Monster Hunter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monster Hunter
Original title Monster Hunter
developer Capcom
Publisher Capcom
First title Monster Hunter (2004)
Last title Monster Hunter World Iceborne (2019)
Platform (s) Nintendo 3DS , iOS , Android , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation Portable , Wii , Wii U , Windows , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , PC
Genre (s) Action RPG

Monster Hunter is a video game series in the action RPG genre , developed and distributed by Capcom . The first game appeared in Japan in March 2004 and in Germany in May 2005 for the PlayStation 2 , from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate to Monster Hunter Stories the series was available exclusively for Nintendo consoles. So far, the series comprises four generations with ten main games and other spin-offs. Capcom's game series has sold nearly 20 million copies to date, 17 million of which in Japan alone, making it one of the most successful video game IPs there.

The game principle

Monster Hunter starts very simply by hunting simple monsters and various farm animals in the first, mostly very easy, missions. Armor and weapons are made from the materials obtained, such as bones, furs, scales or teeth. The quests have different goals: you have done, like, for example, collect certain items, combine items, Wyvern hunt or catch. Depending on the offshoot of the series, there are different quest levels in the village (offline mode) and hunter camp (online mode).

After fulfilling the objective of the mission, you will receive your reward, which varies depending on how difficult the assignment was and how often you passed out (maximum three times). The quest reward consists of collection items, monster materials and consumables, depending on the quest type. In addition, you receive zenny (money), hunter rank points and village points.

With the collected objects, such as various ores, monster bones, furs, claws, fangs and other materials, you can then make weapons or armor. The collected materials can also be combined to create more effective or useful items. In this way herbs in connection with a mushroom become a healing potion, probably the most important utensil when carrying out the quests. The weapons that you make can be improved, with the price rising and materials becoming scarcer.

The following weapon classes exist:

  • sword and shield
  • Greatsword
  • lance
  • hammer
  • Hunting horn
  • Light bow rifle
  • Heavy bow rifle
  • Double blades (not available in Monster Hunter Tri)
  • Gunlance (not available in Monster Hunter Tri)
  • Long sword
  • Bow (not available in Monster Hunter Tri)
  • Morph ax (from Monster Hunter Tri )
  • Tonfa (only in Monster Hunter Frontier G-Genuine)
  • Insect glaive (from Monster Hunter 4 )
  • Energy blade (from Monster Hunter 4 )

By upgrading, a weapon can acquire special status effects such as fire, water, dragon, thunder, ice or sleep or paralysis or poison, and its attack strength increases. Sometimes the character gets extra defense points by upgrading a weapon.

In contrast to most role-playing games (e.g. Diablo II ), the character does not rise in level, but in hunter ranks, but the armor and weaponry also make a difference, as does the monsters to be fought.

After the first practice quests you fight bigger monsters and the first wyvern, an archetype of dragons. These beings are much stronger and more resilient than the monsters of the practice quests and sometimes even need good tactics to be defeated. You can z. B. Set traps in which the monsters are held, so they are defenseless for a moment and can be attacked without resistance. As a reward (for killing / catching monsters etc.) there are certain monster materials (scales, tanks, bones) or other useful 'items' that can be used to make armor or other items.

One can never move 'pointlessly' through the areas; some task always has to be done, but the time limit of up to 50 minutes leaves enough time to collect materials. There are exceptions in Monster Hunter Tri and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate , where you can move around in the “Moga Forest” without a time limit and without tasks to be completed.

Stronger armor or weapons also require higher quality objects and more money (zenny). However, since high-quality ores are extremely difficult to obtain, you should carefully consider which objects you are producing (armor, weapons, decorations).

Decorations are objects that improve armor's capabilities. In order to be able to incorporate decorations, so-called slots are required, but these cannot be increased by improving the armor (a maximum of 3 slots can be present in one piece of armor). In Monster Hunter Tri another piece of equipment has been added, the amulet. They are obtained through rewards, although they still have to 'develop'. After this development it becomes clear what effect they have or support. This enables a completely new ability to be built into the armor, despite sometimes fewer slots.

