Charles211

What might help is if I tell how I got into monster hunter.  I'll put in a spoiler so as to keep this thread shorter.

I really should use spoilers more.

Because it keeps people who shouldnt play out.

I'll copy/paste what I said in the other thread. Should help at least a little bit.  Get ready to read though.

Know this: everyone was bad when they first started playing monster hunter.  I don't think any fan of the series will honestly tell you that they were good at it from the get go.  When I think back on how badly I played when I first started, I laugh.  Fans will tell you that the series is great, but they will never tell you it's easy.  There is a rhythm and a pace to it.  Once you find that, you will start to get better much faster.  The poblem is, its near impossible to teach, especially through a forum.  The easiest way to get into monster hunter is to have a veteran sit down with you and teach you what you need to know as you need it.  There is a lot to learn in the series, and it can be overwhelming to have all that info flood you at once.  This is partially why we say the online is great, because it gives you a chance to meet with better hunters who can help you where you're at.

There are a couple of topics that are near impossible to teach, and must simply be learned.  Everyone thinks there should be a true lock on when they start.  I thought that myself when I began.  This will sound crazy, but at the level of play necessary to take down some of these beasts, a lock on would be imprecise and disorienting.  Don't worry, by that time camera control will become as easy as breathing.  It seems like artificial difficulty now, but to veterans it's second nature.  The soft lock this game adds is perfect, as many times all I've needed in a fight is a quick re-orientation due to the camera panning too slowly in previous games.  If you want, I can try to explain it, but I can't guarantee it will make sense to you right now.  A lot of people complain that the lagombi in the demo moves too fast.  Compared to another monster in the series, the barioth, lagombi is standing still.  Also the barioth does a lot more damage.  My friend's first hunt against barioth was with two other people who had never fought it before.  When they found the monster, they failed the quest within a minute from all three of them dying.  Nowadays, he could solo it with little trouble.

Another thing: the controls are not bad, nor are they good, they do exactly what they mean to.  They are different from every other game you have probably played. It is really a matter of learning how everything works.  Learning your weapon's combos, how they link to each other, and what you can and can't do with your weapon out.  There is a digital manual with demo that you can access through the home button.  It does a fair job of explaining how you do things.  However, knowing a combo, and knowing how to use it in a fight, are two different things.  You will rarely be able to sit there and swing away.  You cannot afford to have tunnel vision in this game.  I might be attacking a monster's leg, but you better believe I keep an eye on that tail that can whip around.

Load times.  We know.  They exist.  They aren't as bad as they used to be though.  From a vets perpective they seem crazy short.  The load time from choosing your weapon to quest start is about 9 seconds for me.  Was closer to 30 on MH Tri for wii.  The load between zones is only two seconds.  Its really not a big deal, and sometimes having separate zones can save you from death as it gives you somewhere to hide while you use  a potion.

The last sticky problem is how long animations take.  They designed it this way for a reason.  Every move you make has to be deliberate.  You have to constantly be thinking about your next move based on where you are and what the monster is doing.  In most games, it's simply a matter of have an itchy trigger finger on the dodge button.  That doesn't work here.  While right now you don't know the monsters patterns, once you do, you can far more easily make the appropriate decisions on the fly.  Knowing when it is safe to take a potion can be the difference between life and death.  Unless you are certain you have enough time, wait and avoid the attacks, or leave the current area and go someplace safe.  I usualy take five minutes with anew monster just avoiding it learning to read its movements.  Any attack that does significant damge has a tell for it.

Long story short, the greatest determinant is player skill.  A pro with no armor can take down the last boss with ease, while a noob can have the best equipment in the game and still get beat by the first boss.  It's okay if you're not good at it. You will get better if you stick with it.

