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gaijinhunter · 5 years

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Monster Hunter World Iceborne: Review

I haven’t had the time to edit a video review so here it is in text!

Iceborne came and I got though Master Rank, through the last boss, and got to mess around with the end game in the 45 hours I have put into the game. Here is my spoiler free review. A shout out to Capcom for giving me a review code to play.

First off, I’m working off the assumption that you know about Iceborne and all the features it brings to the table so I’m not going to cover everything.

Main Story

While the main World story took about 40-50 hours, Iceborne will take about 30-40 depending on how you play. The story never felt like it was too much, and for the most part the flow was good. The story itself, like world, is nothing to write home about but it does add context to what you are doing, and also helps to explain why the new area opens up in parts.

Things I liked about how they handled it this time. First, all the major quests in the Hoarfrost Reach start out as expeditions, so that means if you are geared up enough, you could just beat the story monster in expedition mode, meaning you can cart more than twice and you won’t fail the quest.

Second, there is a large enough roster that if they tried to make you fight all the monsters as assigned quests, the game would be paced bad and the difficulty curve would be hard to control and I think they did a fine job of selecting the few monsters that did get featured as story quests and the difficulty goes up very nice and smooth from start to finish.

Seliana

The town of Seliana has the benefit of Capcom realizing what did and didn't work well in Astera and the result is a lovely town with a lovely main theme song. The layout is so well done, you won’t ever want to go back to Astera, and if you use the main functions of the hub town, I’d go as far as saying Seliana is a killer feature that makes Iceborne that more worth getting.

The thing I liked most about Seliana was the attention to detail especially when it comes to the felynes. There are some goofy things added in, which is something I felt World needed more of.

The customization options to your room are really fun and makes exploring maps and doing some of the less hardcore things really worth it. I also love the new slot machine mini-game in which you can earn tons of useful items, including a rare ticket which can be exchanged for precious master rank Pallium. No, there are no micro-transactions in this game, this is all in-game fun for fun’s sake.

Monsters

Iceborne has to my knowledge 8 additional monsters they haven’t publicly revealed, 5 you will encounter in the main game and 3 are special goodies for post game. Then of course they will add new monsters via DLC. All of the new monsters are memorable and fun, and more than world, monsters will appear in all sorts of maps, which makes the hunts against them more varied and enjoyable. Turf wars seem to be a huge feature of the game and luring monsters into each other so they can help shave off a few thousand hit points is a useful strategy you can employ in each hunt.

Mechanics

The game really focuses on using the clutch claw and for the most part it works well. The monsters do fatigue for a few seconds quite often but they are also tank like in how much health they have, so the addition of the claw and these new moments of opportunity don’t make the game easier. In fact, hunts take longer this time than previous games, which I think a lot of players might like. I still suspect the end of Master Rank hunts are taking too long for my comfort at about 20-25 minutes, but I think they might be adding this buffer to account for all the end game mechanics for buffing your weapons. Either way, the hunts are longer, the additional difficulty levels work especially 2 player, and the hunts are fun.

Weapons

Monsters being fun to hunt is good since since they fine tuned the game so that elemental weapons are meaningful again, so you’ll want to get a nice non-elemental weapon to stick with as you start to collect the other ones for the weapon or weapons of your choice. They don’t have a lot of choices for weapons so there isn’t any confusion on what to make or debate on which is the best elemental weapon to make. But weapons is one of the few things that remains very disappointing.

While some monsters like Zinogre saw most of its original weapon designs return, some of the weapons still are just ore or bone weapons with some monster material slapped on like a decoration. It hurts even worse this time, because there are so many iconic monsters that have returned. Capcom seems to have no clue that part of our memory of these monsters were the weapons we made from them. Looking at the Brachydios lance, I can’t see anything that excuses this design, and as a fan of these monsters, it feels like a slap in the face. What makes it worse is there seems to be no rhyme or reason for which weapons got to retain their iconic design and which got the ugly treatment, which just adds to the frustration because we don't even know why. This actually takes away some motivation for me to make more weapons and thus is something I need to be blunt and critical about here in my review.

Armor

The new armor is okay I guess. There isn’t a lot of variety but I think they are keeping it low to start so they can add in event variations and stuff, so it’s still too early to judge. I am disappointed that transmog hasn’t been introduced because some sets are still rubbish due to the focus on decorations. Take the Master Rank Odogaron set. First, the design is nice. But the set bonus is protective polish, which you can get in a single decoration if you get lucky, meaning that using 3 or more pieces form this set is kind of a waste. They could have made this version be called True Protective Polish and added in an attack or affinity boost, or something to make it different than the decoration, but they didn't. And ebony and basic odogaron have the same skill which was disappointing.

