Kotaku: Why Monster Hunter is popular in Japan (and struggles everywhere else)

  • Thread starter Deleted_171835
  • Start date
  • Views 1,839
  • Replies 18
D

Deleted_171835

Guest
OP
Due to the nature of the game's multi-player system, particularly with the PSP and 3DS, when playing with others, you will almost invariably be playing with someone you know—more often than not, a friend. Most people seem to get their introduction to the game from the people around them. "My boss talked me into playing [Monster Hunter 3rd]" says Ryouhei, a 24 year-old clerk who would spend hours after work huddled together with his co-workers. "It's fun to work together with friends towards a mutual goal."

Part of why the game is more popular in Japan probably has once again to do with the sociological aspects of the game's multi-player. In Japan, playing multi-player Monster Hunter is a form of social interaction. You're not playing to get better equipment, you're playing to have fun and to socialize with the people you're playing with.

Like it or not, gaming is still largely viewed as a solitary pastime with interactions between people only occurring over the internet (You won't find groups of friends sitting around a table in a restaurant or fast food joint playing hand-held video games together in many other countries outside of Japan). This, and the fact that most of the Monster Hunter games for hand-held consoles released outside of Japan have been for the PSP, a console that gets half of its sales numbers from Japan alone, is a formula for trouble.

http://kotaku.com/5980436/why-monster-hunter-is-so-popular-in-japan-and-struggles-everywhere-else

In addition to the fact that the game lends well to local play, I would argue that a large part of it has to do with the lack of proper online functionality and the steep learning curve. The lack of voice-chat and other online social features really kills the appeal of Monster Hunter in the West. Even worse is that when most people try Monster Hunter in single-player, the lack of a proper tutorial (Tri somewhat fixed this) and the steep learning curve really turns players off. Hopefully Capcom can fix some of these issues with the release of 3 Ultimate and hopefully 4 in the West.
 

Alexrose

Untitled
Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
783
Trophies
0
Age
32
Location
England
XP
374
Country
I'd say it's more a cultural thing. People don't wander round the streets with their handheld game consoles out, and there's a lot of social stigma attached to gaming as both predominantly masculine and childish.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rydian

gamefan5

Kid Icarus Uprising connoiseur
Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
5,010
Trophies
2
Location
Somewhere in this Earth
XP
4,049
Country
Canada
I'd say it's more a cultural thing. People don't wander round the streets with their handheld game consoles out, and there's a lot of social stigma attached to gaming as both predominantly masculine and childish.
Trust me, They do in japan. Which is why Monster hunter and Pokémon are huuuuuge success.
 

Hells Malice

Are you a bully?
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Messages
7,122
Trophies
3
Age
32
XP
9,256
Country
Canada
Guys don't feed the Guild.

Guild was half-ish right at at least. It doesn't do that well over here because the games are shit and have god awful, archaic controls. Among many other things, like them being far too easy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Guild McCommunist

Maxternal

Peanut Gallery Spokesman
Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
5,210
Trophies
0
Age
40
Location
Deep in GBAtemp addiction
Website
gbadev.googlecode.com
XP
1,709
Country
Supposedly Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate being a Wii U release will have Miiverse (presumably on the 3DS as well) and the ability to connect Wii U to 3DS. I wonder how the online multiplayer will work with this. If you could put up "want to multiplay" messages up in Miiverse, that would be awesome.
 
D

Deleted-236924

Guest
OP
I had an UMD of Monster Hunter Freedom lying around, decided to give it a try.
2/10.
 

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,967
Country
United States
Because it's fucking terrible and Japan has the worst taste in everything.;)
Ultraman-whatever-happened-to-30397145-600-450.jpg



Bad taste? Surely, you don't mean Ultraman! Who wouldn't want a superhero in tights that shoots lasers from his hands?
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    SylverReZ @ SylverReZ: @salazarcosplay, Morning