Throughout this pandemic escapism has been a place of refuge for many and I know I’ve chased my share of dragons. Figuring out where people could go was a huge struggle for many I assume, but not so much for gamers which is evident with the massive amount of consumerism the industry saw throughout the year. Now after being burned time and time again by large triple A titles I shied away from diving into them. However, there was one title that was always on my mind and the whole reason I had even built a new PC several months before the pandemic hit, Monster Hunter World.
I loved playing Monster Hunter Generations XX on the DS and found the game loop to be insanely fun. World being a vast expansion of the previous game loop was something I deeply wanted to explore. So while the world was in chaos I ironically decided to plunge into another world of chaos. A world full of giant monsters, unstable environments, good spirited people, and cute cats.
This game without a doubt is something I’ve never experienced before. Merely booting up the game and hearing the symphonic intro music from the outset to the exploration of the first map draws you in and does a lot to make you feel like you’re in a vast untamed world. Now since I had nowhere to go in the real world I delved further into the dense jungles, muddy waters, crystal caverns, lava pits, and tundras of this new world. There I would kill a lot of its wildlife, and I mean a lot! Don’t get me wrong I definitely preserved the environment so that the world can continue living, but thank god those monsters spawn when I accept quests because they would have gone extinct with the kind of market hunter approach I took to killing those things. I often would just help other hunters or go after monsters because I was bored and wanted to test my new skills. Hunter’s high is a real thing! Thankfully, I had also waited several years to finally get into the game. This didn’t hinder my experience at all like I originally thought it would. For instance, I never struggled to find hunters to play with or party up with IRL friends for a really coordinated experience. If anything, letting the game sit on the shelf while Capcom did it’s thing let it age like wine. I also luckily purchased the game for a fraction of the price and was able to get the Icebourne expansion to boot. So the road for my hunter was long and wonderful with plenty of content.
Hunting was definitely elongated to be closer to the concept of actual hunting. There’s a ton of research that goes into understanding your prey. You can watch them in the wild, learn their patterns for tracking, nesting grounds, food sources, hell even learning the local fauna in the areas they enjoy travelling is useful and that’s not including the actual fight patterns. The game will really test you and make you study to improve. That isn’t a bad thing though it’s actually one of the game's most charming traits. I’ll never forget one night when I was hunting an Anjananth, which is really a giant fire breathing red T-REX for those who don’t know. It was late at night for me and the game’s quest designated a rain forest map at night. A storm on the map had rolled in and I had already engaged my prey, but it’d fled after our first encounter and I’d lost it’s trail. So I got frustrated, climbed a tree vine into a canopy to get out of the rain, and just sat there with my Palico pondering. We looked through the map to find it, but I hadn’t researched it enough for the indicator to be revealed. So we continued to just sit there to see the lightning and rain coming down. It was at this point that I realized I was on a real adventure. Every hike I’ve ever been on has had this point of downtime where you have to rest while reality comes flooding in for you to take in the moment. I just couldn’t believe it was happening to me in a video game. That moment of awe actually shook me and I kicked myself out of immersion because I’d entered disbelief. Still, I appreciated the moment so much that I had to jump back in. So I did and continued the hunt for the Anjananth and found him atop a tree grove. The grove is made up of 5 pillar trees with a small ring made of vines in the center. It’s a cleverly disguised arena by the devs. There we’d have our final encounter. The action was intense and the storm roared throughout every bit of it. After several minutes of slashing, diving, fire breath, and stomping I would eventually best the dinosaur with my swashbuckling Sword and Shield attacks. Moments like this became higher in frequency the stronger the monsters got well into Icebourne. It felt like I was truly running into places that time had forgotten and I was surviving like a wildling. I think I spent more time out in the nature of this world than in the towns themselves. By the time I reached the end game I hadn’t done most of the town quest or played any of the mini-games because the environment was just so damn interesting to be in. Other hunters had to direct me to the weird little side quests within the towns to get better quality of life upgrades. The game goes on like this honestly all the way up to the final environment which is the most chaotic of all and within these lost lands you can truly just exist as a pure wilding wrangling all sorts of creatures to be rewarded with cosmetics. It’s almost as if there’s a rogue-lite experience waiting for you at the very end of all the campaigns to just tie off the experience to be ever replayable. It’s one of the greatest loops of action, grind, skill, and exploration I’ve ever experienced.
Then there’s the black dragon. The dragon for me was a personal quest. I remember reading Joseph Campbell’s work on the hero’s tale and how at some point we all have to slay a metaphorical dragon in order to move on to our full potential. Well Fatalis became that in many ways for me. I wanted something to focus all my fear of this stupid virus on. A goal that could keep me together through the chaos of the real world. So I chose it. Initially, I walked straight into the quest and was obliterated in a matter of minutes. I went in again and once again had the same results. Later I would try again, but with more survival tools to get a feel for it’s patterns. Getting a “feel” on that dragon was just sheer trauma, I never lived longer than a few minutes and spent a massive amount of resources just to figure out some vulnerability and habits. After hours of attempts I decided to consult the oracles of the internet. I saw some vids and learned about the different phases the dragon has. I never watched any vid in its entirety though since I didn’t want to spoil anything. Then I picked up on some builds and what weapons worked best on the dragon. This is where I hit a hard stop. I had never learned a new weapon all I knew was Sword and Shield, but the Switch Axe was suggested to be used. Switching was probably the best decision I could have made. I actually grew to love the weapon and this was all right as I hit the final boss of the game. I went back and replayed a ton of content to learn the new weapon and even had to create an entirely new gear set to be effective. A lot of this gear would come from the dragon Alatreon. Now my original plan was to just walk right past Alatreon straight to Fatalis, punch the black dragon's clock and call it quits, but that would have been an absolute tragedy. Alatreon is an extremely precise battle, but one of the most intense spectacles you can behold. It’s also a much flashier fight than the Fatalis although the Fatalis is much more difficult because it’s honestly just fat and the smallest of movements can bury you. So with Alatreon using the right elements to wither it make sure that you don’t just instantly die to it’s Judgement attack and it’s an entirely new gauntlet I didn’t even know existed while I was already trying to learn the Fatalis run. I analyzed a lot of it’s patterns, studied more on the net, and eventually enlisted some friends who didn’t know much about the fight to join in as well. Unbeknownst to me I’d actually found a raid boss. It took dozens of runs but we eventually downed it enough to be able to craft great gear that could really help us survive against the Fatalis. Then after several tries with another partner hunter we were finally able to down the Fatalis. It was a flood of emotions. Anger was ever present throughout the entirety of this journey. None of this was easy and I raged more times than I can count, especially against the damn monkey. I hate the monkey. Still, I got the rarest drop on my first kill and was flooded with accomplishment that I had downed the black dragon and the right way. There wasn’t a short cut, there wasn’t a secret technique, all the secret sauce I tried ended up making me work even harder. Instead I reveled because the accomplishment in an indirect way signified to me that I can accomplish the things I set my mind to.
So if you’re wondering whether or not you should jump into the world that is Monster Hunter World all I can say is yes. One hundred percent yes, it might not give you what I got since I set my own mental parameters for the experience, but for anybody looking for a casual experience with a decent difficulty range there’s a fun story to be told. For people looking for a true challenge, well there’s plenty of that too. There’s even plenty of crafting and fashion to be collected. Fashion Hunter is honestly the true end game if you ask me anyways. Even now in 2021 there are plenty of people currently playing and it’s so much fun that I can’t recommend this game enough.So please hop onto a monster and slam it into a wall as soon as you can and see if you can one day slay your black dragon as well. I only hope it means as much for you as it did for me.