Worldbuilding review - Monster Hunter World
Whether you have personally played it or not, you probably heard about Monster Hunter. The latest installment, Monster Hunter World, is the all time best selling title from capcom with more than 15 million units worldwide, so I am going to assume everyone knows about the challenging gameplay and the colossal monsters the game has you fight. As for me, the thing I love the most about the game is its universe, and I wanted to share my thoughts on it. Fair warning, I will only base my review on what is given by the game, and nothing else.
This review will focus on a couple things only: the story, the worldbuilding and how the game's lore and mechanics interact. For a lack of a better term, I like to call this last point game building. If you do not wish to be spoiled, you could skip the parts about scenario and go straight to world and game building!
The introduction
I am going to start my analysis with something relatively classic, let's talk about Monster Hunter World's introduction. The game begins with what they call the Fifth Fleet leaving the old world, with you among them. You will meet a couple of pals before creating your own character and their felyne fellow, a palico. And no, there is no mistake, it is spelled felyne, those are sapient bipedal cats who live in this universe. Please say hi to my two assistants for today, Mercie and her friend Wally!
They will fight the most dangerous beasts for us so we should also thank them.
Right after character creation is over, you meet your last adventure partner. Simply named the Handler, in a similar fashion to all other characters who are all solely referred to by their role, this precious, constantly famished, cheerful girl will be charged with organizing quests, filling up the quest chest, and even cooking if you ever forget to go to the canteen before leaving for a hunt or if you faint during one. Unfortunately, you will soon get to see that the dialogues are the weakest part of the game, and it might be due to that naming issue. They all feel bland and superficial, and the Handler is the only one with an actual personality.
While you both look towards the horizon, your journey to the New World is shaken by the sudden appearance of arrival of a volcan under your boat. As he rises up, your boat gets stuck, you loose sight of your palico, and both you and the Handler are thrown overboard, only to land on the ground below when your boat slides back safely into the ocean. Honestly, I think this is a great way to start the game, getting hooked by the action right away in an impressive setting. After climbing for a bit, you will quickly find another creature to hold onto with your grappling hook, revealing the old guy face of the Zorah Magdaros, a huge moving volcano monster. Eventually you land on the New World, but not quite where the boat would have taken you.
In other words, you will meet the very first area of the game, the majestic Ancient Forest. Your objective is not going to be exploration, not this time. You will just need to get to Astera, the settlement established in the New World. And you are not lost either, thanks to the Handler and the pretty scoutflies! While walking there, you are going to come accross the fauna and your first small monsters, the Jagras. Being unarmed at this point, you might feel a bit of stress, but scenaristically speaking this is a smart way for the game to maintain some pressure on you and even start introducing you to some mechanics. Because yes, there is a way to deal with this, just keep calm and hide.
Once you get out of there, their big brother the Great Jagras will confuse your precious Handler for its next meal, thankfully the Field Team Leader saves her and helps her to Astera, while you follow behind the Great Jagras. Right before getting to the city, an even bigger and more dangerous monster, the Anjanath, will attack the first one, blocking your path. Looking at the massive T-Rex, you may be afraid like me and Mercie were at first, but since it is distracted, it is the perfect moment to rush between its legs to safety. You can breathe, the perilous part is over!
After reuniting with the Fifth Fleet, the Field Team Leader will give you a tour of the city, introducing you to the different places and merchants and his grandfather: the Commander. The beautiful Astera is designed in a sort of primal style, with bones and horns used as structures for the wooden buildings, but some parts remind me a bit of steampunk. You then find back your palico, select a weapon, and are now ready for your very first briefing on the situation, explaining your purpose on the New World and letting you out to hunt. Just so you know, Mercie uses the dual blades!
Anyway, back to the subject. Now obviously, this is a classic hook for a story, giving you a first look at the ecosystem you will be evolving in and asking you a handful of questions to be answered such as "What is the Fifth Fleet, what does it mean? What was that moving volcano? Will I get to fight all those huge monsters?", but classic is far from inefficient. You are placed in the middle of this unknown world, with a look at what you will defeat later on, and you are already introduced to some of the game's mechanics, namely the scoutflies tracking your objective and the ability to hide in bushes.
You quickly learn what the Fifth Fleet is all about too. In fact, the Guild of the old world has created the Research Commission after noticing the migration of Elder Dragons to study their role in ecosystems. Every ten years, one of those crosses the ocean to a previously unkown destination, and eventually the Guild decided to follow them. With every Elder Crossing, one fleet was sent to follow to discover the mystery behind it, and the Fifth Fleet is...well, the fifth fleet, sent after the Zorah Magdaros. In a way, I feel like from even before you have launched the game, your fate is linked to the Zorah's.
