MH really is a special breed of games. There's just something so satisfying to memorizing a monster's moveset and finding out how to optimize yours in response. It *sounds* like a regular game, but the interactive aspect is so strong that it's like having a dance partner except neither are doing the tango and both have knives but their knife is part of their head and your knife is actually a 2 ton hunk of iron shaped like corn on the cob
I usually put it as a 6 step plan: 1) fight monster 2) get fucked 3) fight monster again 4) beat monster 5) cry because you didn't get the part you needed 6) Repeat steps 4-5 until you got what you needed and made the monster your bitch Emphasis lies on making the monster your bitch.
No other game gives me such an immersive combat experience like I get with the MH series. Playing with a weapon and having the mechanics unfold while you progress is very rewarding and almost rejuvenates that certain weapons in-hunt combat.
Sometimes monster hunter feels more like a fighting game between all the i frames and counter moves it has now and it's always satisfying when you get the timing right
the first time I fought odogaron as a dual blades main i fell in LOVE with this game; it's such a dance of death to fight odo using dual blades, but so rewarding to get the moves down
My fav MHW memory was an egg quest where I was desperately dodging a rathalos in the last few minutes of the timer while yelling at my friend who was lost on the other side of the map.
The thing that I love about MonHun that you didn't mention, is that it's an action RPG where your progress is linked to your own knowledge of the game, and what you can kill. As you play the game, you learn all of these little tricks and tips that gradually add up until you're just a ball of "Oh, did you know?" And the fact that everything you kill in the game becomes equipment. I like skinning a velociraptor to make a velociraptor hat, which I wear to fight a bigger velociraptor.
I totally agree with this, but the super duper cool thing is, it's both knowledge you can put into words, and knowledge you can't. I love that you can learn all these little tips and tricks over time such as "Pitfall traps don't work on this monster UNLESS they're angry". But then there's all this other meta stuff that I can't put into words after having played Monster Hunter since Freedom Unite, such as being able to predict a brand,new monster's moveset based off whether it's a Flying Wyvern or a Leviathan, or being able to enter a state of flow whenever you fight a classic recurring monster like Rathalos or Tigrex or Nargacuga because you've fought them so many times over and over again throughout the years. It's that combination of learned knowledge and innate skill built up over years of playing that makes the whole experience so immersive and satisfying
It’s called horizontal progression where you as a player become adept at the game’s mechanics (as opposed to ‘Vertical Progression’ where your character’s abilities and equipment get stronger)
@@dorobokino yeah. I noticed this when i helped my best buddy with a monster. He's just got into monster hunter and i gave him all the tips i could while fightning certain monsters and when i said how many ways there are to fuck up a diablos, i realized how much i learned throughout the years
Your description of Souls combat as being a tug of war between the player and the enemy for stamina use is perfect. I had never thought of it that way before
The first time I cut a tail with a greatsword, I didn't know it could happen, and I was already so into the fight that the sight of me turning the tide in a tough battle gave gave the feeling of "I'VE GOT YOU NOW, BASTARD!" that was so overwhelming that it kicked my brain into the flow state and the combat finally clicked in my brain. It was such a perfect aha moment that I've been chasing that high in gaming ever since.
I just called that "in the zone", but I usually unlocked it when listening to music that pumped me up while I took on monsters. Just consistently getting every movement to be perfect as I got closer and closer to killing the monster. It is the best feeling.
@@CatLeone2003 i remember one of my hardest zone moments. Mhfu, against the lunastra. In the second encounter if the bitch fled, u fight her at the old tower and the cinematic, with her horn and tail cut and how there was no escape, only me in the arena against her, it really felt personal, avoiding her charges and running through her fire and explosions to land that stunning attack. Every hit felt like a little step towards victory and every move she made felt like the last, one move to finish me, there was no room for mistakes. When i won i felt so damn glorious, like a gladiator.
@@myth5588 just make sure youre charging than normal attacks dont flinch, almost all weapon movesets have weapon combos that add flinchfree at varying levels(also i go for the tail just not during a knock over other wise if its cut off during it cancels the full duration of knockdown at which point head tends to have the weakest point not fucking over weapon sharpness)
@@johndoe4004 i know how to play hammer lol, about 2k hrs in 3 different mh games can attest, when starting the big bang combo you don't get flinch free so when i knock the monster over and the longsword user teleports into my ass, triping me over and over during the wind-up of my most damaging combo, gets a bit annoying doesn't it
@@myth5588 Your DPS is gonna be shot anyway just by virtue of being in a multiplayer setting (good luck getting those bonks when the monster is going after _everyone at random)._ If it's that much of a problem, don't play multiplayer. Otherwise, just make a multiplayer-friendly version of your favorite loadout and stop whining. I also play both hammer _and_ longsword (and longswordsmen get smacked around too) - it's not hard.
I think the thing I love most about monster hunter is NOT having a visible health bar for the monster. When I first started playing (for context I play World) I thought that was the strangest, dumbest choice, all the fights were boss fights so why wasnt I able to see how close I was? But *you do* the game has such a natural pace to it, a monster is very close to death when it goes back to sleep, occasionally so close you can kill it without even doing another whole fight. The monster over time naturally gets tired, and spends time just leaning back and catching its breath. the monster gets hurt when you break something, backing away screaming in pain. The monster IS telling you how close you are in its movements. Its so fine tuned.
And then you learn that the little square on the bottom left corner has a heartbeat animation that changes at specific health interval percentages, and you realize that there actually effectively is a health bar if you know what those animations are That heartbeat animation will change immediately when it reaches the right health threshold, which means that you can see where the monster's health is even before they switch into the other health revealing animations
It's not only a good way to do health bars without having them but it's also great for world building showing that these aren't just mindless monsters they're animals just like any dog, bear, or lion
It also changes the way you are mentally engaged in the hunt. When the battle isn’t a focus on how much health the monster has at any given moment, you then change your priorities and how you respond at any given moment. If there were a health bar, the focus would then be on trying to make the health bar smaller and not on the monster itself.
I actually laughed way too hard at this ad break, and yes I'm answering to an 8 month old comment because I can't be bothered to post a new independent one.
I think something that makes MH really unique is that rather than progressing by leveling up like in most RPGs, you progress by crafting new equipment. It means that your progress is tied to how good you are at the game. In Monster Hunter you can't just grind easy monsters until your stats are so high you completely outclass whatever fight you're struggling with, you have to actually improve and learn the weapons and monster.
Element up augments do help, but yeah I tried that hunt over 50 times straight before beating him, all requiring skill and move memorization. That Element augment up during the last few hunts I think amplified my skill enough to beat him before his inevidable Ice nova@@AuroraBorealis170
@sergioramirez924 never mind fatalis. I'd say I'm not bad at the game, but soloing fatalis just seems like it is impossible, whenever I try it. All the damn strategies I tried failed. And now after 1,5 years, I doing a new character, that I will beat the black dragon with.... with a completely different build (one that actually has evasion for once)
I've never had anyone tell me about Monster Hunter in a cohesive way before. Honestly, what you say about everyone having a different experience makes a lot of sense considering that nobody has ever been able to define to me why they enjoy playing these games.
gear isn't just stats and visual design is always great. In regards to gameplay it's good because it rewards knowledge and execution. It's interactive in many different levels. A big one is being able to see the damage you inflict on a monster. The damage and overwhelming brute power most of these monsters possess coupled with the traditional long attack startups monster hunter is known for, make it so you have to think before you act and find ways to out manoeuvre the monsters. And that creates a dichotomy between the alternative playstyle that emphasises the inhumane strength of hunters that initially seems like the player just running up and mashing attack, but they're so confident in their damage and execution that they can run that deadly offense. Being able to completely halt a 5 tonne pickle with your shield and striking it back just to see the thing fall over as the camera pans out satisfies the power fantasy of hunting oversized creatures with oversized weapons extremely well.
the way i would explain what makes the games enjoyable, is that for me it really felt like i was a seasoned hunter after 200+hrs, i knew what the mosnter could do, i could see patterns and call them out, i could make a good build. And that would go for multiplayer too, i had never once seen someone speaking on the chat, everybody knew what they should be doing, the game doesnt tell you "hammer guy hit the head, sword guy cut tail" you naturally see what is more effective by just playing and understanding each weapon, in comparison to MOBAS and other genres where it takes a fuck ton of time for people to get that they should do even if its a simple task.
I'd say because the combat feels like a dance. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll casually hunt a Zinogre just to have that fun. Sometimes rise sometimes mhgu.
Exactly. As a SwitchAxe player i say "its soo cool!! Your weapon explodes!" While a hammer player could say "its sooo cool! You overpower godzilla by bonking its head!!". Every weapon is a game on its own right.
Playing MH is the closest thing to playing a fighting game that’s actually a PvE co-op game. Before you’re new you just mash and flail randomly hoping things will work out. Then you learn which attacks are punishable and which aren’t. You watch a really good player and see that they get bigger punishes because they know when to roll, where to aim, what the monster will do next. And after playing for a while you see a cool clip of a different weapon and get inspired to pick it up. It’s so interesting cause it’s like you’re playing a different game. The hand feel, the speed, the things you need to be good at are all different. And before you know it you’ve been playing for hundreds of hours chasing the feeling you get when you land a really clean sequence. Like you’ve temporarily opened your third eye, and can see the green matrix numbers that make up the game while you’re epically twerking on the monster.
I've always found interesting that monster hunter somehow manages to capture the depth of combat that fighting games usually have even though one of the "players" is AI
@@skepticpunk_ *light RPG elements. Aside from different builds and the positive and negative (which were removed unfortunately in the currect games) consequences those builds have, MH has no dialogue choices and significantly different approaches to a quest and appropriate postive and negative consequences to them.
@@DJWeapon8 I was thinking more from a pure gameplay perspective, particularly about how much effort goes into making a proper build and how much influence it can have over a hunt. If you're thinking about story elements and character choices having any effect on it, yeah, MH doesn't really have much of that going on.
In Monster Hunter lore, Hunters are actually help keeping balance of the ecology. The monster you hunt on the contact is either invasive or destroying local ecology, so that means we help the local ecology rather than destroy it.
one of my favorite moments from monster hunter combat is when i ran a medic hunting horn in ice born. ran into another medic hunting horn. and we healed through a lunastra supernova to let everyone get right back to bonking the monster once she landed
Monster Hunter gives me the same satisfaction i get from fighting games. Learning and mastering the matchup against all the monsters, reading their next attack before it happens to then just punish them for it. It's amazing! It's also a amazing feeling to look back on how far you've come when you started using any of the weapons. At first it feels awkward or even frustrating but when you really put in the time and get to know the weapon it just clicks and you really start to appreciate the weapon, weaknesses and strengths. It also helps you appreciate the people who main those weapons. The 14 weapons of MH are just a fighting game roster because MAN they have so much more depth compared to alot of other weapon combat in other action games...so yeah, what i'm saying is Capcom are amazing at combat design and Monster Hunter is sick.
