I'm an MH boomer, started playing with the OG on the PS2 and I've been hooked ever since. But apparently I'm the odd duck out, because my favorite environments have been the ones in World and Iceborne. I actually loved how lush and alive it all felt. The ecology has always been one of my favorite aspects of the series, and being able to just watch the monsters go about their lives in such a realistic looking setting was everything I wanted. That said, I get what you're saying. I like the colorful and cutesy side of MH too, and I think to a degree it's always been there. I feel like MH has always toed the line between grounded and cartoony, with the portable games tending to swing further into the cartoony. I personally prefer when the lean is a bit closer to grounded. But I don't want to see either left in the dust. At the end of the day though MH is MH and I love it all the same.
Gen1? Damn. And yea i agree, having that spice of cartooney always made me come back to mh in the older games, like the funny felyne cooking, bizarre weapons and the gathering hub emotes. Always loved how the felyne chefs scamper away when they cook bad food for us hahahaha
To me it always seemed like Monster Hunter was always goofy, cutesy, and flashy, it just didn't translate well in the past games due to technical and graphical limitations and various choices made. When it comes to monsters it's always been a mix bag of making them either terrifying or ridiculous, and everything in between, as each has its own personality and mannerisms compared to one another, adding to their individuality. Tone has shifted in some ways but I feel it's a more natural progression of the series. Honestly it might just be me but I prefer the new direction they went simply down to how I can't help to think how goofy the older games looked even though they were trying to be more gritty. They're just embracing one aspect of the design that's always been there and running with it
What do you think about world's aesthetic? To me at least, it feels less cutesy and playful with a bigger emphasis on realism, which turned off a lot of fans that started with, say, gu, complaining that its palette is too bland. I always dismissed this as world taking on the grittier aesthetic of gen 1 and 2, but with a tiny bit more color and charm (there are certainly cute interactions). I kind of see a pattern with ichinose's games versus the main series games. The main series games tend to have a more grounded and cinematic experience (mh1, 2, 3, 4 and world) while ichinose (p3rd, generations, gu, rise) turns up the goofs by a lot and also has stylish action hunting
@@WisdomAkpan211 World to me hit the best balance of not being too soft or too hard in aesthetics. It's a great blend of both styles without relying heavily on either. There's elements that are definitely there to be cute and silly but others that go for a more gritty and realistic feel, while not overwhelming eachother or conflicting. The pallette is definitely vibrant and colorful, I don't know why people would think otherwise. It's more muted, yes, but I wouldn't go as far to say it's overtly dull. I'd use the word rich to describe the shades and tones used for colors in World. Games like GU are eye candy with colors that vibrant wouldn't even begin to describe, they're just overwhelming at points and feel disgustingly sweet, which can be someone's preferred tastes.
No? It's certainly not a "technical limitations" wacky games exist back then and they can make the games more cartoony if they want . It's just what early monster hunter art direction was, serious often intimidating with funny moments. Meanwhile now, I wouldn't say funny with serious moments, but it's way less serious and more inviting.
@@m_riidi all very good points, but that's not entirely what I was referring to. While textures and art direction are definitely one thing, the pure mechanical basis for older monster hunters were far more ridged and stilted than they are now, which limited the range of movements the monsters and players had. So while I think in some sense they could be terrifying from my persepctive it kinda looks like you're fighting a ride animatronic with how robotic a lot of the monsters move. It's where the silliness creeps in accidentally and that's the technical limitations I was referring to.
Personally, I love the idea of gritty hunting, swampy, foggy, misty, somewhat realistic hunts, then coming back to the villages and camps to live out the cutesy, slice-of-life-esque lives with felynes, foods, fun and otherlike things. I think if MH were to move forwards, i would love to see a mix of these developmental and gameplay ideas fleshed out and a duality becomes present - both "wildlife survey" style hunts, and the threat posed by the original games' monsters and environments
If you compare the MH games back ground, the MH developer make more detail at background and less fog/mist in later releases. It's seem they prefer giving higher details than foggy most edgy style for esthetic, or the foggy in 1st gen just the hardware limitations at the time, i mean in mhw interview, the producer and director always wanna living breathing environment as hunting map/bg since at least 2nd gen.
@Felipe NS I argue against this, Death Stranding and Breath of the Wild despite their higher technical specs have quite simple and non convoluted world aesthetic. Even Monster Hunter Rise returned to the mundane. While the technical limitations were part of it, it is not by any means restricting the game’s aesthetic. And a “living breathing world” refers to entities interacting with one another, not visual aesthetic. Adding more ferns and bushes to the map doesn’t make it a living world. They are still static objects to dress the virtual space and pretend it’s detailed. Reality often isn’t as dressed as it is in World. I believe they over did it.
the fog was 100% hardware limitations. Its the reason we don't fog in every game anymore other than sometimes for design choices. But for old games they had no choice than to add fog, more loading screen/ smaller maps, or more tunnel areas between sections.
@@F34RDSoldier805 This. The fog wasn't an aesthetic choice, it was about hiding the hardware limitations. Monster hunter wasn't really designed to be a horror game. It has cute cat people that serve you food, you run into all these supposedly world ending monsters but nobody ever dies... it was never trying to be a hardcore game.
now that you mentioned it, the sfx whenever a monster noticed you always jumpscared me lol. MH was lowkey a scary game I also feel anxious whenever i hunt a new monsters, not knowing what or where they are.
I really miss the art style of Medievalesque plate armor bolstered by animal hides and scales, like a caveman. It perfectly sums up the worldbuilding, the technologically advanced , almost industrial society that still relies heavily on hunting & gathering .
I really do miss the feeling of "I'm fighting a dangerous creature in a environment where i don't belong" I do love the fun goofy nature 3rd Gen expanded upon but i think it's gone to the point of feeling too relaxed. I don't really feel intimidated by the monsters which just make them feel more like a video game enemy and less like a creature ready to kill me. I hope Monster Hunter 6 can strike that balance. Edit: Also I LOVE the wirebugs for combat but i think they take away the feeling of "i don't belong in this environment" because it's hard to not feel at home when you can just climb and fly anywhere you want. It makes the maps feel more like a sandbox and less like a dangerous environment. I guess i miss feeling of being at the mercy of nature and still somehow overcoming it.
Not sure anyone know but mh monsters are also changed, from them being a world overrun by monsters with animal traits to animals with monstrous power in a fantastical ecosystem.
I really enjoyed when the monster intros were more akin to a nature show. More than the visual aspects of fog or negative space what I find myself missing is the feeling of...danger. In Rise it was all 'the calamity is going to destroy the village' and not once did I think OR feel there was any actual danger. In Tri, Moga village's situation really felt precarious, like it was really at risk from monsters. Also, you are no longer allowed to use any analogy that does not involve ice cream. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
it was different with me, everytime i had that sense of imminent danger. But to be honest, even though i have this feeling with normal mh games, monster hunter stories always made me more afraid than any normal game of the series. damn, seeing those cutscenes and tension building as things are happening gave me some chills down my spine.
I for one liked world's aesthetic the most, like the coral highlands for example, despite all the bright and vibrant colors it didn't have a goofy vibe, it was more like you're on an alien planet, and namielle was one of the most terrifying monsters in that game because of it's deepsea creature look, alluringly beautiful but deadly
You know, this argument creates a distinction between 3 generations of players. Which is kind of a big deal because you always see conversations revolving about only 2, Before World and After World. The notion that Rise doesn't actually cater to veterans but to the middle child (Portable 3d to XX) and that the new fans who like the grittiness in World are actually closer in taste to the original fans could spawn some seriously heated arguments.
I think its extremely simple. Team A, who make mainline releases, put a certain grit in their games as well as a focus on slower more grounded combat. Just look at tri, 4, or World Team B who makes portable games has their own different vision that's more lightharted and bombastic. Just look at portable 3rd, XX, or Rise. Two different directions from two different teams, that cater to different people.
It honestly seems like there's a divide between the main and portable titles. I was wondering why I tend to enjoy the more grounded games like 4U and World over the more flashy games like GU and Rise.
I do like the deadpan snark one-liners the avatar protagonist can say during battles. They are fun to listen to, in my opinion. Especially the female hunter with the cockney british accent.
Monster hunter should be goofy tbh. I don't think it would've survived as a series if it didn't lighten up. At the end of the day, colorful games are more popular in general. I know I personally prefer color to the washed-out greys of the older games.
World was my first monster hunter. Being an artist I appreciated so much how the monsters looked like they belonged in the environment and I would theorize how they interacted with their environment. I am a sucker for good animation and graphics as well as a good story. MHW was literally the best thing that ever happened to me, I met really great long time friends I still play with and an insane amount of hours , I can say I loved to waste my time on such a beautiful masterpiece. I am almost to hr 900 and mr 500 and have over 3,000 hrs i think its safe to say Im obsessed 😂
With the graphical limitations before, maybe they made it foggy and not that clear so that it will not be noticeable that the textures and the general environment of the map is simple. If they made it bright and clear, the graphical limitations will be more evident.
Old Swamp is just that good. It's almost magical. I used to just go on quests only to roam trough the map. Spent stupid amounts of time chillin in the secret area. Man if only I could get those assets into VR or something I would spend hours just chilling there.
There is one time i recall getting the feeling of dread and mystery in iceborne as i did when playing the MH1/2 Its when you fight black val vaalhazak and he turns the entire map into a greenish fog
Well, i love the environment of world.. it made the maps feel alive. And when i go back to play older games or even rise i just feel like something is off with the maps. Then i realized i got spoiled by how alive world's maps are
As someone who started with Worldborne, your videos peaked my interest in the older games in the series and the features lost as the series evolved to be more mainstream. I will never stop loving Worldborne as that was my first experience, but as I played GU and got used to the combat I felt that the game was more methodical, and the many maps from older games had a feeling of history that World lacked because there weren't ruins due to world being uncharted territory. I played and completed FU low rank and was always satisfied when I beat a monster because of the prep, and because the stakes were high for each hunt. I agree with the sentiment that Rise took the streamlining too far. Since it was no longer a case of memorizing where the monster would be or go at the start of the hunt, or having tracked the monster enough for the scoutflies to know where it would be, it was just go as fast as possible to where the monster is on the map. And the removal of hot and cold drinks got rid of the stakes of hunting in hot or cold environments, the volcano and ice area may as well have been a forest. Also Kamura isn't nearly as deep as even the World village characters. I do disagree with the sentiment that World was intentionally making light of colonization, and I think that "The New World" motif was more meaning to represent how MH is now a mainstream franchise that has players all around the world, especially now in America. Looking back you can see that over the course of the games the Guild goes from a single village to being a worldwide organization, and they're actively pursuing elder dragons because their migrations cause mass destruction, so it would be wise to find the cause and try to stop it. (Also apparently the cause is Fatalis awakening, and Fatty is supposed to be the epitome of humanities past mistakes so it all makes sense.)
Have to disagree on Kamura being worse than Astera, Astera is pretty bad. Although It's cool how Astera is made of ships, so It has character in that respect, but Kamura being a simple little village doesn't really take away from it's atmosphere
@@ortah2616 Well I didn't say it was worse than Astera, I just meant that there's no depth other than it just being a village. Astera is a big mess and Astera doesn't have that homely village feel. And the fact that it was so unnessarily big and had a weird layout. What I meant was there wasn't much to Kamura beyond "the people here are happy, except for when there's the periodic monster rampage." I mean we've seen that in Dundorma, I'll use MH4 Dundorma in this case, Dundorma has been under seige many times in its history and actually incorporates its history into its design, and since its basically the capital of Elder Dragon research it has villagers who have their own histories and functions that go beyond just being cute, there are hunters, and researchers and also civilians that just live there. So to be clear Kamura is just so basic, I'd say it's on par with Kokoto, with a slight edge to Kokoto because of its legend about the "Hero of Kokoto" and the sword in the stone. Like villages can and are supposed to be comforting but I think Kamura was a bit too much.
