I've been watching this thread for the last few days and have made to effort to actually read all the posts here.
As misinformation is being spread I feel obliged to post my experience with the game.
For the record:
I'm new to the Monster Hunter series and never hear of it until the MH3 was announced for the Wii.
Right now I have spend about 75 hours with the singleplayer mode, but barely scratched multiplayer, as I'd like to start over with 2 friends.
As most of the points have been covered pretty good by milskidasith, I'd like to give as few redundant information as possible, but still give my opinion on the most improtant points.
MMORPG&Grinding aspect:
From what I keep hearing, most of you haven't ever come near any MMORPG and seem to have a faulty definition of grinding.
My MMORPG time are long over, but I had enough time to gather experience with Ragnarok Online, where you grind months until the game starts to be remotely fun, Dark Age of Camelot, which is similar but has an interesting setting/world and World of Warcraft, which covers up grinding quite well until you read endgame, which is the worst of all 3.
What I'm trying to say that MH3 contains a minor amount of grinding, which is mostly optional.
I could have beaten 80% of the singleplayer game just using 2 armorsets (Quropecco and Baggi), from bosses which are quite easy.
Hell I even could have left out the secound one and instead upgrade the first one with armor spheres, which you have in galore.
The few points of armor you will miss out in comparison with the higher sets don't matter anyway, since the most important things that armor gives you are armor skills.
I'm saying "could have", because I'm a collector, which enjoys getting new armor and loves crafting.
As several people have already stated, you get a farm and boats quite early in singleplayer, which supply you you most of the ingredients needed, besides monster parts.
Furthermore reapeating bosses in MH3 isn't tedious, as you might know it from MMORPGS.
Each monster is unique and poses a challenge, even you have beaten it multiple times.
It may be hard to describe, but it feels a bit like when you play one of this highscore based arcade games and then start over thinking "I can do better than this!".
The first time you fight a boss, without using any of the tools it may take anything between 20-40 minutes, depending on how good you are.
Fighting it this way, lets you learn its movment patterns and develop strategies.
If you really are not in the mood for a long fight, or want to farm that monster you can bring bombs, traps and gimmicks (produced by your farm, or bought in the shop, so no extra effort needed) you can beat a monster in as short as ten minutes.
If you don't believe me watch this guys videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/SocialDissonance#g/u
He doesn't use any overpowered equipment, just basic stuff you can have when you meet the monster the first time.
About the tutorial:
I don't even see the point in defending it.
For me it has been a part of the experience, nothing tedious to find there at all.
I really enjoyed to go and explore the Moga Woods for the first time, watch the wildlife and look at the beautifully designed areas.
Everything apart from that has already been said.
You will get to fight giant monsters soon enough, just use the time before it to get used to the controls and grasp the game mechanics.
About console elitism:
You don't like the Wii? Fine with me, as long as you don't run around insulting it.
The Wii may not be on par graphic wise, with the XBox, the Playstation and the PC, but that's fine too.
While the latter 3 focus on getting more pixels, shaders and whatnot, the Wii can focus on innovation, playability and fun.
Claming the Wii is a kids console only, featuring no "hardcore games", is also nonsense.
I have already played a ood bunch of games on it, which were more challenging, than most of the games that come out for PC nowadays.
The game has the same right to exist on the Wii as on any other console.
AverageJoe said:
Judging by your posts, I think you get a kick out of being condescending. Nice subtle way of attacking someone. Making your insults sound clever doesn't make them any less insulting to people.
Reported, anyway. I'm sick of seeing shit like this on the forum.
Have you even read all of his posts?
He stayed calm and reasonable for over a dozen pages, while people keep spouting nonsense and completely ignoring his valid arguments.
This would make anyone angry.
@milskidasith:
Nice to see another Urist around here.
Do you mind telling me, under which username you are being active at bay12games?