Complete Review of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

What is Monster hunter freedom unite?

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for the PSP is a game for the PSP platform. It was out in the rest of the world in spring 2009 (June 22 on America).

It is an adventure game that focuses on battling huge monsters. The game is a huge hit in Japan since Monster Hunter Freedom 1. This has been the third iteration of the series which is just an addon or bonus content over Monster Hunter Freedom 2.

The games’ content can be played over 500 hours of enjoyment, frustrations, and everything you would want in a adventure-hunting-game with dragon-like monsters.

If you have played the rest of the Monster Hunter games over the PSP, here are the changelog of the new game.

New Features/Gameplay Changes
• New Felyne Fighter system to aid soloing Hunters.
• Eight equipment pages instead of six, and possible extension to 10.
• New Guild Card pages: a) Felyne Fighter Info. b) Frequency of Use of Weapon Types. c) *Recording of your recent activity.
• You can now hold up to 99 of each item type in your box.
• You can now store up to 20 equipment sets.
• New sets of Felyne Kitchen Skills, e.g. "Felyne Dance" (boosts stats on every gesture involving "Dance").
• Extra gathering spots for bug catching and ore mining featuring new Ores and Insects.
• Buy your items and send it to the Item Box.
• Directly combine items inside the Item Box.
• New hairstyles.
• New Starter Clothes.
• Able to change clothes via the bookshelf.
• Media Install System that speeds up loading times.
• Skip long opening animation scenes with SELECT. (Lao Shan, Fatalis etc..)
• Trenya can now be sent for 1500 Points
• Trenya can be sent to the Great Forest.
And on the New equipment features

New Equipment Features
• New armor sets & series after U & S, the X & Z.
• Dual Swords do more damage instead of double.
• Dual Swords may now have two separate elements (example: one fire sword and one ice sword, like Twin Nails).
• New Bow coatings: Close range coating (White vial that increases damage like a shotgun, closer the better) and Paint Coating (Pink vial that functions like a Paintball)
• Hunting Horns have a new note function that works like a Sonic Bomb (Triple yellow note).
• New Sharpness superior to white: purple.
• New Weapons (G weapons & new monster weapons).
• Some weapons get further improvements. (e.g Blue Blade Bow has Charge level 4, etc.)
• Some weapons gets "Nerfed" like Akantor Bow having Decrement of 300 Raw power & 200 into 252 Raw power & 160 Dragon element & others. This can be fixed by upgrading into a HR 9 version of them.
• New armor spheres: King (Royal in US version) Armor Sphere & True Armor Sphere.
• All types of armor sphere can now be made by combining.

New Monsters, Subspecies & Features
• New subspecies: Plum D. Hermitaur, Terra Shogun Ceanataur, Emerald Congalala, and Copper Blangonga.
• One-Horned Diablos quest added as a Level 9 Elder Cat Quest.
• Old monsters get new attacks & different attack reactions (Such as predicting Teostra's Powder explosion via color of the particle, etc.).
• New monsters: Narugakuruga, Yama Tsukami (Prior Monster Hunter 2), Queen Vespoid, Ukanlos(Ucamulbas), King Shakalaka, and Hypnocatrice.
• Monster Hunter Frontier monsters are carried over to this game like: Hypnocatrice & Lavasioth.
• New & Harder addition of Rare materials: Divine Plates, Elder Dragon Jewel (HR 9 version of Fire Dragon Jewel, Daora Jewel & Chameleos Jewel) and Ukanlos Divine Jewel.
• New sets of skills and some are exclusive to a specific armor set where it can't be gotten from decorations.

New Monsters, Subspecies & Features
• New subspecies: Plum D. Hermitaur, Terra Shogun Ceanataur, Emerald Congalala, and Copper Blangonga.
• One-Horned Diablos quest added as a Level 9 Elder Cat Quest.
• Old monsters get new attacks & different attack reactions (Such as predicting Teostra's Powder explosion via color of the particle, etc.).
• New monsters: Narugakuruga, Yama Tsukami (Prior Monster Hunter 2), Queen Vespoid, Ukanlos(Ucamulbas), King Shakalaka, and Hypnocatrice.
• Monster Hunter Frontier monsters are carried over to this game like: Hypnocatrice & Lavasioth.
• New & Harder addition of Rare materials: Divine Plates, Elder Dragon Jewel (HR 9 version of Fire Dragon Jewel, Daora Jewel & Chameleos Jewel) and Ukanlos Divine Jewel.
• New sets of skills and some are exclusive to a specific armor set where it can't be gotten from decorations.

We’ll if you haven’t played any of the series yet, this might get you a nosebleed, trust me, I did on the first time I read it. BUT there is always some shortcomings to the game that still is really genuinely annoying especially when the game has monsters that have 1-2 hit kills.

Gameplay

The gameplay can be summed up as very very hard. The core gameplay is the same and unique to the series. It is a “survive and kill a monster over 30 minutes each mission”.

On the first Missions, You will be appointed to just collect items over areas to familiarize yourself with the maps but after that, it will be purely hunting and killing. Sometimes you will be doing fishing quests like looking for some Goldenfish.

