The #MonsterHunterMovie crossover comes to #Iceborne on Dec 4th! Travel to the New World and play as Artemis (voiced by Milla Jovovich) in two special quests with unique rewards! https://bit.ly/IceborneMovie
Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock, you have heard the news that a Monster Hunter live action movie, starring Milla Jovovich, is coming out at the end of the calendar year. The early American trailers for this can be best described as comical at best, but I thought this Japanese trailer (see below) was a LOT better. Capcom was so wrong for letting them use "Proof of a Hero" as the main theme for this though. If anything, I'll watch this for a good laugh. I'm not expecting much out of this, especially with Ron Perlman cast as the Admiral. The casting for the Handler looks spot on though.
As for the collaboration quest(s) in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, I'm fine with this, especially since it's probably going to be one of the last strings of new content we are going to get for this game before Monster Hunter: Rise drops for the Nintendo Switch next year. I'm guessing it would get the same treatment as The Witcher III collaboration for the base game that I'm sure a lot of people glossed over at the time.
The closer we get to Fatalis' debut into the New World, the more nervous and anxious I get to this monster as a newcomer to this series. The Monster Hunter series veterans regard this monster as a harder kick to the family jewels than Alatreon could ever hope to be. I'm ready to tackle this challenge, along with Arch-Tempered Velkhana. FYI Velkhana was my personal favorite Elder Dragon that was added as part of the Iceborne expansion, so I'm excited to see the changes to this battle. I know a lot of people on Reddit have been clamoring for an update to the USJ Collaboration armor for Master Rank and it's great that we're finally getting that along with layered armor for the beloved Buff Body armor and Scarf armors. Last but not least, the Fun Fright Fest is another welcome treat with the Handler sporting a Morrigan (DarkStalkers)-inspired look with the Frankenstein Palico costume to boot. They should've just made the Palico look like Victor von Gerdenheim or Jon Talbain, but beggars can't be choosers when this stuff is coming to players for free.
It still makes me sad that this is the last free title update for Iceborne, but there's still some new content in the pipeline with a few more Arch-Tempered monsters left to face before the game truly winds down with Monster Hunter Rise on the horizon for players on the Nintendo Switch.
Welp, shit's finally hit the fan as Fatalis officially arrives in the New World. Ever since the arrival of Safi'jiiva, the NPCs in-game have been dropping not-so-subtle clues about his arrival as the end of all things, so this monster rightfully deserves to be the last obstacle in players' wakes at the conclusion of Iceborne's expansion and more importantly, for the lore of Monster Hunter World as a whole. I'm sure that the devs have some insane tricks up their sleeves for this battle as they didn't bother to drop any details about this fight - AT ALL. I don't know why I have a feeling that this is going to be Extreme Behemoth all over again. Unlike most people, I didn't think Alatreon was as bad as the wealth of complaints that stemmed from the mechanics of that battle. Simply put, Alatreon was an elemental DPS check from start to finish. Otherwise, you were wasting your time and efforts. The common complaint from the community was that elemental damage has been nerfed across the board and relegated as a specialty that very few weapon classes can truly capitalize on to optimize the battle properly. That's partially true, but the majority of the complaints were coming from players who were too comfortable and too lazy to give up their precious Master's Touch-focused and/or high raw damage DPS builds to try something different. In that regard, I hope the developers have something similar in mind to piss off players even more and to enforce more less common strategies to topple this beast. This is supposed to be the apex predator in terms of everything in the franchise (at least that's the impression that I get from Monster Hunter veterans), so I'm looking forward to the devs to pull out all of the stops and not pull any punches on this one. Alatreon was definitely the kick in the nuts that everyone needed and I want to see more battles in the vein of that one in terms of difficulty.
Developer Diary: The Final Stand imminent! You won't want to miss this one...
Like I mentioned on Facebook and Twitter, it made me sad to realize that this is actually the final developer diary and last round monster additions to the game.
How could anyone not look at that final montage at the end of this stream and not get sentimental after spending the better part of two years with this game. You buy this game and have the entire wealth of content for that game right out of the box with the developers supporting it from the start to the end of the base game's life for FREE, with regular updates right up to the paid Iceborne expansion and still continuing to do the same for the expansion. It makes sad that we're winding down to the end of this journey. I have made a wealth of friends from this game - either from hunting together in-game, talking about it on social media and/or Discord, and as well as streaming over on YouTube/Twitch. I'm going to continue to ride this out to the end, even though most people I know have already moved on to other games and only pop in for the new updates, but I'm always going to be willing to jump back in and help friends out if they need a helping hand with the grind. I freakin' love this game and I hope Capcom doesn't make us wait long for the sequel.
Unlike the previous Developer Diaries, I don't have much to say about this one as I think that the developers are holding out information on us. While they have my sympathy with the COVID-19 global pandemic crippling their work rate and forced them, like many developers in the industry right now, to postpone their plans for the wealth of content for this game for the months to come. That being said, I think Capcom have been more than generous to allow players to continue to reap the rewards of all of the event quests being in rotation for the last few months while many players around the world have been stuck at home confined on quarantine for their own safety and the safety of others. This has been more than enough time to "catch up" in a sense and to farm whatever weapons and armor that you have been missing out on with even Safi'jiiva and Master Rank Kulve Taroth being in rotation.
Speaking of Kulve Taroth, I'm sure Alatreon is going to make players wish that they farmed that monster properly and upgraded their appraised weapons to their Master Rank equivalents since elemental damage is going to be the name of the game when it comes to that fight. I'm sure everyone (that isn't mainly using charge blade, heavy/light bowguns, dual blades, and sword and shield weapons) is going to flock to raw damage to ignore that "gimmick" but I doubt it's going to be that easy to ignore if we're to expect Lunastra-style supernova attacks engulfing the entire arena.
In terms of awards though, I want my Long 7 shelling for Gunlance from this debuting Black Dragon. Stop playing with the emotions of Gunlance mains, Capcom, and give us what we want. Long 6 is already pretty darn powerful, but I think that would be the last feather in the cap that Gunlance players need at this point of the endgame grind. That being said, just about every weapon class in the game needs a "game changer" (something the developers said at one point that really stuck out to me) at this point of post-game content after the main quest. Safi'jiiva was a great start/option for a lot of weapon classes, but I'm ready to see Capcom completely make it obsolete to an extent - or at least shove it down a few pegs in terms of the end all answer to everything for every late game build at this point of the expansion's shelf life. For a lot of weapon classes and builds, there's nothing better or even comes close to optimal set building than the flexibility of the Safi weapons. People have ranted about this time and time again, but it's a continued problem with the game. The introduction of Safi'jiiva and these "customizable" weapons made roughly the entire weapon tree for a majority of the weapon classes in the game completely irrelevant in most cases. My three preferred Gunlance builds are all with Safi weapons for each shelling type, but on the other hand, my preferred Hammer build for most hunts uses the Ruiner Nergigante hammer with a pure Agitator/Free Meal Secret build. For Hammer, I use the Safi weapons I have made for that only when I'm bored. I understand that not every weapon class has that luxury. The Raging Brachydios weapons were a great step in the right direction in terms of what I want to see from future weapons going forward though. I think Capcom needs to go really crazy in terms of these weapons that are made from farming the first Black Dragon of New World.
I'm not a Monster Hunter series veteran, but I get a sense of how important this legendary beast is to the series' lore. So why not make it worth the wait with something really crazy to spice things up even more? This game deserves another shot of adrenaline in the arm because the extra months of the event quests being up during the last festival did nothing but lower the levels of excitement for a lot of players. I still like logging onto the game every other day or two and answering random SOS flares in multiplayer, but I'm more than ready to see what else the developers have up their sleeves.
