Feature: The Bloodthirsty History Of Monster Hunter, From Sony PlayStation To Nintendo Switch

Awesome feature. Way to sum up the series 😁

Title is a bit extreme for this article lol.

@Spoony_Tech blood thirsty....for sales

Great stuff, even though I knew most of it. MHFreedom was my first MH game, which I was driven to try after so many player reviews were the total opposite of the professional critic reviews that crucified the game. I've bought and played every Western release since. Didn't get involved with hunting online until MH4U on 3DS...the one thing I didn't realize is that I could have been hunting online with others on my Wii U and even Wii...

And now I have both World for its beauty and a vision of the future of the series and MHGU for the pinnacle of classic style MH. As it was said, a great time to be a Monster Hunter.

''Monster Hunter: World made use of the horsepower of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, being revealed at E3 in 2017. Its distinct change in colour palette, focus on hand-holding...''

I'm sorry, but where? The game's a mess in terms of finding out what your objective is, all the menus are confusing, there's a ton of stuff that's never properly explained. I wish it was simpler, and easier to grasp. Because frankly, I'm having a hard time every time I jump back into the game. It's so confusing.

@Octane I think scoutflies are the biggest thing there, they remove any need to actively track, you don’t need to use paintballs or know what areas they spawn in, and (once you’ve tracked it a bit) the icon on the minimap even tells you when a monster is ready to cap without needing a skill to do so.

Want to progress through HR? Just play through the clearly defined story missions, gone are the days of picking random quests hoping to unlock the urgent (or looking it up online). Know what else you don’t need to look up online anymore? How to get various monster drops. Or weaknesses (which could be deduced in game based on armor weaknesses before but the games never explained that). Heck, weapon trees are laid out for all to see, no need to do online research to figure out what trees lead to the best weapons anymore.

Aside from the more recent challenges (like AT monsters or the Behemoth), the game is easier and more accessible, and until you reach post game, it constantly tells you in the corner of the screen what it wants you to do next, like a little Navi you can’t turn off.

@ShadJV I get that, and that's probably why I quit playing Tri back in the day. But those points all sound like positives to me to be honest.

Yeah, the scoutflies can be seen either way, but since monsters have no defined spawn points anymore, that's a fair addition I think. Tracking them all over the map without the scoutflies would be incredibly tedious I think. They'd need to overhaul the entire tracking system to make that more enjoyable.

Unfortunately it’s clear Generations Ultimate (XX) was meant to be played BEFORE World, as going back now feels so clunky. The QOL features spoiled me (many were much needed but it is hard to go back). I went into this one wanting to go more heavily into HH and Bowgun but after playing MHW it just feels like a pain. HH requires memorizing my song lists again for each horn (MHW puts them in the corner of the screen) and bowgun has to be reloaded every time you switch ammo (which is fair... but MHW spoiled me by having a round of every ammo type already loaded and staying loaded even when switched out). I’m getting reacquainted again but quickly decided I’ll just not worry about those weapons right now.

I wish I could just take the best of MHW and MHGU and combine them. All the QOL improvements of MHW and the better visuals combined with MHGU expansive number of areas, monsters, and the addition of Hunter Arts/Styles/SP. That would be just awesome, my biggest complaint of MHW continues to be the small (and not very varied) roster, especially post game, it gets boring fighting the same half dozen post game monsters over and over...

@NintendoFan4Lyf Did you try Worlds? It's the best to get into. I tried 4U and 3U. I liked both but after 40 hours of playing, I stopped playing. When Worlds launched, I played almost 70 hours in a week. I really recommend it.

@ShadJV Thats why I won't pick up MHGU. It just looks so bad and clunky. There are parts that look really good, but it feels like one big step backwards.

