Sunday, February 19, 2012

Hunting Monsters

Hi everyone!

Recently, I've begun playing a certain game for the PSP, one that is the foundation for pretty much half of its library. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement. Still, you can't deny the fact that a lot of games copies the formula of this game series with varying degrees of shame. I am talking, of course, about Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter began as an online game on the PS2, but was not very well received by critics. The series has since moved on to become the flagship series of the PSP, with quite a few titles available. And of course, the countless imitators. I had been curious about what all the fuss was about, and so started playing Monster Hunter Portable 3 a few days ago.

And I really like it! Having played some similar games before, such as God Eater, Crisis Core and such, the flow of the game, with its quests consisting of killing a certain monster or gathering a certain amount of items, was instantly familiar. But, I have to admit, the original outperforms them all. It just feels more engaging. There's just something about hunting down monsters, gathering materials and crafting new items that Monster Hunter does really well. I think it has to do with the environments and the monsters being very believable and having a strong sense of immersion. The world has its own very defined logic which really makes sense. You collect materials such as wood, plants and bones, and combine them into items and equipment to help take down even bigger and stronger monsters.

I haven't gotten that far into the game yet, but I am really enjoying it so far, and I think it will take a long time before I get bored. We'll see. If you have a PSP and haven't tried a Monster Hunter game yet, I recommend them. They're great fun. Just be careful, as they can be very addictive.

Until next time, happy hunting, and have a good day!

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