Accompanying my recent article giving my opinion of the potential of next-generation MMO gaming thanks to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, I decided to give my 2 cents on what I thought could be an amazing MMO game.
It’s a first in my Ideal MMO article series as there’s already a Monster Hunter MMO available. However, sadly Monster Hunter Frontier is only available in Japan and despite selling 90,000 copies in launch week on the Xbox 360, they don’t have any plans for launching the title to a Western audience.
For those not familiar with the series it’s basically what it sounds like. Players hunt a huge variety of different monsters in a fantasy game world. The games main selling points are the unique behavior of each monster and massively in-depth item system. It teaches players to actually research and analyze their opponents before entering battle.
Imagine the boss fights in Zelda, with each boss having a different tactic required in order to take them down. However, unlike Zelda this unique mechanic isn’t restricted to just a few boss fights, it’s visible in practically every encounter in the game.
The best thing about a potential Monster Hunter MMO is that all the ingredients are already there. The game features crafting, a variety of enemies, hundreds of quests and pretty much every other mechanic seen in an MMO game.
However, the real trick of getting a Monster Hunter MMO is convincing Capcom that the Western audience is just as interested in Monster Hunter as our friends in the East. Hopefully the surge in sales of the Wii U since Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate’s launch will be enough to convince Capcom to give us a current generation MMO game, considering the original was released 2007.
Have you played Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate? Can you see the potential for an MMO?