Summary
Bluntly, Monster Hunter Tri is one of the best games I’ve played in a very, very long time.
I’d give it about 7 out of 5 stars, and no, that’s not a typo.
Note: The below video can be seen at a very high resolution. I recommend clicking through and watching it that way, if you like to see all the pretty details. There are LOTS of pretty details to see.
Overview
In Monster Hunter Tri (MH3), you create a character who is a monster hunter. The offline gameplay revolves around a particular village plagued by monsters, and you slowly work your way up the monster food chain to fight bigger and badder monsters.
MH3 has online play as well, where you can hook up with strangers or friends and combine forces in co-operative play to take on the big beasties. That’s right – this is also an MMO.
MH3 features gathering and collecting a variety of resources, which you can combine to make potions, traps, poisons, and ammo.
MH3 allows you to forge and upgrade weapons and armor.
MH3 has multiple, distinct maps brimming with things to kill, collect, and explore.
MH3′s monsters are intelligent, challenging, and incredibly gorgeous to watch. Most of them look (and sound!) like a mishmash of dinosaurs, dragons, and real world animals.
Console
The biggest negative for MH3 that I’ve come across is that it is ONLY available for the wii. No wii, no Monster Hunter. MMO gameplay is strictly limited in this case.
On the other hand, single-player mode is so much fun that I don’t spend too much time bemoaning my lack of co-op play.
The game takes advantage of the wii-mote and nunchuck technology while still being fully compatible with traditional controller play. That’s quite a feat, and I tip my hat to their developers for taking the time to code it that way.
Mr. Moore and I play with the wii-mote. Despite accidentally attacking when I’m just trying to scratch my nose, I’m more than satisfied with the control scheme.
Battle
Fighting is FUN.
Sure, you can press the A button over and over again and still come out okay with some of the smaller monsters, but it won’t take long before you need to learn how to dodge and take advantage of special attacks.
With the wii-mote, every button does something important and every weapon type has its own moveset.
Using sword and shield? Tilt the wii-mote up and press A to do a leaping slash. Tilt to the right and A for a horizontal sword swipe and tilt to the left and A for a skull-clonking shield bash.
Fights are fun, exciting, and challenging as you learn each new boss monster’s strategy. Boss mobs that used to set your heart racing become mild irritations (which is good, since they sometimes tag team you on the map!)
Underwater Battle
A nonzero number of boss encounters happen under water.
This could have been an absolute nightmare for the game, but in implementation, it’s actually quite good. Skilled monster hunting requires a deft hand at simultaneous camera and movement control. MH3 is surprisingly easy to master with regards to camera control, both above and below water.
Monster AI
The monster AI in this game is amazing.
Take the lowest monster on the totem pole – the slow, peaceful herbivore – Aptonoth.
Aptonoth is not a boss mob. Aptonoth is the first monster you kill. Aptonoth are frequently food for other monsters.
If you were going to slack on the AI for any monster in this game, it would be the Aptonoth.
There is no sign of slacking. Aptonoth are beautifully rendered and animated – very smooth, fluid movements. If you see them in the distance and they aren’t alarmed, you might spy them lying down in the sun, relaxing. Attack a baby Aptonoth and the parents may try to charge you, but if you attack an adult, the rest of the herd is more likely to run off than struggle. Adults may be seen standing on their hind legs, looking around for predators.
Get close to sunning Aptonoth and they’ll get nervous, stand up and walk away.
If you see an Aptonoth herd enter the map zone at speed, you can bet they were probably chased by a bigger monster like a Great Jaggi. Expect company soon.
Boss monsters will frequently summon other monsters to their aid while you are fighting them. Even the Great Jaggi (the first boss Monster you encounter) pauses to give a hooting call, summoning smaller Jaggi and Jaggia to fight with them.
Every species moves, sounds, and behaves in a believable, unique manner.
Visually Stunning
This game is beautiful, folks. Standing around, watching the monsters move is incredibly fun (if dangerous, when there are carnivores about!)
As if to show us what they could REALLY do, every once in a while defeating a new boss unlocks a cut scene quality video that can be seen via the Gallery. Even the normal gameplay videos are beautiful, but these cutscenes are movie-quality.
Learning Curve
The game’s learning curve is fairly steady. You start out killing an Aptonoth and transition smoothly to small carnivores and on to boss monsters with relative ease. Weapons and gear upgrade at the same rate, so there’s definitely a feeling of knowing what you’re doing even while the newest boss monster’s tactics are challenging you to learn even more.
