The two biggest additions Monster Hunter Generations are definitely the introductions of the styles and Hunter Arts. After spending a lot of time playing around with these new features, though, I found myself having mixed feelings. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how they add to the formula in exciting ways, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the feeling that they also take away from the experience too. The double-edged nature of the new mechanics actually may make them one of the most interesting additions the Monster Hunter franchise has ever had.
I’ve always felt that Monster Hunter is a franchise that has established its identity primarily through its mechanics and how it is paced. Although there are other games that use the same basic ideas as Monster Hunter, none of them have ever really felt like they captured the same feelings I get while playing it. I’d attribute this to two main factors: patience and deliberate movements. In their own ways, the new styles and Hunter Arts lessen the importance of both in favor of bridging the gap between Monster Hunter and flashy action games like the ones made by Platinum or Capcom themselves.
Now there aren’t Witch Time dodges, Smokin’ Sick combos, or anything else like that, but after playing with the new mechanics I couldn’t help but think the game is going in that direction. Don’t get me wrong, using the new styles and arts in Monster Hunter Generations still feel like playing Monster Hunter, but it’s a Monster Hunter torn between two worlds.
For example, the style that really appealed to me at the start was Adept. Adept focuses on counter-attacks. By either dodging or parrying (if your weapon allows it) a monster’s attack, you can avoid damage and follow up with a dash into a buffed counter-attack. My issue is that it makes avoiding a lot of monster attacks a little too trivial.
The in-game description describes the counters as difficult to pull off, but honestly I found the timing windows to be pretty lenient. It’s extremely cool to be able to parry a flurry of an Arzuros’s strikes, but it’s missing some of the nuance avoiding attacks have the old-fashioned way. A big part of the normal way of fighting monster is being able to recognize their “tells” and adjust your position accordingly.
Dodge rolls and dives can only give so many invincibility frames, so making sure you’re out of harm’s way for any follow-ups is just as important as avoiding the initial attack. With Adept, every attack can dodged with pretty easy timing and the dash that follows can be used to both widen or close the gap fairly easily as needed, removing a lot of the deliberate positioning and patience normally required in having to learn how a monster fights.
The Aerial style is all about aggression, adding a hop to every hunter’s arsenal no matter what weapon they use. Previously the ability to hop from everywhere was purely for the Insect Glaive, and while it similarly focused on aggression it had limits. In order to really to make a significant impact, a Glaive user still had to stop every once and a while to refill their Kinsect buffs by firing it at various parts of the monster. Not only did this require a degree of deliberate precision to make sure you got the right buffs, but it also required patience. Most other weapons don’t that same kind of limitation, so it’s open season on hopping and mounting monsters as much as possible.
What keeps the Adept and Aerial styles still grounded enough to make the game feel like Monster Hunter are that they have learning curves and downsides. The dash after a dodge with the Adept style takes some getting used to and won’t always put you into an advantageous position. The Aerial style takes away the invincible dodge roll which emphasizes the need to be more wary of attack ranges, and the jumping itself can take some getting used to in terms of aiming your hits. Especially in the practice arena against the Great Maccao, I noticed that landing Aerial attacks on smaller monsters can be difficult.
But while the styles still have Monster Hunter-esque learning curves and trade-offs, I can’t say the same for the Hunter Arts. The Hunter Arts can be used by any of the styles (although it’s most emphasized with the Striker style which allows access to three at a time) and they go a little too far.
The Absolute Evasion skill unleashes a completely invincible, long-lasting dodge in whatever direction you’re facing, and it charges quickly to boot. Some weapon specific skills like one for the Insect Glaive will automatically fill up all of the Kinsect buffs immediately, which virtually removes half of the idea of playing the weapon. They seem like get out of jail free cards, more like crutches to bypass elements of the game to be mastered than legitimate mechanics. They open up a lot of crazy possibilities that are fun to mess around with, but whenever I use them I can’t help but feel like they aren’t really what Monster Hunter is about.
I don’t want to sound too negative, though. Overall, I enjoy the changes the different styles and Hunter Arts bring to the table, but they make me wonder about the future of Monster Hunter. They’re unique additions that I don’t mind for one game, but at the same time they feel like experiments whose elements may be taken and implemented into a theoretical Monster Hunter 5. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but it will be interesting to see if that new game manages to capture the feel of the series better than I think the styles in Monster Hunter Generations do currently.
