Monster Hunter World - Review

 

Capcom's Monster Hunter series is that one that has always seemed overwhelming to me. It takes hours upon hours just to get down the basics and that is just for basic combat with one weapon. Most players say they have spent hundreds of hours playing. Those that can get through the first part of the slog can end up loving it, others it makes them want to pull their hair out. Ivan a friend from work (shout out) told me what I heard about the games is true, and he also he told me the worst thing about it is that once I start playing I might not be able to stop.

I was never a fan of prawns growing up, they did not seem to have much taste and the texture felt odd in my mouth. Over time I stopped eating them, until a number of years ago. I love Chinese food but if I am hungry won't take a risk and will go for something I have eaten before. One day I had a hankering for Chinese and was not super hungry so I took the opportunity to try something different. I can't tell you why but decided to go for a garlic prawn dish. It was amazing and from that day on I never ignored prawn dishes on the menu. Playing Monster Hunter World I found myself asking was this really for me or did I just need to give it more time?

Story

The game has you take on the role of a silent protagonist, who along with many other people wants to travel to the New World and hunt monsters the size of buildings. Monsters have already existed in the world but things have started to get out of control and it all seems to be coming from this place dubbed The New World. The main story is to discover what's causing things to go crazy and put a stop to it.

While there is a lot of lore in the Monster Hunter Series, Monster Hunter World does a good job of not being too top-heavy about the lore or story, which is great for someone entering the series for the first time. Similar to Final Fantasy XV the game is for new fans and old alike which I thought was a really great move.  

There are many characters you get to interact with within the game, most of them will be giving you missions. While you don't get much back story for any of the characters there is not a need to as their personalities shine through, which ordinarily may come across as lazy but in Monster Hunter World it really doesn't. 

Overall the story is interesting and while may not be the most in-depth is a great way for new players to get into the series without feeling overwhelmed. 

Visuals

The visuals are really interesting in Monster Hunter World, for example, the Headquarters is made up of old ships used in interesting ways to create a sort of town, even though it sounds like it should be like a shanty town it really doesn't, it feels warm and inviting. This is a good thing as being out in the rest of the world will not be quite as inviting. There are a handful of areas in the games each quite large and vastly different from the others. My favorite was probably The Ancient Forest as not only is it the first area you start in but it manages to combine lush jungle with beautiful rivers and a small barren area, almost like the Iceland of Monster Hunter World (apart from lack of volcanoes, which I am fine with). The Meowscualr Chef has one of the most fun visual sequences in the game and I loved doing missions for him so I could see new ones.

Each area has multiple levels to traverse meaning there is not only a lot to explore but helps it feel more organic. While each area can feel a little daunting at times there are plenty of things to help you along the way and at the end of the day, exploration is important. Overall the visuals look great and would be curious to try the game on PlayStation 5 and see how it compares.

Music

A soundtrack this large is hard to sum up in a few sentences but I will try. There are two very distinct tones in the games - peaceful pipes and orchestra for the moments of calm (which there can be a lot of) and then the full-on clash of orchestral instruments that are the sound for battles - the more intense the battle, the more intense the music. 

The soundtrack was created by Japanese composers; Tadayoshi Makino (Dragon's Dogma, Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Monster Hunter Series), Zhenlan Kang (Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter World Iceborne, Resident Evil 2), Akihiko Narita (Monster Hunter 2, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5 & 6), Yuko Komiyama (Rockman X7, Megaman X (1-8 Collection), Kingdom Hearts 3), Masato Kouda (Dungeons and Dragons Shadows Over Mystara, Marvel Vs Capcom Clash Of Super Heros, Devil May Cry 2, Wild Arms the Vth Vanguard). Between them, they have a wealth of experience and shines through in the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is close to four hours in length (which doesn't include the Iceborne DLC). It is hard to name my favorite tracks, but if I had to they would be; 'Main Theme', 'Prologue', 'Corner Stone Of The New World Astera', 'Meowscular Chef's Custom Platter', 'Ancient Forest: Small Monster Abound', 'Even Elder Dragons Tremble - Nergigante', 'Dancer In The Coral Highlands', and 'The Shadows Upon The Tempest: Kushala Daora'.

