I got a million things going on right now, but there's no way I'm not taking the time to get into Monster Hunter's latest update. Spoiler warning: I talk a bit about one particular monster here that's best left as a surprise. Read no further if you don't want to be spoiled. BACKGROUND:
After thoroughly enjoying the 2.0 update's various additions, I was extremely excited for this new update. I was itching for new monsters to fight, and 3.0 was sure to bring at least a few to the game. Other than that, I didn't really have any other expectations. WHAT'S NEW: New Monsters As expected, this update brings a few new monsters that you can hunt. Here they are:
Compared to 2.0's four new monsters (plus two Apexes), this update pales in comparison, but I was personally more than satisfied with Valstrax alone. Like everyone else, I naturally would have wanted more monsters to have been added, but I don't really have complaints with what we did get. New Weapons and Armor You naturally get new weapons and armor (for both you and your buddies) with new monsters, but seeing as there's technically only one new monster in this update (Valstrax), there's only one new armor set and one new weapon tree for each weapon. Thankfully, the Valstrax stuff looks awesome, and both the weapons and the armor set have an interesting synergy to them thanks to the new Dragonheart armor skill and the new Valstrax Soul weapon skill. What we did get more of are upgrades to existing weapon trees that haven't reached their final upgrades yet. Stuff like the Diablos and Mizutsune weapons have additional upgrades now, and most significantly, the Elder Dragon weapons introduced in the last update can be upgraded as well. I was pretty happy about this, because I have been using mostly 2.0 weapons as of late, like the Chameleos long sword, the Teostra dual blades, and the Kushala Daora hammer. Interestingly, the Ibushi and Narwa armor sets can be upgraded in a different way compared to other sets. Spending Allmother material on the armor grants the skill Stormsoul, which greatly improves the admittedly mediocre skills both armor sets already had. Again, there's not a lot here, but my only real criticism revolves around the Apex monster drops. These drops are only ever really used for the Rampage weapons and a few decorations, and it seems to be a consensus among fans that it was a missed opportunity to make some unique Apex armor sets or weapons. Hell, using the drops in the same way as the Allmother materials to give existing armor sets unique upgrades would be neat. I hope this is a thing they could address in a future update, because as much as I find the Apex hunts challenging, there's little reason to take them on apart from said challenge. New Quests There are a bunch of new Hub quests, with the highlights obviously being the ones featuring the new monsters. We also get regular quests for both Apex Rathalos and Apex Diablos, who were Rampage-exclusive prior to this. On that note, Apex Zinogre has a Rampage quest, but you can unlock its normal quest after beating that once. We also get a handful of Advanced Hub quests, but these mostly feature existing monsters, so there isn't a lot to say here. The most significant of these is the terrifying-looking quest that has you hunt not one, not two, but three Apex monsters in one go. Although they feature shit you've already seen, the Advanced Quests provide an entirely new level of challenge, beefing up the monsters further than what they were in High Rank. I did all of them solo, and it certainly wasn't a walk in the park. Other Things Along with the Narwa the Allmother quest, we get the game's definitive ending. It's pretty basic stuff, but the ending cutscene is pretty heartwarming. We get the usual round of cosmetic DLC, which doesn't really interest me. But hey, they're there if you wanna pay for them. Interestingly, that triple Apex quest (and one other Advanced quest) I mentioned takes place in a new area. I don't think this new area is seen anywhere else, so I hope it sees use in future quests. Unfortunately, it's more akin to a small arena as opposed to a full zone, so there's no opportunity for exploration here. Layered Weapons exist now, but here's the catch: only the Rampage weapons have access to them. I suppose it makes sense given they're the only ones that can be customized cosmetically, but it would have been neat to have this feature outside of them (mostly because I don't use Rampage weapons). That said, having the feature at all is appreciated, and it got me to really experiment with the Rampage sets a bit more. VERDICT: Admittedly, Monster Hunter 3.0's addition pales in comparison to 2.0, but Valstrax alone was enough to tide me over personally. I understand that people wanted more (who doesn't), but I feel like the complaints I've seen online go a touch too far considering this game's development was already hindered by the pandemic (which is why we got both 2.0 and 3.0 post-launch). The roadmap the devs show don't really assuage any concerns over more robust updates (it appears to be mostly Event Quests and cosmetic DLC), but who knows, they might piecemeal it and add new monsters incrementally. Regardless, I'll still be playing this game, because I got a lot out of it even before the updates. There's always more stuff to farm, I still have a ton of weapons I wanna learn, and I have friends to play this game with. So even if this update in particular wasn't as meaty as people would have liked, I'm personally still content. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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