Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Reviews | 12 Comments

“Of course, I thanked my friend. Manners are the finest dessert, as we in Yukuko say.”

System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: February 13th, 2015
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Author: Austin

Monster Hunter, from outside the cult of its supporters, looks awfully intimidating doesn’t it? Just the phrases that come to mind when people bring it up– “gear grind”, “brutally difficult”, “extremely inaccessible”, “clunky”, “time sink”– don’t exactly do the series any favors in the eyes of newcomers, so it hardly comes as a revelation that the appeal of its extremely nuanced and strategic real-time combat system has remained limited outside of Japan. Something about that country seems to give them a higher tolerance for this sort of thing.

Nevertheless, Capcom seems to be enchanted with the idea of Monster Hunter’s ubiquity in the west, and so we’ve arrived on the doorstep of Monster Hunter 4’s release on 3DS.

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Perhaps the most important thing to understand about Monster Hunter 4 up front is that it exists unapologetically; it’s easy to feel some sort of fundamental inspiration driving all of this game’s decisions. From the clunky (though, the word “nuanced” truly does fit it more appropriately) controls in combat to the feline-laced aesthetic, this game knows what it wants to be and it does not sully itself with watered-down mechanics or simplify itself for the sake of more instant appeal. It’s not for everyone, and it doesn’t try to be.

That being said: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is easily as approachable as this idea has ever been.

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More: 3DS, highlight, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, review

Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 6 Comments

Podcast Crew: Austin (Twitter), Jack (Twitter), Laura (Twitter)

Welcome to episode 106 I mean episode 108. How are you? I’m okay. I hope you’re okay too. Here’s an overview of what we’ll be talking about on this episode:

Segment 1, Intro: Our game of the week is the Tose-developed NES Play Action Football. We learn about Tose’s development philosophy, why this game came with a little slip of cardboard, and how it’s connected to Shrek: Hassle at the Castle for GBA.

Segment 2, What We Played: Two big games in what we played this week. Firstly, Austin has his review copy of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and he has some really interesting observations about how the game actually teaches you this time around, in addition to general impressions. Laura this week has been playing something of an oddity: Mario Golf: World Tour, the 3DS golf game from last year that nobody would’ve predicted Laura would love. But she does!

Segment 3, Book Club: This week’s A Link to the Past exposé has us getting into discussing the start contrast between the second and third temples of the game, how we all learned to pick up large boulders, and why getting the master sword in this one is actually somewhat different from more recent Zeldas.

Segment 4, Listener Mail: Just a bit of mail this week (we didn’t have much time after the book club), but we tackle a couple of key topics: Where is Nintendo going after Miyamoto and company pass on from the company (or life, I guess)? What are some of your favorite local multiplayer games? Find out.

Download this episode (click this link)

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More: highlight, Mario Golf: World Tour, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, podcast

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments

More: Capcom, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate can be ordered once again over on Amazon. The package contains a copy of the game, Limited Edition Supply Box Case, exclusive 3.5 inch transparent Gore Magala figure, a 6.5 x 11.5 inch screen cleaning cloth, and a Monster Hunter lanyard. The game launches this Friday.

More: Capcom, collector's edition, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 3 Comments

More: Capcom, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments

Capcom published another blog last night detailing even more of the changes made in the western version of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The company talked about things like the font, UI, and a few other elements.

Below are a few excerpts:

Moving on, the UI in the Japanese version of the game is well-designed, but during the localization we found some places where our translations simply couldn’t fit without abbreviating them down to single letters. Thankfully the Monster Hunter dev team was open to modifying the UI for us whenever it was required. An example of this is in your status screen that displays your health, defense, resistance, etc. Most of the time our translations were easy enough to implement, but the weapon’s element is represented by a single kanji character in Japanese, so that meant we only had 1 or 2 letters worth of space to deal with. In a game like Monster Hunter that has close to a dozen elements, this is really tough to deal with, so we used the elemental blight icons instead of text. It may not seem like a big change, but for new players their time is better spent hunting monsters rather than hunting down what the heck “FI” or “TH” means.

Another small but important UI change is in the lobby search menu. When you search for lobbies in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, you’re shown a lot of information on just one line. If a player is ready to depart it’ll show the quest name or quest type, and if they’re in the middle of a quest it’ll show the quest name plus time elapsed. Obviously this really makes things hard for the localization team because our quest names are generally twice as long as the Japanese, so we had to come up with a way to get all of the info across to the player without having it look strange.

Our way around this was to have the text switch between different status messages, much like a blinking ticker. The info will now display the quest name or quest type, and then quickly display other pertinent info like time elapsed, if players are ready to go, if the quest is finished, etc. Unlike a simple color or window size change, the back and forth about this change took a week or so because we had to get the timing just right. If the text switched too fast, no one would be able to read it, and if it switched too slow, you might not be able to join the lobby in time because someone would’ve joined before you. I’m very thankful that the dev team went the extra mile to get this done for us!

Head on over to the Capcom blog for the full post.

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More: Capcom, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 5 Comments

Capcom has now lifted the review embargo for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. For a quick look at the critical reception, check out our roundup below.

IGN – 9 / 10
Polygon – 8.5 / 10
NintendoWorldReport – 8.5 / 10
Game Informer – 8.75 / 10
USgamer – 4.5 / 5
GameSpot – 9 / 10
Nintendo Life – 9 / 10
Destructoid – 9 / 10

We’ll have a review of our own sometime in the near future!

More: Capcom, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, reviews roundup

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 1 Comment

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News | 2 Comments

This Friday will be an extremely important day for Nintendo. Not only is the New 3DS launching, but The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate are releasing as well. These three products could all be a part of Nintendo’s “lucky” Friday the 13th.

Speaking with MCV, Nintendo UK head of consumer marketing James Honeywell said the company is initially targeting its existing fanbase with the New 3DS’ arrival. As for the new 3DS games, Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate should appeal to longtime gamers, and may bring interest for newcomers.

Honeywell’s words in full:

Majora’s Mask is a title that fans have been asking for a long time so it has an instant base. Beyond this we really want to make sure we introduce it to a whole new audience. For Monster Hunter we really feel now is the time when we can really open the title up to a Western audience. The developers have listened to existing players and given them more of what they want, but also ensuring that this new installment is the most open to newcomers.

More: interview, James Honeywell, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D