The Monster Hunter series has been widely popular in Japan for some time now. I've been interested in checking the series out for a while now and finally did with Freedom Unite.

The game's basic structure follows the structure of most MMORPGs. You start off as a Hunter in a village, and take miscellaneous quests to embark upon. The quests rang from Hunting, Slaying, Gathering, and Event Quests. Once you stop by the guild and pick up a contract of your choice, you set off on an adventure to fulfill the quests parameters.

I was amazed at just how deep a game Monster Hunter actually is. Not only do you hunt, but you can also gather, mine, cook, farm, etc. In order to become a successful Hunter, you need to become totally immersed in the world. The level of depth and time may put off some games looking for a quick thrill, but if you're patient and dedicated, the game is incredibly rewarding.

Pros:

-Depth of game play (weapons, items, quests, world, etc)

-Graphics are amazing

-Sound: Well done FX and musical score done in Dolby sound incredible through headphones.

-Ad Hock online play - you can quest with up to three of your friends.

Cons:

-Difficulty: the game is not easy and at times can be frustrating.

-Camera can be uncooperative at times, especially when fighting multiple monsters at the same time.

-The inventory system can be very cumbersome. If you're not using a sword, you actually have to sheath your weapon before you can use an item. Trying to do this in the heat of battle, is very difficult.

-Ad Hock - it's an awesome feature, but if you don't have friends willing to come over and play, you will be questing on your own.

Wrap up:

All in all, it's an amazing game that I highly recommend. Be prepared to invest some time in mastering the world and you will be greatly rewarded.

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Well first of all I want to state I' am an avid monster hunter fan, from the ps2 game to the psp ones. So my review might be a little subjective but I will try to be as objective as possible and put myself in the position of a newcomer to the franchise. And also I apologize for the length of the review. It really is a vast game there is soo much to do and so little space to explain it all in.

A few things for players from MHF2 thinking this is a brand new experience, think again. Think about it as an expansion with new missions, monsters armors, weapons, and hunter ranks. You still reside in the quaint little home up in the mountains, and all the lovable characters are still there from the cooking Felynes to the old lady who gave you the elder quests.

Now on to the review. For the newcomers this game has an amazing ray of things to do, put yourself in the position of a hunter, you are constantly hunting monsters who reside around your village. From giant dragons to giant crabs (and not the STD type) you have 5 different land types where you hunt them from the jungle, desert, snowy mountains, forest, and volcano. Also each land type has time cycles so you can hunt them at night or in the day. Now each hunt is received in the form of a quest, there are 2 places you can get these, from an elder how will give you village quest (which you may only complete by yourself) or by going to the hall.

The hall can be played offline meaning you can do the quest there by yourself (although most can be complete alone there are some that you should look for help) or online via ad hoc. Online is fun as hell, if you have 3 others friends who have the game they can join you in the hunt and you all get the benefits of the kill (as a side note if you don't have any friends to play with you can play online for more info go to www.teamxlink.co.uk/). Every time you kill a monster like a true hunter you crave their bodies. You get special items from the carve and also a prizes for completing the hunt. These items in turn can be sold for money or saved up to make special armor, items, or weapons. Aside from hunting you can, farm (meaning you can literally plant seeds and reap the rewards) you can hire Felyne to cook for you so you go nice and full into battle. And even more amazing as a new addition you can hire a Felyne to join you in battle! He will provide back such as setting traps and attacking the beast you are hunting. You will easily spend 100+ hours in this game.

Now for the veterans, a few additions have been added. As mentioned above you can hire a Felyne to help you out, there are tons of new armor and weapons to make. Your item box size has increased and items now max out at 99! Meaning no more having multiple 10 items in your box. Like 10 flash now they all combine until you get to 99 so precious space in the box has been saved. There are now G rank missions imagine hr 6 missions but 10x harder, and there are 3 new ranks to move up to.

Pros:

-New missions, new items, new Felyne battle companions.

-Also now you have the options to data install, this drastically lowers the loading time.

-Great graphics as always, each armor and weapon have a unique look. No 2 armors look like.

Cons:

-Like previously stated the learning curve sucks but there are alot of tutorials and training quests.

-Some armor attributes have really been lost, example is I had the akantor armor and lost my high grade earplugs in the transition.

-For a new comer you might tend to feel overwhelm with the amount of farming you have to do to get ONE item you need to make a weapon/armor, it's all based on luck.

-The ability to play online worldwide should be included in the game, it takes outside programs and items to make it possible.

-And also it does get a little repetitive from time to time.

