Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: Monster Hunter World

Be very very quiet; I’m hunting mons

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Amusing note: I called this the same thing I called my last Monster Hunter post. I thought to myself as I was typing the title, “Hm, I’ve probably used something similar before, or even the same.” I went to the last post so I could reread what I had written. Lo and behold, there was the exact same title.

I’ve put in several more hours into Monster Hunter Rise (Capcom), which is how I play games. I pick one big one at a time and then get well and truly stuck in. There are things I like. better about MHR than MHW and things I like about the same. There are very few things I like less, but that’s because the games are pretty similar. It’s hard not to compare the two as they are the only Mon Hun games I’ve played (well, I tired an earlier iteration on the 3DS for a few hours and hated it, but I don’t really count that. I put well over 300 hours into MHW and really enjoyed it until the Tempered Elder Dragons. That’s when it zoomed out of my capability zone and while I was able to kill the Tempered Eldered Dragons, I didn’t have any fun doing it and it didn’t feel like skill at all. I had a Switch-Axe that was made from Nergigante material. It greatly negated other Elder Dragons’ ultimates. Until I got to Tempered Elder Dragons and then it didn’t. At that point, I was no longer adept at dodging the ultimates and I didn’t want to relearn how to do it.

That and Iceborne killed all interest I had in that game and it made me wary in picking up MHR. Really, it was Ian’s positive response to the game that pushed me to giving it a try. As is my wont, I jumped in with both feet once I bought it. I am a weirdo in that I do all the gathering quests first and then the slaying small monsters quests before doing the hunt the big monster quests. I don’t know how I got in that habit, but it’s stuck from MHW.

One thing frustrating about the Mon Hun games is that they throw so much at you in the beginning without differentiate between what’s important and what isn’t. For example, it’s nice that you can talk to so many villagers, but  I would like to know which are important and which aren’t. It’s not hard to figure out, but it is a bit frustrating. Knowing how to use the camera? It that really necessary? Knowing how to use the wirebugs? Very important! The candy girl is cute and all, but she’s not giving me anything that helps with my questing. The blacksmith who smiths armor/weapons for my pals? VERY important! Also, the scrap system for said armor/weapons, also important. Fish merchant who doesn’t sell me anything? Not so important.


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I’m on the hunt I’m after mons

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For the past week or so, I was pondering God of War (Santa Monica Studio) versus Monster Hunter Rise (Capcom). They are both ‘old’ games that just got PC ports, which is why I’m interested. Even though I have a PS4, I am not going to buy any game for that console if I can avoid it. In addition, I don’t care if I play a game when it first comes out so it wasn’t that I HAD to buy one of the games right at this moment. However, I’m going to be playing Elden Ring (FromSoft) from the moment it comes out (hopefully, February 25th) to the end of time.

I want a game to tide me over until that date, not that I can’t play Dark Souls III until then. I’m currently in NG+4 on the Road to Sacri–wait. No. I beat the Crystal Sage, I think. Maybe? Anyway, I’m around there. No, I think I still have to fight the CS in this cycle. And I’m still dipping in Cozy Grove every day as well as Dorfromantik. But I hunger for a new game because I’ve been playing those three games for the past several months. Cozy Grove, it’s been nine months. Dorfromantik has been at least four. As for Dark Souls III, well, I’ve been playing that game since 2016.

It’s a bit strange to me that I was considering a new game that I would only play for a month-and-a-half. I mean, I could play it past then, but let’s be real. Once Elden Ring drops, that’s all I’m going to be playing for the foreseeable future. I might still check in on Cozy Grove, but I don’t like to play two action adventure games at the same time–in part because the buttons are never the same. Any time I go back to Dark Souls, I come perilously close to hitting an NPC. One time, I had a controller that eventually broke the B button. I broke it. Not on purpose, but because I use it so much. B is run/roll/dodge/quickstep in Souls games and I’m pressing in almost constantly as I play the games.

