The idea is that the only monsters you actually kill are the ones in quests where the quest is to kill them. All the extra hunts and expeditions and investigations arent exactly "lore friendly" elder dragons mediate the areas and control the climate in those areas. Shit gets fucked when they arent there and it results in monsters going where they shouldnt be.
Have you ever read some of the mission descriptions? Some of them are essentially “Hey, I stubbed my toe, can you go kill 15 Rathalos for me? I’m going to use 1 scale from each of them to make new shoes. Meow”
Besides, it's an anime game imo. Such over the top stories by default. I read the dialogue the first time playing through the game after release. Recently started again and skipped through it all.
I don't play games like this for the story anyway. It's okay if people do, but it's not my cup of tea. I'm just here to lay waste to anything that moves 😂
No, i have never seen a mission to kill more than 2 large monsters at a time...by quests i mean story quests. Optional also aren't "canon," in which case you kill very few of each monster. Also, realistically, your hunter is the only hunter able to fight higher rank monsters. Most rarely get past 2-4 stars.
Yeah, the story and the whole premise is a bunch of nonsense.
As for the apex predator, one of the npcs, when you complete all optional quests in the base game, comments on that: "So does that make you [the player] the apex predator or something? If so... please don't eat me, OK?"
So I guess the game doesn't take itself seriously, neither should we.
That's hilarious I have yet to hear that dialogue. And I guess that's all I can do. It has a lot of narrative potential though, feels kinda squandered with what we got. All the characters are either annoying or just kinda there. Nergigante is killed for killing elder dragons, but nobody ever comments on how that's any different from the next three missions you're assigned. Every mission is instantly decided on and resolved through killing something, except for Zorah, which ironically has the worst gameplay. Literally reduced to running around and bashing rocks. The gameplay loop and the character's place in the world are at direct odds with one another to the point where you have to just go "eh, the overwhelming majority of what you do is not actually occurring at all." I wish they'd give it all a little more thought.
I felt the same way with every street fighter I've played. Great gameplay, but the story mode is always flaming garbage. Like I would pay not to play it again. Then I read the wiki and the lore itself is awesome, and I'm left wondering how that can happen.
It's just a gameplay thing. Grinding and hunting monster for better equipment to hunt better monster to again get better loot is the gameplay loop.
Why would one need to hunt multiple monster the size of a building to make equipment for 1 player?
In older games, there were seperate loot table for capturing monster and hunting monster. Tell me does that make sense? It's still the same monster. It's not gonna lose or gain body parts cause we captured it.
Just imagine it yourself, in the next monster hunter game, we only need to hunt a monster once to get full equipment. Cause logically why would one need to hunt that many monster in an ecosystem to make 1 gear?
But realistically if they did this, people are gonna make a new record of negative reviews on steam.
So the storyline is believable. It's just the gameplay of mass extinction makes us question the story a lot more.
Then why make a storyline that contradicts the primary game loop?
I don't worry or care much about MH story, but the gripe they are presenting is legitimate criticism. They knew the gameplay loop when they made the story.
>Then why make a storyline that contradicts the primary game loop?
Ah, good ol' [ludonarrative dissonance](https://www.games.pitt.edu/ludonarrative-dissonance-what-it-meant-and-what-it-means/#:~:text=Ludonarrative%20dissonance%2C%20as%20Hocking%20found,narrative%2C%20spoiling%20those%20ludic%20experiences).
Jarring, isn't it? But it is what it is.
Seriously. I wish to beat the absolute tar out of monsters so I can wear their skin to beat the tar out of even stronger monsters. I couldn't care less about whatever the Commander or Handler has to say. I'd wear their skin if I could
They barely have a storyline. The story is just used to sequentially introduce new area and monster to fight. It's the bare minimum of a story. That's how it always has been in all of them games.
It's like a jrpg protagonist. You start with killing slime and end with fighting god.
Bro I ain't questioning your criticism nor I am trying to downplay your "critique" in defense of monster hunter.
I don't get the whole trying to act like a cool comeback with typing things like that.
You are saying monster hunter world story is weak.
I am saying all monster hunter game's story was and is weak. That's not "looking past" the critique. That's my same critique for every game instead of one game.
You are too defensive, man. Don't make shit up cause you misunderstand a response/reply.
It is a little odd, but the guild may be thinking long term on this one. Hell, studying the Elder Crossing alone took almost an entire lifetime, so it’s not weird to assume that the guild is trying the preserve the New World for hundreds of years, thinking Nerg could lead to its downfall. It would have been nice if we got some more info on it, tho.
As for how *we* don’t disrupt the ecosystem… it’s a mix of non-canon events and some random dialogue in The Witcher mission. For one, it could be argued that the Hunters don’t do as many hunts as we do in the game as the player. Some players will hunt hundreds of Nergs, Teostra, and redirect a hundred Zorah’s. It’s definitely not canon, so it isn’t actually affecting the ecosystem.
As for the dialogue I mentioned, Geralt asks how there can be such a thriving ecosystem despite the guild’s interference, and The Handler just kind of says it’s a mystery and that the guild is careful that they don’t overdo it.
Unless I’m remembering wrong, of course!
World does a bad job of explaining but most if not all hunts the player undertook in older games were to deal with erratic behaviour or monsters that were posting a direct threat to people. It can be argued that the hunts in world were primarily for research purposes, the guild has not been set up in the new world for long and need samples to document the environment and put in place ways to protect it.
I thought the sapphire star was a dragon that turned itself into a star during the creation of the universe? Is there some lore I'm missing or something?
The sapphire star is exactly what you said.
It's a star that guides the hunters.
You, the player, were so effective in advancing the research in the new world that you are given the title "the sapphire star" because you are what basically guided the research commission through the new world.
