Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS/WiiU) review

[H-Man]

So, what's it like, guys?! Mine has just been delivered and is waiting for me to get home from work. Tomorrow is booked off too

This will be my first MH btw and may well need some help!

[rmoxon]

Yeah, this thread has had 2 pages and no one has said what they think of the game yet.

[djtickle]

Hopefully its because the game is excellent and they are too busy to post here

[elaniel]

Need to get myself a keyboard or headset for this. How does voice chat work for this? Anyone found out?

[kryss]

@elaniel:

Voice chat uses the GamePad and works really well AFTER you reduce the sensitivity of the mic a bit. Online you can send Nintendo Network friend requests without leaving the game.

That is about the size of it. I've "only" gotten 10 hours in so far with school and all. The 3DS/WiiU Save Transfer Tool and Pack Relay Tool (to play the 3DS version online via WiiU) are going to be available tomorrow according to Capcom. About time too.

It's immense! Haven't been back online since yesterday as I have to work on my farm capacity, then I can just make cash constantly from Godbugs (120z each!).

Well, it's Monster Hunter. Some of the more interesting bits from Tri are gone, like the 3-stage bowguns and the subquests, but the core remains. I complained about the lighting from the torch...Yeah, that's annoying. The new shimmering water effect is funky though. Makes me think I'm looking at a 3DS screen the wrong way.

There's a lot that would have benefited from some re-texturing as scaling it up just doesn't cut it. It's in HD but probably exactly what you'd get from playing MHTri in 1080p on Dolphin. Some things, like the map, Capcom left as is so they had that "old school" feel to them. The armour and weapons got a polish (and multiplied substantially) but some of the monster textures didn't. Half the time you don't really have the opportunity to stop and squint though so in the end it matters little.

Event quests are downloads rather than being server-based and on rotation. Great, now I don't HAVE to play that weekend otherwise miss out on Jhen/etc. The release schedule that Capcom has is probably a little spread out as they want to keep people salivating. With the J 3DS game, it seemed like events and challenges were only released after Nintendo Direct sessions, which is a little odd but good advertising I guess. A couple more to start with would have been nice but it matters little as people will be playing hardcore until they get past HR6, then the world is their oyster.

The music is as massively epic as ever and sounds superb. But I only have my TV speakers and that's enough for me.

The Guild Quests from the Tavern count as both on- and offline quests, so you can quite happily level up on your own and then jump in online to help out others, or use your progress online to unlock the offline for you to enjoy at your leisure. Very much like 3rd/HD and different from Tri.

IT'S MONSTER HUNTER AND I LOVE IT!! 12 out of 10!!

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fAk8yyRA4

[nakamura]

MONSTER HUNTER 3 ULTIMATE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlV6A3BLVBE

[elaniel]

Thanks kryss. Played a bit to start with the local village. I recall playing that far on the Wii version and not going any farther. Will start to put more time into it over the next week. Currently weapon of choice is a bow but feels really cack-handed at the moment.

[kryss]

Switch to the bowgun if you don't feel confident with the bow. Same armour sets and similar choices of ammo.

[rmoxon]

I've never been able to use the ranged weapons very well, I always try but just fail with them.

[briareos_kerensky]

My WiiU version arrived yesterday and gave it a quick spin.
First impression: UGH, textures.
They look the same as the Wii version, and in 720p they don't look particularly hot. Close-ups to your character and monsters aren't exactly easy on the eye, the herbivores are especially bad, showing very rough edges and smudged textures. The hunter's model seems to have few more details and slightly sharper textures compared to the rest, but some joints, especially the shoulders during stretch animations, are very rough. Resolution aside, Capcom went for the safe route and upgraded nothing on the technical side...but I'm in the first hour of the game, maybe larger/new monsters did receive a boost.
One other puzzling choice is the dialogue box sitting in the lower left corner of the screen, probably using the same fonts and backdrops from the Wii version and thus being veeeeery small, somewhat hard to read on a 24" monitor (computer viewing distance) and easily ignored. All other interface elements are small as well, from the item box to quest screens; colours don't help either, but I appreciate the smaller HUD.
Playing with the WiiU pad is nice, though I still have to see if it's possible to remap buttons, moving attack and item buttons to the L/R/ZL/ZR would allow to move the camera freely when fighting.
Loading times are definitely better than the Wii with a disc-based version.
Lots of complains, I know, but my MH experience is limited to Tri and I'm just up to the first quest, before going to scary online places I need to remember how to play, test out the new weapons and maybe forge something.

[Silvergun X]

It's really fun seeing people's experiences with this. The massive learning curve really makes things fun I think.

My experiences are limited to Portable 2, MH Tri on the Wii, and now this, and this'll be the one that keeps me involved I think.

My stumbling block with Tri was the Barroth, which as far as I understand has been made far weaker in MH3U. I might actually be able to progress and see the rest of the game now!

A lot of time has been spent with trying out the different weapons in the demo, and I'm sticking firmly with the Bow. I didn't get on too well with the bowguns, but the bow and the mobility you get with it, is absolutely brilliant.

I'm not that far through it, only 3* single player quests at the moment. I have a full Jaggi set of armour and jewels to give me Attack Up (M), and coupled with power coatings on arrows, things are falling down very quickly.

[dataDave]

This one will be my first.

What's the score with the bigger enemies? Are there some proper big bastards which are impossible to kill and stuff?

[Silvergun X]

This one will be my first.

What's the score with the bigger enemies? Are there some proper big bastards which are impossible to kill and stuff?

Pretty much. My understanding is that the bigger monsters have damage charts for specific types of damage (Blunt, Piercing, Shot I think?)

So depending on your weapon, targeting specific parts of the enemy work more effectively.

You can break specific parts off as well to get specific items dropping. In the case of the Great Jaggi, you can smash it's face in and break its mane, and it'll drop a King's Frill at the end as a bonus which you need to craft some of the Jaggi armour.

My stumbling block in Tri, as I mentioned before was the Barroth. A big armoured thing that likes to roll around in mud. You had a 50 minute timer to kill him in, and it was VERY difficult to do it in that 50 minutes.

[rmoxon]

As well as having certain limbs that are weaker and stronger than others, virtually all monsters are vulnerable to different elemental properties.

The Barroth is pretty special in that it basically has 2 "forms", one when its covered in mud and one when it isn't. Depending on which form its currently in alters which element type does damage.

A wiki really helps with these games as they are much deeper than they initially appear.

[dataDave]

Okay, I'm spending the whole weekend explaining why I need a Wii U to the Mrs. Wish me luck.