The Sizzling Spice Festival looks like that should be fun. I know that I'm going to end up caving for the new Handler costume to replace the current one that I have been using for the last few months. I'm glad to see that Capcom is doing another Aztec themed costume design, much like one of El Fuerte's alternate costumes from Street Fighter IV.
Last but not least, I have absolutely no enthusiasm towards a Barioth variant. The standard Barioth almost made me throw my PS4 controller through my flatscreen television in frustration in the Iceborne story campaign, so I have absolutely no excitement in the least about Frostfang Barioth being added to this game. Knowing my luck, he'll have an awesome reward that can be crafted from his parts so I will be forced to farm the thing anyway, just like the hell that was Furious Rajang.
It was announced over on the Monster Hunter YouTube channel and their various social media outlets that Title Update #4, featuring the highly anticipated debut of the fan-favorite Alatreon to the New World, will be postponed until further notice.
Catch up on #Iceborne Developer Diary #5, jam-packed with info on: 🥊 Raging Brachydios 🙊 Furious Rajang ⚔️ Layered Weapons 🌹 Full Bloom Fest 🐉 Alatreon Title Update 3 releases Mar 22 5:00pm PDT / Mar 23 00:00 GMT on PS4 and Xbox One. Coming to PC on April 9th.
Important: In order to play online multiplayer or download add-on content, you must update to the latest version of Monster Hunter: World.
Available
Monday, March 23 0:00 (UTC)
Required Space
PlayStation®4: About 1.4GB (only this update)
Xbox One: About 2.1GB (only this update)
Main Additions / Changes
General
Raging Brachydios has been added.
This update adds a new special assignment that will bring you face-to-face with the newly discovered Raging Brachydios!
The special assignment for Raging Brachydios can be accepted by talking to the Tracker once you have finished the Recon Assignment after the ending of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Raging Brachydios Hunter Armor!
And, of course, there will be all-new weapons and armor to craft from Raging Brachydios materials!
Weapon Design
Raging Brachy α+ Armor Set
Raging Brachy β+ Armor Set
This armor has useful skills based around Agitator (when a monster becomes enraged, Attack and Affinity increase) and Weakness Exploit!
Palico Equipment: Crusher Set α+
As with the hunter armor, this armor design is based on Raging Brachydios's active slime molds!
Furious Rajang has been added.
This update adds a new special assignment that will bring you toe-to-toe with the newly discovered Furious Rajang!
The special assignment for Furious Rajang can be accepted by talking to the Tracker once you have finished the Recon Assignment after the ending of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Furious Rajang Hunter Armor!
And, of course, there will be all-new weapons and armor to craft from Furious Rajang materials!
Weapon Design
Furious Rajang α+ Armor Set
Furious Rajang β+ Armor Set
An armor design infused with strength. The armor also has a set bonus for a powerful new skill.
Palico Equipment: Rajang Set α+
Palico equipment featuring a cute monkey motif!
The new Palico weapon is a magical staff that extends when drawn!
(Both monsters will appear in new special assignments after finishing the main story of Iceborne and unlocking the tundra region in the Guiding Lands.)
System
Added an item that forces a monster to leave the Guiding Lands.
Raised the maximum level cap for master rank armor upgrades.
Added an augmentation feature that lets you customize the look of your weapon.
Added an option to the Steamworks that lets you change the Steamworks' output.
Applied a change to the Steamworks that lets you activate the auto mode after sending the Steamworks into Overdrive.
New decor can now be placed in your room in Seliana.
New BGM can now be played in your room in Seliana.
Added new designs for the Squad Card.
New Pendants added.
Applied a change that lets you receive Hunter Helper Rewards from master rank quests.
Miscellaneous
Added the following charms: Fury Charm V, Power Charm V, Mighty Charm III, Challenger Charm V.
You can now collect item rewards on the round just before a Steamworks overdrive.
Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments
Base/Facility
Fixed an issue where the options "Take All" and "Sell All" were reversed when the items prepared via oven roast totaled 9999 in your item box.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, abilities wouldn't rotate when storing potential for awakened weapons.
Fixed an issue where the great sword 'Empress Galea "Styx"' would be ordered incorrectly when sorting.
Fixed an issue where numerical values would not correctly display in the Steamworks results screen.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, an error would occur when joining a squad Online Session using the Online Session ID.
Fixed an issue where, after taking certain steps, a posted quest could not be found in a search.
Fixed the description text of some music player songs.
Fixed an issue where the Beetle Ticket could not be used as a material to meld items.
Fixed an issue where Ruiner Nergigante would be displayed in the Guiding Lands monster list, even though the conditions for it to appear haven't been fulfilled.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, an armor's abilities would not be correctly reflected in the hunter's status while augmenting the armor.
Fixed an issue where the color of Dober β Layered Legs would not display properly after changing the color.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, an error would occur when entering your own room.
Fixed an issue where guest players would become unable to move if they were removed from the Gathering Hub at certain times.
Updated the tutorial for additional features of the squad to explain that subleaders can invite other players to the squad.
Fixed an issue where even before you reach Seliana, the recruitment message "Let's hang out in my room!" would be available as an option.
Fixed an issue where some Palico weapons would appear in an unnatural spot when sorting by rank.
Fixed an issue where when joining another player's quest, if the quest host cancels the quest at a specific time, the name of the previously completed quest and not the quest that you joined would be displayed.
Fixed an issue where a weapon from The Witcher weapon tree would not appear when placed on the equipment display.
Fixed an issue where there would be a disparity between the Safi'jiiva siege result screen and the information displayed at the quest counter.
Fixed an issue where the chat recipient could not be changed after entering a loading screen with the chat window open.
Fixed an issue where the items created from the oven roast would not roll correctly.
Fixed an issue where you could not leave the mini-canteen at camp if the mini-canteen menu and the quest complete notice appeared on the same exact frame.
Updated the description text for the Chrome Halberd III gunlance.
Updated the description text for loading Wyrmstake Blast, found in the weapon control section of the hunter notes.
Monsters
Fixed an issue where Raider Ride monsters would get stuck on a wall when jumping from a certain position.
Fixed an issue where Safi'jiiva's behavior would become unnatural on slanted terrain.
Fixed an issue where a player would be afflicted with an abnormal status or blight when using the lance's counter-thrust or counter claw against Gold Rathian's somersault, Kirin's lighting strike, or Fulgur Anjanath's mucus attack.
Fixed an issue where rewards for breaking parts would not be rewarded when breaking Black Diablos' back.
Fixed an issue where Safi'jiiva would not transition areas normally.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, the appearance and fleshiness of Nergigante's tail would not be consistent after it had been severed.
Fixed an issue where in multi-monster challenge quests, the second monster would not appear and the quest would be complete.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, Ruiner Nergigante would appear outside an area of the Guiding Lands.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, a monster would not become enraged.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, Velkhana's ice wall would not break down after it was slayed.
Fixed an issue where an enraged Yian Garuga could avoid pitfall traps even if the conditions for trapping it are met.
Fixed an issue where monsters would sometimes behave unintentionally when near Boaboa.
Fixed multiple issues related to sound effects and visual effects that displayed within the player's tent when Safi'jiiva is in the lowest level of the Secluded Valley.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, Rajang would still perform its pinning attack, even if it had not successfully landed it.
Fixed a game-stopping bug that occurred in the Guiding Lands when performing a flinch shot on a Rathalos that is transitioning areas.
Tweaked to make monster staggers longer when a player uses the clutch claw on a staggered monster in an area where the player cannot enter.
Fixed an issue where a Kelbi would sometimes act erratically after it had its horns broken off.
