Why I Love: Roars [Monster Hunter: World]
‘Why I Love’ is a series of lessons I’ve learned from my favorite game mechanics.
The Monster Hunter series was always in my periphery. I’ve always wanted to play, but never had the correct console to play it. So when World came out (on PC), I was in. The game did not disappoint. The weapons are fun to use (charge blade main here), and the min-max grind is… well, a grind that’s a handy excuse to keep playing. The monsters, of course, are the show, but their roars are the main attraction.
Games commonly use a signal to indicate a state change. For example, the moment the enemy acquires the player as a target. Stealth games make this moment very apparent with audio, visuals, and especially UI (insert Metal Gear alert sound here). This state change transitions the player from sneak-mode to action-mode. In Monster Hunter, the monsters are very much the same way. They spot you, they roar, the camera pans to them, camera effects play, and the scoutflies turn red. When they’ve quite finished, the player knows that it’s time to rock.
The roars don’t only serve this mechanical purpose. They are the main opportunity to express the monster. It’s their chance to say, “Hey, look at me. Imma come wreck you.” What might look like a giant, electrified flying squirrel becomes much less cute when it bears its fangs and bristles its fur at you. This moment of intimidation is about triggering the fight-or-flight response in the player.
Seeing new monsters turn to face you, and then roar, are some of the best moments in the game. You have no idea what you’re in for, except for the fact that the monster will probably kick your butt around the entire zone. It gives you that moment (fight-or-flight) of, “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” And then you remember that you’re a monster hunter, and it’s sort of your job. So you buckle up to go in swinging. And then go out swinging. And in the end, through persistence, you’ll have faced your fears and triumphed.
Lesson: The placebo of perception over reality.
Whether or not the monsters actually are a threat to the player is a matter of difficulty. Whether they seem to be a threat is a matter of presentation. We need to make this distinction because these elements are independent of each other. The monsters can look menacing, but be fairly easy to beat. What’s important is the player’s perception--how they feel about the situation. If each new monster only represented a new set of attacks to learn, the experience becomes rote. The roar fills in this emotional gap. Each new monster becomes a new threat. Something unknown that is both terrifying and thrilling.
