All those years ago, once the initial cancellation of the Vita & PS3 storefronts were announced I quickly grabbed up a Vita. I never had the money to buy one during it's life time, so I might as well experience it while its on the death bed.

Now obviously, I need a carrying case! So, I did a quick search up on Amazon at the time aaaand.... this showed up...

U-Core Comic Theme Protective Carrying Case Compatible with PS Vita (see above)

(purchased in 2021)

HUH... WHAT. KANCOLLE... VITA?? IS KANCOLLE EVEN ON THE VITA??? (apparently, yes, but obviously JP exclusive) Well, I HAD to pick it up. Honestly, I was fully expecting it to be some bunk selling that cheaply printed out an image onto a casing.... well to my surprise, it was real! Full on proper printing without any aliasing.

Time had past. Playstation reversed their decision (temporarily). And in that time, I was able to save up to get another Vita! The original one I got was in near mint condition, so I've been using that as a 'normal' one. Using it as intended via only Vita Cartridges & PSN downloaded games.. But, I wanted a new one purely for hacking it up once the servers all shut down for good. SO, I thought hey surely there's another WACKY Vita case to get right?

........ Unfortunately, the original listing for this item is gone. For the sake of preservation, I wanted to post images of it just in case I'm somehow the only one in the world that has this random ass case. It legit looks nice, and the cute anime monster girl war machine 'Abyssal' fits well with the Vita thematically really. "Hand Over Your PS Vita!" always has me laughing.

......... But, I'll leave off with some questions for the audience. Where is the image originally from? Surely it's some official artwork or maybe fanart? I don't know where to look for it. Cus I'm confused why it has English text, especially since Kancolle Vita never got an EN release as far as I know. Surely just edited in, right?

I've been going through Tri recently, for the first time. Yes, Tri rather than MH3U. It's a really fascinating game that has alot of underappreciated elements. It's also a curious middle child between old & new. It's also the last MH game, before World, that was fully designed for the console experience rather than a handheld. I wanted to go through elements that really stood out to me that the future games don't really have.

IMMERSION

Okay, I know that the latest games all look pretty and all... but Tri was the first to do that for the series. But this isn't purely about visual fidelity. It's about the entire experience as a whole. This is why I'm playing Tri over MH3U, as they refactored to make it fit on 3DS & 'modernize' the gameplay.

Tri has a tropical tone to the whole game. Everything is soft & natural. It's very inviting, encouraging the adventurous tone of the series. But it doesn't stop there, there is very expressive animations for all the creatures you meet. This goes into a mechanic I'll explain later too, but everything seems to excited and bouncy to be in this world. It just feels alive.

This goes into something that I believe is from DOS. Which is the aspects of having a Day & Nite cycle, as well as seasonal events. This isn't just a visual change, but something that shifts the gameplay too. Like a desert being scorching hot during the day, but freezing cold at night. This whole resource grind mini-game for the village too, it's fun how you gotta figure out which seasonal events is best for what you want to get. It's a simple way of making the same map dynamically change over time.

Most unique too is how the bowgun is fully customizable. Depending on the parts you use, you'll get a differing Light/Medium/Heavy Bowgun. Which again, it really pushes this concept of this not simply being an action game, but a hunting game. Where you are trying to make the perfect tools to use for these hunts.

And the little things, like monster eyes glowing in the dark or underwater.. which let's talk about, Swimming.

SWIMMING

A very controversial addition. But, it's so Y2K to make a water themed game with swimming mechanic as central mechanic. SEGA, NINTENDO, PLAYSTATION, all those game consoles had a strong subset of oceanic themes during Dreamcast/Gamecube/PS2 era... so it makes sense for this big Wii debut to continue that trend.

Okay, let's talk about it. Honestly, the concept of placing the hunter at a disadvantage being underwater as you fight huge monsters on their own turf.... that's intense. But, I like that challenge! But also, it adds a 3D depth to the combat that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

For any actiony game that's land locked you are traveling across a 2D plane ultimately. This means there's ultimately a limit on how big you can make a creature without it getting abit silly with you only able to smack their toes... (UNLESS, ya got climbing like Shadow of the Colossus or Dragon's Dogma) This is something that swimming actually is completely unique in. With the player able to move in full 3D X-Y-Z planes you can actually make very different monsters. You can make them massive with all their body parts still in reach. You can make them move weird while still never escaping the players grasps.

