Monster Hunters Marvellous Combat 

The most unrealistic thing in this video is Longsword players going for the tail and letting Hammer users do actual damage without getting tripped

MH really is a special breed of games. There's just something so satisfying to memorizing a monster's moveset and finding out how to optimize yours in response. It *sounds* like a regular game, but the interactive aspect is so strong that it's like having a dance partner except neither are doing the tango and both have knives but their knife is part of their head and your knife is actually a 2 ton hunk of iron shaped like corn on the cob

My fav MHW memory was an egg quest where I was desperately dodging a rathalos in the last few minutes of the timer while yelling at my friend who was lost on the other side of the map.

The first time I cut a tail with a greatsword, I didn't know it could happen, and I was already so into the fight that the sight of me turning the tide in a tough battle gave gave the feeling of "I'VE GOT YOU NOW, BASTARD!" that was so overwhelming that it kicked my brain into the flow state and the combat finally clicked in my brain. It was such a perfect aha moment that I've been chasing that high in gaming ever since.

Your description of Souls combat as being a tug of war between the player and the enemy for stamina use is perfect. I had never thought of it that way before

0:26 bookmarking this for no reason

The thing that I love about MonHun that you didn't mention, is that it's an action RPG where your progress is linked to your own knowledge of the game, and what you can kill. As you play the game, you learn all of these little tricks and tips that gradually add up until you're just a ball of "Oh, did you know?" And the fact that everything you kill in the game becomes equipment. I like skinning a velociraptor to make a velociraptor hat, which I wear to fight a bigger velociraptor.

Devestating local ecology has never felt so fun

This man just used youtubes ad system to support his argument and to prove a point. Brilliant

Not gonna lie, dodging monsters attacks by rolling through specific spots of their hitbox was way more satisfying than wirebug dodging

I think something that makes MH really unique is that rather than progressing by leveling up like in most RPGs, you progress by crafting new equipment. It means that your progress is tied to how good you are at the game. In Monster Hunter you can't just grind easy monsters until your stats are so high you completely outclass whatever fight you're struggling with, you have to actually improve and learn the weapons and monster.

Playing MH is the closest thing to playing a fighting game that’s actually a PvE co-op game. Before you’re new you just mash and flail randomly hoping things will work out. Then you learn which attacks are punishable and which aren’t. You watch a really good player and see that they get bigger punishes because they know when to roll, where to aim, what the monster will do next. And after playing for a while you see a cool clip of a different weapon and get inspired to pick it up. It’s so interesting cause it’s like you’re playing a different game. The hand feel, the speed, the things you need to be good at are all different. And before you know it you’ve been playing for hundreds of hours chasing the feeling you get when you land a really clean sequence. Like you’ve temporarily opened your third eye, and can see the green matrix numbers that make up the game while you’re epically twerking on the monster.

I've never had anyone tell me about Monster Hunter in a cohesive way before. Honestly, what you say about everyone having a different experience makes a lot of sense considering that nobody has ever been able to define to me why they enjoy playing these games.

Monster Hunter gives me the same satisfaction i get from fighting games. Learning and mastering the matchup against all the monsters, reading their next attack before it happens to then just punish them for it. It's amazing! It's also a amazing feeling to look back on how far you've come when you started using any of the weapons. At first it feels awkward or even frustrating but when you really put in the time and get to know the weapon it just clicks and you really start to appreciate the weapon, weaknesses and strengths. It also helps you appreciate the people who main those weapons. The 14 weapons of MH are just a fighting game roster because MAN they have so much more depth compared to alot of other weapon combat in other action games...so yeah, what i'm saying is Capcom are amazing at combat design and Monster Hunter is sick.

I think the thing I love most about monster hunter is NOT having a visible health bar for the monster. When I first started playing (for context I play World) I thought that was the strangest, dumbest choice, all the fights were boss fights so why wasnt I able to see how close I was? But *you do* the game has such a natural pace to it, a monster is very close to death when it goes back to sleep, occasionally so close you can kill it without even doing another whole fight. The monster over time naturally gets tired, and spends time just leaning back and catching its breath. the monster gets hurt when you break something, backing away screaming in pain. The monster IS telling you how close you are in its movements. Its so fine tuned.

