jay

Features for Monster Hunter 4

I try to deny it but I may have secretly been interested because it’s on the Wii and as any Wii game review on most major sites will tell you over and over again the system lacks a plethora of high-quality third-party titles. Maybe it’s just that I don’t have a PSP and the series has always somewhat appealed to me. Whatever the case, I think Pat put it best when he said, “I thought the game would be fun because we could play online together but it’s legitimately a good game.” I agree, Monster Hunter is better than I expected.

Still, there are a few things Capcom could have done better to really capture that hunting spirit (I say this from a position of absolute authority as I have never been hunting in my life). Obviously there are obnoxious fans of the series who will be offended by my suggestions (try criticizing Fire Emblem around die hard fans if you want to know what hell is like) because “that’s how it always was in MH, you don’t understand it! Bad controls are a feature you just suck too much to handle how awesome it is!”

On to my list of problems and half thought out solutions:

Cha Cha is stupid.
Not too far into single player mode you find a companion named Cha Cha, a little wood fairy or something (who is no where near as cool as Tingle). This makes the game easier because Cha Cha draws enemy attention away from you sometimes, which is a standard occurrence when playing with multiple people online.

My problem with Cha Cha is less about what he is and more about what he isn’t: namely a dog. Having a hunting dog companion would be significantly cooler than simply bringing along another sentient humanoid. There is something special in how man and dog bond through the hunting and killing of other species, as if both understand they are superior to the deer who were not clever enough to invent the rifle or convince humans to feed them by panting in an adorable way. A canine companion could also allow for some flourishes to the game mechanics. Hidden areas could be more plentiful, rare spawn points easier to detect, and each enemy monster could react to your pup differently, echoing the AI reactions to the flame of a torch.

A dog could also combat the somewhat disposable nature of the quests by creating an emotional bond within the game. When I play with other humans I care about their survival, if only because it ensures my own. Contrast this with Cha Cha. What is he doing most of the time? I don’t even notice when he dies. But I would notice if my dog died. It may not result in a Shadow of the Colossus level of bond between man and animal but it would surely resonate more as well as better capture that hunting aura.

The monsters are too gamey.
Sure, when you read the website it explains that giant A’s are female B’s, C’s are the giant fathers of D’s and E’s are F’s with gigantism, but nature rarely works like that. Usually in real life differences between sexes are something minor like a tuft of extra fur around the neck.

Capcom decided that instead of spending the time and money on making many unique boss monsters, they could just modify existing small monsters most of the time. This sucks because it makes the game less interesting, is an obvious cop out for the developer, and steals some of the authentic ‘fighting a monster in a generic fantasy world with a gigantic hammer’ feel from the game. The monster progression feels like a video game and not like a nature documentary that happens to include fire breathing dinosaurs; it’s unrealistic in a bad way.

You should be able to camp.
This is probably the most controversial of my three suggestions because camping threatens to really fuck with the bite sized quest nature of the game. It would also fight what I have already described as the disposable nature of the quests, though. Imagine a monster you need to track through many maps that you cannot catch up to without spending a night somewhere, or a monster only out during the night. Being able to camp would easily fit into the game’s already existing day/night system that is currently entirely pointless. Camping could also provide a bit of tense play – will you be awoken in the middle of the night by your left leg being eaten, did one of the four of you volunteer to stay awake and guard your tent?

I think what is missing from Monster Hunter is epicness, which is also missing from the dictionary. The obvious problem is that by its very nature, the game fights against this quality by compartmentalizing every bit of gameplay into 50 minute maximum quests focused on doing at most three things. But the environments and giant beasts (who are mostly dinosaurs for some reason) demand a sweeping epic fantasy game. I’ve already played over 75 hours so I apparently like the game, but I’d really love a Monster Hunter RPG.

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Cunzy1 1
13 years ago

Having not played the game I feel I can’t agree nor disagree with anything you may or may not have said

pat
Admin
pat
13 years ago

i agree that cha cha is stupid, but man is it helpful to have him distract an angry barroth from time to time. and maybe he isnt a dog because dogs wouldnt be able to believably carve and collect while you are out hunting? i am probably reaching, i agree he should be a dog.

and the monsters do seem to follow the “boss is like minions but bigger” game template that nature rarely follows.

camping i would be worried about implementation. how many uses could it have? poison something and then track it for a few days while it weakens?

as someone who only jumped on the monster hunter bandwagon with this game also, my wishlist would also include better integration between online and offline. why cant i gain hunter rank points (for the uninitiated – experience that opens new quests) offline?

