Topic: Monster Hunter: World

Never really cared for the blood to begin with...and they actually never "ported" monsters. (that was Generations for the most part, a different team)

I mean seriously, they made Fatalis actually ENJOYABLE. You know, that dragon that was super boring in the old games?

@Joeynator3000 Since they're bringing over "lots of old monsters", I don't see most of them getting re-done. Considering they put Rathalos on the cover and have been completely silent about a proper flagship (if anything, Rathalos is looking like it from footage), I'm afraid there's going to be early-gen bias again.
And thankfully I never had the misfortune of playing of the series pre-Tri.

The blood has been part of the series and looked flashy while illustrating the amount of damage you were doing.
And seems like my griping was over nothing:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=240996147&post...
That's blood. More realistic (dripping downwards) and looking like dirt because of image quality, but blood nonetheless.

Anyways, more impressions:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=241002147&post...
LS, DB, HBG, Bow... GS is the only weapon shown off that hasn't got a flashy new attack to it.

...You've never played 4U have you?...

@Joeynator3000 What? I've been a fan of the series since Tri. Where did you get the idea I hadn't played 4U?
That's why I'm complaining about early gen bias-- 4/4U had few new monsters and focused instead on bringing gen 1 and 2 monsters over. They touched up a few hitboxes, but I still found them rather "eh" at best. And Fatalis still isn't anything impressive. Maybe it's a testament to how bad those monsters originally were.

Either way, I'd rather have them bring over more 3rd and 4th gen monsters than 1st and 2nd gen ones because they're a lot more polished and fun, IMO.

Here's another source! I totally didn't expect this to leak.

I imagine it'll get criticized by purists, but I like the scout flies mechanic and the voice acting on the guild marm (?), the later of which will certainly help new players learn arcane concepts like sharpness, etc.

They made all of the different weapons' charge attacks look similar, even the long sword's spirit combo. I like the new, cleaner look, and the little bit of light generated by each weapon strike looks incredible. Again, it's exactly like the opening videos — how strikes on a monster's hide feel like metal on metal almost. Even the damage numbers aren't obtrusive at all.

Same feeling. I was smiling like a damn fool when they brought the long sword guy out.

I hadn't thought about that! I wonder how they would deal with mating in this game — maybe there's just that traditional mission where you have to hunt both Raths, but they protect each other? Dunno, might be asking too much.

100% agree. This Rathalos looks like he has been totally remade again after being polished up a bunch in Tri already, but the rest of gen 1 and 2 made 4U and Cross worse games IMO. I can't see the development team letting those monsters past them, with the exception of Tigrex who will probably receive a full rebuild as well. But yeah, with as much detail as Gaijinhunter implied the new models and hitboxes have, I can't imagine the developers allowing some old models (that wouldn't even look good in HD) into World. Third and fourth gen wouldn't need much changing besides monster v monster animations and little model / hitbox bumps though.

4U monsters seemed a LOT better than in Freedom Unite and such, Garuga was super boring and easy in Unite's low rank for example. (yet he beat the crap out of me in 4U) Even Khezu had some improvements despite him still roaring constantly, back then eh would just spam the same attack over and over.

Wow. That video alleviates most concerns I had.

The difficulty looks still in tact, mounts weren't abused, lots of animations still in tact...

Ya. That'll do er. They did us MH fans right. Cause they could have easily gone overboard in their thirst for Japan-like sales in the west and changed too much. Unfortunately, non-fans seem to be a little lukewarm on it still. I was reading some reactions of non-fans in an interview to see what new players thought, and they just didn't really seem interested much. Just goes to show that no matter how good the graphics are, core games like this, like Dark Souls... they just don't have mass appeal in the west.

That's ok though. The Monster Hunter fans will be there. This does kinda make me want to see the more traditional experience continue alongside it though. I'll be very happy to see what they continue to bring on the portable side (even if I have to import it, because I'm past the point of caring about it being in JP)

@JaxonH I would believe that if you could get an online gaming community on this continent to shut up about Dark Souls ever. That series is more popular than Monster Hunter because it uses 'the hardest game ever made' for its branding. It's pretty stupid honestly, people ignore MH for being on Nintendo consoles which are equated with children even though it's obviously better made.

