Nic:Life, the absolute bastard, has kept me away from the Monst.
Let me experience it through you.
What’s the best Monst so far?
Brendan:I am fond of the squiddy critters that slop about.
Ollie:I’m partial to the Yian Kut-Ku myself.
Brendan:Oh, it’s a good one.
I like the way it soars between areas, limping through the sky on holey wings.
Shame it only arrives at the end of the lengthy story, mind.
This came as a surprise because I usually veer on the side of disliking spiders in just about everything.
I feel very pretty wearing it.
Nic:Are some of the later monsters still exhausting to fight?
Brendan:I got tired of emptying endless arrows into the final boss.
Battles do get more protracted the further you get into the endgame.
There are new “tempered” abominations that are there to act as more challenging fights.
Big bruisers who have seen the wars and won’t go down easy.
I liked that aspect of World, so I was disappointed to read that bit.
Brendan:Ah, yeah.
The auto-piloting dino plays a big part in this.
It feels more like getting on a bus to the next fight, rather than driving there yourself.
You don’t need to worry about shortcuts.
Edwin: Do people have favourite weapons?
I might fall back on my old friend, the Gunlance.
You roll down a monster’s entire spine like a hideous human buzzsaw.
But I found that fighting up close made monster movements harder to track and I kept getting knocked down.
Brendan:This is a comical line of marketing for a game about murdering dinosaurs for high-heel boots.
But it is a minor theme of the story.
These monsters are simply animals doing what they are naturally compelled to do, we are sometimes told.
But that might just be making a stink out of the game’s mild lip service to wildlife preservation.
As humans our relationship to animals is an absolutely batshit web of intractable contradictions.
My brother’s dog is dying and my entire family is currently in bits.
But we eat endless cows for supper without thinking too much about it.
But it rarely does.
But perhaps that overtness was more honest?
Its obvious what you want - Guild permission to engage the enemy.
There are moments that hint at alternate worlds where Monster Hunter is less focused on killing, though.
Generally speaking, I think Capcom could feel less guilty and/or resist the urge to conservation-wash their simulation.
Its also just entertaining to watch the game have a go at make sense of its own morals.
Doubtless they would say things like Oh golly, Im overpopulating my habitat!"
Brendan:“This will have ramifications to the food chain!”
Edwin:“Quickly, thin my numbers so that the ecosystem can survive.