I asked my brother what I could do and he said I could map roll to another button. I laughed because that’s unthinkable. Soulslikes are always trying to differentiate themselves and one way is by having different buttons. Which, fine. Go for it. But do not touch the B button–just don’t. I found out many years after I started playing Souls games that their button scheme is considered weird and bad, but it’s all I know so it’s default for me. Anyway, one soulslike I actually liked was Salt and Sanctuary by Ska Studios, which was a cartoon-y soulslike. It was an homage–veering dangerously close to copying. It’s clear that they love Souls games and wanted to do something that was very similar–in 2D. Anyway, they put roll on…either RT or LT. And it wasn’t rebindable. I watched a few people play it and every single one mentioned that particular tidbit. By the time I got around to buying it, it was rebindable, thankfully.


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More about dem souls

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Dark Souls III is my favorite FromSoft game. I probably don’t need to say that by now, but it’s worth repeating. By the way, I’m in NG+4 at the moment and was playing a bit for funsies. One of my favorite things to do is break everything once I’m this far in the game. I just cheesed the Curse-rotted Greatwood with Pestilent Mist which is the shit. It eats away at the humanity of any non-dead creature–including the caster. So ,with the Curse-rotted Greatwood, it is, indeed, a big  tree. It has, ah, shall we say, danglies between its legs. In other words, great big balls. And you’re supposed to hit it in the balls. Pustules. There are clusters on its back and limbs as well. You can break any or all of the cluster of pustules. Once you break a certain amount of them, the tree breaks the floor and we both fall down to our death–no, of course not. We just fall down to a level below and continue the fight.

Here’s the thing, though. With Pestilent Mist (which taken 30 Intelligence and used to be massively OP when it was Pestilent Mercury. So much so, they nerfed it), the tree doesn’t break the floor. No idea why, but my guess is because you’re not actually breaking the pustules with it. But, the thing is, you can do the same thing with pyromancy. With the Chaos Bed Vestiges pyromancy, I’ve managed to also have the tree not break the floor. But Pestilent Mist is funny because you’re not actually attacking the enemy–you’re engulfing them (and you) in a mist that eats away at them over time.

Anyway, I decided I might want to try killing–*spoilers*–the Dancer because why not sequence break? But I also didn’t want to fight her alone even though I rarely have trouble with her. So I went online to see if I could summon someone. The second I went online, i was invaded. I let a tough-ish regular enemy kill me because I like robbing the invaders of their kill (even though they still reap the rewards) and went about my business. I have many many humanities so I don’t mind wasting one now and again. But I hate invaders. But I’m impressed that people are still playing this much later. And I love that I can get human summons with regularity, especially on weekends. Anyone who’s still playing at this point is very good. Me? Not so good, but I’m a decent summon for a few bosses.


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The reason why I play games awards

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There are many different ways to play games. Some people hop from game to game as if they were at a buffet and starving. “I’ll try a little of this and a little of that, and, ooooooh! Give me some of that!” They play the game until they either get sick of it or they finish it, then they put it away and never think of it again. I’m pretty sure games journalist especially have to operate in this manner. Knowing a games journalist, it becomes increasingly difficult for him to game just for fun when he has to do it for his job on a daily basis.

I have a vastly different style when it comes to gaming. I’ve said this about my mindset towards pop culture in general, and it holds especially true when it comes to video games–I don’t cast my net very wide because I’m very certain about what I don’t like. When it comes to video games, I don’t like multis, RTS, FPS (though that’s more because of nausea, not the actual gameplay), bullet hells, platformers, 4X, and anything that calls itself “_____core” without a hint of irony. I hate JRPG, dating sims, survival, and most horror. I really want to like adventure games because they are more story driven, but I just…don’t. I hate all the ridiculous contrivances of the genre, such as combining a stick, a piece of lint, and a teddy bear to make a key*.

What do I like when it comes to gaming? That’s harder to define because I don’t tend to like genres in general, and it’s difficult to know what game is going to click with me.  The first game I played for realsies was Pitfall when I was a kid. Then, Ms. Pac-Man as a teen. Then, while dating a guy who liked arcades, I got hooked on Time Crisis II and barked at him to get me more quarters as I finished it in one go. That was in my late twenties, and I didn’t touch a ‘hardcore’ game again for roughly fifteen years.