There are different armor series, depending on the hunter rank. The S-series of armor can only be produced from the so-called 'high-level quests' (i.e. from stronger monsters) and are a lot more defensive and usually have a different appearance and different capabilities than the normal versions of the armor. The U series has more slots than the normal or S series of armor. For the S or U series of armor, high-quality objects are required that can only be obtained on high-level quests. In Monster Hunter Freedom Unite there is also the X-series and the Z-series. These are like the S and U series but have even higher defenses and different abilities. However, you can only make them at the so-called 'G-level' (in MHFU from hunter rank 7), a level with even stronger monsters, even more difficult quests and even rarer materials.

The 'Urgent' quest can be unlocked by completing certain key or key quests of a level that cannot be recognized as such by the player. By completing these, the next quest level becomes available.

Furthermore, you can break off the tail or the horn of a wyver and thus get extra materials. These are rarer than other items such as B. dandruff etc.

Online mode

Capcom provides a free server on which quests can be done with four people. You can gather with different players in a big city, the so-called hunter camp, and then go hunting together. The level system plays a decisive role here, the hunter rank (HR for hunter rank for short) decides whether the player can take part in particularly difficult quests in order to obtain rare materials. First of all, the hunter rank must be increased by completing certain quests at the current level, which means that the next higher quest level is also available. As soon as you have completed the correct quests on the last quest level, it is possible to increase the hunter rank up to 999, before that the hunter rank always corresponds to the current quest level. Each quest gives a certain number of HRP (Hunter's Rank Points), these are needed to rise to the hunter rank. With further progress in the game, this becomes much more complex and you can get new materials that are inaccessible in single player mode. This makes it almost mandatory to go hunting online, otherwise you would miss a large part of the game content.

To play online you only need internet access for newer titles in the series. Early offshoots could only be played together offline in local multiplayer; online multiplayer is integrated in all new and current Monster Hunter games. Cheaters are very rare in this game, but they do exist. The focus here is more on the possession of weapons and materials, which are not obtained by completing quests, but by editing the saved data.

As a special goal there is the challenge of event quests, some of which can be done with a low HR. With these quests there are more complex tasks to be solved; this can be the collection of many materials in a short time or the hunting or catching of single or multiple monsters (some of which have been changed in size or strength). New event quests will be made available from time to time. In the reward you can get particularly valuable objects and those that can only be obtained with the respective event quest. The online servers were switched off on April 30, 2013 with the appearance of the successor Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate .

The online mode for the Nintendo 3DS is only available from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. You can complete all online quests with up to 3 other players in the hunter camp. This possibility is already available in the demo version of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Monster Hunter Generations.

Parts of the series

  • Monster Hunter : The first part was released on March 11, 2004 in Japan, on September 21, 2004 in North America and on May 27, 2005 in Europe.
  • Monster Hunter G : Monster Hunter G was released on January 20, 2005 in Japan and Taiwan only. The features were built into Monster Hunter 2 .
  • Monster Hunter Freedom : Monster Hunter Freedom was released on December 1, 2005 for PlayStation Portable in Japan and on May 12, 2006 in Germany.
  • Monster Hunter i : Monster Hunter i was released on February 6, 2006 for the DoCoMo cell phones of the FOMA 90 series.
  • Monster Hunter 2 : Monster Hunter 2 was released in Japan on February 16, 2006. There was never a US or EU release due to the low sales of Monster Hunter in the USA and the EU.
  • Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (also called Monster Hunter Portable 2nd ): Released on February 22, 2007 in Japan for the PSP. According to Famitsu , 500,000 pieces were sold on the first day alone and 780,000 pieces in the first week. By March 2007, 1,000,000 had been sold. It was released in Europe on September 9, 2007. It contains all the features from Monster Hunter 2 .
  • Monster Hunter Frontier : Monster Hunter Frontier was released on July 5, 2007 in Japan for Windows. In addition, this part was released for the Xbox 360 in Japan in the summer of 2010.
  • Monster Hunter Tri : The third installment in the series was released for the Nintendo Wii and has been on sale in Japan since August 1st, 2009. Nintendo took over distribution in Europe and released Monster Hunter Tri on April 23, 2010 and thus also in Germany. As a novelty for the series in Europe, there are for the first time special “Limited Editions” with additional accessories.
  • Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G : MHP2G (PSP) was released in Japan on March 27th, 2008 (March 25th for Hong Kong pre-orderers), some content from the Monster Hunter Frontiers (PC) game is included e.g. B. the monsters Hypnock and Volganos as well as weapons and armor. The loading times have been shortened and an "installation" routine has been added, which uploads frequently used files to the user's memory stick, which shortens the loading time even more. In Europe, the game will be released under the name Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on June 26, 2009.
  • Monster Hunter Freedom Unite : MHFU (PSP) was released on June 26, 2009 in Europe and is an expansion of Monster Hunter Freedom 2 . All items and weapons can be imported.
  • Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was released on December 1, 2010 in Japan, it is a continuation of the series known in Germany as Monster Hunter Freedom
  • Monster Hunter Tri G is the third part of Monster Hunter for the Nintendo 3DS, which was released in late 2011.
  • Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was released on March 22, 2013 for Wii U and 3DS. The two versions are compatible with each other.
  • Monster Hunter 4 was released on September 28, 2013 in Japan exclusively for the 3DS.
  • Monster Hunter Online will be released in China for the PC and will be based on the CryEngine 3 , whether it will come to Europe is unclear.
  • Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was released on February 13, 2015 for Nintendo 3DS in Europe and is the counterpart to the Japanese Monster Hunter 4 G.
  • Monster Hunter X (Cross) was released on November 28, 2015 in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS family and offers new elements and old monsters are making a comeback. It was released in Europe and the US on July 15, 2016 under the name Monster Hunter Generations.
  • Monster Hunter XX (Double Cross) was announced in Japan on October 27, 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS family and Nintendo Switch. In Europe and the USA it will be released on August 28, 2018 under the name Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.
  • Monster Hunter Stories was released worldwide on September 8, 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS family and later on iOS and Android .
  • Monster Hunter World was released on January 26th, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the PC version was released on August 9th, 2018 on Steam and on September 3rd, 2018 in stores.

