May 1st - 2010So, today a video game arrived, a video game I have been waiting anxiously to try. In fact, I've been waiting to Monster Hunter Tri it.
Oh god, what a horrible way to start off a blog entry.
Unless you are blind (or stupid, which none of you are, but not mentioning them would be discrimination against stupid people), you know that the game was Monster Hunter Tri, somehow sounding cooler than Monster Hunter three. Now, this was a complete impulse buy on my part. I saw a few videos, and read up on it a bit, and it seemed very interesting. A mix between an action game and an RPG game, with no levelling, but gear improvements instead. I was intrigued, and finding it somewhere for a somewhat cheap price, I bought it, (online, because buying it in a store would have cost me several Monster Hunter Trillions of moneys.
God damn it, I really hope this blog improves soon.
Anyway, I've been playing it most of the day, and I've got one thing to say. ****. Awesome. Well, two things, but spread out over two sentences. The game is quite good I think, and I'm enjoying it so far. For anyone who hasn't read anything about the Monster Hunter series, I'll give you a rundown of what you do (in this game at least, never played the previous games in the series):
-You walk around a village, and buy stuff/gear or synthesize gear. (Typical RPG stuff)
-You can go outside and freehunt, where you slay monsters, collect resources from said monsters or the enviroment. It could be catching bugs, mining for ore, picking up herbs, gathering monster bones from carcasses, you name it.
-You can also swim, and fight underwater, which is a lot more fun that it sounds.
-You head back to town, where you can then use your materials to create better gear
-You can take on quests, for which you have a time limit. It can be slaugthering a set amount of monsters, capturing a monster, gathering something etc. Again, standard RPG stuff.
-You complete these quests, and the story (whatever small one there is) moves further along.
That's basically what you do. Now, all of the stuff I've mentioned is much, much deeper than I made it sound, of course. There are also different weapon types, like small swords, greatswords, lances, bowguns and etc. What's awesome is that you don't HAVE to stick to one of them, but you can switch between them freely. Of course, this would mean keeping up with the gear, but I like grinding, even for materials, so it doesn't matter to me.
My character is a female monster hunter, named Cara. Now, I would like to report about her adventures and missions, but to be honest...
1: I'd feel like I was ripping of, among others, Gar's topic in which he documents his gaming adventures, and
2: I do not have the necessary discipline. Like, at all. I'd miss out on updates ALL the time. And then eventually just give up.
However, I will try to chime in when I play the game. But don't expect all too much, as I'm horribly lazy. So, I guess I'll write about today.
Cara arrived at the small village called Moga village. Going through the tutorial, she learns many valuable things about being a hunter. She learns that the residents need someone to take out a great, sea dragon that causes earthquakes in the small village, the great Lagiacrus. Unable to take the monster on with her current skills and equipment, Cara sets to gather materials for better equipment, taking on Hunter quests from the local guild. For the most part just hunting around the vicinity of Moga woods, nothing was mouch trouble. At first unable to decide which type of weapon she wanted as her main weapon, she finally decides on the very defensive, slow but powerful Lance weapon.
As stated, no real problems were encountered at first. Then came a mission to collect monster guts from a bunch of aquatic monsters. An easy quest, Cara out from the coast, into open water. And encounted the dreaded Lagiacrus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULWUu3xiJ78&feature=relatedShe promptly did the heroic thing, and ran right the **** back to shallow water. Seriously, I nearly pissed my pants when this happened. Not so much because the Lagiacrus appeared, or because I was afraid of fighting it. No, the reason I nearly pissed my pants, was because as I turned around to swim away, back to the previous area (as I had been instructed. I'd have tried to fight it, if not <_<), I heard this **** scary "OH **** RUN AWAY" jaws music start up, and I could hear it swim close. Not being able to turn around and look, I nearly pissed my pants. Then again, I AM a ****, so that might be why.
After that, Cara encountered few problems. By the end, she opened access to an entirely new hunting ground, a bit farther away from Moga village, called the Sandy Plains. It is a desert, in case you were wondering what it was. This new area brought a tiny bit of trouble to Cara's doorstep, but nothing she couldn't handle. It even got to the point where she was thinking "They exaggerated when they said this game was a little bit difficult..."
And she, that is to say,
I should never, ever, ever have said that. Wanting to end the day with something that looked like a boss fight, Cara decided to go fight a monster called Great Jaggi, which sounded like the leader of the much smaller, easy creatures just called Jaggi.
It was. Oh dear god it was.
Upon entering the lair of the Great Jaggi, Cara was Zerg rushed by smaller Jaggi, unable to do anything. The lance weapon is slow, so Cara was unable to get away without putting her weapon away. And then came the Great Jaggi. And it raped. It did this 3-4 times. At this point, I reached Code Red. I suppose some explaining is in order.
I, like probably many a gamer, has three "modes" when playing games. I have dubbed mine Code Green, Code Red, and Code Blue. I spend most of my time in Code Green, where I am relaxed, playing the game and having fun. The game isn't TOO challenging, at most giving me small problems. If these problems become too large, I enter Code Red. This is the RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE mode. I become extremely frustrated, I call the game a cheap bastard, and I basically throw around a lot of insults and swear words at the game and it's developers.
I yell at an inanimate object, basically. Kind of sad, now that I think about it.
Once I realize that screaming at the TV doesn't work, and only serves to LESSEN my skills, I enter Code Blue. Code Blue is the mode I am the least in. Code Blue is when I become completely silent, and I decide to take the game seriously. This is where every ounce of my concentration goes towards one goal: Not letting the game win. At that point, the game officially becomes not a tool for entertainment, but my enemy. No matter what **** the game throws at me, no matter how cheap the enemies are, I concentrate and use my skills to get through. If you want a trope equivalent,
here you go. After I get past the difficult point, I either shut the game off to relax, or go back to Code Green.
This time, because it was somewhat late, I stayed in Code Red, and shut the game off in anger. I shall now spent the night trying to come up with strategies to kill this Great Jaggi. It will taste the anger, it will taste the **** WRATH of Cara.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to plan how to take this **** down.
~ILS
Anger aside, this is a really great game. I can reccomend it. It's supposed to have great online Co-op as well
