Monster Hunter

"Excellence (offline review)"

I have one word for this game; awesome. I pre ordered this game back in the summer, hoping for the best. And I must say that it definitely delivered. Just about every aspect for this game is excellent, from gameplay to sound. Now, where to start XD

Gameplay - Monster Hunter is all about the gameplay! It's pretty similar to PSO. You walk around and slash things up with gigantic, ultra cool looking weapons ranging from swords to crossbows. The one big disappointment is that you don't gain any levels, but that can be a good thing. Now you DON'T have to kill every single monster on the screen =). Your equipment gives you attack, defense, resistance, and skills. The game is based off of a mission system. However, you MUST do a mission to be able to walk around and kill things, which I personally don't favor. But this allows you to always gain fair sums of cash and some rare items. It really limits the amount of freedom you have, since your missions are all timed (usually about 40-50 minutes for each). With the rare items you obtain, you can forge new weapons and armor or sell them to buy equipment/items. Forging is usually cheaper, and you can get very rare weapons from doing so, but some of the items required for it are hard to find.

Now, for the missions. The missions can be incredibly easy.... or incredibly frustrating. It really turns you off when you spend 20+ minutes on a single mission then die as you almost end it. If you DO die during a mission, 1/3 of your reward gets cut. So if you die 3 times, your reward is 0. I usually just reset the PS2 if I fail -_- (I'm so cheap XD). You can also abort a mission if you please. Doing so takes you back to town and all your items you gained during the mission are lost, and all the items you used are reclaimed. Overall, though, the missions are pretty fun and don't require a ton of effort. A really awesome factor though is you can do any mission as many times as you want n' rake in some quick cash.

Another awesome gameplay plus is that you can combine items such as herbs, mushrooms, etc. into one single item anytime you desire. And you can carve your enemies, too. Carving can result in getting teeth, hides, meat, etc. One other thing is that you can cook your raw meat too. Cooking is like a small minigame (is mentioned more under the Sound section). You can get 3 times of meat when cooking; Rare, Well Done, and Burnt. You want to aim for well done. If you eat that kind of meat, your stamina will greatly rise. Or, you can just save up your raw meat and use it as bait for wyverns and dragons =).

Story - Zero, none, nada, zilch. There is NO story. You're simply just a guy or gal who is trying to become a hunter. No allies betraying you or soldiers trying to capture you. So yeah, if you're looking for a deep story or w/e then this game is definitely not for you.

Battle System - This game is a unique kind of hack n' slash. You can have more than one weapon (for instance, if your fighting a flying dragon and you have a hammer equipped, simply swap it for a bow ^_^). What you do is use the R3 stick to attack opponents and make combos. Up R3 is an over slash, left and right are the side slashes, and down is the under smash. The stronger attacks vary with your weapon. The hammer gets a little extra, though (I haven't tried every weapon). The hammer CAN'T block, but instead you can charge your weapon and unleash a spiral attack. It works real well against big mobs. If you wanna be ultra cool you can use dual short swords *grin*. Anyway, enough of that. The combat system is very fun, but I would have liked to see a little bit of magic or something here and there.... but this is a little more realistic ^_^.

Graphics - Stunning.... absolutely STUNNING. YOUR CHARACTER ALWAYS LOOKS BADASS!!! I've seen a lot of different armor and weapon combinations, and not one looked dumb. The environment..... wow..... It's possibly one of the most detailed things I've seen. The animals all interact perfectly with their environment, too. This is definitely one of the strong points of the game.

Sound - The sound is just as awesome as the environment. There is very little music, so all you pretty much hear are the quiet, docile sounds of birds or the soothing sound of a nearby stream or waterfall. One of the funnier parts of the game is when you cook meet. This catchy little tune starts to play and you twirl that big hunk of meat around the fire.... then the music stops. If you hit X at the right time your meat will be well done! w00t w00t! Your character feels triumphant like he has completed a major heart surgery. It always leaves me chuckling XD.

Conclusion - Well, that's it for my review. Overall, I give this game a 9/10. It's one of the better games out there for the PS2 and I highly consider trying it. And a good part is, THIS IS JUST OFFLINE! From what I have heard, Online play is MUCH more expansive and really fun, too. Anyway, if you have any doubt about this, rent/borrow it from a friend n' see for yourself. It's definitely the best 50$ I've spent in a looooooong time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/04