@Octane I mean for the most part they do have defined spawn points still. Some monsters have 2, but most have just 1, as I’ve learned when I’ve farmed the same monster back to back for days. For example, pukei-pukei spawns in the lower level northeast of the forest, and diablos spawns in the caves in the northeast for the wasteland. Some, like Teostra, can spawn in one of two different moves in the Elder’s Crossing but they’re neighboring rooms (as most monsters with two spawn points have). The only thing that gets thorny is you can join a quest after it already started and the monsters won’t be at their spawn points then... but if we had paintballs that would remedy that issue. I’m not thoroughly annoyed with scoutflies but they are admittedly more “noob friendly”, players don’t have to memorize spawn points or remember to carry paintballs.

And yeah, the hand holding isn’t too bad in this game, but it does it way more than previous entries. I do think the game is overall a bit on the easy side but not due to QOL improvements, they were much needed and help pull the franchise from niche to main stream.

@Saego it’s not bad per se, especially since you can transfer your data from MHG. It’s great in the way that it’s more challenging and has more variety than MHW. But the QOL features are definitely missed and can result in having to relearn a bit.

@NintendoFan4Lyf that’s my issue too. I share a place with 3 roommates (1 TV)... and visit my family often where I don’t even have a TV. I mainly play on handhelds because of that. Most weeks I can’t play any MHW, some weeks I get a couple hours at most (which really is only a handful of hunts). This is the appeal of the Switch, not everyone has easy access to a TV. As much as I’m disappointed going back to less QOL features, I am excited I can freely play whenever I want again.

@ShadJV Yeah, but I find that since you don't know where to look for a monster on your first try, you still spend a lot of time looking around the map. It's only once you get to learn their spawn points that it becomes easier. And maybe I'm playing it wrong, but I usually do some item gathering, crafting, etc. So by the time I'm going after the creature, it already left its spawn location.

Really liked reading this, but I honestly can't play MHW. I feel its too realistic and colors feel drab compared to other games in the series i.e MHGU or MH3U and vanilla MHGEN. Along with those scout flies that just there for the sake of it and its annoying seeing them on the screen all the damn time, also the hub area to me, just feels too spread out compared to previous entries and the menus feel all over the place as another commenter said. I do however really like the descriptions of monsters when you do enough research of them to find weaknessess and the infinite wheatstone is way better.
Currently playig gen ultimate and playing worlds is not going to happen for a long long time.

What was capcoms best selling franchise? I tried researching it on my own but I found monster hunter to be the most successful.

@SuperFamBros That's a good description of why I was disappointed with World and didn't keep playing it for very long.
Got it on Xbox this spring and despite a handful of improvements that made the game basically simpler overall as well as the absolutely gorgeous graphics, it just didn't click with me. It's kinda weird as it was supposed to be the ultimate Monster Hunter game yet it left me cold.
I wasn't even planning on getting the Switch release at launch because of this, but since a couple of friends decided to get it, so did I. When it came in the mail, I wasn't even excited, yet here we are, 4 days later and it's all I've been playing as well as thinking about.
So no, I don't buy all those QoL excuses on how the other games in the series are all of a sudden a step back, or borderline unplayable. Far from it.

@meppi64 Exactly, only got MHW on a whim, just really curious about it and played it literally a week before the west release of mhgu to ge me psyched up and though maybe I could play them in tandem with each other, but alas no, I thought a few hours in "Wow this is amazing, so realistic, how can they top this, wow this and that are so much more convienant now from before, wow the monsters interactions feel more realistic i.e turf wars". I then lamented on it a bit from playing it a couple days in, I just couldn't.
I think I've a rough Idea what they were going for, they want you to be immersed, be invested in the world and its monsters and make it feel a lot more believable and having the much more life-like behaviours for the monsters relation to the worlds 'pecking order' so to speak.
It felt like they were throwing too much in your face at once and shoving the platter of it all in your face, and the story for MH games for me is second to the series and always will be, I don't care. I just want to hunt more cool looking monsters, experiement with different stuff and have cool looking armors, weapons, have some challenge hunting some toughies, to me GENU and the review on this site of it said is the definitive swan song for its older games and really don't want it to be that, I really want another genu on switch and ps4/xbone, I know worlds is set for the course, all I want them to do for worlds2 is scale back on the realism, streamline menus and make things easier to get to AND PLEASE CAPCOM PUT.A.PAUSE.BUTTON.INTO.IT.NEXT.TIME.

