The combat for me wasn’t the issue, the menus and “tutorials” were, it felt like so much information to take in and I was going to need it to actually play the game. Eventually my friend helped me through the game and I slowly started to understand everything and nowadays, making unique builds out of lesser used skills is literally my favorite thing to do.
Yeah to be fair, the menus suck. I remember playing freedom 2 not knowing a single thing, but it didn't matter, cause they got "training quests" which were basically optional, you go and do them if you wanna learn. I think window pop ups aren't good unless extremely necessary. You gotta make players figure out the game for themselves and most importantly, whenever they want to. "Oh what is a ration? Gotta check this out in the menu, or maybe im gonna try using one" Don't treat people like they're stupid
I feel you i tried most monster hunter games last week just to find the enjoyable one and i have around 20 hours in freedom unite,generations ultimate,tri and world i played portable 3rd as well and dropped it because it was freedom unite but with asian esthetic tbh i learned all those core tutorials after three games and enjoyed it far more ever since
Rise’s menu tutorials are some of the worst in gaming. They’re super dense, not intuitive, come in the weong order, and worse, are factually incorrect often. The ingame description of dual blades is just wrong for archdemon mode. The game never tells you theres a jump button. It forgets to describe the various states of stun and knockdown.
The reason people initially hate MH isn't the monster hunter gameplay. It's the hour long fire hose of information blasted at the player as soon as they try to get into game. In Rise, the game doesn't point you towards the training ground. You have to find it...why? This is precisely where I want to be in order to figure out a weapon. It also doesn't give you a clear example of the gameplay loop. Hunt monster > make armor from monster > hunt new monster. In between all of this is a deluge of information that could all be condensed into the training ground.
The scenario you described is exactly my experience getting into monster hunter, saw some videos of 3U, thought it looked cool, saw it had a demo, tried it out, hated it, uninstalled, tried it again some time later, still hated it, uninstalled it, tried it a 3rd time later, finally clicked, loved the series ever since
God, I hated the 3U demo too. Why is everything so damn slow? Felt like trying to pay chess with oven mitts in a pool of molasses. Had to keep playing for it to finally click. I played over 2000 hours of 3U as of today. Still one of my favorite games of all time
Its a common thing with monster hunter vets, hated it sometimes for an entire generation. Then it finally clicks and you're hooked ever since. Mine was F1. Hated it. Stopped at buldrome. Tried it again in F2 and I never looked back.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that Monster Hunter clicked for me pretty much immediately. Up until the day I decided to try the 4U demo after seeing it on shelves, I had experienced combat in video games almost exclusively in a turn based format. As a kid the idea of only taking damage when the attack visually hits me was so amazing, and revolutionary, and incredible, and... and then eventually I fought Plesioth. :(
Ah plesioth, the only monster to turn the game into a turn base battle. And by turns, I mean it's his turn, then it's his turn again, then of course! It's his turn again. And that's just him shaking his ass.
My first game was 4U and I had zero friends to play it with but I at least had an online community to help me through. There was never a point where the actual gameplay wasn't enjoyable for me, just a few monsters who I'd rather never existed at worst and just groaned and put up with at best. And maybe the occasional gathering session for one stupid ore than had a 5% chance of being mined or a 20% chance in the rare area. I'm not sure if we are a minority or not, but I can very easily see why some people might be turned off by it, even if they're a fan of similar games. I'm just glad I've stuck through it and even have gone back to play older titles like 3U, FU, and even Frontier.
@@nubbyboah My first game was world. I had a blast with the game, so much so that I too went back to the older games starting with gen u. After a bit of an adjustment period, I ended up falling in love with old monster hunter. Fast forward to today, I have played 4u, 3u and tri, freedom unite, and was even privileged enough to have a great girlfriend who tracked down a copy of monster hunter 1 on the ps2. The game is hard as hell, but I can't help but love it and the series as a whole.
My first game was World, about the time Iceborne came out a couple friends convinced me to get it, I didn't much like it, it seemed a bit stiff, but it was pretty fun while playing together, so i kept playing, it took me about 70 hours to beat the base game if I remember correctly, after that I decided to get iceborne, and something changed, I don't know exactly when or where, but after I beat iceborne's story I took a step back and realized that the game had wormed its way into my head and heart, and it was now my favorite game, it really is fascinating how much of a turnaround it was, nearly 500 hours spent now and I'm into my second playthrough, hunting horn only, and loving it
I know how you feel I'm at 446 Hours right now :) And still doesn't like monster hunter as much as Monster Hunter World. IceBorn added so much more fun to the already soo fun game :)
@@benji1277 hey totally. Glad you came around though there's so much quality here in a world of battlefield and fallout 76 ect. Monster hunter does experiment constantly even nearly every game you could say. So there's going to be some games that aren't liked as much but it's hard to argue that any of then are totally bad or broken or don't work
@@ashenphoenix6869 Plus there are the stories games. Pretty sure I played the first stories game before I played any mainline games, and after rise I'm planning on playing the second one
@@benji1277 dude the second stories game.... it's like 100% better than the first one in every way. And I really liked the first one. But I LOVE the second one. It's what Pokémon wishes it could be Lol
Regarding MHW as a new player: I'm 12 hours in. Eeeh... I feel like it's losing me. The game has so much busywork: Every time I go fight I gotta eat a meal, and eat my rations, and eat my nutrients, and sharpen my blade, and buff my weapon, and yadda yadda... And then I can get stunlocked and 2-shot by the monster, making me respawn and then I gotta do the whooooole buffing process all over again... Blegh Healing takes ages, even chucking an antidote takes ages. Putting your weapon away or pulling it out takes ages. A single hit taken can throw you into a vortex of having to mess around with the weapon holstering and healing, tanking your uptime on the monster and then you can finally get ready to go again... and the monster can just leave... Barely any animation cancelling and very tight if even existent buffer times. Meh. Basically, the concept feels cursed: I thought the game is gonna be about hunting monsters but then it does everything in its power to push you away from hunting monsters: UI, preparations, monsters running away, that's all time you spend not fighting monsters.
Update: The rythm of the game clicked for me and I'm having way more fun now as a result. I accomplished more in the last 6 hours than in my first 13. I think it's good, even great but there's a definite adjustment period.
that was EXACTLY my first experience with MHW. I stopped playing the first time after only 6 hours. I returned to the franchise with MH Rise tho with a friend and since than I played countless hours of both rise and world. It just needed to be more accessible IMO. The UI was the biggest factor for me, it was just repulsive. But definitely learning how to prepare + finding THE weapon to use changed everything
I think Monster Hunter has my favorite combat of any game ever created. It’s like a fourteen character roster fighting game with higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy. The amount of depth and variety between the weapons and monsters is insanity. And the best part is you can do perfectly fine with an average skill level. Monster Hunter doesn’t demand that you master it’s weapons and speed run times, and monster patterns. You can be a “good” player and get through the whole game fine. But if you choose to master the game, you’re fuckin unstoppable. It’s industry defining stuff
Basically This. I can see why people that prefer story-heavy games with deep lore and NPCs might have their qualms with Monster Hunter as it honestly isn't as good in that regard, but it's amazing in terms of creature design. As much as I like high fantasy, not having anything with magic, gods or the afterlife but taking the pseudo-scientific path is what gives the monsters from Monster Hunter their own identity. And as weird as it would be to describe in-depth, I get what you mean with "higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy". I got into the Souls games several years after playing Monster Hunter and despite them having no actual connections, it felt familiar in a way I couldn't exactly put my finger on.
Yup. I think the only two things the game demands of you is to not be absurdly greedy and to know that you can faceplant when you have your weapon sheathed to easily avoid damage. You can have a smooth-ish ride if you do those two well.
@@nightmarishcompositions4536 there's only 2 games I'm totally in love with. one is mhw. the other is quake live. however QL is a very old arena FPS game. very few people still play it. but i still play it almost daily.
Makes me feel like a rare breed.. I remember picking up Monster Hunter for the PS2 back in the day, getting bullied by velocidrome a bunch of times, finally overcoming that "wall" and instantly being hooked to the gratification of "beat it finally and now you're telling me I can make a sword out of that bitch?". Here we are, over a decade later.
Monster Hunter essentially boils down to: A) Kill monster B) Make weapon out of the aforementioned monster C) Kill more monsters with the aforementioned weapon D) Rinse and repeat! The Circle of Life really is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Hello fellow first-gen. I have so many fond memories with the original monster hunter on ps2. I instantly hooked up on the gameplay eventhought it was most janky attack button scheme lol
Honestly I started with MHFU and got into DS3 and the other Souls games later. Rise is probably the easiest one I've played though the weapons might take a little to get used to for newer players if your goal is to learn everything but that's by no means required and I'm pretty sure the dev teams have even said they wanted room for people to be able to improve with the weapons but the difficulty is tuned so min-maxing and whatnot isn't going to be required. Ultimately it's better to take it slow and not get frustrated since they go about the core gameplay very differently Funny anecdote: every Soul's game I tried I played right after I finished the previous one and I went in reverse order so DS3-BB-DS2-DSR and every time I hated it starting out so I took a few days off and then went back to it and liked it more, gotta give yourself time to reset those habits since they're different styles of games
ironically for me it was the other way around for ds i did bllodborne, loved it from the get go tiill the end of time, although i needed a hand at one point to go over a hurdle(bsb), done that, i fell in love. ds3 was a no brainer too. but ds1 on the other hand, at the start i liked it, genuinely had fun, then i got to the gargoyles. no matter how many times i beat bb and ds3, i couldn't kìll them... until i locked-off, then it clicked to me. was it fun to kill them then? yes... ish. it was fun per se, but it gave me a really bad hunch, i knew something was off with that because i knew it was due to the lack of omnidirectional rolling... anyway, kept playing and playing and, once going past o&s, obviously i started liking the game less as you might imagine why, but then came the ending and the dlc turn, and whereas normally people make a turn of opinion there due to artorias and gwyn... i guess i got spoiled by ds3 and bloodborne. i oculdn't stand either. i fought for 6 hours malenia, i fought 20 times each boss of the bloodborned platinum cursed dungeon, i fought 267 times the heroic phoenix in the death's gambit afterlife... but after 5 tries of both artorias and gwyn, i just quit ds1. i duno, maybe my build just sucked that much and due to being aware of that i couldn't bother replaying the game, but... no, i even knew i still had ariamis to do first, but i just grew bored due to how clunky the game was compared to other ones, due to how obtusely long and repetitive those two fights were if you didn't have a high enough dps build, how boring and tedious their runback was, making every retry's runback last at least 2 minutes when accounting for loading times, that at point, it had just lost me. 5 tries felt like 30 in those other games.
@@iota-09 i definitely agree about DS1, the only reason I think I did so much in it was because I knew beforehand the route to Quelana for dumping money into the flame and then basically just using Chaos Fireball and Great Combustion on everything and hoping I killed stuff before needing to roll too much. I never actually did the DLC in DSR and I have in every other game, I think DS1/R are okay games but I largely just wanted to beat it to say I did. If I had to play one of them again it'd either be DS2 since I just really like Majula
One of the appeals of MH combat for me is the sheer spectacle of it. The way the combat flows and progresses allows you to spectate your own battle and appreciate the coolness that is happening onscreen. Most of the weapons have an “ultimate move” feature of this nature. It’s a move that usually takes at least 1 or 2 seconds to finish, during which time you have no input capacity, and they have recovery for maybe another second more. Three whole seconds in which you can’t do anything but watch the aftermath of your prep and combat inputs. This stresses some people. It relaxes me. It comforts me to know that once I’ve keyed in the input, there is absolutely nothing further to do until I regain control. And if that input staggers, KOs, or part breaks a monster? Even better. That’s the shit.
I found that in my time with Monster Hunter World, my enjoyment varies drastically depending on how much of the games jank I have to deal with, and how much I like what I'm fighting. Some things were absolute nightmares to farm the equipment for because I simply hated fighting the monster in question, while farming other things was a blast. Dealing with the games jank is the only other thing that gets under my skin, and its mostly just small things that add up over the course of a session.
I just beat the Rathalos for the first time. Instantly after beating it a Rathian came down. after a bit of fighting her, she just started doing her little run move. I was basically stunlocked, as soon as I got up after she hit me, she passed by hitting me again, for 2 or 3 times until i died. That might be the clunkiest that I've felt the game to be until now. By the way right as i was killing the Rathian, another Rathalos landed. I captured this one.
@@joemency2242 You can just stay on the ground in situations like this. You're invincible while on the ground, and you can delay getting up by not pressing anything. As soon as that second charge misses, *then* get up and you'll have actual time to dodge the third one.
I'm very new to monster hunter and I love it. I'm playing Worlds right now. I had played quite a lot of souls games before and honestly it feels so different. At first I would try to stay close to the monsters and i-frame their attacks as you would in a souls game, but the combat really clicked when I understood that I had to take my time more. Take my time to recuperate, position myself in a position where I can punish effectively, and understanding better how to use the terrain to mount the monster, the slinger, the mantles etc. Even crafting new items mid-hunt. It's so rewarding.
I'd say you need a good like... 20+ hours to really start to get it. And to actually engage with the series' systems, like he said. Making new armours and weapons to deal with walls, learning your weapon and monster's patterns. I think a lot more people would enjoy MH if they took the time and effort required to give it a proper chance.
@@JeanKP14 I bought world soon after I watched this video and gave it another shot. For some reason I feel better about my first experience this time, so I plan on giving the game the time it needs to really understand it. Thanks for the help.
a friend bought me monster hunter world, and I tried it, fell in love, and slowly stopped enjoying it for one specific reason. the loss of control effects that would constantly happen. as I got further and further into the game, more and more attacks would cause me to completely lose control of my character for multiple seconds, now on its own thats fine but when its happening multiple times a minute, it gets frustrating I quit early into ice part, when I spent over 30 minutes out of a 50 minute fight watching my character roll on the ground, unable to interact with the game, and another 10 minutes chasing the monster after it ran away when I hit it once, rather than doing the fighting part I actually enjoyed. out of 50 minutes, there were 10 that I actually enjoyed, and that ratio was getting worse with every new monster I encountered. another thing that drove me away was the community, specifically how the community responded to any criticisms of the games design. everything I said was always met with "you just dont like it cause you are bad at the game, just get good", and I can see how getting better at reading and dodging attacks would lead to getting stunned less, but that process itself isnt fun *because* of those stuns, so for me that advice just ends up saying "you are only allowed to enjoy the game when you are actually good at it" and obviously thats not something I want to spend my time doing
a tip if you’re having issues with getting stunned and are willing to try the game again at some point: stun charm III gives you complete resistance to stun
@@mellomallo I was aware of that, and I was working towards it, but its kind of a sidestep of my issue if the best way to deal with a mechanic is to completely turn it off, why does the mechanic exist? it just feels like bad design. this was also my complaint with the cold mechanic in the area, it served no gameplay function
Stuns serve the purpose of punishing you for getting hit too many times, plus (while I know this isn’t the best reasoning considering Monster Hunter isn’t super realistic and how monsters can survive so many attacks from the weapons) it’d make sense for a huge monster to stun a hunter, especially with bigger and heavier attacks. Heat and cold are around for a similar reason, and to also put some emphasis on preparation before a hunt, though they were removed for Rise. Personally I never really ended up getting stunned multiple times a minute despite World being my first MH game (though I stopped playing at early Iceborne as well since I couldn’t see the screen well and needed glasses, so I can’t say for sure what the stun situation is like for content beyond that, though I still don’t remember getting stunned *that* much from what I played). Two more tips that probably aren’t that helpful (considering you got to Iceborne content you probably already know but possibly not) are that you can button mash to recover from stun more quickly and you can dive by running and dodging away from the monster to get a ton of invincibility frames if you know you’ll be getting hit otherwise.
