So here it is, my official take on Monster Hunter Tri.  Initially I was going to fire off my first reaction to the game but I decided that it would not be fair if I just based the game on my initial reaction. As you all know I am a huge MH buff and have been playing it since the initial release in ‘04. The Japanese version had upgrades available on console with DOS that were never made available to the US. The American market later received this game as a PSP title, which left US players without a console version to play (without importing) for quite a while. I personally couldn’t wait to play so I bit the bullet and purchased the Japanese version of Tri (3).  The American version doesn’t come out until sometime in 2010 (just fyi).

So what’s new here and what’s not? If you’ve been following any respectable MH board then you already know of all the differences. If you haven’t kept yourselves informed, I’ll give you a brief rundown.  The most glaring difference is that the amount of weapons and weapon classes in the game have been reduced.  Bows, hunting horns, gun lances and dual swords have all been removed.  One new weapon class, Slash Axe, has been added. One new weapon type has also been added, the medium bow gun (Bow gun). This leaves American players with a roster that includes only Great sword, long sword,  bow gun, hammer, lance, and slash axe.

The offline content feels a little be more beefed up.  You gain your own personal map that can be accessed from the village. Here you can farm, mine, fish, etc to your heart’s content. A random monster also appears here, you’ll know who is on the map with you because the game gives you daily listing of what is on the Isle (the map you play on). On this map you cannot ‘fail’ so you can die as much as you want and you won’t be penalized.

Some of the PSP features have been incorporated into this version, such as sending a person to farm an area for you. The regular cat farm has been included, as well as the pig farm. You may eat to gain a buff or two and unlock some of the feline abilities (which will make some things easier or harder depending on what you get). There is also the ability to buy things for your inventory box, allowing for mass shopping.  The game also includes the ability to have day turn into night and vice-versa. This affects what monsters are on the map during a mission and in some cases what missions are available to you.

They’ve added a bartering system that allows you to trade items that you would normally consider ‘worthless’ for items that are more practical and useful.  The catch to this system is that you have to collect these items by using either points or your farm.

The gameplay is almost exactly the same. There is a new ability to recover from some falls, which keeps the player from getting knocked down only to find him or herself in a very bad situation.  Some of the weapons have changed properties and features, you can find a FAQ detailing those changes somewhere. The newest gameplay feature is underwater battling, meaning you fight certain monsters under water.  Interesting.

Some of the changes can be found here

Now that the technical stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. If you’re new to Monster Hunter, this seems like it’s a good place to start. The learning curve is still there but there are things in place to make missions a bit easier. They’ve added respawning gathering spots, offer you extra experience plus bonus supply items on fulfilling secondary objectives, and the ability to ‘complete’ the mission without completing the main objective.  You still have to have learned the basic skills to kill the monsters but it’s not as daunting as it used to be.

If you have played MH before you’ll notice that this game feels a bit easier. It will take you a few minutes to adjust to the underwater fighting but it shouldn’t  be too bad.

My major gripe is the lack of  monster diversity. In my camp, we have a saying “If you can kill one, you can kill them all”. This means if you can kill one monster of a specific body type then you can kill all the monsters with a similar body type.   For example, if you can kill Kut Ku then you can kill all monsters that have a similar body type  because  all the monsters of that body type share similar attack pattern and movements.   There are not very many different types in  this game, so once you’re able to kill the lower level of monsters the higher ones will require only minor adjustment centered on what new things those higher-level monsters have have.

Another issues that I have is with the lack of weapon and armor designs.  I personally enjoyed the armor designs from the PSP version and this new version has nothing very exciting in terms of looks. The abilities aren’t too shabby but half of Monster Hunter is about looking cool. The weapons aren’t too bad looking themselves. I found myself expressing school girl glee over only some of other hunter’s  weapons in the guild hall.

I think what will make or break this game will be the offline, more specifically the village chief’s son aspect of offiline play.  The offline mode features required gathering, which is like a scavenger hunt. Some items you have to bring in are mundane like plants and some ore, others are monster parts (like the lantern from the face of the angler fish monster) and some are just rare monster drops (where the hell will I find GIANT dung?).  I think it’s asinine for the village chief’s son to bar my progress in the game because he wants monster shit.  As of right now I have completed 1-4 stars and cleared all the 5* that I could possibly take on. Why aren’t there any more quests? I’m black-listed by the village asshole. The village chief himself is a cool guy, a very naked guy, but cool nonetheless.  I can imagine many people just not playing offline because of this.

Hopefully the endgame weapons and armor will be better. Maybe the monsters will be tougher too.  There’s already a rumor about a new monster pack coming out for this game. Hopefully this game reaches Monster Hunter Frontieer levels.