User blog comment:Aandrew07/Tri's second anniversary! (Among other things)/@comment-3062343-20120422230900

The only two additions of 3rd Gen that I dislike are:


 * Underwater fighting: Yeah, I know that lots of people really enjoy this, but to me, underwater combat is clunky and badly implemented. I love underwater itself, but the actual fighting ruins it for me. Also, they completely blew the chance to make the weapons more balanced. For example (this is particularly the case in Tri, although it is still relevant to Tri G, but to a lesser extent), SnS, while a lot of fun to use, is pretty underpowered. The Lance, on the other hand, is pretty much indisputably the most powerful weapon class in Tri. They could have used the change in weapon mechanics underwater to even the two out, but it seems like the better a weapon is on land, the better it is underwater. I'd say the underwater either needs a huge overhaul, or to be scrapped completely (preferably the former, as I really do enjoy the underwater areas themselves).


 * The charm system: This is without a doubt my least-favourite addition to 3rd Gen, and the main reason I tend to get bored of Tri/P3rd/Tri G, and end up going back to MHFU. For someone like me, who loves making armour combinations that give the best possible sets of skills, it really gets frustrating to have a huge factor of this entirely luck-based (yes, I know about the different charm tables etc., but even if you're on the right table, there's still a huge amount of luck involved with getting the right charm). Yes, I know that making the armour itself requires luck with the rare monster materials, but at least there is some skill involved with this (you kill monsters faster, you get the rare items quicker), and besides, fighting a Rathalos for that Plate/Ruby/Heavenly is more fun than whacking away at a piece of rock for hours on end.

I realise that it might sound like I'm being overly negative based on the above, but apart from those two things, as well as some other minor points, my view on the changes introduced in 3rd Gen is entirely positive. Particularly in Tri G, where the much-needed difficulty increase has finally been made. I'll just list a few things I particularly like, but these are by no means the only things I enjoy about 3rd Gen:


 * Areas: I'd say that 3rd Gen has, on average, the best areas out of any generation. While my favourite area out of the whole series is a 2nd Gen area (Snowy Mountains), I'd say that 4 out of my top 5 favourite areas are from 3rd Gen (my 5 favourite areas, for anyone wondering, would be: 1. Snowy Mountains 2. Tundra 3. Mountain Stream 4. Deserted Island 5. Sandy Plains (Forest and Hills just misses out, due to a few irritating areas (particularly in 1st Gen, where in area 9, the camera has a really close-up view, and can't be changed)).


 * Monsters: 3rd Gen has brilliant monsters. Tri in particular, has my favourite set of monsters in early to mid-game. Sure, we may get nostalgic about Yian Kut-Ku, but can anyone honestly say they find YKK more interesting than Qurupeco. Also, anyone who says that the "dromes" are better in 1st/2nd Gen can be officially diagnosed insane. While playing through the early village quests in Tri G, I realised how much more realistic the monsters are in Tri than in previous games (and even the games afterwards). While I'm fighting Gobul, I feel like I'm fighting an actual animal, that could potentially exist in reality, whereas when I fight, say, Congalala, I feel like I'm fighting a video game boss. Sure, Tri's streak of excellent monsters falls apart a bit after Lagiacrus (Barioth, Agnaktor and Jhen Mohran in particular, are among my least-favourite monsters in the series), but on the whole, monsters are much better than ever before.

Now, let's hope for a Western release of Tri G, so that we never have to spell "Doboruberuku" again. Although we will still have to struggle with "Amatsumagatsuchi"