Something very important to note actually is that I did have the Stun Charm III during the Iceborne content I played so that’d be why I don’t remember stuns, so ignore that (oops).
the realism argument falls flat when my complaint is that it isnt fun, if that realism gets in the way of fun, then the realism needs to go I get the "preparing for a hunt" angle on the cold, but it does not do that in an interesting way. it takes basically 0 effort to be completely immune to the cold, and never interacting with the mechanic is apparently the intended way to play, so why does it exist? if they wanted a "cold you have to prepare for" they should have made a more interesting mechanic
I remember playing MH: World (my first MH) and it felt like culture shock by the fact that you can't attack while moving (using melee) since I came from a very hack-and-slashy kind of playstyle, and that yes, it is a very high-commitment sort of combat compared to a lot of hack and slash games. I almost wanted to close the game immediately because "wtf this feels so clunky", and I did, but I immediately came back because of the reason that I already paid for it a month before and I can't get a refund lmao. Long story short I now have 900+ hours on MH: World and about 300+ hours on MH: Rise
I feel like dual blades is a great gateway into getting into MH as someone more used to playing hack and slash games. I'm still struggling to clear crimson glow valstrax and some of the apex monsters with more committal weapons but I find dual blades playstyle of constantly attacking the monster and using counter or the A attack to reposition more comfortable. Ideally I want to be able to fight fast and aggressive monsters with these slower weapons but it just feels so clunky to me rn
I feel like my experiences were kind of different. I saw my brother playing world on his Xbox and figured I’d give monster Hunter a try on switch, with GU which had just recently released at that point. I wasn’t amazing at the combat but I managed and got to around 4 star or 5 star, but then dropped the game. Eventually after a couple years passed I picked up GU again and went all the way to Ahtal Ka and now I own GU, Rise, and 4U
Longsword: *looks at an Apex Diablos charging at full speed* “Oh look, here’s a big opening!” I say that as someone who frequently uses said charge as an opening to dish out some good damage via Iai Spirit Slash lol
So i tried it at launch, because people talked highly of it. i quit immediatly. i tried it next in 2022 same result. then finally here today in 2024, i gave it a shot more, tried to ignore the absolutely atrocious combat. then it all ran down to the encounter. step 1. find creature step 2. fight it for 5 min step 3. it flees step 4. repeat step 1, 2. and 3. 8 times step 5. ??? step 6. Profit? jesus christ, i can not for the life of me figure out how people like this game.
You aren't aggressive enough / doing enough damage and that's why the monster is running away. You can pretty much lock the monster into fighting you if your DPS is high enough
idk im trying world right now and the controlls feel clunky. not like dark souls clunky just. nothing feels good to press. the systems are weird and the monsters either consistently attack you or do nothing. wish i hadnt bought it at this point
Awesome video, Rat! I too am in the camp of “hated it until I loved it” it’s a very common story in the community it seems. I hope people that found this channel through Elden Ring realize they might love Monster Hunter as well, a lot of knowledge can actually pass over between games despite their many differences.
@@HenshinFanatic I started with 3 Ultimate myself, and I mean it did go uphill from there. I think I was the only one in my group who didn't utterly hate water combat because I played Light Bowgun.
@@dominiccasts I preferred how swimming worked in Tri, couldn't adjust to 3U's underwater movement due to muscle memory. It was fine, but then I mained Swag Axe ASAP.
I dropped it when I tried Monster Hunter 1 but God almighty those controls were jank beyond jank. Came back to the series years later with World then went on to play GU, 3U, 4U and Rise. I now love this series so much, easily one of my favorite game series of all time.
I'm ok with the combat being slow but what I'm not ok is the arbitrary delay some actions have, For example, after I sheath my weapon, it takes around 1 second before I can pick stuff up.
I started with World and I feel like it took me until the end of story mode (shara) before I actually clicked with the combat. It wasn't too bad before and i did just fine spamming basically 3 moves which is boring, but gets the job done. The feeling when I finally "gets it" is priceless. It's like being freed from a shackle. God I love this game so much.
When it comes to the point where I managed to git gud as the souls fan would say, I’d say that it was actually Alatreon in MHW, sure I was competent at the game at the time but I was by no means an expert, that changed with Alatreon, I fought it day 1, so no one could carry me through it, as a result; I needed to pull my own weight and not rely entirely on someone else’s skill I eventually managed to beat him after several days (with another players help) after that I started trying to get better at hunting him… Originally my “best” time was 30 minutes with a Palico, now my best time is 11 minutes solo! So yeah, despite the controversy he brought, MHW Alatreon holds a special place in my heart, alongside MHW Fatalis!
@@alexedwards5152 Big Al gets me from the metaphorical slumping position to sitting straight. Before him the monsters are highly challenging at most but I won't say they're all that difficult especially compared to souls games. When Alatreon dropped for the first time i got so exhilarated as the community scrambles on figuring out how to beat him while a good portion screamed and sobs uncontrollably. I was obsessed for the entire day, trying different stuff and failed, discussing tactics and builds on reddit, watching those who made it on tube just to learn what's possible. It was the first mon that got me thinking "this is impossible" that i commonly experience in souls games. For the first time I actually paid attention to the many facets of the game i never needed to before like the canteen food buff. I literally climb mountains to get that one last ingredient for the skill i need. It felt like a training montage of Rocky. And finally, I painstakingly managed to beat it on the second day solo, with a blast hammer the community said is impossible to beat it with to boot. And damn does it feels good. And yep, he got a special place in my heart as well. Fatalis kicked my ass harder but Alatreon was my "training partner" every single day we wait in anticipation for Fatty to drop. And it's funny how hard both myself and the alatreon (1/5 hp) got our assess kicked by Fatalis when it finally happened. Rare gaming moment I tell ya.
My first experience with Monster Hunter was MHW and while I did not put down the game because of how the combat feels to a new player it definitely took time for it to click with me. Most of my experience with action combat was with the DMC series and that probably influenced my initial weapon choice, the switch axe. I absolutely hated it, I couldn't wrap my mind why I couldn't change the angle of my attacks within a combo and constantly had to reposition and restart combos. I played most of low rank with dual blades since it felt to me at that point acceptably fast but I kept trying out every weapon to try and understand their strengths and how to enjoy them. I discovered how effective shields can be in a game where making effective use of i-frames is much harder than most and played the lance mostly through high rank. Once I reached end game I was getting bored of the lance, it had the defensive ability I wanted but it lacked the cool and flashy aspects that initially attracted me to the switch axe. Then I was properly introduced to the gunlance by Rurikhan and never looked back.
I went to Monster Hunter World from playing solely Dark Souls 1-3 since getting my pc at the time. I think the mindset for monster hunter's combat is completely different in terms of how it plays out. You REALLY need to watch guides to understand how it works. Took me a while to know foresight slash can be aimed towards the attack to get a free counter. I think the major difference is Souls series is more of mastering the boss' moveset with maybe 10% of how to use weapons. Mastering Monster Hunter is more of mastering your weapon and your "options" in given situations (Countering, blocking, timing) since it's more of a combo based combat.
I don't think it's that souls is MORE of mastering the bosses movesets, I think they're just complete opposites in the way they handle boss fights and combat. In MH you master the weapon first and then the monsters second and that's where you truly get good, whereas souls you master the bosses first and then your weapon and that's where you get truly good in soulslikes. You definitely still have to learn the ins and outs of a bosses moveset in MH, but if you don't know your weapon then you're not gonna learn the monster.
@@temphy oh yea, gotta agree. I believe if you're a fan of one of the game you'll fall in love with the other fasho. But depends on whether you play souls for lore or otherwise
I'm a longsword main users and the skill shown off in this video is beautiful, I really have to practise my timing and dodges more. One because it looks flawless and two, for the constant dps. I feel like I've let the longsword down, haha 😄
The best part of MH combat is how it's a perfect combination between Action and RPG. The armor skills and weapons *WILL* change your playstyle. Some weapons are slower, some are faster, some even requires a specific armor skills to enhanced it's gameplay (like Focus, Quick Sheath and Rapid Morph), some forces you to go ham unga bunga, some will forces you to hold and perfect timed all attacks. There're also many approach to combats, like ailment build, pure raw build, KO build, elemental build, etc
And when you master the game, you can 100% unga bunga while dodging all the monsters' attacks. Odogaron is the first monster that I managed to do that to, using the Greatsword.
For the fresh hunters who never played any monster hunter before, do not be overwhelmed. I started playing MH Freedom Unite back in the 2010s in my PsP with my friends and we never really learned through tutorials and there were no youtube guides back then, mostly gamefaqs. Now, I am trying to finish MH Generations Ultimate currently HR2 and just started 1 week ago. I still don't know the different mechanics of the game even 30 hours of playtime in. For the newer games I haven't tried yet, but are looking forward to play new world mh games. The game is made to be explored, be curious, learn the monsters, learn the weapons and enjoy the adventure. This isn't a story driven game where you follow a protagonist on their story. Monster hunter is about two things. The Monsters and the Hunters (YOU). Don't rush the game and take your time. Happy Hunting!
I seem to be one of the few "MH Vets" who loved the game upon playing it for the first time ever. Thank you, MH3U demo, for my love of this incredible series!
One thing that I think is often overlooked by folks that consider gameplay as the be-all-end-all determinant of a games worth is the value of aesthetics and setting in "getting you over the hump" and allowing you to really commit to a game. Monster Hunter is the perfect example of that idea for me. I got on the MH wagon in the first game, and if you think MH is rough to pick up now, oh boy. But I was so bought into the *idea* of Monster Hunter, the fantasy that it presented in those first cinematic trailers, that nothing would stop me from playing it. It's something I think about often when I hear about how difficult the series is to get into for people.
That's funny, because I've always hated the aesthetics of MH and only love it purely based on the game mechanics. The whole concept of a game that's just a series of boss battles and a varied set of deeply rewarding combat mechanics to tackle them with is perfect. All the anime-esque feel I have to just block out of my head, though the game levels and monsters themselves are fine
@@SepticFuddyI'm a weeb and I've never once thought of MH as being "anime-esque" feeling. Everything about it from the weapons, armor, hubs, levels, monsters, etc. feels deeply rooted in a medieval fantasy setting for me. The only thing I guess you could say is "anime-esque" is the story, characters, and dialogue but 1) no one plays monster hunter for those reasons and 2) that's just Japanese style of writing, not "anime-esque". You don't hate "anime-esque" stuff, you hate Japanese-esque stuff and that's bc you correlate everything Japanese with anime. That's not a very healthy mindset
@@temphy Wow somebody's mad. Giant weapons nobody could ever possibly wield, impossible spiky haircuts, awkward over-emoting, katana draw counters, glaive aerial attacks... definitely not anime-esque. You may be a connoisseur and prone to focusing on the distinction between explicitly anime and non-anime Japanese media. I'm an outsider turned off by many of the same aesthetic factors that turn me off to anime. Yet, I still play and very much enjoy the series. I even main IG while referring to my own aerials as "anime bullshit" like everyone elsedoes, and LS looks fun too. You're right, you don't play MH for the story (which I've always said myself), you play for the complex mechanics and brutal yet fair challenge with a very high skill ceiling. I had to look past a lot of goofiness to enjoy the MGS series, too, which is actually what pointed me over to MH. I even learned to embrace some of Kojima's madness along the way. Seems like a pretty healthy approach to me. I still don't have to like the anime-adjacent aesthetic elements that come with it because some internet weeb said so. Thankfully, after Rise cranking it up to 11, Wilds appears to be more grounded and "realistic"/"western" than ever. Looks way more aesthetically appealing so far, especially on the character front. So I'll keep enjoying the game while you keep working yourself up over some random guy on the internet not liking the same flavors you do.
Interesting.. I have a different perspective on this matter. Me and most of the people I know had a problem with the gameplay loop, not exactly the combat itself. Especially in "post Dark Souls" gaming, the combat is an easy sell IMO. But selling the concept of the game is a whole different story. "Well it's a game with barely any story in it, where you mostly kill monsters to make stronger weapons and armor to kill more monsters and that's it." Most people I know didn't get the point of doing all this, and the way I see it, that's the biggest entry barrier. I believe it's not the combat that "clicks", but the core loop.
That’s the part i really enjoy about monster hunter, there are no distractions from the meat of the game. It’s a pure video game, I get to boot up mhgu with my friends, hop into an insane hunt where we just barely scrape it out alive, and then afterwords we’ve got a wild story about a hyper deviljho hunt that nearly wiped us. The stories come from playing the game instead of from any hackneyed pretentious “hollywood” cinematic tripe. Id rather be playing a game than watching a movie about a character i don’t relate to doing things i’m can’t interacting with, that’s the opposite of video games to me. Not that narrative doesn’t have a place in games, mind you. It’s just in most cases it dramatically distracts from the gameplay experience instead of enhancing it. I dont understand how the intrinsic motivating factors of Monster Hunter’s gameplay loop are a problem. the game presents you with a challenge, slay its monsters and conquer the game. That should be more than enough I think. SIDENOTE: Not to say monster hunter games don’t have stories. I just don’t ever pay attention to them, they’re not why i’m playing. I’ve got my own stories of wild hunts that have happened and that’s what is important to me. MHW tried to cater to the cutscene gamer and it failed miserably and is the soul reason i’m probably never going to play that game (holy shit it takes four hours before you get to actually start hunting for real)
@@ElvenSonic i mean, if you're looking for a purely arcade reason to play, something sure, but that ain't what everyone always looks for in the game. like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, i'm still intrigued by the buildmaking, characters, cutscenes, the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined endgoal. fighting for fighting sake... i mean, it's not like i don't understand the fun in that, having played online fps games for years i kinda get it, but it's just not something i'm looking for anymore, and the idea of an sp game without an end goal never intrigued me, i'm the kinda guy who stops playing pokemon after the league/barely visiting the post-league content, the kinda guy who just doesn't understand the appeal of mmos, and the guy whooplays fighting games for the campaign mode while completely ignoring time attack and online. so yeah, i dunno, i just don't get the appeal of it, unless you're with friends of course, but it's not like i'd have friends to play with when i've never played it myself in the first place.
@@ElvenSonic i disagree, everything in monster hunter is a distraction from the meat of the game. Optimally monster hunter would just be walking into a boss room with just a blacksmith for prep. Instead you have dozens of npcs and tutorial dialogue and some weird ass cat ranch and collecting plants, tracking poop. And you have no fucking idea how any of it works or why you should care.
@@iota-09 “like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, im still intrigued by the buildmaking, -characters, cutscenes,- the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined end goal” Bam! you just described the appeal you should have playing monster hunter. Dumbing down what I said to “fighting for fighting’s sake” would be like saying you’ve been playing souls games for the same reason. EDIT: Also there’s an irony here in that most normal people that play souls games totally ignore the story and characters and are just playing because the game is hard and the combat is fun. Especially with Elden Ring where a bunch of important dialogue wasn’t put in the game or was poorly translated and didn’t make any sense. Tbh that’s probably why souls games tend to be a good jumping off point
I saw my friend playing MHF2 back in 2007 and the game immediately appealed to me. The PSP was the first gaming console I ever really wanted. I've have been playing the series ever since. I introduced my little brother to MHW and he got interested in the series. Soon after that, he bought MHFU for his iPad and loved it as much as I did.