Cunzy1 1
13 years ago

Why cant i gain hunter rank points (for the uninitiated — experience that opens new quests) offline?

Gotta love Capcom.

John
John
13 years ago

i just dont like the stupid animations after healing or eating something because a rathian blew me up with a fire ball in the middle of me healing

pat
Admin
pat
13 years ago

that is incredibly frustrating john. i guess you could argue there is some strategy to it (you have to be in safety to heal) but really its just infuriating and means that you can go from full health to fainted really quickly. or you completely lose all benefit from healing. i suspect high level players (read: not me) heal in such a way they try to get hit by a teammate or weak enemy after healing to interrupt the animation.

boot
boot
13 years ago

I think the game would be better off doing just a giant map is that all the monsters stay her town in place and the monster could attack the city and protect you did the quest and hunt the monster the whole wide world

fuck you
fuck you
13 years ago

bitch ill cut you.

LOL
LOL
13 years ago

A dog , are you serious?! sounds like some failure sequel to previous game *cough* fable II *cough*

The idea is that the monsters are ‘ALPHA’ and so have unique features. plus not many monsters are like that, this is from mh1 , so dont try change this.

camping ….O.o not even going to say anything.

What mh needs is a large town for many players, a DIVERSE selection of monsters, armor and weapons, and something to pass time, ive completed every game so far and its boring now!

Mode
Mode
13 years ago

I’m sorry, but all you’re suggestions were terrible.
ChaCha is fine and if he sometimes annoys you you can just leave him in the village. The animal companion idea isn’t very original and offline mode doesn’t play a significant enough of a role to really get into extreme programming of the AI because to be honest ChaCha makes the fight a lot easier as it is. There are only two drome monsters that are just beefed up minions and then there’s Agnaktor who is so badass who gets to be an exception because he’s so badass. Are you sure you went far into the game to experience other bosses? And lastly your camping idea. This idea had already been proposed, but people just kinda came to an agreement that it would be too time consuming to really run the game in that manner because in reality it would probably take weeks to really track down a monster and set up camp and fight and defeat it. Monster Hunter cuts out all the boring parts while still making a functioning game that is still fun.
(Did not check for grammar mistakes)

Gwonam
Gwonam
13 years ago

Day and night aren’t completely pointless; for example in the tundra, during the day some areas may only need low cold resistance, but during the night these areas may now need high cold resistance.

Andrew (JAGGI)
13 years ago

I love Monster Hunter but some of these suggestions are good like if you were able to camp out that would be awesome but haveing a dog would not be as cool as having maybe another player to help you get resources. Maybe Co-op on adventure mode would be nice. I totally agree with the sexes thing on how each one should be different.

Andrew (JAGGI)
13 years ago

Does anyone know if there’s going to be a new MH?

Tyson
Tyson
13 years ago

I know Monster Hunter Freedom 3 is in the works for PSP. It will be released in 2011. For the consoles, not sure.

MR. C
MR. C
13 years ago

in stead of cha-cha or a dog companian, how about if you have to steal a monster egg and have it hatched, and then BAM!!!!!!! you have a pet rathian at your service.

Brandon
Brandon
13 years ago

Hey guys guess what THERE IS A MONSTER HUNTER RPG.
Get with it, stop looking to complain and start looking to find solutions, you all are being lazy just complaining. They DID fix your problems (not entirely) with this awesome thing called Monster Hunter Frontier. Soooo maybe that solves things maybe it doesn’t. I do love the corrections made.

You guys are right about one thing though, this game lacks character, its wayy to unreal. You could choose to not sleep at all throughout the whole game. The game needs long term status debuffs :D Like burns or broken bones.

hunter rank 31
hunter rank 31
13 years ago

John to heal quick just take a healing horn and stay back to heal your frineds and allies.(ONLINE).

