[HayzenTZ]

Well, first. I've gotten quite good start on the game and kinda get how the game works. like here's the general idea:
- you create your own felyne by inputting name,variant color and voice (which is basically various 'Nya' in different pitches..)
- then you get to input your village name(?)
- game starts, you're free to explore the 'empty' village
- there are about 5 main areas which are

• Guild hall (only an open land when you start)
  
• village main area
  
• an area with a giant treehouse (and the slaveairu seller granny is here)
  
• seashore (field rows and fishing pier are here)
  
• pugi farm (insect thicket are here(?))

- the currency here is PP (pokke point?)
- there's a time bar on your upper left screen which when it gets full, that day ends
- what you need to do in the start is basically, get as many PP as you can (fishing is the fastest way in early game IMO)
- farming is nearly the same thing as previous MHs
- to use the farm facilities, you need to trade over a specific items for farming chances (i.e you trade one item for 20x fishing and one item for 10x mining) no limit AFAIK as long as you got the items
- to do the 'Hunting Quest', you need to build the 'Guild Hall' first, then talk to the guild lady in the village main area

Some unlockables I found so far:

Spoiler

- To build Guild Hall, get to Day 4, talk to the froggy head cat in the Guild area, she'll demand 2000PP.
then talk to village elder, he'll give you 500PP, get total 2000PP then talk to the froggy head again to unlock Guild Hall upgrade. which completes one day after you purchased it. (after it completes, go to village main area, speak with the green guild lady cat, pick the last option)
- to unlock the field rows, speak to the orange cat in the seashore, then you got to correctly answer his 3 questions (one per day) IIRC the answers are 2nd,1st,1st option
- to unlock the mining cave and fishing pier, speak to the cat in pugi farm & blue cat in seashore and you need to give them something I can't recall

about the battles.. it's basically like Patapon, but in simpler fashion.
-there are health bar (unlike Patapon which every unit has it's own health, this one health bar is for everyone), progress bar and Flute command
-basically, you control your army by pushing one of commands that popped up (like right arrow icon to advance, club icon to attack, etc) unlike combo pressing in Patapon
-you can force your felynes to stop by pressing the R (flute command) and they will give you another pop up options.
-you can heal your army by eating food in the stage (you can choose to gather items at that spot or to eat it to recover your health bar)


well, that's all what I got in my first 2 hours playthrough. need more info on this game. like..
- where do you get the items used for trading farming chances?
- what are the meaning of other battle commands like clipper and horn icon things?
- WHY IS POPO SO OVERPOWERED HERE??!1!11!

This post has been edited by HayzenTZ: 28 August 2010 - 01:36 AM

[Bobofango]

Arrg!

[blueyx]

Quote

- where do you get the items used for trading farming chances?
- what are the meaning of other battle commands like clipper and horn icon things?
- WHY IS POPO SO OVERPOWERED HERE??!1!11!

1. Go through every single "gathering" spot you can find. There is a small chance for getting those items.
Working in the farm can also can you some. For example fishing, occasionally you will get some material need for mining.

2. Clipper is for "trimming" of Popo's fur. Not sure about horn yet.

3. Hey, my entire army of 10 got owned by mere bees. Not Vespoid, mind you, just bees.

This post has been edited by blueyx: 28 August 2010 - 03:07 AM

[Ndog921]

is this game good or should i not even bother?
i heard that you might get something special in MHP3rd if u have a save?
confirm?

[Basukesu]

I wrote up a prelim review based on way too many hours of gameplay. I tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible. Be gentle with me.

Monhan Nikki Poka Poka Airu Mura Review:

Here is my take on the Monhan Nikki. Before reading it please note that I reviewed this game on the merits of what the package is and not through the prism of other Monster Hunter titles. I will be as objective as possible during this review. It is just my take on the game based on its merits, gameplay and overall entertainment value.

Airu Mura (AM) has defied genre terms for quite some time now most magazines here in Japan label it as ETC. or OTHER. For the purposes of this review I will not attempt to label it as anything other than an entertainment package with varied gameplay mechanics.

The player undertakes the role of what is essentially a world-master or world-manager. The state of your village as a whole is in your control. From the size of the resource gathering areas, to the welfare and status of your hunting party to the general mood of each and every villager towards you, all of these aspects are influenced by your management style. All of this of course has varied purposes and you can choose to make any one aspect of the game your goal, from being the best hunter group to having the fastest Poogies on earth or to have the widest and best collection of rare in-game items you can devote fully to any aspect of the game you enjoy the most. That being said the game is probably not for everyone but I will get into that shortly.

