Comes out next Tuesday on PSP. $30.
1UP review = A
There is a demo on PSN you can download, or Gamestop is supposedly giving away free UMDs of the demo.
The game is like a singleplayer hack and slash MMO. You get quests and missions to go out, find a big bad monster, and kill it. Along the way you can pick herbs to make potions, butcher monsters to gain meat and other items, craft things, etc. There is a lot to the game.
One interesting part is, unlike most RPGs, you don't "level up" and get stronger. Your goal is to get crafting materials from monsters that you can forge into better armors and weapons. Which helps you bring down bigger monsters and get better materials and start the cycle again.
The game is a huge hit in Japan, selling some ungodly number of copies. It hasnt caught on elsewhere for a couple reasons.
First, the controls. They work, and fans swear by them, but when you first start out man do they feel horrible. Movement is on the analog nub, but the camera controls are on the Dpad. And the camera is all 100% manual controlled. It doesn't turn for you, track monsters, or even stay behind the character. If a monster lunges past you, you're going to have to turn the thing around to see it. I think I recall a button that will auto center it behind you, but thats it. This is probably the main reason it hasn't caught on here. You have to contort your hand to use the nub and the dpad at the same time.
The second thing is the complete lack of online play. The game supports 4 player co-op, but only in ad-hoc mode. This for a game where some people say the only way to play is with others. You can use the Japanese PS3 ah-hoc party beta thing that will let you play over the internet, or use one of the PC tunneling programs so its possible, its just not an idea solution at all.
Anyway, I had downloaded the Japanese version of this game (MH Freedom 2G) and used an english translation patch on it. Don't look at me like that, this was before they had a demo. It was really interesting and fun. I think once I get used to the controls I would really enjoy it. It was one of those games where my initial reaction was "These controls are trash! I don't like this game" but I gave it some more time and despite my dislike for them, there was so much else that I liked that it makes me
want to get better at playing. I really do want to love the game. So I'll probably pick it up.
