Zero Punctuation: Monster Hunter Tri

[duchaked]

That game looks awesome lol. I was hoping for Red Dead Redemption but one would have to stop playing it to review it, which could be difficult.

yeah I thought it was gonna be RDR cuz I think he Tweeted about it
but maybe he decided to keep playing it like he did with ME2

 

[TheGreenGoblin]

I want to thank Mr. Yahtzee personally (that is, cyber-personally) for finally blasting the "Use Obscure Enemy Item Drops To Power Up Your Weapon" system. You never know when or if to sell something, therefore you are constantly strapped for gold even at the endgame. Last Remnant is the criminal mastermind in that outfit, often asking you to fetch components that turn out to be 20 hours away from you, followed by another 20 hours of grinding.

FF13 is guilty of that too, but at least any item drop can power up any weapon via the experience point system. But still, the best stuff in the game takes too much grinding to get.

 

[solidstatemind]

Big long snip

Excuse me, but I am not asking anyone to behave "how I wish them to". Perhaps if you took a moment and actually read my statements rather than merely seeing the avatar, making assumptions that I'm a fanboy mindlessly defending Yahtzee, and resorting to ad hominem attacks ('spoilt brat'), you should've quickly realized that I did not excoriate anyone for actually disagreeing with Yahtzee's opinion: I took issue with those that felt that his methodology was wrong. Well that and those QQing about how he's somehow brainwashing people. So, to clarify, I am asking people to not project their expectations and demands for his efforts (such as 'play it longer' or 'play multiplayer') in a way they have no right to, particularly in those aspects which the author has previously stated he is uninterested in pursuing-- and of course, give credit that other posters here might actually have a brain and free will... both of which, I believe, are entirely reasonable attitudes to have.

It's Zero Punctuation, by Ben 'Yahtzee' Crowshaw. As the creator, he's permitted to determine his methods and parameters as he sees fit. He is not required to abide by anyone's standards but his own. It is up to the viewer to weigh this information when they determine how seriously they take his opinion. (Which, by the way, is 'not very' in my case. I knew he was sizing up this game for vivisection with a chainsaw before he even opened the box, since it's on the Wii, which he loathes. Are you not familar enough with his work to know that? Why should I have to listen to your moaning if that is the case? Again: that's a YOU problem.)

As far as word of mouth is concerned, while once a long time ago a ZP review may have had an impact, I'm pretty sure that is no longer the case. My friends who aren't into ZP write him off as a curmudgeon, and frankly, most of my friends who watch ZP do as well. We all feel that Metacritic is far more sensible and influential a source for purchasing decisions... which, hey! Isn't that yet another argument as to why it is reasonable to think of ZP as entertainment and not a legitimate review?

And no, you clearly do not recognize my avatar or my "overly agressive post style"; I am supportive as often as I am critical. And when I am critical, it inevitably involves people being egocentric, myopic, hystronic, illogical, devisive, and/or prejudiced. When this occurs, I do tend to give it to them with both barrels, as I have an extremely low tolerance for people who display those traits. Unfortunately, I have bad news for you: you can't simultaneously tell me that I can't disagree with other peoples opinions and attitudes and then attempt to castigate me for having an opinion and/or an attitude you disagree with.

...and when I do bother to go to 4chan's /v/ board...

Also, I don't tend to post on The Escapist - this place is a foul and cursed wasteland.

Thank you for this. I got a great laugh out of it. Oh, and thank you for not posting very often since, via this passage...

I just think that it might be an idea to check other sources of reviews and possibly try the game yourself before condemning it, or any other game Yahtzee's criticized. I'd say this about any singular source of news - doublecheck it with two or three places, possibly your friends who've investigated it. Get more than one review about things.

...it is clear that you didn't even read enough to comprehend that one of the main premises of my original post was that Yahtzee's 'reviews' should not be taken seriously, particularly when the game in question heavily involves one of those aspects of gaming (such as multiplayer) that he has clearly and repeatedly stated he is uninterested in... that people should probably look elsewhere for a more honest critique in such situations, and not waste their time bitching and moaning that Yahtzee is somehow 'wrong' for holding the opinion that those aspects are without value to him.

 

[viking97]

aw man i thought he was gonna do red dead redemption, another sequel with a word at the end starting with re. i think he'll like it tho, seems his kinda game.

 

[AwesomeFerret]

No mention of the online and/or multiplayer aspect? Still good episode as always.

