User blog:TiltedSun/Monster Hunter and Life after the Hunt

Greetings all. Practically none of you know me, so I shall take the initiative and introduce myself.

I am a college student and avid fan of the Monster Hunter franchise, and have been ever since its inception on the PS2, spending many hours, and days playing through each of the US available games. I have been using this Wiki for quite some time, using its immense knowledge to my advantage in many a quest and time when I needed that extra bit of information to get the edge in a hunt.

Now, introductions aside, I present a question to you all.

How has Monster Hunter affected you? In what manner has is changed your life and affected your outlook? Has it done anything good for you? Or has it brought you nothing but frustration and wasted time?

This is an unusually bold and expansive question, and as such, I will start off by answering it myself.

Before Monster Hunter I was a very casual gamer, at the time still breaking into the mold and mindset with only a few games on the PS2. I previously owned a PS1, but traded it in for the PS2. After going through several games, I was dissatisfied. None really called to me or set themselves apart from the massive number of games that were available on the system. One day, I saw an add for Monster Hunter in the gaming magazine PSM, and thought to myself that that game looked interesting. Much to my chagrin, I couldn’t find the game in any store near me. Disheartened, I gave up my search. Six months later, I found it in a store and immediately bought it, happy I had finally found my quarry. Upon playing it, I quickly fell in love with the weapon and armor customization system (the fact that you had to slay a monster in order to make them really attracted me). Then I set my sights upon the multiplayer online mode, and was drawn even further into the Monster Hunter world. Introducing the game to one of my friends who also had a PS2, we spent many hours hunting and roaming the online halls, enjoying every second of it. I quickly found out about Monster Hunter Freedom from people on the multiplayer community, and my interest again was piqued. Upon examining the game, I decided I wanted it (impulsive, no?) and quickly began saving for a PSP. Eventually, I bought at 1000 model (still have it today - bugger is still running strong and shows no signs of dying) and a 1gig memory card, and thus began my Monster Hunter Career for the PSP. This time, another friend got in on the Monster Hunter craze and the three of us spent many sleepless nights chasing after monsters in order to advance to the next rank or finally create the weapon we had our eye on for so long. This progressed up till Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and we still have gaming bouts when we can - but its limited due to our different colleges of choice. My next target was Monster Hunter Tri, for the Nintendo Wii. I had recently gotten a Wii, and was immensely excited for it. I was not let down, and continue to avidly play it.

So, how did it affect me?

Monster Hunter opened up a new universe and type of gaming for me, and succeeded in immersing me into gaming culture. I worked at Gamestop, now own four gaming platforms, and three handheld systems. Monster Hunters creative ecosystem of monsters has spurred many numerous ideas and creative themes from my mind. It has brought me closer to some of my friends, and has been with me through times of boredom, stress, anger, and grief, always there with the next quest waiting for me to clear it. The origin of Monster Hunter being Japanese (creators and original release area) has helped spur my immense interest in their culture and history. I am an avid anime and manga fan, going to conventions and marveling at the wondrous plots that are conceived and brought to life by the brilliant minds in the industry. I have also gained a certain patience from the game. I know that things cant instantly be fulfilled, and have a more worldly aspect of know that things will eventually come to you, and rushing about doesn’t necessarily make things happen faster.

So basically, Monster Hunter has affected me quite a bit.

So how about you? What has Monster Hunter done to impact your life?