Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

Anyone pick this up along with their new Vita? I'd love to get some people to play multiplayer with on a semi-regular basis.

SuperDave wrote:

Anyone pick this up along with their new Vita? I'd love to get some people to play multiplayer with on a semi-regular basis.

Edit:

Okay, now I can explain properly. To play this online you need to either have a program called Xlink Kai and compatible wifi adaptor, OR use the "Ad-hoc Party" function on PS3. I've done neither, so I don't know the specifics. My MH experience is from the PS2 and Wii games. The PSP MH games were originally designed to be local wireless MP only.

All that said, I have no idea if you can do any of this on PSV.

I've read that you can do ad-hoc play with the Vita, but I have yet to try it out myself. I'll edit after I've given it a shot.

Edit:

So I just joined an online gathering hall without my PS3 being on. The game seemed to connect automatically to an ad-hoc network using the PS3. Anyone willing to give online a shot? You can find me on steam while PSN is down.

Edit Edit:

I'll look into Ad-hoc party when PSN returns.

If this works I'll pick up the game to play with people.

I've played on Kai but my PSP is first-gen. Not sure if it's compatible with the PS3 features.

I may be interested if there's not too much hassle involved, and a new MH for Vita isn't announced and dated soon. I don't know, but I'd be a dream if the Vita's party app worked alongside the PSP emulation and ad-hoc workaround.

I got a PSP just recently and I'm considering getting MHFU (as it's dirt cheap on PSN).

The thing is... I've never played any MH game. I really like RPGs, and the fantasy setting is fine by me too. But I've read about the learning curve and I'm wondering if it won't be frustrating for me.

Also, how repetitive is this game? Grinding is OK, if I don't have to fight the same low-level stuff over and over again... I liked Diablo I and II allright, but for example in Phantasy Star Zero I found the missions very uninspired and simply boring. I also never really got into Animal Crossing because of its repetitiveness.

Last but not least - 99% of my gaming is single player, and MHFU would probably be mostly solo too. Is this game any good this way? I've seen some opinions on other forums, but from MH fanboys mostly.

I'm not quite sure that I should pick up any more new games with a stack on untouched titles waiting...

MsbS wrote:

Questions!

I wouldn't say the learning curve is terribly steep, but it is very long. Takes maybe 2-3 hours before you start hunting the lowest level boss monster.

It is pretty repetitive. Progress is made primarily via crafting new gear. Without exception, to craft new gear you'll need to kill the same monster two or more times. At the end of my time with MH3, I had killed some of the bosses 50+ times. That said, the bosses are interesting to learn and always present a challenge. So while it was repetitive, it never really felt that way.

I don't know exactly if MHFU works the same, but in console MH games there is a set of single player content, then a set of multiplayer content that is mostly the same. However, all the monsters are harder and the hardest monsters only appear in multiplayer. One way to describe it: the SP stuff ranges in difficulty from easy to hard, the multiplayer runs from normal to extremely hard.

Lobster would probably be the other guy to pay heed to on this stuff, but I think you should maybe stay clear.

MsbS:

I've heard it said that MH is to Japan as Diablo is to the West. The main impetus of the game is provided by gear acquisition and boss battles. Essentially, it's a boss-rush game married to a Diablo-sensibility loot chase, with MMO-style crafting in between to offer variety. All games are repetitive by nature. The question is, do you think you'll like repeating the task the game wants you to do?

Well, from your description it seems like something I might enjoy (the Witcher-ish theme of monster hunting is really appealing, I must confess). The grind/repetitions seem palatable too, and at the PSN price of ~10 bucks it's not wallet-wrecking either.
It's just that I'm a new PSP user and I just bought Tactics Ogre, Jeanne D'Arc, Half-Minute Hero, MGS (the PSX original), planning to get FF VII which I've never beaten. I've seen a few posts from people who spent hundreds (!!!) of hours making progress in Monster Hunter FU. I'm not sure if I'm ready to dedicate so much time to one game, with so many other great titles at hand.
On the other hand - with the surge of PS Vita users picking up MHFU, this might be the best time to find some people online and play multiplayer?

I think Larry's comparison would be more useful for investors than gamers. It's as big as Diablo, but the gameplay is very, very different.

It's hard to describe Monster Hunter games because there's so little out there that's at all similar. It's less an RPG and more a fantasy hunting simulation. You take a mission to capture or kill a monster and go out into a world populated by all sorts of fauna. From there, you don't get a whole lot of help. You need to find your target and deal with it. Monster size tends to be randomized; larger specimens tend to be tougher than their smaller brethren. You don't get any objective indicator on your minimap, or any healthbars. You find your target by knowing its habits. You know how wounded it is by observing its posture and body language. When it runs, you track it down by knowing where it nests or what it eats. Then there are all the other animals that populate the map. Most of them are harmless and will run from you if you attack, but they drop useful materials when you kill them. Kill an animal for its meat and then either cook it up and eat it to restore your stamina, or poison it and leave it out for you prey.

