My first hour with Monster Hunter Portable

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, action, console RPG, failure)

When I was at the Nipponbashi Street Festa, I stopped at McDonalds for a bite. I've noticed before that there are always some young guys playing with their PSPs here. From afar the game on their PSPs looked like a dungeon crawling game what with dull greys and browns, but I finally understood it was Monster Hunter Portable. That day was no different, what after hearing that Monster Hunter Portable 2 breaking a million sales. There was not a DS in sight, multiple gangs of young toughs, squinting in hard plastic seats, running around with reptiles.

I had to figure out if this game was any good, so I considered buying MHP2. I even picked up the pamphlet about MHP2. But luckily the first game, MHP, was discounted used at around 1680 yen, so I took a dip.

After heading back home, I lazily put in the game. The FMV looked familiar. I built a character. Yup, I'm going to run around as a lady warrior, ha. Zettai ryouiki! But I assume later that I will be wearing a lot of armor. Costume Get would be proud with time I spent fussing with the hair color and style. Sadly that was the only high point to my hour. The rest just went down hill from there.

In the game, I talked to some NPCs and hurriedly went for a "quest". It was the first one of about four, the one with 1 star. I don't know if 1 star out of 5 means that its really easy or its hard, and I was confused because the default selection was on the 4 star one. Hm. Anyway it can't be too bad.

Thus begins the loading. I am blown away by the graphics, or at least there's no Tekken background effect. There's a bunch of monsters but I don't know if I'm supposed to kill them or not. They look so peaceful so I leave them be.

So I go on to another area. But then the loading really begins. I supposed I have been spoiled by Daxter and Jak series stuff, but I hate cut-scene loading now. And the loading has led me to my first hostile encounter. Whoa. Half my life is gone! I run away!

The map is showing subareas with numbers on them. Do I follow them in order? I have no clue, but I start doing it anyway. I wonder if its a way for local multiplayer (infrastructure?) players to call out where they are on the map.

How do I fight? Oh at least its not a select action cRPG.

I go back to the peaceful monsters and start hacking away. One falls over. What do I do with dead bodies? Carve 'em up with your hunting knife, R1 + Circle when weapon sheathed.

I fell down a ledge and I can't get up. How do I get to the higher ledge? Oh, R1 + Circle when weapon sheathed. Okay, the map is not directed-acyclic anymore.

I am mashing buttons. Uh. How do I pick up the meat I just dropped? No idea. Why is my character clutching her gut? "Elf needs food badly", but how I do I eat?

With about 40 minutes in but no clue how to "win", I switched the game off. I didn't even bother saving this level. I figured I must have missed something back at the village, or maybe I didn't talk to the right NPC.

I spend a day away from it, then I manage to read some point-score reviews. Meh, this game is "addictive" but "boring". If I need to spend 5 hours to get into it, I better start during the weekend. Or maybe I should just quit now.