Monster Hunter

The Monster Hunter cover.

 

Monster Hunter is an adventure video game for the PlayStation 2. The game was developed and published by Capcom. Monster Hunter was released in North America on September 21, 2004. It was later remade and expanded in Monster Hunter G, which was released in Japan and was brought to North America and Europe as Monster Hunter Freedom for the PlayStation Portable. The sequel, Monster Hunter 2, was also released only in Japan on February 16 in 2006, and then brought to North America as Monster Hunter Freedom 2 on August 28, 2007. Again, this "portable upgrade" brought some new things with it that the original game did not have.

Monster Hunter 3 was announced for the Playstation 3 two years ago and was recently announced as a Wii exclusive title[1] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has also been announced, to be developed for the PSP. The latter is said to feature new mission modes as well as new monsters and items. This information was revealed at Tokyo Game Show 2007.

Monster Hunter does not have an elaborate storyline or even an ending. The game does offer access to cut-scenes, (accessible through a gallery mode,) available upon completing certain quests that contain the corresponding monster. There is no plot to speak of, just a number of quests to complete before achieving the rank of Monster Hunter. Since there is no way to "beat" the game, a person could play indefinitely. The wide variety of items and equipment in the game is a significant draw for players.

Although much of the game can take place offline through single player, the majority and by far the most content is contained in the online section of the game. Not only are most monsters "online only" opponents, but the only way to obtain the strongest equipment as well the majority of sheer variety in equipment, is through online play. Online play does not require a recurring fee. Goals for players online are not to defeat the most monsters but to reach the highest hunter rank, which is the "semi-storyline" that is carried out online by NPC characters.

Gameplay

Quests can be classified into four categories: hunting, gathering, capture and event. Quests have a fee that is paid when you accept that quest. Once you complete a quest you receive a reward (money and items). The items and money you receive depend on the difficulty of the quest. Quests are separated into different rating, this is called your Hunter Rank (HR). There are also types of quest called 'Urgent Quests'. These quests become accessible once you've nearly completed every quest at your current HR and will allow you to progress to the next set of quest once you've completed the urgent quest (sometimes there are more that one).

As the hunter progresses through the game, the monsters will become more difficult to defeat, but will consequently provide better items for the hunter to use. This is the most important section of the entire game, as killing a monster is the only way, in most circumstances, to carve a monster for its various body parts. Hunting quests can not only increase in difficulty through bigger and stronger creatures, but also through the online only addition of "plus level" monsters. These beings are exactly alike in appearance to their normal counterparts, but have a great increase in damaging ability and health reserves.

Gathering quests are the hunter must "gather" items. These items may be simple to gather, like herbs, or require tools to gather them, like ore and fish. Other quests may require the player to kill monsters and hack off correct parts of meat or bone. These quests generally give out the least amount of rewards, but in some cases give valuable items. Although these are more than occasionally challenging, all gathering quests are required to be completed in order to reach the highest hunter rank in online play, as well as a way to earn items that can be used for rare novelty weapons such as the "Teddybear" hammer weapon.

see also: Monster Hunter Wiki

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