Monster Hunter is addicting but it can be brutal.
Monster Hunter can be an extremely frustrating experience, but dying 3 times in a row to the same monster, to finally defeat him on your 4th go around can be one of the most rewarding experiences I've felt with a game. Monster Hunter is not an easy game to grasp. It will take time to learn the controls, and how to react to monsters and how to use items. It's not a game you can just jump into and expect to know everything.
It's just an addicting game. It has the 'carrot-on-a-stick' formula nailed down perfectly. With each quest completed and each piece of loot gain, you're just one inch closer to the next step. It's just a constant feed and it's hard to control.
Despite a few kinks, it's easily one of the best games I've played all year so far.
----------Battle System----------
Monster Hunter Tri is a brutal Action RPG. This is not the type of game you sit down and blast through in a weekend like Mass Effect. No, Monster Hunter requires a ton of patience, and grinding if you want to get anything out of it. The good thing about Monster Hunter though, while it does require a ton of man hours to get anywhere. You can still drop in, do a quest for a half hour and go on your merry life without worries.
Monster Hunter is all about preparation and timing. You need to know what you're up against first. So you have to prepare with the proper armor, weapon and items. Each monster has their weaknesses and it's your job to exploit them to win. Next up is timing. You need to know when to attack, where to attack, and at what stance to attack. You can run and mash away to win at this game. You need to have a little patience on the battle field, watch the enemy, and wait for your turn to attack. I'm typically not a person that ever uses "Guard" in a game, but I had to use it in Monster Hunter plenty of times. Actually, it's almost required.
You can only carry a few items at a time, so you need to know which items to take with you before battle, while having enough spare space with you so you can gather new items. It's a balance but easily manageable if you get use to it.
You don't gain experience in Monster Hunter, all character upgrades come in form of weapons, armor, accessories and what items you choose to bring with you. You're a blank slate, with 100 HP, 100 Strength, etc, until you start equipping items. Each weapon and armor piece have their strengths and weakness', so this is part of the balance and preparation you need to understand before going into battle. If you're going to be fighting an Ice monster, it's probably best to equip something that's strong against Ice.
I played the game with the Wiimote and nunchuck, and it worked well enough. I never had a problem with it. Every button you needed was mapped out perfect for the Wiimote. The only thing that kinda sucked was camera controls, but it was fine overall. I works but it's not perfect. I played the majority of the game with the Classic Controller Pro and that is easily the best way to do it with. Mostly for the camera controls.
The quest's aren't very varied though. You can either join a gathering quest (which requires you get get loot to win), capture a monster, or kill one giant monster or many small monsters. The other unique quests aren't really worth mentioning. It does get a little repetitive.
Offline and Online are almost two difference experiences. While the mission structures are almost the same, you get something completely difference from them. In the single player missions, you fight alone (until you find a friend but he's mostly useless). The requirements for beating a quest is typically lower than that of an Online quest, and the monster's you fight are also slower and probably dumber too, to compensate for your lack of 3 friends.
I played most of the game Online and that is where this game truely shines. Getting online is hassle free and easy to hop on and start playing. You first begin by joining a server (the first one is easily the most populated, usually 1,500 people at a time). You then pick a room, which can hold 100 people at a time. After that you can start a room or join an existing room.
In the Online mode, you gain Hunter Ranking points after you beat quests. It's a similar system to leveling up, except you don't gain stat boosts but it does represent the true experience you have with Monster Hunter. You can check out random peoples HR points and see how they rank up to you. This is a good way to play with similarly leveled people.
You can chat with people with a keyboard with any random strange if you choose to. If you want to use Wii Speak then you'll need to befriend the person first. Once you befriend someone, then you're good to go. Wiispeak, however, sounds like trash if the person does not have it properly placed.
Monster Hunter got rid of the 16-digit Friend codes, but they just replaced that with the lower 6-digit Monster Hunter codes. Annoying, but atleast it's not 16 digits.
The online is flawless though. I never had a lag problem. I've never been glitched. I've never been kicked off a server for any reason. It's always easy to find a team.
The online is just easy to navigate, and fun to use. It's the true meat of the game.
----------Characters / Story----------
Uh.. yeah. There's barely a story. Who needs one for this type of game though? The motivation is never to kill the big bad guy that's going to destroy the world. The true motivation in Monster Hunter is to get that rare loot so you can make that badass sword.
----------Graphics----------
The graphics are amazing. Sometimes I'm shocked I'm playing a Wii game. I've played much worse looking RPGs on the 360. The thing I love the most about Monster Hunter's graphics are the backgrounds. When you're on top of a mountain and you're looking down at the scenery, it's just freaking beautiful. Sometimes you'll even get unique animations depending on when you're there. Sometimes you'll see a herd of monsters run across a giant field, or if it's at night, a meteor shower. It's real basic stuff but looks great and helps the atmosphere wonderfully.
The monsters animate so well too. Each monster goes through various animations depending on it's health or mood. The animations are just perfectly thought out. They seem to mimic real animals, in their behaviors. The monster animations prove that a bit.
The only time the graphics look bad is during the create-a-character screen, which is entirely pointless to begin with. You'll never see your character's face or hair or body type, so why go through it? I had the same problem with Two Worlds and most games with create-a-character.
Another thing I hated was the text font. It's ungodly small and hard to read. The text is also blurry, which makes it even harder to read. I couldn't even read my Online ID number, so I had to make another one, it was that bad.
----------Sound----------
The music is simple but it's basically there to set a mood. If the area is calm, you'll hear calming music. If a monster enters an area, you'll get a loud, Metal Gear Solid style alert sound, and the music intensifies. Sometimes the music is really freaking good, when you're watching a cutscene, or even the opening of the game.
There's no voice acting but each NPC has a unique grunt, which is something the recent Zelda's would do.
----------World Map----------
There's only 5 real world maps in the game. Each world map consists of a starting base, where you can rest in a bed or to receive items from the item box.
Five areas doesn't sound like alot but you don't really need much in a game like this. The areas are only window dressing for the most part. The only true difference between them is some require items to help you survive. One area might be hot, which would require a cool drink, or another area will be cold and will require a hot drink. Some areas have water, others have changing weather patterns.
Each area is segregated into multiple sections. The ice level, for example, is a small level and only has about 8 or 9 sections. While some areas consist of 15 or more. The more areas, the harder to tract monsters, obviously.
----------Time to Complete Game---------
106 Hours and counting...
Monster Hunter Tri is an extremely long game if you try to get the most out of it. I didn't complete the main quests in either the offline or the online mode but I was only a couple quests away from completion. After you beat the main quests, they just recycle previous ones in harder forms.
The calendar quests keep you motivated to play though, and trying to upgrade your armor or get a new weapon is always addicting. So there's a ton to get out of Monster Hunter.