LogFAQs > #880544539

There's a key difference between Monster Hunter and MMOs (I have experience with both), and that's that Monster Hunter is actually enjoyable. Progression is consistent, and isn't reliant on teammates. Content is gated behind personal skill, and not gear. Yeah, gear is absolutely important, and it allows for more consistent kills, but people can and have beaten the hardest monsters whilst naked and using the weaker weapon classes. Certain drops are rare, but the series has been good about increasing drop rates with each new entry. The game is predominantly about grinding monsters, which does turn off many people, but it's an activity made enjoyable by the high skill cap that you're climbing towards, and the great depth to the combat in learning monster behaviors.

Contrast that to Final Fantasy XIV, where progression is gated behind finding a group of competent players, and memorizing rotations to maximize damage output to push past problematic phases or avoid enrage timers. Combat puts greater emphasis on proactive play rather than reactive play. You're expected to watch gameplay videos of bosses, dungeons, and raids so as not to drag down your teammates. In a way, fights are dances, and you're supposed to know your role and follow the steps and rhythm perfectly. Gear is gated behind random drops or materials that are capped at weekly limits to force subscription renewals. Crafted gear is gated behind further grinding for crafting/gathering classes, or obscene amounts of money on the auction board.

Essentially, with Monster Hunter, skill is the only thing preventing you from accessing the higher level hunts. That's it. With MMOs, you need to run down a checklist. Am I a high enough level? Is my overall item level sufficient? Do I have the necessary cross-class skills? Did I watch a youtube video of the fight? Do I have a static? Is my static available during the times I want to play? Ok, now we can play. Oh, it's three months later and all of this content has been made trivial by the introduction of higher tier weapons and armor.

Not just that, but the nail in the coffin (at least for FFXIV) is that there's no diversity within specific jobs. All Paladins will play the same. All Black Mages will follow the same rotation. All White Mages will utilize these two or three specific armor sets. Everyone plays the same. Whereas with Monster Hunter, each weapon offers different attributes. Every single piece of armor provides points of certain abilities, allowing you to mix and match countless sets. There can be great diversity between four Bow users in a room. No such diversity in FFXIV.

In that sense, playing MMOs feels much like a second job. It's a chore. I'm forced to play a certain way if I hope to make any sort of meaningful progression. Grinding isn't an intrinsic part of the dungeoneering experience; it's a tacked-on element put in place to retain subs. Locking currency behind weekly caps proves this. You're not putting forth extra effort to break monster parts, and then utilizing that rare gem you received to help create a brand new set of armor. You're not juggling two wildly different monsters, and splitting your group up to chase them down. Enemies don't act different in different biomes.

*inhales*

As for the Souls games, I'd comment on them, but the truth of the matter is that I don't really care about those games anymore. I could defend their combat and controls, but there's no point because I've grown tired of the series and find the games to be tedious these days. Not so with Monster Hunter.