Damn, I think that might be the very same set of reasons it drove me away. It’s accurate, too. Clunky, awkward moves that look relatively same-y until you have a few hours devoted to it, and require you to understand quite a few mechanics before you can actually start to experiment… Each one functions differently enough that even if you have a grasp of the fundamentals, you’ll have a hard time transitioning between options because of muscle memory… The enemies always seem much more daunting until you understand what you’re doing wrong on a basic level… then they become difficult because there’s just 50 things you’ve yet to totally understand, but you know that they exist, and that you will need to figure them out before you have any confidence again… Everyone else always seems so much more skilled than you, but then you learn about the things they know… and you still feel inadequate because the balancing act of remembering it all is draining your will to play… I get why other people like it, but like FGs, I still don’t see how people got into it without a very specific mindset.
@@CurlyHairedRogue You're thinking too hard about it and most of it seems from being overly self conscious or out of fear of being bad at the game, just hit the big lizard and try not to get hit. No one will mind if you suck horribly because that's the way everyone started, and beating even a low level quest can be gratifying to experienced players when leading new people into the game.
@@Alleiptr eh. Nah. I couldn’t even get into any multiplayer in MHW because there weren’t any people on PS4 for some reason. The only weapon that didn’t feel like butts to control for me was the SnS and it was just kinda boring. Find monster, hit monster, monster runs, track monster, find monster, hit monster… Keep in mind, I got _big_ into stuff like DRG, and it was right up my alley, which is why it surprises me that I don’t like MH. I still maintain that the game just feels too clunky to me. Even the light-weight weapons feel weird, oddly enough. I put it mostly up to my experience with FPS and FP Hack ‘n Slash games. Third person camera and big weapons that take a long time to swing makes me feel like Im suggesting things to someone through a telephone, then they mull it over and do it 5 seconds later.
@@CurlyHairedRogue The games ARE inherently very janky, with monsters choosing moves at random and switching targets inbetween hits, terrible hitboxes and things like "Oh no you knocked me down, whatever will I do? Anyway I'll stand up and do a frame 1 no-startup 360° attack now" It does get fun if you cheese the game back with whatever options you do have (or you develop Stockholm Syndrome like me lmao) but I can't even blame you for deciding this isn't your thing
The weapon comparisons at 6:12 caught me so off guard! My brain was like “Oh I miss that alligator monster I wonder if they’ll bring him back!” Then realizing it was God eater hit different, a whole new nostalgia.
In world i was fighting the arena barrioth quest and i decided to use a bow for the first time, i didnt do shit for damage but i also never got hit lmaoo
I think that wirebugs are cool, but we need more monsters that take into account these very fast movement options (like magnamalo, rajang and vaelstrax), because it really does trivialise some fights like barioth and diablos. Still they are pretty cool
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 This is usually what happens in new games with new mechanics. World had a lot of new mechanics that some older monsters couldn't really handle, really. But part of that is the point: this is the base experience. You need to get the hang of everything first, because this still isn't G rank. Of course, this is purely speculatory based on my past experience with older MH games. If nostalgia hasn't yet eliminated my perception, 4U in the base game had a hard time dealing with the 3rd dimension of verticality, but G rank got a lot better about it (along with some event quests and near the end game of High Rank). I must stress, though, that I could be misremembering that and planting new memories in my head that weren't there.
as an unga bunga greatasword main, the thing i love most about Monster Hunter is landing a True Charge Slash and watching the 10-tonne beast stagger. The animation stopping when you land it gives such an addictive sense of power
The best part of MH is by far how weighty the combat is. Like, there's just so much heft and weight behind each weapon that it makes the game so unbelievably satisfying when you connect big attacks, or when you fish for an opening and get that cheeky smack in. Coming from GS in MHW, I legitimately cannot play any other 3rd person action-RPG anymore because they all just feel floaty in comparison. I'm so accustomed to this big fuck off vaguely sharpened slab of metal with a rocket on the back of it that a normal sword feels like a wobbly dildo in comparison.
I wouldn't say behind every weapon. Not even most weapons honestly. Definitely not dual blades, and usually the ranged weapons. Not the sns, until perfect rush was introduced, and metsu in Rise. Not really the insect glaive until diving wyvern was introduced. The lance and gunlance are debatable, but I wouldn't say they have much heft outside of a few moves.
Yeah I think the best part of monster hunter is the sheer variety in the weapons. As you alluded to, each weapon for the most part really is their own entire game. If you're playing Hunting Horn, you're doing something completely different than someone playing SnS or Greatsword or Charge Blade or whatever. And that both allows for players in general to have a greater chance of finding a playstyle they like, but also adds replayability to the game since even if you get to endgame with one weapon, you could still easily spend another hundred hours learning a new weapon from scratch and still have a great time fumbling against monsters you could smash easily with your main. Like whenever I introduce someone new to the game I usually have to take a personality quiz to try and recommend a proper weapon for them. Do they like managing lots of resources? Do they value mobility or raw damage and to what extent? etc etc
And then some weapons can even have different "styles" of gameplay. I think the weapons that come to mind are the gunners with various ammo type archetypes, Gunlance has its different shell types that focus on different playstyles, and Risebreak GS can choose to go for brutal counters with Strongarm Stance, or you can choose to play something involving tanking hits to dish out heavy blows in return.
Completely agree, I spent the entirety of MH4 with GS. it wasn't until I had the opportunity to fight Kulve that I picked up the GS and probably spent the same amount of time learning how to be effective with GS as I did playing both MH4 and MHW:IB combined. That's doubled now since Sunbreak where I picked up CB after TU2, It's incredible that there are another 11 weapons in the game that I've barely touched besides Lance with probably the same or similar learning curves to the last 3 weapons. It's like a whole new game when you pick up a different weapon and even more so when you start getting proficient with said weapon.
One thing I love about mh is how you never have to level up your character or have any specific stats tied to them. You can swap to any weapon, any play style at any point without having to worry about respec or any of that shit. You just grind out some new gear
My favorite thing about MH is how the skills and weapon properties coalesce into a build that feels truly your own. I play an item support sword and shield build that focuses on using the shield to punch the monsters face until it's stunned. Then once it's down you go for big combos. The cool thing about this is the shield punches don't lower your sharpness. How's that for player expression?
12:57 Alright but seriously, I would KILL for a cross-over monster fight against Godzilla. Also, I have never heard anyone put into words exactly everything great about Monster Hunter and it's combat anywhere NEAR as well as you did. This was an awesome video, and thank you, so much for finally finding a way to put all of that feeling into words, I could never quite find a good way to explain it to my friends myself when they showed interest in the franchise.
replace zoroah magdaros with godzilla but without the getting on his back thing and you only fight it with cannons and ballistae and a dragonator here or there. and maybe a way to dodge plasma beams.
One of my favorite aspects of monster hunters combat (especially in the newest games) is that it's deliberate but not slow. Every move matters because even with stuff like the dual blades you still have times when you can't stop your attacks, so you have to think about when is a good time to go in. But even so, you can still run around the battlefield to dodge the monster and it never feels like you're too slow to avoid damage. Also, the combat has a certain weight to it that I adore. Every strike has power behind it that makes it feel like you're doing meaningful damage with every hit. Just my random thoughts.
I fucking love MonHun so much. Like you said it always feels like theres enough time for just one... more... hunt... Also very excited for a possible ULTRAKILL video from you at some point.
It really helps that the sound, animation and music make this dance between you the player and the monster play put so well. It would feel mediocre but the satisfying crunch when the hammer hit or the exaggerated falling a monster takes while an orchestra plays battle music sell the combat just as well as the mechanics do. Every small success has a fanfare that encourages you to continue going towards the end.
your description of souls combat is good, but its clear by you saying that such stamina management isn't present in monster hunter that you don't play bow or dual blades, because both of those weapons use stamina offensively in a pretty soulsian way, if you overuse it you won't have enough stamina to dodge, and so on
Stamina management is present, but it's also very watered down. Not only does rise give you 50 free dash juices to start, which is more than enough to get you to your first stamina skill, but the danger of not having stamina is hardly present, especially in rise, where dual blades can adept dodge with the wirebug, and bow has two wirebug skills that get you away from the monster. Souls forces you to use stamina defensively, but Monster Hunter rarely even needs it if you know where to stand relative to a monster. Plus, dual blades dont really even use much stamina, since you have all the mobility you need with the beyblade spin. Demon Mode stamina consumption is a joke. Bow takes a bit more effort, but once you have Stamina Surge, that kindof just invalidates the stamina management part.
@@csg1lcolonel528 fair enough, it might just be my bow player bias talking. there are certainly far more ways to mitigate it in monhun, but bow is all about cashing out that stamina into damage, there's even a switch skill that lets you do blunt damage with power shots at the cost of more stamina use. it's definitely a lot more manageable, especially considering how much longer the fights are in mh and how often it breaks up the pace to give you a chance to recover, but in attempting to do full optimal damage with bow there's still a lot of times i find myself running low on stamina and not being able to capitalize on an opening or simply dying due to not having the stamina to dodge.
@@Kaimax61 i mean, its not like you cant mitigate it in dark souls as well, just to a lesser extent. you can level stamina and play weapons like daggers that have very small stamina cost on their attacks
I've definitely had to manage stamina on Lance. I think the only weapon that doesn't need to manage stamina is hunting horn, though I haven't played all the weapons enough to know.
I think my favorite anti-monster hunter argument I've heard is "What else is there to the game, all you do is hunt monsters" And I have to just sit there for a minute... show them the name of the game, and wait for them to realize that's kinda the point
I wanna see a monster hunter fighting game where all the characters are the different weapon choices, and you can unlock armor pieces from different monster sets as cosmetics.
I’m so glad someone made this. Seriously, the creativity in all of the weapons’ moves has me in awe because they somehow manage to look cool without going out of boundaries (for the most part). The hammer is a prime example.
1:15 3U was my first MH game, and i actually like water combat, and while it wasnt perfect. I really want to see them try it again, make it easier to move around and the movesets less slow and it will be fun.
I dont particularly like combat underwater but I want to see Lagiacrus again and when its back, you cant just fight him on land, thats just half of the experience and the aesthetic
Everytime I see somebody talking about Monster Hunter it sounds just so magical About the world, the feeling while playing, the gameplay, etc And it only make the live action worse
Glad to see that you gave the charge blade some love. I absolutely LOVE this weapon and it's the main reason it's harder for me to go back to the older games.