Now, this goes into the immersive aspect of the game too.... but all of this is actually very scary. Just like real underwater, it has a sweet irony to it. There's something calming about being underwater, just floating in an empty sea..... but you are not alone in that void. Massive creatures that can effortlessly move around puts your survival instincts into full gear. Again, I find it compelling that the player is thrust into fighting in an arena where they feel at an inherent disadvantage.

Hell, let's look at this from a purely design frame of reference. The monsters in MH obviously are fantastical amalgamations of real life animals, along side fantasy creatures. The Sea has such a massive goldmine of bizarre monsters that could ONLY work within the context of underwater swimming. For a game that's about hunting monsters it does suck losing that potential variety in the roster pool.

Obviously, I'll admit in Tri the swimming is abit janky. I actually find that the 'tank' control variant to be smoother cus you can swim up & down via button input. But really, I think there's plenty of solutions to improving the swimming rather than having to get rid of it all together. Mounting for example, what showed up in the next generation, would of been a perfect way of adding some push & pull for doing some big damage to the monsters while underwater. Or the recent addition of ridable mounts like the doggo in Rise/Wilds, simply add some cute sea creature that functions like the Subnautica submarine... which speaking of Subnautica. Imagine what type of deep sea horrors they could create with RE Engine.

One last thing here that I wanted to point out too. I really like too how despite the swimming being the central 'gimmick' of the game they made sure to implement it properly. You have the beach & rainforest maps to accompany the swimming, HOWEVER you also have the classic desert & snow maps still for pure land combat. Actually, they really got smart with it too. They reused the swimming mechanics for the monsters to make 'burrowing' for the land creatures. Barroth swimming in the mud, or sandfish swimming through the dunes. It goes to show that this isn't the 'water' game, but a hunting game.

SWARM

For the last talking point I want to discuss something I've seen little to no discussion on. But it seems to be a system entirely exclusive to 3rd generation.

Now as we know, in the 'old' monster hunters the local wild life could attack you while agitated. Yes, even while your in the middle of fighting your big bad monster. This is mentioned as a major challenge point for MHF or MHFU. And as we know, the wildlife got defanged in the future games.

But before that, Tri actually evolved this into something even more special. IDK what it's officially called so I'm just going to say it's a 'swarm'. This is a system where the little monsters get into a coordinated frenzy with accompanying big monsters.

Let's bring up a very classic example Great Jaggi. A simple fight where you smack the dinosaur around quite easily cus it's the tutorial boss.... but Tri's swarm mechanic really beefs him up. Now all of the lil jaggi's or jaggia swarm the player if the Great Jaggi calls for them. And I mean swarm. They get new animations, where they all start prancing around in a group. They completely bodyblock the player from even hitting their leader. Some may complain about 'adds', but having a weak monsters gimmick be that it swarms the player with their little buddies... again that adds to the HUNTING element. It makes sense that animals have a pack mentality, and that they would want to protect their leader. And, all the weapons have indepth movesets that it isn't that extraneous to take out a big group of small guys.

Another example here is the Great Baggi. The lil baggi's normally just act like jaggi's... but when their leader shows up, they swarm up around the Great Baggi like a firing squad. Here they create an entire barrage of sleepy saliva to spit at the player. Again, having to actually need to pay attention to stuff that isn't the Main Monsters is more engaging to me rather than annoying. And the way that Tri interwove it with altering the behavior of creatures to act as a collective breaths life into this videogame world.

CONCLUSION

Let me be clear here this ain't a NEW BAD, OLD GOOD post. Ironically it seems the trend to focus more on action rather than hunting began with DOS vs MHFU. Tri vs Portable 3rd, or even MH4U vs MHGU. The series has ultimately shifted into a more actiony romp. Which, is fun too. The combat is so amazing that it can carry by itself ultimately.... but the experience that a 'hunting' game can provide is very different. It's a fundamental core that shapes everything around how the game will end up being like.

I really appreciate what Tri tried to do. I just love when a games world isn't just a visual coat of paint, but something that actually comes to life via interactivity. And not just having 'more content', but a breath of differing experiences to take on too.

