Monster Hunter World is a game that leaves me both in awe and saddened.
It launched on January 26th, 2018 and received almost unanimously positive reviews.
Among the most common laudations were the game’s unbelievable amount of content in
the way of monsters, biomes, and missions.
The rigor with which the game’s combat was designed allows for there to be fourteen completely
unique weapons with individualized animations, damage outputs, and play strategies.
Furthermore, you can upgrade each of these weapons to one of at least eighteen different
variants to even further customize you character according to your play style.
The game is also huge, according to Howlongtobeat.com, the average play time for players across PS4,
Xbox One, and PC is ninety-two freaking hours.
However, if you are looking to play through most of the content at a leisurely pace, you
can expect to have at least 192 hours of content at your disposal which, in my experience,
is closer to the actual play time that you can expect.
I’ve been playing this game, off and on, since it came out and I am still finding new
and interesting things to do.
The art design, gameplay design, the world building, crafting, are all amongst the best
I’ve ever encountered.
Now, it’s important to say, it isn’t a super narrative heavy experience, in fact,
the narrative isn’t very important in Monster Hunter.
Effectively the narrative just serves as the plate upon which your meal will be served.
It’s there, but it’s definitely not why you bought the meal that you did.
Rather, it is a gameplay heavy experience.
For those of you that know me or have been following my content for a while, you’ll
know that I tend to be engrossed in the narrative experience much more than I am in the gameplay.
And while that is true, it isn’t to say that I don’t like to stretch my legs and
try something new.
And this game does just that.
It gives the player so much that it can definitely be overwhelming at first.
Believe me, this game does for gameplay what Red Dead Redemption 2 did for narrative: it
is incredibly vast, unendingly deep and complicated, and never ceases to amaze.
Now, I could talk about this game ad infinitum, and may end up doing a critique of it (make
sure to like and subscribe if you’d like to see that), but that’s not the point of
this video.
The point of this video is instead to discuss the unfortunate reality of Monster Hunter:
World’s reception and the recognition it has received.
You see, the game was very well received on launch, but was quickly forgotten.
The game launched in January of 2018, as I said earlier, which is just about the worst
time of the year for a game to launch if it wants long term recognition.
Look at Resident Evil 7 which launched almost exactly one year before Monster Hunter: World
on January 24th, 2017.
The game was very well received but was passed over by most reviewers and commentators for
game of the year considerations.
Now don’t get me wrong, this is a very good problem to have.
We are living in a time where, in the span of 11 or 12 months, so many high quality titles
can come out that we find ourselves forgetting the games that were released just before.
Now perhaps I should clarify that when I say “forgot” I don’t mean that players and
gaming personalities are straight losing memory of the game that came out less than one full
orbit ago.
Rather, when I say “forget,” I mean that it is being buried in a sea of other titles
that are fresher in our minds and because of this, we lower it in our intercranial hierarchy
and these titles can often be passed over, failing to receive the recognition they deserve.
This is exactly what happened with Monster Hunter: World.
You see, for any game that releases, the time that it drops is sometimes indicative of what
is important to the developer.
This usually breaks down into one of two time frames: spring and fall.
This makes sense because in the spring people are often buying up the games that they will
be playing through the summer.
These players are often looking for a game that they can sink their teeth into and play
for prolonged periods of time.
This is why games such as The Witcher 3 and even the worldwide release of Persona 5 both
took place in this window.
These are games that players can spend months and months engrossed in without losing interest.
As for the fall, these games are often the heavy hitters who make their money by selling
in bulk.
These games can also be heavily discounted at large retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop
throughout the holidays.
Think of Call of Duty, Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed, Super Mario Odyssey, or Red Dead Redemption
2.
Most of these games have a ton of content, but that isn’t the point.
The point is that these are the heavy lifters for their publishers and are expected to drive
console sales in addition to accessory attachment and microtransaction attachment throughout
the holiday season.
There will be many ads produced to support these games and they need to sell multiple
millions of copies just to break even.
Once again, this isn’t to say that there isn’t overlap or that meatier games don’t
release in the fall.
Rather, I am simply pointing out how and why these games often release when they do.
Do you think that when a Call of Duty game releases is an accident?
Not at all.
When you’re playing with a multi-billion dollar franchise nothing is accidental.
The other element of this is that games that release in the fall window tend to rack up
more game of the year nominations and wins than those games that are released in the
spring window.
Again, I would attribute this to the fact that most fall releases will be fresher in
people’s minds and also that most publishers put their most lucrative games into the fall
release window.
Now, I’m not saying that Game of the Year nominations and wins are important per se,
but rather that the recognition is important because it informs the gaming community, culture,
and our opinions.
To see that God of War won Game of the Year at the game awards was relieving because it
showed that single player, narrative focused, highly polished experiences were being given
the recognition that they deserved.
Does it matter a whole lot that Red Dead didn’t win or that Monster Hunter World didn’t
win, probably not in a quantifiable way.
But what is important is to give the developers and the artists who work on these masterpieces
the recognition that they deserve.
And this brings us all the way back to Monster Hunter World.
The game is, for anyone who has played it, clearly one of the best titles of the year.
What is heartbreaking is that it is almost uniformly being overlooked and, for many,
has already been set aside for the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, and Assassin’s
Creed Odyssey.
Now, I’m not saying this is inherently a bad thing.
These games are phenomenal and should be given all of the attention that they are receiving.
My point is only that this particular title, Monster Hunter: World, deserves to be listed
alongside the aforementioned list of fantastic releases.
I don’t know.
This is one of those videos that I just felt like I needed to make.
The point isn’t any more complicated than that.
Play Monster Hunter: World; give this game the chance that it deserves, you won’t be
sorry.
Thank you for watching, if you enjoyed the video, consider liking and subscribing for
more.
And if you would like to see me make a critique of Monster Hunter World, like the video and
let me know in the comments.
These critiques take a long time to make and so I want to make sure that you all actually
want to see it before spending 80 hours making it.
Thank you so much for watching, I love you all, and I’ll see you in the next video.