The downside is, it disappeared. Nobody know where it is, that big old mountain just vanished, and that is quite irritating. Well I mean, it did not actually vanish, and even left a trail for Mercie and her companions to follow. Still, you get your overall objective in a very classy way.
Hunting down the Zorah
Scenario
Click if you are sure you want to read about all thisSo, the Zorah is lost and for now, you have no clue where it is, but before you can start following it, you will have another problem to take care of. According to the Commander, the ecosystem is changing. More monsters have been spotted and they are even less friendly than usual, and that might just have something to do with that big friend of ours. Time to hunt for our happy trio!
Keep in mind that hunting is scenaristically not the end, rather the means. So your missions will be mainly about protecting the members of the Commission, directly or indirectly, or follow the Zorah's trail once you find it. For that, you will have to follow the scoutflies! Finding the Zorah's tracks will take a bit of time, but you will definitely know when you do.
Oh, and just as a note, the tracks bear in French the name of ecofact, which I quite like, so I might use it in the future.
In any case, this is an excellent way for the scenario to have you discover the different regions and introduce a conducting thread for your missions. All your future missions will have an impact on pursuing the Zorah, helping you make the task easier for the Commission. And it will remind you, from time to time, about your objective of figuring out what the Elder Crossings are all about. It gives you a reason to explore and is a good way to keep you going, as you will feel yourself closing in on your target. Plus, you will get some smaller things to do so you can be satisfied and feel some progress even when you are not chasing our big Z specifically.
In the second area of the game, the Wildspire Waste, another mysterious monster will leave its marks too along the Zorah's. A few spikes, planted deep into the ground. A scenaristic seed giving you a hint that another terrible monster is on the loose, as you will see when your scoutflies turn blue, like when they are on the Zorah's track, instead of green when you follow other monsters. A nice touch if you ask me, just to give you a small heads up on what is coming. It may scare you, but it is quite alright, our dynamic trio knows no fear.
And before you know it, you're on the Zorah's back. Mercie is at least, Wally had to stay on the ground. The plan is simple: the Commission calculated the Zorah's trajectory and installed a barrage to block it in the Great Ravine, and wants to capture the Elder Dragon. A good idea? Given how they tell you that nobody has ever managed such a feat, probably not. But it would greatly help studying it, so it is a gamble, and the Commission goes all-in for this mission. It feels like you are about to get the answers you are looking for, it is an important plot point and an epic battle for you to fight. To be honest, I got really excited, but at the same time I felt it was really early for the game's ultimate showdown. I was right, things did not go as planned.
Capturing an Elder Dragon is not an easy task in and on itself, especially one the size of a mountain. Now add to that our mystery guest, spiky boy, also called Nergigante, and you get...well, a failure. Unfortunately, its unexpected arrival allows the Zorah to break free, leaving you to go home empty-handed. There you are, with close to nothing left, the Zorah missing once again, and a new enemy in the form of that devilish Nergigante who, apparently, shows up every Elder Crossing and disrupt the Commission. It is bumming, but once that has happened, you know you will fight those two again, so you get a new good motivation to continue.
All hope is not lost! While the Captain, a sailor for the Commission, goes back to the old world to get some more gear, you will follow the Zorah's massive trail once again with your two companions through the Ravine. When you eventually emerge, you discover the third region, the Coral Highlands. That magnificient region really does look like coral, however you will barely see any water in it, which is completely understandable, but also a bit disappointing if I am being honest. You also find the Third Fleet, which went missing after attaching balloons to their boat and crashing somewhere beyond the Ravine.
A few quests in the Highlands will let you discover this new environment and its monsters, and ultimately lead you to fixing the Third's airship. Finally, you will get access to the fourth region, the Rotten Vale, a region filled up with decomposing carcasses and a toxic miasma. This is the most likely road taken by the Zorah, and after some exploring, you will get both the Vale's true nature, a monsters and Elder Dragons cemetary, and also the proof you need. Except...it is still missing.
The good news is, someone knows where it is going. The ancient Wyverian, more on that later, will tell you after you've accomplished a couple quests. The bad news, rather the new bad news: the Zorah is dying, which is why it went to the Vale in the first place, but this big old pile of bio energy, supposed to let it all out in there, got lost. And not like we lost it this time, it lost itself. What's worse, it is heading to the Everstream, a kind of heart to the New World, spreading energy under the whole continent. If the Zorah was to die in here, the whole continent would turn to ashes. Poor Mercie and co may be amazing, but they would still be in big trouble if that happened.
