GAME BUSINESS DAILY

For a PSP title to sell nearly 2.5 million copies worldwide is a pretty amazing achievement. But when 75% of those sales originate from Japan , a tiny country in comparison with the US and Europe , it does beg the question why? What is it that makes this game so special to the Japanese gamers and not to anyone else?    

I finally got the time and chance over the Easter holidays to try and find out. ”Monster Hunter Freedom 2″ is indeed an awesome game and a magical gaming experience. It’s also an absolutely enormous game : 8 huge maps to explore with over 100 single player quests, 235 multiplayer quests, 6 treasure hunting quests and over 30 downloadable quests with 70 types of Monsters, 700 weapons, and 1400 pieces of armor. It’s also brilliantly designed and executed : I personally would have preferred some sort of  targeting system but perhaps the blame for that lies more with the design of the PSP and its missing camera stick.

So what the hell is the problem with us westerners? Why are we unable to appreciate such brilliant games? The answer seems to lie in the general outlay of the game :

(1) It’s very time consuming – To even scratch the surface of this mighty game takes enormous amounts of time and patience. In order to tackle the higher levels you need better armour and weapons which requires you to go on endless gathering quests and collect rarer items. It is of course eventually rewarding but this is a serious gaming challenge and not for the faint hearted.   

(2) It’s really hard and difficult to play. With no difficulty settings , you find yourself constantly fighting monsters with seemingly endless health reserves. Learning the tricks of the trade, using the appropriate items  and finding the enemy’s weaknesses takes huge amounts of skill and bravery.  

So this game is hardcore gaming at its best : a style that suits the Japanese perfectly and only a small handful of western gamers. If Capcom really wanted to sell more copies of this game in the US and Europe, they would need to issue a special edition of the game with all monsters’ health cut in half! Perhaps they could call it : “Monster Hunter Freedom 2 : Specially Watered Down Version for Wimp Gamers In The West” ! In fact, I find it puzzling why Capcom haven’t gone down this route already : difficulty settings are commonplace these days!

Now, back to that Professor Layton puzzle….