Okay, it was four days since I bought the game but unfortunately works caught up with me and I am really only starting the game now.

The first big decision to be made before starting the game is whether or not I should continue with my Monster Hunter Portable (MHP) game save. Doing so will give me a slight head start, but I am not exactly sure how it will be as I chose not to use it since I am far from over in that game (Yeah! I’m that slow, despite having already invested 200+ hours in it) and I don’t feel good about starting with a little help, it feel like cheating…

One of the thing to look forward to in the sequel is the CG animated intro, as it was part of the reasons I got MHP. However, if you’re looking for a lavish looking and overly long intro here, you’ll be dissappointed as it is a lot shorter now as cut scenes with in-game assets took over. And another new addition is that there is a background story to why you ended up in a village surrounded by snowy mountains.

After the character creation process, which sees a bit more options now but still very limited, I am in my house. It is just my bed and the item box now, but the addition of a window with the snowy mountains in the background really make the house in MHP looks haunted. And if you stay there long enough, a bird will stop by for a while.

The Pokke Village, as it is called in the game, is much more interesting than in MHP as well. While it was a matter of choosing which direction to go in MHP, the Pokke Village will need you walking up and down, this and other minor tweaks just made the settings look so much better.

As per instructed by the little cat outside my house, I went to see the village mayor who spots a weird voice and she ask me to head to the training school first in order to train me to become a good hunter. And without checking the rest of the villagers, I go in there and my long and dangerous journey to become the highest rank hunter in the village begins.

The game provides plenty of tips, it’s a pity that I can’t read Japanese, there must some life-saver tips in there. Anyway, all those stupid looking tutorials are now in the training school (it was part of the quests in MHP) and there are seven beginner trainings and eleven hunting trainings to get done.

The area of focus for these trainings is the snow mountains, the beginner training tasks involves fishing, getting meat, cooking, transporting egg (probably the most hated task in the series) and combining items. The scenery in this particular area and the interface enhancements that Capcom has made are nothing but impressive so far. The environment is great looking as ever, and it’s huge plus it certainly looks better than MHP in terms of graphics. The interface is more refreshing now as well, there are little tweaks here and there, the “Quest Clear” screen with it’s screaming red graphics will make anyone feel proud of what they have done and yes, moving eggs is certainly a great achievement.

Posted in Blog, PSP on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 1:15 am |
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