Once I did, however, I started playing a weird range of games. The first was Torchlight at the suggestion of Ian, and I immediately fell in love with the game. I loved that the protagonist was a woman who looked Asian if you squinted, and I loved all the dungeon crawling. I still have a soft spot in my heart for it, and I’m one of the very few who thinks it’s a better game than the sequel. Diablo III was next, and I played the fuck out of it. I reached Paragon with my Demon Hunter, and I’ve dipped my toe back in that particular river from time to time as they add to it. Borderlands (the original and II) was next, and I glutted myself on it. Playing them back to back with all the DLCs is not recommended, and I was thoroughly sick of it by the time I tried Pre-sequel, which I did not finish. I only played a few hours before I realized I thought it was crap (and not just because I had put hundreds of hours into I and II and was sick of the formula).

Some of the other games I’ve really enjoyed: Path of Exile (beta. I fell off it once I realized I’d have to start over), Cook, Serve, Delicious (and sequel), The Sexy Brutale, Nuclear Throne, Binding of Isaac: Rebirth,  Night in the Woods, Dead Cells, and, of course, the Soulsborne games.

What do they all have in common? Hell if I know. I will say that once I played Dark Souls, it’s been nearly impossible to return to hack-and-slash games. I don’t have to have combat in a game, but if it’s there, it has to be meaningful, apparently. There’s a bit in one of the Prepare to Try videos (the secrets video, I think) in which Rory says, “Imagine if Dark Souls was the first game you played. It would blow your tiny mind. You wouldn’t be able to play any other game.” He was joking, but I feel as if it’s true. There are so many games that when I’m playing them, I’m like, “I could be playing Dark Souls right now.” That’s pretty much my metric for a game–would I rather be playing Dark Souls?


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It’s time to say goodbye (provisionally) to MHW

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easy-peasy with four people.
Ain’t no party like a gank party, hey, ho!

I’m still hacking up a lung, which is really unpleasant. I’ve been wanting to fight Tempered Kirin, but my energy is too low to take on that challenge. One of the best and worst things about Monster Hunter: World is that doing each new quest solo takes a lot of energy. They aren’t necessarily hard (though some of them are), but they are grueling. Capcom has added Arch-Tempered Kulve Taroth, Nergy, and Kirin (I think the first and third are temporary), which just makes me heave a sigh.

I’m going to make a confession that I’ve alluded to before, but I’ll state it plainly now. I find the Tempered Monsters to be boring. They just have way more health than their HR counterparts, and they’re more aggressive. That’s it. Doing them solo is tedious, and doing them with a talented crew is too easy. Granted, I haven’t hit the Tempered Elder Dragons yet, so that might change. The thing is, I’m not looking forward to it at all. I’ve been putting off Tempered Kirin because I’m sick, yes, but also because I’m not enthusiastic about it. I know I can do it multi and be done with it, but that defeats the point, I think. Or not? The most fun I have with the game is multi, so maybe I should adjust the way I’m thinking about the game. I have nothing left to prove as I’ve beaten all the monsters solo.

I was thinking about hardness in the Dark Souls games last night. I beat the Fume Knight with the help of a really stellar player summons (shout-out to Zoi and all the people still playing DS II after all this time) and the two NPC summons*. I had looked him up beforehand to refresh myself as to his weaknesses, and I noticed that his HP was 14,258. Gwyn, the final boss of DS had 4,250. Yes, Fume Knight had over 10,000 more HP than Gwyn. Sister Friede has 18,877 (total for her three phases). To be fair, the boss with the highest HP in Dark Souls was also in the DLC, Manus, and he had 6,665. Still. Giving a boss way more health is not my favorite way of making a game hard, but at least in Souls games, it’s not simply giving bosses more health.

I suppose you can think of Tempered Monsters as NG+ and Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons as NG++++++++, but the problem with that is that it’s only the monsters that get buffed. I mean, yeah, I know the whole game is centered around slewing monsters (it’s right there in the title), but at least during the storyline, as it were, you find different areas, different environmental life, new NPCs, and new armor. You unlock different upgrades to your weapons, and new upgrading systems. Once you hit Tempered Monsters, everything is pretty much unlocked as far as new stuff.

