Zero Punctuation: Monster Hunter Tri

[KelsieKatt]

So, it has an hour long tutorial? Since when is that "fairly slow"? That's unimaginably slow. And I'm assuming you only saying you could ignore it and jump into online play or the arena mode means you can't just skip it and do the other single player parts?

Unfortunately no, you can't. Which I would agree is annoying as fuck, considering that I've been playing the series since the first game so I already know what I'm doing, which is extremely tedious if I just want to kill stuff. >_<

It would be nice if they would remember these kinds of things when trying to dumb stuff down for casual players, as there should be an option to skip past the entire segment if you already know what you're doing. -_-

 

[mike1921]

So, it has an hour long tutorial? Since when is that "fairly slow"? That's unimaginably slow. And I'm assuming you only saying you could ignore it and jump into online play or the arena mode means you can't just skip it and do the other single player parts?

Unfortunately no, you can't. Which I would agree is annoying as fuck, considering that I've been playing the series since the first game so I already know what I'm doing, which is extremely tedious if I just want to kill stuff. >_<

If the tutorial lasts significantly longer than oblivion's, and I can't skip it, and the tutorial itself isn't fun, for me that's enough of a reason not to even consider renting a game.

It would be nice if they would remember these kinds of things when trying to dumb stuff down for casual players, as there should be an option to skip past the entire segment if you already know what you're doing. -_-

Judging by yahtzee's opinion of the game (or you say the tutorial), it was a bad idea whether you know what you're doing or not.

 

[KelsieKatt]

If the tutorial lasts significantly longer than oblivion's, and I can't skip it, and the tutorial itself isn't fun, for me that's enough of a reason not to even consider renting a game.

Well, I can't exactly blame you for feeling that way, although, in the end I still personally feel the other dozens and dozens of hours worth of gameplay is worthwhile in the end.

 

[Autocracy]

There is something to be said when the PS3 and 360 high five each other.

 

[Motakikurushi]

I AM A SERIOUS REVIEWER

I MAKE MONEY OFF OF PLAYING A GAME FOR AN HOUR, THEN JUDGE THE ENTIRE GAME FROM THIS EXPERICENCE

WATCH ME ROAR

RAAAH

CAPS LOCK! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!
Are we seriously doubting Yahtzee's opinion because he didn't play it fully? That would take fucking hours, years, millenia even. I played FFXIII fully and regretted it. If I'd have given up on it 5 hours in like Yahtzee did I would have missed nothing. You see, Monster Hunter is a game that cannot be beaten. It makes you think it is possible, but it isn't. Besides, games are supposed to be entertaining from the moment you pop them into a console. Not 10 hours in. Where is the initial hook? Why should I spend time or money on a game that is neither immediately engaging, interesting or fun? I've read books that are more engaging than Monster Hunter.

 

[Count Igor]

Ha, another good one.
Of course. I'd be a complete moron to use his videos as a proper review (Except if he likes them, then that makes me want it.)

But, the compaining seems like the hate mail he got from SSB Brawl.
He's good at gaming, he likes to complain about things, and he mentioned about the monster that of course it was too hard for him to beat, but he wasn't exactly pissing himself about it. (Literaly) <-- That was in response to the first comment I saw, page 13 or something.

But anyway, nice video, as always.

 

[KelsieKatt]

But, the compaining seems like the hate mail he got from SSB Brawl.
He's good at gaming, he likes to complain about things, and he mentioned about the monster that of course it was too hard for him to beat, but he wasn't exactly pissing himself about it. (Literaly) <-- That was in response to the first comment I saw, page 13 or something.

But anyway, nice video, as always.

Well, the part in particular that he mentioned about the sea serpent boss, wasn't actually a boss mission. It's part of the tutorial in which they have that enemy appear and the instructor tells you "Oh crap. It's the sea monster that destroyed the village. Run for your life." Which is exactly what you do, as you're not supposed to fight it because it's much too powerful for that to even be possible at the time.

That's about it. The reason why it never showed up again while he was standing by the water, was that was only for demonstration purposes, and you don't actually bump into it in any other mission until much later in the game.

 

[Count Igor]

Snip

Well, the part in particular that he mentioned about the sea serpent boss, wasn't actually a boss mission. It's part of the tutorial in which they have that enemy appear and the instructor tells you "Oh crap. It's the sea monster that destroyed the village. Run for your life."

That's about it. The reason why it never showed up again while he was standing by the water, was that was only for demonstration purposes, and you don't actually bump into it in any other mission until much later in the game.

That does make sense. But alot of people would wait there for a while, and play the game wondering what the hell happened to continuiety now-a-days

 

[Kage Me]

"Hey, Yahtzee's reviewing Monster Hunter Tri. I wonder if he'll complain about the Wii. Again."

