NIDZUMI+

Well here’s Capcoms latest addition to the very popular ‘Monster Hunter’ Series. ‘Monster Hunter: Freedom 2’. Like other monster hunter games this title keeps the monster hunter signature style as a free roaming RPG. The main setting to Freedom 2 is different to the other titles but you can still visit other locations from the previous titles. What will draw you to this game is the fast paced action whilst fighting multiple enemies that can get almost five times your characters size.

The controls are quite balanced being on a handheld console, they are quite easy to pick up and there is no straining of fingers and thumbs to press the button you need.

The quest line is a lot like the previous titles, you have gathering quests for collecting resources such as iron ore or disk stones for creating weapons or armor or even going fishing or foraging on your hands and knees for herbs. The other type of quests you can jump into are hunting quests these quests usually entail you have to defeat a group of monsters such as Giaprey or a Yian kut ku, after completing these quests you also have a chance to collect resources such as scales and claws off of the defeated enemy which also can be used to create custom armor suits made out of selected monsters.

For each quest you get a time limit which usually lasts from 45 to 50 minutes, this gives you a chance to collect as many resources as you can or defeat all the opponents that you need to also for boss fights such as wyverns you will be caught in long brutal battles which can last almost the entire time limit but the time limit has been set within a good boundary.

The weapons that you use in monster hunter titles are also normally out of proportion to your character such as great swords, these slow but powerful weapons dwarf your character but give your character a feel of ultimate strength to be able to lift such a sword, this seems to have been the style weaponry took since the first title.

The well rendered levels and vast landscapes also are another part of this title which will draw you to this game, for a handheld console game the graphics make this stand out over a lot of PSP titles I have seen or played.

One of the main aspects of the ‘Monster Hunter’ series is the amount of customization that can be done to both weapons and armor. For example if you are a gun or bow gun user you can increase barrel size or add a scope. Or if you are a melee user you can upgrade your weapons through vast stages adding bonus and weaknesses.

The main feature that stands out for this title on a handheld console is the online play, although very similar to the single player quests, these group quests become a lot more difficult such as fighting an Gendrome bird wyvern which are more basic compared to enemies later in the quest line become 3 to 4 times harder to kill which means teamwork is more required if you want to complete the quests and advance. Once you complete certain quests from the online quest line you can unlock more unique armor sets and weaponry such as Dragon slayer great sword.

All games have bad points, some points of the game play that aren’t so stunning are the bigger creatures tendencies to smash though and ignore your attacks but not repeatedly, also this is not the case when it comes to ranges weapons such as bows.

Also when bigger characters such as wyverns use charging attacks they run through normally impassable objects such as boulders and trees causing you to take damage when you least expect it.

Potions also can be a problem for example when your out of higher quality healing items such as mega potions, normal potions only restore a small amount of health which at times can be pointless or leave you open for attack whilst using 4 potions in a row instead of 1 mega potion.

Overall despite the annoying faults to this game there are more pros than cons, this game is personally one of the must haves if you own a PSP console, your handheld gaming experience would not be complete without this title and this game will keep you busy for hours or even days.