Online Role-Playing, Without the Monthly Fee

Monster Hunter is a game that you will either love or hate. It’s been trashed by critics and gamers alike, but it still has a loyal fan base. So is this game really worth the money or is it just another shoddily put together title?

The creators of Monster Hunter decided to take inspiration from the past when they began developing this title. No, they didn’t resurrect an old arcade game which seems to be a popular thing these days, instead they’ve created a game that uses the Phantasy Star Online mechanics for online role playing. Monster Hunter is an online role playing game, but not in the massively multiplayer sense. It works almost like a conventional online title where you and other players meet in a lobby before starting the game. When you log on you first select the world you would like to enter (of which there are two), then you select the land (there are a couple of these each with about a 400 player limit), and after entering a land you select a server you would like to join (A-Z). The server acts just like any normal online server, you can chat and look through your friends list or browse through a list of towns available. The town is represented in game and is a meeting place for up to eight people. In town you can run around and visit the marketplace, hotel, forge, or tavern where you can find available quests.

Monster Hunter is essentially an online game and the majority of questing happens there, but the game also features an offline component for those of us either without a connection to the interweb (a broadband connection that is) or who just don’t want to be bothered with having to rely on other people. At the beginning of the game you create your character. You can choose a male or female and then select from a large variety of faces, hairstyles, and voices to suit your needs. The character creation system isn’t too deep so don’t expect to be adjusting the distance between your characters eyebrows, but there’s a large enough quantity of pre-made material to make your character look unique. It’s not like your appearance matters that much anyway since once you get going the only thing you’ll be seeing is your armor.

Once the character creation process is complete there’s the option of taking your character online right away or starting up the single player campaign. My favorite feature in Monster Hunter is that your character is the same online and off so anything and everything you do while online is reflected by your character in the single player game and vice versa. It’s great to be able to take a break from online play every so often and hammer out a few single player quests on your own without having to worry about wasting your time. Another big plus is that it’s possible to get some types of armor in the single player game more quickly than online.

The single player mode in Monster Hunter doesn’t have much in terms of a storyline and it basically functions like a light version of it’s online counterpart. Instead of being in a town your character inhabits a smaller village that still has a street vender and a weapon/armor smith, but doesn’t feature as many items for sale and is rather small. What there is of the storyline is told mostly through conversations with the locals who for the most part say the same thing, but after each big quest they’ll change up their dialogue. There are also some smaller storylines that exist between the residents of the village and the townspeople and you‘ll hear a town guard talk about his sister back home, who happens to be a character you‘ll often talk to in the village. Starting quests offline is a rather simple process, all you do is walk over to the village elder and he’ll give you a list of what’s available. The quests are listed by level of stars, five stars being the most difficult and one star quests being the easiest. Just select a quest, head for the edge of town and you’re off.

Gameplay

The control scheme in Monster Hunter is one of the most highly criticized aspects of the game. You control your hero with the left analogue stick and attacks are all mapped out to the right stick. Basically you run around with your weapon sheathed, but when you need to engage in combat all you have to do is give the right analogue a flick and you character will change into a fighting stance. Depending on what weapon you’re using, moving the stick in different directions will result in different attacks. With a lance for example pressing up will make your character execute a forward jab well pressing down will result in a high thrust which is useful for taking down larger creatures. The problem with this control scheme is that it’s less responsive than using buttons would have been, but I actually like the way it works since it give a sense of weight to the larger weapons and also a feeling of immersion since the analogue sticks movements directly correlate with your hunter's actions on screen.

The other major problem with using the right analogue stick for controlling you character is that the d-pad is left with the responsibility of moving the camera. It’s a pain to have to readjust your fingers just to be able to move the camera bit and it gets really frustrating when you need to look behind during egg retrieval quests where a single hit by any enemy will force you to drop the egg you just spent half an hour carrying. The camera can also get pretty wonky at times when you’re stuck in a corner or up against the geometry. Thankfully the R1 button snaps the camera directly in front of your character which is a godsend and keeps the controls from completely ruining all the fun.

If you’re looking for a game that will offer hundreds of hour of replay value and hordes of items to collect then Monster Hunter is certainly the game for you. This pseudo-mmorpg features an absolutely brilliant item and armor creation system that makes you really earn the armor and items that you possess (unless you own a gameshark that is). You can still buy certain types of armor and weapons from the shop, but they’re all far overpriced and fairly basic compared to what you can craft (or what the weapon smith can craft for you I should say). After downing a creature you can ‘strip’ it’s body which usually results in your hero coming away with a useful item, be it a piece of the creatures hide or a chunk of raw meat (which you can cook to restore stamina). The sheer number of indigenous flora and fauna found within each field as well as the large cast of the games larger wyvern creatures allows for countless hours of weapon and armor crafting. When online you’ll see people with all kinds of crazy things, my character even has lobster claw armor on his arms which I was able to make from some lobster claws I received from a dead wyvern’s body. It’s unique, it’s ingenious, and it makes you really appreciate every item you obtain because anything can turn out to be valuable.

Graphics

The graphics featured in Monster Hunter are without a doubt some of the cleanest and most impressive I’ve seen on the PS2. Each field you’ll travel to during quests has a distinct look and field and the backgrounds in the environments are absolutely breathtaking. Whether it’s the scenic mountains and forests of the plateau level or the picturesque view of cascading waterfalls in the jungle level, the backgrounds really add a sense of location to the fields and give you something to look at when you’re not bashing prehistoric beasts. The textures in the game are surprisingly not blurred as with most PS2 titles and give the world a bright and organic feel to it. The raptor creatures actually look like you’d imagine they’re supposed to look. The larger wyverns are also sights to behold and look the part. Monster Hunter also features what has to be the world’s largest boss creature.

The lighting in Monster Hunter is another aspect of the game that shines through (pardon the pun). Certain areas of the maps have a serene look the them including the camp from the first plateau field you’ll visit which is sort of an enclosed area with a small lake and sunlight gently peeking through the tree branches. Each area of the game has a profound sense of location to it and it just feels right.

The art direction in the game is also unique and gives the game a quirky sort of Japanese art style. Maybe it's the oversized armor or swords, but whatever it is it gives the game it's own feel that you won't find anywhere else.

Overall the graphics just really help add to Monster Hunter’s prehistoric theme and you’d be missing out on some of gaming’s greatest moments of graphical beauty if you decide to turn down Monster Hunter. It might not have been as impressive if it was running on Xbox hardware, but just the fact that the visuals are being put out by the fledgling PS2 really shows how hard the dev team worked to harness the systems power.

Audio

The audio in Monster Hunter is your pretty standard fare. Your character will grunt and gasp when he’s attacked and when he’s swinging his weapon and the creatures react appropriately with yelps and squeals whenever a successful hit is landed. There’s also the Monster Hunter theme which isn’t anything award winning, but it’s quite catchy and you might find yourself humming it in the shower. Ambient noise is also pretty standard. I’d also like to note that there is no voiceover work in the game which isn’t such a bad thing since it’d be pretty corny to hear prehistoric people speaking English. Nothing is really lacking in the audio department, but then nothing is really stellar either.

Overall

As I stated before, Monster Hunter is the kind of game you’ll either love or hate right off the bat. Even if you’re almost positive you’ll like it, I’d suggest running out to blockbuster first before you put down $30 for a game you might trade in the next day. If you haven’t noticed I happen to be quite fond of Monster Hunter and it has a solid following of online players so there will always be someone else to play with. If you give the control scheme a chance you’ll discover the truly unique and enjoyable experience that is Monster Hunter, one of the few sleeper hits to be found on Sony’s second console.