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Walking away from the First Flame

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I heard The Pina Colada Song on my way home from Cubs today, and it put me in the mood…to play more Dark Souls! It’s my Dark Souls fight song, and I’ve heard it twice in the past week. That must mean something, right? I recently learned that there is a second ending to Dark Souls II. Rather, to Scholar of the First Sin, which is the remake/update of DS II because DS fans were so upset with the vanilla sequel. It’s pretty cool that there are still things I don’t know about the games even though I’ve played the hell out of them, much like when I found a mini-area I had never seen before in DS II, but I doubt there’s anything big I’ve missed. Then again, I missed the second ending, so who knows what else I’ve missed? I think it’s because DS II is the least-talked-about game in the series. I haven’t played the vanilla version of this game, so I can’t comment on that. I have let it be known that I think SotFS is a really good game, but it’s not a great DS game. Anyway, the biggest difference is

*SPOILERS*

There is a character, Aldia, who is the brother of King Vendrick. He’s in the vanilla game, and you have to go to his keep for reasons. However, you never get to see him, and he’s more of an urban legend than anything else. FromSoft decided to change it up for SotFS. I mean, hell, even the name is in reference to Aldia, so it’s the first hint that he’s going to feature more prominently in the remake.

In the second half of the game, he shows up at bonfires to talk to you. He gets increasingly smaller every time he appears (which is three), and he’s not human. I can’t describe what he is, exactly, but he loves the sound of his own voice. Then, you have to do things in a certain order (and I will admit I knew this before going into the end game) in order to have a certain thing happen. Does that sound deliberately vague? Well, it is.

In the vanilla game, there is an area called the Throne of Want. You walk forever to get there, and it’s the boss arena for two different bosses. First, Throne Watcher and Throne Defender (a duo), and then the final boss, Nashandra–the queen. You can also kill King Vendrick at some point, but it’s optional (and a HUGE pain in the ass). In order to have Nashandra show up, though, you need something called the Giant’s Kinship, which you can only get from defeating the Giant Lord in a memory. You cannot access the memories without the Ashen Mist Heart, which you need from the Ancient Dragon in the Dragon Shrine–which you can only access after beating the Guardian Dragon in Aldia’s Keep. Yes, I am spoiling the whole end game, but it is under a spoiler tag, and the game is four years old, so I think I can get away with it.


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Letting the First Flame die out naturally

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ain't no love like elder dragon love!
Luna and Teo, the yin-yang of Elder Dragon love.

First of all, health report. Feeling a bit shittier than yesterday, but still better over all. Got a bit of snow yesterday, which makes me happy. Got my instapot (yes, that’s what I’m calling it from now on because it amuses me) and bought the ingredients for vegan mashed potatoes and gravy. Will mess about with that later. By the way, let me reiterate how difficult it is to find recipes that are JUST dairy-free/gluten-free, but in this case, vegan is fine. That might be my hook if I start blogging/vlogging my cooking with my instapot endeavors. I’m only doing it because of my sensitivities–otherwise I’d be chowing down on cheese, bread, and pasta on the regular. I don’t want paleo, keto, vegan, vegetarian, whole30 or top 8 free recipes. It’s frustrating because I can find gluten-free recipes and dairy-free recipes, but only gf/df recipes are few and far between.

On to Monster Hunter: World. I’ve been trying to quit the game for weeks, and I’ve been playing it less and less as time goes on. I didn’t play at all yesterday, butt I can’t give it up completely. Why? Well, there’s still a ton to do for one (Tempered Kirin, I’m looking at you). Two, they keep adding new content. They just announced the USJ: Gold Star Treatment and the USJ: Blazing Azure Stars! (related) a week apart in which you get the Azure Star loot. It looks cool as hell, and, of course, I need to get the Palico armor set first and foremost.

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Winding down Monster Hunter: World, oh, and yeah, Thanksgiving

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femdante is way sexier than mascdante.
FemDante in all her glory! And the Dante Devil Sword–which is actually a Charge Blade.