Now this part bugged me a bit. Earlier in the game, you are introduced to the term Wyverian, and it is never specified what they are. You only get to see they are sapient, have big pointy ears, and you may or may not notice their missing finger, so basically elves. However, this ancient Wyverian, despite possibly seeing them while exploring, apparently knows pretty much everything. Way more than the Commission, at least, which begs the question: why did the Commission not ask them directly...everything it wants to know? Perhaps those ancient Wyverians came with the First Fleet and did not know anything at first, but it seems their discoveries would have make the Commission's job way easier. And if not, and they are native to the New World, why did the Commission not contact them sooner? There is no answer to that, and it just seems like the scenaristic team was in an impasse on how to end the Zorah's story.
Yet I do have a counterpoint to that: while us, the players, do not necessarily know about Wyverians and ancient Wyverians, the characters, like dear Mercie, probably do, since they have spent their whole lives among them. Would it really make sense to go explaining your neighbor what a car is even though they just moved in? In the end, I guess I still would have liked some way to learn more about them, but I understand why it could feel unnecessary.
However, if the continent is about to be destroyed with everything on it, why loose time? The ancient Wyverian refuses to give you the information until you have proven your worth, which feels like something less urgent than preventing the New World's destruction...but maybe it is cultural. Anyway, you get what you need eventually, I just wish a simple dialogue explaining the ancient Wyverian, even a random one while walking in Astera, was in the game so it did not feel like a joker card drawn out of their sleeve.
Still, it happens at a perfect timing, since the Captain is back and loaded, with a brand-new ship, a dragonator mounted on its front. The next operation has to succeed, or else your researches are going to take a rather dramatic turn. This time, no capturing the big guy, but no killing it either. It would be both impossible and irresponsible: just because it has not reached its destination yet does not mean their would not be any consequences to its demise in the streams. The objective then? Simply force it to leave, and peacefully meet its end into the ocean.
The plan seems somehow both awfully simplistic and incredibly realistic. The goal here is litterally to annoy the Zorah enough that it will just leave. Basically, tickling it and buzzing around it like bugs is intended to do the trick, and it may seem dumb, or at least that was my first reaction, but it is actually not that far-fetched. If there is a wasps nest somewhere you are supposed to go through, you will probably try to find another way around.
Taking into account the Nergigante, you throw yourself in this epic last stand against the Zorah, for the fate of the New World. Eventually, the Nergigante leaves you be, letting you face the Zorah with all your cannons, ballistas, and the lighty dragonator. Once you have bugged it enough, the Zorah Magdaros finally gives up and goes for his last swim. Back in Astera, celebrations are in order. The New World is safe, and the Commission's entire objective is completed. We know why the Edler Dragons cross the ocean, and their is no more reason to stay. Let's hear it for Mercie, Wally and the Handler, saviors of the New World! For now...
Worldbuilding and game building
Story apart, let's talk lore for a bit. Monster Hunter is a game about...hunting monsters. I feel that was not needed. But what even is a monster in this game? And how do you get rid of it?
Officialy classified by the game in different types of wyverns, even though only a few of those are actual wyverns in the mythical sense, some monsters have an electric fur, spit fire or poison, have venomous tails and claws...there are a lot of different creatures, each with their own abilities! That is great for diversity of hunting, not so great for getting a good idea of what they are even if they are clasified by common traits - except for Elder Dragons, those are monsters which can not be classified, meaning they are also not all dragon looking. Luckily, I have a solution for that!
Here is an interesting fact about our world: remains of the same species of dinosaurs have been found of different continents an ocean apart, leading to the most common scientific theory of the Pangea, the supercontinent which broke up into all those we know today when the dinosaurs went extinct because of a meteor. And now something about the Monster Hunter universe: according to the Handler, the herbivores you see in the beginning of the game can also be found in the old world, and later on, the game also states the same for some species of monsters.
So basically, if you want to picture them, imagine dinosaurs and mythical wyverns. Or look at a few of them, that works too.
And now on how to defeat those. First, you are a hunter. So you need to hunt, first by finding your prey, and then defeating it. Whenever you start a new hunt, exploring and finding tracks will help you locate the monster you're after. Scoutflies will show you the way. Those handy insects are contained in a sort of lamp onto your hips and get out when they smell something interesting and back in safely in case of danger. In a game as detailed, it may be difficult to notice the prints, or resources, so it is really helpful to have these little guys around to point you the right way.
