Monster Hunter Generations Review: The One To Break The West

Rating: ˜…˜…˜…˜†˜†4.5 stars (Out of 5)Length: Approx. 40 hours (80+ quests completed - that 'barely scratched the surface' feel).Platform & Performance: Nintendo 3DS - Exemplary performance, online and off.

For years now, Monster Hunter has been absolutely HUGE in Japan. Seriously, entire families meet up on its digital plains to hunt n’ skin all sorts of beasties, united under their love for all things fantastical and stat-grind oriented.

Over in the West though? Not so much.

And I’ll admit, whilst I’ve dipped in and out of Monster Hunter over the years and got a kick out of them every time, nothing truly ‘clicked’ like so many of the franchise’s fans always say it will.

Well, ladies, gents and pole-swinging cat-warriors (more on them later), Monster Hunter Generations clicked - and not only did all its charms slot into place, but it’s turned into one of my favourite games of the year. The reason I’m ‘only’ awarding it 4.5 stars merely comes down to guaranteeing that a couple of tiny qualms will still put many off.

But let’s back up a second and clarify; Monster Hunter as a franchise is built around role-playing, crafting and slaying countless monsters. You’re but a simple warrior, wandering a handful of villages, taking on quests, buddying up with fellow hunters and doing your best to forge the finest weapons, wear the finest armour and tackle the biggest creatures along the way.

You can do this alone or with friends, and for once, we have a Monster Hunter that doesn’t feel like you’re playing it ‘wrong’ by going solo. Instead, you can totally play the entire thing by yourself, venturing out and exploring like a gallant lone wolf, mounting fearsome beasts and reaping all the rewards for yourself.

The game has a quirky as hell tone, but there’s something about playing this way; eating a hearty meal, having a quick word with the market-seller to grab some last minute materials, heading into the wide open yonder with weapons sharpened and senses heightened, that always feels truly rewarding.

And therein lies what makes Monster Hunter so phenomenal; it always feels engaging, always feels like you have a purpose, always feels tactile, memorable. It’s meaty, bursting with content and detail from every pore.

Weapon classes come in a variety of flavours ranging from dual blades to lances, sword n’ shield combos, transforming axes and even the series’ signature ‘gunlances’. Their base forms are available from the start so you can experiment to your heart's content, and although the only 'new' weapon is the option to switch and use your feline companion's equipment (Generations marks the first time these battle-ready 'Palicoes' are playable), fans will feel right at home with options they know inside out.

There’s a nice optional, in-depth tutorial breaking down the essential parts of gameplay, although honestly, Monster Hunter's quirk does get a bit too verbose in the early-game character dialogue. Thankfully, you can skip through as necessary.

A healthy bout of starter quests gets you acquainted with tracking, retrieving specific items, wiping out packs of animals and so on, and a nice wave of the hand upon completion sees the game happily puff up its chest and bellow “Go on then! Let’s see what else you can do!”

It’s charming, and although ultimately has a pace dictated by the player, ushers in a freeform approach that makes you realise just how appealing these various gameplay loops are, when weaved into one another.

In terms of overarching progression, eventually you'll happen upon the 'Fatal Four', a selection of unique bosses that make themselves known by terrorising the local towns. Tackling these guys will be a major draw for series' vets, as once you've mastered the game's systems, attention always turns to the biggest and most challenging creatures out there. As for relative newbies like myself, the steady progression that sees you go from slaughtering boars and netting insects to taking a flaming cleaver to a Smaugh-sized dragon's face well... you'll soon realise getting the most out of Monster Hunter means committing for the longterm.

Now, before going any further – because I became totally enamoured with Monster Hunter the more I played it, rather like how if you’ve not played Dark Souls or Skyrim before, those games’ various systems really let their tendrils run deep, before latching on and staying with you – there are some important negatives to address.

For one, being SO open-ended means it’s very easy to not know what to do next. You have your quest log, but you’re free to choose any non-tutorial quest right off the bat, meaning you’ll be told to hunt a group of Velociraptor-like ‘Jaggis’... without knowing how to view the map.

