Monster Hunter Generations Is Not Quite a Generational Leap
As a consequence of its success, Monster Hunter has a huge burden placed upon it. People come in expecting the series to justify its record sales in Japan and are generally disappointed by the obtuse, awkward, and often clumsy monster hunting game at its core that spawned an eponymous genre of imitators. Monster Hunter Generations, a greatest hits collection of previous games’ behemoths and areas, does nothing to buck this trend to appeal to players hoping for a more malleable Monster Hunter experience. For better or worse, it is still the same Monster Hunter it has always been, with a few more stylistic flourishes on top.
I have repeatedly plinked off the side of Monster Hunter over the years, being either unable or willing to penetrate its thick hide with my presumptions of conventional action game mechanics. It was not until 2015’s Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate that the eccentricities of the games finally clicked for me; the increased focus on mobility played no small part in translating its obtuseness into coherent gameplay. Monster Hunter Generations follows in the same path as its mainline predecessor by casting off the shackles of tradition and translating older monsters for a new generation of hunters.
All the virtues of Monster Hunter remain alive and well in Generations. Fans of the series can look forward to hopping on all their favorite beasts, as well as a few new ones, with new options for taking them down. No matter your weapon preference, Generations adds interesting twists and skills to layering upon even well-worn monster battles. Veterans who worry that they might be too burnt out for another ride or that too much has changed do not have to worry with Generations, as it charts a middle path between the two extremes to attempt to satisfy fans of the series.
This middle path is also where most of the game’s faults lie, however.
Just like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Monster Hunter Tri before it, Generations begins with an overly-long tutorial for new players. This tutorial is the same in every game preceding it: learn how to use a pickaxe, learn how to pick flowers, learn how to catch bugs, fight some smaller monsters. Coming hot off the high-level missions of the previous game into picking flowers and fighting with dull weapons feels sleep-inducing. A simple question asking me if I have played Monster Hunter prior to this one would be much better, as would simply letting the player skip missions as they see fit. It might compromise the difficulty ramp a bit, but I would take the compromised design over a singular, combined path for players of varying skill levels.
For new players, this set of tutorials does not help ease anyone into the series. The traditionally opaque but important mechanics are still arbitrarily left unexplained to anyone who isn’t willing to dig for them. Even when discovered, they are buried in pages of flavor text through inane and overly-wordy dialogue from characters whose personalities seem utterly forced. After hundreds of hours of various Monster Hunter games, I am not sure I could tell you a single character’s name, nor anything about said personalities. It is frustrating as a beginner to drown in one-sided conversations with every single quest-giver in the Monster Hunter universe and still have gleamed nothing of worth from them. Newcomers are still mostly left to their own devices to figure the game out and that really should no longer be the case.