Cunzy1 1
13 years ago

Hunter rank 31, alternatively, just stand in front of the gunner expectantly and eventually they’ll heal you or give you def/attk buffs if they are rich. If it is a really skilled gunner they won’t confer the same boosts to the Wyvern you’re hunting either (not me).

Fox
Fox
13 years ago

a dog…
the escence of monster hunter is to have cats like helpers…
i dont like “cha-cha” like helper… i prefer the cats from PSP
and i dont believe that will change in absolutely
and i think… veterans in mh prefer to have so many weapons and armors
like monster hunter freedom unite
in mh3 there wasnt many monster like another monster hunter games

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sean
sean
13 years ago

no dude ur wrong the animations after eating r kept cuz there is a skill called speed eating +2 which makes u eat faster….>->…

sean
sean
13 years ago

but i wish they had an event or something like hr 60 or 70 where like 10 monsters are in on place that would be sick extremely annoying but i wouldnt get bored xD.

lane
lane
13 years ago

i think the cha-cha sucks and i like mr.c’s idea to steal an egg and when it hatches u get that monster. I am level 45 or 46 i dont remember but if u want to hunt with me try to find me and i would be happy to help u with any quest as lond as it is not dioblus or agnoktor unless we have a high level with us

tom
tom
13 years ago

okay i agree with the guy who said theres not as much monsters in the third and fuck a dog your a jackass

Mr. r
Mr. r
13 years ago

Even though i think my brother mr. c’s idea is pretty cool im think you should have a dog that can hunt small game [like aptonoth] in case your stamina is to low. then when your dog comes back you can cook some meat.

josiah
josiah
13 years ago

i love this game! but it does need more monsters and you should be able to level up and i think that’s they should make a thing in your house to hold a few monsters that you catch in traps and you can train them to fight with you and each monster has different skills that it can use like fly you to other places on the map or to attract certain monsters

Mr. C
Mr. C
13 years ago

Ya , that reminds me of a game that you may have heard of. it’s called pokemon.

Taesung
Taesung
13 years ago

Josiah…..A game with giant killer monsters who could realistically slaughter a Pulaski in under 2 minutes,should in no way have any of the same features of pokemon. Hatching your own pet monster would only make the game to easy as well. A dog should be the limit. One of MH’s most charming features is it’s difficulty and how unique it is,not some 8-bit train-em-all RPG

Taesung
Taesung
13 years ago

LOL meant to say Pikachu..

Ian
Ian
13 years ago

all the way up to Mr.C on the Egg thing. i played a 2-d game on kongregate.com called castaway and you could get help on your quests by defeating monsters and getting there eggs. then you put the egg in the pet place in the village and you have your very own pet. i found it interesting and i really like that aspect. now if we could incorperate that into tyhe game you could have pet anything from pet kelbi to pet cedeaus. (wouldn’t that rock) having tbeen said i have never played vs cedeaus or altereon and have no idea what they are like.

i agree about cha-cha that he is dumb but i do not find him useless. he cut a monsters tail when i had a lance, he laid some good blows too. he is just very weak. that is all he needs, is a bit of strength. i’m not saying, give him a cedeaus blade or anything, i’m just saying he needs a slight boost and maybe he has a few weapons other then his weird staff

lane
lane
13 years ago

well when u beat the game then we will talk about how bad cha cha sucks unless u get him to lvl 30 and have all his mask mastery up and all his skills he pretty much sux

gr8white
gr8white
13 years ago

Ian, i have also played castaway on kongregate (friend me) and it was good. For that game. The fact is is that although the training of some small monsters (jaggi, baggi, ludroth, ect.) would be good, raising a Cedeaus would make the game to easy (in other words, he would destroy any other monster in two minutes and the game would get really boring, really fast).

Dog good, Cha Cha annoying. Some monsters should be basically big minions, others shouldn’t. Camping should be maybe one or two missions. Also, perhaps add some super armor for which you need the rarest part from every monster in the game to build? That would be badass.