The thing is, it's an unforgiving, hard game. You can (and will) lose 30, 40, 45 minutes of work when a monster gets the better of you. You will declare that it is "bullsh*t," and you will be right. But the first time you get a really tough monster on the run and bring it down because you knew enough about its habits to wait for it at its home, it's incredibly gratifying.

It makes for a great PSP game because there's always something to do no matter how much time you can dedicate to it. There are missions that just drop you into the field and let you do whatever you want. Want to go pick herbs so you can make more health potions? Have at it. Come back when you're ready.

This is one of those games that people either love or hate. For $10, I'd recommend giving it a shot. If you find that it's too hard, Gods Eater Burst is similar (and much easier), but with the "anime weirdness" cranked to 11. Dragon's Dogma looks like it's going to be in the same vein, albeit with a more typical fantasy setting, which is really too bad because there's something special about clubbing a monster to death with a hammer made out of its mom.

LobsterMobster wrote:

there's something special about clubbing a monster to death with a hammer made out of its mom.

OK, I'm sold.

FYI, I tested my Vita with Ad-hoc party last night and everything worked swimmingly.

Downside: you need a PS3 for now since xlink hasn't been updated to support the Vita, yet.

I got the game and started playing it recently. I am about 4 hours into the game, and I've almost completed the beginner tutorials (I just have the Bow tutorial left)

My impression after the weapon trainings is that most available weapons are very awkward to use. The sword works fine, the gunbows seem ok, the lance is usable (though you need to be quite precise with the thrusts). But other weapons are just sooo zetta slow! It takes ages to hit any target with a hammer or greatsword. The Horn and longsword seem pretty atrocious as well.

This might be because I'm a noob, and I even had difficulties hitting the bloody Giadrome with a bloody Paintball. But are these 'powerful-but-slow' weapons usable after you get better, or are they simply there to boost the difficulty level after you improve your skills and equipment?

Any weapon type is viable, though some of the lighter ones become very inefficient against top toer monsters. Heavier ones are best left until you understand your targets' behaviors fairly well.

That's part of the strategy. No auto-aim and slow weapons. If you run in and hack and slash, you're going to get eaten. Instead you need to train with your weapon, learn how your target moves, and look for openings. Different weapon types also do different kinds of damage, which can be more or less effective against different monsters and bodyparts. Greatswords are good for cutting off tails while hammers are good for smashing horns, for instance. The lighter weapons are easier to use but do much less damage. That means your fights will take longer, which gives your target a greater chance to murder you. I've even lost a few fights because I couldn't kill my prey fast enough.

The strategic differences between the weapons are what make the game so great in multiplayer. Big, heavy weapons become much more viable when you have a lancer distracting a monster from behind their shield, and bowguns are incredible as support weapons when there's someone else doing the majority of the damage.

OK, guess I'm just too poor at monsterhunting to use the slow weapons effectively.

HOWEVER

if I start using the 'easy' weapon at this point, I will continue being crappy at greatswords/hammers. Then, when I reach the monsters that are too powerful (have too much health) to be killed using sword/shield, they will massacre me as I won't be able to kill them using better weapons...

Seems like I can either get my ass kicked now by giapreys/giadromes, or slightly later by the bigger dudes.

Kind of. Some of the things you learn fighting with the easy weapons will carry over no matter what you use. Things like tells, body language, certain evades, etc. Hunting stuff. You won't learn the moves and timing of the actual weapons, though. That said, there are cases where the light, fast, easy weapon is the right tool for the job. Small, fast monsters (like giadromes) are hard to hit with slow, heavy weapons. If you do land a hit you'll probably knock them right off their feet, but they'll tear into you when you miss.

If I were you, I'd start out with whichever weapon you prefer, and bring along something heavier when you're hunting easy prey or you're out on a collection mission, just for practice.

What he said. One thing that really helped me was to start out using a bow or bowgun. With the point of view you get from shooting from afar, it's really easy to start to get a feel for a monster's tells, patterns, and timings, which is really key to the whole hunt regardless of weapon. You're really meant to learn all the weapons eventually, so don't sweat getting locked into a "bad" one. f*ck what you read online about newb weapons, etc. Most of that comes from people with hammers knocking their allies away in multiplayer.

Also, until you're comfortable with hunting a particular beastie, try to minimize variables. Fight him in the arena so you don't have to worry about fleeing or adds. Use a weapon you're familiar with so you have all the moves grooved in already. Make it a ranged weapon so you don't have to worry about tail lashes and other close attacks. If you use these techniques to isolate and improve the parts of the hunt you're having trouble with, you can start putting the pieces together pretty quickly.

Also, know the ranges, timings, etc. of all your evasion abilities.

I can't even crack the shell with this game. I've done only the training missions available for my chosen weapons (tried sword/shield, tried mace, tried lance), but even the very first real mission leaves me with so much frustration I want to delete the app. I get surrounded very quickly, knocked on my ass, and soon after, I'm on a cart back to the mission spawn site.

