Monster Hunter World: Initial Impressions (Monday Musings 29)

I was feverishly getting through the quests as quickly as possible to obtain the Palico Watcher armor and weapon (cross-over from Horizon: Zero Dawn) as the event will be over on February 8th. The Aloy set for your hunter will be available later. The date has been unannounced. So I apologize for being a day late for this Monday Musings 29.

The great news is that the core experience of Monster Hunter: World is exactly like the past games in terms of combat mechanics, and all the hunting accoutrements such as traps, throwing knives, bombs and such. You are thrown directly into the action on your first mission, as you fight your first monster. 

I was surprised that during the first mission, they didn't include tutorial elements like they did in the past, such as healing, sharpening your weapons, and cooking well-done steaks. I was expecting the handler (your human partner) to walk you through like previous games did. I really don't think this will prevent the game from being more stream-lined. As there are a lot of newcomers to the series, this lack of tutorial appears to be an oversight. 

I'm glad to see that the first low-rank missions are challenging, especially when you face these monsters for the first time. That being said, I barely upgraded my armor except for getting the bone set, as that was easily acquired by doing the story missions, and didn't require any grinding as I rushed through to get the Palico Watcher armor. So I don't know if these missions would be vastly easier if I upgraded.

Indeed, my biggest fear was that World will be easy like Monster Hunter Portable 3rd to make it more accessible to newcomers. In Portable, I fainted only once the entire main story, and I could've done a no-faint playthrough my very first walkthrough, if I didn't get too overconfident with the last mission. So I was happy to have fainted quite a few times on my way to getting the Palico Watcher armor set.

Once I was able to open the Horizon: Zero Dawn event, I had to grind for the complete Watcher set and weapon. Interestingly, it wasn't as much grind as the past games. I couldn't get the requisite electro-sac, as sacs tend to be rare, but as you level up your knowledge of the monster, you tend to get the rare item the next mission. You level up by getting points from tracking, killing and capturing the monster. You then talk to the Ecological Expert to "present your findings". This makes sense story-wise because once you know your monsters, you know where to carve to get the rare items. I thought this was a very nice touch.

Niki, my Monster Hunter, in-game screenshot

I was happy with the character creation as it was relatively easy to make attractive characters like the past Monster Hunter games, but I was sad that the Palico customization wasn't as customizable so you couldn't place spots, tabby markings, and other patterns where you want them to. So my Palico didn't quite look like my cat Niki.

I was sad to see that my favorite monsters such as Arzuros, Barrioth, Lagombi, Nargacuga, Zinogre, and of course my favorite Yian Kut-Ku will not make an appearance. I'm hoping that there'll be a DLC of these classic monsters taking place in the Old World. As the game takes place in the New World, perhaps the DLC story would be your hunter going back home to see family and friends, but they're being attacked by these classic Old World monsters.

I can see that the developers wanted totally new monsters to make the game fresh for veterans, but this game will be the first for many, so I don't know why they didn't include the most fun monsters from the past. After all, they included the usual Rathalos and his variants. In fact, considering the past games, I got frankly tired of Rathalos since there were so many re-skins of the same monster.

Kulu-Ya-Ku

Kulu-Ya-Ku appears to be the new Yian Kut-Ku, but he's not nearly as fun or goofy.

I groaned when I saw the Elder Dragon mission, especially as this mission is the one that I must unlock before the HZD event. The past games' set-pieces for these supposedly grandiose battles were boring and tedious for me. However, this was the first Monster Hunter where I had a lot of fun, with surprising elements. In fact, I was upset that we couldn't replay this mission.

The other games do have story, but the story in World seems to be better incorporated. Each main mission you do is tied directly with the story and includes cutscenes and dialogue before and after each mission. The story is very similar to Generations which surprised me, as I would think they'd come up with a completely different plot.

Despite not featuring my favorite monsters and having the same plot-line (thus far) as Generations (I'm sure it will have different twists), the environment is a living, breathing world unlike the segmented areas of past games. Because the world is so lush and full, I look forward to being in the world, as opposed to being sick and tired of the dynamic-less world of past games.