Player
Mitigated conditions that made it harder to land the long sword's spirit helm breaker under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue where the Handicraft skill would not trigger at the start of a quest.
Fixed an issue where the FINAL FANTASY XIV Jump gesture would be unintentionally deleted from the shortcut of an item loadout.
Fixed an issue where during multiplayer, the other players' mantle effect time would not be synchronized correctly.
Fixed an issue where the Oolong male head armor would not display in certain cutscenes viewed from the gallery when the full Oolong armor set is equipped.
Fixed an issue where the extract bonuses to the Flinch Free skill would be carried over when switching from the Insect Glaive to another weapon.
Increased the element level of the Elscarad and Arginesse kinsects.
Fixed an issue where if the player attached the Melynx Teddy pendant to the Adept Stormslinger and started walking, the pendant would become shaky and trembly.
Fixed an issue where some light would become hidden when applying layered armor from your loadout.
Fixed an issue where Critical Draw would be applied to the long sword's Spirit Blade I when going from Iai Slash to Spirit Blade I.
Fixed an issue where the skill Free Element/Ammo Up would not trigger normally when bowgun capacity is increased via awakening ability.
Fixed an issue that caused unnatural behavior when loading the slinger after performing a forward dodge with the sword & shield drawn.
Fixed an issue where Kaiser Crown β+'s hair color would change when switching from Oolong Hair α+ to Kaiser Crown β+ using specific steps.
Fixed an issue where ammo would behave unnaturally when the bowgun's pierce ammo would hit using certain shooting methods.
Mitigated an issue where if a Zero Sum Discharge connects on certain monsters, the player's grapple point would be unnatural.
Fixed an issue where when the player is wearing Brigade Layered Arms, the armband would overlap with the equipped layered armor on the torso.
Fixed an issue where if the player equips Kaiser Crown α/γ with hairstyle 8-2 and performs actions such as running, the front bangs will float or become detached from the armor and would not correct itself.
Miscellaneous
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, squad info would be unintentionally deleted.
Fixed an issue where, under certain conditions, entering the tent would cause the Palico to face in the opposite direction.
Fixed an issue where certain tracks would not display in the Guiding Lands.
Fixed an issue where certain timing would cause a communication error, which would result in monsters not appearing in the Guiding Lands or in cutscenes based in the Guiding Lands.
Fixed an issue where signs of desync would occur in the Guiding Lands when joining a session without a host.
Fixed an issue where players could designate a snowball as a destination for a raider ride in an area that they can't access.
Fixed an issue where the Handler would go back to her default costume after resetting the game, even if the player changes the settings to Locked.
Other minute game balance tweaks and minor bugs fixes have been made.
Title Update Roadmap for 2020 so far.
Boy, that's a LOT to take in terms of information of all of this new content rolling out in the pipeline.
As previously mentioned, I'm skipping this update for the time being and will rejoin my hunters in arms when the update for mid-April drops. I can do with postponing my own experience until the Full Bloom Festival starts. I tend to get a lot of grinding and farming done when the festivals are on rotation, so I know I won't be missing out on much. Besides, I'm well over Master Rank 200 and a lot further along in terms of upgrades and augmentations than a lot of my friends that I play with regularly (most of which who haven't even cleared Master Rank 100 and nor began the Guiding Lands grind either...), so it won't kill me to miss out this new content as soon as it rolls out.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Layered Weapons is making it around to the game after being a heavily requested feature for quite some time now. I hope that the materials for Layered Weapons are linked to the Guiding Lands, hence forcing players to commit more time to that instead of neglecting it after the first few months of the game. That was one reason (of many) why I took a break from the game back in February. After Safi'jiiva, majority of the player base went into this mindset that nothing else was more important than the grind for those weapons and once Safi'jiiva went away out of rotation, the bulk of the player base "assumed" that they didn't have anything else to aspire towards when there's a wealth of stuff to do for the Guiding Lands. It's not as much of a slog to grind when it first started out in post-game but with the following patches and updates/tweaks, I have grown to appreciate that mechanic more and more. It's much faster to farm and hunt monsters for weapon crafting and augments there than loading up individual quests (Optional or Investigations) as a group of four players (especially randoms) can enjoy this for hours on end with people dropping in and out at their leisure. Instead, the grind hits a standstill for most players who weren't early adopters to it as most players have done everything they have needed to make everything to their hearts' content and moved on. The other obstacle (IMO anyway...) in this mode is that most players are roadblocked in matchmaking for it as higher ranked hunters are in the MR100+ sessions for the Guiding Lands, leaving players lower ranked completely shit out of luck as the game won't match you with players who don't have either all of the (tempered and Elders) monsters unlocked.
That's one reason why I'm glad to see Kulve Taroth return as an actual hunt for Master Rank than another Siege event quest. Kulve was personally my favorite hunt in the base game (yeah really...) just for the mechanics involved and the layered format to the battle and I'm dying to see how Capcom changes this fight up for the better. They've already taken player feedback into consideration when they improved the Siege event quest format when they introduced Safi'jiiva, so I know they won't let us down in that regard when that festival rolls around.
Speaking of the Full Bloom Festival, I know I'm going to end up caving for the Handler's Full Bloom costume for that event after it's over. I like that one as much as the last few I paid for. Even though I doubt I would ever sink in any real world cash into the Hunter's room customizations, I thought the elegant theme was pretty cool in the developer diary. Can't say that I'm crazy about the "elegant" armor set for that event. Looks like something George de Sand from Mobile Fighter G Gundam would wear though. I did get a good chuckle out of the fish dual blades. Glad to see the other weapon classes are getting "silly" weapons like the chicken drumstick hammer that was added a while ago.
I did happen to watch some of the Monster Hunter Twitch stream where they were hunting Furious Rajang and I can see why people are going to flock to some of those weapons. Furious Rajang's weapons have a TON of purple sharpness while Gunlance mains will want Raging Brachydios' armor set since you can acquire the Artillery Lvl. 5 skill from a mere two sets of armor instead of slotting for it. I'm anxious to see where Gunlance set building goes from here in terms of variety as your options were still pretty slim after Safi'jiiva as you still needed wear at least two pieces of the Zorah Magdaros (Master Rank) armor set if you had the Zorah Essence skill slotted to your Awakened weapon.
I do like the Furious Rajang armor and Palico design MUCH more than the normal Rajang stuff, but the Raging Brachydios stuff induced a yawn from me as I was never a fan of how the normal version of that armor set looked like. Cool points for Capcom making the Palico armor for Furious Rajang look like Sonson (Marvel vs. Capcom 2 shoutout) with some obvious Journey to the West influences that I'm sure more people will confuse with Dragon Ball more than anything else.
Last but not least, that Alatreon reveal... I'm sure veteran players are freaking the hell out after begging for this monster to be added to this game for a VERY long time. I asked one of my veteran friends the same question but does this mean that in terms of lore that the rest of the "Black Dragons" are going to appear in the New World now? This has to be a signal that Capcom is slowly easing us towards the end of new content for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne as a whole once all of those monsters are added to the game. After defeating Safi'jiiva, I vividly remember one of the NPCs mentioning that this was a signal of "the end" leading most veteran players to speculate that Fatalis would be coming to Iceborne sooner more than later. I'm all for new monsters, but holy shit am I tired of seeing ANOTHER damn new dragon added. Like c'mon, Capcom. I get you want to please the veterans but I would like to see some variety in terms of new monsters being added. Alatreon controls every element, so it should be a fun fight though.
At the end of the day, I can't knock Capcom too much though when they have delivered above and beyond with this game with even more content in the pipeline. In the meantime though, stay safe among this coronavirus pandemic wherever you are around the world. Happy Hunting!!