This game really looks epic and I'm definitely okay with a lot of the changes they're making to the game. I hope the White Fatalis appears again. It's such a simple monster but I just love it.

@Haru17
Agreed.

It's just the point that even Dark Souls 3, their biggest, massive AAA entry in the series... even that only "shipped" 3m copies. And people talk about that game way more than MH, so I think MHW would be lucky to reach that... But even if it did, MH4U, an exclusive entry on sub-HD handheld which only accounts for 10% of the market in the west... even it sold 1m in the West alone.

So it doesn't seem the AAA treatment will ever propel it into the mainstream. It'll get more popular, for sure, how can it not when it's hitting 3 separate platforms and appeals to people's lust for visual candy... But Idk if it's going to be considered "worth it" to Capcom when everything is said and done, given the high budgets this game surely would have needed, not to mention the manpower for it and developing it for 3 separate platforms, and the fact they would have had at least 1m sales in the west guaranteed keeping the series on handheld, but also would see 4m from Japan.

I'm not complaining though. I'm glad to see the game get a significantly higher budget, finally. If anything, it might mean getting the handheld games localized on Switch also, if they know they can see half as many sales in the west for 1/10 the budget. That'd be nice. We'd have TWO lines of the franchise to look forward to, and it'd be present for every console so no matter what everyone is happy.

@JaxonH Yeah, I figure Monster Hunter will be on Switch in the west within a year of World's release, rumor or not. And I hope the Switch entry isn't 1/10 of the budget, lmao. After World it'll be hard to go back to less intricate environments, zoned or not. I really hope the Switch Monster Hunter is just an Ultimate version of World with maybe a brand new 6th area — taking the same game on the go (or just on the couch while someone else uses TV and you grind) would be perfect.

The gameplay looks like they've incorporated aerial style into the base move sets in a way that doesn't break most monster fights, as well as brave style charges and some hunter arts like the heavy bowgun's rapid fire thing. And, again, I really think it's a cleaner and more balanced way of doing things than having 14 weapons and 6 different styles for each of them, some of which don't work well or don't work the way you would think they would.

Anyway the guild has actually outfitted these wyverns with harnesses, and the ropes aren't Slingers but rather loops the hunters can put their feet through. This is a really cool evolution of the hunters' in-universe immunity to injury from falling, and means Capcom is designing the environments to be looks at from every angle. I wonder how much we'll get to appreciate the view on the flight in...

I still hope for XX showing up here to hold us over until then, maybe World is going to the Switch and is just taking longer due to the system itself. At the same time, maybe the World side and traditional MH can exist at the same time. (maybe Nintendo can hold on to and continue to localize the traditional MH games)

I dunno really, way too many possibilities here. I just hope they don't ditch Nintendo in the west since they have been helping the series out a lot.

@Haru17
That would be great, or at least a nice middle ground between this and what's come before. A compromise in between (But still much better than 3DS ports in HD).

But honestly, even MHXX looks perfectly fine to me. I actually thought it looked excellent before having a realistic entry to compare to. It's familiar, and I like familiar. It'll look better on the Switch screen too. I just don't wanna go back to sub-HD on 3DS with jaggies (no pun intended) and a C nub. If MHXX can look as nice as it does as a port, then a ground up Switch game would look incredible, even if it's not realism like World. But if they do go that route, hey, all the better. Having a World styled game on handheld would be a dream. Guess all I'm sayin is I still love the traditional games and wouldn't feel insulted if it didn't look like that. Just having the game on Switch period would satiate my desires.

Anyways, I never really liked Hunter Arts that much. I'm not sad to see them go. The evasion was appreciated but made it too easy. I always liked to earn my evasion through skill sets.