The only reasons I can think of to not give it a try are:

You demand a deep engaging story  (the story is closer to mario level than shakespeare)

You demand the best graphics ever (in which case, why did you buy a wii u?)

you do not have the time necessary to invest in the game  (to get the most out of it, you have to spend time at it)

You do not like difficult games (mh is FAR from it)

Btw, if you are new to the series, do not try hard mode in the demo until you can beat the easy mode in under ten minutes.  Its called hard mode for a reason and only aggravates your camera struggles.

I really need to stop making such long posts.

Going to try and help this topic out a bit.  This is for everyone having problems with the demo and is not directed at anyone specifically.  This is gonna be a long post so get ready to read, but I think it needs to be said.

Know this: everyone was bad when they first started playing monster hunter.  I don't think any fan of the series will honestly tell you that they were good at it from the get go.  When I think back on how badly I played when I first started, I laugh.  Fans will tell you that the series is great, but they will never tell you it's easy.  There is a rhythm and a pace to it.  Once you find that, you will start to get better much faster.  The poblem is, its near impossible to teach, especially through a forum.  The easiest way to get into monster hunter is to have a veteran sit down with you and teach you what you need to know as you need it.  There is a lot to learn in the series, and it can be overwhelming to have all that info flood you at once.  This is partially why we say the online is great, because it gives you a chance to meet with better hunters who can help you where you're at.

There are a couple of topics that are near impossible to teach, and must simply be learned.  Everyone thinks there shoulf be a true lock on when they start.  I thought that myself when I began.  This will sound crazy, but at the level of play necessary to take down some of these beasts, a lock on would be imprecise and disorienting.  Don't worry, by that time camera control will be as easy as breathing.  It seems like artificial difficulty now, but to veterans it's second nature.  The soft lock this game adds is perfect, as many times all I've needed in a fight is a quick re-orientation due to the camera panning too slowly in previous games.  If you want, I can try to explain it, but I can't guarantee it will make sense to you right now.  A lot of people complain that the lagombi in the demo moves too fast.  Compared to another monster in the series, the barioth, lagombi is standing still.  Also the barioth does a lot more damage.  My friend's first hunt against barioth was with two other people who had never fought it before.  When they found the monster, they failed the quest within a minute from all three of them dying.  Nowadays, he could solo it with little trouble.

Another thing: the controls are not bad, nor are they good, they do exactly what they mean to.  They are different from every other game you have probably played. It is really a matter of learning how everything works.  Learning your weapon's combos, how they link to each other, and what you can and can't do with your weapon out.  There is a digital manual with demo that you can access through the home button.  It does a fair job of explaining how you do things.  However, knowing a combo, and knowing how to use it in a fight, are two different things.  You will rarely be able to sit there and swing away.  You cannot afford to have tunnel vision in this game.  I might be attacking a monster's leg, but you better believe I keep an eye on that tail that can whip around.

Load times.  We know.  They exist.  They aren't as bad as they used to be though.  From a vets perpective they seem crazy short.  The load time from choosing your weapon to quest start is about 9 seconds for me.  Was closer to 30 on MH Tri for wii.  The load between zones is only two seconds.  Its really not a big deal, and sometimes having separate zones can save you from death as it gives you somewhere to hide while you use  a potion.

The last sticky problem is how long animations take.  They designed it this way for a reason.  Every move you make has to be deliberate.  You have to constantly be thinking about your next move based on where you are and what the monster is doing.  In most games, it's simply a matter of have an itchy trigger finger on the dodge button.  That doesn't work here.  While right now you don't know the monsters patterns, once you do, you can far more easily make the appropriate decisions on the fly.  Knowing when it is safe to take a potion can be the difference between life and death.  Unless you are certain you have enough time, wait and avoid the attacks, or leave the current area and go someplace safe.  I usualy take five minutes with anew monster just avoiding it learning to read its movements.  Any attack that does significant damge has a tell for it.

Long story short, the greatest determinant is player skill.  A pro with no armor can take down the last boss with ease, while a noob can have the best equipment in the game and still get beat by the first boss.  It's okay if you're not good at it. You will get better if you stick with it.