This is an exact description I use to sell my buddies on monster hunter! Every weapon is its own character and it's a matter of learning its nuances. It took me some time but learning how to compensate for the immobility of the Switch Axe from MHWORLD felt amazing. This game leaves you with such satisfaction over each step of comprehension of your weapon.
My first was World. I felt incredibly overwhelmed by how dense the game is, but I realized the combat could be very deep shortly into my play. I love it
I REALLY tried to like it but I just couldn't. I found the preparation of traps and items, the chasing, and the huge health pool of the monsters to be way too tedious.
Another thing I often see is how people who play monster hunter strongly urge other people to also play it. It a very interesting group of MH phenomenons.
This has been the most surprising game I've ever gotten into. I don't consider myself much of a gamer and tend to hate bossfights of any sort. However my husband and his cousins are all really into it and I wanted to give it a chance so I could play with them. I was gifted MHW + Iceborn and that gift has changed my life lol. Decided to go with HBG cause I'm not good with close combat. It has been extremely overwhelming and THE most challenging game I've ever played, and also some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Even started doing more solo play recently now that I'm more confident with the controls. I'm so glad I went in with an open mind and LOTS of patience, easily one of my top 5 series ever now!
Another thing you should mention is how little it really holds your hand when you choose your weapon. Yes it gives you a guide to key moves like Iai Slash or Amplified Elemental Discharge, but it doesn’t have the more complex moves like (no longer in Rise) Power Saw morph on the Charge Blade or fast Phial Reload technique on the Switch Axe. It’s dense in information for the basics but after that there’s still much to learn that the game will never tell you unless you use the training grounds or look up a tutorial video
bruh i switched to pc out of necessity, and i couldnt find any guides with keyboard, and now i cant learn anything because of how ass the weapon tutorials are like i picked up the gun lance, and it shoots out this knife thing? IT DOESN'T SAY THAT IN THE TUTORIAL, or what the cd is on the wyrm thingy etc, its just annoying, fun game still
@@evianwyner8280Ahh the kbm MH struggle. Looking for a tutorial on a combo/move and the tutorial just says "press X+A". I had to painstakingly look for a guide that actually lists all controls, but goddamn will I continue to refuse to use controller. KBM all the way baby Look at Game8 guides. They actually list every control input instead of just controller.
I was one who got into the game with world, I was obsessed with Elden ring and its combat and I was trying to find games to match that experience and I found this and it was like it was MADE for me! It’s so perfect I’m going through and playing all the older gens and I’m having SO much fun I’ve loved world and rise and I’m playing 4U rn and it’s SO good (I’m using switch axe it’s so good in 4U) this combat style just feel absolutely perfect infact it almost feels like devil may cry with all the combos 😭
I first played Generations Ultimate after a friend dragged me into it, so I did have someone to help me out and show me the ropes, but holy shit did I hate parts of it. I loved the amount of maps (although I thought it was a bit weird they were sectioned off) and monsters, but the movement was rough as hell to me. Being slow as shit, having to align myself for an attack constantly, being frozen in place and unable to cancel or move direction after starting an attack, stopping in place when healing and then flexing and not being able to dodge at all during any of it, having to constantly re-align the camera because I lost sight of the monster, trying to mount but often failing because of the clunky system around it, being unable to predict what a monster was going to do because of its poorly telegraphed attacks. It felt like I wasn't fighting the monster but the movement instead, and made the difficulty feel more unfair than challenging. There were other things too, like not being able to eat or stock up on potions if you forgot to before starting a quest, or the complexity of making a build, especially because back then the weapon tree was kinda hidden and you didn't know what direction you were going in. I never ended up making a build, I just got the the full armor of the monster that gave me the most defense, got the sword with the most attack I had access to, and reluctantly played with my friend until we defeated Ahtal-Ka, ignoring almost everything aside from the essential quests (which I had to look up because the were invisible too) and the urgent quests. I was kind of done with Monster Hunter after that, just thought it was some weird, clunky series that's just too hard to get into like my friend. Only once the Rise demo released and after ALOT of convincing from my friend, I tried it again. And I loved it. That Mizutsune fight in the demo was amazing, it felt like for the first time, I didn't have to memorize the attack patterns of a monster and could just rely on my instinct, even more so now because I could rely on my movement to do what I wanted it too. Fast movement, being able to cancel attacks, being able to change direction, being able to lock on, being able to walk while healing AND cancel, having faster traversal with palamutes, the map being open with no loading screens, the monster clearly telegraphing its moves so I could react even without consciously analyzing stuff, mounting being understandable. I bought and played through World right after this, and then played through Rise when that came out too. The builds were also more comprehensible, and I really got into making my own builds to suit my own playstyle, also now if I forget to eat or take supplies with me I can always restock, and eating buffs are way more comprehensible now too. I know alot of people don't like the direction of modern Monster Hunter, but to me it's exactly what I needed to get into the series. Every problem I had with old Monster Hunter has been addressed and I can now actually enjoy everything else the series has to offer, so yeah, I think we're moving in the right direction.
My first experience with MH was in World with one of my best friends. He talked me into getting it and playing with him. Unfortunately he had been playing MH for a long time and was steamrolling through our playthrough. I stopped half way through. A few months later we decided to try again and he agreed to not steamroll and give me a chance to fully get into it. We got about 70% done and he stopped play, but I enjoyed it enough to finish. I didn’t play Iceborne because I was still one the fence about the series, but when Rise came out I picked it up and fell in love. I was kinda in a weird place where I didn’t enjoy gaming as much but Rise changed that completely. I got so invested. I wanted to be better, so that was I did. Rise has become one of my favorite games of all time and Sunbreak has been such a joy to play!
For me, monster hunter went from a game where I didn't know if I liked it or not (a demo on the 3ds) to being my favorite series of games. The combat is amazing, the concept is cool, and it just hits everything right for me. Going back and playing the older games, I normally don't like slow gameplay/fights, but monster hunter did it perfectly and I love it! It took me a while to learn it, but it was fun in the process. Learning how to know a monsters openings, and using whichever weapon you choose, to get in those openings is an amazing experience. And I won't lie, I already loved the games, but fatalis in monster hunter world is what firmly secured this series as my favorite. Have to get good enough to beat it and then eventually overcoming it, it was legitimately an amazing experience.
Short answer: pick dual blades lol I didn’t really like the game with the great sword but dual blades are super fluid and have alternate dodge moves. After mastering them, I found the urge to learn other weapons and now I can appreciate them all
Mind you there's still animation cancels in Monster Hunter, so a huge commitment like a charged slash from a greatsword can still be safe if the monster turns around to attack. A short moment after the slam, you can roll out of that part of the animation. And for lighter weapons, you can roll out of almost any attack, or use weapon attack s to dodge as well.
Its scary how true wat u said at the start of the vid was. I remember starting this series during mhfu. I couldn’t even kill a dam velociprey or a dam bullfango cuz i didnt get the combat style. Finally a buddy of mine found out I had it and started playing with me during lunch time to carry me and teach me things. After getting the combat down it was smooth sailing after that cuz i was hook. I came back this year since i saw this game on sales on steam. Boy it did not disappoint.
I've played Monster Hunter for many many years now and I think of the combat as dancing. You have your dance moves and the monsters have theirs. Whenever I struggle with a new monster I break away from combat and just study how it moves while I just dodge. After a while I find openings where I can get 1-3 hits in without taking damage. As the battle continues I find more and more openings and feel comfortable taking more agressive risks. I'm not saying this is the best way to do it but it is what works best for me. As for learning your weapon I usually watch a few youtube tutorials and read a little bit in the in-game hunters notes. The hardest part is building muscle memory. No matter how much you read and watch other people playing you will never feel 100% in sync with your weapon until 20-100 hunts. It will take time and it varies from player to player.
It really is amazing just how many people have that experience with MH. I started with 3U, and got about 15-20ish hours in before giving up. Everything felt too slow for me, and I absolutely hated underwater combat. Cut to a year or so later, I try out 4U, since it removed underwater combat and the new mounting mechanics interested me. 4U is now probably my favourite game of all time, and I’ve played every MH game since.
I always described MH combat as a series of phases. The tell which is the wind up (animation before an attack) to an attack which tells you which attack combo they'll do, The attack which is the duration of damage frames you need to avoid and, The follow up which is the variable down time in which you get to attack. There's a pattern to follow you watch for the tell avoid the attack and position yourself for the follow up then get back to watch for the next tell.
Dude that's crazy cause that intro example was me too. I started, struggled through the main game, and gave up. Now I'm replaying it and having a great time! I switch between longsword, bow, and glaive. I just finished the base game again and now I'm getting ready for the dlc.
My main issue with MH has always been how terrible the camera feels. Sometimes, I move the camera and it moves where I attack. Sometimes, I move the camera and it does fuck all. Another gripe is that with greatsword, if you roll and start charging, you hit where your camera is facing. If you charge, attack, roll, and then charge, you attack in the direction of the first attack, even though your character fully turned around to roll, and your camera is facing the opposite direction! Anyways I've played for 200 hours now over the past 3 months
Just started playing World and it's my first MH, between my first few hours of the game and this video, I'm getting the sense that this is going to be a similar experience to Nioh once I fully get sucked into it.
While i did find the combat of MH frustrating at times when i started, or when i started to play new weapons, i've always been able to link it to my own mistakes, and so figure that it would get better as i grow better. I raged a whole lot at my own mistakes, but in the end what this feeling of frustration did for me was not push me away from the game, but make me thrive to get better What i love about MH is how well it makes you subconciously learn a monster moveset so you can react to its telegraphs in the short time needed to find openings. I dont count the number of times where i pulled up to a new encounter fully prepared just to get utterly destroyed and thought to myself "man, this is impossible". Only to grind the matchup a few times and find myself reacting to the telegraphs instinctinctively. The encounter designs are so good you passively learn the movesets, and it feels extremelly rewarding to feel the progress as you play
I remember playing MH 1 on the playstation 2 and when I first finally killed the Velocidrome and velociprey and made my new armour and weapon I felt like a bad ass at the time lol. The sheer satisfaction of getting each new peice of armour and weapons you are after really makes all the carts worth it.
Wooo MH content is back. I never experienced this, because I was lucky enough to have a mentor. One out of the group of three I am part of, that always plays MH together, taught me and the other guy how to play in a basic way, and then we learned the rest together.
Monster hunter is a funny game for me. I remember seeing the first trailer during some presentation and hearing people go nuts over a guy cooking meat on a rotisserie. At the time I thought, I guess this is a teaser for a game people really like, not my thing though. And I didn’t think of it again until I had a college roommate playing it and I saw him take on Zorah Magdaros. It’s kind of funny to think of that now, knowing what I know now about that fight. But a guy fighting a freaking massive Godzilla with a goddamn volcano on its back was so cool to me and it got me hooked. I bought world the same day and I’ve now put thousands of hours into it across Xbox and pc as well as into rise on switch and pc. I’ll admit the combat and movement felt very clunky when I first started but the desire to go fight volcanic Godzilla kept me going. I tried hunting Great Jagras with every single weapon until I found one that I liked(ended up being the insect glaive). I was so bad at the time I considered Tobi to be a minor wall and Anjanath carted me way more than I’d like to admit. But the gameplay loop of getting slapped by a monster until I finally took it down and made its ass into a hat was really fulfilling and I always wanted to know what new skills each armor set was going to bring me.
i love how it's all the origin stories of getting into MH!!! here's mine: i played a lot of Dauntless (f2p MH inspired game) before it became really really bad like now. while I had little issue with Dauntless endgame (chain blades main), I tried the sunbreak demo and played it for like 10 hours before buying the bundle on sale. I had trouble with great izuchi on switch axe, and everything in the game was so much more nuanced and difficult and I loved it. proud insect glaive main now!!! (plus some charge blade)
a very well described video. I bounced off MHtri in my youth and tried it again with monster hunter generations on the 3ds, something clicked as soon as i found a weapon i liked, and then BAM, 2000 hours gone to varius monster hunter games lol. one of the few single player games i could just play and play and play and never feel bored
i think it took me and my friend (who played together) about 3-4 times of leaving and rejoining monster hunter for it to really click, now we can easily beat hunts we once thought near impossible (mostly elder dragons)
That's actually what keeps most people playing. Don't think of it as a time sink, what it is is the gameplay loop of "oh i wanna make this weapon! oh I need this part from this monster, let's hunt it. Oh I wanna make it's armour! let's hunt it a few more times. Oh I'm having trouble against this guy, what's he weak to? Time to make a good ice weapon!" its... very addicting, actually. And you can play a MH slowly forever, basically. The end is what YOU make it
I played MHFU as a kid. After the first few bosses i was actually scared of fighting the tougher ones and I got stuck at tigrex for years, only farming low level stuff and running around training palicos. Untill a friend told me that i needed earplugs and a cheese spot in the mountains that I was able to beat it. That feeling of overcoming an almost impossible challenge, with the game not making it any easier, just adapting with the tools at your disposal is what makes MH so satisfying to me.
Started with World. I mainly played it because my friends played it, but I didn't really like it. Low rank I played bow and I was definitely being carried by my friends. High rank I switched to long sword and started to like it more. I could appreciate more of the game more, my friends helped me build sets and understand skills and I got super into layered armor. But I didn't find myself playing it without them. I wasn't confident and felt like I still needed the carry (even though I probably didn't). When Kulve came out I felt a bit better at trying a new weapon without having to use materials on a weapon I might not like or want to use. Kulve gave me plenty high tier weapons to play around with and among others I finally tried Hammer. I didn't even realize the game wasn't clicking for me until it clicked. I loved playing hammer. sliding down a slope and doing the somersault at the monster felt amazing and the charged attacks just made sense to me. I started to build sets without the need of help from my friends and felt comfortable playing alone. Hammer go bonk.
Im the oposite. I, just an hour ago, gave up. I had one previous playthrough of the game through iceborn, i didnt grind master level afterards. I never accessed the multi-biom content. With some of my steam friends getting back into it, i was stoked at an opportunity to play again. To use different weapons than i had the first time through. But i hate it. It didn't click this time. It could be the weapons didn't have the same appeal. It could be that I'm older now and dont have the requisite patience. Or what made the game novel in the first place, doesnt carry it through the process of relearning. It could be, that after having already struggling my way to Master Rank, being defeated now, in high rank, proves i never really got gud. After Elden Ring, the attacks the monsters have in this game don't feel as fair. I recently took a hit from Rathalos which began a chain of attacks in which i never regained agency before i carted. 100 to 0 and the only attack i could say was avoidable, was the first. And it, probably landed while i was rooted from a roar or temmer. Patience is probably key. I think you have to enjoy defeat and not mind time being wasted. I for some reason, cant seem to enjoy it this time around. When you watch some hunters defeat monsters, they often keep a monster staggered and incapacitated till its dead. Sometimes they never have to avoid an attack. The sticky bowgun meta is great example of trivialising content. Anyways it may require patience I cant manage this time. I dunno. I suppose fighting the same monsters repeatedly to carve a ruby didn't help the enjoyment factor either. But fighting monsters repeatedly is kind of the concept. So.
