Rocket's adventures in MH3U Part 1: Playing the demo

I don't even like this game that much.

However, when the demo came out a few weeks ago on the 3DS eShop, I got addicted to it. That's a strange thing for me, not particuarly caring for a game but not wanting to stop playing, yet that was the effect this demo had on me!

There were two monsters to hunt in this demo: Lagombi for beginners and Plesioth for veterans.

I chose the Lagombi hunt and went straight for it. It was this weird overgrown koala thing and it seemed all cute and peaceful, but that was before it noticed me. It started throwing snowballs and sliding all over the place in such fast crazy patterns. My character couldn't move that fast! Before long I was knocked out and brought back to camp on a stretcher. I looked up the electronic manual for more of the controls. I learned about sheathing to run, blocking, using items, using the lock-on and so forth. I raced back up the mountain, hugely determined to take on the beast once more. Much more cautious this time, I did a lot of attacking and running like the way a wolf hunts its prey but then the beast just absconded out of the area. I then ran out of time.

I was seriously thinking about giving up at this stage, especially considering little annoyances like getting pushed into the previous area I was in. This game was so austere and so much like hard work that it was almost scary how much I wanted to go back and play some more.

I spent a good while thinking about a purchase of the full game and about what I was getting myself into... I then rationalised that if I couldn't beat the two monsters then I wouldn't buy the game.

I started another session of hunting the Lagombi. You've only 20 minutes in the demo so I went much quicker this time, always worrying about my HP and the clock. This time I beat it.

Yeah! Now onto the Plesioth. It looked like a cross between the eel from Super Mario 64 and various other nightmarish things.

They weren't kidding when they said it was for veterans.... I had swimming to deal with this time too, and this creature was even faster and just thrashed all over the place. I lost time and time again and it seemed futile, just hacking away desperately at its ankles on the beach or scrawling at its back in the water. I felt lost, weary and frustrated and my fingers ached with the cold and from holding that little brick of a handheld.

I then started to check out the community and I gotta say, it was great. Chatting with MonHun fans and checking out their YouTube videos, I started to learn so much! I hope to get to know them more as I play.

I followed some good advice and made some changes. I chose the gunlance set up and did some preparation like eating steak to increase max stamina and kept myself as well prepared as possible.

After a few more trials and failures I noticed the Plesioth starting to limp and groan with weariness. Time kept running out so I had to get more and more efficient at what I was doing. After a couple of weeks of trying on and off I finally beat the monster.

Now that I had beaten the demo entirely I was in a much better place to make a judgement call on the purchase. I decided to buy the game.

I still don't like it that much, but damn it do I want to play some more!