I was sent to a quest named “A Red Shadow descend on the snow mountains” in Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (MHP 2ndG) last night, which basically means “Kill a red colored monster”. This is actually a monster (Furu Furu) that I’ve killed a dozen times before, so I just went in lightly armed with limited health items, thinking that it would be another easy ride in the mountains.

What turned up was a heavily powered up version of those I killed before and 48 minutes went by without any sign of it dying any soon. With only seconds left, no health items and on my last life, I have no choice but make a desperate last ditch attempt to capture it (some quests give you options to either kill or capture). Even so, and as many quests before have proven to me, it’s unlikely that I will succeed, simply because the monster is probably not weak enough to be captured.

So I thrown the capture bombs with my mind set on redoing this bleak quest again, the monster actually slowly falling down and the victory music kicks in. This… is the moment of Monster Hunter games, that satisfaction of capturing a monster that is several times stronger and larger than you and then running around its dead/unconscious body is hard to describe, and good enough to make me looking forward to my next “victim”.

Mainichi Daily News has two articles examining the success of MHP 2ndG, which has so far sold more than 1.5 million copies in Japan. Describing the title as an action game that lets players carry oversize weapons, fight monsters several times stronger in order to calve their skins for armors and allow them to kill even stronger monsters. On the other hand, communication play allows players to enjoy the fun of hunting together with their friends.

Although the series has a few PS2 games before, Mainichi said that the series’ big break happens when Monster Hunter Portable (MHP) landed on the PSP in 2005. That first game, which went on to sell 1 million copies, stunned players with its graphics that many thought the PSP isn’t capable of achieving. It’s sequel, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (MHP 2nd), did even better to sell more than 1.76 million copies and continues to sell well for a year when normal games only last for around two weeks.

So what’s so addictive about Monster Hunter on the PSP? Mainichi says the high playability is the biggest charm of the game. All monsters has attack and strength like final bosses of any game. Players have to study the monsters’ attacking patterns and it gives them feeling of huge satisfaction once they succeeded. It also helps that the movements of the monsters are believable and the game is complete with maps like desert and jungle that look real with effects like sun glare. It makes players feel like they are fighting monsters for real.

Game producer Ryozo Tsujimoto has one more reason for his game’s success, it’s the “chain reaction” that the game creates when others saw the game being played in public places or events. With this reason in mind, “Monster Hunter Festa” was launched after MHP 2nd in Japan. The event becomes the place for senior players to show off their skills and a chance for players to interact with the developers. By turning the game’s “Guild Hall”, the lobby where players gather for communication play, into a real one, players can enjoys the fun of multiplayer and will eventually spread the love to their friends.

So what makes MHP 2ndG, the “deluxe” version of MHP 2nd as Mainichi put it, such a big hit? Apparently it’s Otomo Ailu, which according to Tsujimoto, will makes offline single players as fun as the multiplayer one. Otomo Ailu is the AI cat partners that players can now bring along to their quests and can be trained to have some unique skills. Other additions to MHP 2ndG are G-Rank quests, new attacking styles from existing monsters, new monsters and to the delight of those who played MHP, Capcom also bring back some of the maps used in the game.

Mainichi concludes that it is the fun of multiplayer and hunting action that makes the series so popular and achieve its big break in the Japanese market. I bought the game solely due to its graphics but unlike many other such games, I actually poured in hundreds of hours in it, buy all its sequel and will continues to do so. I didn’t get into the multiplayer aspect the game until MHP 2nd, so it’s just proven that even if you don’t have many friends who happens to own a PSP and the game, Monster Hunter is still a great game. With the introduction of Otomo Ailu, Capcom just have that covered for you as well.

Below are Enterbrain’s data of how the series has been doing so far:

• Monster Hunter (PS2, 2004) 280,000
• Monster Hunter G (PS2, 2005) 230,000
• Monster Hunter Portable (PSP, 2005) 1.07 million
• Monster Hunter 2 (PS2, 2006) 640,000
• Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP, 2007) 1.75 million
• Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP, 2008)

Source: The reasons for Monster Hunter big break (Mainichi). Part 1 and Part 2.

Image courtesy of ITmedia and Famitsu.

Posted in PSP on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm | Comments Feed | Leave a response | Trackback