by Jacob Condo, Staff Writer
If you’ve ever stared off into the distance imagining epic battle scenes with giant monsters, then Monster Hunter: Generations is the game for you.
The 3DS game, released last November, starts out in a small mountain village by the name of Bhrena, where you are employed by the Wycademy as a hunter.
Your job is to take quests that send you out into various locations to find items, but primarily hunt monsters.
These monsters range from cantankerous herbivores to colossal dragons, and each presents its own set of challenges as you endeavor to beat them and keep people safe in the process. From the forests to the jungles, to the deserts, swamps, and ancient ruins, you must try and conquer your foes.
Once you’ve smashed their faces in and smote their ruin upon the mountainsides, you carve up their bodies to use their collected parts along with ore and other items to forge weapons and armor.
Not only did you kill that dragon, but now you can hunt down its buddies with weapons made from its corpse! If that’s not badass, I don’t know what is.
The latest installment of Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise, Generations takes the player back to the classic locations of the games, such as those in Monster Hunter:Freedom, Monster Hunter:Freedom 2, and Monster Hunter 1-3.
With the inclusion of old favorites and heavy-hitters such as the Tigrex and Lagiacrus, I found myself chomping at the bit for this new game, regardless of how I’d feel about the newer monsters.
The game features a new Jurassic Frontier landscape to populate, and the cast of monsters are no less magnificent than what has come before.
As always though, a lot of the monsters and dragons in the game draw heavily from the aesthetic of Japanese mythology.
In earlier games, the furr-iendly little cat-people known as Palicos are ready to pounce by your side with customizable tactics and armor. Ever-faithful and ready for a fight, no “meow-nster” can withstand your little companions when you hunt as a team.
What’s new about our little friends this time around? Not much; except the ability to play as one of your feline companions in the all new “Prowler” mode. You simply choose your favorite cat, and set off for adventure!
This new prowler mode is only the icing on the cake compared to how Capcom revolutionized the gameplay.
If there’s one thing I’m sure of when it comes to Monster Hunter, it’s that every time we get a new game, Capcom employs new game and combat mechanics.
A farming system, underwater hunts, and the ability to jump onto monsters to attack them are all features added on through the years.
Some features however, like farming, were toned down, while others like swimming became more gimmicky. Diving into the depths of waterways in certain areas was cool, but it lost its novelty when it was forced on you.
Other features like mounting monsters and the Palico sidekicks stayed, having been game-changers
in how hunts played out. And now in Monster Hunter: Generations, there’s a new game mechanic that threatens to change the game again.
The new Hunter Styles give the player choices between four different combat styles: Guild, Striker, Adept, and my personal favorite: Aerial. Each Style determines how you use abilities and attacks called Hunter Arts.
I chose the aerial style because it gives me the ability to jump. The most you can manage playing without this style is a roll, or a horizontal leap. It’s great for getting out of the way in a pinch and hopping off ledges, but not much else.
This style is ideal for an agile player; especially if they want to mount monsters for extra damage, or move across the battlefield in style. Ha, pun.
The only drawback is that unlike the other styles, it limits you to one slot to place your chosen hunter arts.
These hunter arts range from support moves, to special attacks and evasions. You get a certain amount of slots to equip these abilities, depending on what style you’ve chosen.
Special attacks become available only for certain styles and choice of weapon once you unlock them. It should be said though, that you can’t use the same fighting moves with a bow that you can with a sword. The same goes for all other weapon types.
If you have a 3DS, and at most an hour in which to play through a quest, then why not pick up Monster Hunter: Generations? It’s a fun game full of new features, from a franchise that lets us all get in touch with our inner badass.