Graphics

The graphics over a handheld is arguably one of the best looking graphics comparable to God of War on the PSP. Every detail is really great and handled well on a portable platform.

It has no hitches in framerates. You’ll have a steady fluid gameplay even when there is a huge monster on your face. However there are also graphical glitches which I think is due to the PSP’s hardware limitations, for example, the huge elder dragon Lao Shan Lung has glitches on its shadows like it was a visualization preset over Winamp.

Also, even with the old forest map, it has some lining glitch down the waterfalls on the camp area.

Other than that, everything is nice and shiny

Multiplayer

4 Player quests are like cheating. The monster is definitely destroyed and flinches all the time, meaning it’s not really that good to have 4 people in terms of game difficulty but its fun altogether.

• Suited for hardcore Mmorpg players

If you are a fan of Mmo’s , you’ll probably give this more time than other gamers. This has the essential things you need in terms of item count and the feel of a deep in content game.

Good points of the game

• Depth

I have sunk 320 hours of gameplay just to reach Hunter Rank 9. In all seriousness, it is one of the best games on the psp to date.

• Felyn Ally

The ally is one of the additions of Unite that is somewhat ok for a partner. Most of the time, it can deviate attacks of monsters to your ally. These cats have laughable attack and really just a buddy over your single player missions. But often it really annoys you in your early gaming with those bombs always accidentally aimed at you.

• Tons of Items and Equipment

Let’s put it this way, if you want to get an ancient potion, you need lots of things. First, you need a honey and a bitterbug to create a catalyst which is then mixed to a dragon toadstool to make an Immunizer which is then mixed with a Kelbi horn to finally get an ancient potion…

Usually, this is the case for making high-grade items to fill up your health and stamina bars. There are likely many items for you to combine and making better success rates with combo books.

Equipment is unlocked every time you defeat a new or higher ranked monster. All the gears are all manufactured from the town blacksmith. Just try it out and see how deep equips are.

• Plenty of strategy

There are more than 10 types of weapons in the game, you can choose what you like and some have advantages over other monsters, some only have support features which are good for multiplayer. Monsters also appear to act differently with the weapon you use. For example, the Plesioth which is a fish-like dragon monster stays longer on the ground with long-range weapons like bows and bowguns.

Also, it is easier to kill the crab boss monsters in the game with dual swords. You can easily see the lifebar with cwcheat deplete so low with this albeit sacrificing sharpness too soon.

With the longswords, you can easily chop down the tails of monsters which a long range weapon or a hammer cannot do. Each has its own advantages and strategy to plan out. With the new monster Narga, you can basically have a hard time defeating it with the best you’ve got.

• New monsters

The description but not the images are copy pasted to another source. I will not modify it as it has the complete information to what new monsters are all about.

















•Nargacuga - very similar to a Tigrex, a pseudowyvern. However, the Nargacuga is tenacious, extremely aggressive and has a prehensile tail (which acts like a fifth limb) full of spikes which it uses as a sort of club, slamming it at the hunter. It is found in the 'Great Forest' area. Nargacuga is vulnerable to fire and thunder attributed weapons.
















•Hypnocatrice - a medium sized, brown bird wyvern, which expels a sleeping gas. It is related to the Yian Kut-Ku. It is even faster than the Kut-Ku, due to it's "stomping" attack, and is a formidable foe to first-time hunters. It has a razor sharp beak, which can be broken. It is found in "Great Forest" area.
















•Yama Tsukami - an enormous octopus-like monster which is constantly levitating. It is only found in the "Tower" area, and has no element, but is definitely a force to be reckoned with. It mostly attacks with its arms, but can also produce great thunderbugs at will. It is weakest against dragon attributed weapons.
















•Ukanlos - an icy, partially aquatic pseudowyvern; the polar opposite to Akantor. It is roughly the same size as Akantor, and is based on mostly brute strength attacks, just like Akantor. However, it also has ice atributed attacks, including an attack similar to that of the Primatius, Blangonga, which is flicking ice blocks into the air with its enormous jaw. It also has a sort of diving attack. This attack is hard to avoid for inexperienced players but avoidable. Ukanlos is only available in the 'Glacier' areas. It's quest is the highest paid in the entire Monster Hunter universe.
















•Volcansioth or Lavasioth- a piscine similar to the Plesioth; the "Volcano Wyvern". It has a rock-like shell with scales layered with cooled magma, which enable it to swim through lava. It most likely has the same moves as the Plesioth. Found in the 'Volcano' area. Due to it being a polar opposite to the Plesioth, their weakness are different (Plesioth is a water attributed piscine, weak against thunder. Volcansioth is a fire attributed piscine, weak against water).
















•Alternative monsters - As well as all of the monsters which are already featured in the game, it is also known that there will be a Copper Blangonga, in the 'Desert' area, a "Emerald Congalala" in the 'Jungle' and in the 'Swamp' area, a "Plum Daimyo Hermitaur" in the 'Desert' and 'Jungle' areas and a Terra S.Ceanataur in the 'Swamp' and 'Volcano' areas. (New names Sourced from Minegarde Forums)

• New places

Rainforest Map – The game calls it great forest

Rant Part

So you wanted to play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for the PSP. There are mixed feelings for the game and other thing we will address later on.