Over all this is an awesome game. You either fall into the obsessions or hate it. See you in the hall.

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Some may have seen video or photos of Monster Hunter. It may look like an ok game. Well tell me this. How can someone like me logg in over 2000 hrs on a PSP system playing this game?? Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is all about skill. Pure skill and strategy. The 1st 3 levels of gameplay is just training. Get ad-hoc party for free in Playstation Store and you will know the reason its so much fun. Its #1 in japan so how can a million gamers be wrong?

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Camera Angles: People who complain about the camera angles need to learn how to fully use a PSP to its capacity. Left index finger to use the directional pad, left thumb to use the analog and your other 3 fingers to hold on to the back of the PSP. When you get good at doing this then this game opens up to be the best title on this portable console.

First off, there are more than 4 different lands types. Snowy Mountains, swamp, volcano, forest and hills, desert, jungle, and then there are the maps from the original MH called Old maps. And on top of that there is a new jungle map. On top of day and night for each one.

And I personally have soloed all the quests in the guild hall and on the elder page. G rank quests aren't that much harder. You just need to be quick to decide and be ready. The monsters in this game have been improved and dumbed down at the same time. Added attacks but the painful attacks they did all the time in MHF2 aren't done as much now.

When you buy armor and weapons now, it will actually show you the picture of the armor or weapon which is a huge deal especially since in the previous game's the only way to find something that looked cool was to keep making armor or weapons and restarting your game.

Attributes did not really go away, they just striped your decorations off your armor. Which means if your gonna buy this game and play from MHF@ unequip all your decorations first.

And it also sound like the three people above me are new to the whole PSP ordeal. There is a site you can go to called Xlink Kai and you can turn your computer into a hub for any console or portable device and play with people around the world. I play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with people in multiple different countries all the time. Definitely check this out.

In addition to the previous upgrades, they added another mining point to the farm as well as a new bug area to catch bugs.

Also all the training you did on MHF2 gets whipped clean. With your friends you did play and the crowns you did earn. They all gets transferred, thankfully, i have all gold crowns.

The cats you get you can level up, adding different abilities to them such as fire attack, making it so they can use different sets of horns that heal or buff you. They can also steal from monster which im assuming there is going to be a weapon or armor you can only get this way.

There are new colors to monsters that already existed.

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Now I've never played a monster hunter before this and hell I never even wanted to buy a psp until this game. But I must say it is quite impressive and worth buying the PSP if for only this game. The game has tons of gameplay and never seems to get old. While it may not appeal to the traditional RPG fan the combat system is innovative and the simple fact that there are no levels makes the game much more goal oriented and fun instead of a generic grind to 100. As fun as this game is the multiplayer is amazing getting a group of 3 of your friends and hunting a massive dragon is sure to make your day. The only flaw would be the lack of wifi play but thats psp's fault not Monster Hunters

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First off, I would like to start off saying this is an extremely difficult game. Its not like others where you "level up" and become some immortal character. the only thing that gets better are your weapons and armor. This game is based on the players ACTUAL experience. You learn how to react, when to strike, where to move, what to expect; all through your own learning pace. This one of a kind game (including the other PSP "Monster Hunters") is a true challenge, not to be given to someone with a short attention span. but there is a sense of pride that you find once you beat your first Yian-Kut Ku (A common wyvern) and the game actuall revolves around the player. In most modern games, once you reach a certain point, all it is is pressing buttons without any drive; but this game constantly keeps you on your toes and even, in a sense, develops problem solving skills (or maybe its just me)

All i have to say, is that this is a miraculous game. the graphics are prety good, the plot is really up to you, the monsters only get bigger, and its a great challenge or serious gamers. 5 stars, all the way! (thank you for your time)

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This game is a platform-selling monster. When released in Japan, it surged the sales of PSP above the DS, making it the first time that a handheld has done this to a Nintendo handheld. Now, this doesn't say anything about its inherent qualities, just that there's a lot of people who like the game in Japan. Now, I must say there's good reason, too. The game is challenging, you start out going through tutorials that could last a few hours before you get into the meat of the game, i.e. taking missions from the chief and the guild. While it may seem like a chore to do the tutorials, it actually started to pump me up for the rest of the game, you start learning which weapons you like best and how to tackle certain problems. It is a good start, and even after the tutorials you have much to learn. The monsters in the game are a challenge. Even when you've put in 40 hours of playtime, you may have trouble beating some of the monsters you've fought already, and new challenges come with some regularity. The boss-mob type monsters are sure to give you trouble the first time you try them, and it takes figuring the fight out. You will die along the way, and it may be slightly frustrating, but that's what keeps people coming back, it's not just fighting cookie-cutter AI.

