Monster Hunter Freedom 2

"What can I say...? Almost speechless."

It's been a long time since I "completed" Monster Hunter 1. It was great back then on the PSP, and it still is. Monster Hunter 2 is an improved version of Monster Hunter 1 with many additions and fixes. For those of you who are not familiar with the Monster Hunter series, this is your chance to be enlightened. To be honest, there's no excuse for anyone who owns a PSP and to not buy Monster Hunter 2. (Unless of course you've given up on the PSP like many people, but if that's the case why are you reading this review?)

So what is this game about? Well the main idea is that you create your character, and hunt monsters/dragons/wyverns in the wild in order to improve yourself both in terms of skill and equipment. It is not possible to grows levels in this game, meaning you don't kill things for experience and finally get a level boost which ultimately raises your attack, accuracy, power etc. Again unlike most RPGs this game is more skill based than level based. This could be either disappointing or encouraging depending on what kind of RPG player you are. The great part about this game is that there are hundreds of different species of creatures roaming around the Monster Hunting world, and -correct me if I'm wrong- up to thousands of different types of equipments. Even better, most of the equipment look different, meaning you won't just have the same sprite/model for each type of weapon. For those of you who don't care about graphics and only care about the game play, let me tell you now that just because the graphics and variety of weapons and monsters are broad, it doesn't pull down the game play in any way whatsoever. There is a sense of do whatever you want and improve yourself idea in this game, rather than the "do what we say" type of game - which points to almost all the games on the shelf these days.

Storyline - None

For most players it would be "yes! no storyline", or for some it might be "damn, what's the point then?". The thing is, you can do whatever you want in this game. Yes, there are events which pop up from time to time when you manage to slay something incredible. But meh, to me that's not really a storyline. One thing you do have to do though is complete the easy quests before moving on to the hard ones. There is only 1 mode in this game, which means you can't complete one mode and move on to the next if you're not bored already. The hardness of this game increases as you progress further down in the mission hardness, and will eventually get down to quests which are practically impossible to complete one player. But by that time you would of spent over 500 hours on this game already. This is not an exaggeration, or an attempt to tell you how "great" of a game this is. Think about it logically, though. Most PSP games last somewhere between 15-20 hours, and the great ones lasting between 30-40 hours. This game can possibly last over 20 times the amount a normal PSP game can last you. But unfortunately, most people quit before they get too far because the game becomes too hard. Like I mentioned before, this game is mostly skill based rather than equipment based. Of course a certain portion of the game does require you to have good equipment. So to sum this all up, there's no real storyline to the game, which to be honest is a good thing in the end because you get to do what you want, and when you achieve certain goals events occur which gives you a sense of accomplishment.

Graphics - 10/10

As good as it will get on PSP games. The graphics on this game can rival the mid-end PS2 games easily, and blows almost all PSP games straight out of the water. The best graphic'd (yes, a slang word) games on the PSP at the moment are probably ones such as (taking into account graphics only and nothing else) Armoured Core, Metal Gear series, Syphon Filter, Tekken, and maybe a few more I can't think of from the top of my head. If you have any of those, then you can do a good comparison. I know many people have GTA, so let's say it has somewhat better graphics than GTA. I like to do these comparisons to other games rather than explain it myself, since with words you can only do so much. But to say the least, there aren't any glitches as far as graphics are concerned at all and the monsters all look realistic enough to "scare" you a little. I know many gamers take graphics as a serious issue, so to the graphics addicts - this game will impress you a lot in terms of graphics.

Gameplay - 10/10

If you could rate this game over ten for game play, I really would. The combat system is not turn based but real time, so it actually feels like you're fighting a real dragon one versus one rather than taking turns in hitting each other with stones like in some other RPGS. You have endless combinations of attacks in Monster Hunter, and you can do anything you want with the weapons you wield in your hands, ranging from spinning, jabbing, cleaving, spinning, sweaping, and many more stances. But unfortunately this game somewhat obeys the laws of physics. G = 9.81 on earth unfortunately. So you won't be doing any massive leaps or summoning thunder from the sky to smite your enemies. The game consists of 10 different weapons, Katana/Long Sword/Taichi (whatever you want to call it), Great Sword, Lance, Gunlance, Hammer, Horn, Sword and Shield, Dual Swords, Bow, Cross Bow. Each of them being entirely difference and unique with no similarities at all. (Except maybe very minute ones). If you love a challenging game, and a game which is entirely (almost) skill based which can last you up to almost a thousand hours, this is your game.

Music - 8/10

The best part about the sound effects of this game is that you get to choose your character's voice out of around 30. Make sure you don't choose a -dare I say it- dodgy voice. Otherwise you'll have to endure your character's voice for a very long time. The background music for this game is great, as it's just environmental music - nothing out of the ordinary, which is what we want right? There isn't really any tunes which are really annoying or anything so I doubt anyone will complain there. It's hard to describe graphics, and it's even harder to describe music... so I'll end the part here as I guess you guys should have an idea of what the music is like.

Conclusion - 10/10 (Not an average)

I'm not really a person who believes in averages since some aspects of games outweigh others. Monster Hunter 2 is truely an immense game which in a sense surpasses the expectations of PSP games as a whole. Most people expect the PSP to have watered down versions of all the gaming series. This may be true for certain cases - as much as I hate to admit it-, however Monster Hunter 2 does not follow this trend. Almost perfect game play, and almost perfect graphics, this game has the former and the latter. From any type of gamer ranging from casual all the way to pro, this game should at least be tried for all PSP owners.

I hope this review has managed to convince you into buying this game or not, and I'll see you all another time!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/07

Game Release: Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (EU, 09/07/07)