Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U & 3DS) Catch-All

Blind_Evil wrote:

The youtuber covers the basics of combat pretty well, but doesn't at all emphasize one of the harder things to bang into the heads of newcomers - you need to spend time preparing for hunts. I wouldn't call it grinding or farming, but you do sometimes need to go grab some honey to make mega potions. Basically, the offline town is connected to the first hunting ground, which can be entered and exited at any time for any purpose. Go out there, kill whatever large monster is around, and while you're out just hit the resource nodes for important stuff like metal ores, honey, herbs, mushrooms, whatever. The points and materials from the large monster contribute to the health of your village, which makes your hunting preparation much easier (the long-term benefit is being able to literally farm everything you need, rather than having to go into the wild to forage). Some may consider this grindy, but it all has a very direct influence on your effectiveness as a hunter and will really become second nature after a few hours with the game.

This preparation aspect was actually what I enjoyed most in my time with MH3 on the Wii, and I'm really missing that in the demo. The hunts themselves were interesting, but I found the feedback to the player to be a bit poor. I love that you read a monster's health by reading its body language, but there otherwise isn't a whole lot of weight to the combat animations and encounters. I never really felt like my character was hitting something so much as performing an attack while in range.

But gathering materials, observing your prey, planning your hunt... That part's crazy-engaging and why I'm so excited about getting Ultimate for the 3DS.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Petersmiler wrote:

Tried the demo last night. Died several times and didn't manage to kill the monster. Not even sure if I hurt him much, how do you know? Couldn't see a health bar for him.

Welcome, friend.

You know when he's injured by how he moves and acts. If he's drooling, he's exhausted and will likely retreat to his nest to rest soon. Monsters have stamina too, you know. If he's limping when he runs away, he's badly wounded (and in the full game, ready for capture).

The draw of Monster Hunter is that it's not just an action RPG with a lot of bosses, it's a hunting sim. The fights are supposed to take a long time. Just like you'd expect, were a squishy little human to go after a legendary monster armed with a glorified pointy stick.

Ah ok, thank you! He did run away at one point but I didn't notice if he was limping or drooling! Will have to take more notice, and possibly try a bow instead of the sword and board.

No prob.

Anyone know if you can import your Monster Hunter 3 saves, BTW?

LobsterMobster wrote:

No prob.

Anyone know if you can import your Monster Hunter 3 saves, BTW?

From Wii to Wii U? Nope.

Edit: To be clear, that's "no, you cannot transfer your saves".

Oh. Poop.

Is it weird that I wouldn't want to? I'm itching to build a new character, knowing what I'm doing instead of everything being so haphazard.

Well, the thing about Monster Hunter is that few of your choices are really permanent. There's nothing stopping you from mastering one weapon and then going back to work on another.

Having first been introduced to Monster Hunter with Tri, and then solidifying my obsession with an imported version of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD, I'm really looking forward to MH3U! I'm especially excited for two things:

- A return to water combat! MHP3rd HD did not have this. The accessible part of area 10 of the Deserted Island ended at the shore, and the areas beyond were absent. In the Flooded Forest... the flooding was significantly less severe . All the water-based monsters (except for the Royal Ludroth, which would shower in a waterfall to recharge) were also absent; I can't wait for a Lagiacrus (and a Plesioth) battle!
- I'm eager for people who didn't play MHP3rd (and who also may not have played the MH Freedom games on PSP) to experience the new monsters and weapons from the game! The Zinogre especially provides such a high-energy, fun battle, and I'm hoping his new subspecies form will also not disappoint! The Hunting Horn and Dual Swords became two of my favorite weapons (I still love the Switch Axe and Sword and Shield, though), and although they were in some of the previous PSP versions of MH (which I haven't played), I heard that their usage was refined in MHP3rd.

I do have one minor gripe, though... the new names of the MHP3rd monsters. Some sound just fine and/or are very similar to those in MHP3rd (Zinogre vs Jinouga, for example), but.... Nibblesnarf?! Seriously?! His former name (Happurubokka) was a bit of a mouthful (no pun intended), but wow.

Now there's just the small matter of procuring a WiiU before MH3U launch day...

Oh the shame in being bested by a Nibblesnarf...

BunbyHeri wrote:

A return to water combat!

Which is being axed in Monster Hunter 4. They ditched swimming and added... jumping.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
BunbyHeri wrote:

A return to water combat!

Which is being axed in Monster Hunter 4. They ditched swimming and added... jumping.

Yes! I found water combat to be too awkward. I felt like I spent so much more time slowly chasing my prey while underwater.

Yeah. I liked swimming but I didn't like fighting underwater at all.

Monster Hunter already has climbing and the Jump emote. That's as jumpy as I feel the need to get.

I'm not a fan of water combat either. Also, did anyone notice that the controls for quick diving or quick surfacing are no longer active?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I never really felt like my character was hitting something so much as performing an attack while in range.

I don't know, it feels pretty satisfying when you hammer a monster in the head, and they reel back, stunned...

