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Monster Hunter Diaries, Warm-hearted Airu Village.
This a starter guide to players wanting to get the gist of the game mechanics because they have bought the game and then remembered they do not speak or read or write a lick of Japanese. I will only write a starter guide such that you will be set on your way and have no need to wander aimlessly through cyberspace looking for just a simple get me going guide. Though gamefaqs probably has a good one by now, this is being written for this community only. Please do not copy this or post it elsewhere.
Part 1. Game start-up screens:
Message pop-up. Your general do not turn off or remove the card when saving. This game uses the card to save and load game material. Yadda yadda.
Intro movie (skip with the start button).
Splash screen:
Should start at はじめから or from the start (new game) under that is continue and under that is the Load option in case you are managing other villages, Thereafter is Options. Options are divided into basic areas sound music and SFX. Install data ON/OFF, Background Load ON/OFF. Next up, the gallery and beneath that the Download button. Beneath that is the install feature (121mb required). Last but not least the data import (2nd G Otomo).
In Short the Splash Screen basically says this:
はじめから New Game
Continue (loads your most recent save file)
Load
Options
Gallery
Download
Data Install
Data Import
SPOILER ALERT:
Uh oh!
SPOILER START
Hello Kitty downloadable content is now available via the Download interface in-game. Go to a Pspot and have a ball. You get the Jump Pirate suit quest, and a quest that adds custom items for your guild hall. You can turn the guild hall into a big Hello Kitty and two hello kitty themed plush dolls to adorn your guild hall with. If you bought the first print of the game you also got a code to get a custom theme for your PSP and a raffle code for hello kitty and monster hunter themed items that is good until the end of September 2010.
Also you can now download the Otomos from the music group Sid. You can only get one so choose wisely but it doesnt matter only their appearance is different as all the members of Sid are rank 9 hunters and have correspoding Otomos. Again you only get their Otomos so don’t fret if you don’t like Sid. The Magazine quest is also available for download. This nets you some boxer briefs to wear.
SPOILER ENDS
A common message during install should be (please plug in your psp and install the game data when the battery is sufficiently charged. If you get something other than that, then consult your PSP manual or the Sony site.
When starting a new game you will be asked to customize the マイアイル My Airu. You can select their coat color(fur), Their voice, and lastly their name. Next you must name your village. After these selections are decided you will be loaded to the game world.
Upon entering the world you will be awakened by a somewhat grumpy old Airu who demands you live up to your name and get to work making the village わくわく wakuwaku, exciting and 楽しみ fun. This Airu is the 長老 chourou, village elder. You are his 孫 mago, grandchild. But also you are his 管理人 kanri-nin chamberlain (manager) for the 村 mura, village. There is also a white Airu with him basically being his echo. This area is the Guild Grounds btw.
Sadly that white cat will introduce you to the talking prompt/quiz mechanic. It works like this. You will be asked a question, you must select the correct answer from a list of choices that pops up in a dialogue box. Selecting the correct choice allows you to proceed, failing is not failing cause the next day you can try again, the questions never change and the answer order is the same so by pure process of elimination you can pass all the talking prompts/quizzes eventually. Keep that in mind when playing and encountering these things. They never expire, have a time limit, or have any pressure whatever associated with them. Don’t sweat it.
Immediately after this you can explore a bit and you will notice that a prompt appears for the square button when you walk over or are near certain things, bushes, plants, flowers, patches of ground. This is the harvest or collect action. This will start you on your way to getting essential supplies to get your village off the ground.
After you cross a little walkway you will come upon another character dressed in purple. This character oversees village expansion, but does so at a cost to you. You must give this Airu items which they will then convert to points. Press triangle to bring up the trade menu. The first option is trade and it will bring up your item box. The second option is purchase, where you can purchase village upgrades with those points. The third option is save, though you can wait until the day ends to save as well. The last option is cancel. Many characters will have a menu function similar to this one so be prepared.
There is not much further you can do here so walk down a bit of a ways until the prompt for the circle button appears and here you will enter the plaza or main boulevard of the town. This area becomes quite important later on in the game so get to know it well.