Get ready for the most brutal brawls of your hunting careers... Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang will blast and punch their ways into #Iceborne this March for PS4 and Xbox One, and April for PC.
Two new subspecies? Meh at this point was my initial reaction, but I'm not going to complain too much about new free content. I seriously doubt that these two new beasts will bring anything new to the table that will unseat the Safi'jiiva weapons and other stuff from the current meta, but it will be interesting to see how the fights will play out.
For me personally, I'm sitting this update out for once on consoles and will just wait until April when PC and Console updates sync up. I doubt I'm going to be missing much in that regard.
If you have about two hours to kill, the USA Championships are linked below with some gameplay footage of the hunt towards the end of the livestream that Capcom hosted over the weekend. I'm not trying to look at any gameplay until April since I want to be genuinely surprised when I do these hunts for myself, but if you're curious, feel free to check out the footage below.
Both monsters are set to arrive on consoles for the March 23 update later this month while PC players will have to wait until the April update.
Tune in to find out who are the fastest Hunters in the US with the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne USA Championship! https://www.monsterhunterfesta.com/to...
Live on February 29th, 2020 at 5:30pm PST / 8:30pm EST
Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock concerning Monster Hunter World: Iceborne news for the past month, fans of the game know that the current "craze and hype" right now is grinding the new siege event quest for the "awakened" (I've heard others refer to them as "relics" too so I'll be using both terms interchangeably) weapons that serve as the quest rewards for slaying this new monster that will only be around until January 4th when the current winter festival comes to a close.
I'm not one of those guys who cracks the numbers and stats for every build and weapon class for optimization but I'm aware of what's the "meta" in most cases since I frequent the Monster Hunter reddit forums. As a casual fan of the game, I thought it would be fun to offer my two cents on what this monster, Safi'jiiva, and this siege quest bought to the table going forward.
Pros
The Safi'jiiva siege event is actually REALLY fun and straight-forward in compared to Kulve Taroth.
FYI you can "steal" aggro from another player who doesn't want it during this battle by performing a Flinch Shot to Safi'jiiva's head. Pretty helpful tip if someone other than the party's tank picks up the aggro from dealing the most DPS.
With a full online lobby session of max 16 players, it's easy to clear this hunt within 1-2 runs with maximum rewards, given the fact that everyone is breaking all of Safi'jiiva's parts and fulfilling the siege objectives. The hunt itself brings back what players enjoyed about the Extreme Behemoth (Ecliptic Meteor destroying everything and anything in it's path - sorry folks, no FFXIV Jump emote can save you this time...) and Ancient Leshen (assigning aggro to the player dealing the highest amount of DPS, something that originated in Final Fantasy's Behemoth collaboration first and expanded in The Witcher III collaboration) quests and cranked it up to eleven.
Kulve's siege boiled down to merely chasing her around the locale, dropping boulders and laying down a wealth of explosions to wear her golden coat down for the "real" fight to begin. The Arch-Tempered version did little to change the redundancy of that fight outside of the changes in her new "Fury Mode" state that was triggered after breaking enough of her parts before the final phase of the battle. While I enjoyed that aspect of that fight and grinded the hell out of it in the base game to ultimately get everything I wanted from RNG Jesus, I can understand that not everyone was so fortunate in terms of the random rewards that spawned from that hunt.
The fight against Safi'jiiva is a three-tiered hunt where players hack away at Safi'jiiva's massive health pool until it's forced to retreat to the final tier of his lair for the final confrontation. There's no downtime in the action as players are constantly engaged with this massive new foe. So yeah, you don't have to stop to pick up tracks to get the research level up high enough and all of that other nonsense with the Kulve Taroth siege.
Players are GUARANTEED rewards for their specific weapon class following the slaying of Safi'jiiva.
After defeating Safi'jiiva, you are allowed to choose up to 3 weapons (maximum is 4 from max reward level tier) from the rewards pool. Most players aren't aware that you can change weapons before you claim the rewards and get rewards to that specific weapon class if you used a weapon that you already gotten all of the rewards you wanted from as the quest rewards always grant you with at least 2 weapons for the weapon class that you have equipped when you claim the rewards.
The Awakened weapons open the door on a lot more flexibility in terms of builds per weapon class.
Sure, there's going to be the "meta" and more optimized loadouts for speedrunners and high DPS hunting, but for people who just want to have their favorite skills without having to resort to unconventional means, such as running with two parts of the Uragaan armor set just for Guard Up skill (after 800+ hours in this game I FINALLY got one of those decorations to drop over the holiday, actually...) from the set bonus or three pieces of the Zora set for Artillery 5 set bonus if you're running Lance/Gunlance. Having one of those set pieces on the Safi'jiiva weapons allows players to run with better equipment instead of being forced to stay within the confines of specific "meta" (but at the same time extremely limiting in terms of attack and defense) builds to build towards having specific skills to benefit your unique play style.
I'm glad these weapons didn't do to the meta like how the Drachen armor set did to the base game following the Final Fantasy x Monster Hunter World collaboration. You couldn't blame players either as it was just that good versus everything else that was available to us at the time. That set pretty much dominated everything else that came afterward until the first few quests into Master Rank. Here, the relic weapons are pretty average in their bare-bones states but are easily within the top 3 weapons per class following player customizations and upgrades. I honestly don't see these weapons flat out replacing everything else in most other weapon trees but I'm sure they are going to be a popular choice going forward just for the 5 unique skills that can be loaded onto them.
There's an ongoing debate that these weapons will "dominate" the meta going forward, but the truth of the matter is that these weapons - even after all of their upgrades and/or customizations - aren't the best weapons in the game. Yes, they are going to be well sought after given their ability to make armor skill set building a lot more flexible, but I don't think they are going to replace the top 2-3 choices in every weapon tree in terms of raw power. These weapons are going to be highly situational at best in terms of being the best optimized options per weapon. For example, even with a loaded stock of Status Ailment buffs to a poison-type hammer, it doesn't even come remotely close to holding a candle to the best poison-type hammer in terms of poison damage from the Pukei-Pukei tree.
Cons
The Awakened weapons can only be "leveled up" via the Dracolite materials from slaying Safi'jiiva or redeeming unused weapons at the Elder Melder.
Each weapon can be leveled up until a maximum level of roughly 24 (I've seen some "evolve" and take their final forms earlier than this, so this number is tentative) but still being able to accumulate experience/"potential" for rarer skills to be randomized well after this level is obtained.
For example, some weapon classes have abilities that are so rare to pop up that you will be dumping countless materials hoping and praying that it comes up, such as the Zora Magdaros set bonus for Gunlances or the various song lists for Hunting Horns.
There's a fear among players that Safi'jiiva will be the only means to "level up" these weapons, thus creating the same cycle of redundancy that was created once Kulve Taroth came into the picture in the base game.
In Iceborne's case, I don't think this will be as big of a problem as it was in the base game as they already have an explanation in the lore that would make it feasible to have Safi'jiiva's materials pop up in the Guiding Lands. He's feeding off that energy just like a lot of the powerful monsters already there, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to limit relic weapons being leveled up there from maybe tempered monsters in the Guiding Lands. If you're already Master Rank 70-100+, you're already seeing the pick of the litter in that regard anyway, so that wouldn't be too much out of the norm out of your regular grinding in post-game for tier 4 decorations, Research Commission+ tickets (only from MR100+ optional quest rewards from what I've noticed), and various materials for augmentations that are exclusive to the Guiding Lands.
I think it would perfectly fair to allow at least the first two tiers of Dracolite materials to be farmed from the Guiding Lands with max region levels. Once you put the Rigid and Large Dracolite materials in there, it would get too easy to power up these unique weapons.
