Let’s make this perfectly clear: Like Kinect, sauerkraut, and inverted controls, this special holiday episode of 8-4 Play is not for everyone. How can you know? Take our simple quiz: 1. Do you enjoy Monster Hunter? 2. Are you curious about Monster Hunter? 3. Would you like to hear almost two hours of talk about one of Japan’s biggest gaming franchises in the last decade? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, enjoy. If not, please listen to an older episode again and let’s just forget this ever happened.
Running time: 1:48:58
・ Direct Download (74.9 MB)
・ Subscribe to 8-4 Play via iTunes
・ Subscribe to 8-4 Play via RSS Feed
・ Follow 8-4 Play on Twitter (twitter.com/84play)
Time – Topic Discussed:
7:18 – Monster Hunter 101
18:50 – Monster Hunter Fever in Japan
34:46 – Online Play with Monster Hunter
41:18 – History of Monster Hunter
48:38 – The “Claw” Technique
51:14 – Monster Hunter Portable 3rd
1:06:34 – Listener Feedback
1:44:43 – Closing Comments!
RANDOM QUESTION TIME:
The creature you see above is Urukususu, one of the new monsters in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. JJ thinks he looks like a koala; John thinks he looks like a rabbit. What do YOU, our beautiful, attentive, zoologically-proficient listeners think? Let us know down below in the comments!
And while you’re still with us, here’s a list of music used in our previous episode:
11/26/2010: MERRY THANKSGIVING GET!
Intro: Pac-Man: The Animated Series – Main theme
Break: Final Fantasy IV – Battle 2
Ending: Queen – Te wo Toriatte (Let us Cling Together)
As always, you can leave comments for us at the “Leave a Comment” link below or via Twitter at @84play. And if you’re new to the show, you can subscribe to 8-4 Play on iTunes right here. Subscribe today!
Thanks for listening!
That, sirs and lady, is your run of the mill Sloth-rabbit.
It looks more like a floppy-eared dog like a shitzu or something to me. But given the choices, I vote koala.
This looks like a bear bat, are a quick sloth. I can kind of see rabbit with the buck teeth.
I had to find some more images to make a final judgment, but after a lengthy deliberation… I have concluded that Urukususu looks more like a rabbit than a koala. I am now simultaneously high-fiving John and apologizing to JJ.
I also believe that — with some obvious gameplay changes — the iPhone/iPad could be a great platform for making Monster Hunter a hit in the States. Probably doesn’t make much sense, but playing Infinity Blade immediately made me think that some form of Monster Hunter would be great on the iPhone.
The ears are definitely rabbit, but the nose screams koala. It’s a both. Btw, great podcast. It makes me want to play Monster Hunter like crazy.
It looks kinda of like a bottom heavy rabbit sloth mix. Although the face is sort of koalaesque.
It’s closer to a rabbit, sorry Sporsk.
I gave Tri my best effort, enjoyed it for a while, took down Lagia… Lagga… the electric dinosaur, and honestly, by the end, the whole thing just ground my patience to a thin paste.
More than anything else, it was being locked into those slow-ass animations. Lost count of how many times I got steamrolled because I was a complete sitting duck while the “drink a potion” animation s–l–o–w–l–y played out.
Maybe this is heretical to say, but it just made me want to go back to Phantasy Star Zero, which, despite it’s numerous drawbacks, remedied most of my grievences with Monster Hunter, namely in that the dodge roll move was far less fussy, animations are quicker, and you have at least some numerical feedback to let you know whether or not you’re beating your head against a brick wall.
and I vote rabbit, but I do see a little koala resemblance in there.
Mark mentioned that he’d like to see his review of the first Monster Hunter game. I just found it in the December 2004 issue of EGM, issue #185. Here it is.
“In many ways, Capcom’s new role-player is like Phantasy Star Online finally came to the PS2: One to four heroes set out on different missions, traversing the same few dungeons but with different goals each time (everything from killing dragons to cooking meat). You’ll notice the graphics immediately; the animation and characters look fantastic, and the outdoor environments are lush and convincing. But the best part of Hunter is the number of items you can gather from the land – fish for food or profit, berries and mushrooms to mix into medicine; you can even mine ore and scavenge dead monster parts to fashion into armor or weapons.