I've tried. Tried again. Walked away from the game for a few days. Tried again. Looked at the wiki. Tried again.

That's all I can give. I don't have the patience to push further. If I can't get to the fun part after 3-4 hrs, why am I playing this game?

I have a job. I play games to relax. This is kind of the opposite effect.

Normally, I wouldn't post this kind of comment because who cares what I'm doing -- but I wanted to give a heads-up that this is a very tough nut to crack.

I walked into this game knowing of its similarities to Dark Souls. Monster Hunter is friendly in the sake that it lets you move much quicker than I ever could in DS, but at the cost of making more weapons wind up way more. I'm playing on "easy mode" as it will, by choosing the sword and shield to be my primary weapon. So far, it has worked swimmingly and I'm on track to clearing the level two challenges that the village leader gives you.

My most recent mission was pretty great. I had to do a simple task of gathering some mountain herbs in under twenty minutes. About halfway through a wonderful/terrible creature with rainbow colored scales showed up and started following me from area to area. Not only was I able to get away and complete the mission, but I managed to grab a carnivore's egg with the monster in my area and bring it back to the red box.

I actually find this game quite relaxing with its various farming elements. Then again, I find Dark Souls to be a relaxing game, so I guess I'm weird.

Well, so far my experiences are closer to DonD. I kicked the Giadrome's ass a few times in the training mission with the sword only (no bombs or traps) - no problem there. But in the actual quest he keeps knocking me out. I will have to come back to the training and see how my equipment was different (yeah, I was wearing a suit of armour instead of 'Venus in furs' outfit).

But I'm not giving up! I had a good chuckle when I realised that there is a different animation for running away from a big-ass monster (in this case, some overgrown mammoth or wild pig, who knocked me out seconds later, as I ran out of stamina).

EDIT: OK, I just checked, and now I know the difference between the attack values of 98 vs 140, and defence values of 8 (Hunter mail) vs 1 (the furry stuff). Gotta stock up, no doubt about that!

A couple of very quick pointers for the newly anointed:

- Herb + Blue Mushroom = Healing Potion, Healing Potion + Honey = Mega Healing Potion. You can carry 20 healing potions and 10 mega healing potions. If you find yourself running out of health a lot, bring some extra honey so you can restock your mega healing potions in the field.
- Always bring a BBQ spit and eat your free rations. It's fairly easy to get meat that you can cook on the spit (on higher quality spits the meat will darken to a state between "cooked" and "burnt" that is "perfect" just as the cooking music ends). You always want your stamina bar maxed out, especially if you're using a shield or find yourself in need of a quick getaway.
- In your kitchen, the little cat things can cook meals for you which will give you various buffs on your next mission. Have a look here.

It is a hard game, and it's not for everyone. It can be stressful. Much like in Dark Souls, the payoffs come from succeeding despite the difficulty, and these games typically have a similar arc: early on you encounter a big, bad beastie that seems impossible to kill (such as SuperDave's encounter with what I believe was a Tigrex), and then by the end of the game you have the equipment, the knowledge and the skill to bring it down.

And once you've done that, you can fight the giant enemy crab:

I managed to beat my first real (non-training) Giadrome yesterday. Ha! I used most of my potions, and it was quite difficult when Giadrome and 3 Giaprey attacked me at the same time, but I survived and carved some stuff from the carcass.

...

And then I realised I could have started with an Elder quest and upgrade my equipment BEFORE I started doing the * Guild ones... I thought the Elder was just there for talking, not for handing out quests

Ah, god! You've been doing the Guild quests?....yeah, Elder Quests are really the one-player component of the game. Guild quest monsters are pretty buff, comparitively. You get slightly better carves, so sometimes it's worth it, but if you're new it can be an exercise in frustration. Do the Elder Quests instead. You won't have to fight a Giadrome for a while if you're just starting them.

That said, time spent training in this game is never wasted. =) You'll probably find the Elder Giadrome easy pickings now. Congrats on the win.

Yeah, whacking a Giadrome with a bone kris was a pain in the ass, I tell you. I thought: "WTF? If the very first mission is so tough, how can I ever progress?!".

Stupidity costs you, eh?

Yeah, Guild Quests are generally intended for groups. But, as you've seen, still possible solo.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Yeah, Guild Quests are generally intended for groups. But, as you've seen, still possible solo. :D

I made that same mistake, but my Dark Souls credentials allowed me to take down the group Giadrome.

EDIT: I'm glad I have my tag or else it could easily turn into "Humblebrag". I've been ridiculous the past few weeks.

I thought it was just the Guild - offline for solo (easier monsters), online for multi (stronger monsters).

And it's all because I bought the game on PSN - if I had a UMD version, I would certainly have read the instruction booklet... It is only when I had a look into the (not very convenient) manual on PSP, I realised the Elder also gave quests.

Anyway, the game really did suck me in (though I only have around 6.5 hours clocked in). Now I'm dying to finish my work for the day and go hunt some beasts (the Missus is coming home later tonight).

Heh, this thread has made me want to go home and play it too.