Akechi001
Akechi001
13 years ago

I have been a long-term fan of Monster Hunter ever since I discovered the title: Monster Hunter for PS2. I always liked how gathering played a huge role in the game. How you couldn’t just buy everything in the market. It made you appreciate your character and your crafts more. It would be nice if different templates were allowable for the weapons and armors instead of the typical look so you can be more unique. MH3 lacked diversity in weapon classes, different weapons and armor sets.
In the original MH, offline mode was very lonely. All your work would be solo, which would drive one to beg for playing Multiplayer mode. Although playing on your own is sometimes preferable, it sometimes makes the game dull. In your idea of changing the companion (cha cha is pretty dumb), I like it, but certainly not a dog for these reasons I am about to state:
1. the companion allows you for better harvesting of items
2. the companion supports you with some abilities (useful, but not always)
3. the companion can fight. Cha Cha being a shakalaka (first introduced in MHP2), they possess abnormal strength for their size
4. Cha Cha is stupid but sometimes he lightens the mood of no dialogue in the hunt.
5. As for the companion, I would prefer making it human all together(possibly a mercenary, or at least a character [NPC] tied to the simple hunter story). As the bond would be more reliant. Therefore (as you have said), his survival is your survival. Even a character romance or friendship would allow one to enjoy the company of such a partner.
Now for the monster animations. I agree with you. Most monsters in the game are repeats of one another but different stats, size and skin templates. There really isn’t a line between boss fight to minion fight except for the stronger attack power or the stronger affect of status ailments or the occasional fireball. I would definitely love to see more creativity in monster combat. Although the monster movements became more fluid and unpredicatable, but interpretable.
The eating animations is: yes, annoying. But without that, hunts would become too easy, the animation purpose was created for the sole reason to make you strategize the timing of Potion or food intake. Of course, there is a skill that speeds up your eating, thus removing the complications of that lag time.
As for the hunting style: I would have to agree with the part of needing rest. The character has no reason really to sleep besides to save the game or recover a moderate amount of health. Also, bodily afflictions such as broken bones or torn muscles would be a nice implication to the game. The game too, I believe, should be world wide aka free roam. And the character should be able to travel from town to town in search of simple requests, or simply going to the guild to seek more expensive rewards and harder bosses. The game would be nice if it actually required more monster print tracking and less of: walking in to a loading area and once you get there “RAWR!!!” The way it is sometimes makes the game so annoying as the monster loves to love about but does not leave anything behind despite it killing a dinosaur for a meal or walking about and this factor can make finding a huge Rathalos almost impossible in the start of the game unless you have the Auto-tracker ability or psychoserum.
Overall, Nice ideas.

cha-cha
cha-cha
13 years ago

cha-cha thinks u were not breast fed when u were little, cha-cha thinks doctor drop u on frool head first, cha-cha thinks ur mama was drinking and smoking while she carry u, cha-cha thinks ur mama is a he-she. lol cha-cha rulez :3 CHAAAA

Ceadeus
Ceadeus
13 years ago

Lol wooooow. You guys should learn to like the things in the game instead of complaining about the tiny little things that don’t matter. I have been a Monster Hunter fan for a long time and I personally think that they couldn’t have made it more perfect. If you have a problem with trying to eat while a monster is there, wait until he stops for a second or leave the area, it’s not that hard. If you don’t like Cha-cha, leave him in the village. I hate the idea of having a dog for a companion instead of Cha-cha. Can a dog carve monsters when you kill them? NO. Can a dog gather items for you? Not by itself. Can a dog perform dances to boost attack/defense or heal you? NO. If you don’t like something about the game, fix it yourself!

Akechi001
Akechi001
12 years ago

The reason of complaint on behalf is: I want more challenge out of the hunt. I want a struggle of life and death in the game. When I get Injured, I want the character to be injured. When the beast gets injured, I want to see its fear. I want to see retaliation from it knowing its inevitable doom or it knowing that it can easily feast upon myself. This is for the ENJOYMENT OF BATTLE! For the adrenaline rush of anticipation of wondering who it is that will fall and who will be the victor? But then again as for a companion. Maybe a human apprentice of the Hunter?

Mitcho
Mitcho
12 years ago

The dog idea…just doesnt work. The point of the single player hunting is too do it by yourself. Cha Cha is essentially just fodder to help with the harder monsters. Yeah the monsters do seem like “bossier” versions of weak monsters, thank god its only for weak things like Jaggi. Camping…hmm i feel like its unnessecary, the point of going on the hunt is to kill it now, rather than…see how it goes for a few days. And the reason there is day and night ingame is because it effects such thigs as whether you need hot or cold potions in the dessert. Plus at night time it becomes harder to see things, especially underwater, which is capturing what its like to actually go hunting.

