I like RPGs. Final Fantasy, Witcher 3, Fallout 3 and 4, Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, etc.

Will I enjoy Monster Hunter: World? Is it good? Does it have a good story? Or is it (too) fetch-questy?

I’m looking at this one because it’s available with Spanish audio and text whereas other Monster World games only have Spanish text, if that. So the others aren’t an option, but feel free to compare this one to the others.

  • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The story is… Just enough to justify the gameplay. You are essentially part of an organization colonizing a new continent. There are gigantic, dangerous monsters in the way. The plot is basically just saying that some sort of unnatural energy is causing the monsters to be too big and bad so they are threatening the entire natural ecosystem. The fact that the colony benefits from hunting them too is purely coincidental.

    The game is pretty good, but I’d say a bit too complicated. Monster Hunter has built up systems throughout its life. I’ve not played any others but I’ve heard from people who have that World simplified a lot. Maybe it did, but there’s a LOT of different systems at play that are quite complicated. There’s a huge learning curve to all the systems and the mechanics of your weapons. I needed to lol up a lot on wikis and watch instructional videos.

    The game looks and sounds good. The combat is similar to Dark Souls: a lot of dodge-rolls to get invincibility frames while you wait for an opening to attack. Your attacks (with most weapons) are combos like a fighting game.

    It’s pretty good, but not a casual game to pick up.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for explaining this. I looked up some gameplay videos but unless you watch hours what you’ve described didn’t really come across. I think I’ll avoid it if it’s like Dark Souls.

      Any other games you could recommend that have a lot of dialogue/language? I can check if they’re dubbed/subbed.

      • loathesome𝕏dongeater@lemmygrad.mlM
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        1 year ago

        Any other games you could recommend that have a lot of dialogue/language? I can check if they’re dubbed/subbed.

        Disco Elysium but only subtitles are in Spanish. Voice acting seems to only be available in English.

      • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t want to scare you too much: it’s not as difficult or punishing as Dark Souls. Just that it has that similar style where you spend ~75% of your time or more in combat waiting to attack.

        As for other games, I see someone else responded with Disco Elysium, which is fantastic. I’d also recommend the Yakuza series. Unfortunately most of the games only have Japanese voice acting. They are also lighter on the RPG elements than those other games you mentioned. But they’re overall a lot of fun. Tons of chill vibes, great characters, good music. The combat is just solid brawling: nothing I would say is particularly unique or interesting, but it’s not bad and fits the games well. The writing is mostly great as long as you can excuse the occasional bits that I refer to as “anime bullshit”: the characters occasionally seem to be supernaturally powerful in order to advance the plot in what is mostly a grounded and realistic setting. I’d say it’s kind of like Metal Gear Solid in that respect. The Witcher is based on pulp fiction noir novels, just in a fantasy setting. Yakuza has similar roots from Yakuza crime drama and films.

        • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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          1 year ago

          You might have put it back on the list then.

          “anime bullshit”: the characters occasionally seem to be supernaturally powerful in order to advance the plot…

          I was dreading the qualification there, I thought you were going to say it’s as inappropriate as Seven Deadly Sins. That would’ve been a definite no. I can deal with supernaturally powerful. It’ll be like this guy I used to know who got really strong after eating tins of spinach.

          • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Oh no none of that. Not even the slightest whiff. Anyone who doesn’t respect consent is clearly a villain, and you usually end up punching them a lot.

            Your role towards child characters is strictly paternal. No “well the age of consent here is 14”. No “actually she’s a 1,000 year-old vampire” creepiness. I’ve only gotten through the first 3 games so far, and I could be forgetting something, but I don’t think any of the villains even cross that line of sexualizing children.

            It’s not perfectly progressive. I don’t think I’ve seen a strong female character yet, just damsels in distress. There was some less-than-ideal trans representation early in the series, although I’ve heard they’ve improved upon that in more recent games. The games are definitely marketed towards a male demographic. But there was nothing I’d be uncomfortable playing around my wife or friends.

        • Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          I really tried to get into the Yakuza games. They’re so stylish and the soap opera storytelling is really fun. But they’re too grindy for me.

  • nuttydepressor@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    There is very little voiced dialogue in monster hunter games, and none of it really matters. The story is less than secondary, the main focus of the game is hunting monsters and getting better and better gear to hunt more monsters with. Monster Hunter Stories might be a better fit, but I know nothing about it. It’s a turn based rpg.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      I do like a good turn-based RPG. Plus, they tend to have lots of text, which means the audio can just be muted if the subtitles and text are in my target language. I’ll have a look at MHS, thanks.

    • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Worlds story has a lot of dialog and good cutscenes. Definitely a leg up over older versions. The game itself is gorgeous.

      Stories is basically Monster Hunter: Pokemon edition.

  • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I didn’t see anybody mentioning it but it’s got a cool co-op and dunking on gigantic monster with 3 mates is ridiculously fun. It’s more like Furi than Dark Souls, lots of long 20-ish minutes boss fights broken up only by short sections of managing equipment and crafting.

    Edit: the other one, Rise, has a demo on steam and they’re very similar, so you can check that out to see if you like it.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      That looks great. I think the newer Dragon Age: Inquisition has Spanish audio and text, too. Have you played that? Is the original one better?

    • loathesome𝕏dongeater@lemmygrad.mlM
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      1 year ago

      There’s a bit of artificial difficulty at the end

      I feel the base game is usually fine but the DLCs crank up the grinding requirement to 11 with unreasonably difficult enemies.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Damn, you’re making the case for why it might be worth trying. I had decided against it after others’ comments but now…

      If it wasn’t this, what else would you recommend? I’ve seen Persona 5 mentioned a few times here and there. (No Spanish audio but I think it has subtitles.) Have you played that?

      • loathesome𝕏dongeater@lemmygrad.mlM
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        1 year ago

        If you like anime you will like Persona 5. It is all around a good game and fits the requirements you have mentioned. My only complaint was that it was too long but there are worse flaws for sure.

  • That_One_Demon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    MHW is a fantastic game and I recommend it especially if you have friends to play with you or you pick it up on sale. I actually just went back to the game this week.

    That said it is nothing like the games you mentioned, so if that’s what you want you won’t find it here. MHW is more gameplay focused and really boils down to fight big monsters to get big weapons to fight bigger monsters. There is really good catch up gear so you don’t have to grind until you get to “end game” but end game is really the beginning of the game. Grinding isn’t too bad, if you want a specific build kill the monster(s) that provide that build a few times and you’ll be mostly there. It’s only the finer details that you need to grind for. Monsters scale to the number of players, but some of them are pretty rough to fight by yourself. All in all my only real gripes about the game are that the menus are annoying to navigate and that the more complex parts of the game aren’t explained very well in game, so be ready for a couple of tutorials.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for explaining this. I’m strictly single player! I need to be able to switch off when I need to switch off or I’d be at risk of the console taking over my life. Can’t have that. I think with what you and others have said about the game, I’ll avoid this one.

      • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        There is also MH Rise which is a faster paced version imo and also a bit easier… Imo. It’s much more fluid with movement and it’s probably the games biggest leg up over world. It also has better solo play and you can build teams of sorts with NPCs in the expansion. I think you can now do that in the base game too but not entirely sure I never played through the main game a second go.

        Also Multiplayer in these games has two different forms.

        So first is the group sessions in World, MP sessions can have up to 16 members, in Rise it’s 4. You post quests the same as in Solo but the people in your suspension can also see and join if you make the quest to allow for other to join. A hunt can only have 4 players and everyone can post their own quests and anyone can join any open quest. It’s more fun in world because you can feel like part of a big guild just doing you thing. You can also open the quest up so that others from the server as a whole can join in once you depart which is where the second form of MP comes in.

        So let’s say you don’t want a session but would like to play with others for a hunt or two. You can join in process quests that are open to that or open you quest to do the same. In World this is done with a “SOS flare” which you fire at any point during the quest. You fire the flare. The game is opened to anyone on the server looking for quests. They can see your party and join you for that single quest then you go back to town afterwards and never see them again (you can friend ppl too). You also have control over who joins. You can set it to auto allow ppl to join or make it so that you have to accept them first.

        In Rise the only big difference is you have to decide before you leave on the quest if you want it to be open to randoms.

        I’m both modes you are free to kick other played from your group or leave groups without penalty. I rarely have left groups. About as rarely as I have had to kick.

        Rise also has fewer western players imo and thus fewer elitist types. Not that world was all that bad but if I had to pick which had fewer it’s Rise.

        As far as the community is concerned the end players are two version of one thing. Fashion hunters. You either want to look cool as heck fighting giant dinosaurs or you want to look as silly as possible. I go for the latter. If I can’t make giant monsters run in terror of my oiled up, nearly naked, buff rubber chicken head wearing hunter, then what even is the point?

      • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        The combat is fun and forgiving enough to allow you to learn the ropes. The fights are pretty epic and when you get the monster right where you want it it feels Soo rewarding. Definitely better in multiplayer but solo is fun too. Also the exploration aspect is amazing in world. They really went all out with the level design. It’s a gorgeous game and really makes it feel like you are exploring a new world. They design a lot of the monsters to be semi-docile in that unless you are up in their shit for a while in their territory, or actually attack them, they won’t immediately attack you. You can walk around and hide and basically watch the giant dinosaurs go about their day. They walk around, eat, drink, poop, leave footprints and track behind that you collect and use to track the monster. It’s its own leveling system where the higher you level up tracking a monster the more you learn about it and the easier it is to track later on. The cameral angles make the monster FEEL epic. The weapon selection is vast and you can do some amazing stuff. Also you get a little cat helper friend that makes constant cat puns and you can outfit them in gear and have different support items. They can then befriend local cats and other wildlife to fight with you so solo mode doesn’t have to feel super lonely.