Village Gameplay: 6/10

The game is ruled by a daily timer during which you can opt to do or opt not to do the various village management upkeep tasks set before you. Once the daily timer's clock reaches nighttime the game sends you to bed and you are allowed to save before beginning the next day's chores. At first management and getting to know the villagers will be pretty much your sole occupation until you can build a hunting team and expand other areas of the village which in turn will unlock other facets of the game for you. Village Management is divided into distinct parts, Villager Rapport, Gathering, Poogi Raising, Fishing and Quests. The Quests given to you by the villagers help to unlock further gathering areas or earn you the trust of Airus willing to be part of your hunting team, others will unlock more facilities for your village that unlock more activities for you and your villagers. Early in the game these tasks will consume a great deal of your game time until you master the basic hunting quests and have completed all the Poogie related activities, at which point gameplay expands into other territories. The village portion is extant and it would be difficult to describe it here without spoiling the game for anyone, suffice to say if you like this style of game then there Airu Mura has just about everything you want. Every act leads to returns either immediately or later on so again if you are detail driven this might just be the game for you. If you are more action driven this slow pace, act/reward may be a total turn off.


Hunting Gameplay: 7/10

Much like other entries into the Monster Hunter universe, this game features, Gathering quests, Seek and Find and of course Monster Hunting. Hunts are undertaken from the Guild and it is through the guild that you will be able to organize your hunting party. Each party can consist of a maximum of 12 Airus and each Airu has a different function. Some play music, some gather minerals others gather herbs, some fish, some are pure hunters (warriors/damage dealers). Without exception if you choose to import an Airu from a 2ndG/Freedom Unite save file that Airu will be a hunter type, clad in whatever armor they are presently wearing in the 2ndG/Freedom Unite file. Unlike other Monster Hunter games hunts take place on a side-scrolling system similar to Patapon but without the music. Key commands order your group to gather attack or advance. The more varied the hunting party the more varied the commands, mineral gathering, sheering, music, and other commands are available depending on your party set up. This makes party management very important for every hunt, as you don't want an unusable command to pop up during a key fight. This may break the deal for some players as the commands that do pop up are random and in many cases do not reflect the most appropriate actions for any given situation. You might be facing a foe but only gathering commands or sleep commands appear when you all you want is the attack command. In addition, your party does grow tired over the course of missions as well and their response is slowed so that adds another layer of management that can sometimes be cumbersome if you just hop on a quest and forget to check your party's status. Like all Monster Hunter games preparation is its own reward in this spin-off title as well. A very complex heavly-layered game wrapped in a cute package.

Graphics: 7/10

Speaking of cute, the graphic style will be a turn-off for some and a welcome trait for others. The colors are light and bright. The outfits on the villagers are lively and in some cases hearken to the Smurfs where you can tell what a villager likes/does by simply looking at them, in much the same way you knew what a Smurf did when you heard their name. Load times are quick and nice thanks to the install file (120megs or so are required) and even the enemies are very cute or to others so cute they should be shot with a nuclear rocket and banished from sight forever. The textures are simplistic as is the shading, this is no 2ndG or God of War but for what it is everything matches nicely and the village is lively and gets livelier the more you work on it. It all fits but it isn't pushing the hardware anywhere near what it could and be that much more smooth in terms of overall presentation.

Sound: 6/10

Nothing mind-blowing or gratifying if anything it is a lot of cute renditions from already existing material or unique cute and fitting music. Even when hunting, it doesn't feel so dangerous but it is lively and maintains the tempo required for a given situation. Sound effects are also equally fitting, grumpy characters, sound grumpy, fishing is accompanied by lots of splashes and bobbing sounds and it is in general just cute.

Overall: 6/10

The presentation is fantastic for what it is, but I have to acknowdlege this isn't for everyone. The pace of play is slow especially early on and as the village grows so do your duties to every facet you have expanded. For some this is going to be great for others this is going to be boring. While it does have much more cohesieveness compared to other titles that inspired it, it really is something of an acquired taste not to mention that for the moment it is only in Japanese and somethings are just impossible to do if you don't understand what you are being told to do. If I were asked to describe it purely in the vein of other Monster Hunter games I would have to say this is one HUGE Pokke Farm that you are making extra extravagant so you can get niftier and niftier things as time goes on. For those of you who enjoy bringing order to things this is the game for you. For those of you who want to take down any all versions of Tigrex this may not be for you at all. The pace is controlled by the daily timer(though you can expand it) the requirements to be efficient outside the village are involved wholly with the village and it consumes the bulk of the gameplay so that may not be exciting. So if you are on the fence hopefully you can watch a friend play it or if it is released in English rent it first and decide. It is entertaining, just probably not in the way that fits an easy description it's charm makes it approachable.

