Tonight I tried out the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate demo, available now in the Wii U eShop.
The demo has two quests available: “Hunt the Lagombi” for novice hunters and “Hunt the Plesioth” for veteran hunters. Seeing as how I’ve never played any game in the series before, I chose the novice quest. You then get to choose your equipment; I went with the first option, a sword and shield. I then started out at camp. Apparently you have two little helper…things. I’m not sure what they are, really.
Unfortunately, there was no tutorial to explain the controls or give you any information. The quest’s only instructions? “Hunt the Lagombi in the Tundra using the marker on the map!” I figured out that X swings my sword, Y uses potions or items of some sort, and B makes me crouch down. I started exploring and saw some beasts.
I took them down pretty easily. One of my helpers said “Nothing like chop-chopping up monster after hunt-hunt.” So I didn’t know if I was supposed to carve the meat off the bones and cook dinner or what. Apparently I was just beating a dead horse, so to speak, so I moved on.
I killed some more animals as I continued exploring. I eventually found what appeared to be a rodent of unusual size.
It had bunny ears, but this was no Easter bunny. I waled into it as much as I could. But unlike the other animals, this one fought back hard. This was the Lagombi I was looking for. The fight went on and on. I wondered if the thing would ever die. Was I doing something wrong? Do I have to use a finishing move? Do I have to slip poison into his coffee? I had no idea. Then, eventually…I fainted. What an awful time to have low blood sugar!
My little helpers wheeled me back to camp–I’m not sure where they got the little stretcher with wheels, but I didn’t ask. I went back to the area and resumed the fight, only to eventually faint again. Before I could get back a third time, the time limit ran out and my game was over.
Maybe my mistake was my choice of weapon. Maybe I was too aggressive during the battle. Maybe I didn’t effectively use the items I had. Or maybe I was doing something really stupid. I wish the demo had given better instructions, or preferably, had a quick tutorial. I’m sure Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a good game once you really get into it…but the demo didn’t wow me, and it certainly didn’t convince me that I should buy the game. I may or may not give it another try with a different weapon one of these days.