I remember trying MH Tri at my cousins house and thinking "Man, fighting dinosaurs sounds cool, wish I had a cooler weapon then just a Sword and Shield Tho" and started to just not feel it Then I went to the Blacksmith and seen all the different weapons Tried all of them, fell in love with Long Sword and never looked back Bought 3U a short time after and the next thing I knew I have nearly 20,000 hours in the franchise and I have no plans to stop now. Sunbreak is a fantastic expansion in an honestly less then stellar MH game and Long Sword is more fun then it's ever been
One thing I've learned is that it's definitely not for everybody. You can't force people to like it. I have a friend and he gave it an honest go, a real honest go, put well over four hundred hours into World, and it just never clicked. In hindsight it doesn't surprise me--he hides behind a shield in the Souls series, he button mashes in fighting games; he's not of the mindset to appreciate the entire "high commitment" movement concept you outlined. He's told me more than a few times the entire idea of 'animation lock' as he calls it has him screaming in frustrated rage and nearly breaking his controller when he plays Monster Hunter (things like drinking potions, stun, etc.) and is what ultimately caused him to quit. He played longsword and I watched him play and he never even thought to use any of the counter abilities or anything so he was a perennial novice. He was alright for the most part but when Iceborne came along he got absolutely cratered. I felt real bad for him. All of his other friends were breezing through the content and he couldn't even hope to keep up. The reason I wrote all that is because I guarantee you there are tons of players just like him. For every one of us who gels with the game there's going to be someone who runs into it like a brick wall because they just completely don't understand its design and never will because they don't like what it's going for. I've learned you can't push these games on these people. It's not fair to them.
I’ve only put about 30 hours into MHW so take this with a grain of salt- I’m someone who hates using shields in souls but I still don’t click with monster hunter. It has less to do with the pace of combat and more the feeling that I’m just whacking a massive health bar for a while, chasing, then whacking some more. I miss the feeling of my smart, well timed attacks feeling like they’re accomplishing something in the overall flow of the fight! I dunno if that feeling changes as you go on or if I’m just missing something. Curious to hear people’s thoughts
@@tay590For low to some high rank quests the monsters are generally easy but late high rank and G Rank monsters FORCE you to dodge correctly and time your attacks. Trust me lmao
@@tay590 what weapon are you using? If you want that feeling of a perfectly timed attack in the perfect position, play big weapons that have high commitment and big damage like greatsword and charge blade. With light weapons like dual blades, it will feel more like you're just tickling the monster to death.
Honestly this is me, I like the aesthetic and lore of the game but the combat is so stiff and the animation lock is infuriating and makes the game borderline unplayable imo. And I’m mostly a fighting game player
How did he put in 400 hours without enjoying it or learning the game’s systems? I accept not liking the game, but what you’re describing sounds like he wasn’t playing the same game at all. And from what you’ve mentioned about button mashing in fighting games, it also seems like he refuses to learn any system that requires a modicum of effort from the player. It’s almost like saying you don’t enjoy chess, when all you’ve done is play checkers with the chess pieces. Again, 100% understand that he might not like either type of game and he isn’t obligated to put in effort just for a game, but it just seems a little silly when he can’t grasp the basics.
Hey man, I wanted to thank you because of this vid. I love ur channel in general but this video was exactly what I needed. I bought Monster Hunter Rise around December of last year or January of this one but I simply wasn't enjoying it even tough I have previously enjoyed monster hunter with World. I simply took to much time off the franchise and forgot about everything and relearning it... Well it kinda sucks. Just the day this video went public I was thinking, "damn, MH rise is gonna get a DLC and I haven't even finished the main story I should try to play it" then BOOM the notification appears and you said just what I needed to hear. I'm not exactly the best MH player, I'm kinda new to it (got into it with World, haven't played since Iceborn came out) but thanks to this video I got the motivation I needed. I'm maining Sword and Shield and learning to play charged axe(?) My main language is Spanish so I don't know the English names soooo yeah, I'm kind screwed haha. That one chainsaw axe, that's the one. I'm still learning lots of things and having quite the fun time with your Aerial Insect Glaive video right now haha. And that's it, sorry if this is hard to read, as I said before my main language is Spanish. Hope you have a good day and thanks you very much, for real. I'm loving this game once and for all thanks to you My wallet kinda hates it though LOL
My friend passed me the controller while he was playing MHW, and I was so overwhelmed in less than 2 mins. I bought MHR, picked up SnS and just became obsessed
World was my first MH game, and it was a steep learning curve for me, The combat felt clunky and movement felt slow. If I hadn't been so stubborn and determined to understand why so many people love MH, I probably would have quit. I'm glad I didn't, because eventually it did all click with me, and now I would consider MH to be one of my all-time favorite franchises.
MH1 was the one who got me into the series. Back then we had to use the right analog stick to attack, I was like "really? Isn't this supposed to be for camera..." but then, I progressively learn and adapt. Boom, 1000+ hours in.
I tried MH World and absolutely hated it, it felt slow and i-frames during the roll seems to end to quickly. I picked up Rise to play with someone I know and used the bow and loved playing, tried the other weapons and hated it just like World. I honestly just find the game to be to slow in character movement and the dodge on the bow makes it bearable
I started with Monster hunter: World. For me the game clicked immediately. I like the combat and the complexity of the systems around it. I really like preparing for a fight. Thinking about what decorations , what charms , weapon and armor to use. It is part of the reason why I started playing MH:World. I really loved it in Warframe, so I knew I was going to love it in this game. So MH:World brought me in the franchise , MH:rise kept me in it and now I am going to play MH:GU.
Probably just me but I enjoyed the combat from the beginning, I love the semi realism when you use the weapons the weight they have on impact makes it feel that more powerful
I love the combat, it wasn’t hard to get used to since I already played some Dark souls titles but I have one big problem wich is all of the different kind of stuns, like it’s absurd there more than 5 wich could just kill you because it takes way too long to actually get moving again and I tried to make a build against those but it just isn’t fun to use it. So for me it always was: choose a good damage build and get stunned alot or don’t get stunned and make low damage numbers
idk if it's just me but i really love pre mhworld combat (more specifically fu-mhgu) although the combat still remains in the new gen monster hunter (which i love very much), there's something about it that makes it somewhat difficult to control what i want to do. whenever im speedrunning, i find it difficult to understand what the monster could do next as i focus more on how i can optimize and utilize the most efficient combo with my weapon. i think i was starting to go on a rant but overall, great video!
For me it's the exact opposite. Played 3u then 4u then world and rise and when I went back to play gu I was frustrated with how unresponsive certain things are. Mainly directional inputs. You can't change the way you are facing mid combo and if you roll the first frame out of a combo it's always a roll forward.
thanks for this video I need more motivation, still in the hate phase after playing it for my first time, I gave it a chance for the combat but the tutorials, the hub and the UI are so hard to digest to me
I couldn't the game is just not for me, or that's what I thought, coming back since a friend gave me the DLC for MHW and I forced myself to get in once again, with a few tweaks like removing the minimap and playing alone for a while I'm hooked, like dangerously hooked, and just in time for a comeback from the community? how convenient, there are things I still don't like but man, I wish I have tried again before
Hey, I just wanted to say that a while back I picked up Iceborne and while I recognized it was "good" game, at the time I was really in the mood for something with a compelling story, and I put it down (not to mention being a total noob and ruining my early experience with Defender gear - it's cheap to craft and really good! Doh!) I came back to it last week after watching your video and I've been having a blast. This game has probably the most depth in the combat of any game I've ever played. Such an addictive core gameplay loop, for people who like an immersive challenge. Thanks Ratatoskr!
Preping and executing is the best feeling a game can provide, especially when the chance of failure was very real. Alatreon and Fatalis reminds me why i love mh. I rmb tailoring specific builds with divine blessing, recovery up, palico revives, heal dust kinsect, max element dmg kinsects and scripts to follow when specific events occur. Its what makes the challenge worth beating.
I’m pretty young (14) and I got into mh with world when it first came out, after beating everything in the game multiple times, I moved to generations, beat it, moved to gu, didn’t beat It but put around 300 hours into it, then iceborne, still haven’t beat everything but have around 300 hours aswell, finally rise, just beat the main story of base game, now I’m playing sunbreak. I love the series to death, also played most of 4u and about 30 hours of 3u.
Meanwhile, I'm the guy who started with MH1 as a kid, and still loved the janky old combat even when I had to use the stupid right analog stick controls trying to combo my SnS swipes or Lance pokes while also claw handing the directional buttons to adjust the camera. Those were definitely the most of times.
I tried the game after putting 250 hours into Elden Ring, and didn't like it because it felt too sluggish, like I couldn't ever do what I wanted to. So I think your assessment is accurate, but I'm still not convinced I should give it another shot.
Hey there (bodies of text incoming, but I urge you to read :'D) Yea as Rata said, mh combat is not the easiest to get into. Weapons are complicated to learn/master, and you have to combine that with learning the monster that you're facing. These 2 facets make it extremely difficult for someone who is starting out, and historically, the game doesn't do a good job at teaching you all the different combos and mechanics the weapon has to offer Since mh world, efforts were made towards giving you basic combat tutorials in the 'training area'. It doesn't show you everything, but it gives you a taste for the weapon As someone who started off HATING mh combat then later coming back and putting in nearly 2k hours across all the games, here's my advice: -If you're playing either world or rise, go to the training area AND DO NOT LEAVE until you've played around with ALL of the 14 weapons and found at least one you like - once you've found the weapon you like, IMMEDIATELY go onto UA-cam and find a combat tutorial for that weapon for that game. I would recommend watching Arekkz Gaming, Gaijin Hunter and Rurikhan. Do the combos and moves as they are explaining and showcasing it. They'll explain the moves well enough that you'll understand their advantages and disadvantages, and when and when not to use them - once you've gone through the weapons entire arsenal from the video, play around even more. Close the video and see if you can do all the combos and engage with all of the mechanics. It might take a while since there's a lot of mechanics to the weapon, but at this point you should at least be getting a bit more familiar - now it's the time to actually play the game and start having at monsters. At first, observe the monsters movements and attacks. It's one thing to start practicing your weapon, but if you're getting smacked around not knowing the monster's moveset, you won't make any progress. So run around them, see their attacks and the openings they leave. Once you have basic identity of their moves, start fighting them. Start executing your moves on them. It might be rough in the beginning and you still might find yourself getting smacked about, but you'll start to learn and get better. Button mashing won't get you anywhere since inputs are buffered in a way that it prevents you from pressing many inputs and expecting moves to come out the very moment you do so. Of course, if you practiced your weapon in the training area there'd be no need to Button mash since youd know the combos somewhat - Mastery will come with time :) You'll get really good at using your weapon that the only obstacles you'll have to cross is figuring out the monster. Mh combat to me is the best combat I've had to experience, and I've played many many games including the soulsborne series (at least elden ring bloodborne and ds3). I wish you the best of luck. Sorry for writing bodies of text. I just really want as many people to enjoy mh as I have. Let me know how it goes. Cheers!
@@WisdomAkpan211 Hey I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. When I played the game, I didn't try out all the weapons. I basically just picked one that looked cool and learned the basic combos with it in the training mode. Next time I come back to the game, I'll remember your advice!
@@WisdomAkpan211 I gave the game another shot, and I'm hooked this time. I'm playing with the hammer and doing everything solo while having a blast. Just beat the Pink Rathian after he defeated me on my first try. So far that's the only hunt I've failed at. It was very satisfying to retry the hunt and conquer him. Looking forward to tackling even harder foes. Honestly, it wasn't getting the hang of the combat that got me hooked. Instead, I started to get hooked when I began to understand how to use various items. Shock traps and tranqs for capturing, dung pods for making unwanted monsters flee, explosive barrels for when the monster is sleeping, etc. Once I began interacting with all that stuff, everything started to make sense.
My problem with this game is this: you charge up a massive attack and it almpst hits, but the enemy sneezes at you and the attack/combo completely cancels. The other verry annoying thing is: there is no way to cancel an attack even if you spam evade, there is no quick cancel/evade cancel. So you are just stuck watching your animation untill you get hit. Thats not combat btw. Its a glorified animation player that has effects when you hit something.
I used to feel the same way, but what you're describing is what makes the games combat so rewarding. There are plenty of other games available to play with animation canceling and button mashing
im sorry but the problem wouldnt be there if charge blade its animations didnt take 5 seconds per hit. You know what im talking about. The combat feels sluggish and unrewarding. You are just praying when you unleash the full charge elemental attack the monster doesnt fart at you beceause the charge up attack is taking too long.
@@bravingbrivatebrian what im doing is not button mashing. Im trying to build up combos. But when charizard decides to rotate itself towards your palicoe and it softly touches you with its tail your whole combo gets canceled. And why cant you cancel attacks? This is literally the only game i know that doesnt have it. Can you imagine cutting vegetables but your finger is in the way and you just HAVE to commit into cutting your finger? Its stupid and its an outdated combat system thats sticking around for way too long.
I’ve always played monster hunter here and there But I really wasn’t hooked on it I’d usually play a little high rank and call it quits cause The grind seemed boring Only after I played through elden ring did I really start to love monster hunter To the point that I’d stop playing other games Idk why but the combat just clicked (as you mentioned) Something about staggering a monster or KOing just felt better I really enjoyed elden ring (obviously) But now monster hunter feels like an extension of it Like an enhanced combat edition of some sort 😂
The combat for me wasn’t the issue, the menus and “tutorials” were, it felt like so much information to take in and I was going to need it to actually play the game. Eventually my friend helped me through the game and I slowly started to understand everything and nowadays, making unique builds out of lesser used skills is literally my favorite thing to do.
Yeah to be fair, the menus suck.
I remember playing freedom 2 not knowing a single thing, but it didn't matter, cause they got "training quests" which were basically optional, you go and do them if you wanna learn.
I think window pop ups aren't good unless extremely necessary.
You gotta make players figure out the game for themselves and most importantly, whenever they want to.
"Oh what is a ration? Gotta check this out in the menu, or maybe im gonna try using one"
Don't treat people like they're stupid
I feel you i tried most monster hunter games last week just to find the enjoyable one and i have around 20 hours in freedom unite,generations ultimate,tri and world i played portable 3rd as well and dropped it because it was freedom unite but with asian esthetic tbh i learned all those core tutorials after three games and enjoyed it far more ever since
I would absolutely not gotten into this game without my friends explaining everything as we went along
It's like you have to read a set of encyclopedias to play the game, bork all that.
Rise’s menu tutorials are some of the worst in gaming. They’re super dense, not intuitive, come in the weong order, and worse, are factually incorrect often. The ingame description of dual blades is just wrong for archdemon mode. The game never tells you theres a jump button. It forgets to describe the various states of stun and knockdown.
The reason people initially hate MH isn't the monster hunter gameplay. It's the hour long fire hose of information blasted at the player as soon as they try to get into game.
In Rise, the game doesn't point you towards the training ground. You have to find it...why? This is precisely where I want to be in order to figure out a weapon.
It also doesn't give you a clear example of the gameplay loop. Hunt monster > make armor from monster > hunt new monster. In between all of this is a deluge of information that could all be condensed into the training ground.
The scenario you described is exactly my experience getting into monster hunter, saw some videos of 3U, thought it looked cool, saw it had a demo, tried it out, hated it, uninstalled, tried it again some time later, still hated it, uninstalled it, tried it a 3rd time later, finally clicked, loved the series ever since
God, I hated the 3U demo too. Why is everything so damn slow? Felt like trying to pay chess with oven mitts in a pool of molasses. Had to keep playing for it to finally click. I played over 2000 hours of 3U as of today. Still one of my favorite games of all time
what weapons did you start with each time you restarted?
Its a common thing with monster hunter vets, hated it sometimes for an entire generation. Then it finally clicks and you're hooked ever since.
Mine was F1. Hated it. Stopped at buldrome. Tried it again in F2 and I never looked back.
The longsword made me finally love Monster Hunter. I think it’s mostly about finding the weapon that feels somewhat natural and intuitive to you.
Took me three times on Freedom 2 myself.
