Slay huge monsters, forge your own armor, and eat LOTS AND LOTS of steak in this amazing entry to a popular series.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, the story. Tri has two gameplay modes. There is a single player campaign, as well as an online multiplayer mode. The single player mode centers around a small fishing village on a remote island. The village has fallen on hard times, as the dual threat of repeated earthquakes and drained supplies by a sea monster called the Lagiacrus has all but left the village in ruin. You, a fresh off the boat, complete noob hunter, are called in to fix their problems.
You start off with almost nothing, shivering in your underwear with a tiny knife and a flimsy shield at your belt. Luckily, you are given a good bit of money at the beginning of the game. Your weapons are good enough for now, so the money should be put into armor. And you'll need it, too. The monsters outside the protective walls of the village are fast and strong, and have no problem eating a little raw human meat for lunch. Your first task is to adventure into the first hunting zone, the Moga Woods, to find the village chief's son. After a fetch quest for a piece of raw meat (easily obtainable by carving up one of the dinosaur-like Aptonoth that populate the woods), Junior tells you that your base camp is a little worse for the wear, due to the most recent of the aforementioned earthquakes. You need some resources to fix up the camp, as well as revitalize some of the other functions around the island, like the local farm. Doing this not only advances the story, it provides you with helpful actions, like being able to breed species of bugs or plants that you need more of. All of the menus in the game are real time, making it tricky to find and use what you need, be it a healing potion to recover lost health, or a flash grenade to blind a monster so you can make a speedy getaway. However, it sometimes takes an annoyingly long time to use these items, adding unneccesary frustration.
The game itself is very, very hard to describe. Just trust me on this, and buy the game. If you don't love this game the instant you start it up, you may want to hang up your wii remote and retire from gaming for good. This is one of the best games on the wii, and I heartily reccomend that you buy it as soon as possible.