Overall a solid soundtrack that helps bring the world to life and makes me curious to listen to the Iceborne DLC soundtrack as well.

Gameplay

There is a lot to talk about gameplay-wise and will do my best to give a broad take on all of it. Let's go for some basics, character outfits and armor. The aim of the game is to kill monsters, obtain materials, and craft better gear. Armor is a huge part of that, there are multiple skill trees for armor all with their own positives and negatives depending on which monster you might be taking on. Don't get attached to one set of armor, you will end up having a few types, and that's okay. Getting to top-tier armor (post-end game) will require grinding but never really feels like a chore.

Weapons, there are a lot of them. Depending on what kind of monster you are taking on and what kind of weapon feels right for you there will be a lot of experimenting. So the review doesn't go on for pages I will discuss the two weapons that worked for me. The hammer was my primary weapon for seventy percent of the game, it breaks bones and if you don't mind taking the risk smashing a monster skull is a great way to put it down quick, the downside is that if you mess up a few times you are finished. The great sword was my secondary weapon and by the end of the game became my favorite. It is heavy like the hammer but is great a cutting off body parts and doing a lot of critical damage. Each weapon has a lot of moves unique to it and will take time to get the hang of each one.

Everyone's adventure is better with a companion - enter Palicos. Cat-like creatures that stand on two legs and meow a lot. Initially, I did not put much stock in them but as the game went on they can be a great distraction in battle, especially as you can craft weapons and armor for them. I think if I had put more focus on them earlier in the game it may have made things easier (but who wants easy?).

Food glorious food! Food is a big part of the game, you can cook your own food (peasant), eat at camp or eat at the canteen in the headquarters, which was my preferred place. Eating before every mission helps buff your character and as the game goes on you will need it. 

The monsters themselves vary hugely, each has its own tactics, early in the game you might get away with swinging wild but later on that just won't cut it. In the beginning, large enemies filled me with anxiety but as the game progressed I found myself saying 'bring it on'.

There are a ton of quests; optional, research, investigations, and more. It is great to have the max amount of them at all times as you will end up completing a lot of them when doing other missions so works well. 

The big issue I had is with the multiplayer aspect, the game can be played solo but works better with more people. My partner in crime, the light of my life, and now my wife, Nolls, decided to play with me. The problem is that if you are not at exactly the same point in the story you can't play together - you both have to have played a mission through all of the cutscenes, before you can jump into each others games and take on monsters together. This was frustrating as it meant one of us was often waiting for the other to catch up, and if either of us progressed at all without the other, they'd have to catch up again. The multiplayer option seems to work okay with the optional missions which are great but feel they could have made it easier to play the main campaign together. Multiplayer isn't difficult in most games that facilitate it, so why is this game, which is designed to be enjoyed with friends, able to manage a better multiplayer experience? Nolls ultimately gave up because it was frustrating, so I finished the main campaign alone. She's still cool, though.

Overall the game can be a bit of a labor of love, if you aren't willing to put in at least forty to fifty hours forget about it.  The game doesn't drop your rank so not playing for a while won't put you at a disadvantage but realize if you commit to playing this you are going to lose a lot of hours.

Final Thoughts 

So after fifty-plus hours how did I feel? Like I am ready for more and will definitely look at downloading the Ice Bourne DLC. The story is solid and while it's not the most in-depth is great for new players to the series. The visuals are great and the backdrops vary hugely so you never get bored of the surroundings. It has a epic solid soundtrack, fun upbeat when it is safe, and intense when monsters hit the fan (or the blade, or your preferred weapon). There is a lot to do gameplay-wise and that might scare people but it is worth it if you give it the time, there are a few tweaks that definitely could be made but nothing game-breaking. My feeling towards the game changed massively from start to finish, but sitting back and really thinking about I can safely give this one 4 out of 5

Project X Zone 2: Brave New World - Review

Despite not using my Nintendo 3DS very much, I do really like it, I just have difficulties finding games I really want to play on it.  Well over a year ago I saw Project X Zone 2: Brave New World in GameStop, I checked out the back of the box, liked the style, and the idea of playing a game with a multitude of characters from different game series. I went home checked out a little more about it, and then finally decided to buy it.  It has taken me a long time to finish the game, but I finally got there, so here's my review of Project X Zone 2: Brave New World.