All in all, I like the part of monster hunter were I make a visible dent inside the skull of some poor creature with my hammer that is also a giant catman statue
I got my girl into monhun a few years ago, and we played through the game together. She got one of her friends into it and has been replaying it with them with a new character to try out different weapons, and she pointed out how although she isn't even using her main weapon, how her gear is nothing, and how she doesn't have anything unlocked yet, her clear times are still very fast. The monster hunter difference is how much bearing your knowledge of the monster has on your performance. You, as a hunter, change the outcome much, much more than your weapons and armor. In her words "it's a game that makes you feel good at video games."
Yeah, I couldn't give less of a shit about managing the Charge-Axe but once they added the shoulder-check to the Greatsword, I physically could not play any other weapon for more than a few hunts. Love brawling with that thing. Very insightful words, smart good talk words.
Personnally the shoulder tackle is what made me not want to play greatsword anymore. Before I needed to take into account both the hitzone of where I am hitting, how dangerous that location is, and how long I have to attack. Now I just need to stand next to the head and just tackle when it attacks me, so I can spam tcs.
@@HareHeadGFX IMO they need to buff Punish Draw and Crit Draw to the point that classic GS play can even hold a candle to modern GS. I enjoy both but there really is no reason to play the the old matador style anymore in terms of effectiveness.
@@GarudaRamudasRumpusRoom This. I didn't play old GS, it wasn't for me and love the inclusion of tackle. It makes the weapon fun for me (I'm a CB main, so anything that lets me shrug off a monsters attack mid offense is a win in my book) but I do dislike that its now the only really viable way to play GS. One of the things I think MH does really well is allow you to build around buffing the weapon playstyle you want and making that style work, but a few weapons like GS tackle into TCS and Bow Dash Dancing are just so strong that they make most other playstyles invalid.
@@HareHeadGFX Okay, I may be getting this wrong but... Couldn't you just... Not use that move? If it's a move that makes you not like the sword, can't you just choose not to use it? Again I could be totally wrong, but hey
@@hazeltree7738 Of course thats true, but when such moves are included, the weapon has to be balenced around it, so everything else about the weapon gets effected. While the old playstyle is possible, its undeniably less effective, so it just feels worse compared to past iterations.
World was a transcendent experience. Rise hasn't quite met that expectation but it's damn close. I'm so happy I finally got into these games. Thanks for the video, Leon.
Very interesting video breaking down why monhun has great combat. I've played monhun since freedom unite and I've played souls since demons. The comparison with the souls series is hard to avoid. Both games feature large, difficult to defeat enemies and have weapons that require commitment when attacking. Both games can be completed with minimal equipment given a sufficiently skilled player. Three additional things I think that are fascinating in these game's combat systems are punishment, commitment, and positioning. -Punishment There can be no excitement without any risk, and both games heavily punish players for mistakes. When the player makes a mistake and gets punished by taking damage, in monhun, they lose positioning and momentum. Many of the 14 weapons require some sort of setup to get its biggest attacks out: GS's TCS has to be the 3rd charged swing, LS's meter has to reach red, DBs need to enter demon mode, HA needs to charge, CB needs red shield, phials, and be in axe mode to SAED, etc. When hit and knocked back, the player loses their progress toward these smaller goals, and being able to maintain a state of optimal play feels good to master. After being knocked back, players are in an invulnerable state as they fly backwards and as they pick themselves up, essentially preventing continuous punishment for a single mistake and being able to return to neutral. On quest fail, the main loss is time, and consumables the player has used, but if they managed to pick up shinies or carve a tail for the monster's materials, it isn't a total waste. In souls, taking damage stuns the player and leaves them vulnerable to even more damage, and punishment is easily compounded. The punishment for too many mistakes is loss of progress within the level, and loss of the currently held temporary resource used for upgrading stats and equipment, souls. When the player us unable to reach the same point in the level after their first death, that loss becomes permanent. The primary healing method is refilled on checkpoints or on death, and loot obtained stays in the player's inventory. -Commitment Both games also heavily feature large time commitments to offensive and defensive actions. Even the fastest options in the respective games (SnS/DBs in monhun, katanas/daggers in souls) are not always completely safe and can be just as punishing if mistakes are made. As you mentioned, the importance of stamina management for both offensive and defensive purposes in souls is a key balancing feature. Attack too much in an opening and there won't be enough stamina to roll away from the enemies next attack, spend too much stamina rolling for safety and there won't be stamina to punish the next opening. In monhun, most attacks do not take stamina, and most defensive options do take stamina. Many weapons also have defensive options within their moveset in addition to the general roll with i-frames: GS has tackle, LS has 3 types of counters, CB has guardpoints. Most attacks can also be canceled into rolls before the animation finishes. Rise's wirebugs also present an interesting resource to manage: when a player's mistake is punished, they have the option to more quickly regain positioning by using a wirebug, but at the cost of not having that resource to use on more powerful offensive options. Skilled players who can avoid damage are rewarded by being able to use more silkbind moves. The additional layered and flexible defensive options in monhun lead to more varied combat. Weapons that require setup (GS's TCS, LS's red meter, CB's phials, etc) also have flexible shortcuts to reach. Being aware of and mastering the quirks of weapons allows for more rewarding actions to be taken in a given opportunity window. -Positioning Optimal play in both games is heavily reliant on positioning. Punishment can be avoided and the risk of commitment can be lowered with proper positioning. Greater offensive actions can be done if the player can avoid using committed defensive actions. In souls, an attack can be i-framed by rolling, but the recovery of that roll can't be canceled into an attack. If an attack is avoided by sidestepping or backpedaling, the player is able to deal damage much sooner. In monhun, different parts of the monster's body take different amounts of damage. It can be safer sticking to the sides and attacking the hind legs, and riskier and more rewarding to stay in front of the monster to hit its head. Skilled players can maintain their weapon's 'setup' (GS charge level, HA held charge, DB demon mode, CB's chainsaw mode) through mindful positioning relative to monster's attacks and can maximize their reward on any given opening.
This has to be the most hyper accurate analytical account of a game franchise I've seen. Thanks, lad. Also, I main Lance on MHW, if anyone wants to dance around with me I'd appreciate the jig.
@@akkssubillaga85 bro, if i hear another long sword user make that helm breaker argument, I'm going to be a serial killer. Your weapon does severing damage and gains no bonus on the head, stay on the tail
One of the many reasons why MH has great combat is because the aspects that are taken for granted in most other melee combat systems actually require a lot of consideration from the player (more in the older MH games but this still applies to the new ones) such as positioning and the body parts that you will attack, with positioning being the most vital one in my opinion. Most melee action games are just about hitting your opponent and dodging when you're about to receive an attack, but in MH you have both weapon sharpness and specific body parts taking different amount of damage which incentivizes the player to not only try to hit the monster but to be carefully position yourself to be hitting a specific body part as often as possible. The slow attack animations also mesh well with this making you want to take as much advantage as possible of each hit you land. Lots of weak hits will affect your sharpness quickly and slow hits require a lot of commitment and timing if you are trying to hit a specific body part Dodging enemy attacks is also not just a matter of dodge rolling when an attack is about to hit you since the monsters can be so large that their hitboxes would still be colliding with your hurtboxes so positioning yourself carefully is often needed to actually dodge their attacks rather than just relying on timing. You can even place yourself in specific areas so that you can still land hits on the monster while still avoiding the hit like for example staying underneath a Rathalos while it swings it's tail, or you can position yourself in such way that when you dodge you end up being placed just correctly to hit that specific body part you want to break. All of these aspects just mesh really well with one another.
You not only managed to describe perfectly why MH is satisfying as a game but explained its appeal and explained what a soulsborne is and why MH can't be compared to those games. Fantastic video!
I like this vid, really put into words what i couldn't when trying to explain how these 2 games (mh and ds) feel entirely different yet look so similar. Thanks leon :)
For some reason people want monster hunter to be reduced to purely a boss rush. It kind of feels like that already happening. This should be a hunting game, not a fighting game, at least in my opinion.
@@Lutyrannus I'm tempted to just encourage capcom to release a full priced 60-70 USD Monster Hunter game that is just a barren arena and a you can spawn all of the monsters in all of the games with 3 difficulty options. See how people like it if they take out everything "not related" to the combat.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 good. Because if capcom does such a thing and it becomes popular and highly profitable, they're going to be releasing nothing but boss rush MH games. Its a hell of a lot cheaper to make. Just make new monsters and design weapons and armor. Update movesets and put in new gimmicks without much balance.
You absolutely fucking roasting Skyrim for it's Garbo combat really made me cackle, thank you for putting it in its place and showing just how good true action combat games are
My guy, Skyrim is an RPG oriented game that came out over a decade ago, comparing Monster Hunter to that is like comparing Apples with Car Engines. A better comparison would be Devil May Cry, Witcher 3 or Ninja Gaiden and all these games put Monster Hunter World‘s clunky and frustrating combat in the dust
@@alfredoamendez4299 That's really only Oblivion and Skyrim. In earlier TES, the combat had SO much more depth. The simplistic combat animations were just a representation of what was happening mechanically, that's why you had misses even when it looked like it hit. The problem was they stripped all that depth, but never replaced it with anything. Don't let the poor quality of Skyrim stop you from trying Daggerfall and Morrowind though. Both of those are true classics.
Monster hunter is a fighting game for people who don’t do pvp imho. That’s what it feels like to me any way Edit: To explain what I mean, you’re learning your weapons move set, you’re learning system mechanics, you’re learning your matchup against every monster, you’re learning their moveset, you’re whiff punishing, you learn the different types of knock downs and what your most damaging follow ups are in those situations, you might do a bit of practice in training mode (training room?) if you want to get good at using something like a counter/shoulder charge/water strike or test a build. All of that stuff reminds me so much of fighting games
what i do love of monster hunter is how i slowly build a spider silk around the monster.. it's basically pointless until there's enough of that and the monster is unable to react, not only the turns are tabled but it's perpetual. in other words, i LOVE to chain monster trips. you get a gut feeling at some point and you start knowing how many hits until the monster trips, how long does it take for him to wake up so you slowly build damage everywhere and then you unleash it. it falls, then you do enough damage for him to fall again, then enough time has passed and you go to the head and get a KO, and at the end of that monsoon of hits the monster is exhausted so you start building up and he has no more option to rage. that feeling of tension and success is basically what it makes me love it so much.
A perfect example of great monster combat is Khezu, since it’s blind it technically doesn’t fight you but just reacts of your last location it detects you from, not to mention it can easily disrupt your entire team with its stupidly op AOE attacks. But it also is immune to flash bombs which just gives another sense of difficulty to new players as there’s no clear indication (aside from lacking eyes) that this could happen
Another example on the hard-core end is Alatreon in World - ignoring the bullocks that is Escaton Judgement for a moment, Alatreon (and by extension Fatalis) are predominantly always in control moreso than other fights. It tests every skill you've learned and then some. That and it feels VERY satisfying when you do achieve a knockdown on Alatreon and break a horn, or finally break a piece off of Fatalis. It's a shame that Alatreon focuses more on an arbitrary numbers game.