I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that Monster Hunter clicked for me pretty much immediately. Up until the day I decided to try the 4U demo after seeing it on shelves, I had experienced combat in video games almost exclusively in a turn based format. As a kid the idea of only taking damage when the attack visually hits me was so amazing, and revolutionary, and incredible, and... and then eventually I fought Plesioth. :(
Ah plesioth, the only monster to turn the game into a turn base battle. And by turns, I mean it's his turn, then it's his turn again, then of course! It's his turn again. And that's just him shaking his ass.
My first game was 4U and I had zero friends to play it with but I at least had an online community to help me through. There was never a point where the actual gameplay wasn't enjoyable for me, just a few monsters who I'd rather never existed at worst and just groaned and put up with at best. And maybe the occasional gathering session for one stupid ore than had a 5% chance of being mined or a 20% chance in the rare area. I'm not sure if we are a minority or not, but I can very easily see why some people might be turned off by it, even if they're a fan of similar games. I'm just glad I've stuck through it and even have gone back to play older titles like 3U, FU, and even Frontier.
@@ACBGames the one monster (alongside gravios) that forced me to make an elemental bow...
@@nubbyboah My first game was world. I had a blast with the game, so much so that I too went back to the older games starting with gen u. After a bit of an adjustment period, I ended up falling in love with old monster hunter. Fast forward to today, I have played 4u, 3u and tri, freedom unite, and was even privileged enough to have a great girlfriend who tracked down a copy of monster hunter 1 on the ps2. The game is hard as hell, but I can't help but love it and the series as a whole.
Ah the good ol Hip Check
Also seeing the World and Rise footage side by side makes me miss the weightiness of the hitstop even more than I already knew I did.
My first game was World, about the time Iceborne came out a couple friends convinced me to get it, I didn't much like it, it seemed a bit stiff, but it was pretty fun while playing together, so i kept playing, it took me about 70 hours to beat the base game if I remember correctly, after that I decided to get iceborne, and something changed, I don't know exactly when or where, but after I beat iceborne's story I took a step back and realized that the game had wormed its way into my head and heart, and it was now my favorite game, it really is fascinating how much of a turnaround it was, nearly 500 hours spent now and I'm into my second playthrough, hunting horn only, and loving it
The large part of the game clicking with you is finding your favourite weapon.
I know how you feel I'm at 446 Hours right now :) And still doesn't like monster hunter as much as Monster Hunter World. IceBorn added so much more fun to the already soo fun game :)
Based HH player
It was the exact opposite for me haha
Me who doesn't need this video because I love it already. But totally watches it anyway to hear someone talk about why the love the franchise
I used to be that person that thought it was boring and clunky lol. He hit the nail on the head
@@benji1277 hey totally. Glad you came around though there's so much quality here in a world of battlefield and fallout 76 ect. Monster hunter does experiment constantly even nearly every game you could say. So there's going to be some games that aren't liked as much but it's hard to argue that any of then are totally bad or broken or don't work
@@ashenphoenix6869 Plus there are the stories games. Pretty sure I played the first stories game before I played any mainline games, and after rise I'm planning on playing the second one
@@benji1277 dude the second stories game.... it's like 100% better than the first one in every way. And I really liked the first one. But I LOVE the second one. It's what Pokémon wishes it could be Lol
Regarding MHW as a new player:
I'm 12 hours in. Eeeh... I feel like it's losing me.
The game has so much busywork:
Every time I go fight I gotta eat a meal, and eat my rations, and eat my nutrients, and sharpen my blade, and buff my weapon, and yadda yadda...
And then I can get stunlocked and 2-shot by the monster, making me respawn and then I gotta do the whooooole buffing process all over again...
Blegh
Healing takes ages, even chucking an antidote takes ages.
Putting your weapon away or pulling it out takes ages.
A single hit taken can throw you into a vortex of having to mess around with the weapon holstering and healing, tanking your uptime on the monster
and then you can finally get ready to go again... and the monster can just leave...
Barely any animation cancelling and very tight if even existent buffer times. Meh.
Basically, the concept feels cursed:
I thought the game is gonna be about hunting monsters but then it does everything in its power to push you away from hunting monsters:
UI, preparations, monsters running away, that's all time you spend not fighting monsters.
Update:
The rythm of the game clicked for me and I'm having way more fun now as a result. I accomplished more in the last 6 hours than in my first 13.
I think it's good, even great but there's a definite adjustment period.
What happened that made it click for you?
that was EXACTLY my first experience with MHW. I stopped playing the first time after only 6 hours. I returned to the franchise with MH Rise tho with a friend and since than I played countless hours of both rise and world. It just needed to be more accessible IMO. The UI was the biggest factor for me, it was just repulsive. But definitely learning how to prepare + finding THE weapon to use changed everything
I think Monster Hunter has my favorite combat of any game ever created. It’s like a fourteen character roster fighting game with higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy. The amount of depth and variety between the weapons and monsters is insanity. And the best part is you can do perfectly fine with an average skill level. Monster Hunter doesn’t demand that you master it’s weapons and speed run times, and monster patterns. You can be a “good” player and get through the whole game fine. But if you choose to master the game, you’re fuckin unstoppable. It’s industry defining stuff
Basically This. I can see why people that prefer story-heavy games with deep lore and NPCs might have their qualms with Monster Hunter as it honestly isn't as good in that regard, but it's amazing in terms of creature design. As much as I like high fantasy, not having anything with magic, gods or the afterlife but taking the pseudo-scientific path is what gives the monsters from Monster Hunter their own identity.
And as weird as it would be to describe in-depth, I get what you mean with "higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy". I got into the Souls games several years after playing Monster Hunter and despite them having no actual connections, it felt familiar in a way I couldn't exactly put my finger on.
Totally agree. I've yet to find a game that has more satisfying combat.
Monster hunter is 🐐
Yup. I think the only two things the game demands of you is to not be absurdly greedy and to know that you can faceplant when you have your weapon sheathed to easily avoid damage. You can have a smooth-ish ride if you do those two well.
@@nightmarishcompositions4536 there's only 2 games I'm totally in love with. one is mhw. the other is quake live. however QL is a very old arena FPS game. very few people still play it. but i still play it almost daily.
Makes me feel like a rare breed.. I remember picking up Monster Hunter for the PS2 back in the day, getting bullied by velocidrome a bunch of times, finally overcoming that "wall" and instantly being hooked to the gratification of "beat it finally and now you're telling me I can make a sword out of that bitch?". Here we are, over a decade later.
Monster Hunter essentially boils down to:
A) Kill monster
B) Make weapon out of the aforementioned monster
C) Kill more monsters with the aforementioned weapon
D) Rinse and repeat!
The Circle of Life really is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
Yeah..i remember having no clue whatsoever and starting the with the guild quests instead of the village ones...what a pain in the ass.
Hello fellow first-gen. I have so many fond memories with the original monster hunter on ps2. I instantly hooked up on the gameplay eventhought it was most janky attack button scheme lol
@@MrOneneft oh god the control scheme... What an abomination... Kokoto Hunters unite!
@@DerAykac so Did i haha i Actually kind of miss being bad at monster hunter, took me 40 min to hunt a great jaggi back in 2014
Great commentary as always! I'm currently in an exam phase, but now I'm even more hyped to get back to Monster Hunter 🎉
Honestly I started with MHFU and got into DS3 and the other Souls games later. Rise is probably the easiest one I've played though the weapons might take a little to get used to for newer players if your goal is to learn everything but that's by no means required and I'm pretty sure the dev teams have even said they wanted room for people to be able to improve with the weapons but the difficulty is tuned so min-maxing and whatnot isn't going to be required. Ultimately it's better to take it slow and not get frustrated since they go about the core gameplay very differently
Funny anecdote: every Soul's game I tried I played right after I finished the previous one and I went in reverse order so DS3-BB-DS2-DSR and every time I hated it starting out so I took a few days off and then went back to it and liked it more, gotta give yourself time to reset those habits since they're different styles of games
ironically for me it was the other way around for ds
i did bllodborne, loved it from the get go tiill the end of time, although i needed a hand at one point to go over a hurdle(bsb), done that, i fell in love.
ds3 was a no brainer too.
but ds1 on the other hand, at the start i liked it, genuinely had fun, then i got to the gargoyles.
no matter how many times i beat bb and ds3, i couldn't kìll them... until i locked-off, then it clicked to me.
was it fun to kill them then?
yes... ish.
it was fun per se, but it gave me a really bad hunch, i knew something was off with that because i knew it was due to the lack of omnidirectional rolling... anyway, kept playing and playing and, once going past o&s, obviously i started liking the game less as you might imagine why, but then came the ending and the dlc turn, and whereas normally people make a turn of opinion there due to artorias and gwyn... i guess i got spoiled by ds3 and bloodborne.
i oculdn't stand either.
i fought for 6 hours malenia, i fought 20 times each boss of the bloodborned platinum cursed dungeon, i fought 267 times the heroic phoenix in the death's gambit afterlife...
but after 5 tries of both artorias and gwyn, i just quit ds1.
i duno, maybe my build just sucked that much and due to being aware of that i couldn't bother replaying the game, but... no, i even knew i still had ariamis to do first, but i just grew bored due to how clunky the game was compared to other ones, due to how obtusely long and repetitive those two fights were if you didn't have a high enough dps build, how boring and tedious their runback was, making every retry's runback last at least 2 minutes when accounting for loading times, that at point, it had just lost me.
5 tries felt like 30 in those other games.
@@iota-09 i definitely agree about DS1, the only reason I think I did so much in it was because I knew beforehand the route to Quelana for dumping money into the flame and then basically just using Chaos Fireball and Great Combustion on everything and hoping I killed stuff before needing to roll too much. I never actually did the DLC in DSR and I have in every other game, I think DS1/R are okay games but I largely just wanted to beat it to say I did. If I had to play one of them again it'd either be DS2 since I just really like Majula
One of the appeals of MH combat for me is the sheer spectacle of it. The way the combat flows and progresses allows you to spectate your own battle and appreciate the coolness that is happening onscreen. Most of the weapons have an “ultimate move” feature of this nature. It’s a move that usually takes at least 1 or 2 seconds to finish, during which time you have no input capacity, and they have recovery for maybe another second more. Three whole seconds in which you can’t do anything but watch the aftermath of your prep and combat inputs.
This stresses some people. It relaxes me. It comforts me to know that once I’ve keyed in the input, there is absolutely nothing further to do until I regain control. And if that input staggers, KOs, or part breaks a monster? Even better. That’s the shit.
I mained Dragoon in ff14, I know all about long animations that get you killed when done at the wrong time lol.
I found that in my time with Monster Hunter World, my enjoyment varies drastically depending on how much of the games jank I have to deal with, and how much I like what I'm fighting. Some things were absolute nightmares to farm the equipment for because I simply hated fighting the monster in question, while farming other things was a blast. Dealing with the games jank is the only other thing that gets under my skin, and its mostly just small things that add up over the course of a session.
I just beat the Rathalos for the first time. Instantly after beating it a Rathian came down. after a bit of fighting her, she just started doing her little run move. I was basically stunlocked, as soon as I got up after she hit me, she passed by hitting me again, for 2 or 3 times until i died. That might be the clunkiest that I've felt the game to be until now. By the way right as i was killing the Rathian, another Rathalos landed. I captured this one.
@@joemency2242 Which mh? What’s clunky about what you’re describing?
@@joemency2242 You can just stay on the ground in situations like this. You're invincible while on the ground, and you can delay getting up by not pressing anything. As soon as that second charge misses, *then* get up and you'll have actual time to dodge the third one.
Well rise has less jank it seems everything in monster hunter keeps getting less janky
I'm very new to monster hunter and I love it. I'm playing Worlds right now. I had played quite a lot of souls games before and honestly it feels so different. At first I would try to stay close to the monsters and i-frame their attacks as you would in a souls game, but the combat really clicked when I understood that I had to take my time more. Take my time to recuperate, position myself in a position where I can punish effectively, and understanding better how to use the terrain to mount the monster, the slinger, the mantles etc. Even crafting new items mid-hunt. It's so rewarding.
I tried my first monster hunter game recently and found it difficult to get into, so this upload timing is perfect.
I'd say you need a good like... 20+ hours to really start to get it. And to actually engage with the series' systems, like he said. Making new armours and weapons to deal with walls, learning your weapon and monster's patterns. I think a lot more people would enjoy MH if they took the time and effort required to give it a proper chance.
@@JeanKP14 I bought world soon after I watched this video and gave it another shot. For some reason I feel better about my first experience this time, so I plan on giving the game the time it needs to really understand it. Thanks for the help.
you are not just playing a game bro
you are in a commitment now if you want to continue
a friend bought me monster hunter world, and I tried it, fell in love, and slowly stopped enjoying it for one specific reason. the loss of control effects that would constantly happen. as I got further and further into the game, more and more attacks would cause me to completely lose control of my character for multiple seconds, now on its own thats fine but when its happening multiple times a minute, it gets frustrating
I quit early into ice part, when I spent over 30 minutes out of a 50 minute fight watching my character roll on the ground, unable to interact with the game, and another 10 minutes chasing the monster after it ran away when I hit it once, rather than doing the fighting part I actually enjoyed. out of 50 minutes, there were 10 that I actually enjoyed, and that ratio was getting worse with every new monster I encountered.
another thing that drove me away was the community, specifically how the community responded to any criticisms of the games design. everything I said was always met with "you just dont like it cause you are bad at the game, just get good", and I can see how getting better at reading and dodging attacks would lead to getting stunned less, but that process itself isnt fun *because* of those stuns, so for me that advice just ends up saying "you are only allowed to enjoy the game when you are actually good at it" and obviously thats not something I want to spend my time doing
a tip if you’re having issues with getting stunned and are willing to try the game again at some point: stun charm III gives you complete resistance to stun
@@mellomallo I was aware of that, and I was working towards it, but its kind of a sidestep of my issue
if the best way to deal with a mechanic is to completely turn it off, why does the mechanic exist? it just feels like bad design. this was also my complaint with the cold mechanic in the area, it served no gameplay function
Stuns serve the purpose of punishing you for getting hit too many times, plus (while I know this isn’t the best reasoning considering Monster Hunter isn’t super realistic and how monsters can survive so many attacks from the weapons) it’d make sense for a huge monster to stun a hunter, especially with bigger and heavier attacks. Heat and cold are around for a similar reason, and to also put some emphasis on preparation before a hunt, though they were removed for Rise. Personally I never really ended up getting stunned multiple times a minute despite World being my first MH game (though I stopped playing at early Iceborne as well since I couldn’t see the screen well and needed glasses, so I can’t say for sure what the stun situation is like for content beyond that, though I still don’t remember getting stunned *that* much from what I played).
Two more tips that probably aren’t that helpful (considering you got to Iceborne content you probably already know but possibly not) are that you can button mash to recover from stun more quickly and you can dive by running and dodging away from the monster to get a ton of invincibility frames if you know you’ll be getting hit otherwise.
Something very important to note actually is that I did have the Stun Charm III during the Iceborne content I played so that’d be why I don’t remember stuns, so ignore that (oops).
the realism argument falls flat when my complaint is that it isnt fun, if that realism gets in the way of fun, then the realism needs to go
I get the "preparing for a hunt" angle on the cold, but it does not do that in an interesting way. it takes basically 0 effort to be completely immune to the cold, and never interacting with the mechanic is apparently the intended way to play, so why does it exist? if they wanted a "cold you have to prepare for" they should have made a more interesting mechanic
If anyone is going to convince me to like this game, it’s you
Something thats really cool about the series as well is that the older titles hold up so well and have things to offer in their own right
They were more unforiving. The game made you feel the pain before you earn your reward. Eventually you master it and feel real comfy.