@@jjam424 You're partially wrong, but also partially correct. Kamura's villagers do all have their own history that you can read up on, but a lot if it is offline only. The village really doesn't have the feeling of a village that is sieged by monsters though. It could be just because everyone's gotten so used to it, but saying that is just filling in the gaps for the writers
@@ortah2616 Well I'm not trying to be wrong or right it's just my opinion. Also yeah I know about the secret notes and dialogues, like how Minoto wants to be good at something like her sister or how the Blacksmith is initially disappointed in his son until after the LR story is finished. But there really isn't much beyond that. I never even said that Kamura was the worst I just felt it wasn't deep enough to hold my interest, if you love it more power to you. But then there's the LR story in MH4U with the Ace Hunters who you compete with or they at first question your ability as a Hunter, and then you become trusted comrades, and the Caravan who is composed of a bunch of fun misfits who all have fun personalities, and quirks, with the centerpiece being the Caravaneer trying to figure out what the Article is. There isn't much to Kamura imo than just being cute. Other examples include Felcote being a secret Agent for the guild, the isolated village in 3/3U being initially disconnected from the Guild and the villagers having to deal with that, and some quest ladies being guild knights or former hunters.
I really noticed a difference when I played Tri for the first time between it and 3U. The biggest thing for me was just how dark the caves were, it honestly made me wish we had more pitch black caves in MH, especially since it gave the torch a reason to exist. Only for every subsequent game to make it useless because the maps are never dark enough to bother using it over a precious mega potion or Mega Demeandrug. IDK what it is, but Tri feels different than the other MH games I’ve played. Like the combination of the lighting, maps and difficulty have a unique feel to it. I just wish I knew the game existed 11 years ago before they removed the online severs so I could fight the high rank exclusive monsters and finally see Loc Lac city.
Originally, Monster Hunter World was intended to have dark caves and other areas. There's no torch, but the idea was to use the (now almost useless) brightmoss. The lighting was significantly tweaked for release, sadly. If you want to see some footage, search "MHW Lagiacrus In Monster Hunter World Prototype Demo HD".
Loc Lac was THE BEST online server Capcom has ever made off the main games, nothing has beaten it to this day. Majorly because it was SUPER filter friendly. Like let's say you were into hunting a High Rank Great Jaggi to obtain a Wyvern Bird Gem (trust me, veterans from back then will know what i mean). You could make your own room, with all the specifications and even search for those specific things and chances were, you were gonna find rooms. The world would change depending on the events going on, with event weapons that were amazing both game and looking wise. The only flaws were that it had a weekly day off that was a bit randomized and that the HR was very slow since the online mode makes monsters have super extra health for no reason, forcing you to go on groups all the time instead of nowadays having solo player difficulty.
And yeah, Tri is very different for multiple reasons. One is that it's technically the last classic MH game to be on actual consoles and didn't get back until World, which already took what they learned from 3U, 4U and Generations, handheld games that went on a different direction. If you played Dos, you can see Tri is learning from that game but being its own thing. I mean Gigginox and Gobul are examples of that. I do hope we get to see another underwater game, cause there are plenty of monsters and methods that were good but just needed another game, maybe with the new engine, they can make it work.
@@aquelgamermexicano I miss the underwater fighting. That was my favorite part of the game to be honest. I still don’t understand why people seem to universally dislike it.
One thing I've noticed missing since the gen 1/2 maps is that ambient music which plays in certain areas of the map. Tracks like Beyond the Fog (even though it was a recycled track from RE4 and DMC) playing in certain areas of the Old Swamp highlights those areas and to me makes map exploration have a more lonely feeling. I feel this feeling makes exploring the old maps and paying attention to small details feel more fulfilling in comparison to 3rd gen onwards where the maps are more visually impressive but feel less engaging in a sense. While 5th gen has added ambient music to fights with small monsters it keeps the focus of the game on those monsters and doesn't add to the feeling of exploration you get from running into an area of the map with a cave or ruins or something. I don't really know how to really put this into words though it just feels like a vibe thing.
I totally agree with you, that aspect of the old maps was really cool to me. Imagine coming across a specific area in a newer, seamless MH map and having ambient music play. I will say that there was a small hint of that in MHW when you enter the Gajalaka hideout. Also I think the inclusion of dynamic music was such a great idea in world, I felt like it was a little lacking in Rise, but overall a charming decision.
My favorite maps were the old maps of MH freedom unite, the game which was my first. I know the old jungle and the old volcano were from Monster hunter 1 but for my argument I‘ll just use them anyway: I liked how they tried to do it like they did in World, the old jungle was so full of plants to the point where I sometimes lost sight on the Nargacuga I was hunting but it still had that mysterious tone to it. In later games the areas seemed more like arenas with less live but still had the fog mentioned in the video, especially the freedom unite Tower that I actually had to climb up. For the villages I really like what they did in 4U Cathar and the Beach were amazing places to be in and almost brought me the serene feeling I had in Pokke back then.
mh freedom unite had some scary shit in it. even the shogun was scary at first. and the creepy gathering spots where you basically collected khezu larvae???
The older and newer aesthetics of each mh games are all seperated by hardware limitations and the games themes and portrayal.its not that they lost the dark and gritty,it just wouldnt make sense to keep it constantly within the ingame day and night cycle within the individual maps.its there but they apply it to where its appropriate.
I don’t exactly think that the ‘darker atmosphere’ (for lack of a better term) is exactly intentional. The games just looks bad because they’re old and had to suffer from serious limitations at the time of their creation.
This could be possible. I read, that they focused on the main monster in a hunt and that they are syncron with players online. The sidemonsters like jaggi are desyncron with the players. The reason is simple for that. The consoles couldn't handle that in the missions. The ki would lead to lagg. I realised it in mh3u. The wii u still had this issues. The progress of the consoles is limited and don't seem to be enough.
@@OGR-4394 yes you do. Not always, but sometimes. Silent hill for example only had fog due to technical limitations that were not present when the HD collection was released. The devs of that collection were incredibly stupid and had no idea that what was originally only there to cover up shitty graphics actually lent itself incredibly well to the tone of the game, and removed it and almost all of the eeriness from the game.
@@ChokingOnRazors Yeah, when graphics improve, most developers really want to show them off. In most games, it's a good thing, but it does really hurt the horror element, because the barely visible thing in the darkness is a lot more terrifying than the high resolution beast you can plainly see.
the hopelessness the older games made you feel when fighting these huge monsters, the feeling that you'll die and not kill the monster is kind of gone now. I remember playing Freedom unite and feeling scared fighting even the smallest of monsters! I also actually loved how much longer it took to gather materials and make the armor, because it felt much more rewarding when you completed a full set. Now all it takes is 3 runs and you have a full set.. which is not very rewarding at all. Also the old monster hunter games kind of showed me to not give up in the face of adversity as corny as it sounds! Because I would absolutely be getting destroyed by a monster but I wouldn't give up and I would kill it at 1 cart remaining and it would feel so good! It also goes well with the proof of a hero ost, the weak human hunter becoming victorious over an apex predator that nobody would think twice about facing. its just so cool. Sorry for the messy writing, love your videos.
I think the change in tone is two things, A most players who I've seen have celebrated the sillier aspects of the series and B the charm of said tone seems to help monster hunter contrast from games it games compared to whilst also making it more mass appealing. As for what I think, I'd like to see the portable continue with the sillier tone but have the main team focus on giving back MHs edge because if we are gonna have two MH teams capcom should at the very most use that to their advantage and please both sides.
In Generations it's a bit insulting in how overly silly it gets, especially with that dance video with that wyverain girl at the end of that game. How did we go from the gritty eeriness of Freedom 2 to that?
Rise has that too, the twin maidens' unsettling “synchronization” thing with ibushi and narwa, the lore behind apex monsters, the story behind the relic records scattered throughout the world, etc. In the world of Monster Hunter, the danger, mysteriousness, darkness, edge is the mundane. It's just that people don't notice these much, because these are basically a blank canvas, the material of the paper being the monsters and the lore, the paint being the characters and the culture, the design being the story and events that unfold, and the brush being you and your weapon. Over the years, Capcom has added more and more to this canvas. And when this piece of art named Monster Hunter created is so beautiful and engaging, focusing on the canvas just seems… a bit ridiculous? That's just for me though. Anyways, I don't know about you, but this “edge” has always been here, even though it doesn't really matter to most players including me.
@@jakobmonsterhunter I'm really glad you took this positively! I personally am actually quite dismissive of this topic though, because stuff like aesthetics never really appealed to me. I just wanted to offer another viewpoint, sorry if it somehow came off rude.
@@ayakashimira1417 haven't collected them all cuz I've been away from my games for a while , but I did collect most (not all, so that added to the mystery factor for me) of the sword scolls of the Shrine Ruins. Kind of scary spooky ominous stuff going on there👀
I’ve been thinking about the feel of monster hunter a lot lately. What really stood out to me when I first saw the older maps was the sound design and the element of mystery. In the old Swamp, as soon as you enter into the fog you’re bombarded with a grim jingle and it slowly fades out into the sounds of the swamp. Not to mention those little areas that had specific ambient music play. Regarding the element of mystery, fog plays a heavy part in that for me, but also the various ruins left around the maps. I think Tolkien once said that one of his goals while writing The Lord of the Rings was to include many allusions to different events that took place in middle Earth, so that the reader would wonder and search deeper to find out what these allusions refer to. I don’t see the mystery in much of the newer areas. I feel like the old monster Hunter took was lost in the middle of third gen, the grit was lost in MHP3RD. Also, I was also upset that none of the new areas had any weather effects, or even Kamura always being travers I left during the day. Why doesn’t Kush get his storm like he does in the MHDos opening cinematic, he’s not as scary to me. Thanks for another great video, I thought you weren’t gonna make any more videos on this channel, but I’m always glad to see another discussion-prompting video from you :)
Also, if you take a look at any remade MH maps, whether that he in Rise or MHGU, they’ve been totally stripped of any dark tone. I’m thinking specifically of the Marshlands. I didn’t like the Marshlands at all in MHGU just because of how ugly it was, and it’s music didn’t instill the type of fear I’d assume a swamp would. But going back and hunting in the swamp in MHDos, I can appreciate it a lot more. The tone is much more interesting in my opinion, and the swamp theme from MHDos slaps
I think the tone shift was for the better, because the bright lively asthetic fits better for a game that has a mix of realism and fantasy in mind. While the games are never really fantastical they try to portray a living world that thrives and survives even in a more dangerous world.
I tried the older games but I just couldn't get into them, but I'm playing World rn and its so much fun. I think adding a story to the game gave me more motivation to actually grind to progress in the story as oppose to just grinding to beat a monster and then grinding again to beat a stronger monster until I beat the strongest one.
This is actually funny, because as a new player who played through World first, I remember hearing older fans whining about the serious tone not being goofy/colorful like the older games. And now I'm hearing that the actual OG games that came first were the opposite, and were more serious and dark.
@@WisdomAkpan211 I know it goes down to personal preference here but after seeing how dark and eerie some environments looked, I much prefer that look over the colorful wonderland looking ones. Makes the world you're in actually feel dangerous.
I'm glad you're still making videos, I actually do hope you don't quit outright because there's not that many old gen monster hunter reps on TH-cam, the only other one coming to mind being MH United. Love to see old swamp being brought up so prominently because what struck me so evidently from playing mhf1 was the absolute drab and bleakness of the world outside of the village. I imagine what it must be like to kneel down to over a Genprey corpse to carve out its hide as the otherworldly mirror-like swamp water ripples and seeps in between the metal plates of your greaves before making the long journey back to the small village where something as mundane as slaying a Monoblos is considered a legendary feat embedded stone deep into the villages mythos. A village who's guild tavern is a small hallway of aged wood because to the guild your village is nothing more than a blip on piles of paperwork and forms that is only ever glanced at occasionally by a region manager that's about 10 superiors removed from actually having a substantial impact on your local guild's funding or what kinds of quests or monsters hunters from this village are allowed to even hear about. But its all good because at the end of the day you get to have a drink with your hunter buddies as you discuss the next monster to be slayed, being an easier one, giving you the rare luxury of slipping into that comfortable guild receptionist uniform and bring that ridiculous oversized teddy bear hammer.
