Monster Hunter Series

Haha wow there is so much to know.

Basically find a couple weapons you like and focus on them. Build them up and your armor up. If you try to build too many weapons you won't have enough resources to keep building on your strongest weapons.

Don't be discouraged if you fail or it takes you a long time to kill a monster, the majority of the game is learning how to kill the monster and then make a better weapon to kill the monster even faster.

Learn the basics of the gameplay and if you can learn some of the monsters OFFLINE. This will save you a lot of trouble and hassle online when you play with people. I'm not saying you need to know every monster, but get a general feel for the game, your weapons, some monsters, underwater combat, etc before heading online.

Offline has a farm, use it as much as possible. You can make honey and what not that fuels your potions. Plus there is a ton of other items.

Utilize websites like Gamefaqs, MH wiki and their forums, reddit, Capcom-unity, or whatever else to ask questions or find guides. Knowing is half the battle, if a monster is weak to a certain element, one of those websites will most likely have details. If you can't find out how to get a certain item, someone else has probably already asked.

Most of all, try not to be overwhelmed. This is a semi grindy game, but the grind is mean't to be fun and could easily bring you 400+ hours. So prepare for the long haul and enjoy the ride.

Edit - Also forgot a couple things.. armor skills are not always the easiest thing to understand. Armor skills require 10/15 points to activate. So say you have a piece of armor has that +3 to speed sharpener. If you get that whole set of armor the pieces will most likely add up to +10 to speed sharpener, which activates the passive ability.

And feel free to ask more questions if needed. It is hard for me to give "general" advice because there is so much to know, but if you have specific questions once you have the game then ask away.

Yeah I heard that WKC is similar. Though I also hear Dragon's Dogma is similar at least in the boss fighting sense of the game. There are several PS Vita (maybe even some PS3) games that are similar to MH and they're usually Japanese ports of some kind. Unfortunately, Xbox fans don't get any love, but if you REALLY want a MH game and don't like Nintendo, there are some alternatives.

Also, more reviews.

Escape Rope - 4.5/5
IGN - 8.8/10
Nintendo Life - 9/10
Godisa Geek - 8/10
Gamers.net - 9.1/10
Eurogamer Italy - (Wii U) 9/10, (3DS) 7/10
N4G - 7.5/10
Digital Spy - 4/5
Gamesvillage - (Wii U) 8.8/10, (3DS) 8.6/10
Metro-UK - 7/10

Well I can certainly attempt to, but these are just my opinion of course. In terms of easy and hard, I would consider most easy after a little practice. At entry level of using a weapon this is how I would break them down.

Before I say what I think is easy and hard, remember this is my opinion and this is what I think of AT AN ENTRY LEVEL OF THE GAME. If you've played a few MH games, most or all weapons will be easy.

Easy

SnS- Great mobility, can block, and can do a lot of elemental damage. I would not use them solo as they don't do a ton of damage overall, but in a party they come in handy. My buddy did do single player(offline) with SnS and he was able to do it, it just took him longer.

Dual Sword- Great mobility, tons of damage. No block and you're required to be up close so it can be dangerous. I would say at first DS requires more maintenance such as using more whetstones to stay sharp, but in the end it is one of the best weapons. I will be maining this in MH3U.

Long Sword- This is the noobie's favorite. Not to make that sound like a bad thing. It is one of the easier weapons, does great damage, has decent mobility (not as much as SnS/DS but more than the bigger weapons), has a small learning curve. The biggest downside to this is that when you're online, you can 'trip' your teammates and mess up their attacks. If you take this weapon online, BE CAREFUL. Accidents happen of course, just be careful not to repeatedly hit people.

Great Sword- Probably my least played weapon. Does great damage, is similar to the Hammer except it can cut. You can easily cut animals tails with this weapon. Really slow mobility. You CAN block with a GS.

Hammer- The main weapon I used in Tri. Great damage, causes exhaust (fatigue) on monsters and can KO. You should always be attacking the head. Mobility is fairly slow, but not as bad as GS. You get that great feeling like you're a badass when you KO a monster with a huge hammer.

Hunting Horn- Personally I thought HH was shit, but everyone seems to say HH is coming back in a big way. Similar to hammer, except less spike damage but more sustained damage. Also, you can buff yourself and allies. This might be a little challenging to memorize at first but once you have it down it'll be like Zelda OOT ocarina songs.

Lance- Great weapon, great damage, blocking, one of the sharpest weapons(more damage/not much 'bouncing' off monsters). One of the best underwater weapons because it is mobile underwater which most weapons suffer from. Somewhat slow on land.

Gunlance- Similar to Lance, some different combos and a little more damage. Uses ammo to tie in damage. Honestly Lance/Gunlance is no difference imo, basically just depends how you feel about the combos and playstyle of each weapon. Somewhat slow on land also.

Medium

Switch Axe- Decent damage with the sword version, the axe version is pretty meh. Slow overall. Has REALLY high reach for the tall monsters. The combos, slowness, and axe part make this weapon not so good for beginners. You could start with it, but there is definitely easier options.

Bow- This could go either way honestly in the easy or hard route. I'm not an experienced bow user, so take this with a grain of salt. This is similar to Bowguns, pretty good late game, good utility, decent damage. Early on, similar to bowguns you will take a lot of damage per hit, you will do weak damage, and you'll be trying to figure out ammo in the mean time. One of the most OP bows in MH3U is the Kelbi bow, it can kill monsters insanely fast(most likely fastest in the game), but it is a near endgame bow.

Hard

Light/Heavy Bowguns- Extremely useful, great damage, great utility. Problem here is that you have to carry a lot of ammo, learn all of the ammo, maintain the ammo, and getting hit when you wear the bowgun armor means you'll take a lot more damage. Go this route after you have some MH experience, because this is one of the most useful weapons in the game, just not for beginners.

Just a reminder, if you learn quick or have MH experience already then some of these may be even easier than I said. If you have zero MH experience, there is a TON to learn, so having to learn some of the harder weapons on top of everything else might discourage you. Also, choosing the weapon that you feel best with is always the best choice. There is no right or wrong weapon choice. Now after you choose a weapon, there is some better weapons to make for that certain weapon type(like going down the fire route vs electric route vs w/e route), but that is a whole different topic.

Not sure if I would consider the combat JRPG-ish. It is more of a style of its own. Check the posted videos on page 1 for some game videos.

It is grindy to an extent, but personally I don't find fighting bosses/large monsters all that grindy. The first several hours are the slowest and that is where tons of storyline is thrown around. After you get out of the section where you're being semi-handheld the game picks up and it picks up fast.

I would really look at videos and a couple of reviews before you buy the game. Some people are die hard fans and some people absolutely hate it.

EU gets a bundle, but from what I remember its nothing special. Just the system and the game together. There were some preorder deals but for the most part there was just ways to save money.

Also, I don't think I've ever made mention of this but Monster Hunter was inspired by Phantasy Star Online. So PSO fans may enjoy the MH series.

Wow glad to see so much interest. I might have to start playing online earlier than I expected! I will add you guys when I get on later.

Lodi_sl said:

Sent you an invite.

On a side note: I hate trying to speak to someone over Miiverse, heh.

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Haha agreed it is terrible. My friend might be willing to let some of us use his vent. I use it all the time but it is only a 15 person server and we have around 4-7 regulars. So we'll see.

Unfortunately, I can't find my wifi keyboard to hook up to the Wii U and I've heard the voice chat is kind of shitty. So either we'll have to deal with ingame typing, hope voice chat works well, or some other way like vent.