Monster Hunter Tri Presentation

Through contacts on various MH fansites, myself and Chris managed to bag a VIP invitation to a promotional presentation of Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii by Capcom. With trusted reassurance from Tenebra, the community Manager of Capcom EU, we arrived intact at the Science Museum in London. A lavish breakfast of bagels and cocktail sticks adorned with cheese and pineapple awaited, fortunately the more astute of us had snaffled a full English prior to entry and left the varied morsels to avaricious game journalists. However, the coffee was much appreciated.

The assembled masses in the presentation hallway grew more feverish (and sweaty) as the time drew towards 11:30am and we were even asked polite questions by the media as time wore on. Our enthusiastic response of being Monster Hunter fans since the PS2 days evoked a brief flicker of interest before the interviewer politely moved onto more interesting people (i.e. press not fans).

Eventually an announcement was made.  Ryozo-san was declared present and a couple of full-plate armoured cosplay attendants entered the room.  A brief warm up act ensued and we were invited into the presentation room to take a seat and search through our Monster Hunter goodie bags (containing the game manual, a USB stick full of game art and screen captures and some postcards).

The lights in the auditorium dimmed and Ryozo Tsujimoto, the producer of the Monster Hunter franchaise, and Creative Director Kaname Fujioka took to the stage amidst enthusiastic applause. The presentation was conducted in Japanese with a translator at a lecturn to the side of the stage who sounded thoroughly bored throughout.  Ryozo-san and Kaname-san did a great job of putting the audience at ease by using a sheep skull and then a limp wrested human skeleton arm as a pointer for the presentation and much frivolity ensued throughout as the wrist was reminiscent of Mr Humphreys after a hard (ooh!) day at Grace Brothers.

A vibrant video proceeded to show us what Monster Hunter Tri was made of.  Familiar monsters, such as the Rathalos took to the screen using signature moves and you could see gamers in the audience nodding in anticipation of his firey cavalcade of destruction.  The highlight was when a huge crocodilian drew up alongside the players’ ship from which they fired cannons when it suddenly flipped off into the distance and then broadsided the ship with a charge fronted by its massive tusks.

Next we were treated to the specifications of the game. Ryozo-san ensured us it has the highest graphical effects possible on the Wii, a claim which we later endorsed on our extended playtime.  Characters are more customisable than in previous Monster Hunter titles, more hairstyles, more faces and different voices (twelve choices in each category from the look of it). You will be able to make sets of armour based on the carves from monsters you kill and match them with a weapon of your choice. As usual with a Wii game, your character is then saved on your Wiimote so that you can take it elsewhere.

There’s one new weapon in the game called the Switchaxe, which alternates between a two-handed sword form and an axe form. One version of this weapon, called the Sinister Saints, represented the Goddess in sword form and the Grim Reaper in axe form highlighting the dual effects of the weapon. Two other weapons, Lions Bane and Tenebra were also shown which are also not in the Japanese version.

An interesting development is that of monster ecology.  In previous Monster Hunter titles, when a monster is injured it will exit the zone trying to escape your onslaught giving visible signs that it is in distress and possibly head to an area that it considers its den so that it can recover.  In Monster Hunter Tri the interaction between the boss monster and the local ecology has multiple facets.  Take the small raptors that hunt in packs when you enter a zone.  They will immediately transfer their aggression to a Rathian (a fire-breathing dragon) when it invades their territory as it proposes a more menacing threat than a single hunter.  Effectively they tank the Rathian for you for a short period of time until they take a pounding and scatter, leaving you and the beast one on one.  Rathians like to dish out some ranged damage via their various fireball attacks, but after some successful evasive moves by the hunter the Rathian began to lose stamina and the fireballs became rather pathetic wisps.  At his point the Rathian took flight and was tracked to a zone where it was gorging itself upon herbivores to regain its energy.  This situation allows the forward thinking and resourceful hunter to clear the surrounding zones of potential food sources beforehand and use the local ecology to the best of their ability.

We were also treated to a hunt of the mysterious Kurupeko.  This gangly birdlike monster can imitate the sound of other creatures and has the ability to summon them throughout a fight.  Its up to the wily hunter to interrupt the call and then take down the avian boss monster.  We had the pleasure of fighting the Kurupeko during our hands on session and, although a good challenge, he fell after a co-ordinated approach between us.