While I absolutely love the new intros for a monster, that being the monster doing something flashy and then its title card appearing, nothing will ever beat(for me personally) what mh4u did. Mh4u had this really cool way of introducing them where ur hunter with all his gear would get into a cutscene, and then the monster appearing and attacking them. It was really cool to see basically yourself being snuck up on by these monsters, while you are perfectly aware that its there. It was like something in a horror movie essentially, where you know where the bad guy is, and the main hero doesnt, The difference being that you get to absolutely smash the bad guy
as a person who joined in the monster hunter wagon since 3 Ultimate. The experience of encountering a new monster, learning how it fights, having a sudden encounter of much stronger monsters was scary. But then when i got better and get to fight those and conquer their fights, It's what always brings me back to it
Very interesting points. I got my proper start with the portable series in MHP2G, so I got attached to the goofiness elements and think of it as a core identity to the series. I also thought the same about how MHW lost the “charm”, when in fact, it appears to be the closest to the very root of the series. IF IT ONLY HAS FOGS!!😆 Speaking of which, I also strongly agree that the Shrine Ruins in Rise could use a more isolated, creepy and mysterious atmosphere…which it is supposed to be according to the settings and the lore behind the place. But at this point, it’s like public park for the Hunter to casually stroll around on their day off. It’s not scary enough but it’s also not that beautiful aesthetically (compared to other similar places like the Misty Peak). In this case, that Chameleos’s induced fog makes the place looks WAY, WAY better! It’s also such a sin to not have any weather effects whatsoever, like the much needed rain in the Flooded Forest. A heavy snowfall in the Frost Islands would also look fantastic, as well as increase the challenge by fighting monsters with obscured visions. The music is also another great point. The older music really caters to the monster and makes them more intimidating, while the newer music are more exciting and cheerful to make the game more…well, exciting! Especially in Rise with the vocal which also inserts the human elements into it, levelling the playing field between the hunters and the monsters. So it’s a very big shift from the tone in MH1 where it’s a “struggle” against the monster, into a “slugfest”. Also, I can no longer see Monster Hunter as a serious game after witnessing Akuma doing a Mew Mew cat pose and blowing me a kiss.🤣
The intense weather effects in Rise would probably be too much for the switch, I'm sure they wanted to but it would've been too much. The music I feel still keeps darker tones for some tracks eg: Nakarkos, Shagaru, Safijiva and Gogmazios
Monster Hunter has always been a silly game just read the quest texts and the hunting helpers the feasts and many more things, the fog in the older games was placed there so you would not notice the bad parts of the Graphics
@@Void_Kone I mean, it’s been on the 3DS and Wii before, as well as numerous hand held consoles. Monster Hunter doesn’t discriminate what system it’s on, as long as people enjoy the game.
Before even seeing the video, the title reminded me that for a very long time i've wanted to make a video about how MH lost it's grounded, harsh, hostile world in favour of a more gamey, friendly one that feels very different. I don't even know what the point of having resource gathering is anymore for example. It has been completely undermined by the floating health creature thingies in World and Rise and that's without mentioning the tonnes money and resrouces chucked at the player. The game bends over backwards to help the player. I knew the philosophy had fundamentally changed when they changed the Bowgun. Specifically when it became that if you run out of ammo in the clip and press shoot again, it automatically reloads for you. That's the game becoming less complex, requiring less of the player, automating something that you had to do yourself or siffer the consequences. It also takes away from the groundedness of the world - that these are sort of primitive weapons that have limits and are not perfect and have to be learned to compensate for their weaknesses. Another change is when it became a standard 3rd person shooting weapon rather than before when you had to stop to shoot. Again, making the game less tactically complex and more generic, speeding it up to the point it might as well be Godeater ot Toukiden. There's so much more i could say. MH has lost the grounded feeling. From the world to the combat.
I know I’m late but like- most places don’t get a lot of fog? Only when it’s really wet do most places get fog, so… why would there be fog everywhere in MH? If anything, imagine being popped down into the Desert and you go “oh hey, all the regular desert stuff, cacti, lil animals, fog-“
Just reinstalled FU a few days ago and boy did I miss it. As you said, the environment itself is breathtaking. I wish it was that easy to go to a swamp, to a snowy mountain and to an island...
Thank you for this video and all your other content. Your work is the only monster hunter related media I consume. Really reflects your passion for this franchise. Hope you're doing well in these strange times.
I get it what you trying to meaning of "mundane"; that aspect thats very similar to games like Shadow of The Colossus, the vast world, fear of unknown, the feeling of emptyness similar to be abandoned in that world and trying discover his mysteries. You end up asking yourself questions, whats behind that vast fog with is following this world? Mountains? And in that black void of water...? Is something? Dangerous? You dont know, but you want to discover. That gray aspect the games have back then in colours accent that; and bring this feeling, this unsettling vibe, and yet, so pleasant to try uncover.
Honestly, it feels like newer games in general don't want to use fog mechanics and the like because they don't need to anymore. A lot of those fog aesthetics you see in older games were usually used to hide or obscure the map loading in for the player or to make up for graphical limitations. Nowadays graphics and the models for the worlds made are so detailed that people don't want to hide it even if it would work with the aesthetics your trying to make. I do like the direction Monster Hunter went into, feels more bombastic and makes more sense how you'd be able to fight these grand beast though I can understand the feeling of lose of the older games of everything counts and the monsters were more oppressive but man fuck those controls though... Also the hitboxes... Diablos damage aura and Plesioth hipchecks... Like it still does feel like Monster Hunter since the series always had that element of fun and enjoyment to that. Classic meat cooking mini-game jingle, bug catching and mining, gathering herbs and such, the animation you do for healing, the emotes you could do and the thrill of always progressing to new monsters and beating them. You also had the cats be added in pretty early on in the series life span as companions. You even had that thing with how they originally wanted to go with the Monster Hunter series. Have it be more high fantasy and such but they ended up going more into making these monsters feel real and trying to make a more realistic feeling world but still have an element of that fantasy with the armor and the bowgun weapons and mystery with the Old Civilization. Though the main things I miss are the ecology videos. They really gave a sense of the monsters just living and like you said gave the series a nature documentary feel. The fucking Plesioth seems so much more terrifying then in game as an ambush predator until you start fighting it and then it becomes terrifying cause fuck that things hitbox with the swing of its tail and hipchecks in the smallest section of the desert map in that little cave. True oppression there. And Khezu felt way more threatening then other monsters do to how low your weapon sharpness could still be at the time you fight it and you bounce off that things hide and somehow it would feel more difficult to fight then other monsters, even the ones with harder scales. I must say though I never really found the maps of the old games to feel oppressive and lonely. Felt just more like a realistic place to fight these monsters in. A lived in place these creatures live and your off on an adventure to slay them. Especially so since even in 1 the opening cutscene has multiple hunters fighting together to take on a mighty Rathalos and the game was promoted as hunting with friends if memory serves. Though I usually played more 2 and Unite when I really got into the games as a kid. While 2 had the more solo feel Unite was definitely promoted as a game to play with friends. "In the world of Monster Hunter, your never alone." Though somehow I felt more lonely in the Borderlands games where I ended up picking Mordicai so at least I'd have Bloodwing with me. Might have been the overworld moody sound the original Borderlands had to it. You see the characters always promoted together but when you get into the game your the only one who gets off the bus if you play alone. While true for Monster Hunter as well if you play alone it still felt more adventurous then oppressive. Your taking on this mighty beast alone but with time and great effort you can succeed and it would feel great. I always wished that they would take the style of the ecology videos and do more spin-off media like that. Make literal full length nature documentary videos like old school Animal Planet or Discovery Channel with the Walking With Dinosaurs or Prehistoric Planet. Would give a real sense of life to the series and a good complement to the gameplay I always felt the ecology videos provided. Really make you fell these are living creatures even more. Hell, even do videos of hunter culture in the cities like it's Dinotopia.
@@dgccfhf2581 I mean I will not say 100% but loading zones etc are often their because they don't have enough resources to actually make a whole world constantly active while having the textures etc the way they want. Fog can be used the same way, it may have been a part of it for aesthetic reasons and hardware limitations.
I can really appreciate this video even if you see it as a weak one, seeing it not as the usual games criticism type deal but more of an analysis of a group of related artworks. I see the aesthetic elements of the games background as important, because video games can do their best storytelling and tone setting through just the environment. I'm glad you approach these games as artwork first and mechanics second. Its not quite as common of a lens to look at MH through as technical breakdowns.
The gray maps and environments inside the oldgen monster hunter games (mhfu) did not do it for me. The vibrant and lush maps of monster hunter world just blew me away, it really made me feel like you, the hunter, was insignificant in the grand picture. It made me feel like the world was actually alive and fully realized. Rise toned this feeling down a noch since it was designed to be a switch game, but it still remained. In the oldgen games I just thought of each map as a collection of arenas with a common theme.
I know this might be reductive, but doesn't this entire video just comes down to: Some MH games have THIS tone and mood, some MH games have THAT tone and mood. And you prefer this over that? While others prefer that over this? Ultimately it's up to the dev team to decide which to aesthetic to appeal to. There's no such thing as "what monster hunter should be". I understood a lot of your perspective throughout this video. But you really lost me at 13:05 onwards. The fights in MHW never had any trouble "standing out" for me, and I strongly disagree with the idea that adding fog would make anything look/feel better for me personally.
If you watch his other video, which is THREE HOURS long, he gets almost every major point he makes "objectively" factually wrong despite somehow taking up three whole hours to do it. His writing is like a cross between a grad student trying to make a minimum word count and a bluecheck trying to avoid accidentally saying something true or accurate.
In my opinion I feel like monster hunter shouldn’t be defined by its asthetic but by its gameplay and what you make of the hours you log into monster hunter! I’ve been playing since 4U and every game, cute or not, has been a blast simply because I get so immersed in it!
Nah it was always like that. A lot of what you consider "core" wasnt a design decision but rather technical problems and limitations. I played the old games and I never got the "dark" vibe from them, quite the contrary as a matter of fact.
5:13 In gen1 I would actually flinch if the monster found me before I found it. I was a kid at the time though... Overall it's the stark *casualization* that is driving me away from the series. I put thousands of hours into gen1 and Tri. Where it was actually an achievement to solo Alatreon. Atmosphere is important but I very much stress the "hunters are too strong" sentiment. Tone the game back to when it was a struggle... I miss it, man. I miss getting wrecked and needing to come up with a better plan, to prepare, to train *myself* to overcome something genuinely (but fairly) tough.
In world, it still is an achievement to solo Alatreon. Unless, of course you killed it on you’re first try, while using a non elemental weapon, as to which you obviously didn’t. Gog, the veterans are getting out of hand.
I think the analysis is interesting, however Monster Hunter Cross/Gen was supposed to be a celebration game, so it's very acceptable to have one game where everyone is singing and dancing.
I think the tone is something like Avatar: The Last Airbender; it has its cute, lighthearted moments such as the Yian-Kut-Ku, the Palicos' antics etc. But it also has stuff right out of your darkest nightmares like Gore Magala, Narwa, Fatalis, and Dire Miralis.
I really like World’s busy-ness a lot. It does kind of need fog, and I feel like I go cross-eyed without it. But it brings what I really love about nature into video game form, which is being able to just stare at what’s ahead of me for ages and just gawk at the quantity and beauty of it all.
These are all valid and true points that you pointed out, I started with Tri and 3U was the next game I got (Temporaly had Portable 3rd as well), and I noticed the huge changes between the two, I missed hunting especially in the caves, I loved fighthing Barioth in the dark with only it's glowing eyes to guide me, don't even get me started with Gigginox... It was all awesome, I would purposely not use the tourch in those areas for the thrill of it
I get the argument with the complexity of the environments and how the amount of combat flare should match but I really like World’s locales and their complexity; I think the amount of flash/flare in World/Ice’s combat is a good middle ground and the complexity of the environments and amount of flare don’t need to match that much unless one is too much higher than the other. Gen/GenU (and I guess Rise now) being the flashiest and the others being lower on the flash scale, World sorta sits in the middle and I think it’s fine compared to the environmental complexity. I think the amount of complexity in the environments and the small details with the animals (like picking up bones in rotten veil unleashes spiders, etc) made it feel very alive (at least for a while until it just devolves into a normal game again) and I prefer it to the tone that you were trying to portray in the video. I only played 4U, Gen, World/Ice, Rise (+ Stories 1/2) so I kinda prefer the goofiness and extra flare.
