So the series which eventually got me into Demon's Souls with its unforgiving and methodical combat is finally coming not only to non-portable consoles, but also, shockingly, PC...
Monster Hunter is a series about killing large monsters then using their corpses to make equipment to kill even larger and deadlier monsters. It is massively popular in Japan but hasn't really managed to catch on in the West. Those of you who played the Souls games will be pretty familiar with the combat style - you analyze the patterns of your foe while guarding, rolling and taking attacks of opportunity to finally down them. The Souls games are a bit more quick-and-dirty compared to Monster Hunter though - hunts usually comprise about 10 minutes of combat, and can be half an hour or more for the more difficult monsters. In between hunting, you can scour the area for crafting materials and hunt smaller monsters for the same. The game also relies a lot more heavily on your inventory - the items you bring into battle are absolutely essential, and can range from traps that will disable a monster to flash bombs to temporarily blind it (if it has eyes) or sonic bombs to exploit any noise-sensitive weaknesses. Monsters all have individual weaknesses and resistances that can be exploited in combat with these items.
The series has never failed to deliver on its core gameplay, so Monster Hunter World is definitely one to keep your eye on if there's a Souls-shaped void in your gaming schedule.
Monster Hunter is a series about killing large monsters then using their corpses to make equipment to kill even larger and deadlier monsters. It is massively popular in Japan but hasn't really managed to catch on in the West. Those of you who played the Souls games will be pretty familiar with the combat style - you analyze the patterns of your foe while guarding, rolling and taking attacks of opportunity to finally down them. The Souls games are a bit more quick-and-dirty compared to Monster Hunter though - hunts usually comprise about 10 minutes of combat, and can be half an hour or more for the more difficult monsters. In between hunting, you can scour the area for crafting materials and hunt smaller monsters for the same. The game also relies a lot more heavily on your inventory - the items you bring into battle are absolutely essential, and can range from traps that will disable a monster to flash bombs to temporarily blind it (if it has eyes) or sonic bombs to exploit any noise-sensitive weaknesses. Monsters all have individual weaknesses and resistances that can be exploited in combat with these items.
The series has never failed to deliver on its core gameplay, so Monster Hunter World is definitely one to keep your eye on if there's a Souls-shaped void in your gaming schedule.