All I'm saying is that I don't want to see the player base go dead when the festivals and siege events aren't in rotation and that's the only thing players are flocking to when they are in rotation. It made the last few months of the base game prior to the release of the Iceborne expansion really hard to keep playing. At least in my experience, most of the people I enjoyed playing with had dropped the game and moved onto other stuff following the months when Kulve Taroth and the Arch-Tempered monsters weren't in rotation until Iceborne dropped since they grew tired with the endgame grind.
Safi'jiiva doesn't feel like a "true" final boss for Iceborne.
Shara Ishvalda served as the final boss for the Iceborne expansion's main story, but in the base game, we had the Arch-Tempered monsters to challenge us even further (with Arch-Tempered Nergigante serving as the "final boss" to the base game prior to the release of Iceborne) to serve as alternatives to the grind that Kulve Taroth forced upon us. I don't want to knock the final battle with Shara Ishvalda as I really enjoyed that fight in comparison to what came before it in the base game with Xeno'viija, but with the way how the story ended, it felt like that was only the tip of the iceberg as the Old Everwyrm stirred up even more trouble for the New World, especially with the ongoing changes within the Guiding Lands. It's hard to tell what Capcom is going to do here in 2020 with the months to come, but I hope they don't consider this "adult Xeno'viija" to be the final boss of Iceborne. This is what we should have gotten with Xeno'viija in the first place in my honest opinion. Or even with Zora Magdaros in some capacity.
Don't get me wrong. Safi'jiiva isn't a walk in the park in the least and seems to know how to punish player mistakes INSTANTLY in most cases while flat out being ruthless in other encounters. All I'm saying that I hope this isn't the last bullet in the chamber that Capcom has in store for us.
I know the Monster Hunter series veterans are going to hate me keep saying this, but I'm really getting sick of the dragon-type monster designs. We have FAR too many dragons to fight in this game, even though I understand that the Elder Dragons are essential parts of this series' lore.
Safi'jiiva weapons are already dominating every hunt in online multiplayer
I understand that players want to show off their spoils from completing the grind to get what they wanted out of this siege event, but as I go back into my regular grind within the confines of the game's endgame questing, I'm already noticing that the bulk of the player base have flocked to these weapons as their go-to weapons. I can't say that I'm surprised to see that as that's what Capcom suspected what would happen when they released their extra developer diary about this siege. If that wasn't enough, players are rewarded for using them in the Safi'jiiva siege, so that's even more reason to use them above all others during this festival. That being said, I want to see how the player base reacts to this once the siege goes away after January 4th.
My only fear in that regard is that players only take the flexibility that the Safi'jiiva weapons bring to the table only to making more "meta" builds and not trying to spice things up with new creative, yet viable skills and continue hammering home this "one over all" mindset instead of trying new things to keep the game fresh. I personally keep a hammer of almost every element just to experiment with different builds and loadouts. I don't expect every player to do that, but I would hate to see this game come down to the same few weapons akin to how the Drachen armor set dominated armor builds at the end of the base game's shelf life.
Closing Thoughts
Ever since I got into Monster Hunter World and followed this game's life throughout it's initial launch to the current Iceborne expansion, the developers seem to have something devilish in mind when they give us new seemingly incredible weapons to take on whatever the game has to stand in our way, only to follow that up with something just as wicked and challenging to best shortly thereafter. After they gave us the Drachen armor set, they threw a monkey wrench into our plans with the Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons and the Ancient Leshen collaboration event quest. Players may think they are hot shit with their fancy new toys, but Capcom is probably going to show us that we're going to need every advantage possible when it comes to whatever Capcom has up their sleeves in the coming months.
In either case, I'm enjoying how this new monster is spicing things up in terms of how we've come to know the game at this point. Innovative, fresh new ideas is always a good thing when it comes to grind-heavy games like this to liven things up before they get too redundant.
The first developer blog details the three videos below as part the December Update that launched on December 5, 2019.
Change Log / Patch Notes:
Important: In order to play online multiplayer or download add-on content, you must update to the latest version of Monster Hunter: World.
Available: Thursday, December 5 0:00 (UTC)
Required Space PlayStation® 4: About 2.1GB (only this update) Xbox One: About 2.8GB (only this update)
Features marked with a * can only be used by players who have purchased Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Main Additions / Changes
General
Added cutscene that unlocks the Tundra Region in the Guiding Lands.
Added new weapon trees, armor, and skills.
Added Stygian Zinogre. (Stygian Zinogre will appear in a cutscene in the Guiding Lands, after finishing the story of Iceborne.)
Added a new unknown monster.
A tempered version of Ruiner Nergigante will now appear in the game.
Action
Removed the damage reaction from the startup of the sword & shield's Claw Uppercut.
The sword & shield's Claw Uppercut can now soften a monster's hide.
Adjusted damage on the sword & shield's Perfect Rush.
Adjusted design on how other players are knocked back from explosions caused by the gunlance's Wyrmstake Blast.
Adjusted various dual blade actions.
Instead of dropping slinger ammo, the dual blades' Spinning Rising Slash will now wound parts easier.
Fixed an issue where cluster bomb reload speed was normal or reload wouldn't perform while aiming when using the heavy bowgun.
Adjusted design on the hunting horn's Extended Health Recovery so health could be regained even when taking damage over time.
Adjusted how much ammo is used by the flinch shot when the Slinger Capacity skill is active.
Adjusted the Frostcraft skill so that the insect glaive will no longer consume its gauge when performing a moving mounted attack.
System
New decor can now be placed in your room in Seliana.
New BGM can now be played in your room in Seliana.
New designs for the Squad Card added.
New Pendants added.
Starter-friendly Defender weapon line added (forgeable at the Smithy).
Starter-friendly Defender α armor set added (purchasable from the Armory).
New feature added to upgrade armor to its maximum level automatically with the available armor spheres.
When obtaining analyzed special tracks in the Guiding Lands or when analysis is finished, other players in your expedition will now obtain the same special tracks.
The leader of the Guiding Lands expedition can now decrease specific region levels manually by speaking to the Handler.
New layered armor added.
New Weapon Pose added. Your hunter will perform different poses depending on the equipped weapon.
Miscellaneous
Region Level Fix option available while in the Guiding Lands.
Changed design so all ammo types are reloaded when exiting your tent with a bowgun equipped.
Red, white, and, orange Kinsect extract can now be harvested from the training area's wagon.
Shining Wyvern Blade was renamed to Platinum Dawn. (This name was changed to match its appearance)
Lowered the frequency of the Palico's voice playback while in standby mode.
The following decorations are now easier to obtain:
Fixed an issue with the priority level of certain meals added to the canteen in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Fixed an issue that wouldn't allow you to create Rajang items obtained from the Guiding Lands at the Elder Melder.
Fixed an issue where the music player in your room in Seliana wouldn't appear.
Fixed an issue where the game would freeze when displaying certain dual blades in the Equipment Display in Your Room in Seliana.
Fixed an issue where when placing pets via the Housekeeper, specific steps would cause an error.
Adjusted the conditions to unlock the BGM "The Invading Tyrant - Bazelgeuse" for the music player.
Fixed an issue where after eating a meal at the Canteen, the time before your stamina is reduced isn't reset.
Monsters
Fixed an issue where Brachydios would get stuck on top of ledges in the special arena.
Fixed an issue where during multiplayer, the explosions caused by Tempered Brachydios' slime would not be synchronized between players.
Fixed an issue where certain monsters would always be displayed during low rank quests in the Ancient Forest even if they don't appear in the quest itself.
Tweaked the rewards upon breaking Zinogre's head, along with adding rewards.
Fixed an issue where Legiana would continue to walk instead of fly after an avalanche is triggered in area 4 of the Hoarfrost Reach.
