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noahtheboa999

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Still Trucking Along in Monster Hunter

A couple nights ago, I fought the Great Jaggi (the first large monster in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, if I'm not mistaken) around 7-8 times. You see, after doing some research online I found that the general consensus on the best armor set after the initial Leather, is the set acquired from the Great Jaggi. This however isn't as simple as killing the monster once, and then unlocking the set for purchase. No, this isn't the case because Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is, essentially, a loot grind. To build a piece of armor, or upgrade/build a weapon, one must meet the material requirements. I had received all of the materials to build the Great Jaggi set, except for one which requires the player to first wail on the monster's head, until a shattering animation is seen, at which point there is a chance that, at the end of the quest, the player will recieve the "King's Frill". I needed two of these to complete the armor set, but for my first 6 or so tries, I had no luck. But here's the thing, the one component of Monster Hunter that will perhaps keep me wrapped in the experience for weeks to come: I never got bored of this task. On my first try, defeating the Great Jaggi was a hassle. Between the seemingly endless amount of damage that needed to be caused and the frequent knockbacks when I was hit by the monster, the fight was long and tiring. I used a sizable amount of my healing and stamina items, and wasn't too keen to go back in and try again to get the King's Frill. But on my second (or perhaps third) try, I changed up my strategy, instead opting to use my shield a bit more, and dodge a bit less. This worked phenomenally with my rather hefty lance (which doesn't allow for particularly quick dodges while equipped), and after a few more tries, I had learned the monster's entire moveset. Now, it was simple to find the monster, block attacks, while occasionally jumping out of the fray to heal or sharpen my weapon. This, more than anything, is one of the most rewarding aspects of Monster Hunter, completely learning when and how an enemy will attack, and utilizing this knowledge to dispatch the enemy as quickly as possible. After about 2 hours of trying time and again to recieve the King's Frill, I was finally successful, and subsequently built the armor, shifting my sights to the next lance upgrade.

So begins the lengthy loot grind of Monster Hunter, but to call it a grind would be a bit of a disservice. Because the combat is so rewarding, and the enemies attacks so readable (after a few tries), the act of "grinding" for loot drops becomes significantly more entertaining than say, an MMO with hotkey-based combat. Instead of looking at cooldowns for hours on end the player is in the heat of battle half the time, and gathering and combining materials for the other half. While this second activity may not seem all that engaging, after a while it becomes less of a chore, and more a simple requirement to have the tactical edge in battles later on. I will admit it takes far too long to learn exactly what needs to be crafted, gathered and upgraded, but once the player has put in the time to learn these systems, the game opens up and becomes that much more exciting. Currently, I'm about to take on my first Arzuros (another large monster in the game), and hopefully will be able to find a few "Jumbo Bones", which are needed for my next Lance upgrade. After switching to the 3DS game from the Wii, I was initially worried that the controls would be cumbersome. While this is true in some cases, for the most part the rather complicated control scheme is entirely learn-able, it just requires a bit of commitment. The biggest problem so far has been underwater combat, but this is rare enough that it hasn't hampered the experience in any notable way. As long as I'm interested in Monster Hunter, I'll keep giving these updates, which could mean I'll be writing about the game for some time to come...

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