Among the different ways to make video games at the very top end is iteration, and one of the masters has always been Capcom. The original Monster Hunter was released on PS2 in 2004 and since then it has become a phenomenally successful series in Japan, mostly on handheld platforms, with more modest sales globally. Each of the Monster Hunters adds to its predecessor with new locations, monsters and weapons, plus hundreds of more subtle changes, but the template remains familiar.
Put so baldly, iteration might seem at best formulaic and at worst exploitative – money for old rope. But interactivity flips the table. Making iterative games requires one non-negotiable quality. The core game has to be absolutely brilliant.
Monster Hunter has always ticked this box, but Generations shows the series at a crossroads. Video games is a highly-competitive field – a brilliant design in 2004 doesn’t necessarily stay that way in 2016. Generations is the most radical change to Monster Hunter’s core game Capcom has dared to make, a move towards a much more action-oriented and flexible system, but one that still exists within the classic frame. This makes Generations a fabulously complex proposition – but, as ever, Monster Hunter’s worst enemy is itself.
I’ll level with you. I love Monster Hunter games, and over years of recommending it to people some have tried and returned disappointed. “Not for me.” I suspect this is because Monster Hunter’s opening tutorials cover the very basics, but weapon-specific tutorials and move lists have to be sought-out by the player. Such a filing system is a necessary evil, because there’s so much to Monster Hunter’s various gear and systems that you couldn’t conceivably frontload it, but it does mean new players can be overwhelmed by detail or – even worse – misunderstand critical mechanics.
Generations exacerbates this by stripping back the single-player mode’s traditional town-building story in favour of serving up quest after quest across four villages, and the multiplayer hub. As a long-term player, this is unquestionably the right move, and the superb localisation gives this world its charm and characters regardless, but previous campaigns were at least able to ease new players into such a unique style of game. Generations feels sink-or-swim and so, despite the sheer quantity of great game in this tiny cartridge, its developers may come to (once again) regret undervaluing accessibility.
The game’s core loop is going out and hunting monsters, returning to town and making armour or weapons with your spoils, then using this gear to take on even-bigger monsters. Generations’ biggest addition is four new fighting styles and various bespoke Hunter Arts (think special moves) for each of the game’s fourteen weapons (one more offensive option, Prowler, remains unique). Each of these weapons is already a flexible and powerful tool, honed over multiple games, and so the 48 potential combinations have an incredible base. Each style works by emphasising something the weapon’s already good at – and then giving the player a choice of special moves to plug the gaps.
The lance, for example, has always been played by the true masters as an “evade” weapon – that is, dodging attacks using sidesteps and back-hops rather than blocking them with the weapon’s shield. In Generations, the Adept fighting style makes these evasive moves more powerful and useful if executed precisely. In doing so it re-engineers a play style that already existed into a more deep and fluid form, which thanks to the Hunter Arts is more dynamic and destructive than ever.
As for how the arts complement this, consider the beauty of the gunlance: a lance that can fire explosive shells, or burst them all out at once. Always a heavy-hitter, the Gunlance’s main drawback is mobility – it’s big and slow, so monsters easily move out of range. While the Aerial style addresses this directly, adding a forward jump that covers some ground, there’s now an art called Blast Dash that charges quickly and sends your hunter flying towards a distant creature lance-first, ready to unload the barrel.
In this way, the arts are game-changers. Monster Hunter’s weapons are all about respective strengths and weaknesses but, by allowing players to customise around a particular play style so effectively, Generations lets you either add failsafes or go all out. The Gunlance has had a more substantial rework with an overheating mechanic, which at times feels overly harsh, but this can be guarded against by picking an art that negates the penalty. Or if you’re comfortable managing the gauge, then that art can become an escape dive that sheathes your weapon, a healing boost, or simply the massive Dragon Blast.
Players may have many more and better options than ever before, but Monster Hunter is still a game about boss fights, and Generations has the greatest lineup ever. Partly this is a benefit of accumulation – over the series Capcom has designed so many monsters, each entry can now pick and choose from a huge selection. The initial hunts are relatively gentle, sending you after the raptor-like Gendrome and doughty Bulldrome, but soon enough toothy terrors like the sand-dwelling Nibelsnarf are introducing you to the KO cart (when HP reaches zero a hunter faints, and is brought back to base camp on a cat-powered stretcher).
Returning classics such as the dragon-like Rathalos are glorious to fight with Generations’ new tools, and many returning monsters have new variants – in this case the fearsome Dreadwing Rathalos. There are new monsters aplenty too, with the flagship monsters being a clutch of legendary wyverns that will shock and awe all but the most experienced hunters.
Again, the sheer range is impossible to convey – but the general rule here that makes the monsters work so well is a mix of predictability and randomness. Capcom’s monsters create an illusion of personality by having countless moves they can throw out, limited stamina, and getting angry and wounded as the fight wears on. These battles are so great because, while you gradually become more comfortable with each monster’s attacks and strategies, they always retain the capacity to surprise and overwhelm players – there are few things more terrifying than being bodied across the turf then chased by a late-game monster, relentless and determined to put you down.
Generations is made by an experienced team on familiar hardware, and it shows in each location’s spectacular pocket worlds. Monster Hunter’s maps are divided across a dozen or so zones, each of which is a self-contained part of scenery. One area in the dunes is a long ridge in the sand you can run either side of, or use to jump on to monsters. While here the wind sometimes picks up, whipping through the 3DS’s tinny speakers as a sand particle effect coats your screen. In other locales, lush hillocks sprout where the sun breaks through an overhanging canopy, and as you run towards them the orchestral soundtrack swells. We often marvel at technical achievements on high-end hardware, but Monster Hunter Generations really makes the 3DS sing. Creating a world in someone’s hands is no small feat, and there are times in Generations you can almost taste the air.
There are so many other tiny improvements – the changes to pre-hunt meals, the streamlining of busywork in general, the ability to substitute materials while building gear – and additions that they’re simply impossible to cover. The word that Capcom’s developers have used with regards to Generations is ‘celebration’ and, in the sense that this contains so much that is familiar alongside so much that is new, it’s hard to disagree.
It is difficult to imagine what more Generations could achieve, so comprehensively do its arts and styles revolutionise the combat system while leaving the foundations untouched. The sheer volume of quests and weapons and monsters also means that, quite apart from being a brilliant game, this has incalculable longevity. The life of a hunter isn’t for everyone. But if killing something massive, carving it up, and making a snazzy hat seems in any way appealing, then Monster Hunter Generations might be your game of the year. 

Source: www.theguardian.com