In world, to counter the fact that they removed baldemaster and gunner armour sets, blademaster weapons had an inherant bonus to physical damage reduction, meanwhile gunner weapons had an inherant bonus to elemental damage reduction. The same system is used in wilds.
Why? Balance. Ranged weapons are extremely powerful in every single installment of monster hunter, and in the past gunner armour would have less raw defence to counter this. If blademaster and gunner players had the same amount of defense, all ranged weapons would inherently beat out all melee weapons due to there being no downside at all to using ranged. You're more mobile, you get access to nearly all afflictions and elements, you can do both blunt and slash damage, you get to stay away from the monsters hit boxes, and your dps potential is way higher. The trade off being that you take more physical damage when you are hit.
Honestly i think they made a lot of problems trying to "fix" the "issue" that was gunner armour. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and yet it's exactly what they did and now the new era of fans that started with world or rise or wilds just want both weapons to act the same, irregardless of game balance when the previous armour system worked for over 2 decades with zero issues outside of... checks notes... having to play a game you enjoy for an extra 5-10 hours max to grind out a gunner armour set when you decided after 300 hours that you wanted to try playing a gunner build, and vice versa
Wait, so it used to be that your weapon locked you into an armor type? Sorry, my first was World so I'm not familiar with gunner armor.
having to play a game you enjoy for an extra 5-10 hours max to grind out a gunner armour set when you decided after 300 hours that you wanted to try playing a gunner build, and vice versa
Eh, that sounds fine for the people who play 300 hours. But for those who play for like, 50-80, it would probably be the point where they go "nah" and finally drop the game.
Honestly it does sound like a problem. Design-wise, being able to just grab any weapon without having to grind a whole new armor set seems like the right choice. Locking a chunk of weapons behind a grind is a good way to ensure players don't try them, or just stick to the set their armor works for.
So here's the thing, the people with 300+ hours are typically the majority of players. On top of which, these types of players were the direct focus of the developers until mh world.
Monster hunter is a game that requires a good amount of time sink. It is one of the main pillars of the games design, and this idea of eroding that to appeal to a wider base of players that will touch the game for less than 50 hours over a year and don't like half the game mechanics is frankly ridiculous. On social media however, that take makes you a gate keeper, or someone who despises accessibility.
Monster hunter shouldn't be a game where you can jump on for 45 minutes to an hour a day, win, try anything you like with no cost, and then leave for another day. Monster hunters intended gameplay loop, for japanese commuters with busy lives, is to spend that hour griding for the thing you want, then over the course of multiple short play sessions, sometimes being weeks, you get to the goal. Modern players want that goal reached in 1-2 play sessions guaranteed, which the game will happily provide if you game alot, and can spend 6-8 hours on a session.
The dad with 7 kids and 5 buisnesses who has 24 minutes a day to game can play monhun, and infact is encouraged by the devs to do so since the first game. But the idea is it takes time. It will take that player months to reach his goals. People who are able to play more can reach those goals quicker. Cheapening the experience for people with more free time so that super dad can feel his satisfaction just as quickly, at the expense of the gamers satisfaction, is a selfish and terrible take that too many developers and redditors share, and one i find ruins many games.
If 5 hours of gaming over the course of a week for an optional choice is enough to make someone put down a game, then they should accept the game isn't for them.
Nah times change and so do people absolutely nothing for accounting for that. Be real, alot of the systems in older games were really superfluous. I say that because a lot of those annoying systems have either been streamlined or removed completely. All the stuff talking, is extra fluff that only a small amount of people really enjoyed and if they had kept the games that way, never bothered to improve them in any meaningful way. Monster Hunter would have remained a niche left on handhelds for just the Japanese and the few weebs in the west that were aware of the franchise.
If i had to choose between what we currently ended up with versus where the series just didn't evolve enough. I'd much prefer the former.
There's a large difference between ironing out bad controls, or obtuse menus, compared to essentially removing large parts of the gameplay loop solely to decrease the amount of time a casual players needs to invest to achieve a dopamine release in the game.
Trivialising the gear grind because the concept of having to play the game for 2 weeks over short sessions to get the full armour set you want is apparently a disgusting idea by half of reddit and every gamer dad is stupid.
Playing the game to get materials is the entire point of playing the game. The drive to push through challenge and get that next piece of your armour set is deeply important to the gameplay loop.
Spending an hour researching a monster, trying a different set up, figuring out what you're doing wrong is a deeply important aspect of the gameplay loop.
They are doing everything they can to remove these ideas. They are doing everything they can to ensure the casual player can experience all the content the game has in under 60 hours so that they leave a satisified review, because the alternative is super dad with an hour day to play will take a year to experience the full game, and that's not okay for some reason? So we need to remove content and engagement for players will more free time, because not getting a massive win every time you boot the game is no longer okay?
Playing through the game with minimal engagement, which is what wilds has supposedly done, is not good. But because super dad can be at the same level as no life gamer in 2 weeks, it actually means it's good.
We are just going to have to agree to disagree. I'm not writing a thesis on how those changes you're trying to deride helped Monster Hunter move from niche to one of best multiplayer games on the international stage. The changes we're definitely worth it and I happen to be one of those long time players (been playing since Freedom 2, PSP) who struggled to get friends to play the older games and failed at it but those same folks came back around and played World with me for hours. Much prefer that over being forced to play alone.
I know YOU didn't say this in particular but there are folks who complained about the removal of things that were nonsensical. For instance, there are a few people who were angry that you're allowed to eat while moving, the fact that you don't have to grind for the simplest items to a hunt. Even the fact rhe LOADING screens per each map had been removed. Like what? If you're so obsessed with those mechanics, there's nearly a decade of MonHun games that are just like that and they there for you to play still. I'm just glad Capcom didn't follow that line of thinking.
So here's the thing, the people with 300+ hours are typically the majority of players. On top of which, these types of players were the direct focus of the developers until mh world.
You know I was going to say that's a bit of a big assumption but... I play Paradox games, so I've been on a similar fanbase and I can totally understand that.
But I'm afraid that... yes, your argument does sound a bit gate-keepy. "If you can't grind the same monster for 5 hours the game is not for you" is... well, from the perspective of someone who hates grinding in general it does sound gatekeepy as hell. Admitedly MonHun is one of the games where I have least felt the grind, but then again I did start with World so I don't have the old ones as reference. I have absolutely modded some materials in to skip some grind at the highest levels though, perks of being on PC.
But anyway here's the main thing: there's a difference between grinding for a power boost and grinding just so you can try a different weapon at your current power level. From a design perspective, grinding for a power boost (or a specific counter to the Mon you want to hunt) feels rewarding, while grinding just to play at your same level feels like the game is wasting your time. Especially when you remember that at level 1, you can just grab any weapon. So you feel punished for not trying new things when you had the chance of doing it without the grind.
And also, you can still grind the right skills on your armor that go with that weapon. So it's not like there's 0 grind at all. You can choose to use all generic skills like HP up so you can switch weapons more easily, or specialize your armor which means using another weapon requires another armor. And choice is good! That puts the choice of how much to grind in the hands of the player and both will feel rewarded.
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u/MiyukisAMV Feb 25 '25
nono ranged still takes more damage
in the beta i as a bow player took more damage than my melee friends