Indeed, the areas of past Monster Hunters were so static that I had to take breaks between monsters because I got tired of seeing the same scenery over and over again. The areas of the past games tend to be barren and sparse given the lack of power of the past consoles and handhelds. World takes place in the same various areas, but the difference is that there's so much vegetation, verticality, and many things tucked into nooks and crannies to explore, that it doesn't get boring visually. As a result, I think World may become my favorite Monster Hunter. 

For all Monster Hunter fans this is a must-have, and such an easy recommendation. If you're a newcomer and you appreciate combat that is deliberate, deep and strategic, against very well-animated monsters with specific attack patterns and personalities, and you love immersing yourself in lush, gorgeous environments, I also highly recommend the game. 

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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana--A Must Play! (Monday Musings 28)

I finished playing Ys VIII on the PS4, and achieved the true ending. If you love JRPGs, you must play this game! I never heard of the Ys series, but fortunately my friend was yearning for another grand, sweeping RPG, so I did a quick Google search, and Ys VIII came up. Doing quick research, I was also impressed that the President of Falcom apologized for the translation, and as a result, the new English translation patch is free.

As it scored even higher than Tales of Berseria on Metacritic, the general rule of adding at least 20 to 30 points when it comes to JRPGs held true. Since it received 85, then it's in the masterpiece range!

Right now, I'm cleaning up the trophies, which appear rather easy to obtain. Since there's a lot of post-game content, I'll write a review as soon as possible, if I don't get side-tracked by the soon to be released Monster Hunter: World!

General advice: if you don't care about trophies, then I'd play this game without any guides, unless you're truly stuck, to be fully immersed in the gripping story and wonderful characters.

However, if you do care about trophies, there are some missable trophies, including a difficulty trophy. If you want the Platinum in one walkthrough, then you must play it on Nightmare Difficulty. This is a great trophy guide where it outlines the missable trophies, without any spoilers.

Since I want to achieve Platinum and relive the game again, I played it on Normal, and then after clean up, I'm going to play it the second time on Nightmare difficulty.

I'm impressed by the fact that you can map buttons any way you want. The default controls didn't make sense, so I mapped R2 for regular attacks, and the R1 + (face buttons) for the special attacks. I would do this before starting the game.

Finally, I would play any character that appeals to you. I found that at least on normal difficulty, it doesn't matter who's in your party. Any combination is viable, which is highly appreciated.

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Fortnite Ninja Progress, MH:W Selling Well, Favorite Monster Hunter Game (Monday Musings 27)

Double Post!

Palico, from Monster Hunter: World

This past week, I had a nagging sense that I forgot to do something, and found out that I didn't do my Monday Musings last Monday! To make up for it, I'm going to do a double post, one for today, and then one for upcoming Monday. I meant to write about my Fortnite progress last week, so here it is: 

Fortnite Ninja Progress
I'm currently in mid-Canny, working my way through level 64 missions, maining Sarah Hotep, Dragon Ninja. Due to heavy grinding and being quite aggressive with building up my support squad, I was either at level, or well above level during my time in Canny, so the Ninja is very viable. Epic Games increased the health, shield and ability across the board, which certainly helped with progressing through Canny.

That being said, my friends who main soldier (Urban Assault or Raider Headhunter) and didn't buy deluxe packages or llamas (so they didn't have ridiculous support squad stats) were easily tackling Canny at least 10 levels below, so I think that's why the general consensus is that the soldier class is meta. But I disagree that you can only play soldier in Canny otherwise you'll get crushed. Certainly, you can main a Ninja as long as you're diligent about making sure you're near the same level as the mission level.

Since I'm not good at shooting, I really need to stick with the Ninja class, though I have my Raider Headhunter squad ready in case Epic Games nerfs dragonslash! Hopefully by the time I reach Twine, that won't happen.

Monster Hunter: World Selling Well!
Checking up on Amazon sales, I'm happy to see that Monster Hunter has been within the top 3 best-selling games, and as of now, it's #1! If it can only sell as much, or even more, than past Monster Hunters, I would be overjoyed as the franchise will stay on consoles.

Indeed, the sheer size of these monsters must be seen on the large-screen, with surround sound. Clearly, handhelds do not do the game justice. 

