#also i spent an hour in character creation only to wear the big skull helmet with a mane the entire time

[prototypelq]

I needed some self-therapy this month, and my chosen method has been a monster-hunter genre game, cause I've been severely missing it for the last two years at the very least. This time, I've decided to bite the bullet and give Monster Hunter World a try, despite my very picky and allergic reaction to most of eastern titles, cause I had the feeling I could stomach some of my frustrations with the incentive of monster-hunting, and I was not wrong. (though some things still greatly frustrate me)

Here be my impressions of the first 10 or so, hours into the game (strictly solo experience for Reasons):

The weapon variety is honestly overwhelming for a newcomer to the series, but the katana, bow and insect glaive have definitely caught my attention. Their movesets are a joy to fight with, the glaive especially, plus you get a bug buddy))) and insane mobility options, what's not to love about it. From experience, I can guess that the chargeblade would also bring me much joy to fight with, but that is a weapon for more skilled players, I can see myself trying to check it out later.

(I think this gameplay is mh rise and not world, but all of these moves for the glaive still exist in world)

I can finally see why the fans were talking so much about ecology. Just watching videos is not enough to really show it, but you feel all the little things when you play the actual game. Before playing, I was thinking that 'dino-dragons that breathe fire do not exactly fit your standard ecology', that people just didn't know much of actual ecology to speak like that and at best, they meant that the monster design was influenced by irl animals. However, I understood what those fans meant when I saw that Anjanath, whoose pink and bald skin greatly resemble a vulture, mostly just patrols around and steals food from other monsters.

(watch me hang on for my life when he came around xD)

Pukei, the horrible trashchild that I grew to adore, is quite nimble and agile to fit through the dense forest canopy, which it HAS to do, as there are bits of the jungle where the hunters have to force themselves through tight vines, a dragon of larger size has to be flexible. The chameleon and gecko inspiration is very strong in this little bastard, and it fits perfectly into the jungle, where it resides. Also, the game doesn't have to explain to you that this guy changes the colour of his feathers when aggressive, and it works not just on a gamedesign level, but on the creature-design level too.

Barroth (?I think?) lead me to a large mud pit, in the lowest part of the map, down the riverbed, which, is, y'know, Logical, as water flows down the slopes. It fits so perfectly into that zone, it was clearly the monster's lair or favourite spot, as that monster has a few mud-related attacks and an armour buff.

These little things really ground the weird dino/dragon whacky designs and make the whole world really vibrant and come together wonderfully, they also make the that ecology aspect really shine. You don't normally see this attention to ecological detail in games, and it is clear that a lot of care went into making them.

(btw the binoculars are great, they also work as intended, because the colours of this game, while muted a bit, still are very distinct and bright, unlike otheR games that haD binoculaRs in them)

So yeah, I've been enjoying exploration and the world of this game a lot. On that note,

look at this toad. he is perfect. he deserves the world. I am very happy you can keep little guys in your tent (it's also the only reason to visit said tent)

I also really love that you can make your cat into a literal little gremlin. I adore him now, he too is perfect.

Now for the things that frustrated me.

Controls. The inability to remap inputs and clutch claw controls are atrocious. Apparently the game has walrunning, but I have no idea how to distinguish which surfaces it works on and which it doesn't. No manual jumping is very confusing at times, there are a few very specific places that I'm sure I should be able to climb, but the jump is automated and it didn't work, which just leaves me shrugging. That said, vine swinging is cool.

There are far too many menus with very overwhelming rpg stats, it's very hard to make sense or reason of any of them.

For the amount of tutorials the game just keeps Bombarding you with, which is annoying as hell, the weapon&armour upgrade and progression system is not explained at all. The upgrades seem to unlock at finding specific materials, but not All of them. This makes me feel like some weapons have better viability for new players, because they can be upgraded with materials from early monsters, and my go-to weapons apparently don't fit into that category, though I can't be certain of this. There are no perk explanations, so I gotta guess which perks are more useful and which aren't, though I'm not that far into the building anyway, so for a beginner it's not a big problem.

These are just inconveniences the new player has to deal with, but they are not gamebreaking in any way. The ten hours I've spent with the game have been very enjoyable, and I'd love to play more of it.

#though i am already patching the game with mods cause I don't think it is balanced well for solo play #i have had monsters escaping the encounter three times before hunting them #this situation has happened TWICE now and I have my gear maxed out as much as research tree allows #also I haven't yet understood where exactly do you check the danger/equipment req level for each hunt #sooo im just gonna buff damage a little with mods we'll see how that goes #also i spent an hour in character creation only to wear the big skull helmet with a mane the entire time #absolutely no regrets #if i had a nickel for each time this happened I would have two nickels the first one being dos2 #it will also happen again #monster hunter world #mhw #i want to take jagras great cheeks and pet them and smooch the lizor in the head they are very lovely very friend-shaped adorable guys #10/10 would adopt if I could own it responsibly #i also need to get the hang of the photomode #cool monster designs bring me great comfort