I'd like to see a game where they go hard in the beauty in the environment but have a cast of monsters that blend into it so you can just be walking around the map and be 2 inches from the monsters face, have it be harder to find the monster before it finds you. Then maybe add 2 invasion type monsters one which blends in maybe similar or a variant of chamy, and another which is impossible to miss but so insanely above bar for the longest duration of the game that it sends everything you included packing. Like put an end game g rank monster in the low and high rank maps and have you go the whole game fearing it until you get to the end and you get your chance to put it down.
I do prefer the more gritty feel of older games, they made the more jokey elements better and was much more atmospheric. But I still like the more light and jokey tone of the modern portable games too. It's a win win for me honestly, if I want a harder, slower, more gritty game, I'll play Freedom Unite, if I want a more fast, fun, and lighthearted game, I'll play rise or 3U. Games like rise still have darker and grittier parts too, so I don't feel like the grittiness is gone or anything. Though I would love a Freedom Unite or MH1 remake with modern controls, but that same gritty feel and difficulty
I almost feel like the shift in tone can be related to the world itself. In the first games, people and hunters are trying to get more used to that kind of life. But now in the later games, we have grown so used to hunting that its almost like a festival
@@jakobmonsterhunter i get what you mean but if taken literally then the mass casual killing would also go against the ideology of the MonHun world where all hunting is controlled and poaching is strictly forbidden without exception to maintain the balance of nature the Hunter's Guild strives for
@@Rose-85 Ironically enough, they make that one of the main themes but never emphasize it, we never see the effects of poaching, we never even see actual poachers, poachers don't even get mentioned in the games, lol
@@Rose-85 This discussion of an alleged "Hunter's Guild Code" is badly sourced on a difficult to find page on the Monster Hunter Wiki. It is BARELY canon, and only through translated side documents and books (all printed in Japan only and years before the newer games like GU, World, Rise). Even if we to claim it as truly canon, Monster Hunter World completely works against this philosophy in its twisted story and actively rewards the player for casually "poaching". These "anti-poaching" rules are NEVER brought up within the titles. It isn't even brought up in Stories 2, which would seem to be the best place to do it as players have been asking this question for years.
The game was fantasy-ish stuff that could be serious to a point, but as it advanced: it embraced it's more silly aspects and became what we think we've always know today.
I preferred the current generations rather than old generations. The fact that there is so much differences when it comes to graphics wise, mechanics and system. As much as I want to say, I'd still prefer new gens. Though, this is my opinions, and still I respect your opinions when it comes to old gens. The only problem that I have with new gens is that, there is not enough new monsters and they kept bringing back old monsters (debatable) but hey, I guess CAPCOM is still trying to relive the past by bringing them back to trigger the nostalgia towards Veteran hunters (old players). So they should keep making new monsters and introduce more new stuff, I'll be fine with that. If they somehow remake the old gens and put down new elements that would be fantastic and again it would be phenomenal.
I liked MH 3/3 Ultimate's overall tone and aesthetic, which was a oceanic/maritime vibe to the setting. It was the first MH game at the time to go for a more colorful, vibrant colour palette, and I enjoyed it overall. It was a stark contrast to the gritty medieval fantasy aesthetic of Gen 1 and 2.
I love Rise because of how it is. Charming, lovable, flashy and most importantly, fun. If I wanted a dark and gritty experience I'd go play Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
I don't think it lost its edge, I think it found its theming and atmosphere. I started with 1 and it's always been goofy absurb, a lot of people tend to think that "memorable" parts of monster hunter are the cool, gritty monsters like fighting rathalos, tigrex and fatalis. But then a lot of the actual talking points are people bitching about how they got tossed around by a plesioth, farted on by a conga, being terrified as rajang turns super saiyan or how creepy khezu is. People commonly tend to register darker, grittier things as "memorable" and disregard the more ridiculous things, even though those are the memories that they'll be able to pull emotion from more most of the time.
I think there are certainly darker and sometimes even practically horrifying things in the two most recent games, Rise and Stories 2 (spoilers ahead). For Rise, it's mostly in some of their monsters. Goss Harag is a borderline axe murderer who does a horror movie walk at you dragging his blade along the ground when you are stunned, while Rakna-Kadaki is just straight-up nightmare fuel. Not to mention the Rampage of monsters actively trying to smash into a village to main everyone inside, or the eldritch monstrosities responsible for the Rampage that are Ibushi and Narwa. Also not to mention that both of our friends in the story get borderline POSSESSED by said eldritch monstrosities. It's not much with Rise, but it certainly shows that there are still darker elements to Monster Hunter. Then you have Stories 2, which hides some fairly dark concepts and scenes behind what outwardly appears to be a game for somewhat younger audiences. Half of the cast wants to stab your best friend Ratha because of an insane and ultimately misinterpreted prophecy, every scene with the Wings of Ruin is actually terrifying (especially the first one), a character you thought you could trust ends up being the leader of what amounts to an END OF THE WORLD WORSHIPPING DEATH CULT THAT IDLOIZES A WILD ANIMAL THAT WOULD LIKELY KILL THEM AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE, as well as the guy somewhat leaning into being a LEGITIMATE WYVERIAN SUPREMACIST near the end, and you get to watch as Guardian Ratha, the very helpful and amazing companion of your late grandfather, gets FUCKING MEAT GRINDED TO DEATG BY THREE GIANT ELDRITCH WORM HORRORS WITH BLOOD FLYING EVERYWHERE, with all that prevents this scene from raising the age rating of the entire game being some obstructive lighting. There's just about as much of a darker, grittier, and sometimes actually horrifying elements to modern Monster Hunter as there is the sillier, happier tones, and I think that's part of what makes this series so great.
Tbh I always seen Monster hunter as goofy, cute, and dark. Especially playing through genU (my first game in the series) the ending got me geeking out lol
Dude, I saw this video appear in my recommended like a week ago and just barely saw the thumbnail before I refreshed TH-cam and lost it. Ever since then I’ve been looking for this video not knowing what channel it was from because this topic intrigued me so much. How did Monster Hunter change from what it was it what it is? What’s an improvement and what was lost? Finally I can watch!
the growth of the game does add to the change in tone, with the first games you had barely any information of the world of MonHun, the vagueness and unknown aspects added to the bleak nature and atmosphere and a theme where realism has more weight than its fantastical side, as the game progressed the balance shifted more to the fantastical and with the expanding knowledge of the game world, the scary parts seem less scary
As someone who started out with the psp games the newer titles on nintendo consoles seem cartoonish to me and I much prefer the realistic aesthetic of say Mhw
i loved every single monster hunter game i played since freedom 1 (i even importet japanese MHP3rd and downloaded a german patch to play it), and i always loved the serious tone while on a hunt, and the calm and quiet atmosphere in the village. i loved that the monsters are not just these typical fantasy dragons, but living creatures that adapted to their surroundings. but the question you asked haunted me the last couple entrances of the franchise. did it get too fast and flashy? (well, rise is a looot too flashy). but imagine if they released a game with the same slow gameplay of freedom. it wouldn't feel up to date, and half of the community would criticize that. IMO they always found the right way of keeping traditions of gameplay and adding new features that didn't ruin the experience for vererans. and the monster-design was always on a high level borry for sad english, greetings from germany
As someone who started with the very first MH game, I have to fiercely disagree with you. I doubt Monster Hunter was ever meant to be gritty and edgy, that's what Dark Souls is for, especially if you look at the felynes and poogie and the jingle that comes with grilling a steak. The only reason why the original Monster Hunter would look so """dark""" and """edgy""" is simply due to hardware limitations. The comparison you did of MH Tri and MH3U is actually a good example in that regard, since the Wii is a weaker console compared to the WiiU. Monster Hunter hasn't lost its edge. That's mainly because it never had said edge in the first place.
honestly, just watching you run through older areas really kicked in a sense of gravity i really havent seen since Tri. that you are a human in a world meant for the monsters, small, running around with sharpened sticks against great beasts. you really don't notice that until you've stepped back and looked at it from afar.
no need to apologize for this video mate, I think you make a good point and somehow you actually managed to convey what you mean too despite the complexity of the subject. Good stuff, I'll sub.
I actually love cutesy Monster Hunter. I love the Felyne village games and Tsukino is one of my favorite Monster Hunter characters.
We get it Jake you are a furry.
Ahem, FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY
@@ceoofcorn411 NOOOOOOOOO
@@jakobmonsterhunter you have been baned from the Mickey mouse club >:(
Monster hunter is basically onimusha
I'm an MH boomer, started playing with the OG on the PS2 and I've been hooked ever since. But apparently I'm the odd duck out, because my favorite environments have been the ones in World and Iceborne. I actually loved how lush and alive it all felt. The ecology has always been one of my favorite aspects of the series, and being able to just watch the monsters go about their lives in such a realistic looking setting was everything I wanted.
That said, I get what you're saying. I like the colorful and cutesy side of MH too, and I think to a degree it's always been there. I feel like MH has always toed the line between grounded and cartoony, with the portable games tending to swing further into the cartoony. I personally prefer when the lean is a bit closer to grounded. But I don't want to see either left in the dust.
At the end of the day though MH is MH and I love it all the same.
But man the freaking sling things that were on your right arm it destroyed how my characters armor look it looked like a handicapped looks on the side
I just got MHW a couple weeks ago as my newest MH since my boomer days. I absolutely love the aesthetic. I don't really like Rise though.
I just got MHW a couple weeks ago as my newest MH since my boomer days. I absolutely love the aesthetic. I don't really like Rise though.
i would love some of the older maps get revamped like flooded forest
Gen1? Damn. And yea i agree, having that spice of cartooney always made me come back to mh in the older games, like the funny felyne cooking, bizarre weapons and the gathering hub emotes. Always loved how the felyne chefs scamper away when they cook bad food for us hahahaha
To me it always seemed like Monster Hunter was always goofy, cutesy, and flashy, it just didn't translate well in the past games due to technical and graphical limitations and various choices made. When it comes to monsters it's always been a mix bag of making them either terrifying or ridiculous, and everything in between, as each has its own personality and mannerisms compared to one another, adding to their individuality. Tone has shifted in some ways but I feel it's a more natural progression of the series. Honestly it might just be me but I prefer the new direction they went simply down to how I can't help to think how goofy the older games looked even though they were trying to be more gritty. They're just embracing one aspect of the design that's always been there and running with it
What do you think about world's aesthetic? To me at least, it feels less cutesy and playful with a bigger emphasis on realism, which turned off a lot of fans that started with, say, gu, complaining that its palette is too bland. I always dismissed this as world taking on the grittier aesthetic of gen 1 and 2, but with a tiny bit more color and charm (there are certainly cute interactions).
I kind of see a pattern with ichinose's games versus the main series games. The main series games tend to have a more grounded and cinematic experience (mh1, 2, 3, 4 and world) while ichinose (p3rd, generations, gu, rise) turns up the goofs by a lot and also has stylish action hunting
@@WisdomAkpan211 World to me hit the best balance of not being too soft or too hard in aesthetics. It's a great blend of both styles without relying heavily on either. There's elements that are definitely there to be cute and silly but others that go for a more gritty and realistic feel, while not overwhelming eachother or conflicting. The pallette is definitely vibrant and colorful, I don't know why people would think otherwise. It's more muted, yes, but I wouldn't go as far to say it's overtly dull. I'd use the word rich to describe the shades and tones used for colors in World. Games like GU are eye candy with colors that vibrant wouldn't even begin to describe, they're just overwhelming at points and feel disgustingly sweet, which can be someone's preferred tastes.
No? It's certainly not a "technical limitations" wacky games exist back then and they can make the games more cartoony if they want . It's just what early monster hunter art direction was, serious often intimidating with funny moments.