The more ecofacts you find - for those who skipped the story part, ecofact is the French name for tracks in the game and I like it - the more you will learn about the different monsters. Supposedly, you are learning their diet, nests, and etc, but in the game it translates to you knowing more about how to beat them and what rewards they will give you. And if that has never happened in a hunt before you notice it in your bestiary, you also learn what parts are breakable or severable.
Because yes, monsters have weaknesses. Weaknesses to different elements and afflictions, and weaknesses to certain parts, which once damaged will make your hunt easier. Take the Rathian for example, a "flying wyvern" as the game call it, a fire-breathing wyvern with a poisonous tail. If you cut the tail, the Rathian has less reach when attacking with what is left of it, but most importantly, it becomes unable to poison you anymore. As a bonus, you can carve the severable parts for crafting materials and shiny objects may fall from monsters when breaking parts, which could be materials or slinger ammo.
Personnaly, I love it. I love the monsters designs, because even those I find hideous feel very coherent and well thought, taking inspiration in mythology and real life, and integrate themselves really well into their environments. I love how the different elemental blights and afflictions act differently on the players, and I love how the different insects, plants and mushrooms you can find are always in a place they can balance out the effects of the monsters. It really shows how much thought went into creating the ecosystems of the game, and that is really nice to see.
By the way, when I talk about crafting materials found on monsters and how plants and insect life could help you against monsters, here is the thing to remember: you are a hunter! As such, you have to know how nature can help you. The game teaches what natural life can do each time you gather something new, and the forge will unveil armors and weapons they can make from the monsters you defeated. The stronger the monster, the better the stats. And something else too. Since monsters use different elements, weapons crafted from specific monsters will get an attack bonus of that element, which may sound a bit far-fetched, and I think it is, but you also get elemental resistances and weaknesses similar to those of the monster it is made of. That one makes a lot more sense, and greatly helps with future hunts as well, although at this point in the game you only need one or two new pieces of equipment from time to time if you want to progress.
Like in any role playing game, in a way. But not quite. Think about it, is there anything else real life lacks that RPGs have implemented? Here is a hint: it is all about progress. Your real life experience does not come in quantifiable points and levels. How does that translate into the game? Simply enough, actually, the game has no experience points and levels. Your stats are solely determined by your gear, and your fighting ability by your own proficiency with your weapon of choice and capacity to analyze the monsters patterns, recognize them and counter them. Some may find it annoying, and sometimes it really can be against certain monsters if you get stuck by the same one for a long time. Still, I think it is a great idea as it makes you really conscious about your adversary, making you feel exactly how dangerous the world is, and cruelly but realistically, will not let you through until you have learnt enough to defeat your foe.
And if you want to make hunting even easier, you can use traps to capture monsters instead of killing them, with a few benefits. Remember, the Commission's goal is studying, and you can learn a lot more from live specimens than you would from dead ones. So as one the biologists tells you, if you capture a monster, you will receive more rewards. Besides, you will cut your hunt time by about 10% which is always nice, and the monster will be released after the Commission is done studying it! Most monsters I hate having to kill...
Elemental blights or resistance, status afflictions...maybe it is time for an explanation about those too. Blights and afflictions are alterations which will affect your character in the game. I already talked about poison, pretty classic, cured with an antidote, no less classic, a bit about fire damage, which may cause fire blight, or burning if you prefer. If you find deep enough water, you can extinguish yourself, but there is another way playing more on your real life insticts, can you guess what it is? Rolling on the floor a few times, of course! Or a single time if there is water on the floor not deep enough to walk inside it. Water and ice? They will affect your stamina, effectively slowing you down. If you ever tried running in water or snow, you understand. Your elemental resistance and weaknesses determines how you can be affected by the different elements, and you can even prevent the different blights altogether. My point is, everything is really intuitive, which paradoxically proves how hard the team thought about this part of the game.
Speaking of which, you will obviously find some other mechanics in a similar way. I do not want to reveal too much, so I will just advise you, if you ever play the game, to try running away from a monster and dodging an attack. The results will definitely please you. This is but an example, and not really what I wanted to talk about. If we want to talk about mechanics, and we do or at least I do but since you are reading it is probably your case too, is how cutscenes are used. Now, while these are obviously a great scenaristic tool, they can also be exploited to show the player how the game works. And I mean, actually show it, not just say it and occasionally breaking the fourth wall. By showing Mercie hiding, using her slinger to distract monsters or deploy her grappling hook, you get hints at the possibilities of gameplay Monster Hunter World has to offer which is an awesome way to integrate the tutorial into the narrative, I am quite admirative!
