Email: PSP’s Monster Hunter’s online was integrated with the single player

I had been waiting on word from DQX for a long time now.  Not hearing anything about it or Xenoblade at E3 this year is what prompted me to sell my Wii.  But I was still interested in seeing about DQX.  Needless to say I was a bit underwhelmed.  The reason DQ9 did well on the DS isn’t because it was on a handheld but because it was clearly holding to the rules and gameplay structure of the the prior games.  Having actually played DQ9, I can say the reason that game did well and why DQX won’t be as well-received is because 9’s single-player and multiplayer were integrated, not separate from each other.  The multiplayer was something that you could do, but isn’t enforced on you.  I can also see a similar pattern with Japan’s current behemoth, Monster Hunter.
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As someone who played the original Monster Hunter on the PS2, the biggest criticism I have of the game is that multiplayer is separated from the single-player.  When Capcom shut down the servers, there was no way to access the better weapons, armor, and unique online gear and items on the game without the aid of a cheating device.  As far as I know there was no way to fight the online-only monsters after that as well (Kirin, Fatalis, and Lao-Shan Lung) after the servers were shut down.  The biggest thing that the PSP Monster Hunter games fixed was removing that separation that the original game had.  The ad-hoc multiplayer mode is able to be played even by yourself, as is every other game mode, so that the player isn’t being locked off from content.  The later PSP games expanded on this greatly.
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The reason Monster Hunter Tri was disappointing is because the developers seemed to have learned nothing from their success with the PSP.  The PSP games fixed a lot of the major issues, sped things up, and didn’t lock the player out of anything if they couldn’t find anybody else to play with.  Tri not only had less content, it also made the same mistake of having the single-player and online modes kept separate from each other.  The only local multiplayer was the extremely half-hearted Arena mode that can just be done online anyway.  That more than anything sunk the game for me.  It’s very clear the developers did their best to parse the game out as much as possible because there wasn’t nearly as much content as you’ll find on the PSP iterations.  The biggest indicator is that they went back to using the exp system for the online mode.  The missions are divided by tiers called Hunter Ranks.  The original game had it that you would have to grind HR points and complete certain quests before you could move up to the next tier (by doing an urgent quest), which honestly sucked because it was clearly just a bottlenecking measure to keep you from getting through the tiers too quickly.  The PSP games dumped this for ad-hoc and simply had the player complete certain quests to do the same thing.  A more experienced player could move up the tiers sooner, while less experienced players could spend more time learning and gearing up and preparing.  The player had total control and access to everything in the game.
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Tri went back to the old system, of HR points.  MHP2G had an additional tiers of specially crafted single-player quests added after beating the regular single-player quests, making it possible for the single-player to do G-Rank content at an adjusted difficulty level and gain access to better gear without doing the ad-hoc mode.  You would have thought Capcom would have learned form this, but no, after you beat the offline mode, you have to get the better gear online only.  I abandoned the game when it sunk in that I was going to be in the same boat as I was in the first game when they finally pulled the plug on the server then.  Once again the only way to get access to the rest of the game will be by hacking it.  Probably what felt like the biggest slap to my face was then seeing a few months later MHP3 releasing with the same game mechanics and monsters from Tri…but with all the prior content of the prior games added on as well.  When I thought 2G wasn’t going to get released here, I for the first time in my life imported a game.  Even if MHP3 isn’t released over here, I still feel such a foul taste in my mouth that I may not even bother at this point.
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This is why I’m put off by what I’m hearing about DQX.  The single-player is going to be separate from the online.  While that means resources are going to be split, it also means that people are being locked off from content.  I don’t play a game only to have 60% of it be locked off from me.  That’s like buying a 2 hour movie and only getting to watch 30 minutes of it.  But on top of that the fees are a big turn off.  Why couldn’t they just do like DQ9 and have local multiplayer instead?  I agree with the prior emailer that Horri lives in the reality of the market, so if this is a decline compared to 9, then he’ll return the series to its original trajectory.  But this is still going to hurt.  The main issue is if the game receives updates, will it be the online only component that gets it?  Will the single-player mode be neglected?  This is just going to be a trainwreck, and as others have said, I’m almost certain this will be a Wii U only release outside of Japan.  I would have bought this on the Wii (maybe, before I heard it was going to be an MMO), but since I’m basically boycotting Nintendo at this point, I’ll just pass it over.  I waited to hear about this game for over two years, and now that it’s unveiled, I’m just severely disappointed.  The game looks pretty, and looks interesting…but it’ll just be a sprawling mess by the time it’s over with.
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I bought me a DSi XL and gave my old Lite to my nephew, buying him old GBA and DS games second hand.  One day I’ll get him DQ9 and Phantasy Star Zero (another DS game with integrated single and multiplayer) and we’ll do multiplayer on that.  One day we’ll be able to play a console RPG together in the same room.  Eventually.  Bleh.
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This is a fascinating insight into why Monster Hunter Tri wasn’t as popular as it should have been.
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It’s pretty clear that Dragon Quest X is to the Wii U as Twlight Princess was to the Wii. It will be the ‘swan song’ title for the Wii but to kick off the new console as a launch title. I can even see Iwata standing up and saying, “You think Nintendo is bad with online? Well, we are launching our console with a MMO game! Beat that!” Predictable Nintendo. Nothing they do ever surprises me.