Armor
Armor in the game can be forged, purchased, upgraded, and slotted with “decorations”.
All armor comes with bonuses. Getting a high enough bonus gives your character access to new abilities.
Some armor also gives detrimental effects – the Bnahabra armor set is only three pieces. Wearing all three gives you sharpness and increased status damage – but makes you take DOUBLE damage from poisons! Ouch! Time to slot some poison resistance using decorations.
The armor designs are unique, interesting, beautiful, and tailored based on the monster bits they’re made from. Bnahabra armor comes from those annoying bugs – and the armor looks like a something a creepy victorian bug-vampire might wear.
Additionally, you can create either a BLADE or GUNNER version of the set. Those who use Bowgun weapons need to wear GUNNER armor, and the rest of the weapons use the melee BLADE set. They even took the time to make the two versions of the same armor slightly different!
Weapons
How do you like to fight? Quick, low damage slashing with full mobility and flexibility that take full advantage of elemental abilities? You sound like you’d want the Sword and Shield set.
Looking for high defense above all? The lance is your style. Hunker down at just the right moment and you can take a full on boss monster hit with zero damage. You’re not very mobile and you don’t do a ton of damage, but you will by golly OUTLAST that scaled/furry/winged/whatever bugger!
Want high damage and aren’t concerned much about defense? Try the hammer. You won’t be able to chop tails off for extra looting, but you’ll have an easier time breaking frills and crests, and you’re basically hitting the monster with a large chunk of Texas. Better learn how to dodge, though.
There are also longswords (more mobility than the hammer, but still no defense and not quite as much damage), switchaxes (that mechanically SHINK from axe to sword at the press of a button), bowguns (which require a whole new method of hunting), and greatswords (give some ability to block, slows you down, and monsters notice when you hit them).
You can specialize in one weapon or learn them all and tailor your weapon to the boss monster you’re going after.
Remember, though – big, heavy hitting weapons take longer to swing, and you take longer to recover from every attack. That boss may be halfway across the map before you finish that impressive, heavy slice!
As if that weren’t enough, every single one of those weapons has multiple upgrade trees. Multiple GORGEOUS upgrade trees that end up with different weapon damages and different elemental damages. Looking through the MH3 wiki has me absolutely salivating at weapons I don’t have the materials to build yet. Warcraft raiders plotting purple drops got nuthin on me. I have CHARTS of upgrade paths!
** Mr. Moore Note: MMOs! Take note, people would much prefer this approach to the “this item drops from this boss” approach you are using now! Yes I’m looking at you WoW. **
Collection
Collecting in MH3 is a little irritating because your collection tools break. I have lost FIVE mega bugnets on a single gluehopper run!
Then again, I can make mega-bugnets from other items I collect, or I can trade for them using commodities that I collect, or buy new (lesser-quality) nets from the local vendor.
Same thing goes for mining picks.
Ores can be used to make and upgrade armor and weapons. Mushrooms and honey and raw meat and berries and herbs and various skins, teeth, and claws all come in handy for trading or combining into powerful buffs or debuffs.
Farming
That’s right, you can also FARM in MH3. Granted, you don’t do the work yourself, but if you’re not much of a gatherer, there’s a farm of meow-gnefique felyne gardeners happy to grow honey, bugs, or plants for a small fee.
You can also control a fleet (well, three) of ships that disperse at your bidding and return with treasure, fish, or monster bits.
Capture vs Kill
Sometimes you want to CAPTURE a monster rather than killing it.
You finally managed to take down a big boss. Congratulations!
The next quest is to capture that monster. That’s right. You want to wound it (not too much, but just enough) without dying yourself or accidentally killing it. Then you have to get it to limp into your trap. THEN you have to peg it with tranquilizer bombs until it falls asleep.
After all that, killing the beast seems easy!
Rewards are much greater for capturing a monster, though. You might find yourself salivating at a hammer upgrade that takes three King’s Frills and the best way to get them is to trap that dadblasted Great Jaggi a time or three (or five, or seven. *groans at drop rates*).
We Love This Game
Mr. Moore and I are trading off hunting and gathering for our shared character right now (sadly, the two-player-on-the-same-console options are limited).
We love it.
A quick swap of weapons from his choice (currently lances) to mine (currently sword and shield) and we’re ready to trade places.
We’ve been babbling to our friends about it for over a week now, and rewarding ourselves for getting work done by taking on a new challenge.
If the game I described above sounds like something you’d enjoy, I HIGHLY recommend it.
<3
