Gotta Catch’em All
I’m going to say this flat out. If you’ve any interest in smashing down giant monsters with oversized weapons in a beautifully crafted open world, Monster Hunter World is a must-buy. What has historically (for almost 20 years in its legacy) been a fairly provincial fan-favorite in Japan and a bit too convoluted for Western audiences, MHW has seemingly created a perfect package for newcomers.
Source: Game Crate
I won’t go into a technical review, which you can find plenty of on mainstream Youtube sites (of which I highly recommend ACG), but instead, I’ll focus on one aspect that is a bit lost in today’s games and could really benefit from some innovative revival.
The Beauty of the Grind
Grinding. No, not the hormonal dance that teenagers were obsessed with in the early 2000s. I’m talking about turning tedium into personal growth. Grinding is when you spiral your way upwards in a game, performing basically the same task again and again. The setting, enemies, weapons, and skillsets will change but all along the same formula. During this type of gameplay, you become more adept at the limited bracket of techniques you do have and incrementally improve on the nuanced spaces of improvement like timing, preparation, and so forth.
The classic example of grinding in modern game history is the Diablo series, of which the famed developer Blizzard brought to worldwide attention. The formula was fairly simple but quite addictive - you choose a role, fight your way level-by-level, defeat a boss before the next phase, and eventually do it all again after full completion. The grind was rewarded with better gear, better stats, and better skills, all of which you put the ultimate test against other players. This chemistry soaked up countless hours of my childhood, as I’m sure it did for millions of people around the world.
The appeal of grinding has somewhat waned in recent years with that formula being replaced by the ‘open-world’ qualities offered by franchises like the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and The Witcher, which all pulled apart the repetitive formula with more chunks of story and exploration. I would argue that all of these successes are built upon the structure of The Grind, simply embellished with added functionality and engagement.
Monster Hunter World brings back the spirit of its previous iterations and Diablo in full vengeance. It even strips away some fundamental components of these types of games like the “class” attribute that usually funnels you down a narrower path. Instead, you’re free to switch between one of a dozen weapon choices that determine your skill set. You go off into the world, destroy and poach monsters, and continue to improve the armor and weaponry you have with those acquired materials. The beauty of the grind.
Source: Monster Hunter World
This game has been met with universal applause but I’m honestly a bit skeptical in the long-term adoption of this franchise in the Western world. Gamers, and societal members in general, are short-circuiting their patience meters for quite some time now and as a result, we see more and more games with flashy sequences and less and less with slower pacing. Case in point, the poor reception of Kingdom Come Deliverance (which I’m personally picking up in the next week or two to try out once patches are released). I certainly hope MWH isn’t a flash in the pan type of reception.
Anyway, I see a lot of Steemians actually diving into this game so I’m interested to see your responses. Does this type of game have what it takes to keep up with an environment that’s all about E-Sports, insane narrative jumps, and layers upon layers of functionality?
a really cool game
Looking forward to try it. I like Diablo and open world rpg's. Nice review!
Thanks @artakush!
My pleasure. Looking forward to your new posts!
Monster is a most of favourite mine i really enjoy play this game thanks for sharing with us ur lovely post @hansikhouse
Good post!👍
Games like these definitely still have their audience, I'm personally thinking about picking this up soon.
There are still enough successful games around that don't focus on adding the latest and greatest in terms of graphics & functionality. Mainstream gaming news-outlets are also wildly positive about this, so good chance that it's going to do very well.
I highly recommend it. It's flashy and well polished, but still feels like an old-school solid game and could end up being one of the timeless ones.
This looks very similar to Ark. Its always nice to have good options when looking for Adventure games, I have been looking for something like this, although I don't know if I will choose this one, I have been thinking about Witcher 3 since its an RPG hehe!
Cheers!
Overall I think Witcher 3 is a more rewarding experience. I can't imagine MHW being that much different 50 hours in than it is now about 20 in (though I may be pleasantly surprised). I love the concept of Ark but have unfortunately been deterred from it due to all the bad reviews. I may try it out nonetheless though.
제친구가 하는거 보니 몬스터헌터 월드 굉장히 재밌어 보이는데 한식하우스님도 하시나보네요. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
매우 재밌습니다! ㅎㅎㅎㅎ
트위치티비가면
요즘 방송 하시는분들 많던데
재미있어보이더라구요
중독 되었습니다...ㅎㅎ
Looks fun! I think you're right about attention spans out here, we like pvp shooters!
https://steemit.com/gaming/@canvasbags/halo-5-highlights-throwback
이번 설에 조카들에게 몬스터헌터 월드를 시켜주었는데 매우 좋아했습니다. ㅎㅎ
lklab님이 정말 좋은 삼촌이십니다! ㅎㅎㅎㅎ
게임쪽은 잘 몰라서 번역기 돌리고 봤는데도 잘 모르겠어요ㅠ
사진들은 강렬한 인상을 주네요!^^*
한식하우스님~! 새해복 많이 받으세요~!♡
고맙습니다!
So far, I'm loving Monster Hunter World. So much so I even had to write about its similarities to Dragon's Dogma and why I love them both: https://steemit.com/gaming/@mikedynamo/the-magic-of-monster-hunter-world-and-it-s-big-brother-dragon-s-dogma
I really like the way you spoke of "The Grind" and what that means. I didn't spend much time with Diablo proper but enjoyed many a clone over the years as it carved out its own genre. I didn't really think much about it, but there is a definite design philosophy difference between grinding and character building in Elder Scrolls and other western RPGs. I'm having trouble putting my finger on it.
The one difference I can see is in the games you mention and MHW is the idea of a personality for your character. Witcher, Fallout, Skyrim, etc all have lots of dialogue you can effect which I feel has a different flavor to how you build your character. While we can choose different weapons that dramatically shift the gameplay and make our characters look how we wish (though this system is poorly thought out in my opinion) we are all going on more or less the same adventure. I feel that it can affect the grinding by making it more linear and controllable. Just a thought anyway. Great read.
Thanks for the great comment @mikedynamo. I've been thinking a great deal on that narrative difference in other open-worlders and it's actually very refreshing to play MHW without what ultimately amounts to very little variance (and I say this as a big fan of all 3 of those games) in story.
And this is totally separate but a giant hammer slam to the face of a Rathalos is oh-so-satisfying. Much more than a Fallout mini-nuke.
Ha... yeah. There's something special about melee combat. Hell... I play Fallout with melee combat.
But it's fun to think about how much story really impacts the leveling mechanics. That's the idea you brought to me with your article, so thank you kindly.
디아블로 같은경우 많은 매니아층이 있는거 같아요. 저는 안좋아하지마요 ㅎㅎ 한식하우스님 오늘도 행복한일만 가득하세요^^
고맙습니다 우부님!
This is only my second Monster Hunter game (first was 3U on Wii U / 3DS) and I'm absolutely loving, but I was already pretty I would.
I don't think you have to worry about the game, it has sold 6 million copies by now :-)
About grind and time spend in MH - and a thing that is quite different from most other time consuming games - is that the "curve of experiences" is absolutely linear.
The monsters will get tougher, but the details of the game remain the same through out.
This is contrast to something like Destiny, which I also enjoy immensely, where you're grinding to get to the end game and working to be able to do the "real content" like the raids. Just like most MMO's.
This makes me feel that I haven't wasted my time with Monster Hunter, no matter how much or how little time I've spend.
Holy smokes, 6 million! Awesome.
Thanks for the great comment @floede! I've also been meaning to check out Destiny.