Diary of a Rookie: Monster Hunter Tri, Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

Pretty soon after I defeated the Rathian mentioned in my last part, I was about to head out to hunt the Lagiacrus that had been terrorizing the village. Before doing so, I thought I would do a few quests online to gather some materials and see what kind of new weapons I could make. I was quite interested to see how the other new weapon type I had unlocked earlier would work, which was the Switch Axe. I had all the materials needed as soon as I was done playing online quests, so I went to the village and forged the weapon.

Holy sh*t, by just looking at the weapon as soon as I forged it, I could tell it was going to be helpful. So, like with the Long Sword, I went out of the village to test it. Once again, a Great Jaggi appeared for me to hunt and it was down within two minutes. Actually, that's a lie, it took me a while to get used to the way the Switch Axe controls, and THEN, when I got used to everything, I took the Great Jaggi down within two minutes. It's called the Switch Axe because it can 'switch' to a sword mode, which will do a ton of damage. It can also do an awesome energy blast while in sword mode. The only drawback is that it can only be in sword mode for so long and then have to 'reload' in axe mode. After seeing the damage I could do with this new weapon, it was time to face the Lagiacrus.

Think the length of a blue whale, but much more dangerous... and electric.

Deja vu... didn't I say the same thing about the long sword and the Rathian? Oh well, this is a casual game site, so screw professionalism! Anyway, after harvesting herbs, blue mushrooms and honey to make some Mega Potions, I was ready to go on my quest. Once I arrived at the coast, a cut-scene was triggered and showed the Lagiacrus sleeping underwater... his eyes then opened and he started charging around the relatively shallow area and bashed an obstacle, getting rid of it for our battle.

Unlike my battle with the Rathian, I actually managed to defeat the Lagiacrus on my first try... but boy was it hard. There were so many times that I thought I would faint to fail the quest and came inches to the Lagiacrus' advances when dodging. My little A.I. partner Cha-Cha was a little bit of help too, since I set his attacks to the Lagiacrus' weakness, which is fire... for... some odd reason.

Victorious in my quest, I came back to the village and was greated with praise for destroying the Lagiacrus... but... Cha-Cha was missing... and the earthquakes that supposedly Lagiacrus was causing, was still happening. What's going on here?

Diary of a Rookie: Monster Hunter Tri, Part 2

Part 1

So... it seems like I'm really starting to get the hang of things with Monster Hunter. It took me a while to realize that this game treats your character, not as a person who gets stronger with the monsters he defeats, but gets stronger with the armor and weapons you have equipped, and the player will actually need to know the monsters' movements and attack patterns to get further in the game. It seems like I'm starting to grow as a player rather than my character just leveling up like in any other action RPG. My knowledge of the items to bring on a quest and the combos I can perform when attacking and dodging are starting to accumulate.

I realized that I was growing as a player rather than my character growing when I arrived at the quest titled, 'Dragon Lady' where I have to slay a dragon by the name of Rathian. During the first couple of bouts, I fainted pretty quickly, my strategy wasn't really fleshed out, and I was only using the standard sword and shield, which I had gotten so used to that I didn't want to change weapons. I remembered though, that I could get materials to make a new weapon that I had just unlocked a few quests back. It was a long sword, and I thought it could help me with slaying the Rathian.

This is part of Monster Hunter's uh... grind. Instead of grinding to increase your level, you gather materials to make better armor and weapons. Luckily, the materials I needed were pretty easy to get, and only somewhat rare. Once I was finished with that, I was ready to forge my new weapon and try it out. With this new weapon, I was able to do a lot more damage, but my maneuveurability was down, but not by as much as it would if I were using a great sword. When trying it out on a Great Jaggi, to my surprise, I was able to paralyze it. Then I realized that there was a small meter under my weapon's sharpness that was displayed. Apparently, I can fill that meter (called the 'Spirit Gauge', something only long swords have) by attacking and pulling off combos, and then I can unleash a 'Spirit Blade' attack, and with my long sword's attribute, it allows for a chance to paralyze the monster I'm attacking.

No problem for my new long sword!

After realizing the hidden power of the long sword, I was ready to face the Rathian. Everything was going quite well to begin with, but... unfortunately, I failed... but I was so close! I was almost able to slay the Rathian, and there were only 5 minutes left on the quest and I was on my last continue, but I fainted one last time with the swipe of her tail that I had just cut partly off. Again, this was an instance when I realized that I was growing as a player.

You're in a better place now, Rathian... and in pieces... in my item box.

Yesterday, I woke up ready to face off against her again, but this time, I was going to win. I started some laundry, had a bite to eat and then booted up Monster Hunter Tri. Before starting the quest, I gathered as much materials I as could so I could heal myself throughout the fight, and I also brought a couple of traps along so I could get some damage in quickly. I was very cautious this time and aimed for her weak spots. This time, I took out her tail much quicker, and then focused on her weakest parts, which were her neck and head. With a bit of precision and careful maneveuring, I was able slay the Rathian and complete the quest. After my quest, both literally and symbollically with learning as player, I was back in the village... and since I had just completed all of the level 4 quests, I was asked to do an urgent one. It's now time to face the Lagiacrus... and he's angry at the last time I repelled him from attacking the village, and he's directing his rage at me... oh boy...

"Come at me, bro"

...eep.

Part 3

Diary of a Rookie: Monster Hunter Tri

This is going to be a series of articles about my struggles with certain games or genres and my experiences with them. I'm a 'rookie' in a lot of things, and Monster Hunter is one of them. I mentioned that the game was one that I needed to play back in my Top 10 backlogged games and I've finally started playing it more around the end of November.

I SWEAR, IF IT FLIES OFF ONE MORE TIME WHEN I SET A TRAP.

I actually began playing it back in May or June, but I hit a wall with the single-player game. Mainly due to the capture quest with the monster called Qurupeco and the quest for hunting the very powerful (to me, at the time) Royal Ludroth. Once I started playing online though, I felt much more comfortable hunting and capturing these monsters. When playing online, other people were very helpful to me with continuing my quests and the game became much more fun.

Before I would have said, "OH GOD, RUN AWAY" but now I say, "Pffft, let me handle this."

At first, Monster Hunter's controls and the way it handles items was a bit foreign to me, but once I actually started having fun playing online, the game's mechanics grew on me. So far, I've logged in over  30 hours playing the game and I still haven't finished the single-player or multiplayer quests, and I look forward to doing them.


Part 2