Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS) too easy?

[Jeremy Christian]

I picked up the MH3U on the 3DS a few weeks ago, and I gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with the way they've reduced the game's difficulty. The last MH title I played was Freedom Unite (logged hundreds of hours on that thing) and everything seems so tame now...

I totally get why the dev team would want to reduce the difficulty for the earlier levels, especially for a release on a more child oriented platform. Monster Hunter has always been a hard game for new players to access, and I think it's only natural to want to drop the difficulty and hopefully bolster their fan base as a result.

But for me part of the reason I love the franchise was because of the difficulty, and I think the games lost something now that the challenge's been reduced.

Every new monster was an impossible hurdle that could only be overcome after studying its patterns, foraging for the right gear and gathering the perfect materials together in preparation for a furious, tense battle full of cold sweat and desperate fighting.

And when you finally killed that thing the elation would last for hours! One friend of mine rang me up at 3AM just to tell me he'd killed his first Khezu. In no other game have I ever seen someone happy to complete a level than in MH.

But now I'm breezing through the solo quests with just a few potions still wearing the leather armour I had at the start of the game, and the hunters guild quests are just the same but with bigger health pools

So I guess my question is does the game get harder? And players plying on different platforms, have you found the same problem?

 

[Fappy]

I'm struggling to stay interested in this game to be honest. Of all my 3DS games I have played this one the least... by far! The controls just seem awkward and the game's just kinda boring. I haven't completely lost hope in it yet, however.

 

[suntt123]

What rank are you right now?
The most difficult quests are the ones you unlock at rank 60's and higher.
I just hit HR 70 and unlocked Abyssal Lagiacrus for example. And looking through a list of quests that are unlocked later I can say for certain that I'm probably NOT gonna even try some of them.


Also, have you tried fighting some of the DLC monsters? The Brachydios and Ivory Lagiacrus ones are insanely hard, capable of killing me in one shot if I take a direct hit even in fully upgraded armor(though I use gunner armor a lot).

Plus, they just released G rank Alatreon and Savage Jho DLC quests.

 

[Jeremy Christian]

I can imagine the later quests getting up to their usual difficulty, but it would have been nice to have say a 'true hunter' option available for legacy players who've been through the motions already.

 

[Spacewolf]

I think they've reduced the intro monsters difficulty I remember getting my ass handed to me for about a week straight by the first YKK I met in MH1 and I remember seeing that it had also been voted the hardest monster in some sort of poll.

Meanwhile on MHP3rdHD the first Wyvern you fight is pretty easy and just about the only hard thing about it is that it calls in back up.

 

[Jeremy Christian]

I remember that first Wyvern. Anyway it's not really the mechanics thats made the game feel easier for me. I like how they've tightened up the hitboxes and smoothed out some of the janky controls, but monsters at the moment just don't do all that much damage.

I recall going out to fight a Rathian in leather armour was just suicide, one tail swipe and thats over half your health gone. But when I was fighting it on Ultimate I figured 'why bother rolling when I can get a few more swings in and just take the hit...'. The players health pool is essentially large enough not to warrant evading the monsters attacks all that much, and so fights aren't as desperate.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I remember that first Wyvern. Anyway it's not really the mechanics thats made the game feel easier for me. I like how they've tightened up the hitboxes and smoothed out some of the janky controls, but monsters at the moment just don't do all that much damage.

I recall going out to fight a Rathian in leather armour was just suicide, one tail swipe and thats over half your health gone. But when I was fighting it on Ultimate I figured 'why bother rolling when I can get a few more swings in and just take the hit...'. The players health pool is essentially large enough not to warrant evading the monsters attacks all that much, and so fights aren't as desperate.

In MH3U, your character has an innate 50 defense. They made it this way so that people new to the series can more easily tackle the early monsters without getting too discouraged by the difficulty. You can't change it, either. Monsters definitely deal more damage later on, you just have to get there.

But if MH3U seems easier than most MH titles, that's probably because it was designed so. From what I've gathered, MH3U is probably the most accessible MH title to date.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

What rank are you right now?
The most difficult quests are the ones you unlock at rank 60's and higher.
I just hit HR 70 and unlocked Abyssal Lagiacrus for example. And looking through a list of quests that are unlocked later I can say for certain that I'm probably NOT gonna even try some of them.


Also, have you tried fighting some of the DLC monsters? The Brachydios and Ivory Lagiacrus ones are insanely hard, capable of killing me in one shot if I take a direct hit even in fully upgraded armor(though I use gunner armor a lot).

Plus, they just released G rank Alatreon and Savage Jho DLC quests.

There's DLC Missions? Are they still free to download like in Freedom Unite?

 

[Exius Xavarus]

What rank are you right now?
The most difficult quests are the ones you unlock at rank 60's and higher.
I just hit HR 70 and unlocked Abyssal Lagiacrus for example. And looking through a list of quests that are unlocked later I can say for certain that I'm probably NOT gonna even try some of them.


Also, have you tried fighting some of the DLC monsters? The Brachydios and Ivory Lagiacrus ones are insanely hard, capable of killing me in one shot if I take a direct hit even in fully upgraded armor(though I use gunner armor a lot).

Plus, they just released G rank Alatreon and Savage Jho DLC quests.

There's DLC Missions? Are they still free to download like in Freedom Unite?

All MH3U dlc is free. All of it. :3

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Quack

Phew, almost shat myself there!
I'm still hinging on whether or not to get this game (and by extension, a 3DS) by the end of the year since I love Freedom Unite so much and having only just beat the Ukanlos a couple of weeks ago. Having paid DLC missions may have soured my opinion somewhat.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Quack

Phew, almost shat myself there!
I'm still hinging on whether or not to get this game (and by extension, a 3DS) by the end of the year since I love Freedom Unite so much and having only just beat the Ukanlos a couple of weeks ago. Having paid DLC missions may have soured my opinion somewhat.

I put in about 130 hours when I got it. I haven't played it for a while because I've been occupied with Tales of Xillia, Shin Megami Tensei IV and Dragon Age: Origins(just finished Origins, I'm forgoing Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt to import to Dragon Age 2 as soon as I finish Awakening).

It has much more than just missions, though. Some guild card options, even 5k resource points right out the gate. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'll probably play it again after a while.