Monster Hunter 3 - Need I say more?[img]http://images.wikia.com/monsterhunter/images/8/83/MH3tri-logo.png[/img]
Monster Hunter games have always been good and ever since the original release have given a fresh perspective on RPGs. Most people are used to the Monster Hunter remakes that came out on the PSP.(This one got it's remake for 3DS and WiiU) It has been a long time since Monster Hunter 2, and that game is awesome so I had to buy this one. I haven't played the 3DS and WiiU remakes yet, so I don't know if they are better.
Monster Hunter 3 was originally going to be for Playstation 3 since the last two were for Playstation 2, but for some reason got moved to the Wii and considering the sales, for the better. This one also seems to have much improved online play when compared to the others, even scrapping the annoying Nintendo friend code fashion and replacing it with actual usernames.
The game starts, like the others with an opening cutscene. This one shows off one of the new monsters (Jaggi) immediately. It also shows off the new Lagiacrus monster which is a giant electric sea dragon. This movie actually supplies useful information showing off how these monsters attack. I do find it odd how they escaped the urge to show off the switch axe in it. Maybe the switch axe was added after they made the video. Who knows?
In this game you play as a hunter (Shocking, I know) who is sent to an island which appears to be made completely of planks to try and find out and stop what is causing constant tremors. The village chief is a rather odd fellow who tends to sit in random places. He is permanantly smoking which means it is amazing that he lived to as long as he is. He is not too much use to the player as he does not provide any sort of service. It is the village chiefs son, aptly and lazily named Junior. He will give information about the local area such as what monsters are around on which days, which is one of the new mechanics. Monster Hunter 3 introduces the ecosystem... system. This gives you an area that you can freely hunt in for as long as you want, as much as you want. This is great for collecting resources for crafting, selling, or improving the village with. Junior's second service is to turn certain found items into resources. These resources can be spent on crafting specific things for the village, or for Cha Cha, the Felyne replacement. Cha Cha is a young Shakalaka tribe member and the companion for single player mode. Cha Cha is however a part of the story. He is found while getting attacked by some monsters and befriends the hunter who helps him. His multiple masks are useful for different purposes. They can do things such as attract monsters or light caves. Despite saying really annoying things, it is interesting to see what he says with each mask... at least for the first time. It gets annoying after 4 billion. He never shuts up. The village has some other characters in it. There are the fishermen who give fish to the fishmonger who for some reason gives you everything they find for free. The same goes for the Felynes in the farm. Strange but convenient. There is a shopkeeper for items and one for equipment. Both of these become useless very quickly. Because of these shops being useless, you will quickly get enough money which you will be using on food, which increases certain stats and equipment, which is pretty obvious what it does. There is another place though. The city is a much more attractive place in a rather sandy region. This is the main multiplayer area, no annoying Shakalakas here! This is my preferred area, where you can meet up with other players in cities that allow up to four people. These places have great servers that rarely to never have lag. It has full voice and type chat, and all quests can be played with a party. There are more quests here than in single player mode! In other words, you have to connect your Wii to the internet to get the most out of this game. As I said earlier, the multiplayer uses usernames instead of friend codes, but because players are allowed to use the same usernames as other players, there is an ID function for when you want to add people t your friends list. The friends list shows who is online and allows you to warp to their city if they are in one. Playing with other people, especially friends is a great way to play this game. In the city there are also charaters. There are the two shopkeepers that are selling equipment and general items. They are just as useless here as they are in the village. This place has the craft master who can craft any item without fail. Giving him items will let him craft a random item after a couple of quests. Similar to the craft master, there is the Felyne Artisan. He makes models for you to put in your house. Not much more to be said about him. There is also the arena clerk here which allows you to fight a monster of your choice with an ally in a controlled arena for money and coins. The guildmaster is a rather interesting character here. He will always send you off with a haiku.
I don't think I will ever go on that long about characters again. Sorry.
The games graphics are a little disappointing. Monster Hunter games have always looked great on Playstation 2 and PSP, but strangely the Wii game has absolutely no improvements on the graphics. Not even shadows. They look good, but could have easily have been better, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the perfect example of this. The imagination and detail in the monsters is absolutely amazing however and I always love to see the new monster design and the way they fight. The charaters look rather sub-par. They are detailed in poly count, but have very low resolution textures. The areas look nothing special and have incredibly low poly counts and low resolution textures. However, the snow, sand, and water effects look brilliant, making the areas look very immersive. Despite the areas looking bad, they feel great to play in, and every area is unique in every way and has original ways to strategise in. My personal favorite area would have to be the Volcano area. It is literally climbing a volcano and going inside it at a point. It is truly amazing with some beautiful backgrounds such as the volcano peak when you are climbing it.
The soundtrack to the game is brilliant. Every song fits the place it is used in, and there are many. The soundtrack is about 40 songs, several used for each area, and some of the monsters getting their own theme tune. I liked the soundtrack to this one so much that I had to download it. (If you are trusted you will be able to download it) I also like how this game has a new theme song. My friends don't like the new theme, but I do.
The water mechanic is the games newest feature. In the water, the camera has to be moved in all directions dodging can now be done vertically. It adds a new level of strategy to fighting monsters, and weapons work differently underwater, meaning that you may have thought you knew it already, but now you have to learn it again.
To sum up because I cannot think of anthing else to type, this game is absolutely brilliant and if you have friends with the game, you will have one of the best multiplayer experieces ever for Wii. I love this game, and if you will too.
User Notice 