Likewise, despite the frantic action you’ll be involved with, the game’s ‘unique’ targeting system has no permanent lock-on. Instead, a tap of the left-trigger realigns the camera with your prey, but only for a second – and that’s only if you choose the correct ‘aiming mode’ first.

Such things are designed to teach you one thing with an outstretched, waggling finger: This is a game with history, with tradition; there is a way to play, a way to hunt, and a way to win.

This “Screw you, new guy, catch up!” approach will definitely be divisive (hence the lack of a full five-star review), but for me, I like the sensation of grabbing your map every time you head out, of toppling a boss because you had to really wrangle and master the controls to do so. Monster Hunter is very much like Dark Souls in that respect; there’s a simplified and matter-of-fact control scheme governing all your actions – you either adapt, or you walk away until the developers refine it further next time round.

Monster Hunter Generations also does one better than its predecessors: ‘Hunter Styles’ and ‘Hunter Arts’, the former seeing you pick one of four base ‘modes’ of play - Guild, Striker, Aerial and Adept - to which the various ‘Arts’ (read: special moves you can trigger in combat) are chosen and equipped.

The standout is Aerial, which changes your base dodge-roll to more of a hop, meaning if you aim at foes or even teammates, can be used to gain a huge amount of air and literally mount even the most colossal of fiends.

Mounting is a signature trait that until Generations, was incredibly hard to pull off, asking that you find an outcrop of land in the map, before awkwardly angling yourself and jumping towards your prey. Managing to land the move and then go hell for leather carving your own name in their skull was a blast, but now you can pull that animation off two, three times in your average fight.

Put simply, if you’ve ever seen Monster Hunter and picked up on the mounting mechanics or group fighting dynamics, only to think “That looks great, but I know there’s a huge learning curve to everything”, Generations gets you right in the thick of the action faster and more effectively than ever before.

Speaking of group dynamics, multiplayer is a blast. Thematically factoring into the experience as a group of likeminded warriors posse’ing up and going off hunting together, the best part comes in picking a lobby based on which beast you’d like to kill.

Been eyeing up some high-level armour that can only be crafted with a specific foe's tailspike? Find it in the multiplayer options and go find it as a team. Monster Hunter enters into an entire new realm of awesome when four players are all firing off their special attacks, dodge-rolling and attacking in unison.

I had one particularly fantastic moment where an enemy was limping away as me and two others were also retreating to heal up. Little did we know our fourth teammate had dropped an electric trap, stunning the beast and providing a perfect run-up to mount and bring it down to the ground once again for the kill.

Following any hard-fought battle, all the party whip out their carving knives to see what fleshy ‘loot’ awaits. The bigger they are, the more you can carve, and soon you’ll be arriving back in your single-player hub wearing the now-armoured hide of whatever crossed your path.

By the time I was 30 hours in I had a horned helmet that was ostensibly a giant hollowed-out skull, some hulking shoulder pads made from the tusks of another fallen beast and an upgraded kitana that just happened to be the serrated jawline of what I’d slain the previous day.

Therein lies the entire sublime appeal of Monster Hunter: Taking on quests, grouping up when you feel like it, going it alone and roasting some raw meat on an open fire to keep your stamina high after night falls. It’s like if Pokémon’s "Gotta catch’ em all!" mentality met Dark Souls’ learned combat and the whole thing was filtered through cat humour and MMO gestures. It’s absolutely delightful at every turn, indicative of a franchise now a decade strong, and one that’s confident in how to retain longtime fans whilst flexing its impressive mainstream muscles to reign in thousands more.

Slight issues crop up here and there, sure, but with Generations' small yet effective tweaks to combat and its constantly accessible thrill of letting you topple gargantuan monsters from jungle to mountaintop, there’s nothing else like it.

--

Are you a Monster Hunter fan? What did you make of the demo currently doing the rounds on 3DS? Let us know in the comments if you'll be checking out this latest release!