One of the other aspects of the game which lead so many people to purchase the game was the multiplayer options. You can group up with up to four friends in order to hunt some of the more difficult monsters in the game. I have yet to utilize this for very long, but I did convince a friend of mine to pick up the PSP and this game so we can play, and he's working on his character. From what I can see, the monsters are scaled appropriately for multiplayer missions, based on my first go.

One of the key things that lead me to purchasing this game was the promise of a 500-hour game. For $30 it's a hard deal to turn down if you already have a PSP, and if you're into a challenging and deep game then I suggest trying this out.

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I know there are so many Monster Hunter veterans out there addictive to the title. Any criticism could be insulting, but sorry, although I kind of like this game in concept, but I m not sure I will stay much longer on it.

If you enjoy 5 hours preparation for a 15 minutes convenience store shopping all the time, this game could be yours. In general, this is an ancient-fantasy version of SOCOM. You dress up and go out there to take down something do no harm to you, well, for enough reason...

At the very beginning, before you even are able to walk out of your given shelter, finish the encyclopedia on MH first. Huh, God, I m here to play, not to read!! If you dashed out for the first business hunting right after the gathering hall open, you are wasting time. The free blade in your hand just wouldn't kill anybody other than yourself. It'd better to take the time with the stupid instructor and collect material to make a real equipment...

Even more annoying than the abysmal difficulty and time consuming, the camera is on the monsters' side, literally. It points at an angle (more than often, the monsters are behind camera) and needs to be adjusted manually, yes, when your thumb is on the analog knot to dodge the attack. The L button repositions the angle, but most of the time you end up with seeing something worse than nothing.

Graphics is just what you can expect in a PSP title nowadays. It cleverly puts breathe taking far grounds without reach, while the battle fields you can walk in are just so so...

I play games usually just for short time to relax, and feel this game requires much bigger chunk of time which I don't have. However, if you are still as curious as I was, the good news is it sold as much as an used MH 2. For the price, it really delivers.

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This is my first Monster Hunter game. So there is a steep learning curve for me.

Where I am at: I am doing the solo quests and I have just completed the Elder Quests, now I am starting to do the Felyne Elder Quests now.

At the beginning, it's quite hard, you don't have any powerful weapons and armors, and yet, you are still going to face some very tough monsters. Without defeating these power boss monsters, you won't be able to unlock the items you need to craft the more power stuff.

However, once you have completed the Elder Quests, you will unlock a whole bunch of new items, and the monsters are just the same, but only more HP's. Now this is where the fun begins, you can start to farm these monsters and collect items you need to make better weapons and armors. And there are so many new weapons and armors to choice from. You could spend 100+ hours on this game and still won't be able to collect all the weapons and armors. Plus you get to play on the maps from the original MH series (the old maps from the Kokoto Village).

So my advice to newbies, like me, is don't give up, try to reach the Felyne Elder or upper rank as fast as possible (just do all the mandatory quests, see GameFAQs). Once you reach the upper rank, you will be able to get more powerful stuff, and then, it will be much easier to come back to finish off the lower rank quests (to get the items you need).

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terrific, i have the 2 previous monster hunters for the PSP and am a long time veteran of the game. it is a bit of an update instead of a new game but if you in any way liked monster hunter freedom 2 you will love this game. there are hundreds of new quests and a few surprises along the way.

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There have been many things throughout the extemsive world of MH and this one just simply improves on it.Like the rest its beautifully rendered and well rounded over 500 hours of gameplay. You can play online via ad hoc through your psp if not then u can use programs such as xlinkkai if u dont have friends willing to leave there house to playu with you. which is always a downside to MH games except the ps2 version which has disontinued there online feature. But this game is simply amazing :P

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Another thrilling addition to the monster hunter series. You might have to do some research if you are new to the game,but other than that it is a great game.

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Despite what the magazine and paid reviewers tell you, MHFU is a great game for those that like the challenge of taking on huge monsters.

The game starts a little slow to introduce you to basic concepts that you must grasp firmly to survive but quickly ups the difficulty curve by pitting you against stronger and stronger monster each with a unique fighting style and attacks. After you conquer a monster you are able to carve out some of its parts for use in weapons and armor to aid you in your next fight. Weapons and armor both can be upgraded and they can also have elemental attacks like dragon, fire, water, ice, and thunder.