The weapon comparisons at 6:12 caught me so off guard! My brain was like “Oh I miss that alligator monster I wonder if they’ll bring him back!” Then realizing it was God eater hit different, a whole new nostalgia.

The best part of MH is by far how weighty the combat is. Like, there's just so much heft and weight behind each weapon that it makes the game so unbelievably satisfying when you connect big attacks, or when you fish for an opening and get that cheeky smack in. Coming from GS in MHW, I legitimately cannot play any other 3rd person action-RPG anymore because they all just feel floaty in comparison. I'm so accustomed to this big fuck off vaguely sharpened slab of metal with a rocket on the back of it that a normal sword feels like a wobbly dildo in comparison.

one of my favorite moments from monster hunter combat is when i ran a medic hunting horn in ice born. ran into another medic hunting horn. and we healed through a lunastra supernova to let everyone get right back to bonking the monster once she landed

Monster hunter, is a game where monster is hunted

your description of souls combat is good, but its clear by you saying that such stamina management isn't present in monster hunter that you don't play bow or dual blades, because both of those weapons use stamina offensively in a pretty soulsian way, if you overuse it you won't have enough stamina to dodge, and so on

Yeah I think the best part of monster hunter is the sheer variety in the weapons. As you alluded to, each weapon for the most part really is their own entire game. If you're playing Hunting Horn, you're doing something completely different than someone playing SnS or Greatsword or Charge Blade or whatever. And that both allows for players in general to have a greater chance of finding a playstyle they like, but also adds replayability to the game since even if you get to endgame with one weapon, you could still easily spend another hundred hours learning a new weapon from scratch and still have a great time fumbling against monsters you could smash easily with your main. Like whenever I introduce someone new to the game I usually have to take a personality quiz to try and recommend a proper weapon for them. Do they like managing lots of resources? Do they value mobility or raw damage and to what extent? etc etc

I think my favorite anti-monster hunter argument I've heard is "What else is there to the game, all you do is hunt monsters" And I have to just sit there for a minute... show them the name of the game, and wait for them to realize that's kinda the point

My favorite thing about MH is how the skills and weapon properties coalesce into a build that feels truly your own. I play an item support sword and shield build that focuses on using the shield to punch the monsters face until it's stunned. Then once it's down you go for big combos. The cool thing about this is the shield punches don't lower your sharpness. How's that for player expression?

12:57 Alright but seriously, I would KILL for a cross-over monster fight against Godzilla. Also, I have never heard anyone put into words exactly everything great about Monster Hunter and it's combat anywhere NEAR as well as you did. This was an awesome video, and thank you, so much for finally finding a way to put all of that feeling into words, I could never quite find a good way to explain it to my friends myself when they showed interest in the franchise.

I fucking love MonHun so much. Like you said it always feels like theres enough time for just one... more... hunt... Also very excited for a possible ULTRAKILL video from you at some point.

11:16 Let’s be honest. A long sword’s goal is to counter, get max spirit gauge, then use helm breaker on the monsters head

Fuck yeah, getting to hear Leon gush about MH combat? W so big you'd think it was Jhen Mohran

One of my favorite aspects of monster hunters combat (especially in the newest games) is that it's deliberate but not slow. Every move matters because even with stuff like the dual blades you still have times when you can't stop your attacks, so you have to think about when is a good time to go in. But even so, you can still run around the battlefield to dodge the monster and it never feels like you're too slow to avoid damage. Also, the combat has a certain weight to it that I adore. Every strike has power behind it that makes it feel like you're doing meaningful damage with every hit. Just my random thoughts.

