http://culture.vg/reviews/in-depth/mons ... 8-ps4.htmlMan, this review...
CrazedCavalier wrote:You still have to dedicate to every attack, but gone is the trademark quasi-turn-based feel of battle; instead of reacting to monsters, getting hits in, and finding the openings to disengage and heal, now you can just sprint away while drinking a potion.
He’s right that it’s easier to heal in
World, since you can now move slightly while using items, but it mostly has to do with this game having seamless environments. In the previous games, you could just run to a neighboring location and heal safely, if needed (monsters don’t follow you past loading screens). Of course, he doesn’t mention that, so he can make this game look dumbed-down.
CrazedCavalier wrote:You get such scenarios as my first encounter with Rathalos where through a combination of a mount, flinchlocking, and flash bombs I knocked off half its health before it could even do anything. Then it finally entered rage mode, and I got locked in place by its roar—to then get hit by a fireball (which are now big AOEs coming from him) that knocked the majority of my health off. 150 defense, neutral fire resistance, folks.
Should've brought better fire resistance against fire attacks then, c'mon. Anyway, both this and the other scenario with Radobaan that he mentioned are actually awesome. I don’t agree that the game lost its depth; it is still basically the same game, there’s just generally more variety and uniqueness to each fight. That is unless if you’re super good at the game, then you can just stunlock a monster and murder it every time in like a couple of minutes lol, but that was the case with all the previous games in the series as well.
CrazedCavalier wrote:World? Hah; they are the worst hitboxes the series has had since 2nd gen, with my gut wanting to say that even 2nd gen's hitboxes are better than World's.
Nah, no way. There are definitely problems, but I usually felt like game was being fair and I knew where I fucked up. I’d need to see videos with closeups to be convinced otherwise. For now, I'm pretty sure that the reviewer is mostly just being salty.
CrazedCavalier wrote:Take the Charge Blade, for instance; in the past it was a very technical weapon that forced you to rely on innate mechanics for a massive return. ... Sword mode is more powerful than ever and you can easily spam its most powerful attack (which, judging from motion values dug up, is the intent; everything else got nerfed to compensate).
It's true that the Sword mode got buffed, but you still definitely need to mix it up with the Axe mode for the best results. Just go look at any videos of Charge Blade players doing speed kills.
CrazedCavalier wrote:Archdemon mode [of Dual Blades] got nerfed into the ground and Demon mode doesn't drain stamina as quickly; the entire playstyle now becomes "stay in Demon mode as much as possible and spam Devil's Dance".
What a weird thing to bullshit about. All Dual Blades players in the previous games spammed Mega Dash Juice, a consumable item that gave you infinite stamina for a while, so nobody even used the Archdemon mode past the early-mid stages. It's definitely easier to stay in the Demon mode in
World, but it's not as braindead as he describes. Because while the stamina doesn't drain as quickly, Mega Dash Juice is not in the game anymore (there is Dash Juice, but it merely reduces the stamina consumption).
CrazedCavalier wrote:I could go on, but you get the point; for a lot of weapon types, the movesets are a major step back, encouraging spamming the most powerful attack over and over.
So if you find the most efficient attacks (or combinations of attacks) and abuse them, you get the best results. Wow, that's crazy. It's not like you are punished for playing the way you want to in
World, though. You don't have to min-max to kill enemies at a good speed, especially with all the traps and items that you can use. Anyway, it doesn't matter what moves you know when you're getting knocked on your ass every 10 seconds. A big part of this game is still evading, proper positioning and hitting the enemy in the right spots.
CrazedCavalier wrote:The removal of loading screens also means individual areas have to naturally blend together, leading to far less aesthetic diversity.
Oof, individual areas that naturally blend together? That sounds terrible. All hail loading screens, I guess.
CrazedCavalier wrote:And speaking of aesthetics, guess what else they regressed? The visuals are muddy and desaturated, spurning the brighter and more saturated look from 3rd and 4th gen to regress to 1st and 2nd gen’s duller "realistic" look. ... While we’re on the topic of non-mechanical features, let’s talk about the music! Wait, there’s music in this game, you say? Yes. Yes, there is. And it’s incredibly forgettable.
These are just his preferences, and I don't agree with them either. I love looking at and listening to the game. Yes, the visuals are more "realistic" now (and I do miss the "watery" environments from the 3rd generation...), but they still did a great job with the atmosphere and colors in this, just google images of Coral Highlands and Rotten Vale. And this is how these two locations sound, by the way, so you can decide for yourself if this music is forgettable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-SfA2o4kRYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFBXcl6FW6MOf course, it's perfectly fine to critisize
Monster Hunter: World, but I just don't understand in what shape or form is this a "degenerated" game. It is definitely an easier game that the predecessors right now (especially while G-rank is still not here), but that has mostly something to do with you getting some new powerful tools and monsters straight up having lower stats when compared to their counterparts from the previous games (I'm 99% sure that's how it is), rather than with the game lacking depth. But the difficulty will get fixed in time, just like the other supposed problems like hitboxes and weapon balance.
But I guess the games should take place entirely in arenas, this way you don't have to run anywhere at all and you can get all the aesthetic diversity you want. The future games should also go back to Nintendo 3DS, so you wouldn't have to suffer through those awful "realistic" graphics. And maybe then the series should actually become turn-based. Would that be "progressive" for this guy then?