(...)

"Well, what do you know. He almost made it all the way through."

 

[KelsieKatt]

That does make sense. But alot of people would wait there for a while, and play the game wondering what the hell happened to continuiety now-a-days

Yeah, it's a bit confusing at first, as the initial map that you load up and do quests on stays fairly similar (aside from a few changing monsters, which someone probably wouldn't even notice) for the first few hours before you open up alternate levels. So, it's not surprisingly that people might assume it to be identical every single time or label it as some kind of open world. However, that's not the case at all since the monsters within a level change drastically depending on the mission, and there are several different types of levels as well. Like snow, volcano, swamp, desert, etc.

 

[Count Igor]

That does make sense. But alot of people would wait there for a while, and play the game wondering what the hell happened to continuiety now-a-days

Yeah, it's a bit confusing at first, as the initial map that you load up and do quests on stays fairly similar (aside from a few changing monsters, which someone probably wouldn't even notice) for the first few hours before you open up alternate levels. So, it's not surprisingly that people might assume it to be identical every single time or label it as some kind of open world. However, that's not the case at all since the monsters within a level change drastically depending on the mission, and there are several different types of levels as well. Like snow, volcano, swamp, desert, etc.

To be honest, I'm on the fence about getting it.

I'm taking it you like it?

 

[cynicalsaint1]

This really has to be his most half-assed review ever. Now I'm not mad that he trashed the game, I saw that coming a mile away, this sort of game is totally not the kind of thing that he's going to like. I'll give him that the game starts out slow as hell, and I almost gave up on it myself - but I stuck it out till I hit the 3* quests then things started really picking up, and then I tried some online hunting and had a load of fun.

While overall I enjoy the game, and hunting big-ass monsters with my friends online is fun enough that I'm willing to forgive many of the negatives, there are a ton of things that he could have picked on, but the only thing he really touched on was the fact that the game starts out really !@#$ing slow (which I'll give him, I really was on the brink of giving it up before I started finally getting into it). So instead of an amusing examination of all the problems the game has, it just seems lazy and half-assed to me, and a perfect example of why I don't really take him all that seriously as a game critic. And I was really looking forward to this one too.

Too bad. Hopefully next week's will be better.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Wow, Yahtzee completely missed the point of the game. Me thinks he didn't play long enough to fight some of the bigger monsters.

People always say things like this, but the problem is that if it isn't good enough to keep you interested in the game, then it isn't a well developed game. It's much like Stephen King's "IT." If you're willing to read the first five hundred pages, then you might actually get to the part that most people consider good. The problem is keeping the reader engaged for the first five hundred pages of a thousand page book. In that aspect, King failed. To me, just as that book was a failure, so is any game that you put some serious play time into, but it's just after you finally give up out of sheer boredom that it's supposed to be good.

Exactly. I tried reading IT, but I couldn't get past page 50 before being bored to death. Games like this and prototype where you start of with weak weapons and it gets more fun the further in you get can't compare to games like Alan Wake and Doom where it starts off fun and gets better. Don't get me wrong, prototype is really fun once you get something besides the claws power. However, that's about 5 minutes, whereas Monster Hunter Tri, as I've heard, takes about an hour and a half of gameplay before that happens.

 

[KelsieKatt]

To be honest, I'm on the fence about getting it.

I'm taking it you like it?

Personally, I like it a lot. Although, I realize that it's the kind of game that may very well not appeal to a lot of people. As it's essentially a one trick pony that focuses entirely around boss fights, boss fights, and more boss fights. And personally, I love boss fights, a lot. So, that works great for me, especially considering that it's one of the few games I can play in 4 player coop as well (said coop also have significantly more content than the single player campaign, which isn't even available offline), so for me, all around I enjoy most of it a lot. Other than that, I also like the tactical nature of the combat system as it's not simply a game where you can just charge in and wail on stuff, as that sort of strategy is likely to get you killed in a span of seconds. Attacks take a fairly realistic amount of time per swing and you need to plan before doing so, otherwise you could leave yourself vulnerable, and of course there's the whole recognizing different tactics that the bosses employ and using them to your advantage.

In that particular respect, namely the tactical nature of the combat, it reminds me a lot of Demon's Souls, which is another game I got a lot of enjoyment out of. However, once again, I can see why many people might hate it.

Although, if boss fights, coop, tactics, etc... aren't someone's thing, chances are they won't enjoy it even remotely. So, it's not the kind of game I would recommend to just anyone.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Exactly. I tried reading IT, but I couldn't get past page 50 before being bored to death. Games like this and prototype where you start of with weak weapons and it gets more fun the further in you get can't compare to games like Alan Wake and Doom where it starts off fun and gets better. Don't get me wrong, prototype is really fun once you get something besides the claws power. However, that's about 5 minutes, whereas Monster Hunter Tri, as I've heard, takes about an hour and a half of gameplay before that happens.

