Review: Monster Hunter Freedom 2

This will be the second game review on my blog. Just like before this review will be written with the same rule as before; Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, and Learning Curve. For most who might have known if you had visit my blog frequently, this is the one and only game which I have been playing for the past month.

This time I am gonna start with the Gameplay aspect. For those who love to built their character and depend solely on raw skill to take down a huge monster in a game, instead of using the button prompting system of God of War, this is the game for you. With a couple thousand pieces of armor in the game and 11 types (10 if you consider light and heavy bowgun to be the same) of weapon classes to choose from. This is how customizable your character can be. The weapon you choose will determine how you play the game. With a longsword for example, you have no option for defending and it has a short period of delay in between each attack, but this is made up for by higher damage. Whereas, if you are using a lance, defending is vital for survival. It's a matter of preference to how you want to play this game.

Running around with a scissors might cause you t o lose an eye, imagine what might happen to this fella....

While playing this game, you will noticed that playing alone is not as easy or as fun as playing with a friend. Network play is the best way to solve your problem. Although none of your friend has a PSP, you can still go online to look for friends by using a USB Wifi Max Dongle(plugged into a PC of course). Playing with another player is both entertaining and simpler. Imagine your friend setting a trap while you lure the wyvern into it. Although once in a while there can be some accidental moment where for example, you might detonate a bomb in front of your friends face but that would probably make it even more hilarious.

There are a couple of modes in the game which coul d keep you busy for a very very very long time. For the basics there are gathering, delivering and hunting. But as you progress into the game, defending the fort quest will be unlocked. Besides that there are also some treasure hunting quest, and probably the most "challenging" one would be the training school. In the training school, you are given a set of armor and weapons and you would have to take down those monster using all the provide items. For me, I personally think that the training school is a tad bit too tough but it is completely optional (although you do get some rare stuff at the end and I heard it will also unlock the strongest dragon in the game).

See you later Mr. Dragon!
(click on it to watch it move)

Besides that, what is most fun about this game is that you can really get a great sense of achievement taking down one of those behemoth in game. Some of this fight can last up to half an hour and in the end nothing is more rewarding than watching this giants fall flat on the ground. For all this, I will give the gameplay a 9.0/10.0 rating

Go show that dragon whose boss.

Next Graphic, there is a noticeable difference in how the game looks if compared with the previous game. Undeniably, the graphics can still be better but Capcom has done a good enough improvement. The characters and actors all are nicely rendered. You can even see the vein on the monsters if you look hard enough.

Of course, since it is on the PSP, you would not hope to be seeing shiny effects all over the place. As always the shiny stuff, always has a price for it. As so, it might not appeal to some people who prefer a lot of eye candy. Therefore just to be fair, I would rate a 7.5/10, for the in game graphics.

For the Sound, the in game background music is always suitable to every map you are in. What I like the most is that, when there is a boss in the map, there will be a battle music, as if to arouse your senses into fighting mode. The music for the defending the fort quests are also really grand and just make you feel the tension during that moment. All in all, the BGM always blend to the situation and the environment and it really makes you feel really absorbed into the game.

Yet there are some parts of the voice acting that needs to be said about. It would have been better if they were actually speaking some form of English instead of random gibberish. This isn't much of a complain rather it is a comment.

The sound of blade cutting into the flesh of your opponent sounds really "satisfying" and all the sound that these weapon should made are exactly what we want to hear. Like unsheathing a sword will cause a sharp iron sound (obviously I do not know what that sound is called) which lets you know this is a cold hard steel blade and not a wooden hammer. So for the Sound I would give it a 8.5/10.0

Lastly, is the Learning Curve,as a hardcore gamer( I assume I am) I would say that using the first 10 hours or so to learn up the game mechanics is no big deal. For the casual gamers though, this game is seriously not recommended as you would probably get bored of the game even before the juicy part surfaces.

There is a lot to know about the game, such as how different weapons work, armor skills, cooking, fishing, combining, and a heck lot more. This is probably the downfall of the game because there are really few instructions in game other than the manuals which they have provided and believe me it would take you an hour to two just to read up on everything. Most of the time (at least for myself), I would run straight out into a quest and learn everything by myself. Sometimes this can be really tough as you find out that actually doing this will cause something else to happen and all.

Even fighting monsters is a chore, you have to know where they are the weakest, their pattern of attack, which parts of the body you can break and cut off (there are a lot of FAQ out there for this of course). For the fast learner though, this game might just take a couple of hours to pick up. This game is probably all about asking around in forums and such. Even though I have been playing like 200 hours perhaps, I still have a lot of stuff which needs to be clarified. That is why I will give a 6.5/10.0 for this part of the review.

So overall rating is 8.0/10.0 for the game, definitely I would recommend it to as many people as possible because I would seriously want more people to play with. XD