My favorite Monster Hunter?

Cha-Cha from MH3U

That being said, you'd think my favorite Monster Hunter would be Monster Hunter 3U due to it being the first one I played and on a large screen. However, my favorite hands-down is Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, even though it's on a handheld (I played it on the underrated PS Vita) and it's the second one I played. I love the quaintness of Pokke village and the fact that you have Felynes (as they called Palicoes back then) as your hunting partners, as opposed to the fixed Cha-Cha and Kayamba, who are nowhere near as cute or customizable. Please compare the picture of a Palico above to Cha-Cha left, and you can see what I mean.

Further, your personal farm in MHFU is neat, tidy and well organized, compared to the other Monster Hunter farms. MHFU has my favorite village theme to the point where in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd where you can chose which village you can do your missions in, I'm always at Pokke Village for the aesthetics and music.

I'm hoping that Monster Hunter: World will be my favorite, though I will always cherish the charm of Pokke Village.

What is your favorite Monster Hunter and why?

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Dark Souls 1 Remastered!

Dark Souls 1 including the incredible DLC will be remastered for all consoles and PC with up to

6-player, upscaled 4K and 60 FPS on PS4, XBox 1. On Switch docked mode, 1080p, 60fps.

I feel that if this remastered version sells well, Demon's Souls will be remastered for the PS4. Sony has the exclusive rights for Demon's Souls.

This game is my favorite and here's why. Needless to say this is a must-have.

Death Stranding--Masterpiece? (Monday Musings 26)

Why Kojima's Death Stranding Will Be A Masterpiece

Given the cache and celebrity status of Kojima amongst us gamers, there's so much hype surrounding his upcoming game, Death Stranding. Although we're only privy to vague, but brilliant cinematic trailers, we haven't seen gameplay, so how do we know this game is going to be a piece de resistance?

Despite gameplay being the most important component of a video game, I feel that Kojima's next oeuvre will not just be a masterpiece but revolutionary, perhaps in character development and story-telling. For instance, Metal Gear Solid was revolutionary in breaking the 4th wall. The section of the game when I had to switch the controller to a different port to "Psyche out" Psycho Mantis was quite startling and unexpected, not to mention the well-characterized main bosses. I can't remember any of the bosses of Metal Gear Solid 2, whereas the bosses in the first one are unforgettable.

I feel that if Guillermo Del Toro is given full reign to direct the game, this will push Death Stranding over the edge of masterpiece, just from the story telling, character development, imagery and spiritual truths that Del Toro's films express. So even if the gameplay isn't compelling, Del Toro's direction is so brilliant that gameplay becomes irrelevant. No words can express the emotional impact and truths of Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, so it's best to watch the films.

I feel that Kojima will put aside his ego, and let Del Toro direct the entirety of the game. The way Konami treated Kojima, not even giving him credit in-game or access to the game engine he created, is so appalling, immature and unprofessional (and these are understatements), that I think Kojima will give full reign to Del Toro to prove himself to Konami that they made a huge mistake by treating him so unjustly. Kojima recognizes that Del Toro is not only a professional director, but a master, so the first step in making such a masterpiece is giving Del Toro full direction. Who wouldn't let a master like Del Toro direct?
  
Another positive sign is that roadblocks will be removed. The obstacle being removed is having a great publisher backing you, as opposed to a stingy, grasping one that is Konami. Sony mentioned in so many interviews that they're allowing Kojima to do whatever he wants. Knowing all of this, I wasn't surprised when Sony was very pleased as to the progress being made with this hyperbole! It's clear that Kojima wants to snub Konami, and this is one of the best ways possible, as publishers almost always feel that the developers are "too slow".

Another stumbling block being removed is the game engine. Instead of having to build a game engine from scratch like Metal Gear Solid V, that eats away so much development time, Kojima will be using Guerrilla Games's Decima Engine, which powered Horizon: Zero Dawn. I'm sure Kojima will continue to perfect the Decima Engine, but at least he doesn't have to build from the ground up. Guerrilla Games treated Kojima with so much respect, giving him the entire engine with no strings attached, that I think Kojima will also do right by creating a masterpiece that will further showcase the power of the Decima Engine.