The only reasons I can think of to not give it a try are:

You have to have a deep engaging story  (the story is closer to mario level than shakespeare)

You have to have the best graphics ever (in which case, why did you buy a wii u?)

you do not have the time necessary to invest in the game  (to get the most out of it, you have to spend time at it)

You do not like difficult games (mh is FAR from it)

If those are your reasons, I can respect that, just go somewhere else now.  That's not what mh is about.  I could talk about tutorials now but this has gone on long enough.

Hunter, on 06 Mar 2013 - 10:14, said:I shouldnt have to play a game online for it to be enjoyable. And no, i dont think i should just be able to run up to an enemy and flail away. Like I said you cannot blame everything on the player being bad, the whole point of a game is to suck the player in with great gameplay and story and then they improve as th game goes on. After playing around with the archaic controls, going through 10 load screens in ten minutes and repeatedly hitting a monster for 20 minutes its safe to say that this game has neither good gameplay or story and there is no way I could play this game from beginning to end. Also Im assuming you must be absolutely amazing at this game because otherwise how could you call other people bad?
Anyway im gonna go with Pedantic Gamer on this one. It seems to me you will just keep arguing until everyone agrees with your opinion.


Ever notice how the people who agree with my opinion actually PLAY monster hunter, and those who dont are ALL on the outside looking in?

And i never said you have to play it online for it to be enjoyable, i said you will instantly recognize how bad you suck and how everything you do is wrong by watching and interacting with others.

You dont have to like it. Im not saying you have to like it. Its far, FAR too hard for mainstream gamers. But you cant say its bad, because you arent capable of playing it. If you COULD play it, If you could manhandle the game, and showed that you could hunt monsters with the skills of the average hunter, THEN your opinion of whether the game was bad or not would hold some water. But you cant even play the game.

Boo hoo, the game didnt roll over and let you push the win button though you whacked a monster for 20 minutes and didnt get anywhere even though you are ridiculously overpowered because you have no idea what you are doing. There are plenty of other games that roll over and play dead for and let you feel badarse without having to actually do anything. Go play those.

Most of your complaints have no bearing. How is a DEMO which only has two monster fights, has no story, or any quests, or any npc's, or anything in the actual game at all, supposed to suck you in with your baroque-ian demands? its a DEMO.

None of your other complaints actually apply. The loading screens are like, 2 seconds compared to the 30 they used to be. The monsters are GENEROUSLY plastered on your map, so unless you are just painfully incompetent at videogames there is NO WAY you can run through every area in the map twice looking for it, and the precision controls allow pixel perfect accuracy lock ons cant deliver, or if they attempt, make the game practically play itself, at the cost of a high entry barrier.

Each body part has its own health, status, defense against attack types (cut slice, impact, elements) and stamina stats guy. People target INDIVIDUAL LIMBS all the time. Its called STRATEGY. If people can do that, all the time, as a common strategy, the controls arent bad, they are simply different, and you arent good with them.

Break a monsters leg, and its not going to be bouncing all over the place for a while.

While you randomly whale away at whatever body part you witlessly swing at, allowing the limbs to recover stamina, we take out the legs within 5 minutes, now the rabbit cant move 5 feet or do its annoying slide charge without falling over and flopping around for 20 seconds.

At which point its quickly dispatched because the weapons in the demo are ridiculously overpowered.

You cant even handle a rabbit, guy. What are you going to do when Jho decides to show up and eats the damn rabbit?

You are bad at the game. Thats it, you dont have to like the game, but you dont get to call a game you cant play bad.

And you dont get to make demands to lower the skill cieling and casualize the game because you cant play it. There are tons of games out there that casualised and easy. Theres even one made by the monster hunter team for people like you.

They took out everything thats too hard and replaced it with mechanics from other games you are familiar with, and then changed the name because with those changes it wasnt monster hunter anymore. Its even open world and has a big epic story for you!

Go play those.