Imagine dragons: What's new with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate? | Technobubble

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UPDATE: Got our Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate review up, y'all. Read it for our full take on the latest iteration of the Monster Hunter franchise. For newcomers to the series, we've also compiled the handy, dandy "Hunting 101: 17 tips for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate newbies" guide. Check it out to brush up on your monster hunting skills. For you hungry, hungry hunters, I posted "Monster Feast: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate canteen food upgrade guide." Yum. Want more? I added a guide to upgrading the Wyporium cart and fishing machine plus a guide to key quests for the village and Gathering Hall as well as Guild Quests at the Everwood. Now go and get huntin'!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Nearly a year and a half since "Monster Hunter 4" made landfall on Japanese shores, players in the West finally get their turn at the latest installment via its upgraded "4G" version as "Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate" arrives on the Nintendo 3DS.

As someone who actually likes to play the Japanese versions of the series to get an early start to my hunting, I've logged in lots of quality time with the series' fourth numbered installment even before my English review copy arrived.

If you haven't played the series since "Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate" for the 3DS and Wii U, here are some of the key changes or additions from the latest release:

Hello, Interwebs: Online implementation of "Monster Hunter" on portable consoles always has been an inelegant beast, to say the least. From the need to use XLink Kai or Adhoc party and even "MH3U's" requirement of piggybacking with a Wii U in order for a 3DS to connect online, connecting with players who aren't right next to you was a bit of a hassle. With "MH4U," however, those days are history. You can now connect online with your 3DS system even without a Wii U. Hooray for progress.

Up, down, turn around: Please don't let me hit the ground... Yep, I love the '80s. Gameplay gets a lot more verticality thanks to changes in terrain. "MH4U" drops the underwater battles introduced in "Monster Hunter Tri," which is either good news or bad news depending on how much Lagiacrus rocked you like a hurricane while submerged in the watery depths. In exchange, maps now feature uneven terrain as well as overhanging surfaces made from webbing or vines.

You also can move horizontally when climbing walls and dash climb, too. The result is the aforementioned extra verticality with gameplay on land as well as some fun new mechanics.

Smack a monster hard enough while it's standing on a soft overhanging surface, for example, and it can get stuck. This allows you to get free hits while it's unable to move and also deal more extra damage if it falls down to the ground on its back.

Just be careful of uneven terrain as it can impede or redirect your roll, allowing charging monsters to hit you. On the plus side, running downward over uneven terrain lets you jump, which leads us to the next addition.

Why yes, this is my first rodeo: New to the series is the ability to mount boss monsters whether it be smaller ones like Great Jaggi or ginormous beasts such as Gravios. How do you do it? Well, inflict enough damage on a monster via mid-air attacks, for example, and you can start ridin' dirty.

You can do air attacks either by jumping off uneven terrain or vaulting with an insect glaive or lance and using your weapon in mid-air. This will eventually initiate a mounting mini-game where you alternate between stabbing a monster in the back a la Brutus or holding for dear life when it tries to shake you off.

You'll want to memorize the monsters' patterns and time everything right as holding too long drains stamina while attacking too much will make you lose your grasp, both leading to failure. Personally, I always press down the R button to hold even when I'm stabbing as this allows me to quickly activate the hold mechanic when I stop attacking. Remember, a green monster icon means it's OK to go to town on a monster's back while any other color equates to holding R and hanging for dear life.

Succeed with the mini-game and the monster will fall on its back for a bit, allowing you to land free hits. Word of advice, do not hit a monster while a teammate is mounting as it will cause the mount to fail if you deal enough damage. Just sharpen your weapon, pop a potion, dance, whatever, as long as you don't hit the monster.

Take two ... more weapons: Say hello to the insect glaive/kinsect staff and the charge blade. Both aren't as straightforward as some of the other weapons but can pay dividends once you understand how to use them.

The new glaive essentially is a staff with a bug attached to it. You can attack with the staff without ever using the bug but that just gimps yourself. Instead, you need to shoot out the bug toward a monster to siphon its essence. In the case of large boss monsters, hitting certain body parts with the bug allows you to harvest either red, white, orange or green essence. Doing so either will boost your attack, speed and defense or even heal you and give you earplugs. Ideally, you'll want to get red, white and orange at the same time for the best overall boost. Otherwise, try to at least get red and white together as that boosts your attack and speed or even just red thanks to the improved combo it gives on both land and air.

The Charge Blade, on the other hand, is a bit like the Switch Axe in that it transforms between two weapons — a sword and shield mode and an axe mode. The key is to take advantage of its charging and phials to either, say, strengthen your defense or deliver a powerful attack at the opportune time that can dizzy a monster if it lands on the head. Regardless, both are quite fun when you get used to them.

Going viral: Thanks to some weird, dark virus, monsters can now be whipped into a frenzy with buffed up stats and more erratic movement. Hunters can be infected as well, which affects recovery and defense during battle. If a hunter overcomes the virus in time, however, he or she gets a nice stat boost (yay).

Unfortunately, the same theory applies to creatures, too, leading to the game's new "extreme" monsters. These beasts are even stronger and faster than their frenzied counterparts and can cause attacks to bounce, including, yep, bullets, unless you use a special cleansing stone. Oy vey.

Guild quests: Instead of free hunts, you can now do expeditions in special maps that allow you to unlock special hunts and also find excavated gear. These special hunts can be leveled up to unlock better weapon and armor rewards, but they can also make the monsters stronger at higher levels. A LOT stronger. Add frenzied and extreme states to the mix and you've got arguably the toughest hunts in the series to date.

On the plus side, the addition of G-Rank gear has now narrowed the gap between crafted weapons and armor vs. excavated ones. The latter still get the gaudiest stats but the difference is not as pronounced as it was in the original Monster Hunter 4, making crafted gear viable for end game once again.

Caravan hijinks: Instead of staying in a set location, you now travel to different locals via caravan. Overall, it isn't a huge change in the grand scheme of things as you still help locals with their monster issues and your traveling crew comprises of staples such as a cook, blacksmith and counter lady. It does streamline resource acquisition via the duplicating cart and you also get a fishing mini-game which is more interactive and makes getting stuff like Scatterfish for your barrel bombs easier with the right cat skills. Add a felyne monster hunting mini-game for cat armor mats and there's lots of stuff to do.

Overall, I'd say this is the most well-rounded Monster Hunter game to date. It does a great job of easing in newcomers while also providing challenging stuff for hardcore hunters. Also stay tuned at Technobubble for my full Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate review closer to the game's release date.