Meanwhile now, I wouldn't say funny with serious moments, but it's way less serious and more inviting.
@@m_riidi all very good points, but that's not entirely what I was referring to. While textures and art direction are definitely one thing, the pure mechanical basis for older monster hunters were far more ridged and stilted than they are now, which limited the range of movements the monsters and players had. So while I think in some sense they could be terrifying from my persepctive it kinda looks like you're fighting a ride animatronic with how robotic a lot of the monsters move. It's where the silliness creeps in accidentally and that's the technical limitations I was referring to.
@@WisdomAkpan211 this reminds me while i was hunting a Rathian, she snipped my palico and it flew away in an arc.
Personally, I love the idea of gritty hunting, swampy, foggy, misty, somewhat realistic hunts, then coming back to the villages and camps to live out the cutesy, slice-of-life-esque lives with felynes, foods, fun and otherlike things.
I think if MH were to move forwards, i would love to see a mix of these developmental and gameplay ideas fleshed out and a duality becomes present - both "wildlife survey" style hunts, and the threat posed by the original games' monsters and environments
Rise g rank: ho, my tone isn't dark enough for you? Watch this! * becomes darksouls *
Heyy that's doesn't sound so bad
more like castlevania
I have played every Souls game and they weren't has hard as MHW solo hunts.
@@eduardoledesma5568 mhw is artificial Difficult.
@@bigpoppa9721 All difficulty is artificial.
If you compare the MH games back ground, the MH developer make more detail at background and less fog/mist in later releases. It's seem they prefer giving higher details than foggy most edgy style for esthetic, or the foggy in 1st gen just the hardware limitations at the time, i mean in mhw interview, the producer and director always wanna living breathing environment as hunting map/bg since at least 2nd gen.
@Felipe NS I argue against this, Death Stranding and Breath of the Wild despite their higher technical specs have quite simple and non convoluted world aesthetic. Even Monster Hunter Rise returned to the mundane. While the technical limitations were part of it, it is not by any means restricting the game’s aesthetic.
And a “living breathing world” refers to entities interacting with one another, not visual aesthetic. Adding more ferns and bushes to the map doesn’t make it a living world. They are still static objects to dress the virtual space and pretend it’s detailed. Reality often isn’t as dressed as it is in World. I believe they over did it.
the fog was 100% hardware limitations. Its the reason we don't fog in every game anymore other than sometimes for design choices. But for old games they had no choice than to add fog, more loading screen/ smaller maps, or more tunnel areas between sections.
@@F34RDSoldier805 This. The fog wasn't an aesthetic choice, it was about hiding the hardware limitations. Monster hunter wasn't really designed to be a horror game. It has cute cat people that serve you food, you run into all these supposedly world ending monsters but nobody ever dies... it was never trying to be a hardcore game.
now that you mentioned it, the sfx whenever a monster noticed you always jumpscared me lol. MH was lowkey a scary game
I also feel anxious whenever i hunt a new monsters, not knowing what or where they are.
Mhfu remastered when
@@therealshubaapostle8920 I'll literally buy that without hesitation.
That fucking tigrex scared the shit out of me
I really miss the art style of Medievalesque plate armor bolstered by animal hides and scales, like a caveman.
It perfectly sums up the worldbuilding, the technologically advanced , almost industrial society that still relies heavily on hunting & gathering .
I adore World's aesthetic and environments. They feel alive, like you're in actual forest hunting a beast
I really do miss the feeling of "I'm fighting a dangerous creature in a environment where i don't belong" I do love the fun goofy nature 3rd Gen expanded upon but i think it's gone to the point of feeling too relaxed. I don't really feel intimidated by the monsters which just make them feel more like a video game enemy and less like a creature ready to kill me. I hope Monster Hunter 6 can strike that balance.
Edit: Also I LOVE the wirebugs for combat but i think they take away the feeling of "i don't belong in this environment" because it's hard to not feel at home when you can just climb and fly anywhere you want. It makes the maps feel more like a sandbox and less like a dangerous environment. I guess i miss feeling of being at the mercy of nature and still somehow overcoming it.
The 6th mh game will definitely have more edge than rise because it is made by the main theme.
@@marcusgo6784 my ideal monster hunter is basically the monster hunter world prototype. They got EVERYTHING right in it.
Not sure anyone know but mh monsters are also changed, from them being a world overrun by monsters with animal traits to animals with monstrous power in a fantastical ecosystem.
@@10kwithzerobitches20 I think mh’s tone change from 1950 dinosaur interpretations to 2010 interpretations of dinosaurs.
I think the Wirebugs break the game and make you feel way too superhuman
I really enjoyed when the monster intros were more akin to a nature show. More than the visual aspects of fog or negative space what I find myself missing is the feeling of...danger. In Rise it was all 'the calamity is going to destroy the village' and not once did I think OR feel there was any actual danger.
In Tri, Moga village's situation really felt precarious, like it was really at risk from monsters.
Also, you are no longer allowed to use any analogy that does not involve ice cream. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
it was different with me, everytime i had that sense of imminent danger. But to be honest, even though i have this feeling with normal mh games, monster hunter stories always made me more afraid than any normal game of the series. damn, seeing those cutscenes and tension building as things are happening gave me some chills down my spine.
I for one liked world's aesthetic the most, like the coral highlands for example, despite all the bright and vibrant colors it didn't have a goofy vibe, it was more like you're on an alien planet, and namielle was one of the most terrifying monsters in that game because of it's deepsea creature look, alluringly beautiful but deadly
You know, this argument creates a distinction between 3 generations of players. Which is kind of a big deal because you always see conversations revolving about only 2, Before World and After World. The notion that Rise doesn't actually cater to veterans but to the middle child (Portable 3d to XX) and that the new fans who like the grittiness in World are actually closer in taste to the original fans could spawn some seriously heated arguments.
I think its extremely simple.
Team A, who make mainline releases, put a certain grit in their games as well as a focus on slower more grounded combat. Just look at tri, 4, or World
Team B who makes portable games has their own different vision that's more lightharted and bombastic. Just look at portable 3rd, XX, or Rise.
Two different directions from two different teams, that cater to different people.
@@elk3407 Honestly I feel MH4 is the most colorful and fantastic themed of all mainline MH titles.
4 is closer to xx and rise, than freedom Unite, mh1 or world @@elk3407
It honestly seems like there's a divide between the main and portable titles. I was wondering why I tend to enjoy the more grounded games like 4U and World over the more flashy games like GU and Rise.
I do like the deadpan snark one-liners the avatar protagonist can say during battles. They are fun to listen to, in my opinion. Especially the female hunter with the cockney british accent.
I kinda like the Aerial in GU
They are made by different people after all. There's bound to be differences, and the fanbase is quick to notice all of them.
Is world more intense than rise?
@@fadedjate7230 Yes
Monster hunter should be goofy tbh. I don't think it would've survived as a series if it didn't lighten up. At the end of the day, colorful games are more popular in general. I know I personally prefer color to the washed-out greys of the older games.
World was my first monster hunter. Being an artist I appreciated so much how the monsters looked like they belonged in the environment and I would theorize how they interacted with their environment. I am a sucker for good animation and graphics as well as a good story. MHW was literally the best thing that ever happened to me, I met really great long time friends I still play with and an insane amount of hours , I can say I loved to waste my time on such a beautiful masterpiece. I am almost to hr 900 and mr 500 and have over 3,000 hrs i think its safe to say Im obsessed 😂
So basically to sum it all up:
7/10 not enough fog
With the graphical limitations before, maybe they made it foggy and not that clear so that it will not be noticeable that the textures and the general environment of the map is simple. If they made it bright and clear, the graphical limitations will be more evident.
Old Swamp is just that good.
It's almost magical.
I used to just go on quests only to roam trough the map.
Spent stupid amounts of time chillin in the secret area.
Man if only I could get those assets into VR or something I would spend hours just chilling there.
There is one time i recall getting the feeling of dread and mystery in iceborne as i did when playing the MH1/2 Its when you fight black val vaalhazak and he turns the entire map into a greenish fog
Well, i love the environment of world.. it made the maps feel alive. And when i go back to play older games or even rise i just feel like something is off with the maps. Then i realized i got spoiled by how alive world's maps are
As someone who started with Worldborne, your videos peaked my interest in the older games in the series and the features lost as the series evolved to be more mainstream. I will never stop loving Worldborne as that was my first experience, but as I played GU and got used to the combat I felt that the game was more methodical, and the many maps from older games had a feeling of history that World lacked because there weren't ruins due to world being uncharted territory. I played and completed FU low rank and was always satisfied when I beat a monster because of the prep, and because the stakes were high for each hunt. I agree with the sentiment that Rise took the streamlining too far. Since it was no longer a case of memorizing where the monster would be or go at the start of the hunt, or having tracked the monster enough for the scoutflies to know where it would be, it was just go as fast as possible to where the monster is on the map. And the removal of hot and cold drinks got rid of the stakes of hunting in hot or cold environments, the volcano and ice area may as well have been a forest. Also Kamura isn't nearly as deep as even the World village characters.
I do disagree with the sentiment that World was intentionally making light of colonization, and I think that "The New World" motif was more meaning to represent how MH is now a mainstream franchise that has players all around the world, especially now in America. Looking back you can see that over the course of the games the Guild goes from a single village to being a worldwide organization, and they're actively pursuing elder dragons because their migrations cause mass destruction, so it would be wise to find the cause and try to stop it. (Also apparently the cause is Fatalis awakening, and Fatty is supposed to be the epitome of humanities past mistakes so it all makes sense.)
I think mh 6 will probably be more worldlike and much more grittier than rise
Have to disagree on Kamura being worse than Astera, Astera is pretty bad. Although It's cool how Astera is made of ships, so It has character in that respect, but Kamura being a simple little village doesn't really take away from it's atmosphere
@@ortah2616 Well I didn't say it was worse than Astera, I just meant that there's no depth other than it just being a village. Astera is a big mess and Astera doesn't have that homely village feel. And the fact that it was so unnessarily big and had a weird layout.
What I meant was there wasn't much to Kamura beyond "the people here are happy, except for when there's the periodic monster rampage." I mean we've seen that in Dundorma, I'll use MH4 Dundorma in this case, Dundorma has been under seige many times in its history and actually incorporates its history into its design, and since its basically the capital of Elder Dragon research it has villagers who have their own histories and functions that go beyond just being cute, there are hunters, and researchers and also civilians that just live there.
So to be clear Kamura is just so basic, I'd say it's on par with Kokoto, with a slight edge to Kokoto because of its legend about the "Hero of Kokoto" and the sword in the stone.
Like villages can and are supposed to be comforting but I think Kamura was a bit too much.
@@jjam424 You're partially wrong, but also partially correct. Kamura's villagers do all have their own history that you can read up on, but a lot if it is offline only.
The village really doesn't have the feeling of a village that is sieged by monsters though. It could be just because everyone's gotten so used to it, but saying that is just filling in the gaps for the writers
@@ortah2616 Well I'm not trying to be wrong or right it's just my opinion.
Also yeah I know about the secret notes and dialogues, like how Minoto wants to be good at something like her sister or how the Blacksmith is initially disappointed in his son until after the LR story is finished. But there really isn't much beyond that.
I never even said that Kamura was the worst I just felt it wasn't deep enough to hold my interest, if you love it more power to you.
But then there's the LR story in MH4U with the Ace Hunters who you compete with or they at first question your ability as a Hunter, and then you become trusted comrades, and the Caravan who is composed of a bunch of fun misfits who all have fun personalities, and quirks, with the centerpiece being the Caravaneer trying to figure out what the Article is. There isn't much to Kamura imo than just being cute.
Other examples include Felcote being a secret Agent for the guild, the isolated village in 3/3U being initially disconnected from the Guild and the villagers having to deal with that, and some quest ladies being guild knights or former hunters.
