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A Monster Hunter's Journey | Generational Retrospective

Published on Wed, Apr 10th 2024 Gaming Rectangular HD

Obliterating the Last Vestiges of my Personhood with Monster Hunter

I was tasked with looking back at every generation of Monster Hunter. This is an impossible job, at least without taking years to produce a video, so I went with a core entry per generation, and played extra games where necessary. MH1 for gen 1, Dos for gen 2, Tri for gen 3, MH4U (though the ultimate games originated in the 3rd gen) because 4U represents a pretty obvious shift for the series, and that conceit is maximized with Generations Ultimate, then finished Worldborne and Risebreak for gen 5. At the very least, I'm excited for Monster Hunter Wilds now!

Most of my most deranged projects happen because I wrote a couple of words down on a list of goals, and hit them one by one, entirely unaware of what Kingdom Hearts, Drakengard, Persona, Xeno, and now, Monster Hunter, would be like. This experience in longform demento-videos has fundamentally altered my perspective on video games, and helped me develop a whole language to discuss games I otherwise wouldn't have. It's been a rough journey, but you don't set out to get better expecting to land every step without failure. You trip, you fall, you get back up, and you keep on. Thanks so much to everyone who came out to support the show. I'll do some kind of poll-project again, but for now I need some time to unwind =_="

I have 2 regrets - not showing off the palicos in Generations Ultimate and not showing off the Hadoken I got smacked by from behind knocking me off a cliff by another player.

COME CHILL:
https://www.patreon.com/kbash
https://twitter.com/KBashShow

SPECIAL THANKS:
Gato Nero who recorded a bunch of extra footage for the video!
Cosa for gifting the 5th gen games!
Everyone else I've crossed paths with during this project - it means the world. MONSTER HUNTER WORLD GET IT

Additional sourced footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWmQnKTFxPM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3dN8MivSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTGl2jIoDmI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBvbX1-70MI

Music:
Honestly it's just Monster Hunter soundtracks and the Napple Tale OST

CHAPTERS:
0:00 setting out
5:25 the foundation (MH1)
33:05 the expansion (Dos + Portable Games)
56:56 the culmination (Tri)
01:20:08 the shift (MH4U+GenUlt)
01:59:13 the new era (Worldborne/Risebreak)

How do you tackle Monster Hunter meaningfully? With a Monster Hunter Retrospective? A review, or analysis, or critique? Do regular viewers differentiate between those words? Does it matter? Monster Hunter is an action rpg functionally, but completely unique in its genre classification - it invented the Monster Hunter vibe, and spawned Toukiden and God Eater. It's a story of cultural penetration told through incredible detail work and dignifying the creatures it presents, something relatively unseen in video games. Monster Hunter Wilds is primed for bestseller status, even if the community is divided on the direction of the games. It's important to remember that World and Rise represent a total paradigm shift, and Wilds will likely take the sensibilities established in World and run with them. Playing through the games, I'm actually excited to play a modern Monster Hunter game - you know, see what they do with the formula - but even excited to play through Stories and Frontier one day. I'm not about to do them for fun, not any time soon, but I can see the value in the series now.

#monsterhunter #monhun #retrospective #monsterhunterworld #monsterhunterrise #monsterhunterwilds