 What? This is not the next Crap Guide to D&D? No, it's not. Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled Crap Guide to bring you a Monster Hunter video, which I know a lot of you still like. The next Crap Guide is gonna be a little bit delayed, sorry about that. Even though I said I would try and release them every other day, it's just a little bit of business I have to pack and get ready to drive back home. From university because of Christmas break and I get to go home. In fact, by the time this video uploads, I might be driving back home right now, just sitting in my car listening to a podcast or something. In the meantime, I have been tagged, oh no, by Dark Hero Gaming, who has tagged me in the Monster Hunter tag. And I appreciate being included in this kind of community event involving Monster Hunter, and it's a perfect time too, since Iceborne was just announced. So yeah, let's answer some questions. This one's gonna be less scripted than the content that you're used to, but I don't know, I just... I wanna make a relaxing video for once with low production value and very little editing. Anyway, what got you into the Monster Hunter series, and what do you like about it most? Those of you who watched the Crap Guide to Monster Hunter post-mortem epilogue, whatever, know that I made kind of a short story version. I was introduced to Monster Hunter when I was listening a bunch to... I was an avid listener, and still am an avid listener of the Co-optional podcast. And every now and then, Dodger would always bring up Monster Hunter, and then, you know, whenever they had someone else on who played Monster Hunter, they would be like, oh, it's so good, it's so awesome, and I also watch a lot of ProJarad, and he loves Monster Hunter, so... Everyone's talking about this Monster Hunter, oh, it's so great. And at the time, I think 4U had just been released for the 3DS, except I didn't have... I don't think I had a lot of money to spend on games back then. I did have a Wii U, so I was able to purchase Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the Wii U, because I saw that it was on sale, it was something like $20, and I was like, uh, I'm bored and Wii U, I sold my 360 for a Wii U, which was a bit of a mistake, but, you know, I wanted Smash Brothers and the Mario Kart, stuff like that. And I was like, ah, I'm bored of my games, I got nothing else to play. I'll, uh, yeah, I'll get Monster Hunter 3, sure, why not? And I hated it. I, okay, well, hate's a strong word, I was not enjoying myself at all. It was very grindy, very slow to start, and very difficult, because I had gone into the multiplayer lobby for all of my hunts, so I think the first Monster was actually not the Great Jaggy, it was the Kuropeko. And I could not for the life of me beat that thing, and the Kuropeko can heal itself. So, uh, it was just an endless battle of me hitting this Monster and bouncing off of it, and because I had unupgraded equipment and dying a bunch, and I was like, this, I don't like this. So, I stopped playing it for a while, and then, I think the Game Grumps, when they were part of Polaris, they did a, I think a brand deal called Hunting Monsters, a short series of videos where they were having just a blast with the game. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna give it another shot. And, uh, luckily at the time, ProJarad made a series of tutorial videos as well on how to play Monster Hunter properly, because it is an acquired taste to play the classic Monster Hunter games. They are kind of clunky, kind of slow, very methodical, and not just in the combat, but pretty much everything you do. And it's a little bit daunting with how many mechanics you have to learn. So, I watch the videos, and I'm like, okay, this, all right, I could do this. I just need to be a little bit patient. And I also need to do the single-player story stuff first, because that's where you actually get your gear and stuff, because the monsters aren't scaled up, and they actually introduce you at a decent rate, like with Great Jaggy. And then after that, it was its history. I, uh, I really got into the game. I beat the elder dragon in the water, and then I'm like, okay, I'm hooked. High rank, bring it on. And I think, uh, the thing I like most about it is just the sense of accomplishment, you know, of, and the sense of progression. It's very, very difficult to do progression right in a video game, but I think when I was playing Monster Hunter 3, it was the first time in a very, very long time, whenever I would beat a monster, I would beat it a couple of times to get some equipment, and then I'd be like, okay, what's the next thing? What's the next armor set gonna look like? What's the next weapon upgrade? I can't wait. I gotta, and then whenever I couldn't beat a monster, I'm like, okay, okay, I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna fight a bunch more monsters so that I can upgrade my equipment because I want to see the next monster. I want to see what's next! And that's the most fun thing for me is the progression, because it does it so right. There are so many games where, you know, the term grinding has been used in a negative manner, and there are a lot of examples of grinding done poorly, but I think Monster Hunter does it so well because it's so rewarding and so enjoyable to progress through the game, and that's probably why, just to go on a little tangent, why a lot of people were complaining about, you know, new entries that aren't ultimate versions is because, like, once the progressing stops, that's when Monster Hunter's at its weakest, you know? Once you pretty much have reached the end, then what else is there to do? Which is why Iceborne is gonna be awesome. Anyway, what are some of your favorite moments memories playing Monster Hunter? Okay, so, my favorite memory of Monster Hunter is not actually, like, that exciting. It's a little bit more personal. After I'd gotten Monster Hunter 3 and my friends were all like, oh, my friends who played Monster Hunter at the time, they were like, hey, get four ultimate for your 3DS. I'm like, I don't have