Happy to see you making MH content again! I hated my first one too, and now I am 10k hours into the series.
Excellent video!
@@legendslaboratory6820 Okay.
@@theartoflongsword2622 Don't you mean 1k?
@@brojakmate9872 No.
@@theartoflongsword2622 dont think people understand that there's like 12 different mh games and the series itself is like nearly 2 decades
I remember playing MH: World (my first MH) and it felt like culture shock by the fact that you can't attack while moving (using melee) since I came from a very hack-and-slashy kind of playstyle, and that yes, it is a very high-commitment sort of combat compared to a lot of hack and slash games. I almost wanted to close the game immediately because "wtf this feels so clunky", and I did, but I immediately came back because of the reason that I already paid for it a month before and I can't get a refund lmao.
Long story short I now have 900+ hours on MH: World and about 300+ hours on MH: Rise
I feel like dual blades is a great gateway into getting into MH as someone more used to playing hack and slash games. I'm still struggling to clear crimson glow valstrax and some of the apex monsters with more committal weapons but I find dual blades playstyle of constantly attacking the monster and using counter or the A attack to reposition more comfortable. Ideally I want to be able to fight fast and aggressive monsters with these slower weapons but it just feels so clunky to me rn
Bro I payed too for this game and the combat is hitting me so hard, I felt like is exaggerated difficult and boring
I'm using Switch Axe
I feel like my experiences were kind of different. I saw my brother playing world on his Xbox and figured I’d give monster Hunter a try on switch, with GU which had just recently released at that point. I wasn’t amazing at the combat but I managed and got to around 4 star or 5 star, but then dropped the game. Eventually after a couple years passed I picked up GU again and went all the way to Ahtal Ka and now I own GU, Rise, and 4U
"...and what a each weapon considers an opening is different." SwitchAxe:Everything is an opening if you try hard enough!
Longsword: *looks at an Apex Diablos charging at full speed* “Oh look, here’s a big opening!”
I say that as someone who frequently uses said charge as an opening to dish out some good damage via Iai Spirit Slash lol
meanwhile, chargeblade main "everything is NOT an opening and something will just hit you anyway"
@@muhwyndhamthe unholy amount of times I've been hit out of an SAED...
So i tried it at launch, because people talked highly of it. i quit immediatly. i tried it next in 2022 same result. then finally here today in 2024, i gave it a shot more, tried to ignore the absolutely atrocious combat. then it all ran down to the encounter.
step 1. find creature
step 2. fight it for 5 min
step 3. it flees
step 4. repeat step 1, 2. and 3. 8 times
step 5. ???
step 6. Profit?
jesus christ, i can not for the life of me figure out how people like this game.
You aren't aggressive enough / doing enough damage and that's why the monster is running away. You can pretty much lock the monster into fighting you if your DPS is high enough
idk im trying world right now and the controlls feel clunky. not like dark souls clunky just. nothing feels good to press. the systems are weird and the monsters either consistently attack you or do nothing. wish i hadnt bought it at this point
Try switching to another weapon, gameplay varies drastically from a weapon to another
Awesome video, Rat!
I too am in the camp of “hated it until I loved it” it’s a very common story in the community it seems.
I hope people that found this channel through Elden Ring realize they might love Monster Hunter as well, a lot of knowledge can actually pass over between games despite their many differences.
I started with Tri, and fell in love with the franchise instantly.
@@HenshinFanatic I started with 3 Ultimate myself, and I mean it did go uphill from there. I think I was the only one in my group who didn't utterly hate water combat because I played Light Bowgun.
@@dominiccasts I preferred how swimming worked in Tri, couldn't adjust to 3U's underwater movement due to muscle memory. It was fine, but then I mained Swag Axe ASAP.
@@HenshinFanatic OH! I didn't realize Tri and 3U handled that differently.
@@dominiccasts yeah, you also couldn't make a swag axe until Village ☆☆☆
I dropped it when I tried Monster Hunter 1 but God almighty those controls were jank beyond jank. Came back to the series years later with World then went on to play GU, 3U, 4U and Rise. I now love this series so much, easily one of my favorite game series of all time.
I'm ok with the combat being slow but what I'm not ok is the arbitrary delay some actions have, For example, after I sheath my weapon, it takes around 1 second before I can pick stuff up.
I started with World and I feel like it took me until the end of story mode (shara) before I actually clicked with the combat. It wasn't too bad before and i did just fine spamming basically 3 moves which is boring, but gets the job done. The feeling when I finally "gets it" is priceless. It's like being freed from a shackle. God I love this game so much.
When it comes to the point where I managed to git gud as the souls fan would say, I’d say that it was actually Alatreon in MHW, sure I was competent at the game at the time but I was by no means an expert, that changed with Alatreon, I fought it day 1, so no one could carry me through it, as a result; I needed to pull my own weight and not rely entirely on someone else’s skill
I eventually managed to beat him after several days (with another players help) after that I started trying to get better at hunting him… Originally my “best” time was 30 minutes with a Palico, now my best time is 11 minutes solo!
So yeah, despite the controversy he brought, MHW Alatreon holds a special place in my heart, alongside MHW Fatalis!
@@alexedwards5152 Big Al gets me from the metaphorical slumping position to sitting straight. Before him the monsters are highly challenging at most but I won't say they're all that difficult especially compared to souls games.
When Alatreon dropped for the first time i got so exhilarated as the community scrambles on figuring out how to beat him while a good portion screamed and sobs uncontrollably. I was obsessed for the entire day, trying different stuff and failed, discussing tactics and builds on reddit, watching those who made it on tube just to learn what's possible.
It was the first mon that got me thinking "this is impossible" that i commonly experience in souls games. For the first time I actually paid attention to the many facets of the game i never needed to before like the canteen food buff. I literally climb mountains to get that one last ingredient for the skill i need. It felt like a training montage of Rocky.
And finally, I painstakingly managed to beat it on the second day solo, with a blast hammer the community said is impossible to beat it with to boot. And damn does it feels good.
And yep, he got a special place in my heart as well. Fatalis kicked my ass harder but Alatreon was my "training partner" every single day we wait in anticipation for Fatty to drop. And it's funny how hard both myself and the alatreon (1/5 hp) got our assess kicked by Fatalis when it finally happened. Rare gaming moment I tell ya.
Me, who loved Monster Hunter combat the first time I played (Tri): "Fascinating"
My first experience with Monster Hunter was MHW and while I did not put down the game because of how the combat feels to a new player it definitely took time for it to click with me. Most of my experience with action combat was with the DMC series and that probably influenced my initial weapon choice, the switch axe. I absolutely hated it, I couldn't wrap my mind why I couldn't change the angle of my attacks within a combo and constantly had to reposition and restart combos. I played most of low rank with dual blades since it felt to me at that point acceptably fast but I kept trying out every weapon to try and understand their strengths and how to enjoy them. I discovered how effective shields can be in a game where making effective use of i-frames is much harder than most and played the lance mostly through high rank. Once I reached end game I was getting bored of the lance, it had the defensive ability I wanted but it lacked the cool and flashy aspects that initially attracted me to the switch axe. Then I was properly introduced to the gunlance by Rurikhan and never looked back.
the feeling of beating alatreon and fatalis first time after 12 hours of retries is the best feeling i'll never forget.
I went to Monster Hunter World from playing solely Dark Souls 1-3 since getting my pc at the time.
I think the mindset for monster hunter's combat is completely different in terms of how it plays out. You REALLY need to watch guides to understand how it works. Took me a while to know foresight slash can be aimed towards the attack to get a free counter.
I think the major difference is Souls series is more of mastering the boss' moveset with maybe 10% of how to use weapons.
Mastering Monster Hunter is more of mastering your weapon and your "options" in given situations (Countering, blocking, timing) since it's more of a combo based combat.
I don't think it's that souls is MORE of mastering the bosses movesets, I think they're just complete opposites in the way they handle boss fights and combat.
In MH you master the weapon first and then the monsters second and that's where you truly get good, whereas souls you master the bosses first and then your weapon and that's where you get truly good in soulslikes. You definitely still have to learn the ins and outs of a bosses moveset in MH, but if you don't know your weapon then you're not gonna learn the monster.
@@temphy oh yea, gotta agree.
I believe if you're a fan of one of the game you'll fall in love with the other fasho.
But depends on whether you play souls for lore or otherwise
I'm a longsword main users and the skill shown off in this video is beautiful, I really have to practise my timing and dodges more. One because it looks flawless and two, for the constant dps. I feel like I've let the longsword down, haha 😄
The best part of MH combat is how it's a perfect combination between Action and RPG. The armor skills and weapons *WILL* change your playstyle. Some weapons are slower, some are faster, some even requires a specific armor skills to enhanced it's gameplay (like Focus, Quick Sheath and Rapid Morph), some forces you to go ham unga bunga, some will forces you to hold and perfect timed all attacks. There're also many approach to combats, like ailment build, pure raw build, KO build, elemental build, etc
And when you master the game, you can 100% unga bunga while dodging all the monsters' attacks.
Odogaron is the first monster that I managed to do that to, using the Greatsword.
For the fresh hunters who never played any monster hunter before, do not be overwhelmed.
I started playing MH Freedom Unite back in the 2010s in my PsP with my friends and we never really learned through tutorials and there were no youtube guides back then, mostly gamefaqs.
Now, I am trying to finish MH Generations Ultimate currently HR2 and just started 1 week ago. I still don't know the different mechanics of the game even 30 hours of playtime in.
For the newer games I haven't tried yet, but are looking forward to play new world mh games.
The game is made to be explored, be curious, learn the monsters, learn the weapons and enjoy the adventure. This isn't a story driven game where you follow a protagonist on their story. Monster hunter is about two things. The Monsters and the Hunters (YOU).
Don't rush the game and take your time. Happy Hunting!
I seem to be one of the few "MH Vets" who loved the game upon playing it for the first time ever. Thank you, MH3U demo, for my love of this incredible series!
One thing that I think is often overlooked by folks that consider gameplay as the be-all-end-all determinant of a games worth is the value of aesthetics and setting in "getting you over the hump" and allowing you to really commit to a game. Monster Hunter is the perfect example of that idea for me. I got on the MH wagon in the first game, and if you think MH is rough to pick up now, oh boy. But I was so bought into the *idea* of Monster Hunter, the fantasy that it presented in those first cinematic trailers, that nothing would stop me from playing it. It's something I think about often when I hear about how difficult the series is to get into for people.
That's funny, because I've always hated the aesthetics of MH and only love it purely based on the game mechanics. The whole concept of a game that's just a series of boss battles and a varied set of deeply rewarding combat mechanics to tackle them with is perfect. All the anime-esque feel I have to just block out of my head, though the game levels and monsters themselves are fine
@@SepticFuddyI'm a weeb and I've never once thought of MH as being "anime-esque" feeling. Everything about it from the weapons, armor, hubs, levels, monsters, etc. feels deeply rooted in a medieval fantasy setting for me. The only thing I guess you could say is "anime-esque" is the story, characters, and dialogue but 1) no one plays monster hunter for those reasons and 2) that's just Japanese style of writing, not "anime-esque". You don't hate "anime-esque" stuff, you hate Japanese-esque stuff and that's bc you correlate everything Japanese with anime. That's not a very healthy mindset
@@temphy Wow somebody's mad. Giant weapons nobody could ever possibly wield, impossible spiky haircuts, awkward over-emoting, katana draw counters, glaive aerial attacks... definitely not anime-esque.
You may be a connoisseur and prone to focusing on the distinction between explicitly anime and non-anime Japanese media. I'm an outsider turned off by many of the same aesthetic factors that turn me off to anime.
Yet, I still play and very much enjoy the series. I even main IG while referring to my own aerials as "anime bullshit" like everyone elsedoes, and LS looks fun too. You're right, you don't play MH for the story (which I've always said myself), you play for the complex mechanics and brutal yet fair challenge with a very high skill ceiling. I had to look past a lot of goofiness to enjoy the MGS series, too, which is actually what pointed me over to MH. I even learned to embrace some of Kojima's madness along the way. Seems like a pretty healthy approach to me. I still don't have to like the anime-adjacent aesthetic elements that come with it because some internet weeb said so. Thankfully, after Rise cranking it up to 11, Wilds appears to be more grounded and "realistic"/"western" than ever. Looks way more aesthetically appealing so far, especially on the character front.
So I'll keep enjoying the game while you keep working yourself up over some random guy on the internet not liking the same flavors you do.
Interesting.. I have a different perspective on this matter. Me and most of the people I know had a problem with the gameplay loop, not exactly the combat itself.
Especially in "post Dark Souls" gaming, the combat is an easy sell IMO. But selling the concept of the game is a whole different story. "Well it's a game with barely any story in it, where you mostly kill monsters to make stronger weapons and armor to kill more monsters and that's it."
Most people I know didn't get the point of doing all this, and the way I see it, that's the biggest entry barrier. I believe it's not the combat that "clicks", but the core loop.
this is also another point to which mh never appealed to me, it's basically the same reason i never played mmos.
That’s the part i really enjoy about monster hunter, there are no distractions from the meat of the game. It’s a pure video game, I get to boot up mhgu with my friends, hop into an insane hunt where we just barely scrape it out alive, and then afterwords we’ve got a wild story about a hyper deviljho hunt that nearly wiped us. The stories come from playing the game instead of from any hackneyed pretentious “hollywood” cinematic tripe. Id rather be playing a game than watching a movie about a character i don’t relate to doing things i’m can’t interacting with, that’s the opposite of video games to me. Not that narrative doesn’t have a place in games, mind you. It’s just in most cases it dramatically distracts from the gameplay experience instead of enhancing it.
I dont understand how the intrinsic motivating factors of Monster Hunter’s gameplay loop are a problem. the game presents you with a challenge, slay its monsters and conquer the game. That should be more than enough I think.
SIDENOTE: Not to say monster hunter games don’t have stories. I just don’t ever pay attention to them, they’re not why i’m playing. I’ve got my own stories of wild hunts that have happened and that’s what is important to me. MHW tried to cater to the cutscene gamer and it failed miserably and is the soul reason i’m probably never going to play that game (holy shit it takes four hours before you get to actually start hunting for real)
@@ElvenSonic i mean, if you're looking for a purely arcade reason to play, something sure, but that ain't what everyone always looks for in the game.
like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, i'm still intrigued by the buildmaking, characters, cutscenes, the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined endgoal.
fighting for fighting sake... i mean, it's not like i don't understand the fun in that, having played online fps games for years i kinda get it, but it's just not something i'm looking for anymore, and the idea of an sp game without an end goal never intrigued me, i'm the kinda guy who stops playing pokemon after the league/barely visiting the post-league content, the kinda guy who just doesn't understand the appeal of mmos, and the guy whooplays fighting games for the campaign mode while completely ignoring time attack and online.
so yeah, i dunno, i just don't get the appeal of it, unless you're with friends of course, but it's not like i'd have friends to play with when i've never played it myself in the first place.
@@ElvenSonic i disagree, everything in monster hunter is a distraction from the meat of the game. Optimally monster hunter would just be walking into a boss room with just a blacksmith for prep. Instead you have dozens of npcs and tutorial dialogue and some weird ass cat ranch and collecting plants, tracking poop. And you have no fucking idea how any of it works or why you should care.