None of the new sets really screamed out to me as something I really wanted to get, and most of them come with random skills that I simply don’t want. In most cases it’s better to just get the beta sets since they have more slots, but the same can be said for world. One thing that is nice that they did was introduce new set bonuses for some monsters that raises the level cap of a specific skill, like say you want to have even more slugger KO damage, which normally goes to level 3, well if you trigger the diablos set skill you can raise it to level 5. The new decorations are simple and nice in that they are 4 slot decorations that have 2 skills or multiple levels of a single skill, so you could just theoretically grab a master rank weapon and terrorize high rank tempered monsters to collect a bunch of the core decorations you might be missing.

End Game

I won’t go into end game details but it’s certainly going to be something that people can sink several hundred hours into, so it’ll be fun to watch streamers play and do it, and it does give Capcom a new way to introduce new monsters later down the line. With world being a console game I probably won’t sink much time into the end game personally but I am still very happy with the overall package and I can always go and join other people on their quests so it’s not like I’m missing out on anything.

Overall:

Iceborne does a great job of building off the strong foundation that world gave it, fleshing it out with more monsters and things to do, and all the new mechanics feel and look great. The new hub town is a delight and master rank quests, while they can be a tad long, I bet most people will appreciate that instead of going in with 4 players and destroying a quest in 4 minutes. The choice to make some weapons look like a basic weapon with decorative material baffles me and I hope enough people will voice their unhappiness so that Capcom rethinks this artistic direction. But even that can’t change the fact that Iceborne is a fantastic addition that really completes the monster hunter world experience and in my opinion is more than worth its price-tag, I just feel that it holds it back from true greatness a little.

I hope you guys enjoyed this review, and and until next time, happy hunting!

#MHWorld #Iceborne #Review

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ateamforumjpulupdates · 4 years

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[JPUL] 11/30/2016 - Large Scale Updates

11-30-2016, 02:38 AM

Originally Uploaded by Forum User: TaikunZ

This week's update is the 2nd Anniversary update for Japanese Unison League. Happy two agonizing spawn rates years, JPUL! Now the problem is where to begin... Please be aware that I may or may not have made some mistake(s) in translations. Thank you!

1. DEF Gear Changes It's confirmed. Defensive Gear now have Elements added to them, and will now be a factor towards damage calculation. According to the Notices, Percent and fixed damage is unaffected by these changes, and that reduction values are different between Quests, Guild Battles, Colosseum, and etc. Reforge requirements will change for the DEF Gear to match their element. So a Fire DEF Gear will now require 2 Red Passas instead of 1 Yellow and 1 Purple. In addition to that, EXCEPT for Non-elemental Monsters, Unison Monster Attacks are also affected by the element resistances, so their attacks are increased in Ability Power:

Attacks with 1 Hit (e.g. Physoth): 60AP Increase

Attacks with 2 Hits (e.g. Marduk): 30AP Increase

Attacks with 3 Hits (e.g. Hatsune Miku): 20AP Increase

Attacks with 4 or more Hits (e.g. Eva-02): 20AP Increase

Attacks with 1-3 Hits with chance of missing (e.g. Kirin): 30AP Increase

Attacks with 3-6 Hits with chance of missing (e.g. Mary): 20AP Increase

These are the sum of hits, so a monster that hits physical damage 1 time and magic damage 1 time counts as a 2 hit monster attack.

Examples of Elements added to DEF Gear include the Secret XL series of Gear. (Fire (which we still don't have yet on global WINKWINKNUDGENUDGE) will be Fire element, Snow series will be Water element, Meow series will be Light element, and Lotus series will be Dark element), Element Rush series Gear (Apollo's will be Fire, Avsaris's will be Water, etc.)

2. Ability Adjustments A couple of Abilities are adjusted.

Severe Sting

Break bonus increased.

Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6.

Aid

HP heal increased from 90 to 120.

Cast time reduced.

Greater Aid

Cast time reduced.

3. Campaigns Here are this week's campaigns for JPUL.

2 Year Anniversary Login Bonus: Players can get Gems, 2 Yr. Anniversary Tickets for Step Up Spawns, and Super Augment Quest Keys for free.

GEM Purchase Bonus Campaign: Maximum 130 Gems come with EXP Quest Keys as a bonus.

EXP/Proficiency/Gold Campaign: EXP, Proficiency, and Gold are doubled this week.

Great Success Rates Up: Great Success for Augmenting are boosted this week.

Super Reforge Quests: Super Reforge Quests with "Eggs only", and "Keymins and Passas only" are available, with Premium Eggs and Passa Kings as possible drops! The Keymins and Passas are sorted out by COLOR! This seems to be only available for the anniversary event's stage rewards and login bonuses that gives the key to this quest but may become a permanent feature in the future through the exchange of Grand Medals.