I don't really expect them to ever make a game fully dedicated to doing something like that again. Especially if most fans don't even want this level of friction again... BUt, I hope it resurfaces somewhere else someday. Immersive Sim Big Monster Hunting.

CHALLENGE RUN

The first time I played Master of Arena, obviously I used a save file import to have Human+.

But now, a couple years later, I wanted to challenge myself. No save file import, no Human+... just straight FIRE!

I also wanted to further impede myself. No tanky build, not even quad legs. I had to go with a 'light' AC. Is the game still achievable to get through with all these restrictions??... YES!

All thanks to WA-FINGER! Despite it's massive nerf from Project Phantasma, it still deletes mostly everything. Yes, even surprisingly NINEBALL-SERAPH got deleted by this not-so-humble SHINING FINGER.

GRIM REAPER

The ONLY trouble I had was with tanky ACs in the Arena proper, specifically The Grim Reaper. Due to how simple the 1st generation is.... being a tank is massively overpowered. Massive health, less stagger, and can just spam KARASAWA, Nades, Laser Cannons. And being a Light AC means I can really only dodge the projectiles like missiles or nades... Lasers being basically instant means I can just get infinite stunlocked to death.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. I had to go to the 'dark side' for just a second, and use big beefy ENERGY LASER CANNONS! Fight fire with fire! Actually, by removing all arm weapons, I was still able to use it with my light bipedal AC heh....

This actually exposed a flaw in the Human+ logic. Using bipedal legs prevents you from using most back unit attachments unless crouching. Now, you can still use missiles & rockets thankfully but TBH I don't think those work well with bipedal legs. And I get why cannons would be locked out........... but dual back units are NOT given any restrictions?! I can't use a chaingun without crouching, but I can still walk around with RAPIDLY SHOOTING LASER CANNONS???

LIGHT WEIGHT

But honestly, I still prefer the WA-FINGER. Energy weapons obviously use up your EN output. This impedes mobility, even if you try lessen the energy weapon output with that optional part. I wanted to zoom around, while still being able to do damage, and SHINING FINGER allowed that.

Due to the light weight, I paired my AC with the booster that has low power.. why you might ask? Well, this allows the AC to hover abit in the air. And as an added bonus of this whole setup, if I stop boosting my EN can still recharge while in mid-air! This is how I could tackle NINEBALL-SERAPH. Cus if I got too close on the ground I'd just get insta-stunlock-killed. Instead, I'd hover above and finger blast em (.... NOT LIKE THAT). It's not a NEXT, but I love that even in a decades old game based upon King's Field engine I can zoom around & do air dodging.

Effectively that's how I engaged with enemy AC's too. Zoom up, shoot em up, fly off. WA-FINGER's nerf means every shot has to hit otherwise you run out of ammo. And being able to get up close and personal, only for a moment, helped achieve this.

ARENA MASTER

This was all to prove a point... well mainly for myself. Not like the 'metagame balance' for MoA is ever going to be in any cultural debates. (......... unless entire AC series gets a remaster port with every game having online functionality which sadly i dont think will ever happen) But, Armored Core is defined by customization. And it would be quite sad if ultimately every build just became 'KARASAWA' in the first generation. That's atleast how advice around the game generally goes.

But MoA is well-rounded enough for its time. People should know by now that cannons, especially DUAL CANNONS, are the most powerful damage output you can get. Become a tank, and just blast everyone away with them. However if you do want to go lighter, WA-FINGER still is a 'super weapon', just as much as the KARASAWA! Missiles & Rockets also deserve an honorable mention for their burst damage potential, but I prefer them on Quad legs. And yes, Moonlight Blade too (but without Human+ it's not as flashy).

Really, just be willing to experiment! That's the fun of Armored Core! Even if something is 'nerfed', or at a perceived disadvantage.... well, these games ain't getting 'patched' any time soon. Make do with what ya got! Ya might surprise yourself. And really, it's more rewarding when you, yourself, find a specific setup that just clicks. Few other real time 'action' game series allow for such micro-customization. Actually the fact that this 2 decade old 'janky 3D' game allows for such detailing is impressive in of itself!

Embrace the garage & become a Raven!