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Over in Japan Monster Hunter is huge, and I mean huge. In 2008 Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G was released and has sold over 4 million copies since then. Outside of Japan it’s known as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. For anyone who has played the Monster Hunter series before on either on the Playstation 2 or the PSP, Freedom Unite is an expansion pack of the original Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP) which was released back in 2007.

There is no plot for the Monster Hunter series in general; you are mainly going on quests by hunting and killing monsters. It’s a kind of online action Role-Playing like World of Warcraft, but on the PSP and without a keyboard.

Gameplay: If you have played the series before on Playstation 2 or PSP, you should have no problem with its controls; if you have a save data of Monster Hunter Freedom 2 on your PSP you can even carry over your save on to Freedom Unite.  Unlike the usual Capcom franchises like Mega Man and Resident Evil, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is an enjoyable Action-RPG with a frustrating difficulty level and an unusual addition to the genre.

For example, as you play through the game, you never gain experience points, and monsters don’t drop loot.  Instead, you mine for ore, forage for plants, bugs, and fish, carve up the monsters you kill, and use those things to fashion better equipment for yourself.  To use a word that’s probably been overused lately, it feels like a very organic experience, and that’s what I love about it. On the other hand, it’s a brutally difficult experience, especially if you’re playing it alone, and that’s what I hate about it.

While spending a bit of time in your town getting ready and gathering together the right equipment and items, you can then head out on your quest. Characters in MHFU don’t have classes, so you can just choose a weapon and start using straight away. Going back to earlier quests is often necessary to gain the items you need to upgrade particular weapons into something you’d prefer.

The controls can be a little fiddly to control, depending on what weapon your character uses when you’re taking out certain monsters. On some quests you’ll really need to think about your tactics and strategies, and how you’re going to take down certain monsters. If you are playing alone you do get some help from feline cats which you can train and they will help you fight monsters; you could say they are like your side-kick on your quests.

The fun thing about the Monster Hunter series is when you’re playing up to 4 players and you team up to do quests and take down monsters: it’s great fun working as a team. This would require 4 of your friends to have a copy of the game and a PSP, but you can use the Adhoc Party which you can download for free to your PS3 so you can play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite online by connecting your PSP to your PS3.

Graphics and Sound: The graphics for Monster Hunter series on PSP look well done for an RPG game, but looks pretty much the same as the Playstation 2 if you have played through the series before. For those who never played through the series, MH Freedom Unite is basically a visual mix of Land of the Lost and Jurassic Park but most of the locations set in Jungles, snowy mountains and deserts.

Most monsters in the game are a lot like dinosaurs mixed with dragons. It even harbours a bit of Animal Crossing as well, letting you go fishing and plant seeds to grow herbs, but also you can go mining and get rare crystals or special stones to help you.  A problem with MH Freedom Unite is the third-person camera control throughout the game is poor and you are unable to target and lock-onto monsters so attacks have to be focused directly at certain monsters if want to beat them.

This game does have Data install which can take 580 MB for your PSP memory stick, I would say that it is worth it. Because there are a lot of long loading time screens every time you to each area in the whole game from doing quests and heading to a location to finding and killing a certain monster.

Whatever character class you’re using in Monster Hunter Freedom, the camera remains in third person and you can’t go to the option screen and change the camera controls. But if you’re playing as gunner, you can take out most monsters in first-person mode, breaking up gameplay nicely by allowing you to play through the game like a FPS.

The music is good, and does a nice job of enhancing the mood. Probably one of my favourite moments in the whole game is sound-related. When you kill certain animals, you will carve off a chunk of raw meat, which even a barbarian like you can’t eat as it is, so you have to cook it. Cooking meat is timing-based. Push the button too early, and you get a rare steak. Too late, and it gets burned. Hit it right on time, though, and you not only get a nutritious well-done steak, but you get a hilarious little victory riff and a chorus of voices saying “Mmm, that’s tasty!”

Overall: Monster Hunter is one of those things like Marmite; you either ‘ Love it or Hate it’ . Some people will enjoy it a lot and some people would not be at all interested and find it too difficult to play on their PSP.

It’s very challenging if you want to take on monsters single handed without anyone helping you, but if you have friends who own this game it can be very addictive if you play with a group, and even with just meeting up somewhere in town, you can spend hours playing this.

One of Japan’s best-sellers still has a lot to offer for fans and newcomers who own a PSP. You’ll either love it or hate it.