Since When Was Monster Hunter so Huge?

Monster Hunter World has come out recently and everyone around me is raving about it.  I'm not disagreeing with the raving either, Monster Hunter World looks absolutely fan-fucking-tastic, and while I've not bought it myself because it's like 8000 yen (when new games are typically around 6000) I can't wait to get my hands on it soon.

While it's nice to see a game series I enjoy get so much positive press, it's popularity is somewhat confusing to me though.  In Japan I know that Monster Hunter has always been big, you sort of just bump into it everywhere.  It might be a poster advertising Frontier in an internet cafe or some kind of promotional thing like a Monster Hunter themed design on a drink or something, it's the kind of thing that just pops up in every day life fairly often.  Now I can't speak for America but in the UK it was a different story completely, I only knew 2 people who also played Monster Hunter and apparently there was some little shop in London where hunters could go meet up to hunt stuff on Freedom Unite.

They were games that had good reviews but never much of a following.  I started to get into the series around the time of Freedom Unite and I remember having a grand old time with it.  However, back then I remember getting an armor set and posting a picture of it on Facebook to show some friends and a bunch of people chimed in with comments like "why are you such a sad fuck?" or "this game is for losers" etc.  It wasn't even a high level set, it was a shit early game thing that required no effort too, not that it really matters I guess.

I stuck with the series up to Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the PSP (so 2008-2010 roughly) and in that time only met 1 other guy who was at all interested.  After that the series moved to 3DS which was all region locked and shit and I was living in Japan so I was sort of locked out of playing it unless I wanted to import or drop money on a Japanese 3DS but even with each DS release I didn't see anyone talking about it.

Now it's 2018, World gets released and suddenly everyone is all "MONSTER HUNTER OMG LOOKS SO GOOD!".  Like, where did this excitement come from?  I spent so much time looking for people with even a passing interest to no avail and now suddenly everyone's a fan? What the fuck happened?  It feels to me that some people are bandwagoning a bit here.  They actually don't know jack shit about the series past World but because of all the praise and publicity suddenly they love it now.

Still, I know I might be coming across as all bitter and sort of gatekeepy like "who are these filthy casuals playing MY game" but that's not the case.  It's confusing but it does make me happy to see a series I like getting so much praise and hype around it.  It all means that when I DO go and buy it I'll have plenty of people it with, finally.

Happy Hunting to newcomers and veterans alike!

Western Portable Gaming Stigma?

I'm going to start off by saying that I've not stepped foot in the UK for a good few years now so if things have changed then disregard this post.  However, going by what I've read on the internet it's the same as it was back when I was there.

Portable systems are great, you can get your gaming fix on the bus/train/plane/toilet whatever.  They have also gotten to a point where the visuals and game play of some portable titles rival that of console stuff.  Hell, you don't even need to buy physical games for them if you don't want to anymore.  Just find some Wi-Fi for that bastard and download something off an online store which kills the need to carry around boxes of carts like back in the day.

However, from my time in the UK and from what I've read on the internet there's this weird stigma attached to actually playing a portable system outside.  I've read people on forums and have even had friends say to me that they wouldn't dare play their DS/Vita or whatever in public because it would make them look "weird" or "too nerdy" whatever that means.  These aren't teens needlessly worried about public appearance either, these are grown adults.

First of all, if you're that ashamed by them why would you even buy a portable in the first place.  The whole point of the damn thing is to be taken around for when shit gets boring but instead you just decide to be bored and sit there doing nothing.  It's not like these things are cheap either, so you may as well get the most out of them.  Using them as a house console that you carry around seems like a bit of a waste.

But why do you even care what other people think about you?  Are you that insecure?  You aren't important or noticeable enough for anyone to give a shit that you're playing a video game on the bus.  Even IF someone did judge you for playing a game in public, who the fuck cares?  If they are going to judge you based on that alone they are probably a prick anyway.

The worst thing though is that these people are fucking hypocrites.  They are too embarrassed to play a Vita or 3DS game on public transport but they sure as hell don't mind wasting fucking hours on garbage portable games.  Games that mostly have no substance and are designed to drain money from the stupidest of smartphone users.

This is what I like about living in Japan, I see people playing portable games all the fucking time.  Whenever a new Pokemon or Monster Hunter gets released the trains are full of people with portable systems passing their boring commutes a way.  Not even just typical nerd types either, dudes in suits, mothers, pretty women, families, young and old alike.  I've seen people reading PORN on trains and no one really giving a shit, people just don't care about the method by which you kill your commute time out here and it's great.

Stop being so uptight, just enjoy your damn games.  

Convenience stores and game merch

It doesn't matter if you come to Japan for a holiday or for an extended stay, it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point during your stay here you'll end up in a convenience store to buy something.

I've noticed during my time here an abundance of video game stuff being sold in these convenience stores and while its usually quite pricey stuff and I never buy it, it's interesting to see this stuff being sold as its something that would absolutely NEVER happen back home.

The above example is a bottle of drink called Dodecamin, which usually has this sort of brown label, but in order to promote the new Monster Hunter game on the horizon they've changed the label to this funky design.

Monster Hunter isn't the only thing that I've seen kicking about the convenience stores either.  A few weeks ago, I think to promote Persona 4 Golden on the Vita, these stores were selling all sorts of Persona 4 merchandise, such as posters and blindfolds with character designs on it, although it was all needlessly expensive.

Even Japan's greatest fake pop star Hatsune Miku has been in on the whole convenience store marketing thing with a merch campaign that ended a couple of months ago.  This thing was so big that it even had its own ad on TV, check it out!

So if your in Japan, checking your local corner shop is a surprisingly good way of getting your fix of nerd shit, and you can get some fried chicken with it all too.