Enough about monsters and hunting for now even if that is the center of the game, what about the rest of the universe? I want to talk about Astera now. Since it is the Commission's base, you will find pretty much everything and everyone here, except for other players. I will come back to that in a moment. By walking around, talking to people, you will get some insights on hunting, what is going on in the New World, get some secondary quests and so on, which I find great for worldbuilding. At the very start of the game, someone will tell you how the Third Fleet went missing before you even find them. And speaking of secondary quests, some of them will even help make the game easier. For example, finding new ingredients for the canteen or establishing contact with the different grimalkyne tribes, another species of lynian like the felynes. This way, you will gain the ability to recruit members of the tribes to hunt with you, and your palico will learn the languages of small monsters to get their help too. Wally's friends even gave him awesome new gadgets to use! Side note about lynians, you eventually get the ability to send them in missions for you, as soon as you can drop them safely from the air.
As you progress through the story, your status as a hunter will change too, and you will get to change rooms! To be more specific, you will start as just another hunter, sleeping in the common dorms. Then, after your first go toe-to-toe with an important threat, you will be allowed to change for an individual room since you have proven your worth. Once you end that part of the scenario, you can finally move on to the last room, a royal suite, and you are now considered one of the most valuable hunters of the Commission. Little bonus, you can capture small animals in the wild, and release them in your room. As you move on to bigger ones, you will be able to release more of them at once!
And now for the other players: as you arrive in Astera the first time, the Commander tells you about the Gathering Hub, a ship wrecked on top of the city repurposed into a tavern where all hunters can meet. Which means, this is where the other players are. All players in the same session can meet up, drink, brawl, and go to quests together, and most other services are available on it too. And if nobody is in your session but you need someone's help to complete a quest? Nothing to worry about! If you were in over your head in real life, you could always use SOS flares and everyone around could see it, right? The game thought the same. So, if you need someone to help you, using a flare will open your quest to everybody. Who knows, if you shoot high enough, maybe the hunter to help you could be Mercie! In any case, I really appreciate the fact that they found a way to justify even the multiplayer aspect of the game.
While I am there, about that multiplayer...it is always on. Even if you play offline. What I mean is, you always have to try creating or joining an online session every time you launch the game, and in a way I get why, frankly the game is easier with others and it has a few social interactions, but most importantly, the world in a general way is not just made for one single person. No matter what you do, the world keeps on going and living. Yes, that implies there is no pausing the game. Expecially not while hunting, since opening the menu gives you access to crafting or consulting the compendium, things that would take time in reality and do in the game as well.
From a worldbuilding point of view, I can only admire the consistency in making the world feel like you are only a small part of it, and it does not revolve around you. As a gamer though, the lack of non-multiplayer mode infuriates me. I know the game is in no way meant to be easy or story-driven, but what if I still just want to take part in it and discover all the monsters on my own or progress during an internet interruption? Even the photo mode does not interrupt the game! The "git gud" mindset is strong with this game, and again, it is very positive for worldbuilding, but...not so great for playing if you do not reach the skill standards. Goodbye to people with disabilities, you were just not meant to play.
Alright, I'll move on to something else. In the story part, I evoked Astera's style. Wooden buildings, bones and horns as the structural bases, a dash of steampunk...and well, if humanity had evolved amongst dinosaurs, would we really have started building with anything other than their bones? This is a real question, I have no clue, and we have no way of knowing for sure, but it does seem coherent. And the rest of the world? The different regions are pretty much defined as one biome each, but their actual size is a mystery. You never really know if the Ancient Forest for example, is only the different zones you can explore, or if it is larger. If I were to guess, I would say it is way larger. Given the size and number of large species in each region, not even counting their representatives, they would all be pretty cramped in the maps we are given to explore.
Furthermore, monsters which are not your target can leave the region, where would they go if their only habitat was the map? And we would see a lot more fights between them too. "Wait, what?" I hear you say, "monsters fight between themselves?" Why yes voices in my head who conveniently asked a question any reader could have asked, they do! Or some species do, at least. Some even have special animations for their turf wars! You can exploit that, of course, but the monsters are not going to simply forget you so it can make your job easier or harder depending on how you handle the situation. Be careful though because when they are not feuding, they will gang up on you. And again, some species even have special coordinated attacks.