James
James
12 years ago

Cha Cha is shit they should bring back de felynes from mhfu(psp). they were amazing. They should also add more monsters. I’ve had mhfu for a long time and i still havnt completed it. They should also add more maps
like a river,an abandoned village or somethin like that.

James
James
12 years ago

They should have this game on Xbox And psp.

Salhocin
Salhocin
12 years ago

I think you are correct about Cha cha, he doesnt do much but dance and distract the boss monsters. I dont agree with a dog companion though. It would be as useful as cha cha but probably do less.They should just stick to Felyne companions. The good thing about the PSP version of MH3 is your Felyne companion can have armor and weapons you can make for it. If they make future titles for the Wii or other sytems they should incorporate that. Also another idea, catching felynes in the wild and training them instead of monster idea(even though that would be cool). So you could have multiple felyne allies that hunt with you. Theywould have specific skill to. One felyne could be your healer, one could be your bomber, another could be your trap expert. That would be awesome and require more strategy and time to train and build armor for your felynes.
The boss monsters are good but some are clones of the others your correct. What do you expect with names like Jaggi and Baggi. Rathian and Rathalos are lovers but when you fight both of them you definetly know Los is the man. Also Lagi and Agnaktor are similar but both have different attacks. I just think they should create more breeds then just leviathan, bird and flying wyverns, brute, and elder dragons. Yes you do have the bugs but why not expound on them. Why cant neopteron have boss monsters. Like a giant spider or scorpion. What happened to the carapaceons they would be awesome in future games. Also make cross breeds. There are so many monsters they could create that could enhance the game even more.
I dont like the camping idea unless you could enhance your camp by gaining supplies and building stuff kind of like your farm. I do like monsters interacting with their environments more. Like day time only certain monster are around and at night you have nocturnal ones. Anyways its an amazing game reguardless I hope they make another for the Wii.

Some Annoyed Person...
Some Annoyed Person...
12 years ago

I Dont Know Whats Wrong with Cha Cha? Hes Awesome! U Just had to get the uglyest mask you could find to put in that pic didnt u…

I Agree That Online and offline are almost 2 completely different games, after a while offline mode doesnt get used(after cedus or however its spelt)

Yeh the Minion -> Boss is kinda Repedative but i didnt even notice/care till i read this!

Btw Camping would make that game SOOOOO BOARING!!!!!!!

Btw I Also Hope they make a new one for the wii this game is AWESOME!

person who agrees
person who agrees
12 years ago

yes cha cha is dum,b i basicly just use him as a scape goat if that is the right terminoligy to use potions while he dies. Yes hunting over multiple days would be a cool feature and your dog could guard you at night and alarm you if anything bad happens the problem with that is that you can always find ingredience to make more potions and then you would be basicly unbeatable. The 50 minute quest is to make sure you can only use materials that you baislcly previously aquired cause most monster that you need for current quests need most of the time. and yes the wepon handleing sucks in some aspects but if you do take time you can learn the strenghths and weaknesses of your wepon and eventualy use them to your advantage.

josh
josh
12 years ago

total bullshit!!! this is a gr8 game. however i do believe that they could have a few more bosses of certain genders. and cha-cha rules, cause when that gobul gets enraged, there is nothing better than to have cha-cha
fu***ng turn the attention on him by pissing the bloody thing off.

Brad
Brad
12 years ago

I find that whilst your comments do make sense, what you’re asking for isn’t a game… Whilst adding features like camping or minor aesthetic differences due to gender would give the game a more realistic (Even though it’s set in a mixed technology dinosaur land) and varied feel. But over all, how does the lack of these features at all effect the way the games plays?
And lastly, whilst Cha-cha is undeniably stupid and random, he’s unique. And what better in a bizarre backwords, topsy turvy world, than having a pet Shakalaka (Even the name sounds spurious). Having a dog is just too cliché in terms of companions these days. And I think that Capcom is looking to make the most uniquely bizarre game possible with Monster Hunter, in which a dog just wouldn’t fit… It’d also eat all the felyne Farmers… And that wouldn’t be good…