I am writing this on Thanksgiving, which is a weird day to me. First is the fiction Americans are told as children as to how the Pilgrims came to America, were welcomed with open arms by the natives, and they celebrated together by eating turkey and maize and whatnot. It’s a flagrant whitewashing, and it took me way too long to learn the truth. Christopher Columbus was an asshole who got lost, brought death, slavery, and pestilence to Native Americans, and there was no happy turkey dinner. It’s true the Native Americans at the time helped out the foreigners, which I’m sure thy regretted by the time Columbus was through with them.

In addition to that, I hate holidays in general because they bring out the worst in people. Or rather, they put so much pressure on people to have a certain kind of day, it’s stressful. Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular fetishize families to the point where if you don’t have a good relationship with your family, are estranged from them, or simply prefer not to spend time with them if you had your druthers, you are made to feel like a freak, an unfeeling asshole, or a wide range of other negative things. I feel alienated on a regular basis, and no more so from Thanksgiving to Christmas,

How am I spending my Thanksgiving? Much like any other day. Writing, watching YouTube vids, reading, playing MHW (Lunastra dropped today, which I’ll get to in a bit), snuggling with Shadow, and overthinking things. I don’t think it’s sad, and I don’t have any desire to celebrate–especially as I can’t eat most of the staples of Thanksgiving dinner, anyway.

Jumping dramatically to another subject–Monster Hunter: World. Still working on the Tempered Monsters, and it’s still bullshit that you have to track them to get the investigations. Have yet to get a Radobaan quest, so I still haven’t fought him solo. I did the Kulve Taroth quest two more times so I could get the Golden Shell to complete the Palico armor set. It’s ridiculously gilded and pompous, but I love it. My favorite Palico armor set is from Xeno’jiiva, the ‘final’ boss (storyline boss). It’s ethereal and makes Shadow look like he’s late for the wedding. I really wish I could have done the Kulve Taroth Siege properly, but there was never anyone doing it when I went to dive in. Probably because it’s better with a coordinated team of four, which I don’t have.

I did the Code: Red quest multi as I predicted, and I had a blast! It’s a special arena quest in which you fight one monster after the other. First Anjy, then Odo, then Rathalos, and finally, Teo. I went with pure power rather than any element, and I was the team healer per yooz. It’s amusing to me that I’m a Switch Axe user (Swag Axe in the parlance of ‘the community’) and a healer because they’re not that compatible. I don’t care, though, because I’m a healer first and foremost.

Anyway, with a good team of four or even three (had to do it with only two other people once), we can get the deed done in roughly twenty minutes or less. I know each monster has less health than their solo counterparts, but it’s still a thrill to take ’em down. It’s the best when the team works as one, such as the time one of my teammates set a trap for Teo, set down two Mega Barrel Bombs, and the rest of us set down our Mega Barrel Bombs as well. That did HUGE damage to Teo, and he was easy peasy to kill. I did the quest six or seven times, and I even got a Teo gem from one of the fights! I have unlocked the ability for the Elder Melder to make Teo gems now, so I never have to fight Teo again if I don’t want to.

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Monster Hunter: World, Dark Souls II, and asundry

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twice as much fun.
Tandem Bageljuice gliding!

I said last week I was nearing the end of Monster Hunter: World. There was plenty more to do as there is always a ton to do in MHW, but I felt as if I were running out of gas. I’m still playing, albeit more casually (in terms of time put into it). I took on the twin Tempered Bageljuices solo without even breaking a sweat. This is not a humblebrag–just the facts, man. I went in properly buffed. I have an armor/weapon loadout for each monster, which you can do when you have a-mill-and-a-half monies. I update the set whenever I fight the next souped-up version of the monster, and I try to make sure I have Divine Blessing Level 3, Health Boost Level 2 (prefer Level 3, of course), and Defense Boost Level 3 (or higher. I will forgo this for the other two, though). I’m very much defense-based, and I don’t mind if it takes me a bit longer to kill a monster than it would if I were more attack-based. I also had Fire Resistance Level 3 for this fight because the consensus is that Bageljuice does fire damage.