Fixed an issue where Nightshade Paolumu wouldn't drop a shiny after a turf war with certain monsters.
Fixed an issue where Velkhana wouldn't sustain damage in its turf war with Ruiner Nergigante.
Fixed an issue where stamina wouldn't decrease while mounted on top of Gold Rathian.
Fixed an issue where master rank Lunastra wouldn't use its flare attack.
Fixed an issue where Gold Rathian would take more time than usual to land after attacking with its hellfire breath.
Fixed an issue where, in the Coral Highlands, Namielle would sometimes fall into an area it isn't designated to go.
Fixed an issue where certain attacks from monsters would hit twice.
Fixed an issue where the clutch claw would work during certain monster actions even when it shouldn't.
Fixed an issue where the color of Seething Bazelgeuse's scales wouldn't correspond to its powered-up state.
Fixed an issue where Namielle's water pools wouldn't react to the monster's electric attacks.
Fixed an issue where Gold Rathian would roar non-stop if led to a specific area of the Elder's Recess.
Fixed an issue in Ver. 11.50 where analyzed special tracks could be obtained while mining from Uragaan or Radobaan's back in the Guiding Lands. We apologize for not notifying players of this earlier.
Adjusted how long an elder dragon and certain monsters stay in the same area of the Guiding Lands.
Player
Fixed an issue where the Long Sword's Foresight Slash or Iai Slash or the Evasion Mantle would successfully trigger an evade when the monster is knocked down, even if no attack hitbox was present.
Fixed an issue where Lunastra's info in the Guiding Lands menu wouldn't appear under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue where if you don't have the Surveyor Kit, and under certain conditions talked to the Lynian Researcher, the first tutorial for the Surveyor Set wouldn't appear and you wouldn't be able to obtain the item.
Fixed an issue where in the Coral Highlands, monsters would get caught in environmental traps instead of being knocked down as a result of colliding with a wall from a clutch claw flinch shot.
Fixed an issue where Health Boost skill increases wouldn't display properly to other players during multiplayer.
Fixed an issue where only the effect sound plays in certain situations after the heavy bowgun autoloads its ammo.
Fixed an issue where icon colors would not display correctly when upgrading a weapon.
Fixed an issue where the upgrade state of equipment wouldn't be reflected when updating an equipment loadout.
Fixed an issue where in specific situations, slinger ammo would get embedded into walls, etc., when performing a clutch claw weapon attack on a monster.
Fixed an issue where the Master Gatherer skill effect wouldn't activate when mining with the pickaxe.
Fixed an issue where auto shoutouts would display unintentionally after using the clutch claw to slam a monster into a wall.
Fixed an issue where the attack and control guide would not match after a backwards evade with the sword & shield.
Fixed an issue where skills related to draw attacks would be consumed if the draw attack came into contact with Velkhana's frost.
Fixed an issue where a flinch shot would occur when grappled onto a monster, even though no button had been pressed.
Fixed an issue where a critical hit effect would appear when wounding a monster's hide after hitting it with the sword & shield's Claw Uppercut.
Made adjustments to the dual blades' Spinning Rising Slash along with increasing some elemental scaling.
Fixed an issue where players would still be inflicted with an elemental blight even when guarding certain monster attacks.
Fixed an issue where the position of certain weapons while sheathed was inaccurate.
Fixed an issue where, while searching under specific criteria, the 2nd page of SOS flares couldn't be viewed.
Fixed an issue where the effect for the charge blade's Power Axe Mode would continue to display.
Fixed an issue where player character behavior would become erratic if the player becomes zombified in mid-air while close to a ledge.
Fixed an issue where some skin color on the player character would not display properly when the zombification status is removed.
Fixed an issue where the default color for the Gastodon layered armor was unnatural.
Fixed an issue where correct defense numbers were not being shown when defense-related skills are activated when forging or changing equipment.
[PS4] Fixed an issue where, when holding down the Triangle button to continue to reload while aiming the Heavy Bowgun, the reload would not continue after reloading Cluster Bombs.
[XBOX] Fixed an issue where, when holding down the Y button to continue to reload while aiming the Heavy Bowgun, the reload would not continue after reloading Cluster Bombs.
Fixed an issue where Palico commands would change places in the item window after switching Palico gadgets.
Fixed an issue where the hunter would not perform an action when a button is pressed after the player uses the left stick and a buffer input is recognized.
Miscellaneous
Fixed an issue where the directional button camera controls wouldn't respond at times when using Item Control Settings Type 3 or Type 4.
Fixed an issue where the Select Ammo/Coating entry in the long-range weapon control guide would not display when using Item Control Setting Type 2.
[PS4] Fixed an issue where multiple actions would be performed at the same time when the player uses the Surveyor Kit, and the functionality of the L1/R1 buttons is switched in the Control Settings.
[XBOX] Fixed an issue where multiple actions would be performed at the same time when the player uses the Surveyor Kit, and the functionality of the LB/RB buttons is switched in the Control Settings.
Fixed an issue where characters could fall off the map in the Coral Highlands.
Fixed an issue where the analysis gauge would disappear when the player obtained analysis in progress special tracks or analyzed special tracks.
Fixed an issue where Molys would continue to dig into the ground.
Fixed an issue where activation conditions for skills that raise elemental power wouldn't display properly when inspecting other player's equipment.
Fixed an issue where the monster's information wouldn't sync properly between players when the monster is near death.
Fixed erroneous information in the "A Man and his Shield - 5" and "The Boaboa Challenge - 6" treasure tip.
Fixed an issue where multiple monster BGM would frequently switch and play during a quest.
Fixed an issue where the order of the item pouch would unintentionally change upon closing the application.
Fixed an issue where ranking information couldn't be retrieved if a deleted player was registered in the rankings.
Updated an error message that is displayed when saved data is damaged.
Fixed an issue where portions of save data would be erased under certain conditions for users who have cleared the "Paean of Guidance" and "To the Guided, A Paean" quest.
Other minute game balance tweaks and minor bugs fixes have been made.
Can't say that I would have much use for the Defender armor, but that's pretty cool that Capcom added something to help newer players get up to speed and be able to join the action with everyone else in Iceborne. I'm hoping this armor ends up being a layered armor set down the road though.
I finally had a chance to look at the stats of these weapons in-game and these are easily double the attack power of anything you can craft in the base game of Monster Hunter World - at least starting out anyway. If you have any trouble catching up with this powerful gear then something is clearly wrong.
As hyped as I was to see more Horizon Zero Dawn-themed gear and weapons in this new collaboration, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't bother to reskin Zinogre for the first part of the collaboration as a Scorcher from Horizon Zero Dawn's Frozen Wilds DLC. I do appreciate that we're getting Master Rank updates to the Palico gear along with Aloy's War Bow in this new collaboration, not to mention Frostclaw armor for our Palicos and the popular Banuk tribe's armor from Horizon Zero Dawn in this game too.
When players completed the quest for Stygian Zinogre, they were treated with an additional "surprise" of sorts. The Guild had stumbled onto a new discovery - namely a matured Xeno'jiiva. The community has dubbed this new monster "Safi'jiiva" but the developers here has clearly stated that this new monster has not been named.
If you haven't guessed already, but this new monster will serve as Iceborne's version of the Kulve Taroth seige event quest in the Gathering Hub. The major difference being that players are GUARANTEED a weapon reward for the class they are using when they slay the creature. This "awakened" weapon (along with the armor) will have an unspecified skill when unsheathed, but the weapons will take weapon augmentations to the next level. Each of these awakened weapons will have five customizable skill slots that can be swapped out to players' liking. The devs expect these weapons will be players' go-to weapons from here on out from how versatile they will be with various armor builds and skills.