Unfortunately, Hunter shoots itself in the foot elsewhere. Single-player mode might as well not exist, as tedious and difficult as the missions are playing solo. Online, no one can leave or join games in progress, and the lack of voice chat makes communication a chore. Finally, you eventually adjust to the bizarre combat control scheme, but only those with the time and inclination to appreciate Hunter’s addictive item collecting will play long enough to find out.”
8.0 out of 10.
(Bryan and Mielke both gave it an 8 as well.)
The head looks like a bat. The body is like a polar bear.
Koala, definitely.
After listening to this episode I got this itch again, so I popped in MoHun Tri. Let me just say, it’s so NOT like getting on a bicycle and just riding again after you haven’t been riding for a good while. I needed to re-aquant myself with the control scheme, but afterwards I was good to go.
I also remembered why I stopped playing. I got stuck on the first capture quest(i.e. either kept killing the Great Jaggi or running out of traps and tranquilizer bombs which never seem to work).
If you guys have any tips on how to effectively capture, please do share. I really like the game and it’s stellar localization but that quest just frustrates me to no end. Also I live in Europe, and when I first got the game, the online community wasn’t really there so that’s not really an option (unless it bosomed and I’m none the wiser. Might have to check that out later today).
Well Mark and crew I brought Freedom Unite today then before its even arrived Tri on eBay (May have got carried away!) so I hope its as good as you make it sounds :-)
Combat sounds like Demon Souls to me, am I wrong? I love Demon Souls!!
That’s awesome – hope you like it! I haven’t played much Demon’s Souls myself but I know in Japan a lot of people liken the addictiveness of DS to that of MH so I have to imagine there must be at least some similarities there.
I just wanted to pop back in and say, GAF turned me on to this podcast. This was my second episode and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kinda sad about the prospects of this game in the west.
Been poking around the site a bit and had an ‘OH CRAP!’ moment. you guys did the translation on Tri. Excellent work! I love all of the little jokes strewn about there. So, whose ass do I have to kick over the whole PierceUp/PiercePlus debacle? Seriously, gemming my gunner armor is more confusing than Chem 2.
Great podcast. As a huge Monster Hunter fan who is wishing for an NA release date for MHP3, it sounds as if the game is really well done and makes the wait harder for (hopefully!) a release date announcement.
Great job! Subbed on iTunes!
From the moment I heard the Monster Hunter theme, I knew this would be the most amazing podcast ever recorded by anyone, ever.
it looks like a mean koala
I tried playing Monster Hunter 2 in Japanese, but it was way too much reading. After listening to you guys I really want to play 3rd!! I’m sad this is only a biweekly podcast, only cause I have to wait so long lol.今度のポッドキャストもっと速く聞きたいよ。ｗｗ What do you guys think of the recent news about 秋葉原 opening up pedestrian walkway again after two years? On that note I was in Japan when that happened, my girlfriend forbade me to go to Akihabara lol. Looking forward to the next show, and keep up the good work.
I think implementing stuff as simple as more structured less mundane missions would make Monster Hunter a hit in the states. I keep giving the game a try but I refuse to collect BS for 10 hours to make a weapon or piece of armor so that I can do what the game was designed to do, Hunt Monsters. This game Demos very well. The demo gives you a full set of armor and your choice of weapon and you go out and kill bosses. Its fun as hell. It should have an “Arcade Mode” like racing games or just a more structured more accessible games style than a super hardcore loot grind.
Loved the podcast. Just finished listening to it last night (yeah I’m a bit late) and it makes me want to go home right now and play Monster Hunter Tri. Guys, you were right, it *does* have the best localisation! :D
Oh and the Urukususu looks like a koala with rabbit ears.
I’ve never played any of the monster hunter games, though I believe they are My kind of games.
Infact I have TRI ordered and was glad to hear that it was your prefered starting game.
I was sad on the other hand to hear that WiiSpeak is crapp because I ordered the WiiSpeak-controller-TRI bundle.
