Monster Hunter 3

[KDR_11k]

I think the best comparison might be Phantasy Star Online with more attack variety and almost no padding between boss battles. While there is some easy cannonfodder running around the monsters you're really here for are practically bosses.

I'm playing MH3 mostly in SP, my HR is too low to fight anything on my gear and skill level so I don't go online much. It's got a nice, smooth introduction in SP and won't just throw you to the wolves before you know what to do. You even get a weirdo thing called Cha Cha as your ally, he'll do the job of distracting enemies, uses status buff dances and can do a bit of attacking too. My choice of monsters to progress the story is currently Barioth, Rathalos or Diablos and my equipment is all Lagiacrus based. That means I deal electricity damage (using a switch ax for its hit-and-run damage) and am highly flammable but as well protected against kinetic damage as my progress allows.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Barioth and capturing Lagiacrus are my two current hurdles. I haven't attempted Lagiacrus yet though, mostly because I'm not good at or fond of the underwater combat, but I'll obviously have to do it sometime. Barioth was a jerk.

I really wouldn't call it an MMORPG. Kind of makes me sad on the inside. Besides, I think a "persistent" world is one of the defining qualities of an MMO. I prefer to just think of it as an online action game with strong RPG elements. Its definitely challenging, but in a way that requires you to learn and get better, not necessarily go out and get better equipment (at least it used to be that way.)

[KDR_11k]

I wouldn't really call PSO an MMORPG either, it may have paid online (MH has that in Japan only) but you're limited to 4 players in a party. It also requires a lot of timing and dodging because it's pretty hard to level up enough to fight enemies through brute force.

I don't find underwater that hard. Capturing Lagiacrus isn't a hard mission, it's in confined spaces so he can't move around as much, the only issue is keeping the Royal Ludroth out of the fight.

[SanadaUjiosan]

I don't find underwater that hard. Capturing Lagiacrus isn't a hard mission, it's in confined spaces so he can't move around as much, the only issue is keeping the Royal Ludroth out of the fight.

Good to know. My plan is to get the Djinn short sword, use that to take down enough Barioth to make the ice lance, then use that to kill Diablos enough to get his armor, so I can proceed. Probably take a while, but I'll make do... and probably take some short cuts along the way.

[HectorMeyer]

Sadly, 99% of MMORPGs don't really have a "persistent" world. Most of them consist of slaughtering countless mobs alone, or the occasional dungeon raiding in small parties. The world isn't influenced by the player population at all. There are so many other players around you, but you only notice them when they occasionally cross your way and use up some "spawns" temporarily (mobs or "mining spots"), or influence the prices of a few items.

I think there really is a lot of untapped potential in the genre. I envision a world where basically everything is player generated. i.e. players and "guilds" build, own and organize whole cities and the combat is almost exclusively PVP. Eve Online goes in the right direction with this, but still not consequently enough. I never really played it for more than a few months, but there is still too much NPC content and too little tools for managing your corporation and alliance. It would be really awesome if there was an interface through which you could assign all sorts of jobs and payments to other members of your corporation (from simple area patrol and resource gathering jobs, up to management of whole player divisions), and make them climb up the hierarchy by showing loyalty. (I also hate the "warp" and "jump" based traveling, way too little "tactical" traveling for my taste).

[SanadaUjiosan]

I think the ideas you're talking about sound great on paper, but when implemented would create something that demands a lot of time and effort from people. This is one of my beefs with the typical MMORPG; devotion. You're paying a monthly fee, so you have to be sure you want to play, and you have to be ready to pour hours of your life into a virtual world.

Some people dig that, but not I. I'll take my game that gives me comfort in addition to fun. There's the line between excessive realism and fun realism, in my opinion.

That being said, I agree that the lameness of players actions not affecting the world is bothersome. Guild Wars 2 is attempting to tackle that issue, and I'm willing to put a little bit of faith in them.

[HectorMeyer]

Personally I agree. I prefer the Monster Hunter World, which I can leave for months and then enter again for a few days without having missed anything, to the life sucking experience of Eve Online.

[SanadaUjiosan]

You were right, catching Lagiacrus wasn't hard at all. I was fretting the Shock Trap couldn't be deployed underwater, but I was wrong

[KDR_11k]

Even if you couldn't capture him underwater, when he's wounded he'll retreat to the cave and sleep there (if not intercepted on his path) so you can capture him with a land trap.

[SanadaUjiosan]

So in my ponderings I've decided MH is becoming stagnant, and a great rethinking of aspects of the game could, of course, do it some good. Unfortunately, I realize such things come rarely in the Japanese market, and that this is purely a pipedream, but pipedreams can be fun.

I think the current zone system needs to be done away with. I don't know if it was due to gameplay or technical limitations in the first game, but I see it as something holding back the game nowadays. I think a more open-world type area for each region would be really cool, a lot of fun, and add some interesting new elements. Instead of warping from zone 1 to 2 and so on, being able to see a great expanse of land that you can actually visit would be great.

I also think a much better and realistic ecosystem would do wonders for an open-world like setup. I think MH3 was promising something like this, but I haven't been impressed. Sure a wyvern will attack herbivores, but only when you lower their stamina during combat. I think it'd be so cool to sneak up on a Rathalos preying on some herbivore, and then you break up its meal and take it down. Monster interaction that happens off-screen is a definite step Capcom needs to make.

I also think more vertical navigation should be put in. Stuff like climbing trees, more cliff faces, onto boulders, that sort of thing. Sure you're character is loaded down with crap, a giant weapon, and heavy armor. But I mean, most of the weapons we see in MH are unrealistic in the first place, so we may as well shoot for fun

I think a lot of these ideas I have are for an attempt to make Monster Hunter feel more like you're actually hunting. From the first game onwards, its always felt more like you go in and flat-out kill these giant monsters, in a very video game setting. Most of the time, they'll see you while facing the other direction, turn around, and begin combat. Its never felt like (what I imagine to be) real hunting. Stealth should play a more important role. I remember one of the first times I tried taking down Rathalos in the first game, I set up a pitfall trap, put some raw meat on it, and hid in a bush for like 10 minutes. Nothing. Setting up the potential for more scenarios like that feels more like hunting than 4 dudes bursting out of some boat and hacking a dragon to pieces with giant weapons.

That is to say, of course, that the game we have now isn't lacking fun or isn't great. I'm just thinking of ways it could be more great, naturally, haha.

[KDR_11k]

I think I've seen the Rathalos attack herbivores even before I fought it, it gets hungry every few minutes if left alone. That's pretty much the extend of it and I'm really annoyed that monsters like the Rhenoplos always attack you instead of the giant monster you're fighting. The Felynes are the worst of the bunch, supposedly they're harmless unless disturbed but it doesn't matter what disturbs them, they always attack YOU. Barroth ruined their camp fire? Doesn't matter, they'll try to kill YOU.

[HectorMeyer]

What annoys me the most is that monsters seem to select their targets completely random for every attack. While it's of course good that the attacks are unpredictable and no designated tanker is possible, it still makes it too easy since monsters almost always give you room to breathe after one or two attacks.

Monsters should at some times during a fight pick a target and focus on it for the next 10 attacks or so.

The zones system is actually very well done in my opinion, it gives a great illusion of an open, free world (e.g. the open desert), while delivering great visuals.