@@iota-09 “like even if i replay souls games dozens upon dozens of time, im still intrigued by the buildmaking, -characters, cutscenes,- the idea of how to reach my goal etc, all while having a clearly defined end goal”
Bam! you just described the appeal you should have playing monster hunter. Dumbing down what I said to “fighting for fighting’s sake” would be like saying you’ve been playing souls games for the same reason.
EDIT: Also there’s an irony here in that most normal people that play souls games totally ignore the story and characters and are just playing because the game is hard and the combat is fun. Especially with Elden Ring where a bunch of important dialogue wasn’t put in the game or was poorly translated and didn’t make any sense. Tbh that’s probably why souls games tend to be a good jumping off point
This is the best description of the Monster Hunter combat system I've seen, big props, GREAT!
I saw my friend playing MHF2 back in 2007 and the game immediately appealed to me. The PSP was the first gaming console I ever really wanted. I've have been playing the series ever since.
I introduced my little brother to MHW and he got interested in the series. Soon after that, he bought MHFU for his iPad and loved it as much as I did.
I never really like the MH series and never will but this gives me a good point of view on how people love the franchise.
wow dullah
you admit it
@@BroseInk oh it’s Yussuf Abdul Wahabi who lives in Al amira-
I've tried but it is toooooo sluggish. I also hate the FOV it feels so zoomed in.
This is an exact description I use to sell my buddies on monster hunter! Every weapon is its own character and it's a matter of learning its nuances. It took me some time but learning how to compensate for the immobility of the Switch Axe from MHWORLD felt amazing. This game leaves you with such satisfaction over each step of comprehension of your weapon.
My first was World. I felt incredibly overwhelmed by how dense the game is, but I realized the combat could be very deep shortly into my play. I love it
I REALLY tried to like it but I just couldn't. I found the preparation of traps and items, the chasing, and the huge health pool of the monsters to be way too tedious.
Another thing I often see is how people who play monster hunter strongly urge other people to also play it. It a very interesting group of MH phenomenons.
I think a lot of people out there don't realize this game would be for them. It's addictive to so many types of people!
This has been the most surprising game I've ever gotten into. I don't consider myself much of a gamer and tend to hate bossfights of any sort. However my husband and his cousins are all really into it and I wanted to give it a chance so I could play with them. I was gifted MHW + Iceborn and that gift has changed my life lol.
Decided to go with HBG cause I'm not good with close combat. It has been extremely overwhelming and THE most challenging game I've ever played, and also some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Even started doing more solo play recently now that I'm more confident with the controls.
I'm so glad I went in with an open mind and LOTS of patience, easily one of my top 5 series ever now!
i just dont like how long each fight is and the repetivness of the fights
Another thing you should mention is how little it really holds your hand when you choose your weapon. Yes it gives you a guide to key moves like Iai Slash or Amplified Elemental Discharge, but it doesn’t have the more complex moves like (no longer in Rise) Power Saw morph on the Charge Blade or fast Phial Reload technique on the Switch Axe. It’s dense in information for the basics but after that there’s still much to learn that the game will never tell you unless you use the training grounds or look up a tutorial video
bruh i switched to pc out of necessity, and i couldnt find any guides with keyboard, and now i cant learn anything because of how ass the weapon tutorials are
like i picked up the gun lance, and it shoots out this knife thing? IT DOESN'T SAY THAT IN THE TUTORIAL, or what the cd is on the wyrm thingy etc, its just annoying, fun game still
@@evianwyner8280Ahh the kbm MH struggle. Looking for a tutorial on a combo/move and the tutorial just says "press X+A". I had to painstakingly look for a guide that actually lists all controls, but goddamn will I continue to refuse to use controller. KBM all the way baby
Look at Game8 guides. They actually list every control input instead of just controller.
@@temphy big problem is my gaming mouse doesnt let me input yhe side buttons and main mouse buttons at the same time, its so annoying
I was one who got into the game with world, I was obsessed with Elden ring and its combat and I was trying to find games to match that experience and I found this and it was like it was MADE for me! It’s so perfect I’m going through and playing all the older gens and I’m having SO much fun I’ve loved world and rise and I’m playing 4U rn and it’s SO good (I’m using switch axe it’s so good in 4U) this combat style just feel absolutely perfect infact it almost feels like devil may cry with all the combos 😭
I first played Generations Ultimate after a friend dragged me into it, so I did have someone to help me out and show me the ropes, but holy shit did I hate parts of it. I loved the amount of maps (although I thought it was a bit weird they were sectioned off) and monsters, but the movement was rough as hell to me. Being slow as shit, having to align myself for an attack constantly, being frozen in place and unable to cancel or move direction after starting an attack, stopping in place when healing and then flexing and not being able to dodge at all during any of it, having to constantly re-align the camera because I lost sight of the monster, trying to mount but often failing because of the clunky system around it, being unable to predict what a monster was going to do because of its poorly telegraphed attacks. It felt like I wasn't fighting the monster but the movement instead, and made the difficulty feel more unfair than challenging. There were other things too, like not being able to eat or stock up on potions if you forgot to before starting a quest, or the complexity of making a build, especially because back then the weapon tree was kinda hidden and you didn't know what direction you were going in. I never ended up making a build, I just got the the full armor of the monster that gave me the most defense, got the sword with the most attack I had access to, and reluctantly played with my friend until we defeated Ahtal-Ka, ignoring almost everything aside from the essential quests (which I had to look up because the were invisible too) and the urgent quests.
I was kind of done with Monster Hunter after that, just thought it was some weird, clunky series that's just too hard to get into like my friend. Only once the Rise demo released and after ALOT of convincing from my friend, I tried it again. And I loved it. That Mizutsune fight in the demo was amazing, it felt like for the first time, I didn't have to memorize the attack patterns of a monster and could just rely on my instinct, even more so now because I could rely on my movement to do what I wanted it too. Fast movement, being able to cancel attacks, being able to change direction, being able to lock on, being able to walk while healing AND cancel, having faster traversal with palamutes, the map being open with no loading screens, the monster clearly telegraphing its moves so I could react even without consciously analyzing stuff, mounting being understandable. I bought and played through World right after this, and then played through Rise when that came out too. The builds were also more comprehensible, and I really got into making my own builds to suit my own playstyle, also now if I forget to eat or take supplies with me I can always restock, and eating buffs are way more comprehensible now too. I know alot of people don't like the direction of modern Monster Hunter, but to me it's exactly what I needed to get into the series. Every problem I had with old Monster Hunter has been addressed and I can now actually enjoy everything else the series has to offer, so yeah, I think we're moving in the right direction.
My first experience with MH was in World with one of my best friends. He talked me into getting it and playing with him. Unfortunately he had been playing MH for a long time and was steamrolling through our playthrough. I stopped half way through. A few months later we decided to try again and he agreed to not steamroll and give me a chance to fully get into it. We got about 70% done and he stopped play, but I enjoyed it enough to finish. I didn’t play Iceborne because I was still one the fence about the series, but when Rise came out I picked it up and fell in love. I was kinda in a weird place where I didn’t enjoy gaming as much but Rise changed that completely. I got so invested. I wanted to be better, so that was I did. Rise has become one of my favorite games of all time and Sunbreak has been such a joy to play!
For me, monster hunter went from a game where I didn't know if I liked it or not (a demo on the 3ds) to being my favorite series of games. The combat is amazing, the concept is cool, and it just hits everything right for me. Going back and playing the older games, I normally don't like slow gameplay/fights, but monster hunter did it perfectly and I love it! It took me a while to learn it, but it was fun in the process. Learning how to know a monsters openings, and using whichever weapon you choose, to get in those openings is an amazing experience. And I won't lie, I already loved the games, but fatalis in monster hunter world is what firmly secured this series as my favorite. Have to get good enough to beat it and then eventually overcoming it, it was legitimately an amazing experience.
Short answer: pick dual blades lol
I didn’t really like the game with the great sword but dual blades are super fluid and have alternate dodge moves.
After mastering them, I found the urge to learn other weapons and now I can appreciate them all
Here's hoping some of the people who subscribed for Souls content but never tried MH take this to heart and give it a go and maybe even get into it!
Mind you there's still animation cancels in Monster Hunter, so a huge commitment like a charged slash from a greatsword can still be safe if the monster turns around to attack. A short moment after the slam, you can roll out of that part of the animation.
And for lighter weapons, you can roll out of almost any attack, or use weapon attack s to dodge as well.
Nope, i spam evade literally every milisecond. Nothing happens, well untill the whole animation plays out and then i can move or dodge again
Its scary how true wat u said at the start of the vid was. I remember starting this series during mhfu. I couldn’t even kill a dam velociprey or a dam bullfango cuz i didnt get the combat style. Finally a buddy of mine found out I had it and started playing with me during lunch time to carry me and teach me things. After getting the combat down it was smooth sailing after that cuz i was hook. I came back this year since i saw this game on sales on steam. Boy it did not disappoint.
Agreed... Every weapon in Monster Hunter has its own learning curves & each feels like playing a completely different game 👍🏼
I loved monster hunter from the first moment I played it, you described really well what makes monster hunter combat unique and engaging.
I've played Monster Hunter for many many years now and I think of the combat as dancing.
You have your dance moves and the monsters have theirs.
Whenever I struggle with a new monster I break away from combat and just study how it moves while I just dodge. After a while I find openings where I can get 1-3 hits in without taking damage. As the battle continues I find more and more openings and feel comfortable taking more agressive risks.
I'm not saying this is the best way to do it but it is what works best for me.
As for learning your weapon I usually watch a few youtube tutorials and read a little bit in the in-game hunters notes. The hardest part is building muscle memory. No matter how much you read and watch other people playing you will never feel 100% in sync with your weapon until 20-100 hunts. It will take time and it varies from player to player.
It really is amazing just how many people have that experience with MH. I started with 3U, and got about 15-20ish hours in before giving up. Everything felt too slow for me, and I absolutely hated underwater combat. Cut to a year or so later, I try out 4U, since it removed underwater combat and the new mounting mechanics interested me. 4U is now probably my favourite game of all time, and I’ve played every MH game since.
I always described MH combat as a series of phases. The tell which is the wind up (animation before an attack) to an attack which tells you which attack combo they'll do, The attack which is the duration of damage frames you need to avoid and, The follow up which is the variable down time in which you get to attack. There's a pattern to follow you watch for the tell avoid the attack and position yourself for the follow up then get back to watch for the next tell.
Dude that's crazy cause that intro example was me too. I started, struggled through the main game, and gave up. Now I'm replaying it and having a great time! I switch between longsword, bow, and glaive. I just finished the base game again and now I'm getting ready for the dlc.
My main issue with MH has always been how terrible the camera feels. Sometimes, I move the camera and it moves where I attack. Sometimes, I move the camera and it does fuck all. Another gripe is that with greatsword, if you roll and start charging, you hit where your camera is facing. If you charge, attack, roll, and then charge, you attack in the direction of the first attack, even though your character fully turned around to roll, and your camera is facing the opposite direction!
Anyways I've played for 200 hours now over the past 3 months
Just started playing World and it's my first MH, between my first few hours of the game and this video, I'm getting the sense that this is going to be a similar experience to Nioh once I fully get sucked into it.
While i did find the combat of MH frustrating at times when i started, or when i started to play new weapons, i've always been able to link it to my own mistakes, and so figure that it would get better as i grow better. I raged a whole lot at my own mistakes, but in the end what this feeling of frustration did for me was not push me away from the game, but make me thrive to get better
What i love about MH is how well it makes you subconciously learn a monster moveset so you can react to its telegraphs in the short time needed to find openings. I dont count the number of times where i pulled up to a new encounter fully prepared just to get utterly destroyed and thought to myself "man, this is impossible". Only to grind the matchup a few times and find myself reacting to the telegraphs instinctinctively. The encounter designs are so good you passively learn the movesets, and it feels extremelly rewarding to feel the progress as you play
I remember playing MH 1 on the playstation 2 and when I first finally killed the Velocidrome and velociprey and made my new armour and weapon I felt like a bad ass at the time lol. The sheer satisfaction of getting each new peice of armour and weapons you are after really makes all the carts worth it.
Wooo MH content is back.
I never experienced this, because I was lucky enough to have a mentor. One out of the group of three I am part of, that always plays MH together, taught me and the other guy how to play in a basic way, and then we learned the rest together.
Monster hunter is a funny game for me. I remember seeing the first trailer during some presentation and hearing people go nuts over a guy cooking meat on a rotisserie. At the time I thought, I guess this is a teaser for a game people really like, not my thing though.
And I didn’t think of it again until I had a college roommate playing it and I saw him take on Zorah Magdaros. It’s kind of funny to think of that now, knowing what I know now about that fight. But a guy fighting a freaking massive Godzilla with a goddamn volcano on its back was so cool to me and it got me hooked. I bought world the same day and I’ve now put thousands of hours into it across Xbox and pc as well as into rise on switch and pc.
I’ll admit the combat and movement felt very clunky when I first started but the desire to go fight volcanic Godzilla kept me going. I tried hunting Great Jagras with every single weapon until I found one that I liked(ended up being the insect glaive). I was so bad at the time I considered Tobi to be a minor wall and Anjanath carted me way more than I’d like to admit. But the gameplay loop of getting slapped by a monster until I finally took it down and made its ass into a hat was really fulfilling and I always wanted to know what new skills each armor set was going to bring me.
i love how it's all the origin stories of getting into MH!!! here's mine: i played a lot of Dauntless (f2p MH inspired game) before it became really really bad like now. while I had little issue with Dauntless endgame (chain blades main), I tried the sunbreak demo and played it for like 10 hours before buying the bundle on sale. I had trouble with great izuchi on switch axe, and everything in the game was so much more nuanced and difficult and I loved it. proud insect glaive main now!!! (plus some charge blade)
a very well described video. I bounced off MHtri in my youth and tried it again with monster hunter generations on the 3ds, something clicked as soon as i found a weapon i liked, and then BAM, 2000 hours gone to varius monster hunter games lol. one of the few single player games i could just play and play and play and never feel bored
i think it took me and my friend (who played together) about 3-4 times of leaving and rejoining monster hunter for it to really click, now we can easily beat hunts we once thought near impossible (mostly elder dragons)
It's a sad time to see the Elden Ring Content go, but that day always comes. Quality stuff.
Its not the combat that puts me off, its the grind and time sink. I feel like I would burn out quick
That's actually what keeps most people playing. Don't think of it as a time sink, what it is is the gameplay loop of "oh i wanna make this weapon! oh I need this part from this monster, let's hunt it. Oh I wanna make it's armour! let's hunt it a few more times. Oh I'm having trouble against this guy, what's he weak to? Time to make a good ice weapon!" its... very addicting, actually. And you can play a MH slowly forever, basically. The end is what YOU make it
@@JeanKP14 that sounds boring tho
(or in more fairness, subjectively boring)
I played MHFU as a kid. After the first few bosses i was actually scared of fighting the tougher ones and I got stuck at tigrex for years, only farming low level stuff and running around training palicos. Untill a friend told me that i needed earplugs and a cheese spot in the mountains that I was able to beat it. That feeling of overcoming an almost impossible challenge, with the game not making it any easier, just adapting with the tools at your disposal is what makes MH so satisfying to me.
Started with World. I mainly played it because my friends played it, but I didn't really like it. Low rank I played bow and I was definitely being carried by my friends. High rank I switched to long sword and started to like it more. I could appreciate more of the game more, my friends helped me build sets and understand skills and I got super into layered armor. But I didn't find myself playing it without them. I wasn't confident and felt like I still needed the carry (even though I probably didn't).
