Monster Hunter has become the only game I will buy at launch

Promoted from our community blogs

_{[In this community blog, Destructoid user Moths delves into why the Monster Hunter series still has so much goodwill after 15-plus years, and why players keep coming back for more without burning out. The hunt can’t stop. -Jordan.]}

We live in an era of basically endless games. Whatever your taste, it has never been easier to find and play a game you like. It is true that there can always be more: more variety, more quality, better preservation of old titles. But in the end, the fact of playing games in this day and age is already more than you need in your entire life. And yet they just keep coming.

That can be overwhelming. When we get such a vast area, there is an impulse to think of ways to divide and traverse it. We create or get niches for ourselves: loyalties, habits, dislikes, etc. Shortcuts. Maybe you don’t play racing games, maybe you play what happens on PlayStation Plus a lot. The zeitgeist is great. There are always a handful of games that have vastly more cultural appeal than the rest … until they don’t. But that’s the crux: an outside force capable of answering the question “what should I play next?” To answer. when requested to do so.

Personally, I feel a bit uncomfortable with that. For one thing, today’s games are mostly new, and the industry is such that a game at launch is typically both more expensive and worse than the same game two years later. Arriving late to the party has become a smart move if you’re more interested in the contents of your glass than the ability to make it sound.

I also don’t like the idea of ​​having someone else tell me what to play. And I really don’t like the idea of ​​letting the sum of everyone else do it. I ended up designing a small system to give me a balanced gaming diet while easing the burden of choice. This is completely neurotic behavior, but fuck it. It works. I enjoy games with my bullshit more than I do without.

Anyway, Monster Hunter Rise is the only thing I’ve played since it came out.

It shouldn’t have been like that. I should play Anodyne 2: Return to DustBut they have me, just like they have so many of you. Monster Hunter wins again. Just like World before, and with Generations therefor.

Why does this happen again and again? Well, here are some ideas:

1: Pedigree

Monster Hunter has been good for so long and is now growing that it has earned a rare amount of trust. It has seen ups, downs and unpopular changes, but never a real blow to collective trust. Never one Assassin’s Creed: Unity or Cyberpunk 2077 moment Maybe never even on the level of, say, New Super Mario Bros. 2Something good but worryingly tired.

In other words, the believers have been given little reason to doubt, and so little reason to speak aloud about how well Monster Hunter is every time it comes out. Example: this message. I had every reason to believe I would like it Rise, so I bought it, and I do. And now I’ll do it all the more next time.

2: Life cycle

Monster Hunter is basically on the same schtick as any MMO or live service game. It’s a huge, repeating time limit that greets you with a feast and then tries to hook you up with an IV feed. It makes early adoption attractive by offering new content at a measured pace, theoretically giving a satisfying feeling of keeping up with something over time without ever feeling overloaded by it. Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to distrust this way of doing things – it so often announces all that is ugly and unaffected about the gaming business. An attitude that doesn’t matter if you’re having fun while you play, and that doesn’t care about setting bridges on fire while the toll booths are still working.

Things feel different Monster Hunter, Especially since WorldLess like extortion and more like hospitality. There is no pressure, and everything is free, except for extensions of a format that feels reasonable to pay for. There is no attempt to convince you to have linger or pay past the point where you’ve had enough: all that comes is more Monster Hunter, and last but not least. More samples, more equipment, more grinding. Take as much as you want and leave the rest. It is a strategy fundamentally based on the desire that players like the game. Players who like the game keep playing, keep talking about it, keep seeing the cross promotions you put in and keep buying the next one.

The other aspect of Monster HunterThe life cycle is just as simple: there is a gap. For everyone, except the most die-hard players, there is a long enough wait between the point where you drop out of one game and the point where the next comes out. Just long enough to make you think you could really go for a new one. That is probably not an accident. You get the feeling that MHThe creators know what can support their ecosystem and know that respecting those boundaries is in everyone’s interest.

3: It’s just like Pokémon (but better)

So … listen to this. Monster Hunter is not a game about collecting monsters. That’s true. But it is certainly a game about a collection from monsters, and it is very good at it.

Like Pokémon, each new one Monster Hunter comes with a mix of new creatures, old favorites and old not-so favorites. Each new item has a number of default roles that are filled by new creatures: Pokémon has the starters, the early route bugs, birds and normal types, the cover legends. Monster Hunter has a new dumb lizard to serve as the first big monster, a new flagship, some new Elder Dragons. Both franchises will try to revive or capitalize older creatures by giving them new variants. There will always be a new region with a new cast of sweet helpers and a new pretension to a story, and it will all be strikingly similar to the previous generation.

The difference is that it is an individual sample way more fully realized than an individual Pokémon Pokémon gives itself relatively few tools to work with, and often doesn’t even get the best out of it. What’s with those models and animations? Those screams? In Monster Hunter, everything about a particular being paints a coherent picture. That’s the way it moves, its attacks, its looks, the equipment you can make of it: everything. And you will spend enough time with each of them so that you get to see it. Even those who frustrate you do so with increasing familiarity. A hobbyhorse is still a kind of pet.

Maybe the simple way to say it is that Pokémon often only leads you to build relationships with the members of your team and a handful of other high profile individuals. The rest is little more than noise. Monster Hunter lets you build that relationship with most of the cast. It helps that it takes ten times longer to hunt a monster than it does to catch a Pokémon, and there are ten times more of the latter. In the end you know Rathalos in a way that you don’t know Rattata.

And the thing is, Pokémon still works! Hell, it really works, despite being rather dubious these days. I think Monster Hunter brings a more powerful version of the same appeal to a smaller audience. There’s something homely about opening a new mission list and seeing who’s there: a knit of continuity and novelty that gets thicker and lighter every time you come back to it. The world is a scary place. I can’t say no to a good blanket.

And that’s mine Monster Hunter Rise post. It’s not entirely coherent, but that’s fine: I don’t think we’re being judged on this. As a result, this franchise seems to be becoming a bit of a masterclass in dealing with a long-running series. Enough so that even this staunch contrarian likes to drop everything and jump back on the cart. I also just really love fantastic dinosaurs.

And you? What is a game where you are always biting? I like to hear it. It feels like there could be good stories in it.