@@radiogobrrrrrrr1949 neat! Does he track you any differently during a fight? Like if you don’t make loud noises, does he not know where you are? I play HBG, so naturally I’m pretty much always loud and wouldn’t notice
@@daltongarrett3393 they work off scent, you’ll notice that he doesn’t actually target and chase you in the fight, he spends most of the fight sniffing for your location before actually attacking (this makes it incredibly easy to run away from him), but for the sound detail, I don’t think it makes a difference
There's also the love and attention to detail poured into the games to give them this wacky character. It's so bizarre that in a game about fighting off large monsters for the survival of a village, it can take such a lighthearted tone and have such a charm to it. The monsters ooze personality, and that translates to weapon and armor designs. The towns are homey, and the residents spirited, yet grounded, but then that weird little poogie in a fog costume walks by, an armored bipedal housecat screams every cat pun imaginable at you, and you realize you stuck that dragon's head on a stick and called it a hammer.
Magnificent video. Lots of great points that are spot on. Ive loved these games for YEARS. Amazing teamwork and coop with my brothers. And an incredibly fun and satisfying combat.
ever since I found out you could manually place ad rolls, it blows my mind how many people put them in terrible places this is the kind of use I was hoping to see, great content as always
I mean, I love the old mh formula, but i gotta agree there IS indeed some bullshit... fuck plesioth fuck the egg breaking if something breathes your way and fuck bullfango/somethingprey ganging even if you're fighting a whole ass different monster (why do bullfangos bully me if i'm fighting a fucking rath that just ate one of them to get stamina back???????????). I honestly was amazed to see an egg not breaking in Rise after a jump, like it was magic also fuck capcom for being scared of gunlance's potential, giving it nerfs for no discernable reason and pumping features up longsword's ass because muh honourable katana i guess > "look, LS is too good, what can we do about it? " > "let's give GL a heat meter that forces the player to stop gunlancing, and put a new parry option for LS but don't forget to give GL a cool rocket skill like we had in Frontier so plebs aren't that pissed off" yes i'm still salty from X
I feel like 4U's maps would be awesome if they were remade in the style of World's maps. All the monsters that use the environments to their advantage in 4U like Nerscylla and Kecha Wacha would be super cool in that kind of complex map.
One of my favorite things about Monster Hunter is that the monsters genuinely feel like creatures. They have pseudo-realistic explanations of how they work, have specific behaviors and actions that you remember, and characterization that makes them memorable outside of just "big lizard". If you've played Monster Hunter long enough I guarantee there's one monster you think is the devil and another Monster who you respect more than your teammates
Competing goals is such a wonderfully simple explanation. Old school Monster Hunter taught me *intentional mastery*. It was immensely critical to my success in later real-world stuff and will always have a special place in my memories. The first time I accidentally i-framed a Rathalos fireball and learned that there was a whole new mechanic I had never heard of was mind-blowing. Struggling on a monster for hours then finally seeing punish opportunities for the first time is like your third eye opening. Skill-based progression is just the cherry on top.
The souls comparison is always funny to me considering Monster Hunter came out in 2004, whilst Demon's Souls came out in 2009 They are _very different_ games tho
You do not want to know how many monsters I have fallen asleep fighting. The monster hunter addiction loop is so strong I have woken up a dozen times to my teammates yelling at me cause they see me suddenly start jogging past the monster towards a wall. I've never played another game to exhaustion as much as monhun.
I will say what really probably is the number one reason people play MonHun is, well, the Monsters. They provide a very reasonably believable Simulacrum of being Alive and being part of their worlds. They have behaviors they engage in when they don't know you're there and interact with the world. They rove around the world to the parts they like. They're actually a part of their environment. They get injured, their behavior changes, and their instincts are different. That is something you just don't get from any other game. No matter what other game you play a Boss is a Boss. Even if it's an "open world" game the boss is still just a boss enemy and is usually stuck in an arena and has no impact on the world around it. In MonHun, if a monster gets "hungry" it might kill and eat some of the smaller wildlife. Sometimes the smaller wildlife will become defensive and flee or cower from the monster in a corner. Or the monster might come after bait you leave out or revisit a kill to scavenge. Unlike "Boss Enemies" the monsters have "Behaviors" instead of simple "Movesets and Aggression." MonHun players will always be a different breed because most players have no interest in a boss besides beating it and maybe getting the loot its protecting for progression. But every Master/G-rank hunter who sticks with the game knows all these monsters intimately and absolutely has favorites. Sure, the gameplay mechanics are varied and well designed, but that won't cause someone to actively seek out to hunt 50 Barioths. Yes, Barioth has some good looking armor and some parts for good weapons, but like, unless you're "one of those weirdos" there is a reason everyone has hunted 2-3 times as many Baioths and they have Barroths.
For me, monster hunter is about respecting the monster and breaking down its self-defense. You aggress the monster and the monster desperately tried to defend itself, if you fail to break down this defense and take control then the monster dominates you and you have to win through sheer perseverance. But as you continue to hunt, I feel like you develop a respect for the monster, and you begin to negate its self-defense until eventually the fight is purely in your control and the monster is just thrashing around as you break it down. However, that's also because of the weapons I like to play. That way of playing and thinking about MH is why I can't play weapons like lance; those weapons are about perseverance and defense. Something like bow or LS are much more proactive and can negate anything the monster tries to do to save itself.
I play a balance of both: SnS. I can push myself to be more offensive but I have tools to be more defensive if need be. If I want good damage, i need to commit to a combo and thus need to make a guess in the moment if the Monster may zap my bats or if I'll get a good chunk in. Nothing feels better than getting a full combo on Fatalis and causing him to fall over (and preferably not on you). Like, if you want the quintessential Monster Hunter fight, Icebourne Fatalis is a masterwork of the stuff the guy talks about in his video.
for me its the gameplay loop that gets me everytime the satisfaction of beating a monster because of learning its moves and preparing pre encounter is what makes winning in this game feel earned and super rewarding
I feel like the attention to animations and hitboxes also plays a huge part. As a CB player, shield points are the coolest thing ever devised and so incredibly satisfying.
MH really is a special breed of games. There's just something so satisfying to memorizing a monster's moveset and finding out how to optimize yours in response. It *sounds* like a regular game, but the interactive aspect is so strong that it's like having a dance partner except neither are doing the tango and both have knives but their knife is part of their head and your knife is actually a 2 ton hunk of iron shaped like corn on the cob
Also their knife is on fire and gives you 'hellblight' when hit
I usually put it as a 6 step plan:
1) fight monster
2) get fucked
3) fight monster again
4) beat monster
5) cry because you didn't get the part you needed
6) Repeat steps 4-5 until you got what you needed and made the monster your bitch
Emphasis lies on making the monster your bitch.
No other game gives me such an immersive combat experience like I get with the MH series. Playing with a weapon and having the mechanics unfold while you progress is very rewarding and almost rejuvenates that certain weapons in-hunt combat.
Sometimes monster hunter feels more like a fighting game between all the i frames and counter moves it has now and it's always satisfying when you get the timing right
the first time I fought odogaron as a dual blades main i fell in LOVE with this game; it's such a dance of death to fight odo using dual blades, but so rewarding to get the moves down
My fav MHW memory was an egg quest where I was desperately dodging a rathalos in the last few minutes of the timer while yelling at my friend who was lost on the other side of the map.
Ancient forest moment
Memories
That's when I mark a player close to the monster and hop on to the monster taxi xD
Ancient forest moment.
that moment you get the camp up in the tree and realize it's but a meager slide away from the drop off.
The thing that I love about MonHun that you didn't mention, is that it's an action RPG where your progress is linked to your own knowledge of the game, and what you can kill. As you play the game, you learn all of these little tricks and tips that gradually add up until you're just a ball of "Oh, did you know?" And the fact that everything you kill in the game becomes equipment. I like skinning a velociraptor to make a velociraptor hat, which I wear to fight a bigger velociraptor.
fuck so true bro
I totally agree with this, but the super duper cool thing is, it's both knowledge you can put into words, and knowledge you can't. I love that you can learn all these little tips and tricks over time such as "Pitfall traps don't work on this monster UNLESS they're angry". But then there's all this other meta stuff that I can't put into words after having played Monster Hunter since Freedom Unite, such as being able to predict a brand,new monster's moveset based off whether it's a Flying Wyvern or a Leviathan, or being able to enter a state of flow whenever you fight a classic recurring monster like Rathalos or Tigrex or Nargacuga because you've fought them so many times over and over again throughout the years. It's that combination of learned knowledge and innate skill built up over years of playing that makes the whole experience so immersive and satisfying
It’s called horizontal progression where you as a player become adept at the game’s mechanics (as opposed to ‘Vertical Progression’ where your character’s abilities and equipment get stronger)
@@dorobokino yeah. I noticed this when i helped my best buddy with a monster. He's just got into monster hunter and i gave him all the tips i could while fightning certain monsters and when i said how many ways there are to fuck up a diablos, i realized how much i learned throughout the years
Peta intensifies
Your description of Souls combat as being a tug of war between the player and the enemy for stamina use is perfect. I had never thought of it that way before
AND HERE COMES THE GIANT SUNLIGHT SPEAR-
same here, its one of my favorite games ever but I never put it into thought
His description of Skyrim combat opened my brain to why I always loved the game but hated the combat
@@drsipp407 math is scary
this is why MH should have weapon attacks use up stamina. there's no reason to worry about stamina in combat unless you're using dual blades or bow.
The first time I cut a tail with a greatsword, I didn't know it could happen, and I was already so into the fight that the sight of me turning the tide in a tough battle gave gave the feeling of "I'VE GOT YOU NOW, BASTARD!" that was so overwhelming that it kicked my brain into the flow state and the combat finally clicked in my brain. It was such a perfect aha moment that I've been chasing that high in gaming ever since.
I just called that "in the zone", but I usually unlocked it when listening to music that pumped me up while I took on monsters. Just consistently getting every movement to be perfect as I got closer and closer to killing the monster. It is the best feeling.
@@CatLeone2003 i remember one of my hardest zone moments. Mhfu, against the lunastra. In the second encounter if the bitch fled, u fight her at the old tower and the cinematic, with her horn and tail cut and how there was no escape, only me in the arena against her, it really felt personal, avoiding her charges and running through her fire and explosions to land that stunning attack. Every hit felt like a little step towards victory and every move she made felt like the last, one move to finish me, there was no room for mistakes. When i won i felt so damn glorious, like a gladiator.
@@its_sisha_not_chair505 Hell yeah, dude.
seeing a monster you've been struggling with take a huge hit or start to limp away is one of the best feelings of all time
When it starts to feel like its almost a dance between you and the monster that's the moment you're hooked.