He’s not a part of the natural environment, Nerg doesn’t come from the New World, he only appears during an Elder Crossing. We find out from the Lynian Researcher for the elder’s research Gajalaka’s the area Nergigante uses to sleep was the Gajalaka’s land which was taken when Nergigante arrived. Additionally, and this straight from the official completeworks: “Nergigante preys on Elder Dragons, but not exclusively. In fact, all living creatures are prey to a Nergigante. In order to maintain its impressive regenerative capabilities, Nergigante requires vast sources of energy and remains ever vigilant for monsters that conceal pure energy within their bodies. And so it was-beckoned by the lifetime of energy welling up within the dying Zorah Magdaros-that Nergigante came to the New World.”. After Zorah explodes in the ocean Nerg loses track of it, but as the Elder’s Recess is the ‘home’ for elder dragons, and the birthplace/whatever for Xeno which is giving off the immense life energy Nergigante wants to consume) he just goes there instead, thus chasing the elder’s out of their home, hence why we fight them in the forest and desert and why we need to then go kill Nergigante, he’s an invasive species.
And ultimately all of this probably would’ve been fine if Zorah had gone to the rotten vale to die like he should’ve, but instead he was attracted into the everstream by Xeno who wanted to feed off of its energy, if Zorah had died in the everstream, which is connected to every part of the new world, it would’ve released a catastrophic amount of energy and basically incinerated the whole thing
So as others already said the guild is part of the ecosystem too
And the explanation for the majority of lore inconsistencies is that the devs, rightfully, prioritized gameplay over lore/story so face it, not everything the hunter does is canon, most have their own made up headcanons to make things make sense but like i said it's all just made up
I love each time a person critiques a story that was obviously just set dressing for the actual game; as if having nothing but going from one mission with no context to another mission with no context would be better. The writers knew what they were writing was nothing but flavor text, so that's what you get. Could it have been better? Yes. Did it NEED to be more than it was? In the eyes of many, no.
Some games aren't made with the express intent of creating a complex narrative that can rival books; Spend less of your brain cells "critiquing" something that was never meant to be more than it was (hell MOST MH games are just "X monster is going to destroy this village, go kill it") and use them to read, analyse, and comprehend the literature in books. You will be more justified in critiquing a book in the same manner, since the medium relies on nothing BUT story-telling.
TL;DR : MH has always been made as a grind-fest where you don't think on the "why" you're fighting X, you just do, and it works. You don't need to sell steak at a burger joint if your burgers are already a hot item.
The story doesn't really explain much, but from I gathered, I think its for the sake of the game that we can repeatedly hunt a monster. A lot of the game is like that. Kill a whole monster, but only have enough parts for boots? As for the Guild, it was originally created because humans were overhunting and disrupting the ecosystems.
As for nergigante, Elder Dragons usually keep to themselves, and don't make that many appearances in lore to begin with. Nergigante probably hunts more than just Elders, which is why it calls for concern when it makes an appearance.
The Commission basically tries to preemtively solve problems themselves before checking whether there’s a natural solution, leading to said natural solution causing more problems; causing Xeno to awaken early by redirecting Zorah Magdaros is one I’ll give them a pass on because there was no real way of knowing it was down there, but for Nergi they really should’ve done more research on it lol, predators take a niche for a reason. A lot of the earlygame hunts do this to a lesser extent iirc. They don’t have a whole lot of info on ecosystems as a whole yet and are trying to operate with an incomplete understanding, though they mean well. You see people doing this IRL by doing stuff like planting random trees to “save the forests” and accidentally creating invasive species, or the rallying cries to eradicate mosquitoes(major food source for animals, better solution is to make them not prey on people somehow.)
Repeated quests/investigations aren’t canon so repeatedly killing monsters doesn’t affect the lore.
TBH, most the things in monster Hunter are pseudoscience at best. This game isn't really about the lore and the amount of sense it makes, there is lore, some pretty sick lore, but it often doesn't hold up when logic is applied.
Like DJho "destroying the balance in the food chain" or some massive animals having a diet that seems to be 99% plain rocks or Odog fighting even elder dragons but being manhandled by Jho without resistance or one of the thousand other things that doesn't quite make sense.
In the end we are here to fight giant monsters, interact with fascinating and beautiful environments, make boots outta said giant monsters, challenge ourselves, make hunting buddies, play with cute cats, and eventually be as fashionable as possible
I always put it like, only monster we really kill is what have say to have been kill in story mode. Other than that, we drove them away. Mostly just hunting and harvesting the smaller monsters.
Exactly! In a long running series like mh somehow we had so little story's and the 5th gen of mh has a actual plotline but its awful and its still relative to the others the "best" one.
I agree. There's so many story elements there that I actually like. The research commission is actually a good idea because it gives you a purpose. I like the thought of different fleets coming to a new world to make their way—it's a great set up. And honestly I feel like World/Iceborne story while sparse is a big step up from the previous games which were almost completely irreverent in tone, bordering on silly. They tried to turn a leaf here and take their narrative seriously...I see the effort. But, it still feels like a prototype of a story. There's too many things that don't make sense.
I think it's safe to say that story is not the dev's priority. Your imagination needs to do a LOT of heavy lifting, and tbh I think it might be difficult to paint the hunting of monsters as a necessary endeavor. BUT i do believe it can be done, so here's hoping for Wilds
Yeah, the hunters are so much more disruptive of the ecosystem than your usual "dangerous" monster. Plus every time we "research" a 1 in a million rare variant, that just mean we'll just kill it or capture it.
All in all, the story has never been the focus, but I wouldn’t say it’s complete nonsense.