Level Cap: Level cap increased from 145-150. Eight Gear slots are unlocked at this level.

Equipment Cost added: 5 for each (Weapon, Head, Body, Monster), for a total of 20, added for free.

Transmutation Update: The latest Gear (except for the 2nd Anniversary Gear) are added into Transmutation.

Gem Consumption Patronage Thanks: As thanks for the gems used by players until November 29, players are rewarded based on how much Gems they've used.

1. More than 1,000 Gems: 2 Yr. Anniversary Ticket x20, Scroll of Insight x20

2. 500 - 999 Gems: 2 Yr. Anniversary Ticket x10, Scroll of Insight x10

3. 100 - 499 Gems: 2 Yr. Anniversary Ticket x5, Scroll of Insight x5

4. 50 - 99 Gems: 2 Yr. Anniversary Ticket x3, Scroll of Insight x3

5. 1 - 49 Gems: 2 Yr. Anniversary Ticket x1, Scroll of Insight x1

4. 2nd Anniversary Event Quest This quest is held at Mercenario, the capital city of Haumaforte. The boss Monster is Loki, which pits adventurers in chaos, battling against each other. The first quest seem to cost 0AP, and has a chance to drop Proficiency as a Time Bonus reward, so you all know what to do with this. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Players can accumulate points for each successful quest. There's a list of Stage rewards that will give the players these rewards at the end of the event based on the accumulated points of everyone. Stage Rewards List: 20,000,000pt - SSR Guaranteed Ticket x1 15,000,000pt - Gem x10 12,000,000pt - Droplets of Ether x3 10,000,000pt - EXP Quest Key x1 8,000,000pt - Gem x5 6,000,000pt - Proficiency x2,000 5,000,000pt - EXP Quest Key x1 4,000,000pt - Super Reforge Quest Key x2 3,000,000pt - Super Augment Quest Key x2 2,500,000pt - Gem x2 2,000,000pt - Proficiency x1,000 1,500,000pt - Super Reforge Quest Key x2 1,200,000pt - Cosmetic Encyclopedia Key x5 1,000,000pt - Gem x1 800,000pt - FP x1,000 400,000pt - Proficiency x500 200,000pt - Big Gold Limimin x1 100,000pt - Big EXP Limimin x1 50,000pt - Proficiency x100 10,000pt - FP x500

5. 2nd Anniversary Treasure Spawn For everyone that aren't familiar with Treasure Spawns, please see this post I made a few weeks back here: https://forum.a-tm.co.jp/forum/uniso...759#post122759

The mechanics are pretty much the same, only the obvious difference are the rewards. The Jackpot Treasures this time is a Monster named Lucifer, and one of any of the Guardian Angel Series of Weapons and DEF Gear.

The other eight rewards are:

Droplets of Ether x1 (haha totally knew they dun goofed by giving the whole Drop the last time x'D)

Premium Egg x4

Any SSR Gear in the Spawn list x1

2 Yr. Anniversary Commemorative Medal x10

2 Yr. Anniversary Commemorative Medal x20

Super Augment Quest Key x5

EXP Quest Key x1

Lucifer will only be obtainable in this Treasure Spawn, but the Guardian Angel series of Gear are available in the other 2nd Anniversary Spawns.

Featured Gear:

Heaven Knights' Sword Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Sword Type: Sword Skill: Fatal Anthem XL Chance to heal your HP by 5,000 when a critical hit occurs during the physical and magic damage when using an Ability. Heaven Knights' Lance Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Lance Type: Lance Skill: Fatal Anthem XL Chance to heal your HP by 5,000 when a critical hit occurs during the physical and magic damage when using an Ability. Heaven Knights' Gun Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Gun Type: Gun Skill: Fatal Anthem XL Chance to heal your HP by 5,000 when a critical hit occurs during the physical and magic damage when using an Ability. Heaven Knights' Staff Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Staff Type: Staff Skill: Fatal Anthem XL Chance to heal your HP by 5,000 when a critical hit occurs during the physical and magic damage when using an Ability. Heaven Knights' Bell Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Bell Type: Relic Skill: Recovery Anthem XL Chance to heal your HP by 5,000 when a large healing effect occurs when using an Ability. Heaven Knights' Crown Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Crown Type: Helm Skill: Physical Damage Down XXL Chance to tremendously reduce physical damage taken. Heaven Knights' Armor Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Armor Type: Armor Skill: Physical Damage Down XXL Chance to tremendously reduce physical damage taken. Heaven Knights' Tiara Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Tiara Type: Hat Skill: Magic Damage Down XXL Chance to tremendously reduce magic damage taken. Heaven Knights' Clothes Reforges from: Guardian Angel's Clothes Type: Clothing Skill: Magic Damage Down XXL Chance to tremendously reduce magic damage taken. Jet-black Fallen Angel Lucifer Reforges from: Lucifer Element: None Stats: Players can choose from the following combinations: ATK and DEF, DEF and MDEF, ATK and MATK, MATK and DEF, MATK and MDEF, and MDEF and ATK Type: Monster Skill: Ability Power 160. Damages all enemies with physical damage, removes buffs from all enemies, and Ability Power 60. Heals HP of all allies. Added effect: Increases ATK/DEF of all ally Soldiers by 30% for 60 seconds, increases physical Ability Power of all ally Lancers by 20 for 60 seconds, increases the critical hit damage for all ally Archers by 30% for 60 seconds, increases magic Ability Power of all ally Mages by 20 for 60 seconds, and increases the amount of HP healed by your ally Clerics' healing Abilities by 30% for 60 seconds. Level bonus: Ability Power for physical damage effect boosted by 10 for each increase in Skill level. The green heart buff for the Cleric portion of the Added effect.

