Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

ahrezmendi wrote:
MsbS wrote:

Good comments

These are all the reasons I thought I'd like it. Again, this is very much Demon's/Dark Souls is about, differences in approach depending on what you have chosen to use as your weapon. And again, that's where I think Demon's/Dark Souls did a much better job, in that they allow you to get right into the interesting bits (Is it more effective to fight this boss with Sword + Board? Should I wear heavy armor? etc.) and they drop all the tedious jobs. But I'm still enticed by the fact that MH really is, in the end, about the battle and becoming a better hunter through skill rather than just high stat equipment. This is why I keep reading the thread, and now I'll have to go check just how low the prices are on PSN.

EDIT: Still $20 on PSN. :(

That's one of the things I'm not too privy about with Monster Hunter. I like the Souls series ability to change equipment on the fly. Even the option to switch between two weapons would be much appreciated. Then again, that ability would defeat the multiplayer focus of the game.

Seriously, we need to get an adhoc party together. Even a night once a month would be a lot of fun.

ahrezmendi wrote:

EDIT: Still $20 on PSN. :(

Ah, it's only around 12 bucks here in Europe. We usually get much worse pricing on video games, so I thought it must be around 10 USD in the US

MsbS wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

EDIT: Still $20 on PSN. :(

Ah, it's only around 12 bucks here in Europe. We usually get much worse pricing on video games, so I thought it must be around 10 USD in the US :-)

From what I've read here and in other threads, PSN is the exception to that general rule. PSN prices in the US do not drop often, and games you can get new in the store for $10 for regularly be $40 on PSN.

Not that I begrudge them $20 for a game, but I did just buy P3P and Mutant Blobs Attack. I probably don't have time for an MH game before Diablo 3 arrives anyway. I will continue to live vicariously through all your posts.

LobsterMobster wrote:

you can't sever tails anyway

You can cut tails with a lance. It's just much harder to do compared to GS and LS.

Guess I hit my first wall. Or, actually, two of'em. I can't defeat the Cephadrome (I'm using LS) - I don't have Screamers to make more Sonic Bombs. The two that I get in the mission are not enough (partially because I suck at throwing). Small Bombs are not practical - the timing is too difficult... Any hints? In the next mission I will have to slay some Cephalos, but with no Sonic Bombs it's going to be tough...

The other wall is the Kut-Ku training - I am trying to defeat it with the Lance and I get knocked out. The biggest downside of the Lance is the lack of side-to-side movement. Rolling aside saved my butt numerous times with swords and hammer...

EDIT: Ha! I just defeated the Cephadrome. It turned out that I had 18 Screamers in my Item Box after all... I used 9 Sonic Bombs on the thing (I am ineffective, I know...).

There should be a number of early missions that give you screamers as a reward. From time to time Sonic Bombs are pretty much required to hunt certain monsters, so make sure you have some in your Item Box in the village.

I hate cepha*. Truly one of my least favorite things. Thankfully, there's not much I've needed from them for anything I've wanted to make.

Plesioth is by far my least favorite monster. You're either sitting by the shore trying to coax it out of the water or you are getting hit by a hip check that clearly didn't touch you.

I prefer flash bombs to sonic bombs. Just make sure the monster's actually facing the flash or it won't work.

I prefer coaxing Plesioths out of the water by fishing for them. Just use a frog as bait.

Check out this video, at around 2:29 for instructions on how to fish out a Plesioth, and the always-hilarious payoff a few seconds later.

It also shows proper use of a lance. Might want to mute it though.

I think MHF2 had a dual Plesioth quest in the Jungle. I ran out of time on that quest more than once because keeping the Plesioths unaware of your presence so you can fish them out is much more difficult.

I stopped using Sonic Bombs on Plesioth because it doesn't actually encourage it to come out of the water. All it does is stop it's previous action rather than force it out of the water.

Does anyone know if I can import my MHF2 characters into MHFU on the Vita?

The difficulty is ramping up. It took me a few tries to beat the Cephalos (see my post above), and then about a dozen (!) tries to slay Khezu. What frustrated me most was that I was usually quite close - I made it rage on most of my attempts. Finally, I beat it after it knocked me out twice, I used 8 mega potions, 4 hot drinks and 5 paintballs. Yesyesyes!

The most annoying moment was Khezu escaping. It ran away probably 5 times before I killed it . One time it just landed, I hit it once on the head, and 'whoof!' it escaped again...

Of course, most of my failures were due to my errors. I would get greedy and try to hit the Khezu twice and then I failed to roll away from its electric shield. Or, I would try to heal/sharpen while the Khezu was too close. Or, I would not dodge far enough from its trample (or electric trample). A few times I rolled at a slightly wrong angle and got hit with the electric shield.

Is this fight supposed to be a piece of cake? If yes, then it will take me ages to defeat Tigrex!

As for the weapon choice - I set my SnS aside and started using the Longsword (Katana 'Grace' at the moment, if I remember correctly). I'm going to practice using GS and Hammer too.

Oh, and my 'time played' clock is now way off, as I switched off my PSP a few times when Khezu beat me after 30-40 minute fight...

Khezu was difficult for me, too. I find using traps make battles much easier, either a shock trap (trap tool + genprey fang) or pitfall trap (trap tool + net(ivy + spider web)). Spider webs have to be gathered on the field, but I find it's worth the time. I also circle around a monster while it's in rage mode;I take too much damage if I try to attack it while it has the speed boost.

I went Khezu-hunting again, as I need some electric sacs for weapon upgrade.

I thought - why bother with the Elder quest (which counts as 'completed' already), I'll go on an Offline Guild Khezu Hunting. Maybe I'll get better stuff!

I guess I'm learning slowly - this time, I slayed Khezu on the first attempt (having passed out twice, though). The bastard ran away half a dozen times (argh!).

And - no sacs, just some flabby skin, Small Monster Bone, and similar crapities :-/ Gotta slay the overgrown winged maggot a few more times.

(Oh, and I need the sacs to get a Thunder longsword for Daimyo Hermitaur, who is still too badass for me).

A quick question for the house, BTW. When you get knocked out, do you abandon the quest, or continue? I think the loss of some award money is not that painful, really.

At this point, I usually abandon before a third faint. The money doesn't bother me (as you can grind out money easily in the arena) but I hate losing all the consumables I have inevitably used on a failed hunt.

Umpteen hours later, I have found a new hate object. Green Plesioth. In the jungle, the f*ing jungle, the Plesioth kills tonight. To be precise, it kills me every single time, quite often using dirty tricks. Like a combo that kills me instantly from full health - I fail to evade when it wriggles on the ground. The Plesioth hits the wall, so it stays in place and hits me again. Before I recover, it gets up and does a finishing move with its tail. Argh!
Or, it keeps using minions. Like a Vespoid that stings me just when I want to evade, stealing a precious 0.1 second and giving the Plesioth an opportunity to WHACK me bad.
Or, when it jumps out of the water. Everyone knows it jumps out and then flies in straight line. Relatively easy to dodge, right? WRONG! Not when the %%$^ Plesioth uses the scenery and turns mid-flight on a rock. Just a few degrees to the right or left, but just enough to touch my hitbox and knock me off my feet.

Man, after 50 hours I should be feeling at least up to the challenge, but MHFU grabs me and wipes the floor with me every second quest! I know I am getting better, but so far I managed to advance from 'total crap' to 'piss poor and perhaps able to beat the quest if lucky'.

Just you wait, Green Plesioth, I'm gonna getcha! (eventually)

At least I have Loco Roco to keep calm and boost my ego a wee bit.

I took down the big purple ape over the weekend while I was on vacation. That was a tough fight, but I managed to take him down first try. With all the resources from that fight and hunting ten of his/her smaller brethren, I was able to upgrade my current armor to stuff that's roughly five-six times more defensive than my current wear.

I always fight to the bitter end, whether I should or not. I kind of hate how you fail the mission after 3 KO's (or after the time limit expires). As if you were really doing it for the money, and like you've got anything better to do!

Oops, sorry Tigrex, I need to get back to the village. Hot date tonight. See you tomorrow, OK?

I can sympathize on the Plesioth thing. Hate that guy. Why so many hit points, Plesioth? WHYYYYY

My writings on my experience with this have been far below lackluster, but I just wanted to post that I'm almost completed with level two of the old lady quests. This game has a great sense of progression and I always feel like I'm working towards bigger and greater things unlike many grinds I've engaged in the past. I'm totally hooked.

Monster Hunter games have always been fantastic at progression. They always start you out with some unsurmountable nemesis, like the Tigrex or the Lagiacrus, and let you work your way up until you can finally take it down. When you do, it's incredibly gratifying, especially since there are always even bigger challenges waiting for you afterwards.

I suppose the motto for MH should be: "Don't give up, keep trying, you'll kick its ass eventually. And it's gonna feel grand."

I love this game for the fact that I can pick up my device and immediately start playing without having to "boot" anything, but the lack of wi-fi multiplayer is killing me. I've been looking into getting myself Wii and a copy of Tri and getting some friends in on it.

EDIT:
It bums me that Nintendo is probably going to have the exclusive on this for some time because an updated version on the Vita would be so nice.

EDIT EDIT:
I spoke too soon.

Yeah, Sony would have to be nuts to let anyone grab exclusivity on the entire franchise. It's ridiculously popular in Japan (which is why so many of them have been portable with ad hoc multiplayer only: you can actually find people to play with in Japan).

SuperDave wrote:

I love this game for the fact that I can pick up my device and immediately start playing without having to "boot" anything, but the lack of wi-fi multiplayer is killing me. I've been looking into getting myself Wii and a copy of Tri and getting some friends in on it.

EDIT:
It bums me that Nintendo is probably going to have the exclusive on this for some time because an updated version on the Vita would be so nice.

EDIT EDIT:
I spoke too soon.

Tri is still active enough that you could pub sufficiently. I would relish the impetus to play more often. Usually now I just knock out some of the expert SP hunts, I've done almost everything there is to do online. Not sure the experience is worth the investment in a whole new system, though.

I wouldn't assume that a Vita version would feature Wifi online play, either. There is no technological reason that the PSP games don't have online play. It's just a design decision, that they seem very happy with. Don't think the 3DS version had it, either, and 3DS is a better connected device than the PSP.

I'm hoping that Capcom is going to smarten up about WiFi play on the Vita version. There just aren't any situations where unless I'm using adhoc party, a great but pain in the ass thing to setup, there's no way that I'll ever play this game with anyone and that saddens. me. I love the idea of pulling my Vita out like my phone and engaging in some fun co-op.

I'm not sure "smarten up" is the best way to put it, it might be that their current approach is best for business. They see minimal revenue from the series in the US and nobody in Japan seems to mind only having adhoc play, perhaps the extra costs involved in server maintenance aren't worth potential extra sales (which I honestly don't think would be there with or without online play).

So, I finally decided to get a Monster hunter game and actually play it. This game just seems like more of a portable game than a sit-down console game to me, so hopefully Freedom Unite will get more time than Tri ever got from me. Anyone interested in running with a hunter who has only just completed the Training? PS3 ad-hoc is the way to do it, right?

I would love to, but with my current setup in my house, I have to move my router to an awkward location to reach an ethernet cord to my PS3. I should explore some better solutions so I can do it more often.

Atras wrote:

So, I finally decided to get a Monster hunter game and actually play it. This game just seems like more of a portable game than a sit-down console game to me, so hopefully Freedom Unite will get more time than Tri ever got from me. Anyone interested in running with a hunter who has only just completed the Training? PS3 ad-hoc is the way to do it, right?

I have an older PSP so for me it's XLink Kai or nothing.