I get this, I really do - but when your entire review is basically "The game started off too slow for me to get into, and I gave up before things started getting good" what's the point of even making an entire review in the first place?

Yes, I think the game taking too long to get into the real meat of the game is a very valid complaint. But an entire review where this is really the only point made is just lazy.

 

[Count Igor]

To be honest, I'm on the fence about getting it.

I'm taking it you like it?

Personally, I like it a lot. Although, I realize that it's the kind of game that may very well not appeal to a lot of people. As it's essentially a one trick pony that focuses entirely around boss fights, boss fights, and more boss fights. And personally, I love boss fights, a lot. So, that works great for me, especially considering that it's one of the few games I can play in 4 player coop as well (said coop also have significantly more content than the single player campaign, which isn't even available offline), so for me, all around I enjoy most of it a lot. Other than that, I also like the tactical nature of the combat system as it's not simply a game where you can just charge in and wail on stuff, as that sort of strategy is likely to get you killed in a span of seconds. Attacks take a fairly realistic amount of time per swing and you need to plan before doing so, otherwise you could leave yourself vulnerable, and of course there's the whole recognizing different tactics that the bosses employ and using them to your advantage.

In that particular respect, namely the tactical nature of the combat, it reminds me a lot of Demon's Souls, which is another game I got a lot of enjoyment out of. However, once again, I can see why many people might hate it.

Although, if boss fights, coop, tactics, etc... aren't someone's thing, chances are they won't enjoy it even remotely. So, it's not the kind of game I would recommend to just anyone.

Sounds like it'd be one of my top games if I got it.
I dooo lurv to strategise.

Well, I'm off to buy it... at some point in the future. Thanks

 

[mike1921]

"Hey, Yahtzee's reviewing Monster Hunter Tri. I wonder if he'll complain about the Wii. Again."

(...)

"Well, what do you know. He almost made it all the way through."

Why shouldn't he complain about the wii? Due to the nature of the console it is extremely relevant to any game that is on it.

 

[crypt-creature]

Why shouldn't he complain about the wii? Due to the nature of the console it is extremely relevant to any game that is on it.

In this case, the fact the game is on the Wii isn't really that big of a deal. At all.
What he complains about are minute things, the load times are long in every version of MH that has ever been produced (people saying it doesn't have a good enough processor for this type of game don't know what they're talking about).
The fact that you can use a 'classic' controller, and that you can get the game with one (which is different, it has 'handles' like a PS2 controller) makes it easier for normal, casual, or 'hardcore' gamer to use.

The console itself doesn't exactly hinder the game or experience, and affects very little.

 

[milskidasith]

If the tutorial lasts significantly longer than oblivion's, and I can't skip it, and the tutorial itself isn't fun, for me that's enough of a reason not to even consider renting a game.

It's 15 minutes of stuff that's boring, and 45 minutes of doing missions that involve fighting minion monsters that attack you, before you get to the actual bosses.

Judging by yahtzee's opinion of the game (or you say the tutorial), it was a bad idea whether you know what you're doing or not.

Yahtzees opinion is based on not reading what the game says (it says "OH NO THIS IS THE GIANT END BOSS FLEE", not "Oh look, a big monster. Maybe another will show up if you wait in rank one missions instead of actually playing the game."), and playing... well, it doesn't even seem as if he got to the mission to hunt Jaggis, which is 15 minutes into the game, and he certainly didn't reach the first boss. I consider it more likely it's due to laziness than the fact he really couldn't be assed to play 15 minutes.

 

[mike1921]

Why shouldn't he complain about the wii? Due to the nature of the console it is extremely relevant to any game that is on it.

In this case, the fact the game is on the Wii isn't really that big of a deal. At all.
What he complains about are minute things, the load times are long in every version of MH that has ever been produced (people saying it doesn't have a good enough processor for this type of game don't know what they're talking about).
The fact that you can use a 'classic' controller, and that you can get the game with one (which is different, it has 'handles' like a PS2 controller) makes it easier for normal, casual, or 'hardcore' gamer to use.

The console itself doesn't exactly hinder the game or experience, and affects very little.

So, if the game was on another console or the PC , and it had a faster processor, would the load times be reduced?

The fact that you can use another controller means the game shouldn't be on the wii. The wii's only selling point is motion controls. If a game that doesn't need motion controls is being made I don't think it belongs as a wii-exclusive title. Especially if it'll have load time problems on the wii.