Game Info:

UMD Only (presently only in Japan)
Installation (121mb of memory)
Downloadable Content (planned to be released)
Import Capable (2ndG File only at present)
Firmware Requirements: 6.20

Further Comments:

Should anyone have questions feel free to PM me through the forum. I will not do full blown translations of this game as I don't have the time but I will try to help anyone who needs it. Again this is just my opinion if anyone wants further clarification please PM me through the forum. Happy Hunting.

This post has been edited by Basukesu: 30 August 2010 - 10:12 PM

[Jask]

I just started the game today, and I'm finding it entertaining. It would be a lot more entertaining if I knew the language better. I'm just barely scraping by with my knowledge of Katakana, a couple kanji, some item translations, and machine translations.

I'm finding the day timer rather annoying. Hopefully it will get longer as we progress through the game.

Right now I'm still on the village section, haven't gotten to the hunts yet.

[atlans89]

I beat the game with maxing friendship of all 78 felyne and all trophy gotten. There r still DLC though, but maybe later.
I heard MHP3 will import the felyne data from this game save so I felt I have gotten a little closer to it.

[Bobofango]

My copy should be here tomorrow...

[VioletKIRA]

Very nice review Basukesu.

[Mr. Popo]

HayzenTZ, on 27 August 2010 - 07:32 PM, said:

- WHY IS POPO SO OVERPOWERED HERE??!1!11!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!1!!1!

[VioletKIRA]

http://www.siliconer...is-selling-out/

Looks like this is makin' dough.

LOL I won't post this on the news for now but why not here:


256,076
via 4gamer.net

This post has been edited by VioletKIRA: 02 September 2010 - 01:38 AM

[Basukesu]

I am in the process of making a starter-kit for players who have this game but are having some language barriers. I will have it up by this Sunday JPN time, so Saturday night East Coast USA. Again I realize this is very understated here but in Japan the marketing has driven this game to insane fervor with the casual Monhan crowd. So again if you have questions feel free to send some my way I'll try my best to help.

In the mean time I am writing up this guide to be as helpful as possible for those who are struggling a little with the Japanese.

Happy hunting.

[ChocolateySyrup]

That's very helpful, thank you. I myself speak absolutely no japanese and have to rely on simply rote-recognizing the characters for certain desirable or common items, and beyond that most of the game has been like walking through a haze.

A lot of things are fairly straightforward: A lot of the 'hired' cats off the Felyne Granny, storyline cats that join after requesting a specific item, PP farming, and trades/meals/requirements that specify needing particular items can be fulfilled fairly easily, just by playing the game in its most obvious ways. However, anything that doesn't follow this formula exactly is often confusing. My only advice/suggestion is that you elaborate on things that are not as obvious, and don't follow the standard "gather item/deliver item" formula.

A few examples I can think of:
*The entire Felyne Chef segment. He was there for many days before a friend told me how to hire him, I never would have figured out on my own how you're supposed to hire him, and I didn't know that buying meals would decrease combat fatigue.
*Many of the game mechanics that are not immediately apparent can lead to trouble later on. I wasn't aware at first that stats grow very quickly when a Felyne builds friendship, so I was getting my ass kicked repeatedly on even early hunt missions (like the hot desert and Queen Vespoid hunt) because I just didn't have enough health and damage. Similarly, the function of the parties that you can throw isn't immediately apparent. Things like that could help to expound on.
*Specific requests that don't rely on items. For instance, the white felyne in the bugcatching are (I STILL haven't hired him, can't figure out what he wants), the characters who need to be carried around and placed somewhere, or the designer Felyne in the rank 2 gathering hall that needs 'theme' items like "something red" or whatever. And let's not forget the message in a bottle. That boggles me every time I see it.

Anyway, I'm sure whatever you can put together will be great, and a lot of help. I'm hoping this game will get a fan translation soon because I don't see it getting a release outside of Japan very soon. But then I doubt this will generate as much Western interest as, say, 2G, so we may never see a fan translation.
Good luck on your work and thanks for taking the time.

[blueyx]

Quote

For instance, the white felyne in the bugcatching are (I STILL haven't hired him, can't figure out what he wants)

That cat actually want you to catch more than "x" number of bugs in a single day. The first time it request this is more than 20(?) the second time is more than 29(?). Just to be safe, you could accumulate 4 of the material required to trade for farming chance before doing each request.