I really noticed a difference when I played Tri for the first time between it and 3U. The biggest thing for me was just how dark the caves were, it honestly made me wish we had more pitch black caves in MH, especially since it gave the torch a reason to exist. Only for every subsequent game to make it useless because the maps are never dark enough to bother using it over a precious mega potion or Mega Demeandrug. IDK what it is, but Tri feels different than the other MH games I’ve played. Like the combination of the lighting, maps and difficulty have a unique feel to it. I just wish I knew the game existed 11 years ago before they removed the online severs so I could fight the high rank exclusive monsters and finally see Loc Lac city.
Originally, Monster Hunter World was intended to have dark caves and other areas. There's no torch, but the idea was to use the (now almost useless) brightmoss. The lighting was significantly tweaked for release, sadly. If you want to see some footage, search "MHW Lagiacrus In Monster Hunter World Prototype Demo HD".
Loc Lac was THE BEST online server Capcom has ever made off the main games, nothing has beaten it to this day. Majorly because it was SUPER filter friendly. Like let's say you were into hunting a High Rank Great Jaggi to obtain a Wyvern Bird Gem (trust me, veterans from back then will know what i mean).
You could make your own room, with all the specifications and even search for those specific things and chances were, you were gonna find rooms. The world would change depending on the events going on, with event weapons that were amazing both game and looking wise.
The only flaws were that it had a weekly day off that was a bit randomized and that the HR was very slow since the online mode makes monsters have super extra health for no reason, forcing you to go on groups all the time instead of nowadays having solo player difficulty.
And yeah, Tri is very different for multiple reasons. One is that it's technically the last classic MH game to be on actual consoles and didn't get back until World, which already took what they learned from 3U, 4U and Generations, handheld games that went on a different direction. If you played Dos, you can see Tri is learning from that game but being its own thing. I mean Gigginox and Gobul are examples of that.
I do hope we get to see another underwater game, cause there are plenty of monsters and methods that were good but just needed another game, maybe with the new engine, they can make it work.
Well, you can technically solo Tri, I had 300 hours of solo
@@aquelgamermexicano I miss the underwater fighting. That was my favorite part of the game to be honest. I still don’t understand why people seem to universally dislike it.
One thing I've noticed missing since the gen 1/2 maps is that ambient music which plays in certain areas of the map. Tracks like Beyond the Fog (even though it was a recycled track from RE4 and DMC) playing in certain areas of the Old Swamp highlights those areas and to me makes map exploration have a more lonely feeling. I feel this feeling makes exploring the old maps and paying attention to small details feel more fulfilling in comparison to 3rd gen onwards where the maps are more visually impressive but feel less engaging in a sense. While 5th gen has added ambient music to fights with small monsters it keeps the focus of the game on those monsters and doesn't add to the feeling of exploration you get from running into an area of the map with a cave or ruins or something.
I don't really know how to really put this into words though it just feels like a vibe thing.
I totally agree with you, that aspect of the old maps was really cool to me. Imagine coming across a specific area in a newer, seamless MH map and having ambient music play. I will say that there was a small hint of that in MHW when you enter the Gajalaka hideout. Also I think the inclusion of dynamic music was such a great idea in world, I felt like it was a little lacking in Rise, but overall a charming decision.
My favorite maps were the old maps of MH freedom unite, the game which was my first. I know the old jungle and the old volcano were from Monster hunter 1 but for my argument I‘ll just use them anyway: I liked how they tried to do it like they did in World, the old jungle was so full of plants to the point where I sometimes lost sight on the Nargacuga I was hunting but it still had that mysterious tone to it.
In later games the areas seemed more like arenas with less live but still had the fog mentioned in the video, especially the freedom unite Tower that I actually had to climb up. For the villages I really like what they did in 4U Cathar and the Beach were amazing places to be in and almost brought me the serene feeling I had in Pokke back then.
I remember the Swamp from Monster Hunter Freedom 2. That environment was so eerie and creepy to be in, especially at night.
mh freedom unite had some scary shit in it. even the shogun was scary at first. and the creepy gathering spots where you basically collected khezu larvae???
@@Tom-jy3in Stop. Do not make me think about the Khezu larvae again, that is horrifying.
The older and newer aesthetics of each mh games are all seperated by hardware limitations and the games themes and portrayal.its not that they lost the dark and gritty,it just wouldnt make sense to keep it constantly within the ingame day and night cycle within the individual maps.its there but they apply it to where its appropriate.
I don’t exactly think that the ‘darker atmosphere’ (for lack of a better term) is exactly intentional. The games just looks bad because they’re old and had to suffer from serious limitations at the time of their creation.
This could be possible. I read, that they focused on the main monster in a hunt and that they are syncron with players online. The sidemonsters like jaggi are desyncron with the players. The reason is simple for that. The consoles couldn't handle that in the missions. The ki would lead to lagg. I realised it in mh3u. The wii u still had this issues. The progress of the consoles is limited and don't seem to be enough.
You don't create tone by accident.
@@OGR-4394 yes you do. Not always, but sometimes. Silent hill for example only had fog due to technical limitations that were not present when the HD collection was released. The devs of that collection were incredibly stupid and had no idea that what was originally only there to cover up shitty graphics actually lent itself incredibly well to the tone of the game, and removed it and almost all of the eeriness from the game.
@@ChokingOnRazors Yeah, when graphics improve, most developers really want to show them off. In most games, it's a good thing, but it does really hurt the horror element, because the barely visible thing in the darkness is a lot more terrifying than the high resolution beast you can plainly see.
the hopelessness the older games made you feel when fighting these huge monsters, the feeling that you'll die and not kill the monster is kind of gone now. I remember playing Freedom unite and feeling scared fighting even the smallest of monsters! I also actually loved how much longer it took to gather materials and make the armor, because it felt much more rewarding when you completed a full set. Now all it takes is 3 runs and you have a full set.. which is not very rewarding at all.
Also the old monster hunter games kind of showed me to not give up in the face of adversity as corny as it sounds! Because I would absolutely be getting destroyed by a monster but I wouldn't give up and I would kill it at 1 cart remaining and it would feel so good! It also goes well with the proof of a hero ost, the weak human hunter becoming victorious over an apex predator that nobody would think twice about facing. its just so cool.
Sorry for the messy writing, love your videos.
someone once described monster hunter as "cavepunk" and I couldnt agree more
love hearing and seeing things about old MH as World was my first game and I've been hooked ever since.
been subbed and appreciate the content!
I think the change in tone is two things, A most players who I've seen have celebrated the sillier aspects of the series and B the charm of said tone seems to help monster hunter contrast from games it games compared to whilst also making it more mass appealing.
As for what I think, I'd like to see the portable continue with the sillier tone but have the main team focus on giving back MHs edge because if we are gonna have two MH teams capcom should at the very most use that to their advantage and please both sides.
In Generations it's a bit insulting in how overly silly it gets, especially with that dance video with that wyverain girl at the end of that game. How did we go from the gritty eeriness of Freedom 2 to that?
@@unicorntomboy9736 generations was a celebration of the series. It was never meant to be gritty and realistic.
@@sekiro_the_one-armed_wolf Which monster hunter is gritty and realistic? Wtf have you guys been playing?
@@evilformerlys4704 none of them were. That’s my point.
@@unicorntomboy9736 Where the hell is the gritty eeriness exactly?
Thanks JAKOB // Monster Hunter
, it's refreshing to have a voice in this growing community that remembers the old games.
Rise has that too, the twin maidens' unsettling “synchronization” thing with ibushi and narwa, the lore behind apex monsters, the story behind the relic records scattered throughout the world, etc.
In the world of Monster Hunter, the danger, mysteriousness, darkness, edge is the mundane. It's just that people don't notice these much, because these are basically a blank canvas, the material of the paper being the monsters and the lore, the paint being the characters and the culture, the design being the story and events that unfold, and the brush being you and your weapon.
Over the years, Capcom has added more and more to this canvas. And when this piece of art named Monster Hunter created is so beautiful and engaging, focusing on the canvas just seems… a bit ridiculous? That's just for me though.
Anyways, I don't know about you, but this “edge” has always been here, even though it doesn't really matter to most players including me.
This is an excellent point! Something to consider for sure.
@@jakobmonsterhunter I'm really glad you took this positively! I personally am actually quite dismissive of this topic though, because stuff like aesthetics never really appealed to me. I just wanted to offer another viewpoint, sorry if it somehow came off rude.
The scroll records in the ice region was terrifying asf. Poor travelers
@@ayakashimira1417 haven't collected them all cuz I've been away from my games for a while , but I did collect most (not all, so that added to the mystery factor for me) of the sword scolls of the Shrine Ruins. Kind of scary spooky ominous stuff going on there👀
Are you a journalist? I have never thought this deep about monster hunter and I already paid attention to the lore but never this deeply?
I’ve been thinking about the feel of monster hunter a lot lately. What really stood out to me when I first saw the older maps was the sound design and the element of mystery. In the old Swamp, as soon as you enter into the fog you’re bombarded with a grim jingle and it slowly fades out into the sounds of the swamp. Not to mention those little areas that had specific ambient music play. Regarding the element of mystery, fog plays a heavy part in that for me, but also the various ruins left around the maps. I think Tolkien once said that one of his goals while writing The Lord of the Rings was to include many allusions to different events that took place in middle Earth, so that the reader would wonder and search deeper to find out what these allusions refer to. I don’t see the mystery in much of the newer areas.
I feel like the old monster Hunter took was lost in the middle of third gen, the grit was lost in MHP3RD.
Also, I was also upset that none of the new areas had any weather effects, or even Kamura always being travers I left during the day. Why doesn’t Kush get his storm like he does in the MHDos opening cinematic, he’s not as scary to me.
Thanks for another great video, I thought you weren’t gonna make any more videos on this channel, but I’m always glad to see another discussion-prompting video from you :)
Also, if you take a look at any remade MH maps, whether that he in Rise or MHGU, they’ve been totally stripped of any dark tone. I’m thinking specifically of the Marshlands. I didn’t like the Marshlands at all in MHGU just because of how ugly it was, and it’s music didn’t instill the type of fear I’d assume a swamp would. But going back and hunting in the swamp in MHDos, I can appreciate it a lot more. The tone is much more interesting in my opinion, and the swamp theme from MHDos slaps
@@ripporoo2771 yes the “Swamp” is much better than the “Marshlands”. Unnecessary name change as well lmao.
@@ripporoo2771 I prefer the GU/MHFU/Frontier swamp theme over the Dos theme though I agree with everything else you said.
@@slenderhatesmillennials195 that’s fair, it’s all subjective anyways :p
I think the tone shift was for the better, because the bright lively asthetic fits better for a game that has a mix of realism and fantasy in mind. While the games are never really fantastical they try to portray a living world that thrives and survives even in a more dangerous world.
I tried the older games but I just couldn't get into them, but I'm playing World rn and its so much fun. I think adding a story to the game gave me more motivation to actually grind to progress in the story as oppose to just grinding to beat a monster and then grinding again to beat a stronger monster until I beat the strongest one.
This is actually funny, because as a new player who played through World first, I remember hearing older fans whining about the serious tone not being goofy/colorful like the older games. And now I'm hearing that the actual OG games that came first were the opposite, and were more serious and dark.
Thats a good point xD. Many fans started with the highly saturated games of gu and 4u.
@@WisdomAkpan211 I know it goes down to personal preference here but after seeing how dark and eerie some environments looked, I much prefer that look over the colorful wonderland looking ones. Makes the world you're in actually feel dangerous.
@@OTBASH That’s why i fell in love with MH. The world felt dangerous. But that started to slowly fade.
@@abyssalrayz9499 me too..
I'm glad you're still making videos, I actually do hope you don't quit outright because there's not that many old gen monster hunter reps on TH-cam, the only other one coming to mind being MH United. Love to see old swamp being brought up so prominently because what struck me so evidently from playing mhf1 was the absolute drab and bleakness of the world outside of the village.
I imagine what it must be like to kneel down to over a Genprey corpse to carve out its hide as the otherworldly mirror-like swamp water ripples and seeps in between the metal plates of your greaves before making the long journey back to the small village where something as mundane as slaying a Monoblos is considered a legendary feat embedded stone deep into the villages mythos. A village who's guild tavern is a small hallway of aged wood because to the guild your village is nothing more than a blip on piles of paperwork and forms that is only ever glanced at occasionally by a region manager that's about 10 superiors removed from actually having a substantial impact on your local guild's funding or what kinds of quests or monsters hunters from this village are allowed to even hear about. But its all good because at the end of the day you get to have a drink with your hunter buddies as you discuss the next monster to be slayed, being an easier one, giving you the rare luxury of slipping into that comfortable guild receptionist uniform and bring that ridiculous oversized teddy bear hammer.
