Video: Check Out Monster Hunter Stories' Zelda Crossover Content

Is this for New or Regular 3DS?

SOLD!

Oh my god I NEED this!!

This is AMAZING! The only bad part will be seeing Epona get hurt ._.

Oh man. This looks awesome!

Now this is cool. This game continues to look sooo much better than the more "realistic" Monster Hunter games on 3DS, imo, even the costumes too.

This is... This is... AWESOME1!1 I want it NYOW!

Wowwww, this makes me happy, wanna buy the 3DS again.

This is ... beautiful! Oo

My main problem is that the core gameplay literally seems to be rock-paper-scissors. And I'm not talking about like Pokemon, with all the different types, weaknesses, and resistances. There are three types arranged like rock-paper-scissors.

As cool as this looks, it's definitely pitched to a much younger audience.

If we had a new zelda game like this, i would just cry with joy

@InternetBowser gameplay is totally different from Monster Hunter's.

@Kirk MH4U looks amazing on new 3DS.

Please come to the west!!!!

My interest in this game was already high. Now it becomes a must buy. I am 100% certain that it will come west in 2017. Nintendo will help to make it happen just like they did with Bravely Default and the Dragon Quest games.

Isn't it more newsworthy these days when a game doesn't have some sort of Zelda crossover...?

Why some people are so surprised that Epona can put up a fight?Did they forget Twiight Princess/HD and Hyrule Warriors/Legends?

this is so cool

Wow, a big surprise, day one all the way for me!!!

Looks dope definite day one purchase if it comes too the West.

Not even gonna trip, this games coming to the west eventually! I mean monster hunter is so successful here and it's just more money for them honestly. Looking forward to this title!

Of course I want this to come westward! rawrrrr~

So is this just Zelda RPG now?

Oh my god, i havent watched anything from this one yet and this blew me away a bit. Love the art style , definitely getting this one!

That's awesome. :] Also, I had no idea MH Stories was such a cool-looking game! I've never been interested in a single mainline MH game before, but this 1-minute video totally made me want this game!

The angry Zelda fan's worst nightmare, a female Link has appeared.

That is awesome. I'm going to have to play through it now with two files. One for Link and one for the original character.

@InternetBowser Its definitely a hard series to get into, when I first played MH I hated it. but I kept pushing myself to play and now its easily one of my favorite games of all time. You should give it another chance! Although I don't think this game has the traditional game play for the series.

@InternetBowser @Kirk @CB85

When I first played MH3U I got bored in an hour and set it off in the backlog pile, where it would have stayed forever if not for my co-worker who literally bought a Wii U just to play Monster Hunter. He showed me the ropes and once I actually understood the game, and got past the 1-star tutorial gathering quests and was actually hunting monsters, it became the fastest onset of gaming addiction in my entire life. 600 hours later before I finally moved on from it.

Since then MH has become my all time favorite game, on any console of any generation. Most every person I've ever spoken to who isn't into the series either A never actually played it or B played it but gave up before ever understanding the game.

There's a reason the people who actually love MH are so fanatical over the game- it truly is one of the best series in all of gaming. But it is hard to get into. You pretty much have to tell yourself "I'm going to give this game a fair shake and I'm going to play until I understand the mechanics and if I still don't like it, then so be it, but I'm not going to write it off until I'm actually experiencing the core game with an understanding of the mechanics."

I usually suggest people find a friend who's into the series, and play online with them. It greatly speeds up the learning process- just by seeing how they play you learn so much, Plus they can answer any questions you might have along the way. It's my deepest desire that people who are not yet into the series would give the game a chance because I am fully confident that most people will love the game once they understand it enough and develop a modest skillset to experience the same rush that the rest of us get when fighting these amazing boss battle showdowns.

@JaxonH The problem is that many people who are into whatever games/series could make similar claims; that's because they happen to now be deeply invested in those games. It doesn't mean other people want to invest in something that they actually aren't into but could probably convince themselves they're into simply by virtue of the amount of time they've invested. Most stuff, if you spend tens of hours investing in it, ends up becoming quite important and meaningful to you. I could spend 40 hours overcoming the controls in Monster Hunter until I get used to them and they become second nature, but that doesn't mean they're good controls; it just means I've learned to work with what's there. I had a similar experience with my bro and Phantasy Star Online, where he swore it was one of the best games he'd ever played, and to me it just felt clunky as junk to actually control the main character, with attacks that didn't even properly respond to my button presses and stuff—apparently the button presses needed to be "timed" in this particular game—so I was out right away. And, personally, I think stuff like that is really important in any game I end up calling one of the greats. Same applies to games that require you to play for multiple hours before they're actually enjoyable to play, like they make you go through an hour long tutorial that's not actually fun or whatever else. I'm just not going to slog through an hour or more of meh to maybe get to a game that isn't meh, but that's not guaranteed to not be meh imo. So, for me, Monster Hunter simply isn't one of those games I care to get into, especially the main games on 3DS where I think the visuals just look fugly, which is another important element to me. Monster Hunter Stories at least looks visually appealing though, so that's something. But, each to their own, and clearly a lot of people absolutely love the Monster Hunters series. More power to them.

