#that stupid golden glimstone is just a big shiny middle finger from the devs

[dravidious]

You're incredible

I've mentioned before that I've poured hours and hours into the two Monster Hunter Rise demos, fighting the same monsters with the same equipment over and over. I've even fought them again and again after winning. I wanna talk about why I love the gameplay of those demos so much.

In the actual, full monster hunter games, there's always a pressure to be getting materials. Even after you've beaten the game, the need to gather items looms over you; what if you want to make a new armor set? What if you run out of consumables? Don't use that shock trap, or you'll need to craft another!

In the demos, none of that applies. You can't craft equipment, and your inventory is reset at the start of each quest. There's not even food buffs. The only thing that matters is the quest. It's so pure and beautiful. A pure hunt, with no distractions or outside concerns. Things like conserving your consumable items are no longer relevant, all that matters is doing everything in your power to win.

And because your equipment is predetermined, the developers know EXACTLY how big your numbers are, and they can balance the quests around that. The result is that there can be quests that are brutally difficult, but possible. The lack of customization means that you can't make an equipment set that makes it easy, but it also ensures that it IS possible. You'll never be throwing yourself at the quest over and over with a set that, mathematically, can't win. It guarantees that the quest is a difficult challenge, no more, no less.

Anyway, imagine how much of a fool I felt like when I realized that the arena quests in the full games are just like the demos; quests with fixed equipment, fixed items, no outside distractions. They even remove the long walk toward the monster's location in a gigantic map. But there's a catch; in arena quests, you don't get materials. Well, you do, but not good ones. The vast, vast majority of equipment requires materials that can't be obtained in arena quests. That means that every time you fight a monster in an arena quest instead of a regular quest, it feels like you're throwing away the materials that you could've gotten. And you always need more materials.

In conclusion, I'll now be using a save file editor to cheat in materials so I can do arena quests AND make armor sets