Glad you decided to make some new content. Hope you are well.
While I absolutely love the new intros for a monster, that being the monster doing something flashy and then its title card appearing, nothing will ever beat(for me personally) what mh4u did. Mh4u had this really cool way of introducing them where ur hunter with all his gear would get into a cutscene, and then the monster appearing and attacking them. It was really cool to see basically yourself being snuck up on by these monsters, while you are perfectly aware that its there. It was like something in a horror movie essentially, where you know where the bad guy is, and the main hero doesnt, The difference being that you get to absolutely smash the bad guy
I honestly love all parts of monster hunter I have played so far, from Freedom Unite to Rise.
as a person who joined in the monster hunter wagon since 3 Ultimate. The experience of encountering a new monster, learning how it fights, having a sudden encounter of much stronger monsters was scary. But then when i got better and get to fight those and conquer their fights, It's what always brings me back to it
Very interesting points. I got my proper start with the portable series in MHP2G, so I got attached to the goofiness elements and think of it as a core identity to the series.
I also thought the same about how MHW lost the “charm”, when in fact, it appears to be the closest to the very root of the series. IF IT ONLY HAS FOGS!!😆
Speaking of which, I also strongly agree that the Shrine Ruins in Rise could use a more isolated, creepy and mysterious atmosphere…which it is supposed to be according to the settings and the lore behind the place. But at this point, it’s like public park for the Hunter to casually stroll around on their day off. It’s not scary enough but it’s also not that beautiful aesthetically (compared to other similar places like the Misty Peak). In this case, that Chameleos’s induced fog makes the place looks WAY, WAY better!
It’s also such a sin to not have any weather effects whatsoever, like the much needed rain in the Flooded Forest. A heavy snowfall in the Frost Islands would also look fantastic, as well as increase the challenge by fighting monsters with obscured visions.
The music is also another great point. The older music really caters to the monster and makes them more intimidating, while the newer music are more exciting and cheerful to make the game more…well, exciting! Especially in Rise with the vocal which also inserts the human elements into it, levelling the playing field between the hunters and the monsters. So it’s a very big shift from the tone in MH1 where it’s a “struggle” against the monster, into a “slugfest”.
Also, I can no longer see Monster Hunter as a serious game after witnessing Akuma doing a Mew Mew cat pose and blowing me a kiss.🤣
The intense weather effects in Rise would probably be too much for the switch, I'm sure they wanted to but it would've been too much.
The music I feel still keeps darker tones for some tracks eg: Nakarkos, Shagaru, Safijiva and Gogmazios
The old MH aesthetic really had something to it that made every map and creature a little more special
Monster Hunter has always been a silly game just read the quest texts and the hunting helpers the feasts and many more things,
the fog in the older games was placed there so you would not notice the bad parts of the Graphics
So true!
Must be a Nintendo simp. The only thing silly about Monster Hunter is it being on switch.
@@Void_Kone I mean, it’s been on the 3DS and Wii before, as well as numerous hand held consoles. Monster Hunter doesn’t discriminate what system it’s on, as long as people enjoy the game.
@@Void_Kone ratio
@@Void_Kone sounds like you just don’t have one 🤣
Mhgu being cheerful is pretty acceptable since it's the anniversary of Monster Hunter game.
Before even seeing the video, the title reminded me that for a very long time i've wanted to make a video about how MH lost it's grounded, harsh, hostile world in favour of a more gamey, friendly one that feels very different.
I don't even know what the point of having resource gathering is anymore for example. It has been completely undermined by the floating health creature thingies in World and Rise and that's without mentioning the tonnes money and resrouces chucked at the player. The game bends over backwards to help the player.
I knew the philosophy had fundamentally changed when they changed the Bowgun. Specifically when it became that if you run out of ammo in the clip and press shoot again, it automatically reloads for you. That's the game becoming less complex, requiring less of the player, automating something that you had to do yourself or siffer the consequences. It also takes away from the groundedness of the world - that these are sort of primitive weapons that have limits and are not perfect and have to be learned to compensate for their weaknesses.
Another change is when it became a standard 3rd person shooting weapon rather than before when you had to stop to shoot. Again, making the game less tactically complex and more generic, speeding it up to the point it might as well be Godeater ot Toukiden.
There's so much more i could say. MH has lost the grounded feeling. From the world to the combat.
Mh4 has a teddy bear hammer
Mh lost its groundedness when mh is made
@@marcusgo1160 by Mh3u the change had already started. When talking about groundedness the contrast I had in mind was between FU and Rise/World/Xx.
@@MA-go7ee Tbh, you might disagree with this but to me, World definetly feels like Mh with the most atmosphere
theres a trade-off between hunting immersion and more fantasy action i guess. theyve been edging closer and closer to the latter
I know I’m late but like- most places don’t get a lot of fog? Only when it’s really wet do most places get fog, so… why would there be fog everywhere in MH? If anything, imagine being popped down into the Desert and you go “oh hey, all the regular desert stuff, cacti, lil animals, fog-“
in my opinion the old monster hunter aestethic is more unique and terryfying.
i would love to see a new title with that OG vibe, it would be gorgeous
Just reinstalled FU a few days ago and boy did I miss it.
As you said, the environment itself is breathtaking. I wish it was that easy to go to a swamp, to a snowy mountain and to an island...
Thank you for this video and all your other content. Your work is the only monster hunter related media I consume. Really reflects your passion for this franchise.
Hope you're doing well in these strange times.
I get it what you trying to meaning of "mundane"; that aspect thats very similar to games like Shadow of The Colossus, the vast world, fear of unknown, the feeling of emptyness similar to be abandoned in that world and trying discover his mysteries. You end up asking yourself questions, whats behind that vast fog with is following this world? Mountains? And in that black void of water...? Is something? Dangerous? You dont know, but you want to discover. That gray aspect the games have back then in colours accent that; and bring this feeling, this unsettling vibe, and yet, so pleasant to try uncover.
Honestly, it feels like newer games in general don't want to use fog mechanics and the like because they don't need to anymore. A lot of those fog aesthetics you see in older games were usually used to hide or obscure the map loading in for the player or to make up for graphical limitations. Nowadays graphics and the models for the worlds made are so detailed that people don't want to hide it even if it would work with the aesthetics your trying to make.
I do like the direction Monster Hunter went into, feels more bombastic and makes more sense how you'd be able to fight these grand beast though I can understand the feeling of lose of the older games of everything counts and the monsters were more oppressive but man fuck those controls though... Also the hitboxes... Diablos damage aura and Plesioth hipchecks... Like it still does feel like Monster Hunter since the series always had that element of fun and enjoyment to that. Classic meat cooking mini-game jingle, bug catching and mining, gathering herbs and such, the animation you do for healing, the emotes you could do and the thrill of always progressing to new monsters and beating them. You also had the cats be added in pretty early on in the series life span as companions. You even had that thing with how they originally wanted to go with the Monster Hunter series. Have it be more high fantasy and such but they ended up going more into making these monsters feel real and trying to make a more realistic feeling world but still have an element of that fantasy with the armor and the bowgun weapons and mystery with the Old Civilization.
Though the main things I miss are the ecology videos. They really gave a sense of the monsters just living and like you said gave the series a nature documentary feel. The fucking Plesioth seems so much more terrifying then in game as an ambush predator until you start fighting it and then it becomes terrifying cause fuck that things hitbox with the swing of its tail and hipchecks in the smallest section of the desert map in that little cave. True oppression there. And Khezu felt way more threatening then other monsters do to how low your weapon sharpness could still be at the time you fight it and you bounce off that things hide and somehow it would feel more difficult to fight then other monsters, even the ones with harder scales.
I must say though I never really found the maps of the old games to feel oppressive and lonely. Felt just more like a realistic place to fight these monsters in. A lived in place these creatures live and your off on an adventure to slay them. Especially so since even in 1 the opening cutscene has multiple hunters fighting together to take on a mighty Rathalos and the game was promoted as hunting with friends if memory serves. Though I usually played more 2 and Unite when I really got into the games as a kid. While 2 had the more solo feel Unite was definitely promoted as a game to play with friends. "In the world of Monster Hunter, your never alone." Though somehow I felt more lonely in the Borderlands games where I ended up picking Mordicai so at least I'd have Bloodwing with me. Might have been the overworld moody sound the original Borderlands had to it. You see the characters always promoted together but when you get into the game your the only one who gets off the bus if you play alone. While true for Monster Hunter as well if you play alone it still felt more adventurous then oppressive. Your taking on this mighty beast alone but with time and great effort you can succeed and it would feel great.
I always wished that they would take the style of the ecology videos and do more spin-off media like that. Make literal full length nature documentary videos like old school Animal Planet or Discovery Channel with the Walking With Dinosaurs or Prehistoric Planet. Would give a real sense of life to the series and a good complement to the gameplay I always felt the ecology videos provided. Really make you fell these are living creatures even more. Hell, even do videos of hunter culture in the cities like it's Dinotopia.
mh had small zones, there was no need to hide anything because hardware back then wasn't this bad, fog was used to create atmosphere
@@dgccfhf2581 I mean I will not say 100% but loading zones etc are often their because they don't have enough resources to actually make a whole world constantly active while having the textures etc the way they want. Fog can be used the same way, it may have been a part of it for aesthetic reasons and hardware limitations.
Yeay welcome back JAKOB ! I will always be waiting for your next video :). Keep up the good work!
I can really appreciate this video even if you see it as a weak one, seeing it not as the usual games criticism type deal but more of an analysis of a group of related artworks. I see the aesthetic elements of the games background as important, because video games can do their best storytelling and tone setting through just the environment.
I'm glad you approach these games as artwork first and mechanics second. Its not quite as common of a lens to look at MH through as technical breakdowns.
I think mechanics are as important as artwork but they have to reflect the tone and theme.
You do not need to second guess yourself. Your points are valid and I agree with them.
It seems the answers depends on the team developing the game.
Ichinose’s games seem to play up the fantastical, gamey aspects of the series.
The gray maps and environments inside the oldgen monster hunter games (mhfu) did not do it for me. The vibrant and lush maps of monster hunter world just blew me away, it really made me feel like you, the hunter, was insignificant in the grand picture. It made me feel like the world was actually alive and fully realized. Rise toned this feeling down a noch since it was designed to be a switch game, but it still remained. In the oldgen games I just thought of each map as a collection of arenas with a common theme.
I know this might be reductive, but doesn't this entire video just comes down to:
Some MH games have THIS tone and mood, some MH games have THAT tone and mood. And you prefer this over that? While others prefer that over this? Ultimately it's up to the dev team to decide which to aesthetic to appeal to. There's no such thing as "what monster hunter should be".
I understood a lot of your perspective throughout this video. But you really lost me at 13:05 onwards. The fights in MHW never had any trouble "standing out" for me, and I strongly disagree with the idea that adding fog would make anything look/feel better for me personally.
If you watch his other video, which is THREE HOURS long, he gets almost every major point he makes "objectively" factually wrong despite somehow taking up three whole hours to do it. His writing is like a cross between a grad student trying to make a minimum word count and a bluecheck trying to avoid accidentally saying something true or accurate.
Your videos are always a treat mate, thanks.
In my opinion I feel like monster hunter shouldn’t be defined by its asthetic but by its gameplay and what you make of the hours you log into monster hunter! I’ve been playing since 4U and every game, cute or not, has been a blast simply because I get so immersed in it!
Gritty and dark? Maybe if the monsters were ever shown chowing down on people or at least some human bones around the dens. It's always been goofy
3:53 touhou cirno what she doing there it's vary cute picture and vary good video keep up the work.
Nah it was always like that. A lot of what you consider "core" wasnt a design decision but rather technical problems and limitations. I played the old games and I never got the "dark" vibe from them, quite the contrary as a matter of fact.