The ability to fight underwater is a change of focus for the series and we were told that the controls would feel very similar to moving around on land, but the tactics to succeed in battle may need some extra thought.  This was announced as a serpentine creature entwined itself around a hapless hunter. Unwittingly, Chris had a little go under water as he fell off the shoreline into a coral reef. Other than the lighting and sound changes it’s like being on land, only now you have an air meter to keep your eye on as well as stamina.

Moga Village is the hub area for the single player adventure and Ryozo-san told us that theres a story mode involved where the village is experiencing a multitude of earthquakes and that it is believed a monster is responsible.  Players new to the series will be heartened to hear that a tutorial mode takes you through the opening of the story and some questions later on revealed that your offline progress can be carried forward to your online adventures.  The village contains the usual quest givers, a farm for growing crafting materials and NPCs that will help you to create and improve your weapons and armour much in the same way as previous Monster Hunter games.  An NPC companion called Cha-cha was also introduced in the village and he reminded me of a deku nut from Ocarina of Time. Depending upon what mask hes wearing (this time reminding me of Majoras Mask) his support role will change. Further details were not forthcoming.

Theres a separate hub for your online adventures called Loc Lac, a waterside village where you can team up with up to four friends.  Capcom have got rid of the usual friends code system and you can pick up random people for your parties or arrange to enlist players as your friends on agreement via a bulletin board, making it much easier to gather people that you actually want to play with.  It was confirmed that it is compatible with Wii Speak so voice communication is possible, giving you the edge in frantic situations. This feature was not available in the Japanese release and highlights the online approach expected by Western gamers.  Text chat is also available.

With regard to controls, the Wiimote and nunchuk are available.  However, Nintendo has worked with Capcom to produce a modification to the Wii Classic Controller called the Classic Controller Pro.  Four main face buttons and four shoulder buttons are flanked by two prongs reminiscent of the N64 controller give you the feeling of accuracy and tightness that this game demands.  We both instantly took to the new controller without any issues at all.  Being familiar with the button layout on Sonys Monster Hunter titles helps and it does feel very comfortable. There is no rumble on the new controller so it feel rather lightweight like the old Sixaxis controllers.

There was a short Q&A session for the audience where it was revealed that it was undecided whether there was going to be a charge for online play.  Personally its a tad disconcerting that there are not any details at this stage.  I got to ask the question about whether theres going to be a beta test and, if so, could I have an invite.  Unfortunately, theres no beta testing which does manifest some doubts in my mind about whether the net code will be robust enough on a console that is pretty inexperienced in online co-operative play. I guess well have to wait until launch day for that one. Local wireless play was fine.

With the presentation over it was time for some game time.  Being near the back of the auditorium meant that we were first in line to pick up the nifty new black controllers and relax on some comfy sofas and test our skills. My biggest compliment is that it feels like Monster Hunter. Its not been dumbed down for the Wii audience (other than by a lack of need for paintballs) and still holds a distinct yet manageable challenge.  Myself and Chris had a good 30-45 minutes taking down the first two bosses in arena mode in a co-op split screen mode. No dithering about, clean and clinical the sinuous raptor boss followed by the Kurupeko fell in quick succession. We looked at each other and nodded. This is going to be a good game. We then looked at the progress of a game journalist on the adjacent sofa, laughed inside, and then hoped his written response to the game would result in a higher quality performance.

A break was now in order, so off we trotted to the pub. There weren’t any well-done steaks or mega potions on offer so we went for traditional bar meals and a few pints.  Fuelled to maximum we returned to the Science Museum a couple of hours later what, for me, was the highlight of the day.  Ryozo-san and Konami-san emerged from the press room looking tired and jaded, whereupon I whipped out a copy of Monster Hunter on the PS2, Monster Hunter Freedom and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP (Chris couldn’t as he only has the download-only PSP Go version).  Their faces exuded the most extreme enthusiasm and it took me, pleasantly, by surprise and after a few domo arigatos they elaborately signed and decorated the insides of the game sleeves.  It was a massive encouragement for me to see game developers showing genuine care and attention towards fans of their games.

Finally we hit the true multiplayer mode with a screen and console each and, inspired by the meeting with the game’s developers, we tore through an encounter with a meatier Kurupeko.  The greatsword I was using felt fantastic in a group situation and I certainly caught Chris smiling as he issued death by blade to all and sundry.  This particular set of four Wii consoles were connected wirelessly to a router so it remains to be seen whether the game will function this well upon launch.  If it’s lag free then it could certainly be every Monster Hunter’s dream.  Overall, it was a great day.

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