In all honesty, this can be very frustrating sometimes. When you are focused on the monster you are hitting, and another one sneaks up on you two, hitting you by surprise, or just howling continuously in your ears causing little Mercie to have to cover her ears and stop everything else, you might feel the need to scream yourself. But it is such a great idea! Of course different species would fight for their territory! Which is also why some monsters attack you on sight by the way. And when monsters are hungry, what do they do? They eat a hebivore! The ecosystem feels alive, organic. It interacts in ways that feel real, that is why I absolutely love it.
But you know, we are not done yet. This was all only the first part, here comes the second one.
The mysteries of the New World
Scenario
Click only if you fear no spoilers!After defeating the Zorah Magdaros, while the members of the Commission prepare to go back to the old world, you are told a hunter from the Fourth Fleet got seriously injured while investigating weird tracks and that monsters have started invading other regions. And apparently, they are way stronger than the ones you already know. How could you leave when things get interesting like that? Mercie is already on her way, and I for one could not wait to know what is going on. It is a cool comeback too, as you have no idea what is happening. But after all, you have not even hunted down the Nergigante yet...
You will soon find yourself against such powerful and invasive monsters, but more importantly, you will have to follow a weird Rathian trail. Remember the Zorah Magdaros? Its tracking only happened in the story missions. Well, this one is different. It is not such a passive track, and you will have to explore the world to find the related ecofacts, either through free quests or expeditions. This is a longer process than the Zorah's, but that Rathian's ecofacts are way smaller and in greater numbers, so I guess it makes sense you could complete your investigation this way. The story falls a bit short though, no main quests will be added until you have gathered enough ecofacts.
Let's fast forward that whole investigating part then. Good job Mercie, good job Wally. Now time to get some answers. Why were those tracks so interesting? What was so special about that Rathian, if it even was a Rathian? The answer lies in the Coral Highlands, where a mysterious monster has been spotted. Before your very eyes, the pink Rathian appears! Pretty big change in style for the green queen, but it looks good to my eyes. Careful though, it is not only a stronger monster but a different one altogether.
How so? I was coming to that. The pink Rathian is actually a Rathian subspecies. You will be informed that there have never been any subspecies of any kind spotted in the New World before, meaning something huge is happening, but also that subspecies develop in lands rich in nutrients...and lastly, no known land fits that description. I liked the way it lets you know you are not done yet and there are still new monsters to fight, but thinking all those stronger monsters come from the same region has me wondering what exactly its ecosystem looks like, I mean how do species usually living in the Highlands develop in the same environment as those usually living in the Waste, that question is still left unanswered. Anyway, what do you say? Shall we go explore the world?
From the place we fought the Zorah, a new path has formed, on which cristals containing a huge amount of energy can be found. At the end of the road, you will find the Elder's Recess, the last region of the game, the volcanic area presumably responsible for the stronger monsters, the pink Rathian, and the apparent new hunting ground for that ugly Nergigante. You get two new goals there: finding its tracks, and identify the monsters native to the Recess. Another good reason for you to explore, locate that lazy Dodogama!
A single tour of the map should be enough to complete both objectives, so it is not that time consuming. Once you are back to Astera, you will be told how Elder Dragons have been spotted just about everywhere in the New World. Something else you learn: the ecofacts you have gathered allowed the Commission to determine the Nergigante's diet. That spiked dragon buffalo eats nothing other than Elder Dragons! This is why it followed our big friend Zorah, and why it has now come to the Elder's Recess, apparently drivig the Elder Dragons living there away. Do you see where all this is going? Mercie and Wally are going to have to kill the spiky boy and bring back balance to the...ecosystem.
Sharpen your blades and tighten your belts, this is going to be a bumpy ride! Or spiky fight, to be more accurate. You are fighting a creature used to killing and eating the most terrible monsters of this universe, so as you can imagine, it is far from being the simplest in the game. However, through dedication, a good equipment and a dash of luck, the terrible threat eventually falls, howling one last time, leaving my assistants alone on the battlefield, standing victorious. Everything can go back to normal in the New World. The Recess accumulates a lot of energy, but this is probably nothing to worry about, right?
