Monster Hunter Tri is a worthy experience for both newcomers and fans of the franchise in equal measure.
Monster Hunter Tri follows the career of a player-created Hunter in a small, ramshackle seaside community known as Moga Village. And you could not have come at a more appropriate time. A sea monster, known as Lagiacrus, has made its home near the premises, causing a fair degree of earthquakes and gripping the people of Moga in a state of fear and unrest. If you have played previous Monster Hunter games before, you will no doubt draw upon your vast experiences in dealing with this daunting dask of permanently evicting Lagiacrus from both its new nesting grounds and the threshold of existence. If you're new to the Hunter business, there is no need to concern yourself with the matter straight away-you'll have plenty of time and opportunities to learn the ropes. However, regardless of your level of skill, in order to have any chance at all of succeeding and proclaiming your victory rites, you'll have to develop your character by making yourself comfortable in a brand new ecosystem, which expands upon the worlds of previous games. Monster Hunter Tri's environments are lush, tropical vistas brimming with gorgeous fauna, crystal clear river embankments, foreboding deserts, and vast oceans. As you negotiate the intricacies and doubtless wonders of a strange new world, your character is given the chance to swim in the depths of oceans and lakebeds-something that wasn't possible in previous games---to hunt sea creatures and explore underwater environments for as long as you have the sustainable oxygen remaining. You must also carry a torch when navigating caverns encroached by darkness-an adventuring grievance that slipped past in Monster Hunters old.
For both experienced hunters and greenhorns to the Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Tri has a tremendous amount to offer. The offline Single Player mode allows you the means to explore the world as you see fit without the irritating contingencies of a time limit that plagued most Hunters during optional and mandatory Quests. In other words, you don't need to be involved in a quest when you're farming for important materials and killing monsters , and you're able to loot your fair share of the rarest spoils and coin much more conveniently. In fact, this open-ended exploration also serves an important purpose---resource points. For each passing of the sun and moon, different monsters tend to appear during different times of the day and on different days. Specific monsters award a variable amount of resource points which can be used to gather rare materials and aid in the development of Moga Village's only stationary farm. At any rate, the opportunity to freely explore the world at your own leisure is a welcome boon to veteran Monster Hunter players and newcomers to the series.
In fact, when you first start out, you'll spend much of your time-as much as you'd like-getting your fet weet in the world around you, as a mandatory tutorial wills it so. Right off the bat, you will not have your hunting camp readily available, as a recent earthquake caused by Lagiacrus brought serious damage to an existing plot you had been given. You will also not have access to your first Quests until you've progressed significantly in the beginning tutorials, but for the most part, players new to the series will have many of their questions answered long before they are handed the first Quest order. Once the tutorial settles you in and makes you feel at home, Monster Hunter Tri truly begins in earnest. The traditional Questings, forging of armor, cooking of food by resourceful Felynes, and everything else that has defined this franchise will come into play and hit you like a Diablos going five-hundred miles an hour. Weapons such as Lances, Bowguns, Swords and Great Swords make a return from previous games, with some disappointing omissions like the Gunlance and Dual Blades from Unite. But an interesting new weapon fills that void-a Switch Axe, which changes its form at will from sword to axe depending on the situation. As before, Hunters can craft, upgrade and build their own sets of armor and weapons, benefitting greatly from all the resources they gathered in the field. (i.e., monster bones, skins, etc.) Needless to say, Monster Hunter Tri encourages the player in crafting their own armor and weapons rather than just simply purchasing them from that second-hand store around the corner. This sort of thing is what heightens the overall Monster Hunter experience as a whole; rewarding the hard and often difficult work on behalf of the player in ways most other gamers might never have thought of.
But the butter in the bread of Monster Hunter Tri is the Online mode. As is the case with previous games in the franchise, players can get together with other hunters over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection to take part in online-exclusive quests (with more being added post-launch by Capcom) for up to four willing partitioners. Best of all, the online is free of charge. These quests tend to be more difficult than those found offline, which is why they emphasize the need for more than one Hunter. (Of course, you can take them solo-that is, if you fancy being a braggart with nothing to lose.) Nevertheless, playing with others can be a lot of fun, and communication is no longer limited to a keyboard---the Wii Speak peripheral is an excellent addition that allows you to voice-chat with your friends and allies. An all-new Arena mode has also been introduced---a truncated, two-player local only means of play that has a friend import their MH character from their console to yours so you can take part in quests together. Although it is nowhere near as thrilling as playing online, it is a nice touch for fellow Hunters when they visit one another in the same house (or if for some reason neither party's Wii console has access to an Internet or Wi Fi connection.)
There has been much ire drawn by the decision to port the third iteration of the Monster Hunter franchise to the Nintendo Wii rather than a more powerful console like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Because of budget constraints and high-development costs associated with the latter, the choice was made, and for what it's worth, Monster Hunter Tri delivers in every way a gorgeous and beautifully crafted world. The graphics are absolutely incredible, and the monsters themselves are every bit as enormous and menacing as you expect them to be. Disappointingly, there is still no means of a targeting system, which often makes attacking monsters (especially when aiming with a Bowgun), more trouble than it's worth. Still though, different configurations make play control more streamlined and easier in many respects. Using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to experience Monster Hunter isn't the same as that of a traditional controller, but it works to some degree. However, if you insist on the traditional means, the option to use the Classic Controller and the new Classic Controller Pro are available on the outset. My personal opinion on the matter is this--- the Classic Controller Pro works the best because if you have played Monster Hunter on the PS2 and found that scheme comfortable, you'll no doubt warm right in with this arrangement. Thus, its inclusion in Tri is much appreciated. The music is every bit as gorgeous and arousing as the environments and the monsters than walk among them, playing only during intense moments, but throughout much of your exploration, you will have to take in the soothing ambience of blowing winds, rushing water, the sparse cries of wayward Felynes and the deafening roars of very angry monsters.
The Monster Hunter series has yet to enjoy the phenomenal success here in the West as it does so fervently in the East, but from the looks of things, it is slowly getting there with a cult following and a dedicated fan base willing to make that happen. That said, there is a lot to appreciate and like about Monster Hunter Tri-for both fans of the games and newcomers. A robust world, seamless online play, wonderful solo opportunities and challenging quests cater to many expectations, pulling it all off in a manner that only Monster Hunter itself can do, and will continue to do for as long as the series is willing to exist. Whether or not you're experienced in the ways of the Hunter life, this is a game you'd do well to play for yourself.