6. 2nd Anniversary Spawn Then there's this Medal-type Spawn. Spawn Bonuses: x50 Gems = 10x, Comes with Bonus UR Level Maxed Gear x1 + Drops of Ether x1 + 2 Yr. Anniversary Commemorative Medal x10. (2 times only) x30 Gems = 10x, Comes with Bonus 2 Yr. Anniversary Commemorative Medal x10 x3 Gems = 1x, Comes with Bonus 2 Yr. Anniversary Commemorative Medal x1

Here are some of the rewards in the Commemorative Medal Exchange:

THERE'S A KAAVA SUIT AHHH I WISH IT COULD BECOME A CARBUNCLE SUIT BUT AHHH PERFECT FOR MY CARBUNCULT DISCIPLES There's a special note on the top hat Furniture about the Limimin popping out of the hat, so am guessing that this Furniture is animated. The glowsticks also come in blue and green.

Quest List for 2nd Anniversary and Super Reforge Quests:

2nd Anniversary Quest Stage Rewards List:

2nd Anniversary Quest:

2nd Anniversary Lobby:

7. 2nd Anniversary Step Up Spawn A Step Up Spawn that requires the 2nd Anniversary Tickets to be able to Spawn all the steps. These tickets can be obtained from login bonuses throughout the week. Step - Requirement - Reward 1 - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 1 Gear) for 1 time - None 2. - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 1 Gear) for 1 time - SR Rates Up 3. - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 3 Gear) for 1 time - 1 Ticket for 3 Gear 4. - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 3 Gear) for 1 time - Comes with a Bonus Super Augment Quest Key x1 5. - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 5 Gear) for 1 time - 1 Ticket for 5 Gear 6. - Spawn x1 Ticket (gives 5 Gear) for 1 time - 1 SSR Gear Guaranteed

8. Element Rush and Advent Quests

Looks like they combined everything into one quest. First up is Water element which is available during Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Quests for other Elements would probably make a release in other days of the week. Each difficulty has a set of Stamp Rewards. Medals of their Element drop here as one of the Time Bonus rewards, while the other Time Bonus rewards differ in difficulty.

Adventurer: Benkei and Azure Spirit Orb

Skilled (Proficient/Paragon?): Benkei and Azure Spirit Orb

Elite: Avsaris and Azure Spirit Orb

Summit (Arcadia?): Yukino, Azure Spirit Orb, and Snowflake

Heavens (More like Hell for how infernal this quest is gonna be amirite): Benkei, Avsaris, Yukino, Azure Spirit Orb, Snowflake

Here's the what new elemental medal exchanges offer:

From cheapest to most expensive: Medals x1: Small Gold Limimin Medals x4: SR 34 Cost Monster Reforge Material Medals x6: Big EXP Limimin Medals x10: 1 Time Only Orb Medals x20: SSR 34 Cost Monster Reforge Material Medals x20: SR Flora/Benkei/Ifrit/Succubus/Luminous Medals x50: 1 Time Only SSR Element Defense Gear Medals x80: 1 Time Only SSR Alice/Avsaris/Apollo/Nyx/Amaterasu Medals x100: 1 Time Only Event Specific SSR Weapon Medals x100: 1 Time Only Event Specific SSR Basic Attack Replacement Weapon Medals x120: 1 Time Only SSR Zephyrus/Yukino/Vol&Rena/Thanatos/Ra Post by Nayru02.

(The random comments below are due to my random placeholder posts before all these updates x'DDD but still, will binge watching Code Geass be good now that Season 3 is announced, and is Damn Daniel the worst meme of 2016 or does that go to Harambe?)

Lucifer Render: