@“rearnakedwindow”#p51016JoJoestar Thank you, that helps me a great deal!
I'll also tack on that if you can't stand the underwater sections, I place _Monster Hunter 4U_ firmly within what we could impishly call the "late classical" Monster Hunter period. 3U and 4U are almost the same in most core characteristics, and 4U does not have underwater combat.
I'd also say that in terms of Monster Hunter becoming more new-player-friendly, I don't _exactly_ know if I'd say that that translates into the games being more accessible/easy. I think the newer games had more friendly onboarding, better tutorialization, more QoL features for resources and crafting stuff, and maybe a smoother difficulty curve, but I think by the time the game is starting to get really hard, _World_ reaches the same heights of difficulty and intensity as the older games did.
However, I will say, I agree _Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate_ is like a greatest hits of the franchise as @JoJoestar said, but they made a conscious decision to sort of across the board diminish overall monster HP totals from _Generations_ onward. This makes the core gameplay loop, well, not easier, just of more manageable lengths for individual quests. If there's one thing I miss from older _Monster Hunter_ games, it's the feeling of taking down some demi-god dragon I was barely able to fight in the first place with <5 minutes on quest timer.
I guess in terms of other major difficulty overhauls they also made the conscious choice in _World_ to allow you to bring in supplies in the middle of a hunt (normally you would be restricted to what you can bring with you at the start of the hunt, a moderate supply drop, and that's it), which makes _some_ challenges the games have to offer easier, but also, you have to get pretty good at the game before it makes the game feel too easy to be able to chug potions without worrying about running out. Besides, if you're a hardass _Monster Hunter_ purist and you're not going to inconvenience anyone online with it, you can always just not use that function.
Only other thing I can think of to say with regards to classic Monster Hunter and its idiosyncracies, that armor skill system is cantankerous and bewildering. IMO the new system from World onward is both much easier to understand and results in more satisfying and fun interactions with the system. Classic Monster Hunter has a lot of charming things about it but the armor skill system isn't one of them.
@“rearnakedwindow”#p51011 Maybe I’m asking “what is the most Insert Credit Monster Hunter game?”
I guess the truest answer to that question would be the never translated Monster Hunter Portable 3rd G on a PSP emulator on a Raspberry Pi 4 with a fan translation patch.
I second all the choices above. The original Monster Hunter 3 has its servers cut off but Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is still playable on 3DS and WiiU, and cross-play and cross-compatible between both platforms, which is pretty wild. I believe the WiiU version is still online.
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (a.k.a. Monster Hunter XX) is probably the right answer, especially due to it being playable and translated on Switch. It’s the last of the "classic" MH games but still one of the friendliest entries into the series in terms of difficulty curve. It still has a large community and a lot of guides and wikis in English. The biggest issue for a newcomer is that there is so much contents and stuff available from the start you might feel overwhelmed.
If you don’t mind playing on a New 3DS / New 2DS and control the camera with their minuscule nub, I actually prefer the original Monster Hunter Generations (a.k.a. Monster Hunter X). Generations Ultimate is undoubtedly a better _product_ in terms of contents, and it has both one of the best flagship monsters ever AND possibly the best endboss in the series... Wait I am counter-convincing myself... Forget I said all that... but Generations Ultimate only exists because Generations was a huge hit and Capcom reneged on their word that Generations would be a one-off celebration without any expansion. The original Generations _feels right_ in terms of contents and balance and the right amount of legacy stuff vs. experimental stuff.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is also a very good game. I have many friends who started on this one. You can definitely sniff the ambition of what would become Monster Hunter World.
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (a.k.a. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G) on PSP is kinda the Super Street Fighter IIX of the series, an absolute classic and purest essence of the series’ golden age but also a bit rough to get into nowadays for a first entry. It would at least help if you can play it on PS Vita in order to access the camera on the right stick...