We can see Leon likes Bocchi from the thumbnail.

as an unga bunga greatasword main, the thing i love most about Monster Hunter is landing a True Charge Slash and watching the 10-tonne beast stagger. The animation stopping when you land it gives such an addictive sense of power

The fact you put an ad there is amazing💀

One thing I love about mh is how you never have to level up your character or have any specific stats tied to them. You can swap to any weapon, any play style at any point without having to worry about respec or any of that shit. You just grind out some new gear

Yeah, I couldn't give less of a shit about managing the Charge-Axe but once they added the shoulder-check to the Greatsword, I physically could not play any other weapon for more than a few hunts. Love brawling with that thing. Very insightful words, smart good talk words.

It really helps that the sound, animation and music make this dance between you the player and the monster play put so well. It would feel mediocre but the satisfying crunch when the hammer hit or the exaggerated falling a monster takes while an orchestra plays battle music sell the combat just as well as the mechanics do. Every small success has a fanfare that encourages you to continue going towards the end.

this is honestly top tier script writing and content. 10/10

Bocchi the rock thumbnail I've found the boccher

I’m so glad someone made this. Seriously, the creativity in all of the weapons’ moves has me in awe because they somehow manage to look cool without going out of boundaries (for the most part). The hammer is a prime example.

Monster hunter is a fighting game for people who don’t do pvp imho. That’s what it feels like to me any way Edit: To explain what I mean, you’re learning your weapons move set, you’re learning system mechanics, you’re learning your matchup against every monster, you’re learning their moveset, you’re whiff punishing, you learn the different types of knock downs and what your most damaging follow ups are in those situations, you might do a bit of practice in training mode (training room?) if you want to get good at using something like a counter/shoulder charge/water strike or test a build. All of that stuff reminds me so much of fighting games

1:15 3U was my first MH game, and i actually like water combat, and while it wasnt perfect. I really want to see them try it again, make it easier to move around and the movesets less slow and it will be fun.

You absolutely fucking roasting Skyrim for it's Garbo combat really made me cackle, thank you for putting it in its place and showing just how good true action combat games are

i'm really glad you're branching out from just fighting games this year. your style of content is really well suited to topics like this!

I wanna see a monster hunter fighting game where all the characters are the different weapon choices, and you can unlock armor pieces from different monster sets as cosmetics.

Magnificent video. Lots of great points that are spot on. Ive loved these games for YEARS. Amazing teamwork and coop with my brothers. And an incredibly fun and satisfying combat.

Glad to see that you gave the charge blade some love. I absolutely LOVE this weapon and it's the main reason it's harder for me to go back to the older games.

Everytime I see somebody talking about Monster Hunter it sounds just so magical About the world, the feeling while playing, the gameplay, etc And it only make the live action worse

I like this vid, really put into words what i couldn't when trying to explain how these 2 games (mh and ds) feel entirely different yet look so similar. Thanks leon :)

World was a transcendent experience. Rise hasn't quite met that expectation but it's damn close. I'm so happy I finally got into these games. Thanks for the video, Leon.

I know nothing about this game but hearing you talk about this makes me smile. Good video :)

You know you've mastered Monster Hunter when it stops being dark souls and starts being love live.

Hammer heavy Hammer hit monster Hammer feel good Hammer happy

Dude your humor is great and your description of the combat in MH is absoluteley perfect!

Wow really good analysis of the combat, you’ve some how managed to put into words the magic of this game