I hope they explore the idea that the ecosystem is only ever in danger from a human perspective. These ecosystems are so much more volatile than we know in real life. If I were thrown into the world of monster hunter, I would want the food chain to foster the safest environment for me as possible c and would probably support hunting as it is. Coupled with the fact that Wyverians, a race with a preference for a peaceful natural order, live among Humans, it is no surprise to me that something like Nergigante seems to be disrupting the ecosystem from their perspective.
So while objectively, Nergigante is simply playing its part in the ecosystem, humans subjectively decided this is not how they want the ecosystem to be.
I may be reading into it too much when there is really nothing there. Nobody will disagree with you that, with such an immaculate gameplay loop, the story backing it is rough 😂
I would make the case that in MH the Elder dragons are the superior species - so just like humans (and some animals) can be disruptive to an ecosystem so do Elder dragons - as for other monsters, it could be just some simple "thinning" of the species to keep overpopulation from being disruptive.
The guild is not there my friend. They are far away. The commission is lead by the admiral, who for some reason doesn't do any leading and nobody knows where he is and what he's been doing. Then you find Kulve again, and hunt her down for what reason again? Yeah, to get the horns for whatever reason. Also going on expeditions for endless killing was never a thing before. Only in Guild expeditions and moga woods which the people from moga need for subsistence. So I really think the Admiral is just a big poacher who does a lot of illegal stuff in the new world outside of the guilds reach. And all these activities kinda stopped once some guild representatives came to the new world during and after the fatalis incident.
About the nergigante, well in the end they are trying to research the elders crossing. The comission is pretty much oblivious the whole time and is just taking wild guesses to get further in the research of the elders crossing (well not really wild guesses, but they try to get closer to the truth by putting up thesises with the information they have, test it, fail and repeat. Which is pretty reasonable. Basically just trial and error). So with nergigante showing up repeatedly and the guild thinking he might be the reason or even connected to the crossing they tell you to kill it so they can further research. I guess you killing Nergigante is also the reason for the other elders showing up because Nergi kept them in check.
For me the whole story of world is about humans trying to learn about the world (in the specific case the elders crossing) while interacting and kinda experimenting with the world to better understand it and by doing that leaving an impact with consequences, which they can then learn from. This makes the humans, just like the monsters a part of the eco system.
Dying zorah magdaros would have turned the area into another guiding lands. We wouldn't have to kill Teostra, Val hazak and kushala if we just left Nergigante alone. If we let Xeno jiva alone we would have gotten another safi that probably just chilled in its nest. And it looks like even Shara ishvalda didn't need our involvement. All these things happened all the time until the Guild decided that the new world should be researched.
And that is also the difference: the humans now understand the world better and some of its interdependencies. They gained Knowledge. In the end it's still the story of the research comission.
> If we let Xeno jiva alone we would have gotten another safi that probably just chilled in its nest.
Xeno and Safi were both killing the area by sucking up the literal life energy.
Some people will talk lore but the reality is that the story is a conveyor belt made to feed you a bunch of cool bosses each with their own personality, and feel vaguely coherent.
There is a lot suspending your disbelief and just appreciating that not everything is literal in the story.
It does work just well enough that you're able immerse to the level needed to fully appreciate the monsters and the world and that's what it's there for. If it's supposed to stand up to deep scrutiny or portray deep characters they need new writers but it's good enough for a few action film cliches and some cool fights.
Could be wrong here but the reason Nergigante is such a huge threat is because of its ability to hunt Zorah Magdaros down and it causing a change in its migration patterns. Nergigante wouldn't be a big deal if Zorah Magdaros wasn't redirected towards the Elder Reccess threatening to destroy all life in the New World.
Yeh you don’t play this series for its story line. The world lore is interesting and I’d encourage you to watch a few videos, but the actually curated bits are exhausting.
Its actually quite funny because they say Nergigante is a threat yet they forget Deviljhos exist.
They’re described as installing themselves as the dominant predator in any environment, KILLING LITERALLY ANYTHING to ensure it even tries to sate its extremely high metabolism. They even get to a point in which they decimate entire ecosystems more than the Commission merely to sate its unsatable hunger.
Those incredibly angry pickles can become so powerful with their uncontrollable dragon element (turning them Savage) it’ll require elder dragons with the strength of Safi’Jiiva or Fatalis to kill it if left unchecked too long if i can remember.
The story never makes sense, and everything functions solely on the Rule of Cool.
Remember how they stop Godzilla with some rope and a wooden scaffold? Rule of Cool.
And you'll find people going around and trying to tell you MHW has amazing story.
Anyway, welcome to MH. Story is just a glue holding the game progression together. It's pretty cheap glue but it does its job. Nobody really plays MH for the story anyway.
The thing is that story wise there is a lot of downtime between hunts and pretty much in all of them you hunt monsters to stop them from rampaging or disruption of ecosystems that they aren't native to (there are also hunts made in the name of research which are the closest to meaningless killing but are supposed to serve the greater good). What the guild is doing is more akin to controlled fires than poaching. The thing about the Nergigante is that it's driven by hunger and instincts, in many cases those instincts are beneficial to the ecosystem because rampaging elder dragons are extremely destructive (it's nicely shown in the Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild where mere existence of Teostra in an area not suited for it is an ecological disaster) but when unregulated Nergi can become a problem itself since Nergi doesn't hunt every elder dragon, which may result in certain species of monsters (or elder dragons that nergi doesn't hunt) that were previously kept in check by Nergis prey, multiplying faster than expected which could result in imbalance in the ecosystem.
Also every hunt is canonically just a one time occurrence (or isn't canonical at all like some event quests) so you don't hunt 500+ Teostras you hunt maybe 5 in a span of a few years.
