Monster Hunter Now’s big winter update is snow joke

06.12.2023 - 07:59 / thesixthaxis.com

When the executive producer of Monster Hunter Now, Kei Kwai, opened his presentation on Monster Hunter Now by talking about what the franchise meant to him — his cousin marrying someone they met at the Monster Hunter table in the cafeteria — it struck a chord. My brother and I would always try to hide from the harsh Spanish sun on our family holidays by sitting under the biggest palm tree we could find, so that we could get the most shade and best see what we were fighting on our PSPs.

So when Kwai spoke of his vision of seeing people on the street playing Monster Hunter together, that too struck a chord. While that is feasible in Japan, where the Now community is biggest, it hasn’t yet happened here in the UK. Part of that boils down to the franchise’s popularity in the Japan, and part of it lies with the game itself.

In our review I wrote: “Monster Hunter Now could grow into a true successor and companion to Pokémon Go, but only if Niantic listen to their audience make rapid improvements to the game.” Niantic has been listening, and the events and patches since launch have certainly moved the needle. While my biggest gripes are yet to be addressed — smoothing out the difficulty curve and sorting out the Potion economy — the big winter patch is a big step in the right direction.

Fulminations in the Frost

The new season in Monster Hunter Now — an actual three-month season, as opposed to the monthly seasons that are the backbone of keeping Pokémon Go alive — is a bit of a mouthful, certainly. Kwai admitted, to much amusement on my part, that this is a translation from the Japanese idea they latched onto in design. Having lived and worked in Japan, I this is something I totally grok.

‘Frost’ may make you think that this brings a new Tundra biome, but don’t be fooled. When asked whether new biomes would be coming with the new season, which kicks off on December 7^th, we were told that the winter vibes that we’re about to see are purely cosmetic. Think of it like Halloween in Now or Christmas in Go — pretty, but just pretty.

What isn’t cosmetic, however, is the new weapons that you might have spotted in the game’s fancy new loading screen: Dual Blades and the Lance, and the whopping great Zinogre they’re being levelled at.

New weapons and monsters

Our hands-on session gave us a great opportunity to try these new weapons against a bevvy of monsters, from the mainstays we’re used to, to the seasonal additions of Banbaro, Radobaan, Barioth and Zinogre. You’ll get a chance to encounter some of them as part of a seasonal set of special missions. They all felt pretty well designed and balanced, and each felt like a genuine representation of the monster you’d fight in the main series, which was exciting to see.

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