close 4U's and Gen's launch numbers in the region.

The big issue I see is that Capcom could very well decide to make a more traditional MH game for the Switch but not bother localizing it, when that's something I would greatly desire

@Tsurii I know!

By the way, why was there a fish in my veggie dish?

It's awesome that this game is doing well. That supports more resources put into each individual game, that supports longer dev cycles, and most of all it supports the fantasy ecosystem focus that Monster Hunter had gotten away from. I don't expect Capcom will stop annualizing the series, but they might maintain the main team at its current size and beefy up the portable one to be able to develop off year titles faster.

I hope this means we'll get some sick expansions and that free monster DLC will go on longer than it did for games like ARMS. And when World Ultimate and the PC release roll around it could reinvigorate a second round of DLC — I suppose that depends on if people play this like an MMO though.

@JaxonH My bet is "World 2" or World Universal or Monster Hunter Odyssey, or Monster Hunter Extreme Golden: Return to the World: X-Hunter Edition ZZ, because why bother with sensical names anymore, will in fact be MHW 1.5, and will be on all platforms including Switch. I can't see them doing a custom Switch exclusive one (unless sales on World tank hard....which is still very possible at this point), but I can't see them cutting out most of the MH audience in Japan. i HOPE Capcom is also considering the next entry on "all platforms but Switch" may not do as well as the first. This one has a lot of interest piqued through HEAVY Sony marketing and pushing. A lot of people might buy, dip their toes, and lose interest, inflating the sales of MHW beyond what future entries would sustain.

They've basically traded one market for another.....the old one was loyal and repeating, the new one is experimental and untested (think of how the Wii tapped a new audience that didn't sustain the product.) And the new market cost a LOT more to cater to. They only way to fix the dilemma is include Switch next go and unify it. Technically there's no reason they can't port World, scale the visuals down, add some DLC, and release it as a "sequel" on all platforms + Switch. Heck S-E is porting FFXV to UE4 JUST to put it on Switch. Capcom has a LOT less franchises to have to worry about working on.

@CrazedCavalier It's possible, and it would be very Capcom....Though then they end up with "Western MH" and "Japan MH" and "Japan MH" will then always be "real MH." That's not an ideal situation for them. "Western RE" and "Western DmC" didn't go over so well either. XX was just a cash grab and a "please don't abandon us, Nintendo" gambit so it doesn't really indicate the future of MH on Switch. And Switch's success in the West can't be ignored.

I see a unification next release as the only way forward that's economical. There is ZERO reason a world-like game can't run on Switch if they just tool the engine for it. It's pretty but it's not THAT complex.

@NEStalgia
Not seeing World Ultimate coming to Switch. It's just not.

The time it would take to port the game would be incredivle since there's no engine for it on Switch yet. And it's just too demanding. They'd have to redo every single texture in the game, play with the res (And we'd be talking 720p max, and even that's a stretch). Draw distances cut down, all the endemic life in the maps would need to be removed... And even if they figured all of that out, it would have been long since released and forgotten by the time it hit Switch.

No, this entry is a lost cause for Switch. It's like FFXV. By the time it ever manage to come- if they even could figure out how to bring it, people would be ready for Final Fantasy 16 by then.

The next portable entry will surely be a new game. Question is, will it be an easy cash grab using MHXX engine, will it be ground up exclusive and following the modern blueprint, or will it be ground up and up-ported to other consoles.

World isn't gonna fail. At worst it'll pan out on par with previous entries. Less in Japan, more in the west. Whether that'll be deemed "worth it" considering the massive budget and multi-platform development... Idk. As a long term investment, yes. Because it'll make new fans that'll buy future entries. In fact, World might be the best thing that could have happened for a future portable entry. Not only does it raise the quality bar which gamers will appreciate, it'll make new fans, many of whom will now actually care when they see a new Switch version announced down the line. They might even go out and buy a system for it, whereas had this game not released they never would have paid attention at all.

But the bottom line is, yes, console entries now have the western audience while portable entries have the eastern audience. How can the two be consolidated into one? Switch is the answer, it's just not clear if it's popular enough to do that all on its own (since it does offer console play also) or as an extra platform.

Personally, I don't care what they do. As long as I get a portable entry too I'm good. It can be it's own game or part of a multiplatform release, makes no difference to me. Just so long as they keep the modern formula. I'm sold on it now.