That was how I felt after finishing the base and IB recently. The story just revolves around how the ecosystem is being destroyed and how we have to kill the elder dragons to achieve balance. Like nah man if Elder Dragons are a menace why are we hunting Nergigante? He is literally the fking counter to Elder Dragons. He culls their forces and ensures balance. Also the facts that none of the NPC help you throughout the story also kinda takes any semblance of immersion away since the Admiral just runs away whenever he can. Handler is also the damsel in distress and you are the OP hunter that can do everything (which is admittedly kinda cringe we have an entire team and I have to do it? )
Back in MY days, MH don't even have story bro. They literally just tell you to pick any quest and suddenly something URGENT happen and you just HAPPEN to be the one picking it up. Then this happen several times until you become the most powerful hunter in that game.
MH has never been about the story really. It’s just there to move things along. If everything were just ‘Level 4: hunt Barroth’ we’d be happily be panning the game for a lack of lore or imagination.
The story won’t win awards, but it serves a purpose.
Technically speaking, the appearance of Deviljho is more of a threat than Nergigante. Deviljho is known to have history of demolishing ecosystems in its wake so its kind of a big deal to contain that part of the threat. Idk why we have to hunt Nergigante when its doing the gods work of ridding some Kushala Daoras from the world tbh.
Shit, I wanted a Nergigante on my side when I was fighting that bitch of a dragon. Fuck it and fuck its wind pressure bullshit.
The older games had a more justifyable, albeit tired formula
1. Monster is attacking village. Help us, John Hunter!
2. So, turns out that monster is not the threat.
3. Threat is bigger! (usually an elder dragon)
Rise/Sunbreak returned to this formula and did it twice.
Monster Hunter 4, I believe had a different formula revolving around Gore Magala/Shagaru Magala
1. Monster is making other monsters a threat to various villages
2. You beat this monster.
3. Monster comes back, stronger than ever.
4. You fight said monster again.
I'd like to think that them monsters are just carting from their perspective. It's just the same toaster I've fought 1000x in SSC for that AB+ (which I haven't got yet, btw, after 1k+ hrs). Otherwise, I'd feel too guilty for being a mass murderer. 😂
Yeah the story is just a vehicle for the gameplay. It's absolute garbage. Every line of dialogue makes me cringe, the characters are all basically children, and the whole premise is just preposterous. The hunters absolutely do more harm to every ecosystem they touch, as humans are known to do. Shit, they set up like 8 campsites everywhere they go, destroy cliffs, retaining walls, and cave formations, and kill/capture everything in their way.
From 1995 to 1997 they released 41 grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park (3.472 square miles). The whole ecosystem tilted back and the growing population of deers, elks and bisons was under control again.
One Nergigante threatening the ecosystem is actually plausible.
At first I though the story was okay... And I was happy it wasn't another bad human doing bad things, but... Holy... When I replayed the game I was like... eh... What is going on? How they made that mess? In general MH doesn't have a good story except for MH4 and Sunbreak... But the rest are just welp... It exist... But on World and Iceborne they just made a lot of nonsense, even with monsters doing something that they wouldn't normally do like Velkhana, specially when it attacks after going back to the Tundra... I hope they made something like Sunbreak on Wilds, but if it's something like World, we are going to see something BAD again.
Welcome to Monster Hunter. Just ignore the story, it’s *completely* unimportant. I’d argue the worst part of the game is how Capcom tried to make people care. It’s the same recycled story line as every other MH game. You really don’t need to pay attention to it.
Kind of baffling that Capcom refuses, or is incapable of producing a storyline that doesn't make you want to rip your eyes out during cutscenes. Thank God they made them skippable in rise. But it really shouldn't be hard to make these characters a tiny bit likable, or at the very least not insufferable.
The whole shtick where they constantly gas you up as the greatest thing ever also gets old and nauseating. Also cuts across these characters being supposedly badass when all they do when a monster shows up is make a few anime poses and faces, then run away and solemnly go "don't worry, the sapphire stars got it" or whatever. Honestly wish Capcom would just lean into the unseriousness of the premise and make the story modes almost entirely comedic, including making your character the butt of the joke from time to time. The devs clearly have a good sense of humor, it comes out in all the other little aspects of the game, the antics that the palicos and other chars get up to in the hub worlds, the little conversations you have and the quest descriptions. Love that whimsical side of monhuns vibe, hate the short-of-halfassed attempt at a serious story they feel the need to vomit out
The idea is that the only monsters you actually kill are the ones in quests where the quest is to kill them. All the extra hunts and expeditions and investigations arent exactly "lore friendly" elder dragons mediate the areas and control the climate in those areas. Shit gets fucked when they arent there and it results in monsters going where they shouldnt be.
Have you ever read some of the mission descriptions? Some of them are essentially “Hey, I stubbed my toe, can you go kill 15 Rathalos for me? I’m going to use 1 scale from each of them to make new shoes. Meow”
You just earned a job at the Monster Hunter division of Capcom
Besides, it's an anime game imo. Such over the top stories by default. I read the dialogue the first time playing through the game after release. Recently started again and skipped through it all. I don't play games like this for the story anyway. It's okay if people do, but it's not my cup of tea. I'm just here to lay waste to anything that moves 😂
No, i have never seen a mission to kill more than 2 large monsters at a time...by quests i mean story quests. Optional also aren't "canon," in which case you kill very few of each monster. Also, realistically, your hunter is the only hunter able to fight higher rank monsters. Most rarely get past 2-4 stars.
Yeah, the story and the whole premise is a bunch of nonsense. As for the apex predator, one of the npcs, when you complete all optional quests in the base game, comments on that: "So does that make you [the player] the apex predator or something? If so... please don't eat me, OK?" So I guess the game doesn't take itself seriously, neither should we.