Adaptation as a manga

With the start of the new Shōnen Rival in April 2008, the Kōdansha publishing house released a manga series under license from Capcom with the title Monster Hunter Orage (Japanese モ ン ス タ ー ハ ン タ ー オ ラ ー ジ ュ , monstā hantā orāju , " orage ", French for "storm"). The author and illustrator of the series is Hiro Mashima , who was already known through the Kodansha publishing house with the titles RAVE or Fairy Tail and who also published the manga Fairy Tail on a weekly basis parallel to the monthly series .

The plot is loosely based on the games and revolves around a group of Forbidden Hunters and their adventures.

By April 2009 a total of 14 chapters had been published, which were summarized in four anthologies and republished. The first volume reached number 8 in the Japanese manga sales charts determined by Tohan, but only lasted a week. Two weeks after its publication, almost 150,000 copies of the second volume were sold, which meant that it was temporarily ranked 9th on the sales charts during these weeks.

Cameos

  • In the PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, if you have met certain conditions, you can go to a Monster Hunter Island, where you can, among other things. a. fight Rathalos and receive special rewards for doing so.
  • In Monster Hunter Freedom 3, you can get armor inspired by Metal Gear Solid. As a male player you get the suit from Big Boss, as a woman the armor resembles that of "The Boss". Felyne can get Solid Snake Armor.
  • In the Japan-exclusive PSP game Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Felyne Village you can get clothes and plush toys for the Felyne, who is inspired by Hello Kitty .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=monster+hunter
  2. ↑ Capcom press release: カ プ コ ン の 人 気 シ リ ー ズ 最新 作 『モ ン ス タ ー ハ ン タ ー ポ ー タ ブ ブ ル 2nd』 が 国内 初 の 100 万 本 突破
  3. ↑ Official Nintendo Magazine News: Monster Hunter Tri hits UK in April ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. January 5, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ http://www.nintendo-online.de/news/10818/pm-capcom-kuendigt-monster-hunter-3-ultimate-fuer-maerz-2013-an/
  6. ↑ From Jonas Gössling: Monster Hunter Generations: release date known? In: IGN Germany. March 8, 2016, accessed June 3, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Katharina Reuss: Monster Hunter World in the test. In: PC Games . August 10, 2018, accessed September 3, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Rave Master's Mashima Draws Monster Hunter Orage Manga - Anime News Network. February 8, 2008, accessed March 20, 2009 .
  9. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, Aug 5-11 - Anime News Network. August 13, 2008, accessed March 20, 2009 .
  10. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, December 3-9 - Anime News Network. December 12, 2008, accessed March 20, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, December 9-15 - Anime News Network. December 17, 2008, accessed March 20, 2009 .