The most unrealistic thing in this video is Longsword players going for the tail and letting Hammer users do actual damage without getting tripped
This is assuming they don't know anything about flinch free though
@@ToastyYokai im not wasting slots on flinch free to make up for their incompetence, I'll just knock them into the air till they get the message
@@myth5588 just make sure youre charging than normal attacks dont flinch, almost all weapon movesets have weapon combos that add flinchfree at varying levels(also i go for the tail just not during a knock over other wise if its cut off during it cancels the full duration of knockdown at which point head tends to have the weakest point not fucking over weapon sharpness)
@@johndoe4004 i know how to play hammer lol, about 2k hrs in 3 different mh games can attest, when starting the big bang combo you don't get flinch free so when i knock the monster over and the longsword user teleports into my ass, triping me over and over during the wind-up of my most damaging combo, gets a bit annoying doesn't it
@@myth5588 Your DPS is gonna be shot anyway just by virtue of being in a multiplayer setting (good luck getting those bonks when the monster is going after _everyone at random)._ If it's that much of a problem, don't play multiplayer. Otherwise, just make a multiplayer-friendly version of your favorite loadout and stop whining.
I also play both hammer _and_ longsword (and longswordsmen get smacked around too) - it's not hard.
I think the thing I love most about monster hunter is NOT having a visible health bar for the monster. When I first started playing (for context I play World) I thought that was the strangest, dumbest choice, all the fights were boss fights so why wasnt I able to see how close I was? But *you do* the game has such a natural pace to it, a monster is very close to death when it goes back to sleep, occasionally so close you can kill it without even doing another whole fight.
The monster over time naturally gets tired, and spends time just leaning back and catching its breath. the monster gets hurt when you break something, backing away screaming in pain. The monster IS telling you how close you are in its movements. Its so fine tuned.
And then you learn that the little square on the bottom left corner has a heartbeat animation that changes at specific health interval percentages, and you realize that there actually effectively is a health bar if you know what those animations are
That heartbeat animation will change immediately when it reaches the right health threshold, which means that you can see where the monster's health is even before they switch into the other health revealing animations
It's not only a good way to do health bars without having them but it's also great for world building showing that these aren't just mindless monsters they're animals just like any dog, bear, or lion
It also changes the way you are mentally engaged in the hunt. When the battle isn’t a focus on how much health the monster has at any given moment, you then change your priorities and how you respond at any given moment. If there were a health bar, the focus would then be on trying to make the health bar smaller and not on the monster itself.
0:26 bookmarking this for no reason
Make more vids, nerd
This man just used youtubes ad system to support his argument and to prove a point. Brilliant
I was fucking blown away, what a genius
@@cefirodewinter9086 It's so well done i can't even be mad about the fact that it gave me two unskippable ads
I actually laughed way too hard at this ad break, and yes I'm answering to an 8 month old comment because I can't be bothered to post a new independent one.
have adblock, didn't get the joke. oh well.
@@Just.Kidding Dude same
I think something that makes MH really unique is that rather than progressing by leveling up like in most RPGs, you progress by crafting new equipment. It means that your progress is tied to how good you are at the game. In Monster Hunter you can't just grind easy monsters until your stats are so high you completely outclass whatever fight you're struggling with, you have to actually improve and learn the weapons and monster.
Get good gear all you want, that won't save you from World Alatreon lmao
Element up augments do help, but yeah I tried that hunt over 50 times straight before beating him, all requiring skill and move memorization. That Element augment up during the last few hunts I think amplified my skill enough to beat him before his inevidable Ice nova@@AuroraBorealis170
@@AuroraBorealis170gear only gets you so far
@sergioramirez924 never mind fatalis. I'd say I'm not bad at the game, but soloing fatalis just seems like it is impossible, whenever I try it. All the damn strategies I tried failed. And now after 1,5 years, I doing a new character, that I will beat the black dragon with.... with a completely different build (one that actually has evasion for once)
@@rudolfdirks9253 I've kinda neglected evasion and stun resistance, so it hurts when i fail to dodge an attack and get stunned
I've never had anyone tell me about Monster Hunter in a cohesive way before. Honestly, what you say about everyone having a different experience makes a lot of sense considering that nobody has ever been able to define to me why they enjoy playing these games.
gear isn't just stats and visual design is always great. In regards to gameplay it's good because it rewards knowledge and execution. It's interactive in many different levels. A big one is being able to see the damage you inflict on a monster. The damage and overwhelming brute power most of these monsters possess coupled with the traditional long attack startups monster hunter is known for, make it so you have to think before you act and find ways to out manoeuvre the monsters. And that creates a dichotomy between the alternative playstyle that emphasises the inhumane strength of hunters that initially seems like the player just running up and mashing attack, but they're so confident in their damage and execution that they can run that deadly offense. Being able to completely halt a 5 tonne pickle with your shield and striking it back just to see the thing fall over as the camera pans out satisfies the power fantasy of hunting oversized creatures with oversized weapons extremely well.
the way i would explain what makes the games enjoyable, is that for me it really felt like i was a seasoned hunter after 200+hrs, i knew what the mosnter could do, i could see patterns and call them out, i could make a good build. And that would go for multiplayer too, i had never once seen someone speaking on the chat, everybody knew what they should be doing, the game doesnt tell you "hammer guy hit the head, sword guy cut tail" you naturally see what is more effective by just playing and understanding each weapon, in comparison to MOBAS and other genres where it takes a fuck ton of time for people to get that they should do even if its a simple task.
I'd say because the combat feels like a dance. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll casually hunt a Zinogre just to have that fun. Sometimes rise sometimes mhgu.
Exactly. As a SwitchAxe player i say "its soo cool!! Your weapon explodes!" While a hammer player could say "its sooo cool! You overpower godzilla by bonking its head!!". Every weapon is a game on its own right.
Because I have a sword the size of a small medieval cottage and a can kill poison death god dragon with it.
Playing MH is the closest thing to playing a fighting game that’s actually a PvE co-op game.
Before you’re new you just mash and flail randomly hoping things will work out.
Then you learn which attacks are punishable and which aren’t. You watch a really good player and see that they get bigger punishes because they know when to roll, where to aim, what the monster will do next.
And after playing for a while you see a cool clip of a different weapon and get inspired to pick it up. It’s so interesting cause it’s like you’re playing a different game. The hand feel, the speed, the things you need to be good at are all different.
And before you know it you’ve been playing for hundreds of hours chasing the feeling you get when you land a really clean sequence. Like you’ve temporarily opened your third eye, and can see the green matrix numbers that make up the game while you’re epically twerking on the monster.
I always explain it as a co-op, boss-focused beat-em-up with heavy RPG elements with a ton of variety between the weapons.
I've always found interesting that monster hunter somehow manages to capture the depth of combat that fighting games usually have even though one of the "players" is AI
Lmao you lost me at twerking
@@skepticpunk_ *light RPG elements.
Aside from different builds and the positive and negative (which were removed unfortunately in the currect games) consequences those builds have, MH has no dialogue choices and significantly different approaches to a quest and appropriate postive and negative consequences to them.
@@DJWeapon8 I was thinking more from a pure gameplay perspective, particularly about how much effort goes into making a proper build and how much influence it can have over a hunt. If you're thinking about story elements and character choices having any effect on it, yeah, MH doesn't really have much of that going on.
Devestating local ecology has never felt so fun
At least we aren't using nfts lol
In Monster Hunter lore, Hunters are actually help keeping balance of the ecology. The monster you hunt on the contact is either invasive or destroying local ecology, so that means we help the local ecology rather than destroy it.
@@randodox8375 You also fight like one or 2 monsters in lore rather than 50 Rathalos for a single ruby
@@bum1628 The guild: We take care to not let our members overhunt.
Me atop a mountain of corpses: GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING BALLS!
@@bum1628 do I have to kill fucking 50 Rathaloses to get his coil? Wtf
one of my favorite moments from monster hunter combat is when i ran a medic hunting horn in ice born. ran into another medic hunting horn. and we healed through a lunastra supernova to let everyone get right back to bonking the monster once she landed
Monster Hunter gives me the same satisfaction i get from fighting games. Learning and mastering the matchup against all the monsters, reading their next attack before it happens to then just punish them for it. It's amazing! It's also a amazing feeling to look back on how far you've come when you started using any of the weapons. At first it feels awkward or even frustrating but when you really put in the time and get to know the weapon it just clicks and you really start to appreciate the weapon, weaknesses and strengths. It also helps you appreciate the people who main those weapons. The 14 weapons of MH are just a fighting game roster because MAN they have so much more depth compared to alot of other weapon combat in other action games...so yeah, what i'm saying is Capcom are amazing at combat design and Monster Hunter is sick.
Damn, I think that might be the very same set of reasons it drove me away. It’s accurate, too.
Clunky, awkward moves that look relatively same-y until you have a few hours devoted to it, and require you to understand quite a few mechanics before you can actually start to experiment…
Each one functions differently enough that even if you have a grasp of the fundamentals, you’ll have a hard time transitioning between options because of muscle memory…
The enemies always seem much more daunting until you understand what you’re doing wrong on a basic level… then they become difficult because there’s just 50 things you’ve yet to totally understand, but you know that they exist, and that you will need to figure them out before you have any confidence again…
Everyone else always seems so much more skilled than you, but then you learn about the things they know… and you still feel inadequate because the balancing act of remembering it all is draining your will to play…
I get why other people like it, but like FGs, I still don’t see how people got into it without a very specific mindset.
@@CurlyHairedRogue You're thinking too hard about it and most of it seems from being overly self conscious or out of fear of being bad at the game, just hit the big lizard and try not to get hit. No one will mind if you suck horribly because that's the way everyone started, and beating even a low level quest can be gratifying to experienced players when leading new people into the game.
@@Alleiptr eh. Nah. I couldn’t even get into any multiplayer in MHW because there weren’t any people on PS4 for some reason. The only weapon that didn’t feel like butts to control for me was the SnS and it was just kinda boring. Find monster, hit monster, monster runs, track monster, find monster, hit monster…
Keep in mind, I got _big_ into stuff like DRG, and it was right up my alley, which is why it surprises me that I don’t like MH. I still maintain that the game just feels too clunky to me. Even the light-weight weapons feel weird, oddly enough.
I put it mostly up to my experience with FPS and FP Hack ‘n Slash games. Third person camera and big weapons that take a long time to swing makes me feel like Im suggesting things to someone through a telephone, then they mull it over and do it 5 seconds later.
@@CurlyHairedRogue if it helps, rise basically removes the 'find monster' part, so you'll be in combat more often
@@CurlyHairedRogue The games ARE inherently very janky, with monsters choosing moves at random and switching targets inbetween hits, terrible hitboxes and things like "Oh no you knocked me down, whatever will I do? Anyway I'll stand up and do a frame 1 no-startup 360° attack now"
It does get fun if you cheese the game back with whatever options you do have (or you develop Stockholm Syndrome like me lmao) but I can't even blame you for deciding this isn't your thing
The weapon comparisons at 6:12 caught me so off guard! My brain was like “Oh I miss that alligator monster I wonder if they’ll bring him back!” Then realizing it was God eater hit different, a whole new nostalgia.
