The Monster Hunter series has made its name with a small selection of people since its original release on the PS2 in 2004. Since then, the original servers were shut down, and new games were released, including the Japan only Monster Hunter Frontier Online, for the PC and 360.

Now with the newest installment exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, Capcom has hoped to gain more audience with the large Wii audience. So does the latest game in the series hold its ground amongst the storm of super popular games such as Halo and Call of Duty? Let's find out.

[Story]
The story in Monster Hunter Tri is simple. You are a traveling monster hunter who has found a job in Moga Village. The village has been having earthquakes commonly and the Village Chief decides to hire you to stop the problem. Along the way you talk to NPC's whose commentary can be funny from time to time, but it's not going to win any awards for writing.

Online, the story is even less existent, it's only when you get to the end (or are lucky enough to have the event quest on) that you learn why you fight for the city of Loc Lac. The story doesn't make that much of an impact, but I'll give points for funny writing.

[Graphics]
Graphics don't make a game, but they look quite nice in Monster Hunter Tri. The frame rate always stays up and the monsters have a nice amount of detail in them. I have an HD TV with Hi-Def settings, so this may vary from person to person. Some of the cutscenes are very pretty and have graphical quality akin to that of PS3. Not an eyesore at all.

[Music/Sound]
Let me say that I am a big fan of fully orchestrated sound tracks so I really enjoyed this part. All the sound quality is great and the music fits the locations nicely. The soundtrack is ambient until you encounter a large monster, then the music will pick up. I cannot say that there was a single track I did not like. However, the music can be a little loud at some times, but the music volume can easily be turned down without effecting the sound effects and voices.

The voices are nothing more than a few grunts, general greetings, and some made up language. There are a few annoying voice archetypes, but you have a fair selection to choose from. All the monsters also have their own individual voices, but they are often quite strange. The Royal Ludroth, a leviathan, sounds like an eagle for some odd reason. Aside from those few complaints, the audio department is great.

[Gameplay]
Here it is, the main course! Gameplay in the Monster Hunter series is divided into offline and online, Village and City respectively. Let me preface this section with a warning.

If you do not have online, do not buy this game.

I'll get back to that point later, first off, offline. You start off with basic clothing to fight basic monsters. Well, not even monsters for the first hour, just simply harvest quests which include: "Deliver X amount of item Y" Very simple, but the game has to give a tutorial.

However, right after the easy missions are done, this game smacks you in the face, and hard too. The game doesn't ease you into fighting, it's either sink or swim. After the tutorials, you get barely an iota of knowledge to help you along the winding path of monster hunting. Which is where online comes into play.

The appeal in online play is teaming up with three other people and wailing on monsters. Or picking mushrooms, you decide. The quest variety in the game is expansive and will always give you something to do. So why not play with some friends? And for the first time in Nintendo history, you can chat with complete strangers without those horrible friend codes. Don't fret if you think that four hunters against one monster is unfair, because the online monsters get a large buff in HP and sometimes their defense and attack.

As I stated earlier, do not buy this game if you have no Wii internet connection. Once you get to a certain point in online play, you unlock "plus" missions, which give you even stronger versions of the already hard monsters you've fought. +Missions are only on online, so playing online is a must if you want to fully upgrade that amazing Rathalos Flamesword you've been looking at. See, only +monsters drop the +items you need to get higher upgrades, so online play is a must. All the weapons and armor look cool and have a very large visual effect on your character. Each armor set comes with skills that can buff your character, there are no "level up" stats.

Then of course, the monsters themselves. Every monster in this game is well thought out and has it's own special move patterns and signature attacks. Everyone of them is fun to fight, and you can even capture them too. (You later send them to the Arena to fight in front of a blood thirsty crowd.) The monsters are set apart into 6 types: Bird Wyvern, Wyvern, Brute Wyvern, Pseudo Wyvern, Leviathan, and Elder Dragon. The same classification of monster share similar moves, but add different elements with special attacks, such as laser beams. No joke. Agnaktor, the lava drenched serpent, can shoot lasers.

So all in all, the gameplay has a ton of variety and a huuuuuge amount of customization. I've clocked 160 hours and I'm not even done with all the quests.

[Conclusion]
Buy this game if you enjoy anything good. Monster Hunter Tri is my choice of GOTY already. With so much customization, interesting environments and monsters, and a large amount of quests, this game has plenty to offer.


Thank you for reading my first review, I hope it wasn't too terribly bad!

-EoTGolbez