"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Whilst not being the very latest release of the Monster Hunter Franchise it is the latest from the main series itself and unique to the series it was released on the Nintendo Wii. It is due to me having played this game for about 20 ish hours now and not being anywhere near finished and yet still loving every minute that I have chosen to review this game.



Introduction

To those unfamiliar with the game or series which to be honest might be a significant portion of the member base, to which I happily affiliate myself with prior to this game. The series revolves around the silent protagonist as he fights progressively stronger 'monsters' as using resources gathered both from the natural environment and the foe's he slays makes himself stronger in the process. Please note that the term Monster in this sense encompasses the wide variety of fauna that can be slain by the player which has extended even further in Tri. It now includes the ability to kill fish and using a Harpoon to get resources or Carves from their cold bodies.

Further more Tri has revamped the farming system somewhat meaning that as you continue through the Single Player campaign instead of having to continually collect Herbs and Mushrooms you can farm them near continuously gathering much higher yields without the threat of a Dragon interrupting your stroll.




Game play

Having not used a Wii console much prior to Tri I was slightly confused at first as to how a Series with roots heavily invested in Playstation in mind would transfer, almost to the point of thinking it would turn out like Skyrim on the PC to put it in perspective. So for the first few hours I admit I was swinging the Wii remote around feeling all ninja and to be honest I was mildly successful, the motions were consistent to how the weapon of choice behaved. At which point my Brother having seen me doing this for a few hours pointed out that I could, should I want to. Use it like a standard controller as such and simply twist or pivot the main Remote to a new angle and achieve the same results. Much rejoicing was to be had.

The response time is slick and provided you're not in the middle of doing something stupid, such as choosing to sharpen your weapon as a Barroth is putting his head down and charging you the responses are as fast as you. Which considering the game is all about playing chicken to try and get a good hit in makes it a refreshingly challenging game.

Ultimately as mentioned just above the game play is fundamentally a game of Cat and Mouse the Ai has three 'modes' for each Big Bad Monster and it's up to the player the more fragile of the pair to respond accordingly. For most hunts you can expect the target of choice to be on the offensive from the word go and as the difficulty scales up as your once powerful Iron sword is simply not sharp enough to do any damage it can be very easy to be outmatched. Even on the standard aggressive mood the Monsters react quickly and in non predictable patterns when they are on the attack. Forcing the player to time their own attacks if only to get a single swipe in before they are battered. Once enough damage is done the Monster will become enraged, attack distance increases, attack speed and the tempo of the battle can accelerate to difficult levels. Often allowing very little time for healing, regaining stamina or simply sharpening your battered sword. Eventually assuming the player is capable the Monster will become injured and fatigued. They might slow down, start limping or attack with less accuracy. Often they will retreat to another area to eat or sleep. Providing players too with an often needed (in my case at least) break to regroup mentally get their heads back in the game.


That's the Barroth by the way...

Story

All in all considering that most of the game is about the endless grind of either killing monsters/dragons/wyverns/fish ect ect by yourself or should you possess the internet for your Wii with Asian people (i jest, but all the servers are hosted in the Orient) the mere fact they managed to actually get some story in there was impressive. However fundamentally it serves as a loose introduction to game play and an even looser introduction to the foe's you would be fighting in Online Mode albeit weakened. However having played the multiplayer form of the game and having the word Noob flung at me for about 20 minutes in my mixed suit of armour I decided to at least finish the single player mode before hitting the mean streets and thus my appreciation for the story came into fruition.

It serves it purpose and the RPG element is purely in what suit of armour/weapon you choose to forge in order to increase your efficiency in killing more monsters. It's a very good system and kept fresh enough that the grind doesn't become too stale. I recently discovered that you could redo missions at any time, at the time I was stuck on a brutal mission, ironically including the Barroth and once again my brother came to my rescue and pointed out that I could do it. Thus I spent about 10 hours pointlessly grinding one type of monster to have enough raw materials to upgrade my Ax of Doom and build me a new suit of armour. It still wasn't enough and thus the tale continued.

However there is a level of interaction andemotional connection that comes watching your Hunter actually do what he is meant to be paid to do and lay some serious beat down on a Dragon-ish thing. However I will admit that the game can get frustrating to the point that I had indeed rage quit twice during the aforementioned attempt to make it through the tough difficulty scaling. I would like to make the inference that it was audience participation as I'm sure my avatar didn't approve of being flung across the map for the fourth time that hour.