Wrong, things are getting worse by the second. The Elder Dragons are still agitated, and traces of three different species have been found in the Ancient Forest, the Wildspire Waste and the Rotten Vale, respectively. Back to exploring on your own to find ecofacts of each of them in an attempt to locate them. Again. You know, much like the pink Rathian's track, the Nergigante's and the Elder Dragons' are small ecofacts found in the regions in which the monsters are supposed to be, so I get that it is not as easily located as the Zorah's for example, and that you have to explore by yourself to find them. Besides, you are a hunter and it is your job, you can not expect the Commission to do 50% of your job for you.
Nevertheless, those specific monsters are supposed to be the most dangerous ones, and even the usual monsters now have stronger versions roaming around freely, so I would expect some trouble to arise while you investigate, which simply does not happen. Just a little bit more effort could have made the entirety of the story an amazing experience, but instead the game gives you less scenaristic content as you progress. The actual reason is, the whole scenario is but the tutorial in the eyes of most players, but also the game itself. So, by taking away the story, it prepares you to the latest part where you will decide by yourself what you should do next.
While I can not really blame this desire to prepare the player for what comes next, I still find this is a boring way to do it. Especially since you can choose to either go into expeditions to gather everything you need at once or complete quests and gather only a few ecofacts at a time. The first solution is quicker but feels like you are doing unnecessary work, three times even, and the second one gets you fighting more but also turns the whole search into a very lengthy process. In the end, I do believe that the Rathian's investigation was nice, the Nergigante's already was enough, but those three last are too much and do not bring anything new to the table. Just giving the quests of killing the Elder Dragons would have been enough.
Three Elder Dragons. Three very different beasts, one fate they would all meet. Up in the highest mountain, in the eye of the cyclone, the Kushala Daora, steel dragon, fell. Inside the volcanic crater, the Teostra, flame king dragon, was consumed. Deep beneath the earth, where all monsters come to die, the Vaal Hazak, corpse coat dragon, finally joined the ranks of those that fed it. Through the toughest challenges, we become stronger. And now, there was nothing stronger than Mercie, Wally and their Handler. Until the final threat emerged.
Finally, the moment I, and you I hope, have been waiting for. What was waited by the Commission for the last 40 years. The solution to the mysteries of the New World. Somewhere in the Elder's Recess, a special place overwhelmingly saturated in energy has been located. You are taken straight to it, and witness the glorious hatching of a monster from a brand-new species which has not even been named yet, since its very existence was unbeknownst to the Commission. The huge and threatening glowing dragon engages. The final showdown against the most dangerous creature of all had me on the edge, feeling closer every time I broke one its parts, until finally, the beast stands up, and collapses onto the ground. The greatest huntress of the Commission, and her companions, come back proudly to the base to report the monster's death.
The Xeno'Jiva, as named by the Commission, was the final piece of the puzzle. It had to gather huge amounts of energy in order to hatch, which could be felt by the dying Elder Dragons in a quest for energy. This lead them to start their Crossing which in turn made the Nergigante come out of hiding, until they finally ended up in the Vale, feeding their energy into the New World and giving it to the future Xeno'Jiva. The goal of the Commission has been reached, but the Guild still sees an interest in its presence on the New World and asks that volunteers stay and continue their work, hence the entirety of the Commission, Mercie, Wally and the Handler included, deciding to stay in their new home.
I was thrilled by the end of the game. This was a great way to end the story, making you fight a majestic monster and answering the questions it has explicitedly asked prior, with a huge feast and an overall greatly positive vibe. The only problem was, it came really fast scenaristically speaking. Investigating monsters, as I stated before, can be completed almost instantly, yet the story is constructed as if each of them was ponctuated with several hunts in the way the Zorah's was. It could be, of course, by completing other quests on our own, but to me, if the story wants something to happen, then it should make it happen. A couple more quests would not have felt out of place, I assure you. Still, it was a cool experience overall, the story is quite fluid, takes you through progressive challenges and even teaches you the ropes of the game, I really liked that. Despite the weak dialogues, I was content with the last scene and even felt a tear come up. Nicely done, game!
Worldbuilding and game building
Now time for some words on the other things I am interested in. First, for those who did not read the story part, know that from this point on, monsters are stronger and some subspecies, different versions of previous monsters, have appeared. And they are canonically stronger, the Field Team Leader tells you himself they are. Why is it important? Because, as I noted in the previous part, their guess is all those come from a new region which we discover a bit later, since they never met any of those before. My problem with this: most monsters are exclusive to one single region. Even though some specimens have been spotted invading other regions from that point on, they still developped in, and adapted to, their native region. How could all the stronger monsters come from a single region? Or, to be more precise, could a region combining all the necessary conditions for all previous species and more to develop even exist? Maybe I am overthinking it, I can not really help it, and it is already nice to see some thought went into explaining why you suddenly have to fight stronger versions of monsters, but I keep wondering if there was a way the explanation could have gone a bit deeper.
