As a fan of the hunter genre of games this one looks pretty cool. The only thing holding me back from this being a definite purchase is the lack of people I have to play the game with. I haven't heard much talk in terms of people being excited or anticipating this, so I wonder if it's another Freedom Wars/Soul Sacrifice situation. Share your thoughts, and if anyone already has a copy please share your opinion.

Most people who played it don't seem particularly fond of it, considering it a mindless button master. So i'm not really excited.

I probably will get a copy at some point, even though I pretty much don't play handheld games at all anymore.

I'm tempted, but the radio silence is making me wait till others pick it up (plus i dont have many friends to play with)

@fisk0: I don't play my 3ds as much as I'd like to. I played a bunch with the Giant Bomb folks when Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate came out, but after countless hours of hunting we all lost a bit of interest.

@madman356647:That has been my major concern, both the lack of friends to play with and the little I've heard. However I'm really craving a new hunter style game and until MHX comes out in the states, this looks to be one of my only real options.

Hey, Phil! Played MH4 with ya a bunch around release. I was hoping this would tide me over till MHX, but after they talked about it on 8-4 Play, I'm a little on the fence.

@p00zombie: Aww really? I think if we got the gang back together we could have fun with it until Cross. I'll give 8-4 a listen to hear their opinions since I haven't really heard anything.

Depending on how fast UPS decides to process it, I could be getting the game today but I've never gotten anything early so I expect I'll be getting it tomorrow.

Most of the reception from people who played/imported the Japanese was that it's just "Ok". It felt like the marketing and expectation of what the game would be, MH game with FF dressing, lead to poor sales post release. It didn't resemble MH nearly enough to be compared to it or for that crowd to latch on. It wasn't FF enough either. So you ended up with two of the main fan bases who would be looking at it being disappointed in the end product. I've also been seeing complaints of lack of content and the game being relatively short so that probably didn't help. If you want a MH game, it's probably best to pass or wait for a steep discount down the line. However, I've been seeing a lot more comparisons to PSO and FF Cyrstal Chronicles so maybe that's the better audience?

@instantryan: I'm kind of a fan of all of those games, so I would have fun if it was similar to PSO or MH. Lasting appeal and people to play with are what worry me the most, but if you are def getting it at least I know one person I can play with lol.

@poozombie: I checked out the episode of 8-4 play and while the guy who played it seemed a little down, he didn't seem completely against the game. There also wasn't much to the discussion other than the game's basic premise and a short general opinion.

I wanted the game the mintue I saw it being shown off years ago and back then there was no guarantee of a US release. I'm prepaired to probably be a little disappointed due to what is being said about the game, but I'm not going to let that stop me.

@oscar__explosion: I'm with you dude. Going to pick it up myself and hope for the best. send me you FC and we'll play together sometime.

Nah, I'll get my handheld Final Fantasy fill from Bravely Second instead. It sounds like this is nothing that I'd want out of an RPG anyway.

@teddie: It's certainly not the standard Final Fantasy format, so it's not for everyone.

Hey, so I have this game. I have only put about 3-4 hours into it so far, but at this point I'm going to classify it as not that great. It very much is what you expect it to be and not much else - it's a Monster Hunter style game with a Final Fantasy wrapper. I'm not sure what I can really say about it. If you like Monster Hunter and are looking for another similar game, then you may want to consider getting it. It isn't nearly as deep as Monster Hunter, though. The online works and it's easy to find a room to do quests in, but things get boring fast. The game, more or less, is to take a quest in town, then when you leave town you're teleported to a sort of instance where you do your quest. Once that is done, you teleport back to town to take care of your gear and abilities, then go out again and do another quest. The story is essentially nonexistent. In town you can change jobs freely and equip your abilities and equipment, and also manage the custom abilities you have "discovered" when out on missions. That's about all there is to it. The quests are all "Go kill 5 chocobos" or "Pick up 5 flowers and bring them back" generic MMO-style fetch & kill quests.

I'd be more likely to recommend just playing more MH4U and waiting for MHX than spending any money on Explorers, unless you are just dying for something else in the style of Monster Hunter.

@mike: Thank you for the info. I haven't really heard anyone other than the folks on 8-4 play and a few random guys on YouTube talk about the game. When you say that it's not as deep as MH, what do you mean exactly? I only ask because as I mentioned before, longevity is my major concern. Is there a lack of depth in the combat, or in the gear, or all of the above?

@philosyfee: As far as I can tell so far, yes. The skills are all pretty generic - buff yourself, cause extra damage, dodge, stuff like that. You can equip 8 at a time in any combination you wish as long as you aren't over the points limit. The gear seems really basic and boring from what I can tell. You can buy and upgrade your equipment but none of it seems that exciting. I don't know if any of that stuff gets better later on, but I probably won't keep playing to find out.

The worst part is that the gameplay itself is so repetitive and boring. You go out, kill a few monsters that are wandering around a field, loot them, and then come back to town. Once in awhile you go do a boss fight which are clearly trying to emulate bosses in Monster Hunter, but it's all just a little bit dumbed down and easy compared to the MH games.

If you had some friends to play with instead of randos online it may be a little better.

It seemed interesting enough to pick up during a deep sale, but after reading that...oof

@mike: It seems to play the formula pretty close to the MH series in almost every way other then the actual combat. The repetition an all that comes natural to even MH, but the lack of depth you're speaking of does make the game sound like a shallow copy. I'll spend my money on it regardless and probably be a bit mad, but it looks up my alley and in this crazy blizzard it's something to do.