When Kulve came out I felt a bit better at trying a new weapon without having to use materials on a weapon I might not like or want to use. Kulve gave me plenty high tier weapons to play around with and among others I finally tried Hammer. I didn't even realize the game wasn't clicking for me until it clicked. I loved playing hammer. sliding down a slope and doing the somersault at the monster felt amazing and the charged attacks just made sense to me. I started to build sets without the need of help from my friends and felt comfortable playing alone. Hammer go bonk.
Im the oposite. I, just an hour ago, gave up. I had one previous playthrough of the game through iceborn, i didnt grind master level afterards. I never accessed the multi-biom content.
With some of my steam friends getting back into it, i was stoked at an opportunity to play again. To use different weapons than i had the first time through.
But i hate it. It didn't click this time. It could be the weapons didn't have the same appeal. It could be that I'm older now and dont have the requisite patience. Or what made the game novel in the first place, doesnt carry it through the process of relearning. It could be, that after having already struggling my way to Master Rank, being defeated now, in high rank, proves i never really got gud.
After Elden Ring, the attacks the monsters have in this game don't feel as fair. I recently took a hit from Rathalos which began a chain of attacks in which i never regained agency before i carted. 100 to 0 and the only attack i could say was avoidable, was the first. And it, probably landed while i was rooted from a roar or temmer.
Patience is probably key. I think you have to enjoy defeat and not mind time being wasted. I for some reason, cant seem to enjoy it this time around.
When you watch some hunters defeat monsters, they often keep a monster staggered and incapacitated till its dead. Sometimes they never have to avoid an attack. The sticky bowgun meta is great example of trivialising content.
Anyways it may require patience I cant manage this time. I dunno.
I suppose fighting the same monsters repeatedly to carve a ruby didn't help the enjoyment factor either. But fighting monsters repeatedly is kind of the concept. So.
the sense of wonder is what kept me playing back in monster hunter 1
I remember trying MH Tri at my cousins house and thinking "Man, fighting dinosaurs sounds cool, wish I had a cooler weapon then just a Sword and Shield Tho" and started to just not feel it
Then I went to the Blacksmith and seen all the different weapons
Tried all of them, fell in love with Long Sword and never looked back
Bought 3U a short time after and the next thing I knew I have nearly 20,000 hours in the franchise and I have no plans to stop now. Sunbreak is a fantastic expansion in an honestly less then stellar MH game and Long Sword is more fun then it's ever been
One thing I've learned is that it's definitely not for everybody. You can't force people to like it. I have a friend and he gave it an honest go, a real honest go, put well over four hundred hours into World, and it just never clicked. In hindsight it doesn't surprise me--he hides behind a shield in the Souls series, he button mashes in fighting games; he's not of the mindset to appreciate the entire "high commitment" movement concept you outlined. He's told me more than a few times the entire idea of 'animation lock' as he calls it has him screaming in frustrated rage and nearly breaking his controller when he plays Monster Hunter (things like drinking potions, stun, etc.) and is what ultimately caused him to quit. He played longsword and I watched him play and he never even thought to use any of the counter abilities or anything so he was a perennial novice. He was alright for the most part but when Iceborne came along he got absolutely cratered. I felt real bad for him. All of his other friends were breezing through the content and he couldn't even hope to keep up.
The reason I wrote all that is because I guarantee you there are tons of players just like him. For every one of us who gels with the game there's going to be someone who runs into it like a brick wall because they just completely don't understand its design and never will because they don't like what it's going for. I've learned you can't push these games on these people. It's not fair to them.
I’ve only put about 30 hours into MHW so take this with a grain of salt- I’m someone who hates using shields in souls but I still don’t click with monster hunter. It has less to do with the pace of combat and more the feeling that I’m just whacking a massive health bar for a while, chasing, then whacking some more. I miss the feeling of my smart, well timed attacks feeling like they’re accomplishing something in the overall flow of the fight! I dunno if that feeling changes as you go on or if I’m just missing something. Curious to hear people’s thoughts
@@tay590For low to some high rank quests the monsters are generally easy but late high rank and G Rank monsters FORCE you to dodge correctly and time your attacks. Trust me lmao
@@tay590 what weapon are you using? If you want that feeling of a perfectly timed attack in the perfect position, play big weapons that have high commitment and big damage like greatsword and charge blade. With light weapons like dual blades, it will feel more like you're just tickling the monster to death.
Honestly this is me, I like the aesthetic and lore of the game but the combat is so stiff and the animation lock is infuriating and makes the game borderline unplayable imo. And I’m mostly a fighting game player
How did he put in 400 hours without enjoying it or learning the game’s systems?
I accept not liking the game, but what you’re describing sounds like he wasn’t playing the same game at all. And from what you’ve mentioned about button mashing in fighting games, it also seems like he refuses to learn any system that requires a modicum of effort from the player. It’s almost like saying you don’t enjoy chess, when all you’ve done is play checkers with the chess pieces.
Again, 100% understand that he might not like either type of game and he isn’t obligated to put in effort just for a game, but it just seems a little silly when he can’t grasp the basics.
Hey man, I wanted to thank you because of this vid. I love ur channel in general but this video was exactly what I needed. I bought Monster Hunter Rise around December of last year or January of this one but I simply wasn't enjoying it even tough I have previously enjoyed monster hunter with World. I simply took to much time off the franchise and forgot about everything and relearning it... Well it kinda sucks. Just the day this video went public I was thinking, "damn, MH rise is gonna get a DLC and I haven't even finished the main story I should try to play it" then BOOM the notification appears and you said just what I needed to hear.
I'm not exactly the best MH player, I'm kinda new to it (got into it with World, haven't played since Iceborn came out) but thanks to this video I got the motivation I needed. I'm maining Sword and Shield and learning to play charged axe(?) My main language is Spanish so I don't know the English names soooo yeah, I'm kind screwed haha. That one chainsaw axe, that's the one. I'm still learning lots of things and having quite the fun time with your Aerial Insect Glaive video right now haha. And that's it, sorry if this is hard to read, as I said before my main language is Spanish. Hope you have a good day and thanks you very much, for real. I'm loving this game once and for all thanks to you
My wallet kinda hates it though LOL
My friend passed me the controller while he was playing MHW, and I was so overwhelmed in less than 2 mins. I bought MHR, picked up SnS and just became obsessed
World was my first MH game, and it was a steep learning curve for me, The combat felt clunky and movement felt slow. If I hadn't been so stubborn and determined to understand why so many people love MH, I probably would have quit. I'm glad I didn't, because eventually it did all click with me, and now I would consider MH to be one of my all-time favorite franchises.
MH1 was the one who got me into the series. Back then we had to use the right analog stick to attack, I was like "really? Isn't this supposed to be for camera..." but then, I progressively learn and adapt.
Boom, 1000+ hours in.
This was exactly what happened with me its wild that so many people have had the same experience with their first MH game
I tried MH World and absolutely hated it, it felt slow and i-frames during the roll seems to end to quickly. I picked up Rise to play with someone I know and used the bow and loved playing, tried the other weapons and hated it just like World. I honestly just find the game to be to slow in character movement and the dodge on the bow makes it bearable
that too.
i fear it may just be a side effect of the weapons being so comically big...
I started with Monster hunter: World. For me the game clicked immediately. I like the combat and the complexity of the systems around it. I really like preparing for a fight. Thinking about what decorations , what charms , weapon and armor to use. It is part of the reason why I started playing MH:World. I really loved it in Warframe, so I knew I was going to love it in this game. So MH:World brought me in the franchise , MH:rise kept me in it and now I am going to play MH:GU.
Probably just me but I enjoyed the combat from the beginning, I love the semi realism when you use the weapons the weight they have on impact makes it feel that more powerful
1:15 Omg that Raiden cosplay still looks so good.
I love the combat, it wasn’t hard to get used to since I already played some Dark souls titles but I have one big problem wich is all of the different kind of stuns, like it’s absurd there more than 5 wich could just kill you because it takes way too long to actually get moving again and I tried to make a build against those but it just isn’t fun to use it.
So for me it always was: choose a good damage build and get stunned alot or don’t get stunned and make low damage numbers
Lance
idk if it's just me but i really love pre mhworld combat (more specifically fu-mhgu)
although the combat still remains in the new gen monster hunter (which i love very much), there's something about it that makes it somewhat difficult to control what i want to do. whenever im speedrunning, i find it difficult to understand what the monster could do next as i focus more on how i can optimize and utilize the most efficient combo with my weapon.
i think i was starting to go on a rant but overall, great video!
For me it's the exact opposite. Played 3u then 4u then world and rise and when I went back to play gu I was frustrated with how unresponsive certain things are. Mainly directional inputs. You can't change the way you are facing mid combo and if you roll the first frame out of a combo it's always a roll forward.
thanks for this video I need more motivation, still in the hate phase after playing it for my first time, I gave it a chance for the combat but the tutorials, the hub and the UI are so hard to digest to me
I couldn't the game is just not for me, or that's what I thought, coming back since a friend gave me the DLC for MHW and I forced myself to get in once again, with a few tweaks like removing the minimap and playing alone for a while I'm hooked, like dangerously hooked, and just in time for a comeback from the community? how convenient, there are things I still don't like but man, I wish I have tried again before
Hey, I just wanted to say that a while back I picked up Iceborne and while I recognized it was "good" game, at the time I was really in the mood for something with a compelling story, and I put it down (not to mention being a total noob and ruining my early experience with Defender gear - it's cheap to craft and really good! Doh!) I came back to it last week after watching your video and I've been having a blast. This game has probably the most depth in the combat of any game I've ever played. Such an addictive core gameplay loop, for people who like an immersive challenge. Thanks Ratatoskr!
Great video, you convinced me to pick up the game and give it another go. Thank you so much for sharing. Look forward to playing the game.
Preping and executing is the best feeling a game can provide, especially when the chance of failure was very real. Alatreon and Fatalis reminds me why i love mh. I rmb tailoring specific builds with divine blessing, recovery up, palico revives, heal dust kinsect, max element dmg kinsects and scripts to follow when specific events occur. Its what makes the challenge worth beating.
I’m pretty young (14) and I got into mh with world when it first came out, after beating everything in the game multiple times, I moved to generations, beat it, moved to gu, didn’t beat It but put around 300 hours into it, then iceborne, still haven’t beat everything but have around 300 hours aswell, finally rise, just beat the main story of base game, now I’m playing sunbreak. I love the series to death, also played most of 4u and about 30 hours of 3u.
Meanwhile, I'm the guy who started with MH1 as a kid, and still loved the janky old combat even when I had to use the stupid right analog stick controls trying to combo my SnS swipes or Lance pokes while also claw handing the directional buttons to adjust the camera.
Those were definitely the most of times.
I tried the game after putting 250 hours into Elden Ring, and didn't like it because it felt too sluggish, like I couldn't ever do what I wanted to. So I think your assessment is accurate, but I'm still not convinced I should give it another shot.
Hey there (bodies of text incoming, but I urge you to read :'D)
Yea as Rata said, mh combat is not the easiest to get into. Weapons are complicated to learn/master, and you have to combine that with learning the monster that you're facing. These 2 facets make it extremely difficult for someone who is starting out, and historically, the game doesn't do a good job at teaching you all the different combos and mechanics the weapon has to offer
Since mh world, efforts were made towards giving you basic combat tutorials in the 'training area'. It doesn't show you everything, but it gives you a taste for the weapon
As someone who started off HATING mh combat then later coming back and putting in nearly 2k hours across all the games, here's my advice:
-If you're playing either world or rise, go to the training area AND DO NOT LEAVE until you've played around with ALL of the 14 weapons and found at least one you like
- once you've found the weapon you like, IMMEDIATELY go onto UA-cam and find a combat tutorial for that weapon for that game. I would recommend watching Arekkz Gaming, Gaijin Hunter and Rurikhan. Do the combos and moves as they are explaining and showcasing it. They'll explain the moves well enough that you'll understand their advantages and disadvantages, and when and when not to use them
- once you've gone through the weapons entire arsenal from the video, play around even more. Close the video and see if you can do all the combos and engage with all of the mechanics. It might take a while since there's a lot of mechanics to the weapon, but at this point you should at least be getting a bit more familiar
- now it's the time to actually play the game and start having at monsters. At first, observe the monsters movements and attacks. It's one thing to start practicing your weapon, but if you're getting smacked around not knowing the monster's moveset, you won't make any progress. So run around them, see their attacks and the openings they leave. Once you have basic identity of their moves, start fighting them. Start executing your moves on them. It might be rough in the beginning and you still might find yourself getting smacked about, but you'll start to learn and get better. Button mashing won't get you anywhere since inputs are buffered in a way that it prevents you from pressing many inputs and expecting moves to come out the very moment you do so. Of course, if you practiced your weapon in the training area there'd be no need to Button mash since youd know the combos somewhat
- Mastery will come with time :) You'll get really good at using your weapon that the only obstacles you'll have to cross is figuring out the monster. Mh combat to me is the best combat I've had to experience, and I've played many many games including the soulsborne series (at least elden ring bloodborne and ds3).
I wish you the best of luck. Sorry for writing bodies of text. I just really want as many people to enjoy mh as I have. Let me know how it goes. Cheers!
@@WisdomAkpan211 Hey I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. When I played the game, I didn't try out all the weapons. I basically just picked one that looked cool and learned the basic combos with it in the training mode.
Next time I come back to the game, I'll remember your advice!
@@WisdomAkpan211 I gave the game another shot, and I'm hooked this time. I'm playing with the hammer and doing everything solo while having a blast. Just beat the Pink Rathian after he defeated me on my first try. So far that's the only hunt I've failed at. It was very satisfying to retry the hunt and conquer him. Looking forward to tackling even harder foes.
Honestly, it wasn't getting the hang of the combat that got me hooked. Instead, I started to get hooked when I began to understand how to use various items. Shock traps and tranqs for capturing, dung pods for making unwanted monsters flee, explosive barrels for when the monster is sleeping, etc. Once I began interacting with all that stuff, everything started to make sense.
My problem with this game is this: you charge up a massive attack and it almpst hits, but the enemy sneezes at you and the attack/combo completely cancels. The other verry annoying thing is: there is no way to cancel an attack even if you spam evade, there is no quick cancel/evade cancel. So you are just stuck watching your animation untill you get hit. Thats not combat btw. Its a glorified animation player that has effects when you hit something.
that’s why people say you need to commit, can’t just spam attacks and then spam evade when a monsters about to attack.
I used to feel the same way, but what you're describing is what makes the games combat so rewarding. There are plenty of other games available to play with animation canceling and button mashing
im sorry but the problem wouldnt be there if charge blade its animations didnt take 5 seconds per hit. You know what im talking about. The combat feels sluggish and unrewarding. You are just praying when you unleash the full charge elemental attack the monster doesnt fart at you beceause the charge up attack is taking too long.
@@bravingbrivatebrian what im doing is not button mashing. Im trying to build up combos. But when charizard decides to rotate itself towards your palicoe and it softly touches you with its tail your whole combo gets canceled. And why cant you cancel attacks? This is literally the only game i know that doesnt have it. Can you imagine cutting vegetables but your finger is in the way and you just HAVE to commit into cutting your finger? Its stupid and its an outdated combat system thats sticking around for way too long.
I’ve always played monster hunter here and there
But I really wasn’t hooked on it
I’d usually play a little high rank and call it quits cause The grind seemed boring
Only after I played through elden ring
did I really start to love monster hunter
To the point that I’d stop playing other games
Idk why but the combat just clicked (as you mentioned)
Something about staggering a monster or KOing just felt better
I really enjoyed elden ring (obviously)
But now monster hunter feels like an extension of it
Like an enhanced combat edition of some sort 😂