The "tutorial" for this new siege event quest can be played as many times as players wish, but the real deal will start December 13th and run to Jan. 5, 2020.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne released formally on Friday, September 6, 2019, and while I have enjoyed parts of this new expansion so far, I don't feel that it's fair to do a proper review on the game until a few months into the game's shelf life once the endgame meta and most players have gotten their feet wet into the post-game grind. That's why this write-up is simply based off my experiences and impressions during the first week of the game following the initial release.
** Starting off, I haven't rushed through the majority of the story campaign for the expansion like most people have blown their load on. After getting 90% of the monster reveals (including the last boss) spoiled on Saturday (9/7/19), I've been going at this with baby steps. **
I love all of the new QoL (quality of life) changes, but at the same time, a lot of this shit that should have been available at the start. I get it - as a newcomer to this series, I haven't properly "earned my stripes" in terms of enduring the archaic (read: primitive) humble beginnings of this series, but when Capcom decided to bring this series to current gen consoles, they knew they had to make this more user-friendly and optimized. Granted, they've listened to their player base FAR more than they have for anything fighting game related so I thank them highly for my enjoyment of the game during the base titles tenure.
My favorite QoL changes so far? Saving Radial (shortcut) menu loadouts to your preset item loadouts, more room for stuff on the weapon/armor crafting Wishlist, and a few visual changes that were needed, especially for spotting dropped materials on the ground that were blending into the background/environments previously.
Being able to use communication stickers/gestures in Astera/Seliana is a plus too if you're in a session with international players. I made a habit to put a lot of gestures on my communication shortcuts for multiplayer in terms of callouts for "Let's capture this thing!", "Swords & Blades PLEASE cut the tail!", and "Outta my way, Hammer Bro here!" For the most part it's working to my benefit without having to resort to Flinch Free in my builds, but you still get twats playing this after all of this time who are all swarming around the head and not trying to damage other weak points or cut the tail.
I like to think that these were the same twats who flake out of the game every few months and don't come back until something new gets added since they don't have a shred of courtesy that a lot of players who were grinding during the last festival in preparation for this expansion.
More slots for Harvesting and Weapon/Armor/Charm Crafting Wishlists were more than appreciated. (Laughs) I still have stuff from the base game that I never finished acquiring crafting materials for. I just added a wealth more things to craft in Master Rank.
Only weapon I'm using right now is Hammer (Hammer main FYI), but I plan on switching back to Gunlance and HBG in post-game. I just want to get a feel of the new and returning monsters on Master Rank (MR) first since it's an all-new ball game. Maybe it's just me but the Slugger skill (which can be upgraded to lvl5 now for 60% added KO potential) is REALLY good this time around with the added buff to Charged Upswings and Charged Brutal Upswings. Almost every other time I land those moves on a monster they are either reeling or flat out KOed now.
My biggest gripe on Hammer though is that they haven't fixed the hitbox on Upswings and there's still that off chance that all of the hits of a Brutal Upswing will miss completely. So fucking frustrating when that matters most when you have a monster downed and can't get that additional KO to keep them down longer after the stun/stagger. You used to be able to SLIGHTLY aim the analog stick to correct your swings a little better on alignment of those attacks for Brutal Upswing and Big Bang combos, but I haven't noticed that being the case thus far.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there's a lot more stamina drain now in terms of trying to maintain a charge while moving around and evading. I found myself letting go prematurely a lot earlier than the base game just for I won't run out of stamina while evading.
I like the Clutch Claw a LOT more now that there's an optional quest that serves as a formal tutorial on how to use the new slinger functionality properly. My only gripe about it as there's still monsters that won't allow you to grapple onto them with this new mechanic to bring them down to your level for inflicting damage, so it's not the "end all" solution like how Capcom was acting like it was when they first introduced it in the early trailers for Iceborne. Some weapon classes get to do some amazing things with it while others (like the Hammer) can just fire slinger ammo while unsheathed. I don't feel like it's not going to revolutionize the wheel on most weapon classes' individual playstyles in most cases.
Mounts seem to be possible multiple times now back to back in succession. There was one hunt I did early into Master Rank where I mounted the monster at least 3-4 times back to back where previously I was under the impression that there was a "cooldown" of sorts before you were able to do that to a monster again. I guess not, not that I'm complaining about that aspect.
Difficulty
If this is the equivalent of fabled “G rank” in previous Monster Hunter games then I’m not impressed as a newcomer. The way Monster Hunter series vets talk about it as if it’s the Devil May Cry series' equivalent of Dante Must Die difficulty tier of these games. The Arch Tempered monsters limited to event quests posed MUCH more of a threat than most of the monsters I’ve seen thus far, with Barioth being the only hunt I thought was more frustrating/annoying than actually difficult since that monster continuously moves around giving you little to no means to hit it until it’s exhausted. Shrieking Legiana is another "annoying" new monster type/variant and that fight is just straight up stupid on a lot of levels. Again - I repeat myself. I don't think it's hard or difficult, just frustrating in terms of level design that could have been streamlined. Oh and don't tell me to bring dung pods and flash pods for that hunt because I did that and still felt it was just absolutely awful in single player.
Visuals
The changes to the visuals are appreciated, even with the smallest details smoothed out on your hunter during cutscenes and the Handler not having a butterface outside of those scenes (which was meme worthy for the most part). There’s some refined details to monsters now that’s appreciated on the returning cast, such as you can see Odogaron’s scales redden in anger when he’s fired up/enraged in better detail. I’m sure these details pop out more on PlayStation 4 Pro of Xbox One X but it’s noticeable on my standard PS4 just fine enough. What I’m not a fan of are the longer load times between hunts. I get that with the story hunts that they have to load a cutscene or something before/after said hunt, but geez this game tackled on a ton of downtime it seems.
When you get this far into the expansion's narrative you will appreciate this meme...
The new Gathering Hub and new base of operations, Seliana, in the Hoarfrost Reach has streamlined all of your needs at the NPC shops and stations, but geez it takes more time loading into anything than actually hunting said monsters.
Bugs & Glitches
Glitches and bugs galore in this from what I’ve noticed so far. I’ll list off the ones off the top of my head.
BTW what is up with this weird, stutter step/odd walking animation at the start of some of these Assigned Quests with the Handler? Controls would usually return back to normal by the time the actual fight starts, but damn that’s been annoying. Kept making me think that there’s something wrong with my PS4 controller. I have had this issue pop up anytime where my Hunter needed to crouch down or crawl too. I vividly remember this being an issue in the last beta during the Velkhana hunt as well, so this isn't a new problem.
An example of the layered armor coloring issue described below. Mind you, I don't even own this armor set in any capacity.
There’s some menuing glitches as well, such as the layered armor coloring settings not displaying the proper armor that your hunter is wearing in the preview window. For example, I was switching back from the preset layered armor that they give you at the start of the expansion when you arrive to the new region back to the usual Drachen layered armor that I use for most hunters. In the menus, it’s showing that my hunter is wearing either the Lavasloith or Velkhana Master Rank armor sets, with the latter I haven’t even unlocked/acquired. It switches back to normal during gameplay in most instances but still comes off odd. Oh yeah, did I mention that the Rainbow Color palette doesn't randomize at times and just shows up as ONE singular color during most hunts?
Custom radial settings weren’t saving to my item loadouts until I figured out what the trick was. After assigning what you want your communication customized settings to the radial menu, you register it to the item loadout but DO NOT override the radial settings when the menu asks you to. It’s so damn confusing that Capcom did this feature like that. I had to force myself NOT to overwrite those settings with the default radial settings everytime I would swap item loadouts. By the third day, this issue corrected itself after I completely exited out of the game and loaded it back up, but goddamn that was yet another annoying shortcoming with this expansion.