I buffed myself to the max for this fight. I drank my Mega Armorskin and Mega Demondrug, which are fucking amazing. I can’t stop raving about them. They buff your defense and attack respectively by a lot, and they last the entire quest or until you get carted. I got the Grimalkyne in the area, which are the trappers because the quest happens in the Wildspire Waste. Then, I boosted us by throwing a Hardshell Powder and an Attack Powder in the air like I just don’t care. I ate for defense, and then I went to tackle the two Tempered Bazelgeese.

One of the best things about this fight is watching the two Bageljuices go at each other, which they did four or five times during this fight. Not only is it epic to watch; they do significant damage to each other. I’m in the minority (of ‘the community’) in that I think Bageljuice is adorable. I love his podded face and body, and I just want him as a pet. Then again, I think the Nazgul, Dementors, and Ultralisks are adorable as well.

I thought time would be my biggest issue in this fight, but I didn’t even need half the time. My strat was to let the two of them fight each other for as long as possible before they both targeted me. Then, I’d Dung Pod one of them and attack the other. I had the Vitality Mantle and the Health Booster as my tools. The best part is that you can use a mantle and a booster at the same time. So, I’d plunk down the Health Booster, throw on my Vitality Mantle, and go to town on the one Bageljuice until the other one came around. The Health Booster lasts 60 seconds and has a 150-second cooldown. The Vitality Mantle lasts 120 seconds or until you get hit out of its protectiveness, and it has a 360-second cooldown. They are a great tandem, especially when playing solo. That Health Booster has saved my ass more times than I care to admit. Another way I use it is to wait until the monster flees, then plunk it down so me and my Felyne friends can fully heal.

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Monster Hunter: World limping to the end

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uppercut!
Best place to be with Xeno.

After several days off from playing Monster Hunter: World, I jumped back in, partly to play the Kulve Taroth Siege. I’ll get to that in a minute. I also wanted to do the weekly Limited Bounties because doing them all nets a Gold Wyverian Print when it’s all said and done. Basically, it gives you one free gem (at the Elder Melder) a week, which ain’t bad. The problem is, the Limited Bounties are like, “Hunt ______ Fanged Wyverns”, which can get tedious. I do them multi if I can, but that’s not always possible. This week, it was Hunt 3 Fanged Wyverns, 4 Radobaans, and 5 8-star Quests (Elder Dragons. Just call them Elder Dragons). I mostly did Nergy for the last one because I need another Nergy Gem, and Teo once because I need his as well, but I got no gems from those five hunts. Only two tail cuts on Nergy and didn’t get the tail cut on the Teo.

I tried the Charge Blade on one hunt, and I’ve lost my skills on that. It’s a shame because it’s a great weapon, but it’s one that needs constant usage. I forget the combos if I haven’t used it in a while, and, yes, I didn’t really need the combos for the Tempered Palolumu, but I felt like a newb when I couldn’t charge my shield or my sword. The problem is that I love my Switch Axe and am so comfortable with it. I’ve taken down almost every monster with my SA, and it feels like an extension of my hand.

Side Note: I’ve mentioned before my love of axes. It started when I played as a Pyromancer in Dark Souls (that seems like ages ago) and started with the Hand Axe, then I used the Battle Axe throughout most of that game. It’s pooh-poohed as a babby weapon, but I finished the game with it. As a result, I love axes. The first time I played tank in a Dark Souls game (DS III, second playthrough), I mained the Great Axe for most of the game. I really dug the Black Knight Greataxe during my tank run in DS Remastered.

I like axes, is what I’m saying. The Switch Axe felt the most comfortable from waaaaay back in the beginning when I tried all fourteen weapons, and it’s continued to be my favorite weapon. I know it’s not as flashy as other weapons or as fast, but it’s a solid weapon. Plus, you have the heavy-handed axe on the one hand, and the fast, slashing sword on the other. I think it’s hilarious that you can walk faster with the axe out than you can with the sword, but I usually sheathe before walking/running.

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