Not gonna lie, dodging monsters attacks by rolling through specific spots of their hitbox was way more satisfying than wirebug dodging
In world i was fighting the arena barrioth quest and i decided to use a bow for the first time, i didnt do shit for damage but i also never got hit lmaoo
Well their both satysfying
I think that wirebugs are cool, but we need more monsters that take into account these very fast movement options (like magnamalo, rajang and vaelstrax), because it really does trivialise some fights like barioth and diablos. Still they are pretty cool
@@Ironpecker I think thats what sunbreak probably gonna do.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 This is usually what happens in new games with new mechanics. World had a lot of new mechanics that some older monsters couldn't really handle, really. But part of that is the point: this is the base experience. You need to get the hang of everything first, because this still isn't G rank.
Of course, this is purely speculatory based on my past experience with older MH games. If nostalgia hasn't yet eliminated my perception, 4U in the base game had a hard time dealing with the 3rd dimension of verticality, but G rank got a lot better about it (along with some event quests and near the end game of High Rank). I must stress, though, that I could be misremembering that and planting new memories in my head that weren't there.
Monster hunter, is a game where monster is hunted
Demolition D lives on
So u mean I hunt monsters in Monster hunter?
@@randodox8375 yes, I do mean that you monster hunt in popular video game franchise monster hunter
@@Trashlovers Hell yeah, i cant wait to hunt monster in popular video game franchise monster hunter!
Did Sephiroth do this?
as an unga bunga greatasword main, the thing i love most about Monster Hunter is landing a True Charge Slash and watching the 10-tonne beast stagger. The animation stopping when you land it gives such an addictive sense of power
The best part of MH is by far how weighty the combat is. Like, there's just so much heft and weight behind each weapon that it makes the game so unbelievably satisfying when you connect big attacks, or when you fish for an opening and get that cheeky smack in. Coming from GS in MHW, I legitimately cannot play any other 3rd person action-RPG anymore because they all just feel floaty in comparison. I'm so accustomed to this big fuck off vaguely sharpened slab of metal with a rocket on the back of it that a normal sword feels like a wobbly dildo in comparison.
Big club go bonk
I wouldn't say behind every weapon. Not even most weapons honestly. Definitely not dual blades, and usually the ranged weapons. Not the sns, until perfect rush was introduced, and metsu in Rise. Not really the insect glaive until diving wyvern was introduced. The lance and gunlance are debatable, but I wouldn't say they have much heft outside of a few moves.
@@trombonegamer14 they aren't supposed to be super hefty, but their combat still feels more weighty and satisfying than most weapons in other rpgs
*cough* Dual Blades
@@Carlisho Those are supposed to be fast and light
Yeah I think the best part of monster hunter is the sheer variety in the weapons. As you alluded to, each weapon for the most part really is their own entire game. If you're playing Hunting Horn, you're doing something completely different than someone playing SnS or Greatsword or Charge Blade or whatever. And that both allows for players in general to have a greater chance of finding a playstyle they like, but also adds replayability to the game since even if you get to endgame with one weapon, you could still easily spend another hundred hours learning a new weapon from scratch and still have a great time fumbling against monsters you could smash easily with your main. Like whenever I introduce someone new to the game I usually have to take a personality quiz to try and recommend a proper weapon for them. Do they like managing lots of resources? Do they value mobility or raw damage and to what extent? etc etc
every single weapon can be their own game, change your weapon and the gameplay will differ drastically.
And then some weapons can even have different "styles" of gameplay. I think the weapons that come to mind are the gunners with various ammo type archetypes, Gunlance has its different shell types that focus on different playstyles, and Risebreak GS can choose to go for brutal counters with Strongarm Stance, or you can choose to play something involving tanking hits to dish out heavy blows in return.
@@LloydTheZephyrianGUNLANCE FTW
Completely agree, I spent the entirety of MH4 with GS. it wasn't until I had the opportunity to fight Kulve that I picked up the GS and probably spent the same amount of time learning how to be effective with GS as I did playing both MH4 and MHW:IB combined. That's doubled now since Sunbreak where I picked up CB after TU2, It's incredible that there are another 11 weapons in the game that I've barely touched besides Lance with probably the same or similar learning curves to the last 3 weapons. It's like a whole new game when you pick up a different weapon and even more so when you start getting proficient with said weapon.
One thing I love about mh is how you never have to level up your character or have any specific stats tied to them. You can swap to any weapon, any play style at any point without having to worry about respec or any of that shit. You just grind out some new gear
My favorite thing about MH is how the skills and weapon properties coalesce into a build that feels truly your own. I play an item support sword and shield build that focuses on using the shield to punch the monsters face until it's stunned. Then once it's down you go for big combos. The cool thing about this is the shield punches don't lower your sharpness. How's that for player expression?
I play Swaze and it is sword mode, cling on to monster and wail on their legs until my phials refill and sword mode again.
12:57 Alright but seriously, I would KILL for a cross-over monster fight against Godzilla. Also, I have never heard anyone put into words exactly everything great about Monster Hunter and it's combat anywhere NEAR as well as you did. This was an awesome video, and thank you, so much for finally finding a way to put all of that feeling into words, I could never quite find a good way to explain it to my friends myself when they showed interest in the franchise.
I mean you can fight against Dalamadur in MH4
I'd say that thing is Godzilla-Level
replace zoroah magdaros with godzilla but without the getting on his back thing and you only fight it with cannons and ballistae and a dragonator here or there. and maybe a way to dodge plasma beams.
One of my favorite aspects of monster hunters combat (especially in the newest games) is that it's deliberate but not slow. Every move matters because even with stuff like the dual blades you still have times when you can't stop your attacks, so you have to think about when is a good time to go in. But even so, you can still run around the battlefield to dodge the monster and it never feels like you're too slow to avoid damage. Also, the combat has a certain weight to it that I adore. Every strike has power behind it that makes it feel like you're doing meaningful damage with every hit.
Just my random thoughts.
The fact you put an ad there is amazing💀
I fucking love MonHun so much. Like you said it always feels like theres enough time for just one... more... hunt...
Also very excited for a possible ULTRAKILL video from you at some point.
Herb are you legally obligated to never end a sentence without mentioning ultrakill? Im concerned
Welp,
It really helps that the sound, animation and music make this dance between you the player and the monster play put so well. It would feel mediocre but the satisfying crunch when the hammer hit or the exaggerated falling a monster takes while an orchestra plays battle music sell the combat just as well as the mechanics do. Every small success has a fanfare that encourages you to continue going towards the end.
your description of souls combat is good, but its clear by you saying that such stamina management isn't present in monster hunter that you don't play bow or dual blades, because both of those weapons use stamina offensively in a pretty soulsian way, if you overuse it you won't have enough stamina to dodge, and so on
Stamina management is present, but it's also very watered down. Not only does rise give you 50 free dash juices to start, which is more than enough to get you to your first stamina skill, but the danger of not having stamina is hardly present, especially in rise, where dual blades can adept dodge with the wirebug, and bow has two wirebug skills that get you away from the monster. Souls forces you to use stamina defensively, but Monster Hunter rarely even needs it if you know where to stand relative to a monster. Plus, dual blades dont really even use much stamina, since you have all the mobility you need with the beyblade spin. Demon Mode stamina consumption is a joke. Bow takes a bit more effort, but once you have Stamina Surge, that kindof just invalidates the stamina management part.
@@csg1lcolonel528 fair enough, it might just be my bow player bias talking. there are certainly far more ways to mitigate it in monhun, but bow is all about cashing out that stamina into damage, there's even a switch skill that lets you do blunt damage with power shots at the cost of more stamina use. it's definitely a lot more manageable, especially considering how much longer the fights are in mh and how often it breaks up the pace to give you a chance to recover, but in attempting to do full optimal damage with bow there's still a lot of times i find myself running low on stamina and not being able to capitalize on an opening or simply dying due to not having the stamina to dodge.
what stamina management?
- just chug Mega dash juice
- get a Hunting horn friend
- Set Palico to do stamina song or whatever
@@Kaimax61 i mean, its not like you cant mitigate it in dark souls as well, just to a lesser extent. you can level stamina and play weapons like daggers that have very small stamina cost on their attacks
I've definitely had to manage stamina on Lance. I think the only weapon that doesn't need to manage stamina is hunting horn, though I haven't played all the weapons enough to know.
Fuck yeah, getting to hear Leon gush about MH combat?
W so big you'd think it was Jhen Mohran
Big Truther
God I love Jhen moran, my fav monster to fight.
Dalamadur
I think my favorite anti-monster hunter argument I've heard is "What else is there to the game, all you do is hunt monsters"
And I have to just sit there for a minute... show them the name of the game, and wait for them to realize that's kinda the point
"All you do is hunt monsters!"
"That's... why I'm here."
It's called "a video game". It's a thing you play, and you do that because it's fun
It’s called monster hunter what more could you want
People will really complain that Monster Hunter is just hunting monsters, then go back to an FPS and do the same thing for 8 hours.
@@PhoenicopterusR an FPS is just a Monster Hunter where you hunt the most dangerous game
I wanna see a monster hunter fighting game where all the characters are the different weapon choices, and you can unlock armor pieces from different monster sets as cosmetics.
Soul Caliber comes to mind
this is honestly top tier script writing and content. 10/10
We can see Leon likes Bocchi from the thumbnail.
I’m so glad someone made this. Seriously, the creativity in all of the weapons’ moves has me in awe because they somehow manage to look cool without going out of boundaries (for the most part). The hammer is a prime example.
1:15 3U was my first MH game, and i actually like water combat, and while it wasnt perfect.
I really want to see them try it again, make it easier to move around and the movesets less slow and it will be fun.
He apparently hates old monster hunter....
@@gojizard704 thats not the sense i get, he only really badmouthed water combat
I dont particularly like combat underwater but I want to see Lagiacrus again and when its back, you cant just fight him on land, thats just half of the experience and the aesthetic
@@Brex10 There was also this: 9:20
@@yoshimallow i mean, he is right.
Not really because of the item but mostly for the movement and the hitboxes imo.
Everytime I see somebody talking about Monster Hunter it sounds just so magical
About the world, the feeling while playing, the gameplay, etc
And it only make the live action worse
we dont talk about that movie...
the knockdowns and stuns part of combat, aka the "beat its face in" phase is definitely such a good part of the MonHun combat experience
I only just found this video now, but “Fight big monster good” is why I like Monster Hunter, Legend of Zelda, AND Dark Souls style games
Stick drift single handedly gave me the motivation to setup my ps4 controllers.
Feels oddly comfortable.