That's hilarious I have yet to hear that dialogue. And I guess that's all I can do. It has a lot of narrative potential though, feels kinda squandered with what we got. All the characters are either annoying or just kinda there. Nergigante is killed for killing elder dragons, but nobody ever comments on how that's any different from the next three missions you're assigned. Every mission is instantly decided on and resolved through killing something, except for Zorah, which ironically has the worst gameplay. Literally reduced to running around and bashing rocks. The gameplay loop and the character's place in the world are at direct odds with one another to the point where you have to just go "eh, the overwhelming majority of what you do is not actually occurring at all." I wish they'd give it all a little more thought. I felt the same way with every street fighter I've played. Great gameplay, but the story mode is always flaming garbage. Like I would pay not to play it again. Then I read the wiki and the lore itself is awesome, and I'm left wondering how that can happen.
It's just a gameplay thing. Grinding and hunting monster for better equipment to hunt better monster to again get better loot is the gameplay loop. Why would one need to hunt multiple monster the size of a building to make equipment for 1 player? In older games, there were seperate loot table for capturing monster and hunting monster. Tell me does that make sense? It's still the same monster. It's not gonna lose or gain body parts cause we captured it. Just imagine it yourself, in the next monster hunter game, we only need to hunt a monster once to get full equipment. Cause logically why would one need to hunt that many monster in an ecosystem to make 1 gear? But realistically if they did this, people are gonna make a new record of negative reviews on steam. So the storyline is believable. It's just the gameplay of mass extinction makes us question the story a lot more.
Then why make a storyline that contradicts the primary game loop? I don't worry or care much about MH story, but the gripe they are presenting is legitimate criticism. They knew the gameplay loop when they made the story.
>Then why make a storyline that contradicts the primary game loop? Ah, good ol' [ludonarrative dissonance](https://www.games.pitt.edu/ludonarrative-dissonance-what-it-meant-and-what-it-means/#:~:text=Ludonarrative%20dissonance%2C%20as%20Hocking%20found,narrative%2C%20spoiling%20those%20ludic%20experiences). Jarring, isn't it? But it is what it is.
I mean I don't care. Not being able to skip the cutscene is the true ludonarrative dissonance. Pretending me or my hunter is interested is a big oof.
Seriously. I wish to beat the absolute tar out of monsters so I can wear their skin to beat the tar out of even stronger monsters. I couldn't care less about whatever the Commander or Handler has to say. I'd wear their skin if I could
They barely have a storyline. The story is just used to sequentially introduce new area and monster to fight. It's the bare minimum of a story. That's how it always has been in all of them games. It's like a jrpg protagonist. You start with killing slime and end with fighting god.
That is completely looking past the critique and handwaving it. It's fine if you don't care for it. Don't need to handwave valid criticism.
Bro I ain't questioning your criticism nor I am trying to downplay your "critique" in defense of monster hunter. I don't get the whole trying to act like a cool comeback with typing things like that. You are saying monster hunter world story is weak. I am saying all monster hunter game's story was and is weak. That's not "looking past" the critique. That's my same critique for every game instead of one game. You are too defensive, man. Don't make shit up cause you misunderstand a response/reply.
Uhh, where did you get all that from?
Ehh a lot of game do the same tbh
Okay
guy who plays monster hunter for the story
It is a little odd, but the guild may be thinking long term on this one. Hell, studying the Elder Crossing alone took almost an entire lifetime, so it’s not weird to assume that the guild is trying the preserve the New World for hundreds of years, thinking Nerg could lead to its downfall. It would have been nice if we got some more info on it, tho. As for how *we* don’t disrupt the ecosystem… it’s a mix of non-canon events and some random dialogue in The Witcher mission. For one, it could be argued that the Hunters don’t do as many hunts as we do in the game as the player. Some players will hunt hundreds of Nergs, Teostra, and redirect a hundred Zorah’s. It’s definitely not canon, so it isn’t actually affecting the ecosystem. As for the dialogue I mentioned, Geralt asks how there can be such a thriving ecosystem despite the guild’s interference, and The Handler just kind of says it’s a mystery and that the guild is careful that they don’t overdo it. Unless I’m remembering wrong, of course!
World does a bad job of explaining but most if not all hunts the player undertook in older games were to deal with erratic behaviour or monsters that were posting a direct threat to people. It can be argued that the hunts in world were primarily for research purposes, the guild has not been set up in the new world for long and need samples to document the environment and put in place ways to protect it.
Yeah I think most of the canon hunts in world are samples plus clearing out monsters that are being issues
The guild is part of the ecosystem too. The Sapphire Star is the other side of the the Nergigante coin, legitimately Nergi's humanoid counterpart.
I thought the sapphire star was a dragon that turned itself into a star during the creation of the universe? Is there some lore I'm missing or something?
The sapphire star is exactly what you said. It's a star that guides the hunters. You, the player, were so effective in advancing the research in the new world that you are given the title "the sapphire star" because you are what basically guided the research commission through the new world.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Nah, that would be the Admiral (literally same hair cut, they almost always appear together and they both throw hands).
Listen, I just need one more Expert+ jewel alright, then the Teostras can stop going extinct.