the money because I'm in high school and I don't have a job. And then, so they were like, okay, that's fine. We can play three ultimate on our 3DSs. So I brought my Wii U over and this one friend that I was close friends with for a very long time. We just, you know, we hung out. I would occasionally sleep over at his house and we would mostly just play video games and just talk about life and stuff and talk about nonsense. And it was just, you know, the moment just being in there because as a child and just as a teen and even now a lot of time I don't really play a lot with other people. I mostly play alone. Sometimes out of circumstance because other people are busy or sometimes I just feel like it. So, you know, I didn't often get to play with other people a lot, especially my friends. Because either because I had a different console than them or because I didn't have the money to pay for online or for the games that they were playing or, you know, our schedules just didn't line up. So playing this cooperative game and it's a very, very uniting game when you play with someone that just in the moment where I was just kind of laying on his bed and he was kind of like sitting in his gaming chair or whatever while I was just playing on my Wii U screen and he was playing on its 3DS and it was just a nice moment. It was just so peaceful. Just hunting these giant dinosaurs and dragons together. It was very nice. What is my favorite monster hunter, monster and why? Mmm, this is a tough one. Oh, God, there's so many. So I have different categories of what's a favorite. You know, like my favorite to hunt I think would probably be Wrathian just because she's like encapsulates kind of like the essence of a monster hunter hunt without being annoying in the air all the time like Raphilos. But I wouldn't say she's my favorite overall. My favorite monster, I guess like if I had to pick one because of all aspects of it. Of the hunt itself, how it's implemented in the game the armor and weapons that it gives and this is not going to surprise anyone and it's super vanilla but Gormagala in From Monster Hunter 4 because these games are not really known for their stories so when you have one, the single player story with this creature that's a villain that is always returning and plays an aspect more than just being a force to be reckoned with and being an enemy Gormagala also plays an effect in the environment and the whole world of monster hunter entirely so like this frenzy virus is spreading through all the other monsters and it's messing up with the ecosystem so like everything tied together you know, every locale you went to it's like oh the frenzy the monsters are all riled up because of the frenzy virus and it all ties back to the frenzy virus and it all ties back to Gormagala and it's like it's more than just a monster because the monsters in Monster Hunter are more like just animals that are just kind of part of the environment and going about their business and part of the ecosystem but Gormagala was more it seemed like it was actively trying to destroy the environment which you know like it goes which made him really feel like a villain because the hunters as much as we kill these big monsters it's very much trying to emphasize that you are part of this ecosystem and you're keeping it a check and you're very much part of this symbiotic relationship with you know with the world it's not a technology versus nature thing it's more of a nature we are a part of nature and I think that's why Gormagala was so effective because he was actively kind of messing with the natural order of things and the fight is awesome without being frustrating he's a freaking edgy black dragon with purple goop and then right when you beat him and it's like oh that was it and you beat him already it was awesome because once you beat him he came back all golden and white and like better than ever it was awesome and that really elevated For You's story the rest of them I think and overall he is my favorite monster but a very very close second slash different category of favorite monster is Legombi because I love bunnies I love this big fanged beast I love the armor that it gives I love how he slides around he's just awesome I love him so much what is my favorite weapon to use the boomerang why is that your channel name okay I'm gonna answer this in two different ways first the channel name hijack is a combination of me and my very close group of friends first names combined together Heather, Ian, Joseph, Eric, Caitlin hijack and that's pretty much it there's not a bunch of reason behind it it just sounded cool and my moniker of Joe Kat is actually a shortening of my full name Joseph Catalanello and with a couple of other friends in high school they called me Joe Kat and I thought yeah you know what I like cats I'm a Joe sure why not alright and now I am going to tag some people a lot of people that I did want to tag have already been tagged and I don't really know that many monster hunter youtubers so I'll tag Jinjinks and Tuna aka the monster hunter math guys and even though somebody tagged them already when you play tag just because you've been tagged before I'll be tagged again so I also tag my name is Gabe and you know what I'm not afraid of punching above my weight class I'm going to tag Gaijin Hunter yeah I've been watching you for so many years and I'm very interested in your history with monster hunter so yeah I say that but honestly I understand that he's on vacation right now and if he doesn't want to make a video that is completely totally fine he doesn't have to I just thought I wanted to tag someone big and that I enjoy watching anyway if you've reached this far thank you so much for watching all the way to the end if you skipped to the end then I guess thanks for clicking on the video anyway if you want to engage in the conversation feel free to give your experiences with the monster hunter series in the comment section I do read like 99% of them so yeah I very much want to hear where everyone comes from in the series and I still don't know how to sign off so I'll just say bye bye