Very interesting video breaking down why monhun has great combat. I've played monhun since freedom unite and I've played souls since demons. The comparison with the souls series is hard to avoid. Both games feature large, difficult to defeat enemies and have weapons that require commitment when attacking. Both games can be completed with minimal equipment given a sufficiently skilled player. Three additional things I think that are fascinating in these game's combat systems are punishment, commitment, and positioning. -Punishment There can be no excitement without any risk, and both games heavily punish players for mistakes. When the player makes a mistake and gets punished by taking damage, in monhun, they lose positioning and momentum. Many of the 14 weapons require some sort of setup to get its biggest attacks out: GS's TCS has to be the 3rd charged swing, LS's meter has to reach red, DBs need to enter demon mode, HA needs to charge, CB needs red shield, phials, and be in axe mode to SAED, etc. When hit and knocked back, the player loses their progress toward these smaller goals, and being able to maintain a state of optimal play feels good to master. After being knocked back, players are in an invulnerable state as they fly backwards and as they pick themselves up, essentially preventing continuous punishment for a single mistake and being able to return to neutral. On quest fail, the main loss is time, and consumables the player has used, but if they managed to pick up shinies or carve a tail for the monster's materials, it isn't a total waste. In souls, taking damage stuns the player and leaves them vulnerable to even more damage, and punishment is easily compounded. The punishment for too many mistakes is loss of progress within the level, and loss of the currently held temporary resource used for upgrading stats and equipment, souls. When the player us unable to reach the same point in the level after their first death, that loss becomes permanent. The primary healing method is refilled on checkpoints or on death, and loot obtained stays in the player's inventory. -Commitment Both games also heavily feature large time commitments to offensive and defensive actions. Even the fastest options in the respective games (SnS/DBs in monhun, katanas/daggers in souls) are not always completely safe and can be just as punishing if mistakes are made. As you mentioned, the importance of stamina management for both offensive and defensive purposes in souls is a key balancing feature. Attack too much in an opening and there won't be enough stamina to roll away from the enemies next attack, spend too much stamina rolling for safety and there won't be stamina to punish the next opening. In monhun, most attacks do not take stamina, and most defensive options do take stamina. Many weapons also have defensive options within their moveset in addition to the general roll with i-frames: GS has tackle, LS has 3 types of counters, CB has guardpoints. Most attacks can also be canceled into rolls before the animation finishes. Rise's wirebugs also present an interesting resource to manage: when a player's mistake is punished, they have the option to more quickly regain positioning by using a wirebug, but at the cost of not having that resource to use on more powerful offensive options. Skilled players who can avoid damage are rewarded by being able to use more silkbind moves. The additional layered and flexible defensive options in monhun lead to more varied combat. Weapons that require setup (GS's TCS, LS's red meter, CB's phials, etc) also have flexible shortcuts to reach. Being aware of and mastering the quirks of weapons allows for more rewarding actions to be taken in a given opportunity window. -Positioning Optimal play in both games is heavily reliant on positioning. Punishment can be avoided and the risk of commitment can be lowered with proper positioning. Greater offensive actions can be done if the player can avoid using committed defensive actions. In souls, an attack can be i-framed by rolling, but the recovery of that roll can't be canceled into an attack. If an attack is avoided by sidestepping or backpedaling, the player is able to deal damage much sooner. In monhun, different parts of the monster's body take different amounts of damage. It can be safer sticking to the sides and attacking the hind legs, and riskier and more rewarding to stay in front of the monster to hit its head. Skilled players can maintain their weapon's 'setup' (GS charge level, HA held charge, DB demon mode, CB's chainsaw mode) through mindful positioning relative to monster's attacks and can maximize their reward on any given opening.

Thank you for this very well put together video, you have convinced me to make a bowgun build

the knockdowns and stuns part of combat, aka the "beat its face in" phase is definitely such a good part of the MonHun combat experience

ever since I found out you could manually place ad rolls, it blows my mind how many people put them in terrible places this is the kind of use I was hoping to see, great content as always

One of the many reasons why MH has great combat is because the aspects that are taken for granted in most other melee combat systems actually require a lot of consideration from the player (more in the older MH games but this still applies to the new ones) such as positioning and the body parts that you will attack, with positioning being the most vital one in my opinion. Most melee action games are just about hitting your opponent and dodging when you're about to receive an attack, but in MH you have both weapon sharpness and specific body parts taking different amount of damage which incentivizes the player to not only try to hit the monster but to be carefully position yourself to be hitting a specific body part as often as possible. The slow attack animations also mesh well with this making you want to take as much advantage as possible of each hit you land. Lots of weak hits will affect your sharpness quickly and slow hits require a lot of commitment and timing if you are trying to hit a specific body part Dodging enemy attacks is also not just a matter of dodge rolling when an attack is about to hit you since the monsters can be so large that their hitboxes would still be colliding with your hurtboxes so positioning yourself carefully is often needed to actually dodge their attacks rather than just relying on timing. You can even place yourself in specific areas so that you can still land hits on the monster while still avoiding the hit like for example staying underneath a Rathalos while it swings it's tail, or you can position yourself in such way that when you dodge you end up being placed just correctly to hit that specific body part you want to break. All of these aspects just mesh really well with one another.