Speaking of stronger monsters, after you start that second part of the game, you will begin to notice some ecofacts of normal monsters which make your scoutflies react in blue, as if those were Elder Dragons'. Those tracks belong to Tempered monsters. What are those? I have no idea. I mean, I know they are even stronger and more ferocious than usual, but I did not find a single dialogue in the game talking about it, much less explaining the phenomenon. So this too will have to stay a mystery. But hey, why not continue that way? The most terrible monsters in the game, the Elder Dragons, have appeared, and we get some insights on the hunters purpose. See, in a world like this one, hunters may have already struck you as necessary. All those huge monsters are a big threat for sure, yet if I may emit a doubt: the large monsters, from what I understand, are still a bit intimidated by cities. In other words, once a settlement is established, there should be no more problem. Until Elder Dragons come into play. Those clearly do not care about puny cities. They are the strongest, and they know it. Now that is the real threat against which hunters must defend civilization. And when you fight them, you really understand why.
This is why you will have to improve your gear to the limits. Even the strongest ones may not be enough, still, in order to craft those, you will need to gather materials first. And there we get to the real core of the game. See, until now, you could progress fairly easily by just grinding through the missions and crafting one or two new pieces of equipment when you luckily gathered enough materials. But now? Things really start to get messy, and you will have to go actively looking for what you are missing. If you ever played any game involving random loot, you know what this means. Some items are rare, and that means you only have one thing left to do: farming. Completing missions is one thing, but you only beat the monsters once which is not enough to craft everything you need, and you often need very rare materials. You will basically need to hunt for a complete family, all the way to the long lost cousins, if you want those. So much for the ecosystem...in the end, the farm is never actually justified. On the other hand, it is never easy to justify farming.
Oh and if you think farming is just a detail, it actually is not. Once the story is over, you will get some events and new, more complicated quests, asking you to hunt for several monsters and possibly Elder Dragons at once, sometimes Tempered or even Arch-Tempered, the ultimate stage of Elder Dragons. You also get some nicely realized crossover quests by the way, with some real work to integrate them in a coherent way into the Monster Hunter universe. But my point is, the purpose of the game is to fight always bigger and stronger monsters. To do that, you need your stuff, and to have that, you need to kill monsters. A lot of them. Farming is the whole point of the game. Of course I am being picky about how the core of the game is integrated into it.
In any case, I did complaint that the scenario had less content in that second part of the game, but I respect the way it kind of lets you go progressively into the wilderness of the game. There is however, the issue of free quests and expeditions. From the start, I only talked about missions, which are the canonical scenaristic quests, but there are a lot of free quests too which lets you complete secondary objectives and help Astera be better equipped and making your quests easier, or simply allowing you to fight again monsters you have already defeated...including monsters supposedly unique in the story. Meaning, despite the story telling you about the dangers that the single representative of its species poses, once you hunted it down, you can go do it again, even with those Tempered and Arch-Tempered versions, which kind of diminishes the impact of killing them and giving you a no-care vibe about biodiversity, since no matter how many specimens of any species you kill, there are always more.
Well, much like the story of this second part of the game, this part about world and game building is a bit shorter than the last, but the game actually does not introduce that much more after you have beaten its first part.
Final words
I love Monster Hunter World. The game's entire worldbuilding really transports me, and I take great pleasure in fighting my favorite monsters...way less in actually terminating them. All monsters have intelligent designs, which I find lets transpire a lot about their abilities and survival skills, and always seem to fit perfectly in their environment. Regarding the story, I think the writing of the overall layout is well done, but the dialogues and lack of content in the second part easily give away the fact that the scenario is but an accessory and introduction to the game. However, I do believe it is even more impressive, if the story is that secondary, how the worldbuilding is so carefully crafted. Looking back at it, I also like how smoothly the game's mechanics are both integrated and introduced. If I had one last thing to add, I would say there are some good notes to be taken from this game about storytelling despite some reflexions needed on dialogue, but more importantly, it is a great example regarding worldbuilding and how to integrate tutorials in a way that feels natural and not forced upon the player.
Thank you very much if you managed to read all the way down there, I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this review and have taken something positive out of it. As for me, I really enjoyed working on this, so I will definitely do some more reviews in the future, so stay tuned and until there, take care of yourselves!
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