Glavenus' hunt is allegedly bugged. I haven't run into this myself but players are running into instances where they are picking up "Unknown" materials after carving his corpse. Capcom has already stated that this will be the first to be patched out at a later date.
There's some odd clipping through objects and environments with some of the new monsters in the new region, Hoarfrost Reach, making me think that Capcom's playtesters must have had time off for the most part. That's not to mention some hilarious, yet pathetic instances where monsters are flying/retreating into walls over and over until being struck with an attack or Clutch Claw.
In the two images above, Shrieking Legiana decided to fly repeatedly into the nearby mountain wall over and over until I was able to mount onto him with the Clutch Claw. Wasted five precious minutes of this annoying hunt because of that...
Speaking of the Clutch Claw, there's some instances where your hunter won't grapple onto the monster as intended and immediately get thrown off or the Claw passes through the monster completely. A minor annoyance but that can be easily fixed.
This hasn't been proven yet, but I could swear that Hot Drinks are bugged. I feel like Cold Drinks, Demondrugs, and Armorskins all last longer than this new item that is essential for braving the harsh environment of the Hoarfrost Reach. It seems like the Hot Drink wears off in less than five minutes of unsheathing my weapon or even faster if I'm evading and moving around. I have been going through Hot Drinks so fast that I had to start harvesting the Hot Peppers to craft them. Once again, this is just something more annoying than anything else.
Monsters
In comparison to the open beta, I’ll give my impressions of the several new monsters (along with a few additional ones if you fought the hidden ones along with Velkhana in the last trial session) beta monsters in terms of their behavior and patterns in that compared to the expansion
.
Great Jagras - Nothing’s changed. He’s essentially what he was in the base game more or less. I’m just too twitchy from reacting to him like he’s Greatest Jagras from the festival events.
Banbero - Pretty much the same as I remember from the beta, just a LOT damn bigger.
Beotodus - Causes Iceblight a lot more frequently from his attacks than I remember in one of the beta sessions. More annoying to keep him above ground than swimming below it.
Nargacuga - He was optional in the Ancient Forest when you accepted the Great Jagras quest in the beta. Most people weren’t even aware he was roaming around the forest (Area 8 I believe) until at least the 2nd or 3rd beta session. In the beta, he abused his mace-like tail attacks religiously, but from my impression of fighting him in the expansion he was an absolute pushover. With better gear and my skills up to par, I had him KOed for 70-80% of the fight and didn’t allow him to do much anyway when he wasn’t having turf wars with Rathalos. That fight was a little of a letdown in this expansion if I'm honest.
Tigrex - I thought his AI behavior was essentially the same as the beta but that rock toss move was completely brand new. Definitely caught me off guard right off the bat. His hitbox on his tramples and jumping tackles are just as wonky/janky as Vaal Hazak and Teostra’s. I KNEW Capcom wasn’t going to fix that shit in that regard, yet people were making tons of excuses saying that it was just the beta and it would be fixed in the expansion.
Velkhana - I’ve only fought her during the first encounter where you repel her away from the Elder’s Recess, so I’m going to guess she’s going to reveal the other aces up her sleeves from the beta down the road, but I thought the first encounter with this new Elder Dragon in the expansion was pretty darn lame. Model seems a LOT smaller than what I remembered from the beta.
Closing Thoughts
One thing that needs to stop though from the Monster Hunter World community is this mindset from the veteran players that are shooting down players on social media, especially on the Reddit forums, when someone reports one of these various ongoing bugs/glitches that need to be addressed. Time and time again, I have see veterans talk down to newer players and discredit these reports when Capcom needs to be made painfully aware that there's problems with this expansion. When I read these posts, I get this negative vibe from the vets as if we should be just happy that we have an expansion period for this game and should deal with it while sitting on our hands while the house is burning down around us.
Fuck that noise. I was never a fan of keeping expectations low to justify a mediocre sequel/DLC expansion for any game. Iceborne retails at $39.99 as full blown expansion to the base game; I paid $59.99 for the Master Edition and I expect to get my money's worth. I'm not one of these tools like the folks who buy 2K (formerly THQ) WWE Games, then go into denial EVERY.SINGLE.TIME when it doesn't live up to their expectations or when people find a laundry list of bugs and glitches that need to be addressed. I'm not saying the damn game is unplayable. I'm just asking to simply address this stuff before it becomes a lingering issue and deters people from playing it altogether. I enjoyed the hell out of what was offered previously. This just comes off as a minimalist effort in a lot of aspects. Besides, if this was ANY other AAA title, people would have been shitting all over it in terms of some of the bugs that people have been running across instead of throwing over a new coat of paint and ignoring it.
I hate shitting on the player base too as I raved about this being my favorite community to game with in my review of the base game. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and now it's devolving into that douchebaggery of Dark Souls and/or of the same elk that I frowned upon from the FGC (fighting game community) with that same "git gud" response to any question or request to feedback.
I had people say that my disappointments from the game so far stem from "fatigue" of the game. Trust me, I would have taken it back to the damn store and gotten a refund if that was the case. I'm not tired of the Monster Hunter grind, despite 600+ hours of gameplay time over the past year. I dunno, I was expecting a little more from this expansion rather than a half-assed new area (and a "surprise" in post-game) in a pretty boring new locale once the "newness" of it wears off while rehashing a lot of the older monsters for the sake of "variants" due to the environmental/ecological changes to their world. I thought only like ONE of the new fights ruled out of the new monsters brought to this expansion that I have ran into. The rest have ranged from "Meh..." to "Now that's interesting..." at best. I know that I'm only a little past the halfway mark, but I had the misfortune of getting 90-95% of the new monsters spoiled to me anyway the day after launch, so I know what's in the pipeline ahead. I'm not going to lie but that definitely played a factor into killing my hype/anticipation/excitement for this expansion.
When I say I'm disappointed at aspects of this expansion don't take it the wrong way as your experience may vary from mine. I'm going to keep at it and see that maybe if I enjoy the endgame grind like before, but otherwise, I doubt I'm going to stick with this as long as I did with the base game, especially when you're regulated to fighting reskinned variants of older monsters with VERY few new types (Barioth, Nargacuga, Tigrex, etc. use the same skeleton and behavior patterns for the most part outside of a few unique attacks while Brachydios and Glavenus actually seem to have different skeletons from Anjanath than I first thought.)- something they didn't have to add at $40+ price tag to do in the first place, along with the quality of life changes. I didn't shy away from the beta sessions as those were the things that got me interested in the base game to purchase it in the first place. Hell, I STILL enjoy facing Rathalos just from the blasts I had hunting it in those sessions to this day. Forgive me if I'm not one of the Monster Hunter veterans who get off from 2-3 variants of the same monster. I know most see that as Capcom being generous as they stack the deck in terms of monster variety well over the number of opponents found in the base game, but what was the point of of that back in the base game when everyone was farming Elder Dragons in the endgame grind and rarely saw the rest of the title's monsters outside of sporadic event quests? We could potentially run into the same pattern here if the endgame grind ends up repeating the same process. I'm just concerned that's all.
I know that everyone who reads this write-up and walk away thinking that I'm a complete Debbie Downer on the game when everyone else is up and over the moon about it. It's not a crime to have a difference of opinion. There's a few things that I have really enjoyed, such as the hunts against Glavenus and Brachydios, along with revisiting some of the older cast of monsters to see what new tricks that they have up their sleeves. I'm optimistic that Capcom will iron out these issues in this expansion and stabilize what has been an excellent experience thus far with the base game. I just want to get to a point where I enjoy this expansion as much as the original game.
Until next time, my fellow hunters. Happy Hunting!
