Really Fed Up With the Last Few Updates

[rumplstiltskin]

Dreadking Rathalos, Molten Tigrex, Gold Rathian, Silver Rathalos, and Fatalis are cautionary tales about the difference between "difficulty" and "challenge".

When I reached the endgame, I collected my dream team, gathered up most of the genes I wanted, and completed sets of weapons and armor for most elements, simply because I enjoyed playing and welcomed any goal that could give me an excuse to continue.

Starting with the arrival of Dreadking, I noticed the beginning of a frustrating trend where the enemy would get multiple attacks in a single turn and one-shot kills became more frequent. This was followed in later battles by an increasing resistance to all status effects. The variety of approaches to each battle dwindled to the point where the need to exploit every ounce of advantage became increasingly necessary.

Challenge is when the battle takes more thought, better preparation, and better strategy. Difficulty is when the battle is just harder and oftentimes more tedious so the required unbroken string of 'correct' moves is longer and therefore harder to pull off successfully. Only one of those two design approaches is actually fun.

My complaint is not even about frustration over losing. I'm sure with a bit of practice I could follow a strat guide and lean into the Evasion Riff meta to beat every monster on that list. I won battles against the early monsters in that list, but I never went back, because the experience was just not fun.

When your maxed out elemental armor doesn't stop one-shot kills, when maxed out elemental weapons are a standard requirement just to play and not a valuable edge, the game failed to deliver the same quality of experience that had been a mainstay for 95% of my playtime.

I realise I might as well have titled this post "Tell Me How Easily You Beat These Monsters With Your Eyes Closed" to better match the responses I expect. Fair enough. I don't want strategies, I'm just really disappointed with a game that I have enjoyed immensely since release and wish I could go back and stop playing before the experience went sour.

[Cig Bock]

ngl this is what i feel right now, when i first fight the molten tigrex i was like, "ah shoot, its extreme behemoth all over again", as if the red eyes mizutsune wasnt enough. so as a casual i stopped doing the new quest cz i feel like i need to have the best gear and monsties in the game to get me back to the level of my previous experience. thankfully tho, they made the new eggs available offline

[ᔑᓭ∴ᔑリ⊣]

it's not like there are many things they could do to make things more difficult, though then again... i probably would've preferred maybe some more pattern recognition using the actual attacks instead of all this lol
i tried to fight the mizu deviant, died once and instantly gave up xD just way too tired to deal with that. (then again i did accidently paralyse it literally the entire fight, holy hell that was so annoying) i haven't completely meta-fied myself or my monsties but i did put a lot of effort into them still and.. yeah. it's like there was no point

[DLOZanma]

You're right but why are you fighting coop monsters solo?

[Nihrahk]

Originally posted by DLOZanma:

You're right but why are you fighting coop monsters solo?

Probably because the region lock can make it difficult to find people.

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by DLOZanma:

You're right but why are you fighting coop monsters solo?

It may be turn-based now but it's still Monster Hunter. This has always been something that you could do for the challenge (or because you can't be bothered to pay for the stuff that would let you do multiplayer).

[76561198378545136]

uhhhh mbe take a break and play somethin else??

[HeraldOfOpera]

Seriously though, I burnt through an alarming number of Ancient Potions for these fights while Reverto and my Monstie chipped them to death. It worked but it felt dirty (and probably won't with the super-Fatalis because of the turn limit)

[fireandchaos]

I know the feeling I got to the 2nd Fatalis fight, through a unreasonably large amount of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ luck, Die, around 4 time every time I tried it no matter how strong/maxed out any of my gear or monsters were, I even got my character, monsters and AI allies to level 99, still died around 16 more times before I just gave up. If it is possible to beat it you probably need cheats or something.

[Nihrahk]

Originally posted by fireandchaos:

I know the feeling I got to the 2nd Fatalis fight, through a unreasonably large amount of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ luck, Die, around 4 time every time I tried it no matter how strong/maxed out any of my gear or monsters were, I even got my character, monsters and AI allies to level 99, still died around 16 more times before I just gave up. If it is possible to beat it you probably need cheats or something.

It's more than possible, but most would need to cheese it really bad. That being two people with Aptonoth taking turns using its kinship attack.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by DLOZanma:

You're right but why are you fighting coop monsters solo?

Some people including me have the issue with enormous delays in multiplayer, like it's not even worth even attempting multiplayer when I'm gonna get 15-20 second delays after each turn, and a fight takes an extra 3 minutes per 10 turns just from "waiting".

These monsters are beatable solo, they're just not fun fights.

Originally posted by Nihrahk:

It's more than possible, but most would need to cheese it really bad. That being two people with Aptonoth taking turns using its kinship attack.

Some combo of aptonoths, evasion riffs, etc is the only consistent/reliable strategy. It's pointless even trying to formulate another strategy. It's not difficult if a single cheese gimmick wins, at best it's simply tedious, and not worth doing more than once or twice.

[AH-1 Cobra]

I already beat everything, but what I will say is this game did leave a sour taste, because the multiplayer is completely broken for me, meaning it's not even remotely playable with 20 second delays after turns, so the end game content was all once and done for me, and I can't say I liked the end stuff enough to ever redo it. Also, randoms online are extremely terrible at the game, like there's no point even trying to team with them. I'll take Kyle or Reverto, they're actually better than 80% of randos, even if you don't factor in 20 second delays after turns.

They seriously screwed up with multiplayer in this game, I feel like that not only is it bad, but I don't think it could be much worse. Region lock, huge delays after turns = complete garbage net coding. Like, whoever was responsible for the net coding in this game should go bag groceries at Kroger, or take a job cleaning toilets in the office or a similar job that's more fitting for their intelligence and capabilities, because net coding is clearly above their mental capacities. People doing net coding who shouldn't be anywhere near a keyboard at work. They should have a broom in their hand, or a scrubber, or bags and groceries.

Ultimately, a game is only as good as the last impression it leaves you, and for MH stories 2, this is for sure a once-and-done game for me. Meaning it has zero potential for a replay even 10 years from now. I'm debating just getting the game removed from my library to be perfectly honest, I don't even want to see it on my list.

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by Nihrahk:

Originally posted by DLOZanma:

You're right but why are you fighting coop monsters solo?

Probably because the region lock can make it difficult to find people.

they put a region lock? why though...

[Dragon Protector]

ya im a casual player to and every game that got elements and needing elemental advantage I hate. I just wanna use the ones i like the most on my team! I dont care about oh this one weak to that and blah blah blah

[Nihrahk]

Originally posted by Gadzooks:

Originally posted by Nihrahk:

Probably because the region lock can make it difficult to find people.

they put a region lock? why though...

I can't answer that. It's just a stupid decision that they made which forced people who mod to fix it.

Originally posted by Dragon Protector:

ya im a casual player to and every game that got elements and needing elemental advantage I hate. I just wanna use the ones i like the most on my team! I dont care about oh this one weak to that and blah blah blah

You never need a specific element for any fight. Elements at most makes some fights easier, but they are never a requirement. You can run a full fire, thunder or non elemental team and you'd do just fine.