Let's talk Monster Hunter.

[Cytric Acid]

cause i love the game series and i'm probably the biggest fan here LOL
everyone probably knows MH3U came out and it's a really great game! I'm HR 60ish right now, i believe? I've been spending most of my time playing Frontier, though.
For those of you not in the know, Monster Hunter Frontier is the japanese only monster hunter MMO. It has a lot of cool features, like new monsters, areas, weapons, and moves! There's also Hardcore monsters to fight and whatnot!
Of course, it's all in japanese. They also have it region locked, so you can't play unless you have a japanese IP. so you can use a VPN: a free one that probably sucks, or a paid one that still has about 100ms of delay on a good day. OH WELL.
You also have to learn to pay for the CAP you use to fuel your subscription. luckly, the first month is 500 CAP instead of like, 1400 CAP i think?

anyways, here's some screenshots of my recent frontier endeavors. put in spoilers because they're huge images!

Spoiler

Me fighting a Rukodiora. He's really cool, and he controls magnetism!

Captured Espinas. They're really interesting, as they're really calm and aloof most of the time, but when they go into rage mode, they get AGGRESSIVE. They even spit poison fireballs!

One of my favorite frontier exclusives, the Unknown Black Rathian/Ancient Rathian! She's a superpowered rathian with 5 LEVELS OF RAGE MODE, explosive power, and you can't even go on a quest to fight her! She just appears randomly on any high rank or up quest, replacing the main monster you were going to fight normally. In High Rank, you can only repel her as I did here (She repels at her 3rd rage mode), but in HR100+, you must slay her. She's awesome!

[NICKtendo DS]

It sucks MHF is Japan-only. Not for me, since I'm not so much into MMO/PC games, but my brother. We do get our fix from MH3U.
I'm currently stuck at HR7, because I have the 3DS version and lack decent back-up to defeat Dire Miralis. I got all the way to Dire Miralis solo. Now I'm busy helping my friend and brother with quests and gear, hoping that one day they'll become useful. I have cleared all Village Quest except the absolute last.
To keep myself busy, I'm soloing every single Guild quest I can solo. Almost done with HR6, have to clear 1 or 2 Advanced Quests.
My main weapon is the Long Sword.

[Cytric Acid]

Nice, you've done a lot more than i have! I mostly focused on getting armor sets and charms and weapons. I have a really great lance set that looks awesome too!

Dire Miralis isn't that bad. The only thing you really have to worry about is the giant fireball attack he does when he's on all fours, but it's blockable with a lance without Guard Up. Just use a dragon weapon and hit his glowing weak spots until they break! When you start bouncing off of everything, he's in armor mode. you can still attack his weakpoints, though. Aim for his chest. Near death, he'll exit armor mode again. Don't forget: there are 2 dragonators each on their own timer, and ballistas can help break his head.

[NICKtendo DS]

I'm HR71 now. I've first beaten him solo and now I'm grinding him for materials with my brother. Seriously, why am I denied the joy of Fireclaws? I have 2 Dire Dragongems, but still lack that one Fireclaw to make the Longsword.

Me and my bro also killed a few Hallowed Jhen's for his armor. I'm fashion now. Still needs a few Tru Armorspheres. I've beaten High Rank Alatreon with my bro aswell. We died and as a precaution, my bro stayed behind. When I died, he gave me his Potions and I managed to kill him, but it was close. I now know how to handle the Ballista Binder, but even with that, I'd rather grind Miralis than fight Alatreon.

Hunting has gone well since my brother has reached HR8+ (he's somewhere over HR20 now).

[TomGuycott]

I still have a long way to go. Only have basic Rsthian armor set and matching katana. Have some other varied gear more suited for those strong against fire. At the guild I don't know where I'm at, at the village Cha Cha just returned talking about that big underwater monster . I assume I might fight him soon because the trader now offers ammo to fight it.

[Vipershark]

I don't like Monster Hunter. It's slow, boring, and the most disappointing thing about it to me is that it reeks of wasted potential.
I really love the concept of being able to take on huge monsters (either alone or with a team) and then harvest their resources for upgrades and stuff, but the gameplay in MH is so clunky and bad that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm on my way to work right now, but if you'd like, I'll explain it more in-depth when I have more time.

[TomGuycott]

I do completely understand what you mean, Viper. I still love it though. XD

[NICKtendo DS]

I don't like Monster Hunter. It's slow, boring, and the most disappointing thing about it to me is that it reeks of wasted potential.
I really love the concept of being able to take on huge monsters (either alone or with a team) and then harvest their resources for upgrades and stuff, but the gameplay in MH is so clunky and bad that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm on my way to work right now, but if you'd like, I'll explain it more in-depth when I have more time.

