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In life, there are hunters…then there are MONSTER HUNTERS!
Ironbeard McCullough
If there is one franchise with the most hardcore underground cult-like group of supporters, it is easily going to be the Monster Hunter Series. From it’s humble roots back in 2003, the Monster Hunter Series has been played and enjoyed by many gamers all around the world on it’s beginnings on the Playstation 2, and its ports and spin-off titles on other systems including the Playstation Portable, Microsoft Xbox 360, the PC, and even on mobile phones. In the beginning however, it may have seemed that the publisher and developer of this franchise, Capcom, was taking a chance and aiming it towards a certain demographic of gamers. As the name applies, the Monster Hunter Series is a game in which the player takes control of a customized character and goes on missions that usually require – you guessed it – hunting monsters. Despite the simplicity of the concept, this series is nowhere near simple though a lot of the game is supposed to be simple in general. The best way I can describe it is that the Monster Hunter Series has a lot of depth in its simplicity which in all terms sounds like an oxymoron.
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Besides basics, there are two points I must express that I believe make this series worthwhile. The first one is the gameplay. Gameplay is pretty much the customized character taking on missions and each mission is one of three types. The first type is gathering where the character will explore the provided stage for the items that are necessary to complete the mission. Sometimes it will be items that can be found by exploration of the land (Digging the ground, mining at mine points, fishing, etc.) or items that are from monsters of the land and taken by killing the monster and carving off parts. The second type is hunting where you have to find a certain monster or monsters and provoke and kill them to complete the mission. The final type of mission is the most challenging and is known as capturing, where it is like hunting but instead of killing the monster, the monster must be captured using traps and other tools necessary for a capture. Missions are then divided up into tiers and each tier is more difficult as shown by how many stars each mission has. The more stars a mission has, the more difficult it is. Also, each mission is different and unique to some extent but the most notable difference among missions are most likely the monsters. The world that the Monster Hunter Franchise is set is a very vast and unique world with many different creatures. Each monster the player faces is unique in their own way thus adding different challenges for the player. For example, the mascot monster for the first game in this series is known as a Rathalos which pretty much comes off as a red fire-breathing dragon. However, there is another monster that is very similar known as the Rathian which is the female version of the Rathalos and is green and also other differences in appearances. However, there are many differences in characteristics. Rathalos usually attacks from the sky while Rathian likes to attack mostly on the ground. So the experience is different for each monster. Also, there is the option to play online with other people in which there could be up to three people on a hunting party. This adds to the funfactor as players online work together to take down a monster, especially the much harder monsters on later levels that are near the end of the game. And to add to the funfactor, there are more than one type of hunter for you can either be a blademaster who wields melee weapons, usually the great swords, hammers, sword and shields, and lances, or a gunner who uses bowguns and arbalasts.
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The depth in this game is unbelievable but in all respects to the awesomeness of this series, not many people thought this game would be such a big hit and from what was shown, the same goes for the creator themselves Capcom. This game’s concept is more based towards like I wrote earlier a certain demographic of gamers. This game combined aspects of missions with hunting which were two very popular concepts in Japan thus the Metal Gear Solid Series and the Pokemon Series. Also, the advertising for the first game was not as huge as the other bigger titles from Capcom such as anything in the Street Fighter or Resident Evil Franchise. Why the original game wasn’t even scheduled for a release outside of Japan either showing how much Capcom believed this game was more for the home town than for the international market. When it released in Japan on March 11, 2004, it quickly turned out to be a huge hit and one of the biggest action RPG games at the time and later on one of the best selling action RPG games surpassing even games established by RPG masters themselves including Square Enix. It was because of this huge success, Capcom decided to port the game outside of Japan and that is where things went different.
On September 21, 2004, Monster Hunter for the PS2 was released in the United States and I pre-ordered my copy of this titular title. Then when picking the game up, the cashier at EB Games (Now known as Gamestop) told me I was the only one who pre-ordered this game and they only got five copies including my copy for their shelves. Pretty much, this game wasn’t really advertised well outside of Japan and suffered greatly for it doing very poorly in sales and even getting low ratings by game reviewer sites. Back in 2003 and that time period, whenever a game is ported from Japan, usually there is a time difference from Japanese release to other countries and most of the time it is because of the changing of certain gameplay and storytelling elements as it pertains to the region a game is released. The only translation from the Japanese port to the US port of Monster Hunter was from Japanese text to English text but the gameplay is something that is mostly popular in Japan, but not really known in the United States unless the player watches anime. The game had a lot of Japanese elements still evident all the way throughout the game including difficulty, different character modes (fighting mode and gathering mode), and of course in the infamous over-animation evident in most Japanese games and expressed through anime with emoticons. This really got to a lot of western game players which included complaining about how their character would pose after taking a potion just to get hit from the monster they were fighting while in the middle of the pose thus the potion meant absolutely nothing. Thus Monster Hunter was a failure outside of Japan.
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As it relates to me in general, what I like the most about the Monster Hunter Series, well in general this is something Capcom is now getting famous for, is their relationship all around the video game industry and the effect is has. This series actually influences sales on certain items and services which benefits companies in general. Going back to the PSP, the handheld was one of the poorer selling systems outside of Japan but the Monster Hunter Freedom Series was one of the primary reasons the PSP sold outside of Japan. When it came to the Wii port of Monster Hunter Tri, it release package utilized the sale and use of the classic controller which was very unpopular among most people who have a Wii. Finally, another good example would be the release of Monster Hunter Frontier in coordination of the release of the slim Xbox 36o helping boost sales for the system in Japan. Not only does the Monster Hunter Series help others but they influence and even get fandom from other video game companies most notably Konami when they incorporated “Monster Hunter” missions in their latest game staring Naked Snaked titled Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. There is another major influence the Monster Hunter Series has done but that one will be explained in a special article later on.
When it comes to everyone here in Console Alliance, only Nick Jones besides myself has a love for the Monster Hunter Series going as far for he has stated that he is surprised the series isn’t one of the most popular series here in the United States. I do understand the basis why and where it is coming from on it’s “not so popular” state for this game is very Japanese and though we like to think it is, Japanese-ish games are not that big of a stable here in the United States. Same thing goes for anime which really is a very small market in the filming world. Though it is getting bigger and more accepted and I really like that thus why I wrote this article in honor of the awesomeness of this series. There are so many people who love this series and thus the cult status this game has. There is even a huge wiki site dedicated to the Monster Hunter Series known as the Monster Hunter Wiki. Then of course there is the huge customization goods store at Zazzle’s Monster Hunter Store. Even the music is recognized all around the world as being very epic and growing in popularity that there is even a released soundtrack. All in all, I am happy this series is doing well for it is one of my top three favorite series of all time. The latest that will be coming from the Monster Hunter Series I believe is Monster Hunter Freedom 3 scheduled for an “Outside Japan” release of early 2011. If you would like more influence to see how beautiful and awesome this game is. Check out the videos below and see what many “monster hunters” have experienced already.
Intro Video for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP
Intro Video for Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii
Go to Console Alliance for the Full Article!
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