Further, Kojima can use that extra development time, actually developing the game.

I know the major objection is that we haven't seen the gameplay, but there are some games where gameplay isn't so important. I feel that The Last of Us is a masterpiece, even though the gameplay wasn't even fun to me. I rushed through the gameplay as quickly as possible only because I wanted to see what would happen to Joel and Ellie since I cared so much about them.  The game has brought so many powerful emotions because of the story and character development, that these aspects lifted The Last of Us to masterpiece status. Here's one of many examples of emotional impact, spoilers below.

Since I'm not good at shooters and it was hard to find resources, I was so thankful for Joel's partner, Tess, because she effortlessly took all the enemies out. I was then crushed that she died because I was concerned that Joel and Ellie wouldn't make it, because I felt that Joel was so under-powered. And yet, here we are, playing only as Joel with no backup support. I was very upset because I wanted Joel and Ellie to survive.

Interestingly, as I got better at the game, and Joel acquires more skills and better weapons, when you have to play as Ellie, I was so upset, thinking, "why can't I be the overpowered Joel, Ellie is so weak! We're not going to make it!" The game made you care about the characters.

 
So I'm happy to see that Death Stranding is moving along quite nicely, and with Del Toro as a director, this will be a masterpiece.

What are your thoughts on Death Stranding? 

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New Year's Resolutions (Monday Musings 25)

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! New Year's is my favorite holiday because it's refreshing to start anew with new resolutions to make this year better, and seeing the New Year as a fresh start.

With every New Year, I make resolutions that I don't follow through, and I'm sure a lot of other people do this as well. Even though I know the reasons why I don't do what I resolve to, and have proposed solutions, the resolutions nevertheless fall apart. 

I'll use one of my resolutions as an example, which is to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Often, it'll strike midnight and I feel that this is already too late, so why not just stay up later anyway because I already broke my resolution to go to sleep at a reasonable hour.

So, even though I didn't achieve the goal of going to bed at a reasonable hour, I could come closer to the goal by turning in at midnight, instead of rationalizing, why not stay up until 3 AM or so, and indeed, end doing so. I have to teach myself to not use having stayed up past my bedtime as an excuse to stay up even later because I've already broken my resolution anyway.

Another of my usual resolutions is to exercise more regularly. I should follow the guideline that it's better to exercise later in the day, as one's muscles are warmed up, preventing injury,  but anytime I don't exercise first thing in the morning, I simply don't exercise. For me, it's best to do something that I dislike as soon as possible to get it out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the day. So to exercise regularly, I need to do this first thing in the morning.

One thing that's helped consistently in terms of exercise is setting my goal very low. I don't go to the gym, but rather exercise at home so I don't make the excuse that it's too cold to exercise, or i'm too tired to gather belongings and drive to the gym.

The easiest and most accessible exercise is to simply walk around one's domicile. You don't even have to get dressed (unless you do, for modesty's sake in re: cohabitants). I designate a spot to start, and start there; and the goal is I don't even have to DO any exercise. Make the commitment to just show up and if I just stand there, I've met my goal.

Interestingly, when I tried that, there was only a few times I just stood there and called it quits. Even so, most of the time, I exercised. I followed this easy regimen for one month, but then stopped, for reasons I don't remember now.

Another example of incorporating an easy goal is my blog. My resolution early on was to post something every week (Monday Musings). So last week, I posted, even though it was the most minimal effort. However, I'm sure there will be a Monday when I don't post, but I'm hoping I will recommit to the weekly routine.

Even though New Year's is my favorite holiday, perhaps the concept of New Year's is the issue. Often, if we want to make a healthy lifestyle change over the winter holidays, we tell ourselves to wait until it's January 1st, as the start of the New Year. When we break our resolutions, we tend to tell ourselves to wait until Sunday for a do over, since that's the start of the week. 

There's nothing special about January 1st, or any given Sunday, as the only day that we can restart your goal. Rather, see any day as the day to recommit, even today!

What were some of your resolutions, and with the ones that you achieved, how did you achieve them? 

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