RECOMMENDATION, before speaking with the town folk explore this zone and collect everything you can using the square button prompt.
From where you zone in let me orient you slightly. To your character’s left you will see a billboard like structure, this is the town map. Use it to know the names of each area or at least their Kanji shape. Continuing to the left hand from your character’s perspective you will cross a small bridge there you will run into an Airu called 園長 enchou, grounds-keeper. Enchou may ask you to find Poogi. Accept the quest any quest by selecting はい hai, yes. The second option is iie, or no. There will be many such things in this game.
Again do not set off to do everything but explore first. Again back to where we started next to the map head to the left on your screen. (not your character’s left but literally left from your point of view). This will send you to the village’s residential area. Right now it is barren. If you imported a file from 2ndG your Otomo will be here, and it will probably be a hunter type. Keep a sharp eye for that square button prompt, there should be 2 in this area at first, ultimately 3 so stay sharp.
SPOILER ALERT
If you are not playing you might want to not read this next paragraph.
SPOILER START
Here you will find Babachan, granny from 2ndG. She still peddles Airus here. That nasty ol’granny. But this time she peddles them for in game items not zenni. I said the town was barren right? That is right, you guessed it! Granny there will help you populate your village. This is actually important so keep this in mind in the future when you have items from quests and the village ready to spend. I will not make a list of every Airu she has but suffice to say that she has every type in stock so if you can read the descriptions you can select the best or most useful Airu’s for your hunting party and village work. Make a note of the gathering point next to her. It is very important.
SPOILER ENDS
Trek back to the plaza and finally cross that little bridge again and head north into the area beyond. Here you will have your farm and fishing pier. There will be plenty of quests here, none of these are time sensitive by the way, you can complete them whenever you come upon the item they request in some cases many items are not available because you have not created the facilities for them or upgraded other facilities to gather higher tier items. So accept what you can but don’t sweat it if you can’t find an item right away. Take your time.
SPOILER ALERT
Uh oh another one
SPOILER START
In this area you might notice a poogi roaming around. Enchou would really like a poogi at this point. So go ahead and follow the prompts around the poogi until you are able to lift it up and take him to Enchou. This will start you the Poogi Park chain of quests/actions that are a fun and well thought out portion of the game.
After your first poogie Enchou may not prompt any further actions for a while. This is OK. Eventually he will tell you he wants to open up the Park in the village and he needs to find Poogies for this task. He will then ask you to talk to someone in the village who might now how to lure them. The lure is food of course and the likely candidate for animal food is the Farm. The farm is located next to the fishing area, which is north and east from the Main Plaza. Once at the farm, the head farmer will tell you Poogies like a certain shoot.
Use the menu feature with him, press triangle, and give him as many of the items he accepts for farm use and proceed to use the farm. Simply walk to a field with veggies and use the square button prompt when it is available. Harvest as much as you can then check your inventory. You will look for a pink plant icon with a heart on the corner and anything resembling the following kana: サツマノイモ, Yup poogies like shoots.
OK so you have the shoots now what? Remember how I told you not to forget the harvest point near the Granny? Well that is why, head back there and use the circle prompt when it pops up to deposit one of the shoots there. The lure can take up to 3 days to work so don’t panic if nothing is there the next day after you use it. Replenish your shoot supply everyday and repeat this process until you get a total of 5 poogies. After you have collected them and taken them to the Enchou, the Enchou will build the park, the process takes a few days.
The Poogie Park is neat once you open it. You can race your poogies and after a while or racing other Poogies will be found all around the town so keep a good look out for them later as the days wax and wane in your village. The oracle will also be found in the park. I would tell you to bother with her but the Japanese to translate is too extensive. Just keep talking to her until her menu option becomes available, again you can tell this by seeing if a triangle button prompt displays when you are near to her.
Enjoy the Park!