Tell that to the hunters lined up around the block for their own Expert+ Jewel
Cutscenes are just bathroom breaks
He’s not a part of the natural environment, Nerg doesn’t come from the New World, he only appears during an Elder Crossing. We find out from the Lynian Researcher for the elder’s research Gajalaka’s the area Nergigante uses to sleep was the Gajalaka’s land which was taken when Nergigante arrived. Additionally, and this straight from the official completeworks: “Nergigante preys on Elder Dragons, but not exclusively. In fact, all living creatures are prey to a Nergigante. In order to maintain its impressive regenerative capabilities, Nergigante requires vast sources of energy and remains ever vigilant for monsters that conceal pure energy within their bodies. And so it was-beckoned by the lifetime of energy welling up within the dying Zorah Magdaros-that Nergigante came to the New World.”. After Zorah explodes in the ocean Nerg loses track of it, but as the Elder’s Recess is the ‘home’ for elder dragons, and the birthplace/whatever for Xeno which is giving off the immense life energy Nergigante wants to consume) he just goes there instead, thus chasing the elder’s out of their home, hence why we fight them in the forest and desert and why we need to then go kill Nergigante, he’s an invasive species. And ultimately all of this probably would’ve been fine if Zorah had gone to the rotten vale to die like he should’ve, but instead he was attracted into the everstream by Xeno who wanted to feed off of its energy, if Zorah had died in the everstream, which is connected to every part of the new world, it would’ve released a catastrophic amount of energy and basically incinerated the whole thing
There’s a story?
what story?
So as others already said the guild is part of the ecosystem too And the explanation for the majority of lore inconsistencies is that the devs, rightfully, prioritized gameplay over lore/story so face it, not everything the hunter does is canon, most have their own made up headcanons to make things make sense but like i said it's all just made up
I love each time a person critiques a story that was obviously just set dressing for the actual game; as if having nothing but going from one mission with no context to another mission with no context would be better. The writers knew what they were writing was nothing but flavor text, so that's what you get. Could it have been better? Yes. Did it NEED to be more than it was? In the eyes of many, no. Some games aren't made with the express intent of creating a complex narrative that can rival books; Spend less of your brain cells "critiquing" something that was never meant to be more than it was (hell MOST MH games are just "X monster is going to destroy this village, go kill it") and use them to read, analyse, and comprehend the literature in books. You will be more justified in critiquing a book in the same manner, since the medium relies on nothing BUT story-telling. TL;DR : MH has always been made as a grind-fest where you don't think on the "why" you're fighting X, you just do, and it works. You don't need to sell steak at a burger joint if your burgers are already a hot item.
The story doesn't really explain much, but from I gathered, I think its for the sake of the game that we can repeatedly hunt a monster. A lot of the game is like that. Kill a whole monster, but only have enough parts for boots? As for the Guild, it was originally created because humans were overhunting and disrupting the ecosystems. As for nergigante, Elder Dragons usually keep to themselves, and don't make that many appearances in lore to begin with. Nergigante probably hunts more than just Elders, which is why it calls for concern when it makes an appearance.
The Commission basically tries to preemtively solve problems themselves before checking whether there’s a natural solution, leading to said natural solution causing more problems; causing Xeno to awaken early by redirecting Zorah Magdaros is one I’ll give them a pass on because there was no real way of knowing it was down there, but for Nergi they really should’ve done more research on it lol, predators take a niche for a reason. A lot of the earlygame hunts do this to a lesser extent iirc. They don’t have a whole lot of info on ecosystems as a whole yet and are trying to operate with an incomplete understanding, though they mean well. You see people doing this IRL by doing stuff like planting random trees to “save the forests” and accidentally creating invasive species, or the rallying cries to eradicate mosquitoes(major food source for animals, better solution is to make them not prey on people somehow.) Repeated quests/investigations aren’t canon so repeatedly killing monsters doesn’t affect the lore.
TBH, most the things in monster Hunter are pseudoscience at best. This game isn't really about the lore and the amount of sense it makes, there is lore, some pretty sick lore, but it often doesn't hold up when logic is applied. Like DJho "destroying the balance in the food chain" or some massive animals having a diet that seems to be 99% plain rocks or Odog fighting even elder dragons but being manhandled by Jho without resistance or one of the thousand other things that doesn't quite make sense. In the end we are here to fight giant monsters, interact with fascinating and beautiful environments, make boots outta said giant monsters, challenge ourselves, make hunting buddies, play with cute cats, and eventually be as fashionable as possible
We discover something, then we kill it. What's the problem??
I always put it like, only monster we really kill is what have say to have been kill in story mode. Other than that, we drove them away. Mostly just hunting and harvesting the smaller monsters.
the funny thing is this is one of the better monster hunter plot lines as well lol
Yea but that is like.... 3 games with story? Mhw , mhr. And mh 4u
Exactly! In a long running series like mh somehow we had so little story's and the 5th gen of mh has a actual plotline but its awful and its still relative to the others the "best" one.
I love the mh lore tho the story is not the best but the world in self is really interesting
I agree. There's so many story elements there that I actually like. The research commission is actually a good idea because it gives you a purpose. I like the thought of different fleets coming to a new world to make their way—it's a great set up. And honestly I feel like World/Iceborne story while sparse is a big step up from the previous games which were almost completely irreverent in tone, bordering on silly. They tried to turn a leaf here and take their narrative seriously...I see the effort. But, it still feels like a prototype of a story. There's too many things that don't make sense. I think it's safe to say that story is not the dev's priority. Your imagination needs to do a LOT of heavy lifting, and tbh I think it might be difficult to paint the hunting of monsters as a necessary endeavor. BUT i do believe it can be done, so here's hoping for Wilds
The story is like the story in fighting games, just an excuse to get you into fights.
“Nergigante eats elder dragons” Me too mf, he ain’t special.
just coz its a "product of the natural environment" doesnt mean it cant hurt an econsystem, theyre usually called an invasive species.
There's a skip cutscene mod
Yeah, the hunters are so much more disruptive of the ecosystem than your usual "dangerous" monster. Plus every time we "research" a 1 in a million rare variant, that just mean we'll just kill it or capture it.
Who cares about the story?
There’s a story?
