Monster Hunter Freedom

With Monster Hunter Freedom Unite coming to Europe and America by this summer, I thought I'd do a review on the first Monster Hunter Freedom on PSP.

With the series being huge in Japan, there have been huge events, Manga-comic books and even a restaurant located in Tokyo dedicated to Monster Hunter. But for some strange reason, it's never done so well over here. Monster Hunter was first released on the Playstation 2 back in 2005 but was mainly an online Action-RPG game for PS2 owners and pretty similar to what you would see in World of Warcraft on PC.

Unlike classic Capcom franchises like Mega Man and Resident Evil, Monster Hunter Freedom is an enjoyable Action-RPG with a frustrating difficulty lever and an unusual addition to the genre. For example, as you play through the game, you never gain experience points, and monsters don't drop loot. Instead, you mine for ore, forage for plants, bugs, and fish, carve up the monsters you kill, and use those things to fashion better equipment for yourself. To use a word that's probably been overplayed lately, it feels like a very organic experience, and that's what I love about it. On the other hand, it's a brutally difficult experience, especially if you're playing it alone, and that's what I hate about it.

While spending a bit of time in your town getting ready and gathering together the right equipment and items, you can then head out on your quest. Characters in MHF don't have classes, so you can just choose a weapon and start using straight away. Going back to earlier quests is often necessary to gain the items you need to upgrade particular weapons into something you'd prefer.

The controls can be a little fiddly to control, depending on what weapon your character uses when you're taking out certain monsters. Some quests in Monster Hunter require a lot of tactics and strategy on how to take out certain monsters and to end successfully.

A good thing about the series is if anyone else has a copy of Monster Hunter on PSP can team up with you in 4 player adventures and make most of your quests and battles easier when taking out huge monsters.

The graphics for Monster Hunter on PSP look well done for an RPG game, but looks pretty much the same as the Playstation 2 if you have played through the series before. For those who never played through the series, Monster Hunter Freedom is basically a visual mix of Land of the Lost and Jurassic Park. Most monsters in the game are a lot like dinosaurs mixed with dragons. It even harbours a bit of Animal Crossing as well, letting you go fishing and plant seeds to make herbs, but also you can go mining and get rare crystals or special stones to help you.

A problem with Monster Hunter Freedom is the third-person camera control throughout the game is poor and you are unable to target and lock-onto monsters so attacks have to be focused directly at certain monsters if want to beat them.

Whatever character class you're using in Monster Hunter Freedom, the camera remains in third person and you can't go to the option screen and change the camera controls. But if you're playing as gunner, you can take out most monsters in first-person mode, breaking up gameplay nicely by allowing you to play through the game like a FPS.

The music is good, and does a nice job of enhancing the mood. Probably one of my favourite moments in the whole game is sound-related. When you kill certain animals, you will carve off a chunk of raw meat, which even a barbarian like you can't eat, so you have to cook it. Cooking meat is timing-based. Push the button too early, and you get a rare steak. Too late, and it gets burned. Hit it right on time, though, and you not only get a nutritious well-done steak, but you get a hilarious little victory riff and a chorus of voices saying "Mmm, that's tasty!"

Overall: Monster Hunter is one of those 'like it or hate it' series of games. Some people will enjoy it a lot and some people would not be at all interested and find it too difficult to play on their PSP. It's very challenging if you want to take on monsters single handed with out anyone helping you, but if you have friends who own this game it can be very addictive if you play with a group of friends.

There is no story so you are allowed to take your time in completing quests, and you can easily spend more than 50 hours playing Monster Hunter Freedom. It's one of those game that you'll keep coming back to if you're a fan of either the series or enjoy the Action-RPG genre.