I wonder what kind of diversity we'll see for the maps. Deserts? Tundra? Swamps and jungle already seem covered. Maybe mountains like Misty Peaks? Will arena battles be in?

And most of all, will Deviljho, party crasher extraordinaire, be in the game? He's gotta be. What about charms? And meals before hunts? So many questions. But that's good. It's been a long time since a game got me this excited where I wanna talk about it non stop. Gonna be a long 9 months. At least XX will calm my nerves a bit while waiting.

Preordered both versions today for store pickup at BestBuy. Have friends on both platforms and wanna play with everyone. Seriously taking a week off at launch. Get off work, swing by for store pickup and hunt for 9 days straight. #BingeHunt

...Tundra isn't in XX, actually. lol

@JaxonH I was actually pretty disappointed when Double Cross was first announced for 3DS in that Japanese Direct last October. I didn't expect an ultimate version for what was already a compilation title. I expected next gen, something new, something better — and to be fair I was right. That existed. I grew a little more excited about it thinking of the smoother double analogue stick controls on Switch and the bonus content they could add in. Then I lost a little hype once Gaijinhunter explained that the Switch and 3DS versions had to be content-identical for cross-play, and when World was announced on Monday my hype made the jump too.

New monsters are ultimately what I'm in it for. I hope we get Valfalk in some form eventually, but the end boss and its arena was honestly a big disappointment compared to how cool of a fight Nakarkos was. That's the fight I'm really missing seeing in HD, especially that awesome death animation, but I can watch that on YouTube when XX comes out in Japan.

To be honest fourth gen was a disappointment to me from the start for me. The areas always let down the mechanics, and reskinning the Sunken Hollow and 'forgetting' the nighttime versions for every single area until the Dunes were added in Ultimate just felt cheap. Like not treating Monster Hunter like a AAA series because it's on a handheld and people wont notice it. And it's really not a question of graphics, but it was disappointing to see how much more artificial the 10 or so jungle gym areas looked than third gen's underwater ones. I'm really glad World incorporates them in a way that feels natural and doesn't break the world again.

720-900p 30 fps for World on Switch wouldn't be bad at all, especially not with how much better those environments look. As a Monster Hunter fan, I'm much more concerned with content than tech specs.

And I was asking myself the new area question too! I expect we can see five new areas like the launch of Tri (sans peaks) and 4 (sans dunes, heh). I really want to see what they can do with a volcano and snowy mountain area nowadays: Just imagine being able to fully explore Volcano 3rd's caverns made of molten slag, ocean shallows steaming from volcanic meteors, and thin rock paths amid seas of fire. I'm not sure what the other two areas would be. I'm not a big fan of the Misty Peaks, and I definitely don't need another desert map, so just something unique and beautiful like the Frozen Seaway or Primal Forest would be nice. Except one where we can explore the more interesting parts like the skeletons of towering behemoths, giant storm spires, mysterious red-rusted rocks and ships.

...Atoraru Ka a bigger disappointment compared to Nakarkos? Wat? The stupid bug drives a GIANT MECH! lol

Dah-ren and Jhen in the same quest at the same time. Make it happen. lol

According to a translation of an interview with a French site, Capcom judge Monster Hunter World to have the most content of any game in the series.

What that content is and how they weight it who knows. The only reference we have on that beyond extrapolation from past entries is how they claim the new maps are 2.5 times the size of maps in previous Monster Hunter games, while still maintaining density in those environments.

That's promising, but it depends on what they mean by content. For instance, Generations had a lot of quests, but a lot of them were boring quests to gather resources, hunt lots of tiny pathetic creatures, or to hunt the same big monster you've already hunted but in a different location.

As long as World has lots of content even without the filler quests, then I'll be happy.

@crimsontadpoles I don't really mind gathering quests, I just want 15 new monsters. No reskins, no deviants, no legacy: just brand new beasts that I look at and am filled with a mixture of fear and wonder. I would much rather them build that number up and out than spend time redoing aged concepts to be even half decent to hunt.