Them: "So why should I start playing monster hunter with you?"
Me: "FIGHT BIG MONSTER GOOD!"
Glad to see that you gave the charge blade some love. I absolutely LOVE this weapon and it's the main reason it's harder for me to go back to the older games.
i'm really glad you're branching out from just fighting games this year. your style of content is really well suited to topics like this!
technically this is a fighting game series as well
@@rinnnnnnnnnnrinRinOnishi thankfully without all the tryhards.
All in all, I like the part of monster hunter were I make a visible dent inside the skull of some poor creature with my hammer that is also a giant catman statue
I got my girl into monhun a few years ago, and we played through the game together. She got one of her friends into it and has been replaying it with them with a new character to try out different weapons, and she pointed out how although she isn't even using her main weapon, how her gear is nothing, and how she doesn't have anything unlocked yet, her clear times are still very fast. The monster hunter difference is how much bearing your knowledge of the monster has on your performance. You, as a hunter, change the outcome much, much more than your weapons and armor.
In her words "it's a game that makes you feel good at video games."
I've been trying to get some of my friends into it recently, but they're only into linear story games and cutesy town builders... 😢
Yeah, I couldn't give less of a shit about managing the Charge-Axe but once they added the shoulder-check to the Greatsword, I physically could not play any other weapon for more than a few hunts. Love brawling with that thing. Very insightful words, smart good talk words.
Personnally the shoulder tackle is what made me not want to play greatsword anymore. Before I needed to take into account both the hitzone of where I am hitting, how dangerous that location is, and how long I have to attack. Now I just need to stand next to the head and just tackle when it attacks me, so I can spam tcs.
@@HareHeadGFX IMO they need to buff Punish Draw and Crit Draw to the point that classic GS play can even hold a candle to modern GS. I enjoy both but there really is no reason to play the the old matador style anymore in terms of effectiveness.
@@GarudaRamudasRumpusRoom This. I didn't play old GS, it wasn't for me and love the inclusion of tackle. It makes the weapon fun for me (I'm a CB main, so anything that lets me shrug off a monsters attack mid offense is a win in my book) but I do dislike that its now the only really viable way to play GS. One of the things I think MH does really well is allow you to build around buffing the weapon playstyle you want and making that style work, but a few weapons like GS tackle into TCS and Bow Dash Dancing are just so strong that they make most other playstyles invalid.
@@HareHeadGFX Okay, I may be getting this wrong but... Couldn't you just... Not use that move? If it's a move that makes you not like the sword, can't you just choose not to use it?
Again I could be totally wrong, but hey
@@hazeltree7738 Of course thats true, but when such moves are included, the weapon has to be balenced around it, so everything else about the weapon gets effected. While the old playstyle is possible, its undeniably less effective, so it just feels worse compared to past iterations.
You take that back right now. Egg quests are the only thing that make monster hunter a masterpiece and you know it.
World was a transcendent experience. Rise hasn't quite met that expectation but it's damn close. I'm so happy I finally got into these games. Thanks for the video, Leon.
Very interesting video breaking down why monhun has great combat.
I've played monhun since freedom unite and I've played souls since demons.
The comparison with the souls series is hard to avoid. Both games feature large, difficult to defeat enemies and have weapons that require commitment when attacking. Both games can be completed with minimal equipment given a sufficiently skilled player. Three additional things I think that are fascinating in these game's combat systems are punishment, commitment, and positioning.
-Punishment
There can be no excitement without any risk, and both games heavily punish players for mistakes. When the player makes a mistake and gets punished by taking damage, in monhun, they lose positioning and momentum. Many of the 14 weapons require some sort of setup to get its biggest attacks out: GS's TCS has to be the 3rd charged swing, LS's meter has to reach red, DBs need to enter demon mode, HA needs to charge, CB needs red shield, phials, and be in axe mode to SAED, etc. When hit and knocked back, the player loses their progress toward these smaller goals, and being able to maintain a state of optimal play feels good to master. After being knocked back, players are in an invulnerable state as they fly backwards and as they pick themselves up, essentially preventing continuous punishment for a single mistake and being able to return to neutral. On quest fail, the main loss is time, and consumables the player has used, but if they managed to pick up shinies or carve a tail for the monster's materials, it isn't a total waste.
In souls, taking damage stuns the player and leaves them vulnerable to even more damage, and punishment is easily compounded. The punishment for too many mistakes is loss of progress within the level, and loss of the currently held temporary resource used for upgrading stats and equipment, souls. When the player us unable to reach the same point in the level after their first death, that loss becomes permanent. The primary healing method is refilled on checkpoints or on death, and loot obtained stays in the player's inventory.
-Commitment
Both games also heavily feature large time commitments to offensive and defensive actions. Even the fastest options in the respective games (SnS/DBs in monhun, katanas/daggers in souls) are not always completely safe and can be just as punishing if mistakes are made.
As you mentioned, the importance of stamina management for both offensive and defensive purposes in souls is a key balancing feature. Attack too much in an opening and there won't be enough stamina to roll away from the enemies next attack, spend too much stamina rolling for safety and there won't be stamina to punish the next opening.
In monhun, most attacks do not take stamina, and most defensive options do take stamina. Many weapons also have defensive options within their moveset in addition to the general roll with i-frames: GS has tackle, LS has 3 types of counters, CB has guardpoints. Most attacks can also be canceled into rolls before the animation finishes. Rise's wirebugs also present an interesting resource to manage: when a player's mistake is punished, they have the option to more quickly regain positioning by using a wirebug, but at the cost of not having that resource to use on more powerful offensive options. Skilled players who can avoid damage are rewarded by being able to use more silkbind moves. The additional layered and flexible defensive options in monhun lead to more varied combat. Weapons that require setup (GS's TCS, LS's red meter, CB's phials, etc) also have flexible shortcuts to reach. Being aware of and mastering the quirks of weapons allows for more rewarding actions to be taken in a given opportunity window.
-Positioning
Optimal play in both games is heavily reliant on positioning. Punishment can be avoided and the risk of commitment can be lowered with proper positioning. Greater offensive actions can be done if the player can avoid using committed defensive actions. In souls, an attack can be i-framed by rolling, but the recovery of that roll can't be canceled into an attack. If an attack is avoided by sidestepping or backpedaling, the player is able to deal damage much sooner. In monhun, different parts of the monster's body take different amounts of damage. It can be safer sticking to the sides and attacking the hind legs, and riskier and more rewarding to stay in front of the monster to hit its head. Skilled players can maintain their weapon's 'setup' (GS charge level, HA held charge, DB demon mode, CB's chainsaw mode) through mindful positioning relative to monster's attacks and can maximize their reward on any given opening.
This has to be the most hyper accurate analytical account of a game franchise I've seen. Thanks, lad.
Also, I main Lance on MHW, if anyone wants to dance around with me I'd appreciate the jig.
11:16 Let’s be honest. A long sword’s goal is to counter, get max spirit gauge, then use helm breaker on the monsters head
In our defense the name of the move is called "HELM breaker "
@@akkssubillaga85 and hammer has water strike, but you dont see us all use water builds
@@akkssubillaga85 bro, if i hear another long sword user make that helm breaker argument, I'm going to be a serial killer. Your weapon does severing damage and gains no bonus on the head, stay on the tail
@@aiellamoritoday is the day you learn 95% of mons have their best cutting weakspot as the head
I watched the whole ad in appreciation of the ad joke.
as a bowgun main i gotta say monster hunter is my favorite third person shooter
Tri onwards this series ascended to near perfection, it's just a shame the interim games were mostly locked to handheld consoles up until World/ Rise.
One of the many reasons why MH has great combat is because the aspects that are taken for granted in most other melee combat systems actually require a lot of consideration from the player (more in the older MH games but this still applies to the new ones) such as positioning and the body parts that you will attack, with positioning being the most vital one in my opinion.
Most melee action games are just about hitting your opponent and dodging when you're about to receive an attack, but in MH you have both weapon sharpness and specific body parts taking different amount of damage which incentivizes the player to not only try to hit the monster but to be carefully position yourself to be hitting a specific body part as often as possible. The slow attack animations also mesh well with this making you want to take as much advantage as possible of each hit you land. Lots of weak hits will affect your sharpness quickly and slow hits require a lot of commitment and timing if you are trying to hit a specific body part
Dodging enemy attacks is also not just a matter of dodge rolling when an attack is about to hit you since the monsters can be so large that their hitboxes would still be colliding with your hurtboxes so positioning yourself carefully is often needed to actually dodge their attacks rather than just relying on timing. You can even place yourself in specific areas so that you can still land hits on the monster while still avoiding the hit like for example staying underneath a Rathalos while it swings it's tail, or you can position yourself in such way that when you dodge you end up being placed just correctly to hit that specific body part you want to break. All of these aspects just mesh really well with one another.
You not only managed to describe perfectly why MH is satisfying as a game but explained its appeal and explained what a soulsborne is and why MH can't be compared to those games.
Fantastic video!
I like this vid, really put into words what i couldn't when trying to explain how these 2 games (mh and ds) feel entirely different yet look so similar. Thanks leon :)
Watched Bocchi the Rock
I can no longer look at this thumbnail the same ever again
9:30 I don't think it's a flaw, how you prepare for a hunt is also part of the fun
For some reason people want monster hunter to be reduced to purely a boss rush. It kind of feels like that already happening. This should be a hunting game, not a fighting game, at least in my opinion.
@@Lutyrannus I'm tempted to just encourage capcom to release a full priced 60-70 USD Monster Hunter game that is just a barren arena and a you can spawn all of the monsters in all of the games with 3 difficulty options.
See how people like it if they take out everything "not related" to the combat.
@@DJWeapon8 I think we will still like it thou. (As a spinoff tho).
@@Lutyrannus Are you saying new games bad lmao?
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 good.
Because if capcom does such a thing and it becomes popular and highly profitable, they're going to be releasing nothing but boss rush MH games.
Its a hell of a lot cheaper to make. Just make new monsters and design weapons and armor. Update movesets and put in new gimmicks without much balance.
"when the monster can fling you away at any time"
Laughs in Gunlance
“Who says monsters are the only flinging threat?” Hammer users
You absolutely fucking roasting Skyrim for it's Garbo combat really made me cackle, thank you for putting it in its place and showing just how good true action combat games are
Same, i cannot stand the TES franchise, especially it's combat system, it's so soulless and shallow that makes me sad.