That's funny because combat genuinely felt better back in 3rd gen. Not in terms of satisfying tight animations or bombastic moves but at least it was worth engaging with in it of itself. For most fights after 4th gen or so you can throw yourself at most monsters repeatedly until they die, and trying to get better times is like a bonus challenge. No real sense of danger or urgency in modern titles. Back in the day it was about survival, the monster could actually fuck you up really bad really quick, though some people still say that about world or rise when it only really applies to the last few fights in world and literally zero fights in Rise.

This is a fantastic video and analysis. I love it. 😃

All in all, I like the part of monster hunter were I make a visible dent inside the skull of some poor creature with my hammer that is also a giant catman statue

I mean, I love the old mh formula, but i gotta agree there IS indeed some bullshit... fuck plesioth fuck the egg breaking if something breathes your way and fuck bullfango/somethingprey ganging even if you're fighting a whole ass different monster (why do bullfangos bully me if i'm fighting a fucking rath that just ate one of them to get stamina back???????????). I honestly was amazed to see an egg not breaking in Rise after a jump, like it was magic also fuck capcom for being scared of gunlance's potential, giving it nerfs for no discernable reason and pumping features up longsword's ass because muh honourable katana i guess > "look, LS is too good, what can we do about it? " > "let's give GL a heat meter that forces the player to stop gunlancing, and put a new parry option for LS but don't forget to give GL a cool rocket skill like we had in Frontier so plebs aren't that pissed off" yes i'm still salty from X

9:30 I don't think it's a flaw, how you prepare for a hunt is also part of the fun

Absolutely amazing video, keep me engaged the entire time. I play since freedom unite, Kinda sad you hate bowguns because heavy bowgun is what made me fall in love with the series. Beside that, I felt like this video is a perfect explanation of monster hunter. I've been trying to talk someone into mh for the longest time, and now thank to you I think I have the perfect video. Please have a wonderful day.

Nice work, you’ve managed to put into words what I’ve been feeling since Tri.

6:13 I see what you did there... nice!

rolls in souls game: "lol just roll through enemy attacks" rolls in MH: "roll to reposition yourself. like, you know, a roll" conclusion: MH mogs

You earned that sub just for finally perfectly articulating how I feel about skyrims combat lmao.

I as a fellow monster hunter and 3u player I really enjoyed this explanation and think it is very well done amazing work 👍💯

Why are Monster Hunter video essays so short and yet infinitely better than half of the 2 hour ones

I would absolutely adore a remake or even better, a remaster of 4U.

Great video :D Made a lot of great points and references to other games makes it easier to understand the core gameplay mechanics

This is a point I've never heard articulated this well ever before. Truly great work

A perfect example of great monster combat is Khezu, since it’s blind it technically doesn’t fight you but just reacts of your last location it detects you from, not to mention it can easily disrupt your entire team with its stupidly op AOE attacks. But it also is immune to flash bombs which just gives another sense of difficulty to new players as there’s no clear indication (aside from lacking eyes) that this could happen

One of my favorite things about Monster Hunter is that the monsters genuinely feel like creatures. They have pseudo-realistic explanations of how they work, have specific behaviors and actions that you remember, and characterization that makes them memorable outside of just "big lizard". If you've played Monster Hunter long enough I guarantee there's one monster you think is the devil and another Monster who you respect more than your teammates

Thank you for an incredible summary of my favorite game

This has to be the most hyper accurate analytical account of a game franchise I've seen. Thanks, lad. Also, I main Lance on MHW, if anyone wants to dance around with me I'd appreciate the jig.