There are tons of rants that you can always instantly get frustrated on. Given the level of difficulty of the game is nearly impossible sometimes to beat, just try Tigrex with a heavy bowgun and you may break your PSP after a few tries due to frustration. But anyway, here are the things that need to be addressed and really just needs common sense as for many gamers out there.

No Transparency on vegetation and other things in your sight – This is really annoying sometimes. Just try the Forest and Hills Map which is just a rehashed map on the first iteration will make you blind if you look at a monster and a bush is on your back, oh yes, you will only see the bush and nothing else, making you blind and open for any attacks from those pesky monsters and miniscule devils like Bullfangos that will annoy you to no end.

• Sometimes or always retarded AI

Firstly, I would think Unite was used to be in conjunction with the felyn companion during battle but there are some problems with it. The first would be the dumbest thing, it stares at your face when you have a bowgun and aiming towards the enemy, making you hit the cat rather than the enemy. Oh yeah, it will easily stand back and get to your f*cking face again to be blasted yet again to annoy you more, as you may know, MHFU is really scarce on bullets so everything counts, but when your cat f*cks up your ammo, its really annoying.

Also, with the cat being on your side, it will sometimes throw bombs on your face. Capcom, wtf? Do you know anything about removing friendly fire? It’s an NPC character for cripes’ sake, I’d be okay for human players but those annoying pussies are on the way to blast you a few times in a slaying mission.

Unrelated species of monsters team up to kill you. What in the f*cking hell Capcom!? During a mission, you will always see one of the dumbest things that negate common sense, imagine a huge crab monster Daimyo Hermitaur that is being helped by a conga which is of an ape-like species. They team up and kill you even if the minions are hit with friendly fire, it will still be you that they will target. In nature, no animals of different type would help each other to kill their prey or have a common enemy. What in the world Capcom? At least let us see minions fighting against the boss for the sake of common sense.

• Next up, really-really sluggish movements

Yes, if you have played a couple of slaying missions in Monster Hunter, you could always think of how retardedly slow a character consumes items. Here are some of the cringing things that would need to be remedied.

Why in the world would you still pat your belly after eating a steak when you are aware of a 50-foot monster is on your back knowing you will be killed in any moment? With the utterly stupid sh*t capcom implements with their AI programming, The remedy? Of course you need to eat faster when you are aware of Akantor will squish you any moment if you delay and pat your belly for mothef*cking common sense.

Also, when you are aware that you are near a monster, even with being a veteran that killed hundreds of monsters, your character will still run like a pussy and eventually deplete your stamina bar in a flash.

• Near Impossible difficulty

2-3 hits and you die – This game is so punishing that you will even die in just less than a few headcharges, sometimes even with just a single hit. With a 400 defense in armor, you will die easily, so you just use the mega potion or any healing items again and getting you attacked again.

• You are not worthy to have a map, only a part of it.

Yes, Capcom doesn’t want to give you a map and they think it’s a good idea. When you have reached over 50 hours or so in the game, missions won’t give you supplies and map item. And they think sacrificing your precious jewel slots on armors would be okay to put in the map jewel to give you back the map on your screen. You will be given supplies as well as the map when the monster is almost dead, making it worthless and really retarded. You will see a blip on the screen when you paintballed a monster, even if you know where it is, It can be really retarded to follow the monster precisely.

• Monsters have no health gauge bar

Yes, this is one of the few games where bosses don’t have any health bar that you can see its damage taken. This can be remedied over Cwcheat app on the PSP. But anyway, it is crucial especially for the mainstream gamers to begin appreciating the joy and essence of playing a Monster Hunter game.

• Tedious Monster Marking

It seems that Capcom too wants to have you do the dirty job every time with Paintballing monsters to see where they are or else you’ll be running around for 2 minutes over nothing. Even with repeated quests, you cannot really know the next area where the monster might be unless you marked them with your pink balls of boredom. Also, the paintballs effect would fade their use after 2 to 3 times a monster changed areas, making you do it all over again.

Additional Thoughts

So even with these negative points, is the game still worth playing? Let me just say “F.. Yes! It is not common to see a gem in a portable platform anytime lately. These are the words coming from a real gamer and not from a pussy-barbie-doll-playing casual gamer. I play COD4 multiplayer for the PC now and has been a gamer since I was 3 years old.

It may be a game for people wanting endless punishment. But things that are very satisfying like killing a monster in 50 minutes and you have tried ten times already.

• Reception All over the Net:

The game has been critiqued-scored for over 8 out of 10. Usually it is rated 9 to 10 especially for veteran players.

There is however one site which gave the game a very low score of 6.5 out of 10. It is probably they haven’t played monster hunter over a few days and only wanting to play with their dolls or something.

• As a Gunner

I went to the Gunner pathway and chose to be a heavy bowgun user and later transitioned to a light bowgun user. As everybody has their own tastes, I liked the damage it can inflict to enemies in a short time. But the game as you may also see, it is irritatingly difficult so you need to pick up 1 weapon and master it to get the best playing advantage.