I understand it's not for everyone, because nothing is, really. Opinions 'n' stuff.

HR74 now. Got the upgraded Dire Miralis LS, yay. Now I want the Abyssal Lagiacrus LS, but A.Lagi isn't quite generous when it comes to dropping those Dynamos. My brother on the other hand got lucky enough to get 2 of them in the 2 runs we did together and now he has the final upgrade of that sword. I am not amused.

[Cytric Acid]

I don't like Monster Hunter. It's slow, boring, and the most disappointing thing about it to me is that it reeks of wasted potential.
I really love the concept of being able to take on huge monsters (either alone or with a team) and then harvest their resources for upgrades and stuff, but the gameplay in MH is so clunky and bad that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm on my way to work right now, but if you'd like, I'll explain it more in-depth when I have more time.

To each his own, I guess! I like monster hunter's gameplay because it puts emphasis on timing, dodging, and where to hit. I know a lot of people complain about the item usage time, but I feel it's fitting and makes you think on the best time to use an item. It's difficult, but rewarding. However, that's not everyone's thing and I can understand!
I love Dire Miralis weapons! Massive fire element combined with natural purple = 333

For me, I just got to HR100 in frontier. It took me less than 24 hours to go from 49 to 100! My friend/teacher kino helped me on this HR51 Tigrex quest to get HRP, leading me to go up 3 hunter ranks PER QUEST. In less than an hour I was up by 20! Now I need to figure out how to redeem my gou weapon codes...
and get some better lances.

[TomGuycott]

I'm very lazy at making complete sets despite the benefits of it, so far only having complete Barroth, Rathian and Lagi sets. I am only hr4 at the moment because I'm trying to beat the village quests first.

[Sephirex]

Over the past few years, I've tried to get into Monster Hunter, but I just couldn't. There's so many gameplay redundancies that just don't need to be there. I LOVE how the game looks. I love how they designed the creatures, both visually and in their behaviours... But there's just so much that makes it as if the game doesn't want me to like it. I see the series as a huge waste of potential. They made this gigantic, sprawling world full of amazing creatures and yet they attached absolutely NO narrative to it. There's so little narrative here its sad. I'm not saying it should have some linear story attached to it, but there should be SOMETHING besides, "Hey, there's a non-human thing. Let's shove a sword up its ass" to motivate me to do something. Heck, it could go with an MMO type narrative that never ends, but it should at least give the player SOMETHING so that if people are like me and hate the gameplay, I can forgive it on a count of its story.

That's just a few issues I have with the series. Just my opinion though. If you love the MH series, good for you.

[Marth]

I only played/own MH3U but it did have a story. Just not an overbearing one, go kill the Lagicarious and as far as I know the online doesn't but I didn't get too, too into it because of school.

[Sephirex]

I only played/own MH3U but it did have a story. Just not an overbearing one, go kill the Lagicarious and as far as I know the online doesn't but I didn't get too, too into it because of school.

I played Monster Hunter Tri (The original version of MH3U) and I know about that... But that's not a story, that's not even a loose narrative, that's a goal/objective. It's VERY easy to build SOME sort of basic plot surrounding that goal, but the developers just didn't and I've never understood why. Heck, if they wanted to give even a semblance of a narrative, I'd like to see other Monster Hunters actually go Monster Hunting besides yourself. That alone would give the game 1000x more life than it already has since we're told everyone goes Monster Hunting but unless you're playing with someone else, you'll never see them doing it.

[TomGuycott]

I think you're looking for a certain KIND of narrative, because there IS one, for what little it is. Granted, I tend to skip over much of it, but you ARE given a loose narrative. You are a new arrival in a village that is suddenly suffering unnatural earthquakes, and the goal is to find the cause of them.

For the way the game is set up I personally think much more than that would only get in the way of this particular kind of gameplay. Its just that saying the game has no narrative at all is unfair. Saying the game's narrative isn't as engaging as it could be is another story, however. That you could argue.

[Marth]

This also warrants the argument as to whether the game needs an engaging narrative. I personally don't think it does, I like the loose set up, it allows you to experience the world as it is, and come to your own discoveries of it. A stronger story would make for a more linear form of gameplay which would ruin the hunting the experience. You actually are hunting these monsters; you're looking for them, tracking them and looking for opportunistic moments to strike. The game isn't meant to be a story driven.

I can see how that makes it a tad less compelling, or immersive because not everything feels cohesive at times. It just feels like load a map, hunt a monster. Not everything is relative at times. But it allows one to jump in at any time and happily play the game without feeling like they're missing necessary information that impedes on their experience.