I'm not sure they are blood thirsty for sales is on Capcom's agenda at all they seem to really struggle with understanding demand.

Would have liked to see global sales per game included in this article

I wanna get into this series but I have no idea where to start. I tried the demo of generations and kinda found it hard to get into.

I've put in 500 hours so far into World, and counting. It's the best game I've ever played.

I've tried several previous MH games, but World is the first one that really clicked with me. Even so, it took me 250 hours into the game before I truly grasped how to play it and all it's many features. I wouldn't call that hand-holding, even if it is easier to understand than past entries. It's definitely a commitment, but the payoff is so satisfying, there's nothing else like it.

I honestly believe it's worth buying a One X (or whatever console you prefer) just to play World. It's that good.

I first got into the series with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U. I tossed the game aside after an hour because I just didn't get it, and I didn't understand what was appealing about it. Hunting the monsters looked fun in the advertisements but it was just a lot of text boxes and gathering in the beginning. Thankfully a coworker who was a rabid Monster Hunter fan, convinced me the game was worth picking up again. He showed me the ropes and hunted with me every night. 600 hours later, I was knighted a veteran. They say your first MH is always the best, and I have to agree. I was so addicted to that game at the time I was calling into work and staying up 48 hours straight playing the game. And I'm not a kid anymore, so I never do stuff like that. But I did for that game.

Then came Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS. I was so excited when that game released that I used a vacation day from work, and drove to Walmart at midnight to buy the game and a New 3DS XL. I got home around 1 o'clock in the morning and played until the sun was up. Gosh, that was such a great time. 400 hours later, and I had crossed the 1,000 hour mark for the series.

Then came Monster Hunter Generations. It released relatively soon after MH4U, and I think I was kinda feeling MH overload. It was the only game I never truly finished, although I did put 400 hours into it just like MH4U. I really liked the styles and arts, and the enormous amount of content in that game. But I was also starting to grow tired of playing on 3DS. I told myself that would be the last one. The 240p just got to be too much to bear.

Then came MHXX. And boy was I excited for that game! I imported it and I even studied Japanese for over 60 hours just to help me play the game. But the language barrier was an issue and eventually I set it down.

Then came MH World. Wow. I was so worried they were going to ruin the series by westernizing it, but they delivered 100%. Such a fantastic game and finally after all those years it was incredible playing a game that actually had a decent budget behind it and modernized. I put 150 hours into the game which was by far the smallest amount of time I had ever put into a Monster Hunter game. But it just didn't have the content or end game for more than that. And that is really my biggest complaint with the game. The endgame fell short, severely so.

And now, against all odds, we got Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate! This was all I wanted, and I'm so happy the game got localized. It's a fantastic final hurrah for the classic series approach, and appropriately has content from all 4 generations of MH up to that point. It's the first ever HD portable MH with a full button set and rumble and other features typically associated with home console gaming, while simultaneously offering a full console experience and portable console experience as well. It's the largest game in the series ever to release. And I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to play MH wherever, whenever, without tolerating 240p. The local wireless multiplayer is also fantastic. I plan to play quite a bit with my brother when he visits. This will definitely be a game I can play on and off for years to come.

@SuperWeird

Glad to hear you liked it! It's typically been a fight to get new players into the series just because of the high barrier of entry with regard to the classic entries. It's hard to explain to somebody the appeal of the series until they "get it". But once you get it, you get it. I'm glad they finally made a modern game that's easy to get into, because it will serve as a great tool to recruit new players into the series moving forward. And I agree, it's worth buying a console for.