@@alfredoamendez4299 Cant wait for you to react at MINECRAFT COMBAT
My guy, Skyrim is an RPG oriented game that came out over a decade ago, comparing Monster Hunter to that is like comparing Apples with Car Engines. A better comparison would be Devil May Cry, Witcher 3 or Ninja Gaiden and all these games put Monster Hunter World‘s clunky and frustrating combat in the dust
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158it’s kind of funny how Minecraft combat is drastically better and more in depth than skyrim’s
@@alfredoamendez4299 That's really only Oblivion and Skyrim. In earlier TES, the combat had SO much more depth. The simplistic combat animations were just a representation of what was happening mechanically, that's why you had misses even when it looked like it hit. The problem was they stripped all that depth, but never replaced it with anything. Don't let the poor quality of Skyrim stop you from trying Daggerfall and Morrowind though. Both of those are true classics.
Damn...
that was a really fucking good ad transition.
You have a new subscriber
Thank you for this very well put together video, you have convinced me to make a bowgun build
Monster hunter is a fighting game for people who don’t do pvp imho. That’s what it feels like to me any way
Edit:
To explain what I mean, you’re learning your weapons move set, you’re learning system mechanics, you’re learning your matchup against every monster, you’re learning their moveset, you’re whiff punishing, you learn the different types of knock downs and what your most damaging follow ups are in those situations, you might do a bit of practice in training mode (training room?) if you want to get good at using something like a counter/shoulder charge/water strike or test a build. All of that stuff reminds me so much of fighting games
Hammer heavy
Hammer hit monster
Hammer feel good
Hammer happy
what i do love of monster hunter is how i slowly build a spider silk around the monster.. it's basically pointless until there's enough of that and the monster is unable to react, not only the turns are tabled but it's perpetual. in other words, i LOVE to chain monster trips. you get a gut feeling at some point and you start knowing how many hits until the monster trips, how long does it take for him to wake up so you slowly build damage everywhere and then you unleash it. it falls, then you do enough damage for him to fall again, then enough time has passed and you go to the head and get a KO, and at the end of that monsoon of hits the monster is exhausted so you start building up and he has no more option to rage. that feeling of tension and success is basically what it makes me love it so much.
A perfect example of great monster combat is Khezu, since it’s blind it technically doesn’t fight you but just reacts of your last location it detects you from, not to mention it can easily disrupt your entire team with its stupidly op AOE attacks. But it also is immune to flash bombs which just gives another sense of difficulty to new players as there’s no clear indication (aside from lacking eyes) that this could happen
Another example on the hard-core end is Alatreon in World - ignoring the bullocks that is Escaton Judgement for a moment, Alatreon (and by extension Fatalis) are predominantly always in control moreso than other fights. It tests every skill you've learned and then some.
That and it feels VERY satisfying when you do achieve a knockdown on Alatreon and break a horn, or finally break a piece off of Fatalis. It's a shame that Alatreon focuses more on an arbitrary numbers game.
Wait, khezu is blind? Does that have an actual mechanical impact?
@@daltongarrett3393 yes, you can’t flash him and it takes him longer than usual for him to find you
@@radiogobrrrrrrr1949 neat! Does he track you any differently during a fight? Like if you don’t make loud noises, does he not know where you are? I play HBG, so naturally I’m pretty much always loud and wouldn’t notice
@@daltongarrett3393 they work off scent, you’ll notice that he doesn’t actually target and chase you in the fight, he spends most of the fight sniffing for your location before actually attacking (this makes it incredibly easy to run away from him), but for the sound detail, I don’t think it makes a difference
I cannot believe you reminded me of that goddamn river lagiacrus fight. I HAD FORGOTTEN. I WAS FREE FROM THE PAIN.
You know you've mastered Monster Hunter when it stops being dark souls and starts being love live.
There's also the love and attention to detail poured into the games to give them this wacky character. It's so bizarre that in a game about fighting off large monsters for the survival of a village, it can take such a lighthearted tone and have such a charm to it. The monsters ooze personality, and that translates to weapon and armor designs. The towns are homey, and the residents spirited, yet grounded, but then that weird little poogie in a fog costume walks by, an armored bipedal housecat screams every cat pun imaginable at you, and you realize you stuck that dragon's head on a stick and called it a hammer.
that "I mailed you a pipe bomb" joke has no right being this funny
I know nothing about this game but hearing you talk about this makes me smile. Good video :)
6:13 I see what you did there... nice!
I've been searching forever to find this comment.
When I saw God Eater I was like, wait a minute
You earned that sub just for finally perfectly articulating how I feel about skyrims combat lmao.
Why are Monster Hunter video essays so short and yet infinitely better than half of the 2 hour ones
I was mid typing “has bro played dark souls”
7:15 God fucking damn it. Right on time.
You know that youtubers place the ads right?
Magnificent video. Lots of great points that are spot on. Ive loved these games for YEARS.
Amazing teamwork and coop with my brothers. And an incredibly fun and satisfying combat.
ever since I found out you could manually place ad rolls, it blows my mind how many people put them in terrible places
this is the kind of use I was hoping to see, great content as always
"Marvelous combat"
Puts 100 foot attack hitbox Anjanath as the thumbnail
I mean, I love the old mh formula, but i gotta agree there IS indeed some bullshit... fuck plesioth fuck the egg breaking if something breathes your way and fuck bullfango/somethingprey ganging even if you're fighting a whole ass different monster (why do bullfangos bully me if i'm fighting a fucking rath that just ate one of them to get stamina back???????????). I honestly was amazed to see an egg not breaking in Rise after a jump, like it was magic
also fuck capcom for being scared of gunlance's potential, giving it nerfs for no discernable reason and pumping features up longsword's ass because muh honourable katana i guess
> "look, LS is too good, what can we do about it? "
> "let's give GL a heat meter that forces the player to stop gunlancing, and put a new parry option for LS but don't forget to give GL a cool rocket skill like we had in Frontier so plebs aren't that pissed off"
yes i'm still salty from X
I wasnt expecting the ultrakill reference
1:52 "A big fish."
Pleasioth from MHFU appears
*PTSD ACTIVATES*
Why is no one talking about how good that ad placement was. I thought it was pretty funny
I would absolutely adore a remake or even better, a remaster of 4U.
I feel like 4U's maps would be awesome if they were remade in the style of World's maps. All the monsters that use the environments to their advantage in 4U like Nerscylla and Kecha Wacha would be super cool in that kind of complex map.
@@debleb166 if they remade the old 4u maps they better be as big as they implied
I hate 4U
Old Monster Hunter was a jewel of crystallized shit, that pioneered the Monster Hunter we know and love today. Flawed? Yes. Still fun? Fuck yes.
One of my favorite things about Monster Hunter is that the monsters genuinely feel like creatures. They have pseudo-realistic explanations of how they work, have specific behaviors and actions that you remember, and characterization that makes them memorable outside of just "big lizard". If you've played Monster Hunter long enough I guarantee there's one monster you think is the devil and another Monster who you respect more than your teammates
Competing goals is such a wonderfully simple explanation.
Old school Monster Hunter taught me *intentional mastery*. It was immensely critical to my success in later real-world stuff and will always have a special place in my memories. The first time I accidentally i-framed a Rathalos fireball and learned that there was a whole new mechanic I had never heard of was mind-blowing. Struggling on a monster for hours then finally seeing punish opportunities for the first time is like your third eye opening. Skill-based progression is just the cherry on top.
The souls comparison is always funny to me considering Monster Hunter came out in 2004, whilst Demon's Souls came out in 2009
They are _very different_ games tho
Monster hunter isn't even a Souls Like to beginn with.
Egg quests are fun, they hammer in advanced movement at lower stakes.
9:31 counter argument: it wasnt
You do not want to know how many monsters I have fallen asleep fighting. The monster hunter addiction loop is so strong I have woken up a dozen times to my teammates yelling at me cause they see me suddenly start jogging past the monster towards a wall. I've never played another game to exhaustion as much as monhun.
I will say what really probably is the number one reason people play MonHun is, well, the Monsters. They provide a very reasonably believable Simulacrum of being Alive and being part of their worlds. They have behaviors they engage in when they don't know you're there and interact with the world. They rove around the world to the parts they like. They're actually a part of their environment. They get injured, their behavior changes, and their instincts are different. That is something you just don't get from any other game.
No matter what other game you play a Boss is a Boss. Even if it's an "open world" game the boss is still just a boss enemy and is usually stuck in an arena and has no impact on the world around it.
In MonHun, if a monster gets "hungry" it might kill and eat some of the smaller wildlife. Sometimes the smaller wildlife will become defensive and flee or cower from the monster in a corner. Or the monster might come after bait you leave out or revisit a kill to scavenge. Unlike "Boss Enemies" the monsters have "Behaviors" instead of simple "Movesets and Aggression." MonHun players will always be a different breed because most players have no interest in a boss besides beating it and maybe getting the loot its protecting for progression. But every Master/G-rank hunter who sticks with the game knows all these monsters intimately and absolutely has favorites.
Sure, the gameplay mechanics are varied and well designed, but that won't cause someone to actively seek out to hunt 50 Barioths. Yes, Barioth has some good looking armor and some parts for good weapons, but like, unless you're "one of those weirdos" there is a reason everyone has hunted 2-3 times as many Baioths and they have Barroths.
For me, monster hunter is about respecting the monster and breaking down its self-defense. You aggress the monster and the monster desperately tried to defend itself, if you fail to break down this defense and take control then the monster dominates you and you have to win through sheer perseverance. But as you continue to hunt, I feel like you develop a respect for the monster, and you begin to negate its self-defense until eventually the fight is purely in your control and the monster is just thrashing around as you break it down.
However, that's also because of the weapons I like to play. That way of playing and thinking about MH is why I can't play weapons like lance; those weapons are about perseverance and defense. Something like bow or LS are much more proactive and can negate anything the monster tries to do to save itself.
I play a balance of both: SnS. I can push myself to be more offensive but I have tools to be more defensive if need be.
If I want good damage, i need to commit to a combo and thus need to make a guess in the moment if the Monster may zap my bats or if I'll get a good chunk in. Nothing feels better than getting a full combo on Fatalis and causing him to fall over (and preferably not on you).
Like, if you want the quintessential Monster Hunter fight, Icebourne Fatalis is a masterwork of the stuff the guy talks about in his video.
@@RyoIsamuGaming ye, honestly i don't even use the guard with the sns, i just exhaust the moster, break every single of his parts and just dodge.
for me its the gameplay loop that gets me everytime the satisfaction of beating a monster because of learning its moves and preparing pre encounter is what makes winning in this game feel earned and super rewarding
rolls in souls game: "lol just roll through enemy attacks"
rolls in MH: "roll to reposition yourself. like, you know, a roll"
conclusion: MH mogs
I as a fellow monster hunter and 3u player I really enjoyed this explanation and think it is very well done amazing work 👍💯
A cube? They're state machines thank you
Having not played monster hunter in a while, it amazes me that seeing the tail cut animation, is such a dopamine hit
The long sword player going for the tail…..
Are you sure you’ve played with long sword mains
I feel like the attention to animations and hitboxes also plays a huge part. As a CB player, shield points are the coolest thing ever devised and so incredibly satisfying.