[Dauntless] Next Best Thing For Monster Hunter Online Fans Outside of China?

[Veritable]

With the dawn of Monster Hunter Online, and rumors of a western release for those of us outside of China, the forums were clamoring, the Reddit's were hollering for a date. As time went on, nothing was spoken of and many English patches and guides for connecting to the China version of MHO were released... and re-released... and updated.

Fast forward to 2015 when basically it was a resounding NO to a western release. That's where Phoenix Labs started out, and got off to a start making their version of the game.

Albeit with obvious differences to not be caught under copyright laws, they set out to create their own distinct game under the flavor of the Monster Hunter series, not unlike Mortal Kombat has done with Street Fighter (Or vice-versa).

Having only played a few hours in the original Monster Hunter games and seeing how the DS versions compared, I can say that from those versions of the game there are many improvements that Phoenix Labs has thrown into the mix to make Dauntless even more in-depth and interesting... And it's still in Alpha.

I have played the Alpha test quite a bit, and while I cannot disclose actual game play and things involved in the Alpha testing, I will attempt to skirt my way around the NDA, while trying to give you an idea of what the major draw of Dauntless will be.

The over-all aesthetics of the Monster Hunter genre, have been to make it feel as though you are actually in there to be the greatest monster hunter ever, get the biggest baddest weapons and armor, then show it off in the main meeting area or to your friends in the lobby. What is the use of getting all this awesome gear if you can't flaunt it and smack someone in the face with it. That's why we had a High-Scores section in Nintendo Power in the 80's.

The news about a new Monster Hunter: World game coming out for PS4 / Xbox One / PC that is slated for 2018, seems to be going in the same direction as Dauntless in many respects. Main difference is, the Alpha is available now. The Beta is coming soon, and it will be made in North America by fans, for fans of the genre.

From what I have played of the Dauntless Alpha testing, they have gotten a lot of the base mechanics down right. Attacks feel fluid, the non-main-entity combat might need some work, but when you do fight that Behemoth, it will definitely make or break you as a player.

Like Monster Hunter, the monsters have a set group of skills, and in order to over-come them, you need to understand and recognize patterns visually, without a Wildstar-esque telegraph to follow. You need to adjust your position or stance, else face utter destruction at the hands of whatever foe you are stupid enough to get into a fight with.

Many of the situations you would face in Monster Hunter are the same. Prepare for your combat, group up with friends/allies, even solo it if you are brave enough to attempt it. If you succeed then you will get rare items only the greatest warriors can get, and use them to upgrade your armor and weapons. Without them you are just another piece of meat on the field to get eaten.

I can see that the Monster Hunter: World and Dauntless were probably in development stages around the same time, and that Phoenix Labs had a lot of their gameplay completed in pre-alpha tests prior to any public knowledge of Monster Hunter: World. And yet they all seem to point at the same 'more open world' type of game play. Where you not only go into this one area, zone by zone, but there are different land-masses to explore, different ecosystems which in turn have different end-bosses/behemoths to dominate.

So Dauntless so far in the technical Alpha that is going on, is shaping up to be a great game for those fans of the Monster Hunter genre of games, but are tired of playing them on tiny hand-held devices or doing abnormal registration routines just to get a chance at reading unknown Chinese, or better yet, broken English Chinese translations... It could very well give Capcom a run for their money in terms of getting the people who last played a non-portable Monster Hunter game in 2013, a new IP to grant their glory of $$ to.

Monster Hunter: World information can be found here
Dauntless information can be found here