@philosyfee: I'll Friend Code you (and anyone else that is interested) as soon as I can find my code. Haven't done a FC exchange in years XD.

@oscar__explosion: Sent you a PM with my info, feel free to send me yours when you can.

Hoping to see a Quick Look of this, but that might be a pipe dream. Save us Jason.

@kishinfoulux: I highly doubt it.

I'll be picking it up, so I'll friend code people when I get it.

IGN posted their review and gave it 6.8. They mentioned it was fun for a few hours but got really repetitive later on in the game.

@wwfundertaker: Their review made the game just sound like monster hunter from the perspective of someone who's never played monster hunter lol.

@vasta_narada: Please do.

@wwfundertaker: @philosyfee: So it's monster hunter? xD

I don't really trust IGN's scoring, especially of games like this. Seen them slam too many MMOs because game sites never put the hours into them that fans will.

@corvak: They way that most reviews have described it is pretty much monster hunter's frame with a final fantasy battle system. The negative's from most reviews are things in Monster Hunter that people enjoy? I don't understand it but again, I feel like most of the people reviewing are either not hardcore fans of the hunting genre, or if they are they are just looking for MH Cross. I also understand what most of the reviews mean by it being MMO-lite, but I think that's only due to the combat system, not any sort of massively populated areas or large team hunts.

@philosyfee: It's not just the cooldown based combat system that is MMO-lite, it's the questing as well. Get quest and maybe a few subquests from town, go to specific area the quest is in (which the game ports you to directly on the way out of town), kill and loot, return to town (by porting.) The quests are mostly "Kill x number of this monster" and the subquests usually consist of picking up loot that drops from those monsters. Some quests are deliveries in that a certain character wants a specific item, and you have to get it for them. That will involve looting it or simply buying it. That's the whole game.

The thing that sucks about the subquests it that they don't complete automatically. You have to go to the quest giver in town and go through a menu to select the quests you want to turn in, then they are finally completed.

@mike: That system of questing sounds exactly the same as monster hunter, without the ease of completing the sub quests then and there.

Been playing the game for hours now and to give everyone a heads up I'm really enjoying it. I am aware to a few of the minor flaws, but it follows the Monster Hunter format super close, but adds on a combat style similar to Crystal Chronicles or Xenoblade or a little bit of PSO.

@philosyfee: wow that sounds.... amazing?

@tajasaurus: The combat certainly is super fun. I'm going to paste what I wrote in a PM to someone else who asked me about the game. It's less a review and more of a comparison to Monster Hunter, for anyone who is interested and is familiar with and/or fan of the MH series.

Only played for about a 3 hours so far and it is definitely the same structure as MH. By that I mean the hub town(s?), preparing for hunts, quest structure, resource gathering and crafting. The major differences are the combat which reminds me a bit of Xenoblade Chronicles, or PSO. You have a standard attack button, but to do magic and other abilities, you need to hit the triggers and pull up a 8 ability hot bar that is separated by the L and R buttons. This also leads to the idea of combining and/or using consecutive moves to fill a gauge, that once exceeding a certain threshold you can hold down both L and R together to perform various "Crystal Surges" (Super Moves).

The only other major difference from the Monster Hunter series is the monster capture system. You can capture monsters on the field and have them follow you similar to Palico. The difference here is that you can find and combine monsters to upgrade monsters. This includes the "Eidolons" or summons that you might know from Final Fantasy history.

Lastly character customization is a bit more loose. In Monster Hunter you could switch to a new weapon, but the learning curve on some were so high that it took a bit to retrain yourself. In Explorers, you acquire various job classes over time from various task, or prerequisites. Once you learn or invest in a job, you are not bound to it forever, plus the points invested stay in that job. This allows you to change on the fly given the situation, and also have the ability to try new things without feeling like you are going to waste time and/or lose out on your previous job class.

Overall I find it very fun, and while it does seem to be very easy in the beginning, I assume it will get harder as I go on. I don't know how much lasting appeal it will have since I haven't hit that end game threshold, but right now I am having a good time.

I'd totally pick this up if it was on Vita. It's a shame it's not.

Maybe one day when I finally get around to buying a 3DS.

Put in a couple hours last night. If this was a console or PC game, I would probably bounce off of it real fast. Unlike MH, the hunt/quest process isn't as exciting or dynamic and I would end up getting bored with longer play sessions. However, I tend to play my 3DS before I go to bed so it's usually anywhere from 15 mins to 1 hour chunks of playtime. I can get through a couple main quests each night and progress at a decent pace without getting bored with it.

There are some things I do like about it though. Being able to switch classes in town is easy to do and there seems to be a great variety to choose from once you unlock them all. My initial impression of the music so far is good but I'll need to put in more time before I come to a conclusion. I haven't touched the monster capture system yet but it seems neat. Monsters seems varied enough but I'll need to see more than the 4 or 5 areas I've seen so far. Regenerating AP is really easy and doesn't take too many auto attacks if fighting a larger monster.

I saw this in videos but the monsters rotating in place bugs me a lot more than I thought it would. It just looks lame. I glanced through some of the tutorials before heading out on my first quest. The game immediately popped up those same tutorials so that was annoying. Why can't my character get up small bumps? It's no higher than a stair so why do I have to go around? The bottom screen UI is really messy and it looks like the map is covered.

The game is basically what I expected. It's something I'll play most nights and most likely beat but will have no urge to go back to once I complete my initial playthrough. Not the best game but certainly not the worst thing one could play.