Above - Khezu
Below - Tigrex
Now to the actual review part of my review.
Disclaimer - This game is now six years old. That doesn't make it bad, but it is old. it is available on the Vita and PSP via download. I understand I am very late in reviewing it, but it is a game I am very familiar with, and it is still purchasable and playable.
Storyline - 3/10
There is a (very) minor storyline in Freedom Unite. It isn't really good, but it's there. It's also very easy to miss if you skip past all of the dialogue and just do the quests. The only reason I give it a 3 and not a 2 is that you encounter the Tigrex, which is a storyline important monster (kind of), in an early mission, and it is explained that this monster is the enemy of the village and stuff. It's done better in Tri, which also had a better, more concrete story. The story also kind of ends after you defeat the Tigrex, with miniature paragraph writings about how a specific monster is off doing bad stuff afterwards to lead you to the urgent quests (Quests you need to complete to move on), instead of them being about the village.
Features - 7/10
For my purposes, "Features" will be what the game allows you to do, which in this case is a great deal. The premise of the game is, as revealed in the title, to hunt monsters. You go off, wielding a giant sword, and fight monsters. There are also literally millions of ways to do each fight, and no limit to the amount of times you can do (or try) them. You have many different weapons and weapon types to chose from, each with their own pros and cons, and an even greater number of items. Defeating the monster rewards you with parts of that monster that you can use to make armor or weapons out of. These tend to look amazing, and are one of the greatest things in the game. The different weapons all have their own special abilities. The Lance can block almost anything, but the Hunting Horn plays songs that gives benefits to you and your allies. However, their is little outside of hunting and gathering to do (although I don't know what else you'd want to do).
Gameplay - 9/10
For my purposes, "Gameplay" will be how the features are implemented and how the game itself runs. Freedom Unite shines in this respect. Although the controls are clunky and take some getting used to (This has no effect on the Vita, as you can set the camera controls to the right directional stick), you do get a good amount of control over your character. Fighting is tense, and you have a sense of nervousness, knowing that one hit could lead you to your doom. You choose a weapon, and go out, attempting to time your attacks in ways that don't leave you exposed, and hoping that you can defeat the monster before you run out of healing items. You have to manage them wisely, as a baattle could last for up to fifty minutes. Few monsters in other games take longer than five minutes to beat. In Monster Hunter five minutes is a good time on most large monsters. This leads to a major feeling of accomplishment when you defeat them.
Content - 9/10
Content will cover both quality and quantity. Again, Freedom Unite does well here. There are hundreds of hours of content. You go through low rank, and then high rank, which is basically low rank but harder. Then there is G rank. G rank is different, there are more new monsters and most have new abilities. In addition there are hundreds of weapons and armour pieces you can combine in various ways. And, as mentioned before, there are literally millions of ways to go at each of the many quests.
Approachability - 3/10
Approachability will be the intimidation factor on new players. 10 being easiest to pick up, 1 being hardest. Freedom Unite is not nice on new players. Not only does it start out very boring with some requests to just go out and gather items, when you do get into fighting there is a very steep difficulty curve. After you get past the first urgent, fighting a giant velociraptor thing, you have to face some stronger monsters. And they will tear the unprepared apart. Again, Tri was better in this regard, and was more newbie friendly.
Soundtrack - 7/10
I personally like the soundtrack, but I know there are others that feel differently. The main theme is very brass heavy, and has a kind of epic feel to it. The themes to many of the individual monsters are also really good and have nice instrumental themes. The reason I didn't rate it higher? The same track is reused too many times. Each individual monster should have had it's own theme.
Graphics - 5/10
The graphics in this game are about average for a PSP game. It's very grainy, but you can get over it. However, there are still some really cool things in it that look nice. This game is not nearly as nice looking as Tri though, and no where close to Tri Ultimate. However, this is not something that should be held against it.
Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, this game is six years old. The graphics then were not quite as advanced as they are now. In general, it is pretty grainy, and if not for the attention paid to the weapons, and the ecology cinematics, I would have given it a 4.
A female hunter attacks a Popo. Screenshot of game.
Overall - 9/10
Overall score is not an average of above score. Though this is one of my favorite all time games, and is quite good, I recognize it has it's faults, and could have been better. Even so, I strongly recommend getting this game if you have a Vita or PSP. The cost is well worth it. And because it is an older game, it is only around twenty dollars in most places, sometimes cheaper. If you can get into it, and ignore the cruddy graphics and horrible storyline, it becomes a great and memorable game.
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