Since the original titles release, many have wondered when an iteration of Monster Hunter would reach the point that anyone can look at it and say “yes, this is what I wanted since the beginning” though at the time, it was not technically possible. A lot has changed since 2004, we now have that possible potential in Monster Hunter World, the latest rpg from Capcom, giving over a hundred hours worth of adventure and daring challenges. The latest installment is quite possibly one of the most fun multiplayer titles that I have played, making something as monotonous as grinding a fun and exploration filled adventure for the ages with friends and strangers.
The game begins with the average 40 hour opening unskippable cutscene introducing you to the character customizer and I can assure you there were plenty of hours spent making characters. I live with several people and making each character(on top of an extra character to try out the other gender customizations) was fun and deep with different colors, positions, hairstyles, eye shapes, and everything else in between. Even something as seemingly simple as the Palico customizations were fantastic, letting you choose different hair types, breeds, eyes, and outfits. It was very enjoyable to actually feel free to do anything to the character and really make it your own.
The story begins with your character and your handler setting sail for the New World but end up being capsized by the legendary Elder Dragon Zorah Magdaros, a monster the size of a colony of land. They then meet up with the camp and meet the cast of researchers and hunters that trust you to explore and research the New World and protect the world from the Elder Dragons. I enjoyed this story as it was fairly easy to follow, given my limited attention span, and kept my interests driven to keep going. There are a lot of games that throw so much expository dialogue that eventually you do find yourself losing interest or simply losing track of whos saying what.
The gameplay aspect is simple, start the game, pick a quest, hunt some monsters, repeat. The game lets you choose from a LOT of weapons and weapon types. Each weapon has a skill tree that overwhelms you like a kid in a candy shop there is so much that you can do. For starters you can forge a new set of weapons from pieces of the monster you’ve slain which gives you buffs depending on the nature of the monster. Some weapons give you critical boosts, some give you elemental advantage, there’s quite a bit of depth in choosing a weapon especially when switching weapons is such an important aspect in monster hunting.
Armor in this game is GORGEOUS. Some of these armors are so intricate that I feel immediately worried for anyone who decides to cosplay any of these sets. Each armor is made by gathering enough pieces from a certain monster to assemble which gives the player a buff just like the weapons. Each armor set, whether it’s for yourself or your Palico, also resembles each creature so, for the fashionable fan, one can get something like the Odogaron armor and simply grind to maintain its strength throughout the game. I love this because I can’t let an item go in a game to save my life no matter how low its stats are, so for Monster Hunter to allow you to grow with your armor is brilliant.
The exploration and quests are fun to go back and forth on. The game allows you several ways to enjoy yourself whether its following the story and following objectives, completing researching side missions in which you discover herbs and items in the area while out on an exploration, or something simple as hunting monsters. Quests usually end once the objective has been reached but explorations can last forever, allowing you to stay as long as you’d like hunting monsters that respawn at a reasonably decent pace. There would be times where I hunt down a Kula-Ya-Ku and a Jagras shows up, I then finish off the Ya-Ku, defeat the Jagras, and by the time I finish the Jagras the Ya-Ku is spawned back somewhere on the map. My longest exploration session was around 2 hours and within those 2 hours I had defeated around 12 monsters and found so much resources to create new weapons and armor sets.
Monster Hunter World is a once in a generation game, it was met with the perfect storm of fun. The game played well, the rpg elements were easy to understand for casual fans, each monster feels like the final boss of a game, the story was understandable which makes someone with no attention span such as myself very happy, and the forging and upgrading is so much of a joy that it makes grinding worth every minute when you finally get that new armor set. Monster Hunter World is a MUST HAVE for every Playstation owner who’s looking for something to spend their time on.
NUKE THE FRIDGE SCORE 9/10