That said, I strongly recommend you check out Generations Ultimate as well. The game is phenomenal, and while it is a little more rough around the edges and rigid compared to World, it's not actually all that different as some people make it out to be. The combat is still 99% the same, the feel of the game and the movements are 99% the same, it's got all the same weapons, etc etc. Gathering takes a little longer, there's a separate areas on the maps. You have to search for the monster and paintball them, etc etc. But aside from half a dozen small things like that it's pretty much the same. I finally got my brother into Monster Hunter with World, after trying for years to get him into the series. The closest I came was with MH4U- I think he played 30 hours of that game before he gave it up. But I think the problem was just playing on the 3DS in 240p. The games themselves are fine, it was just the resolution and tiny screen and limited button set that was the real turn off for him, and I think a lot of others. But those issues are now resolved on Switch. The game actually looks a lot better then in the videos, surprisingly good actually. The colors really pop, which is one of my favorite aspects about the game. Just how colorful everything is. Anyways, I was going to say, I finally got my bro into the series with World, and he loved it so much that he immediately started playing MH4U on 3DS. He loved World so much he didn't even care if he had to play in 240p- he wanted more Monster Hunter. He kept saying how he wished they'd just localize MHXX. Which they did, and when the announcement came he was SO excited (as was I). If you got 250 hrs from World, you'll probably hit near 1,000 hours from MHGU. Not even kidding.

But ya, welcome to the fanbase. Maybe we'll see you in the forums sometime, if you ever want to play online in Gen Ultimate (which I think is a far more social game by the way- World was pretty bad for MP, with cut scenes locking out progression as a group, whereas Gen Ultimate has an entirely separate campaign just for MP that goes from Low Rank to High Rank to G Rank, and you can do all of it without ever touching the single player village quests, although I don't know why anyone would not touch the single player village quests, because it's half the game and it's tons of fun, and when you are playing solo it's the preferred mode since Monster HP isn't scaled up).

@AxeltheBuizel
Monster Hunter games have been notoriously hard to get into, and it's a running joke with in the community about the demos turning away more new players than they draw in.

But I can promise you the game is so incredibly amazing, that if you commit to invest the time to learn the game it will pay dividends many times over.

In times past I would have offered to explain how everything works and make myself available to answer any questions and to hunt with anyone who is trying to get into the series. And don't get me wrong I will still gladly do all of the above. But MH World was such a great progression for the series is far as explaining how the game works with well-designed tutorials, and an intriguing beginning that really hooks the player's interest. If you have access to play that game I would really recommend you try it first because it will get you into the series with relatively little effort.

That's not to say Generations Ultimate isn't worth playing though- it's absolutely fantastic, and tbh it's got a lot more to offer than World does. But admittedly it is a very hard game for newcomers to get into. People do do it though, I mean, I got into the series with MH3U. But I almost missed out. I played for an hour and got bored, and tossed to the game on my shelf never to play it again. It was only thanks to an Xbox loving coworker I had who bought a Wii U just to play MH3U, and kept going on and on about how he just wanted to play Monster Hunter. This got my attention and I decided to hunt with him online and it only took one hour of hunting with him before I was hooked like a drug.

So my advice is play world first if you have access to it and then once you're into the series come back and you will appreciate this game soooo much. But if you don't have access to the game, not to worry, you can still get into the series with this game, but it will require a little more effort and watching some weapon to tutorial videos from Gaijin Hunter on YouTube (I recommend Longsword to start out with). It's imperative that you get a weapon that you're comfortable with and learn how to use it properly. This means watching a tutorial video and then practicing. Is also imperative to learn all the mechanics such as the run button and how to sheath your weapon and how to dodge roll, etc. and then it just takes some practice to be honest.

Been playing Monster Hunter sense Freedom Unite on the PSP and I have been addicted ever sense!

@Royalblues Nintendo fans? Maybe?

Honestly I never saw what the big deal was with this series. I tried to get into it multiple times, but it always felt like a massive grind to me and I never really got hooked on playing it. I guess like it's just one of those things that is really big with it's hardcore fanbase, kinda reminds me of the Dark Souls series.