LobsterMobster wrote:

Well, the thing about Monster Hunter is that few of your choices are really permanent. There's nothing stopping you from mastering one weapon and then going back to work on another.

It's not a matter of mastery, to me, it's just that importing my save would rob me of the satisfaction that comes with upgrading my armor over time. I can make all the Gobul armor I want in MH Tri, but going from Barioth+ to Gobul isn't satisfying like getting there from Great Jaggi armor.

It's a false sense of accomplishment, but it still works on me.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Is it weird that I wouldn't want to? I'm itching to build a new character, knowing what I'm doing instead of everything being so haphazard.

It is nice to go through it again but this time with purpose and clear understanding of what to do, and what you want to do. At least, I hope I will have a clear understanding! I think it will be a little more efficient this time around, rather than all the puttering around the world I did the first time.

It looks like I may be in the minority when it comes to enjoying water combat :), but I like how it can really change up a fight, and provides its own set of challenges. The power and abilities of certain monsters change significantly when they're in the water, and the fact that most battles with such monsters take place both on land and in the water makes for a good challenge both in terms of hunting technique and skill allocation. This is especially true for multi-monster hunts, such as a Rathalos-Lagiacrus combined hunt, where (especially if you don't have access to some of the stronger high-rank aromors) most hunters need to choose whether to tailor their equipment to grant water-based skills (such as fast swimming and current resistance), anti-air skills (mainly wind resistance), or just stick with all-purpose skills (such as attack up, defense up, earplugs, etc).

This is subject to taste, too, but I also appreciate the sense of awkwardness that comes with underwater combat (feel free to remind me of this statement if I ever post to vent about a frustrating set of Lagiacrus hunts :P). It's not that my character's combat abilities are specifically nerfed in the water, it's that there are now more variables: movement in three dimensions, aiming in three dimensions, altered range when gunning, and (usually to a minor extent) air reserves.

If the quick diving and surfacing controls are absent from the full game, though, that will indeed be a bummer.

@Bunby, I did appreciate the different sets of attacks, and didn't mind the 3d spacing challenges. I just always felt like I was swimming through molasses to get after a monster. I also only used longswords in MH3, so no blocking probably slowed me down even more because I had to drain my stamina constantly dodging attacks.

I think it might have to do with your weapon choice. Some weapons are easier to use underwater than others. I usually go lancer, which is very high precision. It takes some getting used to to land a hit with that thing on land, never you mind in water, there there are two more directions in which you can totally fail.

News: Online play between North America and Europe to be added via patch, a month after the game releases. Also Off-TV play will be added at that time.

From capcom-unity blog of Yuri:

Not news: we have ears... and listen to community feedback.

News: we're working on a software update to add Cross-Region online and Off-TV play for the Wii U version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate! (thanks to community feedback!)

Cross-Region Servers: Said update will come post-launch (sometime in April) and it will merge both North American and European servers into one big network for all western hunters out there. This is happening solely because you communicated your thoughts very loud and clear - and it made sense

Just to be clear, the online component of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is totally free - but you knew that already, right? Speaking of free, MH3U will have steady post-launch support with free DLC quests going live almost every week for quite some time. (The first DLC quests will be available at launch, and I'm already working on getting the full schedule, btw)

Off-TV play: Adding more to the good news package, the update will also give you the ability to play Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate solely on the Wii U GamePad screen, with the Off-TV support. This was one of the first requests I heard when we announced the game, and I'm glad we can finally deliver upon it.

So look out for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate as it hits the shelves on March 19 (North America) and March 22 (Europe), with a day-1 digital release on the Nintendo eShop for both territories!

Super happy about offscreen play.

gamerparent, I'm curious on what path you took through Tri. I'm trying to decide how I want to approach the new game.

How much of the offline game did you play before doing multiplayer? I finished the entire story, and had a full set of Ceadeus armor before ever hopping online. It made the first 10 or so monsters online pretty trivial, IIRC. Until I got to HR+ missions, of course.

Blind_Evil wrote:

gamerparent, I'm curious on what path you took through Tri. I'm trying to decide how I want to approach the new game.

How much of the offline game did you play before doing multiplayer? I finished the entire story, and had a full set of Ceadeus armor before ever hopping online. It made the first 10 or so monsters online pretty trivial, IIRC. Until I got to HR+ missions, of course.

Here's my Tri story: I bought it at launch, with the Classic Controller Pro bundle. My first Monster Hunter game. I started it, got about 3 hours in, and did a quest where there were Bhanabra (I think that's what they're called, those flying stinging bugs) around, and they stung me and killed me because I was trying to bug net capture them or something. I didn't know I had to fight them. That's when I quit the game for, like, 4 months.

Anyway, when I finally got back into it, I probably played to about 3 star level offline quests before I felt confident enough in my abilities to go start the online quests and not feel like a fool. It felt just about right, because the difficulty of online (monsters have more health) meant that I was a little more prepared to handle things on my own, in case I didn't have anyone to hunt together with.

Now that I'm more experienced, I'll probably get online sooner, just to hunt with people, and grind HR. But I will make sure my farm is built up first and I have lots of potions and supplies. I've made a lot more connections since then with other hunters (here at GWJ as well as on twitter and teamwork cast) so I don't think it'll be a problem to find hunting parties.