On a side note to people actually take what Yatzee says at face value? I mean you'd have to be pretty silly to do that since if you did every game apart from Adventure Island Dizzy would be shit and you'd never play anything, ever.

I agree completely with what you say, I mean I personally love Monster Hunter, and obviously he just didn't put in the effort the game needs, because I know how good it it. Its worrying to see just how many people can be put off a game based on one of Ben's reviews.

 

[AngryBritishAce]

lol awesome reveiw, I don't want to TRI this game lol

but I hope yahtzee does alan wake next, despight it's a awesome game, I want to see yahtzee rip the shit out of it, as ever!

 

[fesc]

Yahtzee, what do you think of the upcoming Bulletstorm? It's made by Epic Games and People Can Fly.

Also, where the fuck is Red Dead Redemption?

 

[Tom Phoenix]

I don't understand the point Yahtzee is trying to make about Japanese gamers. It's not like gamers outside Japan are any less likely to play "cutesy", non-violent games. The popularity of things like Farmville and Wii Fitness Resort proves this. If anything, Harvest Moon is at least marginally better then Farmville since you won't spend real-life money for it.

Plus, considering the fact that Japan is the home of many violent video games, I would say that Japanese gamers have a better stomach for it then non-Japanese gamers.

 

[Wolcik]

I played the previous game of that style and to be honest - Pokemon on GBA is more interesting XD

 

[Dreyfuss]

There are no Kut-Kus in monster hunter tri, and Rathalos is pretty close to endgame for offline. I doubt he even got to the Great Jaggi, though.

They changed the monster progression? That's kind of lame... Yeah, I haven't played it yet, Starcraft 2 is eating up all my time, but I've spent a ton of time on Freedom and Unite, and I know MH3 isn't that much different. Still can't believe they took out Kut-Kus...

Dreyfuss:

You and I both know that gathering isn't 1/100th of the game. It's more like 99/100th of the game.

I was talking about 1/100 of the game length. That would be obvious if you weren't trying so hard to strawman me. He didn't even get past 1* village quests from the sound of it. Gathering is 1/2 the game, and 1/2 of the gathering drops off monsters, so 3/4s of the game is hunting monsters, which is awesome, and the other 1/4 is simulation stuff to make it feel more authentic, which is also awesome unless you're only interested in godmod games give you laser eyes and point you at a horde of worthless peons that can barely fight. That's supposed to be fun?

Monster Hunter Tri is a grinding game. I despise grinding games. But I wanted to give Monster Hunter Tri a chance because I thought it would be different. I thought it would be different because in Monster Hunter Tri, you only grind armor. This is opposed to every other grinding game, where you grind levels in addition to armor. Monster Hunter Tri is also a challenging game. And I love challenging games. But in the end, I was disappointed.

Offline and Low-Rank Online modes have tolerable levels of grind. But High-Rank Online is a grind fest. It is a grind fest because you will inevitably encounter equipment that requires items that have a low drop rate - Around a 10% chance or less. And this is equipment you can't skip out on either. Expect to fight the same boss monster 20+ times just for one item.

An example of the grind fest that is High-Rank Online - I fought a boss monster 12 times just for one item in High-Rank Online. The worst part is, this was for an item that is supposed to be common - Lagiarcus Horn+. Lagiarcus Horn+ is supposed to have a 40% chance to drop. It took me 7 regular Horns, 2 Lagiarcus Plates, and 2 Lagia Sapphires before I got one Horn+. And the items I just mentioned have a drop rate that is 20% or less. And I still needed 3 more Horn+ to make the item I needed. I didn't feel like playing anymore after that.

Kind of creepy that you have my initials for a screen name... but regardless, you do know that the same monster has different drop rates at different Hunter Ranks, right? You were probably fighting the monster at a lower HR than the guide you were reading was written for.

 

[AngryBritishAce]

No mention of the online and/or multiplayer aspect? Still good episode as always.

On a side note to people actually take what Yatzee says at face value? I mean you'd have to be pretty silly to do that since if you did every game apart from Adventure Island Dizzy would be shit and you'd never play anything, ever.

I agree completely with what you say, I mean I personally love Monster Hunter, and obviously he just didn't put in the effort the game needs, because I know how good it it. Its worrying to see just how many people can be put off a game based on one of Ben's reviews.