Eventually the main plotline comes down to a head (I haven't gotten that far yet, but I have read ahead) and you will come to grips with the Big Dragon that has been troubling the (insert town of choice) and all the monster's you've killed almost to the brink of extinction by that point pale in comparison to this monster, which considering it's an underwater being that uses electricity and being immune to its own attacks is not surprising! See, engrossing story...But once you've slain the beast, there are more monsters to vanquish and the roster is expanded through online play, often just harder version of the quests you've just been slogging through, except you have people to 'help' you.

A quick word on the progression, the narrative is expanded through missions, these can range through the bog standard kill X minion monster to Kill one Big Monster. However to ease the grind a capture mode is occasionally thrown in, where you have to beat the target to the point of limping, then using a trap, be it pitfall or electric bomb thing hold it in one place while you hurl balls of what I would assume is ketamine (tranquilizer) until it falls asleep normally only two. This yields higher rewards then killing the monster. Once again prooving that ethical hunting is always more efficient. Added variety are little sub tasks which once again earn you more resources thus providing more content to squeeze more game time out of you.

Once the quest is over you see what you can forge/upgrade/buy/farm/fish/hunt and then continue on your way!

But that's not all!

There is a free hunt mode and whilst the majority of the victim roster is not included within this venue a selection of beasties are available for you to hunt at your leisure while collecting the various ingredients for your own work along the way. It's limited to only one area of the five and as such only about 5-6 main big monsters available and none of them remotely useful end game material either. But you can collect all the poop you want.




Effects

Obviously it wouldn't be much of a review without a mention of the graphics and music. I was impressed, the scenery is beautiful, albeit limited to only five zones however they manage to include every single piece of cinematic landscape possible. An Island, A Desert, A forest with a lakey thing, A Tundra and a Volcano and each zone is engrossing and realistic. The forest feelings suffocating to fight in due to logs and roots everywhere compared with the wide spaces of the Tundra where you have more than enough room to move in.

The Terrain isn't buggy either. When your plucky hero gets catapulted into something he will stop moving and behave realistically. However this does involve the chance of being pwned as your within attack range once again from an angry Wyvern whose tail you just chopped off to make a new sword and you can't roll because your still getting up!

The music is likewise charismatic and fills you with a sense of tranquillity when your not lopping off tails for swords. It's ambient and not obtrusive enough that you need to play muted. Rather when you're in the mood for a fight and you see sommat that needs a good killing it'll provide you with the standard Eastern Fantasy tunes to get you through the day.

However the most impressive effects were that of the Monsters and the player equipment. Obviously it's one thing to say. "Oh ok it's a dragon". But there has been considerable work going into the design of these beasties. Everything makes sense. From the beefed up Raptor-esque Jaggi/a, Great Jaggi to the affectionately named Brute Wyverns, which are big ass Dinosaur things that like to hit you rather then breathing pansy ass fire at you. Then the Elder Dragons themselves which can be as alien as they come. A big fish with a beard and horns. Apparently it's an Elder Dragon. However the Dragon's themselves actually look like Dragons. Which is good.

The imagination into working out how bits and pieces of the victims of your genocidal rampage fits into armour and weapons is fantastic. Almost every proper Monster has an armour set and a weapon/s to go with them. Often with unique effects, such as the Ludroth/Royal Ludroth they live in water and attack using water. The armour set provides an increase in diving capacity and the weapons deal water damage. I imagine it would be like a gentle dampening in the real world as additional water damage sounds like damp. But in the Magic world it's serious business. Take the above screenshot. That dudes armour and Ax is 100% good ol Lagiacrus.



Conclusion

If your looking for a highly detailed Role Playing Game then don't play this game. There is little story to speak of and to be honest it's a passable RPG at best. However if like me you happen to feel an urge to enter a magical realm and play cat and mouse with something that has a taste for flesh. Then perhaps this is the game franchise for you. Good reflex's and the ability to forward plan exactly how you're going to heal yourself when there's no pause button to do it are highly recommended however even the people like me with the reflex's of a man far older then I am can learn the various monsters attack patterns and given enough time (in my case 22 hours) start actually playing with enough skill to perhaps make it into the non insta noob bracket online.

Overall I was highly impressed with this game and continue to put hours into it on a daily basis. Even if it's killing one oversized green chicken with flints on it's wings that uses to breath fire then so be it. And yes. There really is an oversized green chicken. Its a to kill.