@JaxonH I think World Ultimate will just be a paid digital expansion for World rather than a separate game like MH3U/MH4U. Unlike the 3DS, World's platforms are DLC heavy.

@Grumblevolcano

I think you're right, but, I would be shocked and amazed if they did not release it again at retail like SFV arcade edition for $49.99 or even $39.99. That's how they make big money. Repackage it and resell it. That's especially true when we have historical precedent, and not just within the MH series.

@JaxonH Not "World Ultimate" meaning a rebundle of the existing game. I mean a 1.5 sequel that's a different game. (You know, like Generations was to 4 & 4U.)

FFXV AFAIK they're porting to UE4....it'll be late but it'll get there (and given the FF dev times, a good decade before XVI is ready )

So, new game, yeah, but I don't see it being an exclusive, OR a 3DS port cash grab. I see it being a unified game. For lack of better names, we'll call it MHW2: Worse GFX so it can work on Switch and the other platforms. It's really the only path forward for them I can see that doesn't end up costing more than they can bear.

World....yeah, like you said the massive budget and multiplat budget....to make that "worth it" it would have to either permanently grow the market in a meaningful way (I.E. create loyal customers in the West), or massively boost sales. The latter is unlikely, so they need the first. We won't know until MHW2 if the first really pulled in new loyal customers, or if it was a one time infatuation for the new audience. That's an expensive gamble to find out. Thus the unified Worse GFX edition next time around that needs to pull Switch, and Japan, back in. I'm still unconvinced the LOYAL (I.E. will buy future entries) audience will increase significantly (It'll increase but I don't know about significantly.) The PS4/X1 audience generally has very different tastes than this type of grindy game. Marketing got a lot of buy-in, but I don't know if that will translate to repeat buy-in. The PC crowd, IMO is the most likely to actually become loyal fans. Sure World is somewhat more Westernized, but only so much so (which is surprising.)

I agree completely with the last paragraph though! I loved the MHW demo, but I don't see myself buying it full price. Deep sales later on, sure, I'd bite. But I just wouldn't play it like I'd play portable. And I'm not even an MH die-hard, I just mess around with early hunts

@JaxonH I could see either way, depends whether digital takes further control by the time the expansion came out. They could do the approach Nintendo has done for a fair few Switch games and just have a digital bundle containing the base game and expansion.

@Grumblevolcano That's already commonplace on all platforms. "Digital Deluxe Edition" etc.

@JaxonH @Grumblevolcano I'm predicting G-rank will be a $30-$40 downloadable expansion and they'll do a "complete edition" re-release alongside it.

The Insect Glaive is such a fun weapon.

I mained glaive back in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. I loved it.

But keeping up the buffs was incredibly tedious. I just don't have it in me to pick up the glaive again.

I'm maining charge blade this time. They really should have added a new weapon or two. I've mastered pretty much every weapon there is, aside from 3 which I have no interest in. Or at least have kept Prowler mode in. That would've been awesome paddling around lakes in an inflatable raft.

Half of Generations' maps and most of its monsters were from 4 (or monsters that were reused in 4). So, they can't simply do that again, they would need new maps unless they wanted to do some ambitious downscaling in areas like the Ancient Forest. The monsters they'll probably make work, but the ecosystem aspect is also important if you don't just want to be playing a $60 shadow of the game World is.

I'd be 100% game with maps from World. They reuse maps in other games, so why not. Especially if a new game is to follow this new blueprint then it's going to have maps like that anyways. The only difference would be quality of the textures, really. Maybe a bit less foliage.

But they might just want to do something new, or maybe even go with a completely different approach than either. Something more modern but still suitable to the system it's on.

Alright, a few questions. Is this game going to take me to the PS+ subscription page every time I boot it up? Because it's pretty annoying. And even if I cancel, I [b]have[b] to spend a minute looking for an online session (which I can't access to begin with), only to be told I can't and that I can continue the game in offline mode. Which is something I wanted to do anyway.

It's pretty annoying, because booting the game takes way longer than it should.

EDIT: And the game still proceeds to look for party members whenever I want to start a quest... why..?

I just create a private room. It's weird the game is so online heavy despite being perhaps the most singleplayer Monster Hunter since the LAN days, but it's not terribly obtrusive after you learn how to work it (like many things in MH).

Idk why they did that. I really hate it when games force the online.

But if you set the controller down for a while it'll deactivate the online and go into offline mode. This is how I spend most my time playing. I don't want a squad member just popping up in the automatic online session when I'm trying to play solo.