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It's not difficult to see why the Monster Hunter series has become the leading PSP franchise in Japan. Offering gamers the chance to hook up together on quests to hunt ferocious monsters and search for hidden treasures across an appealing fantasy game world, this action RPG possesses many of same addictive qualities that have made other role playing games, such as the Final Fantasy titles, so popular. High praise has been lauded on the latest game in the series, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, after it became the top selling game in the Land of The Rising Sun last year, besting the likes of Pokémon Platinum and Wii Fit. In the U.S. and Europe, though, Monster Hunter faces a very different type of audience. Will it appeal to the taste of Western players?

Monster Hunter Freedom's combat mechanics will test even the most hardened of gamers. The third game in the series, Freedom Unite once again places you in the role of an up-and-coming hunter who must complete various hunting, slaying and gathering missions to achieve glory. Setting off from your base camp of Pokke Village, you pick up quests from the Guild Hall and embark on treacherous missions across stunning environments, including snow-capped mountains and harsh desert terrain.

Freedom Unite is all about learning your craft and learning it well. If you begin a quest without preparation, you'll be obliterated by the tough monsters lurking around every corner. Whether you're heading out on a level-one quest to pick mountain herbs or braving the cold desert nights on the hunt for the land shark, there's a lot to learn if you plan to come back alive and earn your reward. Combat in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is difficult to grasp at first, but once studied and practiced, it is intensely satisfying.

The lack of a lock-on targeting function means that you have no assistance in battle and ensures that combat is challenging. Freedom Unite tests your patience by pitting you against some formidable and clever opposition while asking that you spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the deep combat system. You have to learn each of the monsters' strengths and weaknesses and those of your weapons. Learning monster "tells," monitoring monster attack patterns and knowing when to strike is also part of the hunt. Other variables add even more strategic layers to the combat. The environment, for example, plays a part in battle (your energy gets sapped when it's cold), and every weapon and item you choose to bring along all factor into the equation. Make the wrong decisions and you'll head back to Pokke Village empty-handed.

Speaking of Pokke Village, there's plenty to do there as well. You're given a plot of land where you can mine, fish, catch bugs, gather mushrooms, and plant seeds to raise different crops. When you finish each quest, your farm becomes an essential visiting place that grows in stature the more you nurture it. These resources can then be used for cooking, which increase abilities, or to combine and forge new items that may come in handy during battle. Though you're constantly repeating the same actions to mine ore or catch Rumblefish, you're earning money from the land, which subsequently allows you to develop your character into a stronger hunter.

Gathering and collecting items in the game world is extremely important to your progression. Not all items must be hunted, gathered, or farmed; many objects can be combined to make more powerful objects or potions. There's a great deal of fun to be had out of finding new ingredients and then combining them. You can, for example, mix a fire herb with a nitroshroom to make gunpowder. Though there's a large element of trial and error, there's great reward for your efforts as you find and create powerful items that aid you on the battlefield.

Part of the appeal of the Monster Hunter series in Japan is the ad-hoc multiplayer functionality, which allows up to four players to meet up and embark on quests together. In the U.S. and Europe, however, that feature isn't such a strong selling point -- there just isn't the same social PSP-playing culture in these two territories as there is as there is in Japan. Social hand-held gaming in the U.S. and Europe is largely faceless, an activity confined to gamers' living rooms and bedrooms where there's an Internet connection. In fact, you're more likely to get mugged getting your hand-held out in public than to find a like-minded gamer to join your lobby for a spot of monster hunting. It's a crying shame that Freedom Unite doesn't offer true online functionality, because the four-player questing is absolutely brilliant. So, the bad news is that unless you've got a bunch of mates willing to join you around your house, your Monster Hunter experience is going to be a lonely one.

Still, with demanding and fun combat mechanics and a huge index of items, weapon types, armor, beasts, and quests, Freedom Unite will delight RPG gamers seeking a real challenge. With hundreds of hours worth of gameplay waiting for you, it's an RPG that's meant to be played at a slow pace, though the frequent load times slow it down a bit more than we would have liked. In short: if you're expecting a quick thrill here, you won't find it. Freedom Unite is for those who wish to master new skills with patience and hard work. It can be tough to get going, but Freedom Unite won't disappoint anyone who spends some quality time with it.

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I purchased this game from gamestop which was cheaper. But anyways this game is worth $20 or more because there is so much you can do and explore and have cats working for you!! I never played the first one so I brought the unite just to try and I fell in love with this game!! So buy it you'll love It!!!!

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