  • 201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    It is one of my all time favorite games. I have played MH since Tri and it’s by far one of the best.

    The story doesn’t matter. The dialogue might as well not matter. The gameplay is fantastic. It’s why we MH fans keep coming back. If you just want to do crazy shit and fight giant monsters then it’s your kind of game. Also the community is usually pretty great. Sometimes you get some elitists but generally most people are just out to enjoy a hunt. It’s where I met two of my “gaming buddies” and we play other games beyond just MH now. It’s definitely better as a multiplayer game but solo is still fun.

    The story is actually better than most of the other MH games. Still silly and not really why we play. In the end the story just exists for the sole purpose of getting you to the next fight.

    There is also MH Rise which came out after World. It’s not as fun as world is imo but still a good play. Idk how active world is in comparison. Last I had heard though it’s still fairly popular.

  • loathesome𝕏dongeater@lemmygrad.mlM
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    1 year ago

    There is no comparison between the RPGs you mentioned and Monster Hunter.

    I personally think Monster Hunter games don’t have good story. Their strength is the combat system where you fight gargantuan monsters as a human being. If you like the idea of defeating godzilla-sized monsters you will enjoy playing it. For me personally, I gave Monster Hunter games a go because after playing Soulsborne games and Sekiro, I was looking for challenging but fair combat because I enjoy the skill aspect of it.

    I liked Monster Hunter Rise more than World. The combat is actually pretty similar. But World has this requirement where you have to track the monsters down before fighting them which I personally did not like. Rise also has a mechanic called wirebugs which gives you more mobility and combat options.

    I would say the audio not being in Spanish should not dissuade you because the dialogue is not important and at least in English the voice acting is horrible.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      I tried Dark Souls and hated it! Maybe MHW isn’t for me. What did you think of Sekiro? (I think that’s also available in Spanish.) I assume you’re grouping it with Soulsborne games because it’s similar. But does it have a decent story? I quite liked uncharted 1–3, so I’m not against action-y games. They just can’t be too intense. (Dying Light was too much for me; but if I could save anywhere and turn it off when I wanted, that game would be a winner.)

      Maybe I’ll look into the other MH games if most of the language will be text, anyway.

      • loathesome𝕏dongeater@lemmygrad.mlM
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        1 year ago

        I love Sekiro. It’s one of my favourite games of all time.

        It’s story IMO is amazing. But the thing is the story is not delivered to you through exposition. Sekiro has cutscenes and the cutscenes are actually more descriptive than Dark Souls games. But still the cutscenes only tell you a part of the plot. The story is instead pieced together by reading item descriptions, paying attention to the surrounding, etc. so it is a very unconventional way of storytelling in video games. This is what almost all From Software games do. You can always watch videos like THIS to understand the story in depth which do a very good job.

        The combat is still the primary focus of the game. If you don’t enjoy the combat I doubt you will want to enjoy the story.

  • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Very little story in the game, no where near the games you listed.

    The primary focus is on the game play and learning to improve your skills with a build.

    It is good and was the first MH game that I could get into because it removes a lot of the tedious parts from previous games. There are side quests, but they are only worth doing if you want the particular reward offered. There’s basically no story associated with them.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      It’s CapCom isn’t it? Maybe this is part of their—what might be called an—arcade history. I’ll keep looking for something with more story. Any recommendations?

      • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I like a lot of similar games as you. I enjoyed both Horizon games, mostly for the main story. I did very little side quests. The Norse arc of God of War also had a pretty good story. Neither of these are RPGs in the traditional sense, but they are similar.

        Many people say FF14 is one of the best, but may take upto a few hundred hours to get good. I’m not there yet.

        The Legends of Heroes series is supposed to be good, but I haven’t gotten into them yet. Same with Mass Effect.

        I also just realized you asked about World, but my comments apply to Rise. My mistake, sorry.

        • redtea@lemmygrad.mlOP
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          1 year ago

          I’ll give them a try, thanks.

          Is FFXIV online? I played and loved XI (holy shit, it’s still going!) but unfortunately, I cannot trust myself to play MMORPGs. It’s too addictive for me. I’d end up losing my job because I wouldn’t sleep or turn up lol. It’s a shame but it’s the way they’re designed, which makes it hard to just log in for a quick hour.

          • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            14 is online, but it is better about letting you get one for a little bit, accomplish something and giving you a reasonable place to stop.

            However, if you know you can’t trust yourself then it probably isn’t worth it.