Monster Hunter Tri Demo Available

[Chuckpebble]

Hello, just got back from my local gameschtop and picked up a free Monster Hunter Tri demo while picking up a cheap copy of Madworld.

OK, its free if you don't count your time spent listening to the clerk's dutifully delivered pre-order spiel. I guess you could just pop in and grab one then leave. I'm in the states, don't know if there's anything like this demo in EU. Nice to see Capcom putting forth this effort, though. I'll post impressions of the demo in a bit if anyone's interested. I still don't think I'm very good at conveying such things though.

On a side note, the dude at the store actually tried to get me to buy a used copy of Madworld for a whopping savings of $1.80. I don't blame the guy for doing his job, I just thought the whole situation was rather amusing.

[buemba]

As long as the camera controls are better than the PSP versions I'm set. A new monster or two would be cool, sure, but the one thing that keeps me from sinking 200+ hours into a Monster Hunter game is the fact that trying to keep my camera focused on a Rajang while he jumps around and rapes me is more work than it's worth.

And for all the horror Gamestop stories I've heard I was rather disappointed when I didn't get badgered into preordering a game or subscribing to a magazine when I went to one a couple of years ago on a visit to the US.

Guess the employees on the Orlando stores don't bother with that since most of their customers are tourists.

[Kolzig]

I have a feeling that Europe won't see any kind of demo disc of Monster Hunter Tri.

[Chuckpebble]

As long as the camera controls are better than the PSP versions I'm set. A new monster or two would be cool, sure, but the one thing that keeps me from sinking 200+ hours into a Monster Hunter game is the fact that trying to keep my camera focused on a Rajang while he jumps around and rapes me is more work than it's worth.

Yeah, this. Its a TON of camera work during battles. That said, I got used to it after a while. There's a reason this game is being bundled with a classic controller, with the wiimote and nun-chuck you are forced to keep your right thumb over the d-pad. Its not comfortable and made me pine for a lock on button. I switched to my classic controller and faired much better. The CCPro will be sweet! My thumbs crashed into each other more than a few times.

The combat is a mixed bag for me so far. I can't figure out if I just suck or if certain types of fighters aren't meant for certain monsters. Some of the weapons take a century to swing and I ended up just getting mauled to death before getting a word in edgewise.

The sword and shield guy that is selected by default doesn't have this problem, but then his attacks were so weak, I ran out of time while trying to beat the snot out of my target. I did manage to take one monster down with the medium cross bow girl, but with that one, its real hard to tell if my shots are doing anything, except for the occasional time that the beast would stumble.

I'm still kind of lost as to the overall point of the game, I thought the demo would have some literature of what the game will be like, but nothing. There's just a foldout sheet with the widely varied and clunky character specific controls on them.

The demo is like Monster Hunter 2 Di, just two monsters to hunt down.

It looks great, but it just left so many questions, like what is the online aspect of all this? What do all of these items do? I could only read descriptions of the things that were in a box at camp before I added them to my loadout. I have no idea what the random bits I picked up off the ground and chopped off of fallen monsters were for.

Oh well, thats all stuff I'll look into. The stuff that I played seemed clunky, but I could see myself being interested if there's a lot of depth to be found in the actual game.

[buemba]

If you're not familiar with the series it's better to use either the sword and shield, spear or the longsword. In theory any weapon type can be used to kill any monster, but the slower ones require you to have the monster's patterns memorized so you'll know when it's safe to approach, charge the attack and strike. The greatsword and the hammer are incredibly powerful, but you'll only be hitting air if you rush ahead.

As for the point of the game, it's to acquire loot. If it's anything like the PSP games it won't even have a story other than the one page setup for each quest. It's one of those games that won't appeal to you if you groan at the idea of fighting a monster that takes about 20 minutes to take down 30 times to get the right drop so you can forge a new hat for your character.