When I finally did get online, I started out trying to just play with people from forums I visited. I soon found that playing with the general public was a lot more fun in MH than most games. You can search the rooms by whatever monster you want to fight, people tend to know what they're doing, and they're either friendly or silent. The only bad experience I had online was a player that got really frustrated because we failed to hunt Rathalos twice in a row.

I hope the Wii U's small install base doesn't harm the online product. I don't think it will, but I doubt there'll be 20,000 people playing at a time like during Tri's early months.

I'll probably be shallow and stay offline til I get a set of armor I find attractive and effective. And I need a decent switch-axe, bow, and lance (or gunlance, maybe). The switch-axe was content-gated in Tri, not sure if that's going to happen again.

From what I've read, it seems like all weapons will be available to forge from the start (provided you have the materials, of course). And I think you start off with a full set of leather armour, I think.

Although, in Tri I think you started off with exactly enough money to buy a full set of leather armour, so more or less the same. Except that a complete noob like myself didn't know that's what you're supposed to do, so I guess they made it more explicit this time by giving it to you right away. Hopefully it helps reinforce the idea of skill points for new players.

gamerparent wrote:

From what I've read, it seems like all weapons will be available to forge from the start (provided you have the materials, of course). And I think you start off with a full set of leather armour, I think.

Although, in Tri I think you started off with exactly enough money to buy a full set of leather armour, so more or less the same. Except that a complete noob like myself didn't know that's what you're supposed to do, so I guess they made it more explicit this time by giving it to you right away. Hopefully it helps reinforce the idea of skill points for new players.

In Portable 3rd they started you out with a default armor set (the Yukumo armor, which (as a bonus) was actually one of the better looking low rank armor sets) and the most basic version of every single weapon (a version that actually couldn't be purchased nor forged). They also had (optional) tutorial missions for each weapon type. All combined, it was a nice touch for new players. Since Portable 3rd came out after Tri, it'd be great if Capcom continued this trend and did something similar with 3 Ultimate.

gamerparent wrote:

Yeah if you're looking for small and single ear, I'm not sure what's out there. I'd be happy to do some digging for you though. Always like to research these kinds of things.

OK, just to follow up on this discussion in case anyone's interested. I did order a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to try to use my mono earpiece with the GamePad, but testing it out with Wii U Chat (thanks Blind_Evil for being a good sport) the mic didn't work.

So I went back to confirmed Wii U compatible headsets, and got the Tritton Kunai.

On the other hand, plenty of people on the internet say that a plain mic/earbud set that comes with iPhones works.

I also got the Tritton Kunai, and I'm really happy with the build quality and sound quality. I need to test the mic out in-game, but barring disaster I do recommend them at the $40 that Amazon is asking.

PSA: 11 days left until North American launch day, not including today.

Blind_Evil, being the awesome fellow he is, had Amazon send me a Tritton Kunai headset, so that'll be three of us with 'em at least. I don't have any titles that it's useful for just yet, but initial impressions are as follows:

-it's pretty light for the size of headset that it is
-despite the lightness, the build quality seems good
-I really like the detachable mic - it plugs in with a male headphone plug, seems secure when plugged in, and the flexible, segmented plastic arm surrounding the inner wires seems durable yet highly adjustable
-the sound quality is really good considering the pricepoint; I'm pretty impressed here, honestly

Seems like it'll be a comfortable headset for long stretches, although the real test remains yet to happen.

Tangentially: one of the things I was pleased to discover is that the Wii U settings menu actually has a built-in mic test option, so it's not necessary to talk jibberish at another person just to make sure your mic's functioning as intended. Very nice feature, IMO!

ianunderhill wrote:

Blind_Evil, being the awesome fellow he is, had Amazon send me a Tritton Kunai headset, so that'll be three of us with 'em at least. I don't have any titles that it's useful for just yet, but initial impressions are as follows:

-it's pretty light for the size of headset that it is
-despite the lightness, the build quality seems good
-I really like the detachable mic - it plugs in with a male headphone plug, seems secure when plugged in, and the flexible, segmented plastic arm surrounding the inner wires seems durable yet highly adjustable
-the sound quality is really good considering the pricepoint; I'm pretty impressed here, honestly

Seems like it'll be a comfortable headset for long stretches, although the real test remains yet to happen.

Awesome, and awesome.

ianunderhill wrote:

Tangentially: one of the things I was pleased to discover is that the Wii U settings menu actually has a built-in mic test option, so it's not necessary to talk jibberish at another person just to make sure your mic's functioning as intended. Very nice feature, IMO!

But we got to play tic tac toe! No awkward hearts or rainbows were drawn on the screen though.

I'm actually looking forward to using these for late at night, when I want to hunt with west coast people, but can't have the sound system up loud. And while I appreciate the reduction in mindless chit chat that using keyboard only gives, especially when playing with random people, I think it will be great to chat with all of you while hunting, because you're all upstanding individuals. And I mean that.