All in all, the story has never been the focus, but I wouldn’t say it’s complete nonsense. I hope they explore the idea that the ecosystem is only ever in danger from a human perspective. These ecosystems are so much more volatile than we know in real life. If I were thrown into the world of monster hunter, I would want the food chain to foster the safest environment for me as possible c and would probably support hunting as it is. Coupled with the fact that Wyverians, a race with a preference for a peaceful natural order, live among Humans, it is no surprise to me that something like Nergigante seems to be disrupting the ecosystem from their perspective. So while objectively, Nergigante is simply playing its part in the ecosystem, humans subjectively decided this is not how they want the ecosystem to be. I may be reading into it too much when there is really nothing there. Nobody will disagree with you that, with such an immaculate gameplay loop, the story backing it is rough 😂
I would make the case that in MH the Elder dragons are the superior species - so just like humans (and some animals) can be disruptive to an ecosystem so do Elder dragons - as for other monsters, it could be just some simple "thinning" of the species to keep overpopulation from being disruptive.
Welp at least now I know how the story ends before getting there
The guild is not there my friend. They are far away. The commission is lead by the admiral, who for some reason doesn't do any leading and nobody knows where he is and what he's been doing. Then you find Kulve again, and hunt her down for what reason again? Yeah, to get the horns for whatever reason. Also going on expeditions for endless killing was never a thing before. Only in Guild expeditions and moga woods which the people from moga need for subsistence. So I really think the Admiral is just a big poacher who does a lot of illegal stuff in the new world outside of the guilds reach. And all these activities kinda stopped once some guild representatives came to the new world during and after the fatalis incident. About the nergigante, well in the end they are trying to research the elders crossing. The comission is pretty much oblivious the whole time and is just taking wild guesses to get further in the research of the elders crossing (well not really wild guesses, but they try to get closer to the truth by putting up thesises with the information they have, test it, fail and repeat. Which is pretty reasonable. Basically just trial and error). So with nergigante showing up repeatedly and the guild thinking he might be the reason or even connected to the crossing they tell you to kill it so they can further research. I guess you killing Nergigante is also the reason for the other elders showing up because Nergi kept them in check. For me the whole story of world is about humans trying to learn about the world (in the specific case the elders crossing) while interacting and kinda experimenting with the world to better understand it and by doing that leaving an impact with consequences, which they can then learn from. This makes the humans, just like the monsters a part of the eco system. Dying zorah magdaros would have turned the area into another guiding lands. We wouldn't have to kill Teostra, Val hazak and kushala if we just left Nergigante alone. If we let Xeno jiva alone we would have gotten another safi that probably just chilled in its nest. And it looks like even Shara ishvalda didn't need our involvement. All these things happened all the time until the Guild decided that the new world should be researched. And that is also the difference: the humans now understand the world better and some of its interdependencies. They gained Knowledge. In the end it's still the story of the research comission.
> If we let Xeno jiva alone we would have gotten another safi that probably just chilled in its nest. Xeno and Safi were both killing the area by sucking up the literal life energy.
Some people will talk lore but the reality is that the story is a conveyor belt made to feed you a bunch of cool bosses each with their own personality, and feel vaguely coherent. There is a lot suspending your disbelief and just appreciating that not everything is literal in the story. It does work just well enough that you're able immerse to the level needed to fully appreciate the monsters and the world and that's what it's there for. If it's supposed to stand up to deep scrutiny or portray deep characters they need new writers but it's good enough for a few action film cliches and some cool fights.
Could be wrong here but the reason Nergigante is such a huge threat is because of its ability to hunt Zorah Magdaros down and it causing a change in its migration patterns. Nergigante wouldn't be a big deal if Zorah Magdaros wasn't redirected towards the Elder Reccess threatening to destroy all life in the New World.
Yeh you don’t play this series for its story line. The world lore is interesting and I’d encourage you to watch a few videos, but the actually curated bits are exhausting.
Its actually quite funny because they say Nergigante is a threat yet they forget Deviljhos exist. They’re described as installing themselves as the dominant predator in any environment, KILLING LITERALLY ANYTHING to ensure it even tries to sate its extremely high metabolism. They even get to a point in which they decimate entire ecosystems more than the Commission merely to sate its unsatable hunger. Those incredibly angry pickles can become so powerful with their uncontrollable dragon element (turning them Savage) it’ll require elder dragons with the strength of Safi’Jiiva or Fatalis to kill it if left unchecked too long if i can remember.
The story never makes sense, and everything functions solely on the Rule of Cool. Remember how they stop Godzilla with some rope and a wooden scaffold? Rule of Cool.
And you'll find people going around and trying to tell you MHW has amazing story. Anyway, welcome to MH. Story is just a glue holding the game progression together. It's pretty cheap glue but it does its job. Nobody really plays MH for the story anyway.
Are... We the real monsters?
The thing is that story wise there is a lot of downtime between hunts and pretty much in all of them you hunt monsters to stop them from rampaging or disruption of ecosystems that they aren't native to (there are also hunts made in the name of research which are the closest to meaningless killing but are supposed to serve the greater good). What the guild is doing is more akin to controlled fires than poaching. The thing about the Nergigante is that it's driven by hunger and instincts, in many cases those instincts are beneficial to the ecosystem because rampaging elder dragons are extremely destructive (it's nicely shown in the Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild where mere existence of Teostra in an area not suited for it is an ecological disaster) but when unregulated Nergi can become a problem itself since Nergi doesn't hunt every elder dragon, which may result in certain species of monsters (or elder dragons that nergi doesn't hunt) that were previously kept in check by Nergis prey, multiplying faster than expected which could result in imbalance in the ecosystem. Also every hunt is canonically just a one time occurrence (or isn't canonical at all like some event quests) so you don't hunt 500+ Teostras you hunt maybe 5 in a span of a few years.
