How To Enjoy Monster Hunter's Combat

A lot of people dislike Monster Hunter when they first play it. It's normal. This video talks about why it happens and what MH combat has to offer if you stick with it.

[lenkrow]

The combat for me wasn’t the issue, the menus and “tutorials” were, it felt like so much information to take in and I was going to need it to actually play the game. Eventually my friend helped me through the game and I slowly started to understand everything and nowadays, making unique builds out of lesser used skills is literally my favorite thing to do.

[Sethg]

The scenario you described is exactly my experience getting into monster hunter, saw some videos of 3U, thought it looked cool, saw it had a demo, tried it out, hated it, uninstalled, tried it again some time later, still hated it, uninstalled it, tried it a 3rd time later, finally clicked, loved the series ever since

[catanyag]

I feel like I'm in the minority when I say that Monster Hunter clicked for me pretty much immediately. Up until the day I decided to try the 4U demo after seeing it on shelves, I had experienced combat in video games almost exclusively in a turn based format. As a kid the idea of only taking damage when the attack visually hits me was so amazing, and revolutionary, and incredible, and... and then eventually I fought Plesioth. :(

[catanyag]

Also seeing the World and Rise footage side by side makes me miss the weightiness of the hitstop even more than I already knew I did.

[michaelbailey]

My first game was World, about the time Iceborne came out a couple friends convinced me to get it, I didn't much like it, it seemed a bit stiff, but it was pretty fun while playing together, so i kept playing, it took me about 70 hours to beat the base game if I remember correctly, after that I decided to get iceborne, and something changed, I don't know exactly when or where, but after I beat iceborne's story I took a step back and realized that the game had wormed its way into my head and heart, and it was now my favorite game, it really is fascinating how much of a turnaround it was, nearly 500 hours spent now and I'm into my second playthrough, hunting horn only, and loving it

[connorryan]

I think Monster Hunter has my favorite combat of any game ever created. It’s like a fourteen character roster fighting game with higher octane Fromsoft boss philosophy. The amount of depth and variety between the weapons and monsters is insanity. And the best part is you can do perfectly fine with an average skill level. Monster Hunter doesn’t demand that you master it’s weapons and speed run times, and monster patterns. You can be a “good” player and get through the whole game fine. But if you choose to master the game, you’re fuckin unstoppable. It’s industry defining stuff

[shagohodred]

Makes me feel like a rare breed.. I remember picking up Monster Hunter for the PS2 back in the day, getting bullied by velocidrome a bunch of times, finally overcoming that "wall" and instantly being hooked to the gratification of "beat it finally and now you're telling me I can make a sword out of that bitch?". Here we are, over a decade later.

[Roxlimn]

One of the appeals of MH combat for me is the sheer spectacle of it. The way the combat flows and progresses allows you to spectate your own battle and appreciate the coolness that is happening onscreen. Most of the weapons have an “ultimate move” feature of this nature. It’s a move that usually takes at least 1 or 2 seconds to finish, during which time you have no input capacity, and they have recovery for maybe another second more. Three whole seconds in which you can’t do anything but watch the aftermath of your prep and combat inputs.

This stresses some people. It relaxes me. It comforts me to know that once I’ve keyed in the input, there is absolutely nothing further to do until I regain control. And if that input staggers, KOs, or part breaks a monster? Even better. That’s the shit.

[ashenphoenix]

Me who doesn't need this video because I love it already. But totally watches it anyway to hear someone talk about why the love the franchise

[Chyguy]

I found that in my time with Monster Hunter World, my enjoyment varies drastically depending on how much of the games jank I have to deal with, and how much I like what I'm fighting. Some things were absolute nightmares to farm the equipment for because I simply hated fighting the monster in question, while farming other things was a blast. Dealing with the games jank is the only other thing that gets under my skin, and its mostly just small things that add up over the course of a session.

[shade]

I tried my first monster hunter game recently and found it difficult to get into, so this upload timing is perfect.

[axis]

Honestly I started with MHFU and got into DS3 and the other Souls games later. Rise is probably the easiest one I've played though the weapons might take a little to get used to for newer players if your goal is to learn everything but that's by no means required and I'm pretty sure the dev teams have even said they wanted room for people to be able to improve with the weapons but the difficulty is tuned so min-maxing and whatnot isn't going to be required. Ultimately it's better to take it slow and not get frustrated since they go about the core gameplay very differently

Funny anecdote: every Soul's game I tried I played right after I finished the previous one and I went in reverse order so DS3-BB-DS2-DSR and every time I hated it starting out so I took a few days off and then went back to it and liked it more, gotta give yourself time to reset those habits since they're different styles of games

[psytap]

Great commentary as always! I'm currently in an exam phase, but now I'm even more hyped to get back to Monster Hunter 🎉

[capellamidlight]

One thing I've learned is that it's definitely not for everybody. You can't force people to like it. I have a friend and he gave it an honest go, a real honest go, put well over four hundred hours into World, and it just never clicked. In hindsight it doesn't surprise me--he hides behind a shield in the Souls series, he button mashes in fighting games; he's not of the mindset to appreciate the entire "high commitment" movement concept you outlined. He's told me more than a few times the entire idea of 'animation lock' as he calls it has him screaming in frustrated rage and nearly breaking his controller when he plays Monster Hunter (things like drinking potions, stun, etc.) and is what ultimately caused him to quit. He played longsword and I watched him play and he never even thought to use any of the counter abilities or anything so he was a perennial novice. He was alright for the most part but when Iceborne came along he got absolutely cratered. I felt real bad for him. All of his other friends were breezing through the content and he couldn't even hope to keep up.

The reason I wrote all that is because I guarantee you there are tons of players just like him. For every one of us who gels with the game there's going to be someone who runs into it like a brick wall because they just completely don't understand its design and never will because they don't like what it's going for. I've learned you can't push these games on these people. It's not fair to them.

[Rudeyrudey]

If anyone is going to convince me to like this game, it’s you

[solomon]

Awesome video, Rat!
I too am in the camp of “hated it until I loved it” it’s a very common story in the community it seems.
I hope people that found this channel through Elden Ring realize they might love Monster Hunter as well, a lot of knowledge can actually pass over between games despite their many differences.

[Oceanix]

Interesting.. I have a different perspective on this matter. Me and most of the people I know had a problem with the gameplay loop, not exactly the combat itself.

Especially in "post Dark Souls" gaming, the combat is an easy sell IMO. But selling the concept of the game is a whole different story. "Well it's a game with barely any story in it, where you mostly kill monsters to make stronger weapons and armor to kill more monsters and that's it."

Most people I know didn't get the point of doing all this, and the way I see it, that's the biggest entry barrier. I believe it's not the combat that "clicks", but the core loop.

[orpheedupas]

I'm very new to monster hunter and I love it. I'm playing Worlds right now. I had played quite a lot of souls games before and honestly it feels so different. At first I would try to stay close to the monsters and i-frame their attacks as you would in a souls game, but the combat really clicked when I understood that I had to take my time more. Take my time to recuperate, position myself in a position where I can punish effectively, and understanding better how to use the terrain to mount the monster, the slinger, the mantles etc. Even crafting new items mid-hunt. It's so rewarding.

[camerondavis]

Something thats really cool about the series as well is that the older titles hold up so well and have things to offer in their own right

[theartoflongsword]

Happy to see you making MH content again! I hated my first one too, and now I am 10k hours into the series.
Excellent video!