User blog comment:Lord Loss/Discussion of the Week: Generation 2/@comment-1758220-20130212045238

2ND GENERATION:

Monsters: We're definitely getting better here. For one thing, we are introduced to monsters that aren't scaly for once, namely the Pelagus/Primatius/Fanged Beasts and Carapaceons. This adds a whole heck of a lot of vaiety and diversity to the monster roster as memorizing the movements of the basic wyvern skeleton was basically how you won MH in first gen. Now we have a few more templates to enjoy. Elder Dragons also see a massive upgrade, seeing as basically every dragon in 1st gen was terrible (okay, Kirin wasn't too horrible). We no longer have to choose between amateurishly overpowered, and mind numbingly dull. This is also the point when subspecies became worthwhile. Despite the fact that most of the garbage subs from 1st gen are still around in 2nd gen, the set we're introduced to in MHFU (Plum Hermitaur and company) are some of the best in the series to date. This period also marks the first (and in all likelihood only) time ever that Frontier monsters made it to the west! And of course, who could talk about 2nd gen's monsters without bringing up the one and only Tigrex, who has ascended to an absolutely top-tier fan favourite.

Areas: Again, a massive improvement over the 1st gen offerings. The Snowy Mountains adds a new aesthetic, with its blustery snowbound vistas and frozen, icy caves. The new jungle ups the vibrancy considerably, taking place on the shoreline of a small inland sea, which is a terrific choice visually. The turquoise of the water, bright blue of the sky, grainy-yellow of the sand and even the slight pinkness of the rocks creates a very pleasing colour palatte that makes the 2nd Jungle score high marks with me. The Swamp is bland and dumb, if only slightly moreso than the original. The Desert is really quite barren, though areas 1 and 7 look pretty great. Even 5 isn't too bad, but 2 is pretty much terrible. And area 10 has absolutely no purpose at all. Volcano is cool, but not really noteworthy, except maybe for the fact that it had extra areas added on to it. The Tower is pretty lame, as at least in MHF2 and MHFU, almost the entire map is inconsequential except for one area, which is a shame, as it's a beautiful map, just really empty and unused.

Weapons: The gunlance in 2nd gen was a little...lacking. It shared too much of its (very limited) movepool with the lance, and the shelling, though certainly an interesting and creative design choice, was kind of useless as it did little damage and dulled the weapon down. Bows are an absolute gift from the gods, one of the best weapon classes in the series, i my opinion. Easy and fun to use, varied in design styles and power, and so much more versatile than the bowguns. Hunting Horns in 2nd gen pretty much sucked, at least in solo. Its sluggish, bland moveset made for boring battles, and the clumsy recital mode both took you out of the experience and was risky and almost not worth it to use. Just pop a demondrug or something, way quicker. Longswords are basically the best weapon class in the series, and one of 2nd gen's best additions overall. A super smooth, balanced, varied, and combo-heavy moveset makes this class both inviting to newcomers and absolutely devastating in the hands of a pro.

Soundtrack: Provided we're talking about the TRUE 2nd gen music, and not the material from Frontier that appeared in Unite, I must say I'm not a fan. It's still all very much into cartooney territory, with a lot of it still lacking the cinematic sweep and power that's seen in 3rd gen's (masterful) score or even in Frontier's works. The Teo theme isn't bad though, nor is Yama's or White Fatalis'. I don't think I minded the music as much when I was playing through it in 2007, but compared to what we've been given in 3rd gen and in Frontier, it is still far from the best the series has to offer.

Overall: If nothing else, 2nd generation was a massive evolutionary leap for the series, adding boatloads of new content in all forms and rectifying many of the complaints of its predecessors. The game became bigger, badder, and a lot more fun, and is responsible for gracing us with many wonderful mainstay features, monsters, weapons, etc that we continue to enjoy today.

I REALLY can't wait for next week to review 3rd generation (wink wink Loss)