I agree, there's only good things in the future for monhun fans, and now it's the best time to get into the series with Generations Ultimate.

@JaxonH Yeah thanks for the feedback. I actually pre-ordered Generations Ultimate, it's been siting on my Switch desktop for over a month. I started playing it already, just finished my first hunt this week. It's definitely a step backwards for me compared to World, but I'm gonna give it a fair shot and put as much time as I can into it. I am pretty stoked to have an HD portable version of MH.

I for one am very excited to finally have MHGU on Switch. Just picked it up last night. And if it wasn’t for MH World, I wouldn’t want for anything more than that. Now I want to see a truly new MH in the style of World developed from the ground up for Switch. Hopefully it’ll happen someday.

@Dualmask you started online for mh very late and missed so much on tri cause some monsters were online exclusive while it also has a whole host of actually good decorations for the house.

@NintendoFan4Lyf if they did that route they would be claimed as ripping off the switch, besides its easier to start as mobile and upgrade then start as an upgraded graphics and convert it to mobility.

@Royalblues Your argument is ridiculous gatekeeping snobbery, as well as being completely spurious. Literally noone here said the series was "meh" until the Switch entry, and multiple people here have talked about how good MHW was.

I'm not sure the statement about the "hand-holding" in MHW is accurate; it implies a certain level of dumbing things down. I would say that it instead took a number of aspects of the game that previously required a visit to a game wiki and made them more visible. It also cut out a lot of unnecessary "fluff" mechanics (breakable pickaxes, for example) to focus more on the core of the game: hunting monsters.

Honestly, the only major shortcoming for me is that it has a reduced number of monsters and lacks some variety in weapon aesthetics. I absolutely cannot wait for a game in the style of World with the depth of Generations Ultimate.

Stories is the best

@ShadJV personally my hope is for the next game to be a "Monster Hunter Portable 5th/World" building up on Qorld with me monsters and being situated on the Switch as middle ground between older consoles and newer ones to upgrade assets that could later be further upgraded for a World Ultimate expansion on other consoles

@NintendoFan4Lyf true but remember this is Nintendo here and we all know they will switch it up all over again, but as it stands we also have to remember that if Sony or Microsoft make it and is weaker then their current systems it could backfire hard on them.

Technically my first Monster Hunter was MH Tri which I picked up for $20 at WalMart. I didn't even play it long enough to see Great Jaggi. I'm glad I decided to get MH3U for the Wii U because MH is one of my favourite series'.

MH World is the best one... except MHGU has so much more content that I think if I could one play one MH game for the rest of time, I would go with MHGU.

@NintendoFan4Lyf what they could do is spend a generations flooding into a separate development and release it after another generations but even then that wouldn't work to the most benefit especially since the money loss would be undesirable.

Been into this series since the PS2, though I had a love-hate relationship with it on PSP due to the controls. Once Tri came out, I officially fell in love with MH and haven't looked back. Once the games started using a 2nd stick for camera control and made the hitboxes less ridiculous, the games got better.

A lot of games was worth getting a Wii U for.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was one of them. What a gem.

@Taya
Agree with you. MHGU is a must have for all Monster Hunter fans. It's a love letter from Capcom to all of us.

Monster hunter world was by far the best and most accessible monster hunter game for me, and I can wait to play MH Rise on friday, glad they decided to keep the same controls