I could also admit that while I am nostalgic for the longer hunt experience, maybe a ~ 50 minute boss battle is not for everyone, ever. Also, Generations came out after I would have put dozens of hours into 3U and a few hundred into 4U including doing most of G Rank and being able to clear at least one that I can remember of silly quests designed to present a significant challenge, so I was not the player being targeted for a more digestible length of individual encounters.
And, like, people do still time out on quests in MH:W, it just rarely happened to me!
I missed on World due to work commitments but I am 300 hours into Rise and loving it (except for the tower defense stuff but I am glad Cap keeps experimenting). I have big hopes for Sunbreak fixing the main issue of the original release lacking endgame contents.
I think the analogy with fighting games is solid: the different installments are going for very different things and many of them still have value being discovered today. MHXX is pretty much Street Fighter ZERO3. MHW is Street Fighter IV, back to the mainstream but going in a direction that might not please all veterans. I guess MHR is Street Fighter V but with a proper art direction.
In general, fans of this series become obsessed with the convoluted lore and world building, and don’t infer with common sense or real life experience. They look for a literal meaning, link and purpose for everything when there isn’t one, because these games are made by people, not god. True for most fandoms, they take interview snippets as end all be all statements, and never look beyond them, read between the lines, or imagine what we aren’t being told. This is a much needed perspective on this game, Solaire as a self insert character is very likely.
I just discovered this channel. My new favorite l channel dissecting this series. Lots of original takes I haven’t heard elsewhere that look beyond what most people have been repeating for ages.
@“treefroggy”#p51730 Watched the first minute and I know I‘m gonna love this (just not now, I’m heading to bed).
Short thought, there's something really casually cool and funny about creating _Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro_ videos but setting it to music that is from different games, but still weirdly suitable--this using music from _Hollow Knight_ and Zullie the Witch using _Zelda_ music.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p51825 I thought the exact same thing while I was watching…the Hollow Knight music was instantly familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place it at first as it melded so well with the Dark Souls atmosphere.
I really enjoyed the video—at a few points I felt the analogies became a bit overwrought, but overall I appreciate it whenever someone takes a step back and considers “meta-lore” instead of obsessively piecing together some kind of internally consistent structure that, in actuality, probably doesn’t exist. It’s certainly a fun exercise, but Dark Souls is so much more than a wiki of itself and it’s nice to see someone recognize that!
@“treefroggy”#p51730 Really enjoyed the stuff from this channel. Some of my favorite lore videos are ones that use games as a springboard for ideas- actually considering them as a work of art instead of getting caught up in what the creators had as "hidden truths or whatever.
Oh geez, that’s a relief…I was nervous when I first saw this post. Heartily second this recommendation, he provides some truly useful info and, if nothing else, it’s very entertaining to see modern games running with forced minimum LOD and sub-minimum internal resolutions.
This is a little off topic but I want to share anyway because I think it‘ll be interesting to some of you. I found it in my youtube recommendations (thanks, algorithm) and it wasn’t until I was partway through that I realised I‘d actually heard of this guy before, or at least, I’d heard some of his stuff back in the mid 00's as The Flashbulb.
Anyway, it's a good story, succinctly told, and it put me in mind of that sketchy Karl Jobst video a while back about the retro game speculation market, because THIS is how you make a youtube video accusing someone of unethical behaviour: be very careful about what you say and how you say it, avoid leaps of logic, and _actually seek legal advice_ before you post.
@“treefroggy”#p51730 really enjoyed this froggy, thanks for posting it! Now that I’ve finished DS I feel ready to jump into the impossibly big world of videos related to it lol.
Nice little breakdown of the inspiration for the fiends in SMT3. The attention to historical and biblical sources is impressive, especially re: Daisoujou, who I spent a lot of time hanging out with last year.
Maggie Mae Fish does incredible media analysis. Usually film, and lately television. I don't always, or even often, agree with her takes but her videos are a must-watch for me anyway.