@Kirk
I can promise you it's not so much loving it because you've invested as it is investing so much because you love it. I never invest 1,000 hrs into any old game. It better be the best freaking game on this planet to get that kind of play- and indeed... It is.

I also think writing off any game that requires a bit of learning to thoroughly enjoy will result in missing all the best games. You can't have a game with such a rich and developed combat system and deeply involved mechanics, and yet be super simple and easy requiring no effort to learn at the same time. Can't have your cake and eat it too, as they say.

In the end you just gotta judge it like any other game you've never played before. And weigh opinions of those who do love it any why. Most people who play it and give it a proper chance don't just love it but claim it's one of the best games ever. I would think that might warrant a little more consideration than one person vouching for Phantasy Star Online which, from what I've played, has horribly clunky RPG controls (not saying it can't be fun but, it's automatically disqualified from being world class based off that alone). Whereas MH is undeniably precision gameplay down to the individual frame (and you will depend on I-frame windows of just 6 frames).

But I doubt I'll convince you anyways so. And many others are the same way. Hopefully MH Stories will serve as a gateway drug to the greatest game for boss battles ever made

@InternetBowser
If you ever want, just tag my name in the MH forum and I'll gladly hunt with you and show you the ropes.

But MH4U is probably the better game for a newcomer just because it has a structured narrative which I've noticed new players appreciate. And it's cheap.

I promise you I've been playing games a loooooooong time, on every system, and I don't recommend games this strongly lightly.

@JaxonH "You can't have a game with such a rich and developed combat system and deeply involved mechanics, and yet be super simple and easy requiring no effort to learn at the same time. Can't have your cake and eat it too, as they say."

The flaw in that thinking is that you absolutely can. You can have one of the most deep and developed games in all of existence but still have it be something that's intuitive to pick up and play out the gate. The two things are not at conflict with each other as a matter of default.

And, see what you said about Phantasy Star Online . . . that's exactly what I hear when you tell me Monster Hunter is the best game ever. I've played it, admittedly not for very long, but long enough to put me off wanting to play any more of it. The controls were pretty clunky and it was boring for the time I played. I really didn't like the idea of the load screens between areas either; it totally pulled me out of the action each time it happened. On Wii it also looked low-res and blurry, which was another major and immediately off-putting thing for me. It just failed in a few ways that I consider essential to any game I'm likely to consider great.

So, where you see gold with Monster Hunter, and where my bro sees gold with Phantasy Star Online, I see meh from where I'm looking at it. But each to their own.

I will say this, however; I believe I could take Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Online and turn them both into better games with a few tweaks here and there while not losing anything that you guys love about them in the process—in some imaginary world where I had the means/resources to do so of course.

@Kirk
The thing is, it is intuitive to pick up. Very much so. But that doesn't change the fact you still have to pick it up, and that takes time. Learning the timing to dodge for the invincibility frames isn't something you can do right away, but it's instinctive, and you'll get it with practice. Reaching 10pts to activate any skill, or adding a +1 gem to take an activated negative skill from -10 to -9 so it's no longer active is simple, and easy to understand, but you still have to learn what each skill does, which ones you want, etc.

MH is not clunky, it's just precise. Totally opposite of PSO. That game is clunky. MH isn't Bayonetta, but the precision is there to the 100th degree. That's what makes it so great- when you dodge roll, there's an animation for it- a perfectly precise animation that responds instantly upon pressing the button, but you have to learn the timing like any other game. Managing precise animations is the name of the game- it takes a little getting used to- yes absolutely, but the difference is it's super precise and well designed down to the frame which you appreciate once you've adjusted and understand it, whereas a game like PSO is just clunky movement that doesn't respond with precision. Slower animations don't automatically = clunky. That's intentional whereas other games it's usually just poor design.

The thing is you have to lay the groundwork for a basic foundation- "here's how you gather, here's how you craft, heres how you carve mats from a carcass, here's how you use a weapon and here's the 15 different combos and special moves you can do with each weapon. And that takes a little patience- it's only a couple quests but it's vital to laying that foundation. Then you graduate to hunting your first real monster and the true game begins.

The reason it feels odd at first is simply because there aren't many games like it and those that are are usually done poorly. So most people aren't accustomed to managing precision animations, managing sharpness bar, health and stamina, taking cold/hot drinks to counter the extremes of environments, etc. so the knee jerk reaction is "it's clunky". But it's not. I've never played a game with smoother and perfectly responsive and precise mechanics- you just have to adjust to something new. Big difference between clunky from poor design and intentionally timed animations from excellent design. One will never feel right, but the other will feel divine once you've acclimated to the tempo of gameplay.

I felt the same way though my first time though. And wrote it off. That's why I see the error of my ways now, and try to tell others don't make the same mistake! I had the greatest game I'd ever play sitting in my backlog for a year and didn't even realize it. Thank God I did eventually though. Now I've learned to take others' recommendations much more seriously- people had told me the game was among the best ever made and yet I was so quick to dismiss it based on premature impressions.

If it's just one person saying "ya Hatsune Miku is the greatest game ever made" then... ok, but if it's like 90% of every person playing MH is saying "this is the best game in the history of video games" then I'm gonna listen and give that game a serious chance to grab me like it did them