as a bowgun main i gotta say monster hunter is my favorite third person shooter

Had no idea you played Monster Hunter and would VERY much watch you talk about it more. Also with the influx of new players I doubt newcomers understand the silent role of where your weapon should be positioned

Best video on MH i´ve seen, I didn't even realize why I even like this game so much

I only just found this video now, but “Fight big monster good” is why I like Monster Hunter, Legend of Zelda, AND Dark Souls style games

Watched Bocchi the Rock I can no longer look at this thumbnail the same ever again

The long sword player going for the tail….. Are you sure you’ve played with long sword mains

you know what... for that perfect placement of an ad i applaud you and let it play in order to write this comment because that, that was pretty amazing xD

The ad placement got me. Laughed alot. Also nicely done with discussing the topic.

9:28 yes i also miss the good old days and yes i dont want a remake i want the games to go back to the basics and actually build on the mechanics dont get me wrong i have over 1000 hours on world and going for that on rise but i still miss the old games feel, stile and agency 13:39 before you say im not playing give me the controller first, i will wait for the mail

For me, monster hunter is about respecting the monster and breaking down its self-defense. You aggress the monster and the monster desperately tried to defend itself, if you fail to break down this defense and take control then the monster dominates you and you have to win through sheer perseverance. But as you continue to hunt, I feel like you develop a respect for the monster, and you begin to negate its self-defense until eventually the fight is purely in your control and the monster is just thrashing around as you break it down. However, that's also because of the weapons I like to play. That way of playing and thinking about MH is why I can't play weapons like lance; those weapons are about perseverance and defense. Something like bow or LS are much more proactive and can negate anything the monster tries to do to save itself.

Criminal that RU-vid didn't alert me of this video when it has with all the fighting game ones, great stuff dude

Actually well thought out and explained analysis. Thought it would be wishy-washy but it really clicked for me when talking about the change in power dynamics

Yeah I love MH. It's got beautiful combat, I started back in MHFU and once it clicked I could never stop!!!! Edit: I think the only thing you failed to mention when it comes to player expression is build variety (especially in world and rise with the amount of armor skills you can acquire)! I know it's not exactly part of combat, but your build can hugely impact how you play. Sword and Shield, for example, can build for support, stunning with the shield, raw damage and elemental attacks. Hunting horn can build for many different thing depending on the songs and skills you use and so on.

I noticed a stunning lack of MHGU footage here, and I respectfully demand you play it or you will find a third rock through your window.

I’ve been watching this channel forever so glad it got the super eyepatch wolf shout out

Great video. Also massive respect for using Croc OST as backround music

I’ve never seen nor heard someone complaining about not bringing the right items for a fight and calling it a genuine criticism that like your going fishing forgetting to bring bait and going “thanks Obama”

I actually miss more of the gathering and egg quests from the older games. Especially having to go into the volcano area to mine a ton. It was always a bit of a risk trying to get the high tier ore when you first unlocked new areas. Even plant gathering for potions and cooking meat was fun as a bit of relaxation from hunting.

Tri onwards this series ascended to near perfection, it's just a shame the interim games were mostly locked to handheld consoles up until World/ Rise.

You take that back right now. Egg quests are the only thing that make monster hunter a masterpiece and you know it.

I don't agree entirely with your analysis (namely that I believe MH has been over streamlined to a certain extent and while I don't miss egg quests, I would like a lot of extra prep work to be more encouraged, and also I love underwater combat >:) but overall this is a great video and holy SHIT your script writing is tight, fantastic job. My favorite part about MH is the ecology personally. Others have said this, but the monsters really are the star of the show, and aside from literal animal sims and perhaps Subnautica, I've never seen such well thought-out video game Biology, especially for a roster that essentially boils down to various wyverns, dragons, gods and for some reason Goku? In any case, subbed but tenuously for your transgressions against Lagiacrus.

Yes my favourite Monster Hunter weapon is the Variant Scythe, how did you know?

Thank you for reminding me why I love this game. Rise is a blast now that I downloaded it

Damn... that was a really fucking good ad transition. You have a new subscriber