I was really digging Monster Hunter Rise (Capcom), pouring hours into it as I had into Monster Hunter World, the previous iteration. i was zipping through the village quests at a speed that surprised me because in MHW, I took my time and did quests over and over again to make armor and weapons. And, of course, I had to make armors for my Palico, Shadow. (Raven was my Poogie. In this game, Raven is my Palamute. Always with me in spirit). I put over 300 hours in MHW and barely touched the Tempered Elder Dragons–and hardly played Iceborne at all. I loved the game and really got into the grind. I wanted every switch-axe and didn’t care how long it took to get them. Not even having to get THREE Vaal Hazak jaws. I think? I looked it up. It was the final form of the Anjanath switch-axe, which needs FIVE Vaal Hazak fangs. Vaal Hazak is an Elder Dragon, just in case it’s not clear.
I did all that cheerfully, buying harder-to-get materials when they became available. I did quests over and over and over again until I got all the materials I needed. I did it willingly and cheerfully, never tiring of killing or capturing the mons over and over again.
In between each hunt, I loved going around the town and talking to all the important people. The blacksmith, the one with the optional quests, visiting the captured mons, etc. I pet my Poogie every time (not a euphemism) and grew things in the garden. My loop in the town took me ten to twenty minutes and was part of the enjoyment I derived from the game.
In MHR, however, there simply isn’t as much of a reason to visit the townspeople. There’s the blacksmith, yes, and the pal blacksmith, who, by the way, is never specifically mentioned. Or if they are, it’s so fleeting, I didn’t remember. So I didn’t know how to make armor for my pals until I asked Ian about it. That was several hours into the game. I fully believe the game mentioned it at some point, but they dump so much information on the player at the beginning without distinguishing between what is important and what isn’t.
They got rid of the optional quest giver and just mooshed it into your handler. Or in this game, the village quest maiden (as opposed to her twin, the hub quest maiden). I didn’t like the handler in the last game (as did not a a lot of players, as evidenced by the introduction of a new handler in Iceborne who was much better), but at least she only had one job–to handle your main quests.
I find the village in this game very charming, but I’m just not as connected with the village loop as I was in the last game. I couldn’t figure how to call my Cahoot for ages and now, I just don’t see the point. With the Poogie in the last game, he would dig and find you items. Once in a great while, he would find a new outfit. In this game…I have no idea what Owlie does. You can send her to perch at certain points, but she doesn’t bring you anything. You can find things in the Cahoot nest in the Buddy Plaza, but I’m not sure if that’s connected to sending out the Cahoot. Also, no new outfits for her yet.
I’m also finding the game much easier so far. In the demo, the easy big mons were, well, easy. Expected, of course. The medium boss was not easy at all and I wasn’t able to get it done with the water dragon because I ran out of time. I think? Did I cart twice? I don’t think so, but I don’t remember. I wasn’t kitted out the way I would have if I was playing the game on my own, obviously, and I did not try the difficult demo monster.
I am up to 5-star quests and have not run into the medium demo monster yet. I have run into the other big monster in the medium demo, and it’s my old pal, Rathian. She’s a 5-star monster in MHR and I have not tackled her yet in this game. I hate her more than Ratholos because she does the tail flick to poison you. I don’t think he does that? I can’t remember. I’m in low rank, obviously, but inching closer to high rank. I’m presuming it’s after 6-star quests as it was in the earlier game. I think? Wow. For as much time as I’ve sunk into MHW, I sure don’t remember much of it. I’m going to blame my recent medical trauma and leave it at that.
More seriously, though, I think my recent medical trauma has changed me in a lot of ways, including how I view video games. When I first started MHR, I felt as if I was back in the monster hunting groove. I was killing the mons left and right, and I was enjoying myself tremendously. But I found something weird–I didn’t want to fight the same monsters more than once. I’d look at what I needed to make a certain swax or armor and mentally sigh. When I discovered you can make armor for your pals, I was happy, of course, but also irritated because it meant I needed more materials from the monsters. You sometimes need materials from a tougher mon to upgrade a swax from a weaker mon. I need a Barroth scalp to upgrade my…ah, one of the other swaxes. Again, this is the same as in the last game and I had no problems with it in MHW. Well, a little problem, but not enough of one to make me quit playing the game. I’ll get to that in a second.
I was racing through the mons at a breakneck speed (for me), but there was a little frisson of unhappiness that ran up my spine every time I unlocked a new star level. It happened to a small degree in MHW, but not to this extent. It was one reason I spent so much time grinding- I was happy to avoid the new big mons for as long as possible. In this game, I just rush in to take on the new big mons because, well, I’m not exactly sure why. Partly it’s because Ian is playing and roughly at the same spot so I would like to keep pace. Other than that, though, it really is because I don’t want to do a monster more than once. It’s really puzzling because that used to be my favorite part of the game–grinding for parts.
One of the things that has not changed since that game is that I HATE the map in Monster Hunter games. I talked about it before, but it is really frustrating for someone like me who has spatial issues. There have been times when I run out of time on a gathering quest simply because I cannot get to the nodes on the map. I’m not even exaggerating here. There is a quest in which the chef drops her dango balls (food, you heathens!) all over one of the areas of the map. Six of them. Should be easy, right? Nope. I nearly ran out of time twice. It’s just bullshit.
Honestly, it’s one reason I’m not loving the game. It’s so frustrating to be chasing a monster and to lose it because I can’t figure out how to get where it is on the map. It’s really deflating especially when I get to the end phase of the hunt and it’s time to capture the monster. I hate the panicked feeling I get that the monster will regain enough strength/health to not be capturable any longer. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s not a good feeling.
And it wraps into the reason why I fell off the game–the trap fiasco. I was hunting a new monster in the lava area–which, by the way, not my fave nor was it in the last game–and when he was down to the limping phase, I hunted him down and placed a shock trap. I went to taunt him so he would come towards the trap. He turned in the OPPOSITE direction and lumbered away. Now, you can’t just pick up the trap and put it down somewhere else. No, you have to destroy the trap and get another from your item box back at home base because you can only carry one trap of each type at a time.
It was bad enough for this new monster, but then I hunted a Barroth for the second time. The Barroth is not a hard monster to fight at 3 stars, but he is one of my favorites. Anyway, I got him down to the limping phase rather quickly and set out my trap. Before I could draw him over, however, he limped off in the opposite direction. I cursed under my breath, destroyed the trap (shock) and went back to home base to get another shock trap.
I was pissed because it should have been a fifteen-minute quest, nice and easy. In MHW, you could put down a track and bait the monster to run over it. The monster would stay in the area for as long as you had the trap out. In this game? Fuck you and your trap, hunter. Back to Barroth. I found him again and placed the trap closer to him. He IMMEDIATELY turned around and limped away again.
I just read that in MHW, you could use flash pods to startle the mons, which I forgot, but there aren’t any in this game. I couldn’t do anything except watch helplessly as Barroth limped away. I was so mad as I chased after him. I forwent getting another trap and just whaled on him to death. I wasn’t happy about it, but I wasn’t happy that he had made me waste two traps.
As soon as I was done with the quest, I quit the game and have only gone back because I learned you could pet the pals. Which is cool, but not enough to draw me back in. I think I’m done with MHR, sad to say.