Who loves peanut butter?! I really love it, it's tasty and works well in chocolate, biscuits, cakes, doughnuts, and sandwiches.  One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is between two slices of bread, sometime I might even toast the bread depending on my mood.  Throw in a large mug of milk, and I feel like happy little kid again.  Admittedly it's rather simple, but it is great comfort food.  Playing Project X Zone 2: Brave New World I found myself asking was this a simple tasty sandwich with milk or was it just simple?

Story

The game takes characters from Capcom, Sega, and Bandai and has them working together to help stop the destructions of their worlds.  The mission is simple, stop the bad guys summoning an ultimate evil.  There are characters from: Resident Evil, Megaman, Strider, Darkstalkers, Virtua Fighter, Resonance of Fate, Streets of Rage, God Eater 2, Tekken, Soul Caliber V, and .hack// to name just a few.  The characters are mostly arranged into teams of two, my favorites were Xiaomu/Reiji, Phoenix Wright/Maya, Kiru/Majima, Dante/Vergil, and Sheath/Saya.

The story, while good feels a little more complicated at times than it needs to be, but for the most part, this wasn't really an issue for me as there was so much great dialogue between the characters.  There are jokes about other games, nods to the player, plenty of sexual innuendos, and just generally funny conversations.  The only thing that initially threw me off were some of the in-jokes, that you would only fully appreciate if you had played all the games the characters were from, but as time went on it just made me want to go out and play those games.  Overall though, a good story, with lots of fun dialogue.

Visuals

Handheld games sometimes suffer from poor visuals, this is certainly not the case with Project X Zone 2: Brave New World.  When you are organising your characters on the field of battle they are in a chibi/8-bit style which looks really good, the designers picked a style that suited the 3DS perfectly.  The conversations between characters are displayed well and gave a really dynamic feel, unlike some games that can feel quite static during dialogue sequences.  The animation sequences when pulling off a special attack look fantastic, and I never grew tired of seeing them.  One of the coolest things for me was the Dragonturtle MK 1, a mobile base that contains absolutely everything, including a games room!  

Overall I can't fault the visuals in the game, for me I really like when game designers push a console to its limits, but without overstepping and creating a visual mess.  I kept this section rather short, not due to laziness but more because one of the best parts of the game is the visuals themselves and didn't want to spoil anything.

Music

Being honest I don't think I have ever listened to a single video game soundtrack that contained such a colossal number of composers, arrangers, performers, and lyricists.  To have such a talented number of artists working on one game is amazing, and while sometimes 'too many cooks spoil the broth' this certainly not one of those times.  To me, music is just as important a part of a game as the story, visuals and the gameplay itself, if you don't feel the same way you may want to skip this section. Below is a list of all the people who helped create the soundtrack:

Chikayo Fukuda, a Japanese composer, lyricist, and arranger, her works include: .hack// and, Naruto TV Series,  along with the video games Asura's Wrath and LieN.

Yuki Kajiru, a Japanese composer, she is also part of a duo with Chiaki Ishikawa called See-Saw, and another with Yuuka Nanri called FictionJunction.  She has worked on a number of anime series including: Kubikiri Cycle, Sword Art Online, Reservoir Chronicle: Tsubasa and Noir.

Yoko Shimomura, a Japanese composer, lyricist, arranger, and performer, her works include: Street Fighter 2, Kingdom Hearts, and Xenoblade.

Masami Ueda, a Japanese composer, and arranger, he has worked on a number of video game series including: Biohazard Series, Devil May Cry Series, and Bayonetta 2.

Thomas Parisch, a German composer, and arranger, his works include: Resident Evil 6 Biohazard

and the anime series Prison School.

Laurent Zilani, a French composer, and arranger who worked on Resident Evil 6 Biohazard.

Kinuyo Yamashita, a Japanese composer, and arranger, who has featured on Video Games Live along with having worked on Castlevania 20th Anniversary Music Collection and Megaman X3.

Maskazu Sugimori, a Japanese composer, and arranger who has worked on a number of awesome video game titles including Ghost Trick, Vanquish, and the Gyakuten Saiban series (Phoneix Wright Ace Attorney).