5:13 In gen1 I would actually flinch if the monster found me before I found it. I was a kid at the time though...
Overall it's the stark *casualization* that is driving me away from the series. I put thousands of hours into gen1 and Tri. Where it was actually an achievement to solo Alatreon. Atmosphere is important but I very much stress the "hunters are too strong" sentiment. Tone the game back to when it was a struggle... I miss it, man. I miss getting wrecked and needing to come up with a better plan, to prepare, to train *myself* to overcome something genuinely (but fairly) tough.
In world, it still is an achievement to solo Alatreon. Unless, of course you killed it on you’re first try, while using a non elemental weapon, as to which you obviously didn’t. Gog, the veterans are getting out of hand.
It makes sense why G and GU was so happy and lots of singing since it was the game released for MH 10th anniversary
I think the analysis is interesting, however Monster Hunter Cross/Gen was supposed to be a celebration game, so it's very acceptable to have one game where everyone is singing and dancing.
I think the tone is something like Avatar: The Last Airbender; it has its cute, lighthearted moments such as the Yian-Kut-Ku, the Palicos' antics etc. But it also has stuff right out of your darkest nightmares like Gore Magala, Narwa, Fatalis, and Dire Miralis.
I would go into the old swamp gathering quest just to sit look, and listen to the environment
Chaotic gore magala intro in sunbreak: Ho you are approaching me
In my mind, Monster Hunter had never a dark tone. MH was always goofy and fun. And that's the charme to it.
I really like World’s busy-ness a lot. It does kind of need fog, and I feel like I go cross-eyed without it. But it brings what I really love about nature into video game form, which is being able to just stare at what’s ahead of me for ages and just gawk at the quantity and beauty of it all.
Based boomer!
I liked the manga vs anime comparison. When everything tries to stand out, then nothing stands out and it's all noise.
These are all valid and true points that you pointed out, I started with Tri and 3U was the next game I got (Temporaly had Portable 3rd as well), and I noticed the huge changes between the two, I missed hunting especially in the caves, I loved fighthing Barioth in the dark with only it's glowing eyes to guide me, don't even get me started with Gigginox... It was all awesome, I would purposely not use the tourch in those areas for the thrill of it
I get the argument with the complexity of the environments and how the amount of combat flare should match but I really like World’s locales and their complexity; I think the amount of flash/flare in World/Ice’s combat is a good middle ground and the complexity of the environments and amount of flare don’t need to match that much unless one is too much higher than the other. Gen/GenU (and I guess Rise now) being the flashiest and the others being lower on the flash scale, World sorta sits in the middle and I think it’s fine compared to the environmental complexity. I think the amount of complexity in the environments and the small details with the animals (like picking up bones in rotten veil unleashes spiders, etc) made it feel very alive (at least for a while until it just devolves into a normal game again) and I prefer it to the tone that you were trying to portray in the video. I only played 4U, Gen, World/Ice, Rise (+ Stories 1/2) so I kinda prefer the goofiness and extra flare.
I'd like to see a game where they go hard in the beauty in the environment but have a cast of monsters that blend into it so you can just be walking around the map and be 2 inches from the monsters face, have it be harder to find the monster before it finds you. Then maybe add 2 invasion type monsters one which blends in maybe similar or a variant of chamy, and another which is impossible to miss but so insanely above bar for the longest duration of the game that it sends everything you included packing. Like put an end game g rank monster in the low and high rank maps and have you go the whole game fearing it until you get to the end and you get your chance to put it down.
"Sometimes, it just works and we don't know why....."
-Capcom
I do prefer the more gritty feel of older games, they made the more jokey elements better and was much more atmospheric. But I still like the more light and jokey tone of the modern portable games too. It's a win win for me honestly, if I want a harder, slower, more gritty game, I'll play Freedom Unite, if I want a more fast, fun, and lighthearted game, I'll play rise or 3U. Games like rise still have darker and grittier parts too, so I don't feel like the grittiness is gone or anything. Though I would love a Freedom Unite or MH1 remake with modern controls, but that same gritty feel and difficulty
The aesthetic you're describing is fantastical realism. Modern MH is pure fantasy.
What would you define world?
I almost feel like the shift in tone can be related to the world itself. In the first games, people and hunters are trying to get more used to that kind of life. But now in the later games, we have grown so used to hunting that its almost like a festival
Then I hope the balloon pops soon and the people of the MonHun universe face the reality of casually killing everything around them.
@@jakobmonsterhunter
casualy killing?
you know you can capture them right?
@@jakobmonsterhunter i get what you mean but if taken literally then the mass casual killing would also go against the ideology of the MonHun world where all hunting is controlled and poaching is strictly forbidden without exception to maintain the balance of nature the Hunter's Guild strives for
@@Rose-85 Ironically enough, they make that one of the main themes but never emphasize it, we never see the effects of poaching, we never even see actual poachers, poachers don't even get mentioned in the games, lol
@@Rose-85 This discussion of an alleged "Hunter's Guild Code" is badly sourced on a difficult to find page on the Monster Hunter Wiki. It is BARELY canon, and only through translated side documents and books (all printed in Japan only and years before the newer games like GU, World, Rise).
Even if we to claim it as truly canon, Monster Hunter World completely works against this philosophy in its twisted story and actively rewards the player for casually "poaching".
These "anti-poaching" rules are NEVER brought up within the titles. It isn't even brought up in Stories 2, which would seem to be the best place to do it as players have been asking this question for years.
The game was fantasy-ish stuff that could be serious to a point, but as it advanced: it embraced it's more silly aspects and became what we think we've always know today.
I preferred the current generations rather than old generations. The fact that there is so much differences when it comes to graphics wise, mechanics and system. As much as I want to say, I'd still prefer new gens. Though, this is my opinions, and still I respect your opinions when it comes to old gens. The only problem that I have with new gens is that, there is not enough new monsters and they kept bringing back old monsters (debatable) but hey, I guess CAPCOM is still trying to relive the past by bringing them back to trigger the nostalgia towards Veteran hunters (old players). So they should keep making new monsters and introduce more new stuff, I'll be fine with that. If they somehow remake the old gens and put down new elements that would be fantastic and again it would be phenomenal.
I liked MH 3/3 Ultimate's overall tone and aesthetic, which was a oceanic/maritime vibe to the setting. It was the first MH game at the time to go for a more colorful, vibrant colour palette, and I enjoyed it overall. It was a stark contrast to the gritty medieval fantasy aesthetic of Gen 1 and 2.
This was a good video, i liked it, keep making more mate don't overthink it hahah
This guy is living proof that nostalgia can have the same effects as drugs xD
Actual literal lol at the art reflecting life, great as always
I love Rise because of how it is. Charming, lovable, flashy and most importantly, fun. If I wanted a dark and gritty experience I'd go play Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
I'm glad you mentioned the whole thing where people were saying world was "too grounded" and "realistic" it just never made sense to me
I don't think it lost its edge, I think it found its theming and atmosphere. I started with 1 and it's always been goofy absurb, a lot of people tend to think that "memorable" parts of monster hunter are the cool, gritty monsters like fighting rathalos, tigrex and fatalis. But then a lot of the actual talking points are people bitching about how they got tossed around by a plesioth, farted on by a conga, being terrified as rajang turns super saiyan or how creepy khezu is. People commonly tend to register darker, grittier things as "memorable" and disregard the more ridiculous things, even though those are the memories that they'll be able to pull emotion from more most of the time.
Hey, this is an absolutely great and unique topic, really appreciate the video!
I think there are certainly darker and sometimes even practically horrifying things in the two most recent games, Rise and Stories 2 (spoilers ahead).
For Rise, it's mostly in some of their monsters. Goss Harag is a borderline axe murderer who does a horror movie walk at you dragging his blade along the ground when you are stunned, while Rakna-Kadaki is just straight-up nightmare fuel. Not to mention the Rampage of monsters actively trying to smash into a village to main everyone inside, or the eldritch monstrosities responsible for the Rampage that are Ibushi and Narwa. Also not to mention that both of our friends in the story get borderline POSSESSED by said eldritch monstrosities.
It's not much with Rise, but it certainly shows that there are still darker elements to Monster Hunter.
Then you have Stories 2, which hides some fairly dark concepts and scenes behind what outwardly appears to be a game for somewhat younger audiences. Half of the cast wants to stab your best friend Ratha because of an insane and ultimately misinterpreted prophecy, every scene with the Wings of Ruin is actually terrifying (especially the first one), a character you thought you could trust ends up being the leader of what amounts to an END OF THE WORLD WORSHIPPING DEATH CULT THAT IDLOIZES A WILD ANIMAL THAT WOULD LIKELY KILL THEM AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE, as well as the guy somewhat leaning into being a LEGITIMATE WYVERIAN SUPREMACIST near the end, and you get to watch as Guardian Ratha, the very helpful and amazing companion of your late grandfather, gets FUCKING MEAT GRINDED TO DEATG BY THREE GIANT ELDRITCH WORM HORRORS WITH BLOOD FLYING EVERYWHERE, with all that prevents this scene from raising the age rating of the entire game being some obstructive lighting.
There's just about as much of a darker, grittier, and sometimes actually horrifying elements to modern Monster Hunter as there is the sillier, happier tones, and I think that's part of what makes this series so great.
seeing tri next to 3u really opened my eyes. I didnt even notice the difference back then
Tbh I always seen Monster hunter as goofy, cute, and dark.
Especially playing through genU (my first game in the series) the ending got me geeking out lol
Dude, I saw this video appear in my recommended like a week ago and just barely saw the thumbnail before I refreshed TH-cam and lost it. Ever since then I’ve been looking for this video not knowing what channel it was from because this topic intrigued me so much. How did Monster Hunter change from what it was it what it is? What’s an improvement and what was lost? Finally I can watch!
You should've put the Monkey Hunter Arc from Gintama as a example for the anime and manga thing smh.
the growth of the game does add to the change in tone, with the first games you had barely any information of the world of MonHun, the vagueness and unknown aspects added to the bleak nature and atmosphere and a theme where realism has more weight than its fantastical side, as the game progressed the balance shifted more to the fantastical and with the expanding knowledge of the game world, the scary parts seem less scary
As someone who started out with the psp games the newer titles on nintendo consoles seem cartoonish to me and I much prefer the realistic aesthetic of say Mhw
i loved every single monster hunter game i played since freedom 1 (i even importet japanese MHP3rd and downloaded a german patch to play it), and i always loved the serious tone while on a hunt, and the calm and quiet atmosphere in the village. i loved that the monsters are not just these typical fantasy dragons, but living creatures that adapted to their surroundings.
but the question you asked haunted me the last couple entrances of the franchise. did it get too fast and flashy? (well, rise is a looot too flashy). but imagine if they released a game with the same slow gameplay of freedom. it wouldn't feel up to date, and half of the community would criticize that.
IMO they always found the right way of keeping traditions of gameplay and adding new features that didn't ruin the experience for vererans. and the monster-design was always on a high level
borry for sad english, greetings from germany
As someone who started with the very first MH game, I have to fiercely disagree with you. I doubt Monster Hunter was ever meant to be gritty and edgy, that's what Dark Souls is for, especially if you look at the felynes and poogie and the jingle that comes with grilling a steak. The only reason why the original Monster Hunter would look so """dark""" and """edgy""" is simply due to hardware limitations. The comparison you did of MH Tri and MH3U is actually a good example in that regard, since the Wii is a weaker console compared to the WiiU.
Monster Hunter hasn't lost its edge. That's mainly because it never had said edge in the first place.
honestly, just watching you run through older areas really kicked in a sense of gravity i really havent seen since Tri. that you are a human in a world meant for the monsters, small, running around with sharpened sticks against great beasts. you really don't notice that until you've stepped back and looked at it from afar.
The legend has returned with even more hot takes.
This definetley doesnt feel like a hat take, more like an introspection between the games and also fog
no need to apologize for this video mate, I think you make a good point and somehow you actually managed to convey what you mean too despite the complexity of the subject. Good stuff, I'll sub.