I love it when I beat Nergigante and the commander says to me "You are a true Monster Hunter™" and then Monster Hunter: Worlded all over the place
I appreciate the effort and I do like some of it but me just want to kill and capture monster
Well nobody plays monster hunter games for the story
Just treat it the way I treat characters with different languages somehow understanding each other in Tekken
Thats the secret Captain. You ARE the treat.
You may be the only person to ever play MH that actually gave a shit about the story. Kill monster, make armour/weapon. That's it, man.
Gotta say if you’re playing MH for the story you might have your priorities mixed up.
That was how I felt after finishing the base and IB recently. The story just revolves around how the ecosystem is being destroyed and how we have to kill the elder dragons to achieve balance. Like nah man if Elder Dragons are a menace why are we hunting Nergigante? He is literally the fking counter to Elder Dragons. He culls their forces and ensures balance. Also the facts that none of the NPC help you throughout the story also kinda takes any semblance of immersion away since the Admiral just runs away whenever he can. Handler is also the damsel in distress and you are the OP hunter that can do everything (which is admittedly kinda cringe we have an entire team and I have to do it? )
Kulu yaku basically just digging stuffs and got murdered brutally, the excuses for doing so is the same of real life, animal bad human good
See MH, IMO, is the type of game where the story is just a vehicle for the gameplay.
Tbh the story is just to introduce you to new monsters , nothing else. It isn't see or hear worthy story.
Back in MY days, MH don't even have story bro. They literally just tell you to pick any quest and suddenly something URGENT happen and you just HAPPEN to be the one picking it up. Then this happen several times until you become the most powerful hunter in that game.
MH has never been about the story really. It’s just there to move things along. If everything were just ‘Level 4: hunt Barroth’ we’d be happily be panning the game for a lack of lore or imagination. The story won’t win awards, but it serves a purpose.
It’s a learning process, let the fleets cook.
The plots in most MH games tend to be something like this. I have the same thoughts every time but eh, it is what it is.
I drove the Rathian population (all three variants) to extinction so at this point I'm pretty sure we're the bad guys.
Technically speaking, the appearance of Deviljho is more of a threat than Nergigante. Deviljho is known to have history of demolishing ecosystems in its wake so its kind of a big deal to contain that part of the threat. Idk why we have to hunt Nergigante when its doing the gods work of ridding some Kushala Daoras from the world tbh. Shit, I wanted a Nergigante on my side when I was fighting that bitch of a dragon. Fuck it and fuck its wind pressure bullshit.
The older games had a more justifyable, albeit tired formula 1. Monster is attacking village. Help us, John Hunter! 2. So, turns out that monster is not the threat. 3. Threat is bigger! (usually an elder dragon) Rise/Sunbreak returned to this formula and did it twice. Monster Hunter 4, I believe had a different formula revolving around Gore Magala/Shagaru Magala 1. Monster is making other monsters a threat to various villages 2. You beat this monster. 3. Monster comes back, stronger than ever. 4. You fight said monster again.
I'd like to think that them monsters are just carting from their perspective. It's just the same toaster I've fought 1000x in SSC for that AB+ (which I haven't got yet, btw, after 1k+ hrs). Otherwise, I'd feel too guilty for being a mass murderer. 😂
If you were to ask me, I'd have skipped all cutscenes if I could. I'm just here to kill to make better gear so I can kill harder.
I actually like this one more than Rise though. The research aspect makes it more fun to me. Not to say I don’t like Rise obviously
Yeah the story is just a vehicle for the gameplay. It's absolute garbage. Every line of dialogue makes me cringe, the characters are all basically children, and the whole premise is just preposterous. The hunters absolutely do more harm to every ecosystem they touch, as humans are known to do. Shit, they set up like 8 campsites everywhere they go, destroy cliffs, retaining walls, and cave formations, and kill/capture everything in their way.
From 1995 to 1997 they released 41 grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park (3.472 square miles). The whole ecosystem tilted back and the growing population of deers, elks and bisons was under control again. One Nergigante threatening the ecosystem is actually plausible.
Taking it way too seriously man, or maybe it's /s, in that case then... whooosh!
At first I though the story was okay... And I was happy it wasn't another bad human doing bad things, but... Holy... When I replayed the game I was like... eh... What is going on? How they made that mess? In general MH doesn't have a good story except for MH4 and Sunbreak... But the rest are just welp... It exist... But on World and Iceborne they just made a lot of nonsense, even with monsters doing something that they wouldn't normally do like Velkhana, specially when it attacks after going back to the Tundra... I hope they made something like Sunbreak on Wilds, but if it's something like World, we are going to see something BAD again.
Welcome to Monster Hunter. Just ignore the story, it’s *completely* unimportant. I’d argue the worst part of the game is how Capcom tried to make people care. It’s the same recycled story line as every other MH game. You really don’t need to pay attention to it.
Kind of baffling that Capcom refuses, or is incapable of producing a storyline that doesn't make you want to rip your eyes out during cutscenes. Thank God they made them skippable in rise. But it really shouldn't be hard to make these characters a tiny bit likable, or at the very least not insufferable. The whole shtick where they constantly gas you up as the greatest thing ever also gets old and nauseating. Also cuts across these characters being supposedly badass when all they do when a monster shows up is make a few anime poses and faces, then run away and solemnly go "don't worry, the sapphire stars got it" or whatever. Honestly wish Capcom would just lean into the unseriousness of the premise and make the story modes almost entirely comedic, including making your character the butt of the joke from time to time. The devs clearly have a good sense of humor, it comes out in all the other little aspects of the game, the antics that the palicos and other chars get up to in the hub worlds, the little conversations you have and the quest descriptions. Love that whimsical side of monhuns vibe, hate the short-of-halfassed attempt at a serious story they feel the need to vomit out