Kohei Tanaka, a Japanese composer, arranger, and performer who has worked a number of anime series, and games including Sakura Wars, One Piece Music & Song Collection, Hayate The Combat Butler, Sega Saturn History: Saturn Was Young, and Gravity Rush 2.

Hidenori Shoji, a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist, and performer whose works includes Yakuza 3, Code of the Joker and Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Japanese composer, arranger, performer, lyricist and programmer who has worked on a number of video game titles including Outrun, Virtua Fighter 1, 2, Virtua Fighter Kids, 

Burning Rangers, and Shenmue.

Yuzo Koshiro, a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist and performer who has worked on both video games and anime including Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage), Perfect Collection Ys Heaven's Sanctuary, 7th Dragon, and Misty Blue.

Rio Hamamoto, a Japanese composer, arranger, and performer who has worked on a number of video game titles including Soulcalibur 2, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken 7 and Ace Combat Assault Horizon.

Akhiro Namba, a Japanese composer, performer, and lyricist who worked on the God Eater Series.

Hiroyuki Kawada, a Japanese composer, and arranger whose works include Tekken 3, The Legend Of Valkyrie, and Beep Special Project.

Takuya Hanaoka, a Japanese composer and arranger who worked on the first Project X Zone, along with Shining Force Resurrection of The Dark Dragon, and Super Robot Wars.

The soundtrack contains eighty-six tracks and over fours hours of music.  It is really good, I wanted to buy a physical copy of the soundtrack, but I had to settle for a digital download.  There are so many great tracks, my favorites include:

Brave New World

Objection! 2001

You Will Know Our Names

Funk Goes On

Pressing Pursuit

Stair Of Time

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Opening

Burning

Volcanic Rim Stage - Oceania

Theme Of Ryu

Gentle Hands

Ride On Sea

Feast of the Damned

New World Project

Evil Profusion 

Faster Than A Howling Wind

Accelerating Chaos

Ship Battle

Sega Saturn - Shiro

Vengeful Beauty

Angels With Burning Hearts

Engage The Enemy

Gameplay

Onto the peanut butter that makes up this sandwich! The game is best described as tactical, turn-based, roleplaying game.  The game is not timed so you have all the time you need to plan before attacking.  Once you make your move you will go into a classic fighting game view which has you pulling off simple combos to do the most damage to an enemy. In most cases you will have two characters working together on screen to defeat one enemy, it might sound unbalanced but it actually works perfectly especially considering the health bar of some enemies.  If you are in close proximity to other characters you can call on them for help which can use to carry out powerful cross attacks.  Once your XP bar builds up high enough you can pull over powerful attacks that will kill a lot of enemies, and in other cases severely damage them.  Then onto the enemies turn, this times things play out a little different, when an enemy tries to attack you can defend, full defend or counter them.  Of course, this is only possible if you have enough XP, and even if you do some enemies are able to ignore this. This, for the most part, is how the game plays out, with the exception of a fewer protect your territory missions.

At the end of each mission, you can spend some time shopping for weapons, equipment, and items, arranging your teams, and leveling up your characters.  This is a big part of the game, as you can decide which moves to level up, in the early stages I put a lot of focus on improving the character basic attacks, and later focussed on their special attacks.  Overall I found the system simple, and fun to use.  

The game itself also has another element, skills.  These can be used before moving a character, some of them allow you to move more spaces, enhance the attack, and defense of characters, along with a multitude of others.  The strange thing is with the exception of the last few missions I didn't need to use them.  I only died half a dozen times in the game, so overall I felt they were kind of unnecessary.

Most missions went okay with the exception of the last one, it took me a few tries to complete, and in the end, it took me over three hours to finish.  

Overall some really good, fun gameplay with little to complain about.

Final Thoughts

So after over fifty hours how did I feel? A mixture of happy, and sad.  Happy because after a long time of playing I finally finished it, but sad because I finished it.  The story might be overly complicated at times, but the visuals were great, and I really like the gameplay.  I am sad it's over but I had a great time with it, and might even play it again in the future.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5

As you can see below I have a new addition to my review, it's a happy monkey, created by my better half - thanks, Nolls.  If I liked a game you will see him, if I the game was meh or didn't like a game you will see one of his friends.