I only have the spin off Airu de Puzzle and Airu Mura G on PSP.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of 3U back in the day, and while I had fun doing multiplayer hunts with him I just couldn't get into the single player side of it. I still really liked the concept, so I decided to give the series another chance when 4U came along and then I was hooked. That improved story focus really went a long way to not only keep me interested, but it even helped me better understand the core mechanics of the game that I missed before. I continued on with Generations, but skipped World. One of the biggest selling points for me was it being a style of game that it didn't seem like anyone else was doing portably, so having it be only available tethered to my TV was the biggest downgrade in my eyes. Some of my greatest hunting achievements came during things like road trips and in the middle of the night while not being able to sleep while visiting family. That freedom to hunt anytime and anywhere was the true strength of the series for me, and World couldn't offer that to me. Generations and Generations Ultimate though. chef's kiss Being able to fine tune my play style meant that instead of hauling my great sword to the nearest ledge to cheese mount spam I could turn the monster itself into the ledge with aerial style. And I thoroughly enjoyed the extra story they added in GU. And so many monsters to hunt! I still have fonder memories of 4U, but GU was for sure a greatest hits and I loved every second with it. So far the demo and previews for Rise have me very excited. I can tell they found the best middle ground between the previous portable MH titles and World's QOL changes. The game looks great without the areas feeling cluttered (a complaint I had every time I saw World's gameplay) and it's maintained portability! I do feel that giving players options is always a good thing, so I'm glad that it'll be getting a PC release for those who want it in the future, and I'm really hoping that they continue doing both options going forward.

It is a series I have 0 interest but it is good to see it working for capcom and I am expecting it to sell really well on switch (close to World numbers)

i started my Monster Hunter journey with Monster Hunter 4Ultimate, i can't wait to play Monster Hunter Rise in my birthday in early april(april 10th)

This article is missing information about paying for exclusiveness on a platform. Like Nintendo did to get MH3 on wii and MH4 on 3ds.

My first game was MH on the PS2 and I loved it for the dino beasties and the ridiculous weapons. I never got very far with it though due to only playing solo and it being too hardcore for ma at the time.

My next game was then MH4U which I put a dozen or so hours into but the form factor of the 3DS and other fantastic games just meant I eventually dropped it.

Now onto Rise and I think this will be the one that really drags me into the series as I have played the demo multiple times and really dig the combat system. Roll on Friday

Oh and the bosses of Bravely Default 2 are so obnoxious that I need a game to distract me and make me put it down before i give up on it for good.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne was amazing I expect nothing less from Rise

Still havey OG PS2 Monster Hunter which I was able to play online back then, ofcourse I was terrible back then.

@Spoony_Tech Yeah, I was expecting to find some "killing animals for their pelts" article.

@koekiemonster You do realize that other companies do that too, right?

@Kieroni absolutely, but that doesn't mean that they don't need to mention it. Nintendo paid for exclusivity. That is a fact they didn't mention and should. It's esential for the way Monster Hunter moved.

@koekiemonster Doubtful. The Vita was such a disaster in Japan it would have been dumb to stay on Sony handheld and not move on Nintendo handheld that are always super popular in Japan. If they wanted Monster Hunter to sell on Sony's systems after their audience change they would have to westernize Monster Hunter which they did with Monster Hunter World.

Hopefully Capcom remastered the first four main Monster Hunter games exclusively for Switch and PC soon. Would be nice to play these titles in 4K HD and on the go.

@glaemay it's also why Monster Hunter went to WiiU. It's about buying exclusives and Nintendo does that too. WiiU was the biggest failure ever and yet it did get a Monster Hunter game. I wonder why?

Vita did quit well initially in Japan. Also some of the best selling Vita games were Monster Hunter clones (like god eater, freedom wars, toukiden, soul sacrifice). It had the audience and the expectation.

Also, Nintendo didn't had the audience and 3DS wasn't a great success at launch (heck they had to lower the price enormously to get the sales up)
https://www.gamespot.com/forums/nintendo-fan-club-1000001/monster-hunter-tri-sales-considered-sluggish-27401917/
The sales on wii were sluggish where the sales on the port for PSP were brilliant. Logically they would have continue their relation with Sony for the next release, wouldn't they? But some company gave them a bag of money and promised a lot of marketing if they released the next chapter on 3DS (and wiiu lolz).

@koekiemonster You didn't give me any evidence Nintendo paid for Monster Hunter. And in the end the Monster Hunter series sold much more on 3DS than on PSP so it made sense financially wise. Also Monster Hunter went on WiiU because it performed much better on Wii than on PS3.