You know those friends that you communicate with entirely through gifs and TikTok links? Well, last week, my best friend sent me this:
Spiribirds have different effects based on their colors.
Green ones raise your total health, yellow for stamina bar, red increases attack, and orange increases defense!
Special rainbow-colored Spiribirds also exist! pic.twitter.com/COtlrCptMn
— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) December 12, 2020
I’ve only ever played one Monster Hunter game, and it was Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS. I was enjoying it, for the most part – I played with a few friends that were a lot more experienced than me, and they helped me take down some of the trickier monsters. I also had sweet Poogie there with me to make it all okay with his TINY LITTLE BEE COSTUME. Honestly, how is there not a game about Poogie? I only kill monsters to keep my boy in new outfits.
Then again, there were outfits for me, too – the incredible ensembles that I would make out of the various monster bits I cut off my prey. Despite being gender-locked – so sometimes my friends would get the cool armour, and I would get some terrible bikini, or sometimes I’d get something rad, and they’d get, like, a teddy bear outfit – the outfits were my second-favourite part of the game. After Poogie, obviously.
You can pet the dog in Monster Hunter Rise pic.twitter.com/9jQbRbsd0l— Can You Pet the Dog? (@CanYouPetTheDog) January 8, 2021
And then I faced the Gore Magala, a tricky purple wyvern-thing who I hope is in hell right now. I faced the Gore Magala around five times before I gave up, and sold the game. I’m sorry, Poogie. I failed you.
So I wasn’t too interested in Monster Hunter Rise, having steadily ignored the last few MH games. I prefer my wrists and fingers intact, thanks, and Monster Hunter isn’t exactly known for letting players take the easy way out.
Hunters can attack with their Palamute while riding it, unleashing a maximum of 3 attacks. pic.twitter.com/GK0cW75Sbu— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) January 9, 2021
But Capcom keeps putting out these cute little artworks that remind me of the reasons I do like the Monster Hunter games. There’s a lot of humour, sweetness, and light in amongst all the dragon-slaying and egg-crushing. And yes, my wrists will not thank me, especially if I pick a weapon as fiddly as the Insect Glaive again, but I’ll just take breaks to wander around the town with Poogie.
Hang on, Poogie is definitely in this one, right?