I’m real new to your podcast, just two or three episodes, but I must say that I enjoy it alot. The japanese perpective sure is refreshing after 10 different western podcasts every week.
Thanks guys.
The monster… To me it looks more like a koala than a bunny.
Thanks for the show! I listened to it at work and ended up with Tri on the way home. Wasn’t this rabbit thing a pokemon?
Ah thanks to this episode, I want to pop in my copy of Tri and give it another go!
I think that looks like a Koala and by the given picture Ican’t see who would think that is a rabit… but anyways the podcast was awesome and it encouraged me to play Monster Hunter again on the PSP, fun fact here where I Live, Sao Paulo, Brazil, every sunday a group of people gether in a mall nearby my house to play that and I’m joinig that group once again ^_^
The monster looks like a koala with long ears. Points for JJ.
Great show, keep it up.
Hey guys! GREAT podcast- I have been interested in Monster Hunter for awhile, but never took the plunge. I gotta ask though – no one over there at 8-4 Play must’ve played Borderlands then, huh? That discussion towards the end of the podcast about how to turn Monster Hunter into an international sensation was interesting, but seriously, you guys just seemed to be describing Borderlands to me:) Instant gratification? Check. Guns? Check. 4-player co-op with roles to fill? Check. Loot? Only about a million randomly generated guns! Borderlands is amazing, and accomplished on everything Lost Planet 2 failed to do. I’d love to know what your guys’ thoughts on it were, although I’m not sure whether or not it even came out in Japan:(
Oh, and that’s TOTALLY a Koala:)
Great, informative podcast guys! I’m still not convinced of this franchise – you guys nailed it on the head with your Rock Band comparison. I really hate it when Japan makes a cool concept, but executes on it with all these little annoyances on purpose to make it “more hardcore”, but then a western game makes it more accessible and more stylish and improves on it, and Japan just looks behind the times. I feel like Monster Hunter could end up that way; I really wanna see them address some genuine complaints. Either in a proper MH or a Lost Planet 3. But even though I’m still not sure I will buy Tri (I DID put it in my Gamefly Q though, so I’ll rent it), this was a fun podcast.
Happy Holidays!
I’ve never played Monster Hunter and found this podcast to be very interesting. I’ll buy it when it comes to PS3.
I loved this podcast, I listened to the entire 1 hour 48 minutes and 52 seconds, and I loved every second of it. It was very informative to a western fan of the games who had no idea how hugely popular it was in Japan. Ah, wouldn’t monster hunter work breaks be nice.
Also, some info, there are some monster parts that can only be gotten through body carves on a kill. The one that I know of off the top of my head it the Unnerving Talon+, from Gigginox, no cap or break reward will give you this item.
Keep up the Awesomeness.
Excellent podcast! I got into Monster Hunter about a year ago with Freedom Unite, and since have logged roughly 1000 hours into various incarnations of the franchise. As a fan, it’s often very disappointing to read/listen to various gaming outlets touch only briefly on these wonderful, wonderful games before moving on to whatever else is topical. So a whole podcast was much appreciated, and is the reason I’m now subscribed to 8-4 on iTunes.
So keep up the excellent work on the whole! Every podcast I’ve listened to so far has been pretty enjoyable, so here’s hoping for continued excellence.
As an aside, I do have a single bone to pick with 8-4. Many times someone has mentioned the localization of Monster Hunter Tri, which yes, is excellent and definitely the best of the series. But did you guys have any say in the localized names of the monsters themselves? Because if so…just…why BaRRoth and BaRIoth? One letter difference? Really? That’s almost as bad as Lavasioth over Volganos…
There is one thing and one thing alone we had nothing to do with in MH Tri: monster names! They were already decided at the point we began work on the project.
I know its late but just got to fight Urukususu, while it look like a koala in picture, it look like a rabbit when you fight it!( particularly when you see him walking from the back lol, only miss the bunny tail)
See, this is exactly the opposite of what I thought when I finally got to fight him tonight.
I know his drops have the kanji for rabbit in them, but he looks more like a Koala than I ever imagined. And, he basically shares the same moves as Aoshira, so why would he be a rabbit, rather than a bear?