Actually i think he likes the games really, but we love him for his anger. If he tried to do a reveiw where he explains how brilliant it is, I think we would lose intrest and stop watching him.

Not saying he likes monster hunter, god no, but games like God of War III, CoD MW2, ect. If he hated all games, do you really think he would become a games revewier?

 

[Enlong]

Huh. How far did Yahtzee actually play the game for? 'Cause I know that mission he described near the end of the review, where you're suddenly ambushed by one of the high-end monsters. That was one of the 1-star quests. The lowest-end stuff. A few quests into the 2-star stuff (which comes swift on the heels of that mission) gets you into the actual hunting of the big monsters, which is the point of the game. I dunno, it seems kind of off to me.

 

[TyrannoTitan]

Also: If people would actually look up reviews about the game coming from others, they'd find that the reviews are completely positive. Its stupid to base your opinion on only Yahtzee's reviews. We know he only talks about the game's flaws because that's what people find funny.

And even in this review, he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about...

 

[Atmos Duality]

I dunno, maybe I'm just a fanboy and I can't tell it, but I thought I was being far more reasonable than the average poster, despite defending the game.

Fanboys are not reasonable in the slightest. That's the biggest difference. Fanboys just don't accept any form of criticism because heaven forbid they change their opinion EVER.
You're being reasonable, ergo, not a fanboy.

My problem with the responses to Zero Punctuation (why I don't bother responding normally) is because Yahtzee is first and foremost an entertainer; you can never assume you're getting the whole picture. One week is what he has to work with after all. You can't really take everything he says seriously, while at the same time, he does have some objective points in his reviews that make it worth watching.

And yet we get angry people who assume that Yahtzee shit all over their favored game/series for . Then there are other people who mock these displeased masses for taking Yahtzee seriously at all.
Both of which is disappointing because amidst all of his mockery there is still objective content and some sound reasoning. Separate facts from opinions.

For example, on this week's episode...
I can tell that Yahtzee did not get to the actual hunting part of Monster Hunter (which has the obvious criticism of not putting the hunts front and center, anti-grinding blah blah blah). He focused exclusively on the parts he didn't like because they were the most evident.
Whoa! Stop the presses! I mean, what critic has ever done THAT before?!

Still, I agree with his objective statements. The game does play like one of those god-awful MMOs, and having to construct your weapons and armor can be incredibly boring. Capcom should just try easing the player into the game rather than indoctrinating him into grinding his way in. Adding the farm into Unite worked wonders for cutting down on the in-mission grind while still preserving the need to make good choices with the resources you have.

But here's a shock: That isn't the main part of the game! Actually hunting the big monsters with a limited arsenal is.

There is but a taste of that in the video, and I seriously doubt Yahtzee has the time to actually get around to it. A shame, but that's how it goes.
Fact is, nobody should be losing sleep over whether an internet critic likes or dislikes a game, but by the same logic nobody should be mocking anyone over it either.

 

[Stabby Joe]

The think most amusing about the "Classic Controller Pro" is that it's a lot like the PlayStation controller... which Sony BTW is developing a motion controller like the Wii's.

So basically, Sony and Nintendo are ripping eachother off.

 

[florrmassa]

I expected as much from Yahtzee, but I am really surprised about the lack of complaining about no lock-on, controls and difficulty like the rest of the idiot critics. No complaining about flexing after healing? He must have never even made it to a boss. This is a game that takes 100 hours to get a feel for, and once you do it's one of the best games you ever played. In that sense it's definitely not a game for everyone, especially people like Yahtzee. Excuse me while I sink away into the elitist subculture dedicated to this series...

 

[yoz13]

Great review although I think you had the opposite effect on me... I really want to get this game now

 

[UMNiK]

Fuck me, how long can you rant about the repetition?.. Its like there is nothing else in the game! And there should be some menus.

 

[Enlong]

But here's a shock: That isn't the main part of the game! Actually hunting the big monsters with a limited arsenal is.

There is but a taste of that in the video, and I seriously doubt Yahtzee has the time to actually get around to it. A shame, but that's how it goes.

Exactly what I was thinking. The closest he gets to describing an actual hunting mission was recounting that 1-star mission where the Lagiacrus ambushes you. It's a pity really, as he would've gotten into his first big hunting mission in just a few misisons if he'd kept going.

 

[Nomanslander]

Well I can see how the Red Dead Redemption review is going to turn out since that games is also partially a hunting sim...0o