SPOILER ENDS
K back to the farm area, right now you may not be able to harvest it but first focus on gathering items from the harvest gathering points in the zone. There should be about 5 here all of them close to the fishing pier. Once you have all that done speak to every Airu here. The farm chief is walking the farm grounds. Just talk to him. Again here you are exposed to he quiz type of gameplay, where you may be asked a series of questions. DO NOT worry about these types of mechanics either. Just remember what choices you made that were right and what you chose wrong. The next day choose another answer for what you got wrong and the same answers for what you got right. Again the game is forgiving in this aspect as quests never expire have no time limit and never change in pattern. Regardless of what happens head on down to the fish monger. She is standing next to the pier. Again she will eventually have a triangle button prompt meaning there are things she accepts from you in this case she takes 釣りのエサ, Fishing Lures. Each lure earns you 10 chances to fish. Simply walk on to the pier and follow the prompts necessary to fish. As in other games it is square to launch the lure, circle to retrieve it once you have a bite.
Pick up other quests here, some involve fishing others are talking prompts. When you are done head west and into the Livestock area. No livestock, surprise surprise. One Airu here will ask you for a コポポ, a small popo. These come from the guild but you haven’t purchased your guild yet so again don’t sweat it. Also the bug collector will be here just talk to him and follow the prompts. The mining prospector will also be here if not he is the cave immediate the other characters to your left. He uses the triangle menu interface. Again do all the talking prompts with everyone here and take any quests you can then leave.
The Day Timer.
The day timer means that none of what I described above you did in one day, unless you sped through it all. Initially days last about 15 earth minutes. This can expand DRAMATICALLY later on. When the day ends your activities come to an end and you rest. At this time you are shown the days results, or items collected for you by other villagers. Then you wake up and do your chores again basically repeating this process.
The Cook
The cook will appear in the plaza. He will be an Airu with a turban. He will give you a quest that will throw you for a loop if you are not told what to do. He needs an ingredient and guess what, no talking prompt no other villager no other harvest point has it. So what to do???? Remember Poogi? You can saddle up a poogie and ride them all over town, don’t gallop just walk him around. Eventually he will sniff something out with the circle prompt. Retrieve it and give it back to the chef at the plaza. Viola! You now have a cook in your guild. This is only available if you purchase a guild facility from the girl near the item box at the guild grounds (your starting area).
Burrowing
Walking back and forth got you tired? Press start, the first option is the burrow option. Press circle there, every section of the village is listed, highlight the one you want and press circle. Process of elimination try everyone and just associate the kanji with the place. Easy as pie to get around now.
The Festival Grounds
At some point in the plaza you will have an Airu demanding a lot of points over 3000 or so. Save up your point pennies and get this item as soon as you can from him. It will expand your days to about 40 minutes and give you the festival facility. This is VERY USEFUL for mass FRIENDSHIP bonuses.
Friendship Bonuses
Every Airu, has a square prompt when you talk with them (so long as they are a member of the village and not a guest). Items with the heart icon make great gifts. But every Airu likes different things. So process of elimination again. Friendship is IMPORTANT it raises that Airu’s やる気, yaruki, or willingness and their 攻撃力, kogekiryoku, attack power. The higher the friendship for all the members of the hunting party the better they will withstand heat and cold as well as physical attacks from enemies and status effects.
Barter Post
Some Airus will take up shop right outside the guild hall. These are your barter Airus. They barter wares from your village to other regions in the game world. The balloon will cost you 7600 points. Other barter Airus come when you invite them from Granny. Others are unlocked via quizzes and talking prompts.
The Residential Area
The area where you find Granny is the residential area. This can be expanded substantially via the lady across from your item box in the Guild Grounds. The bigger it is the better. The larger your population the larger a facility you will need. So it is best to just splurge on expanding it. Just remember the more you expand it the more places you have to check for specific Airus (some move around the village a lot). So if you are looking for one to give a present to and he/she is not at their usual place check there too.
Culture-Shock!
Every time you see something new, an item or monster or hear something new, from anyone or anything, you will be culture shocked! This nets you shock points! These points can be used when you get the culture shop in the guild. You can change the entire mood of your village from this shop. The choices range from normal to outright combative-survivalists! It is funny stuff actually.
Village Visits (online Village life)
To the right and outside the Guild Hall you will find the ferry master. He allows you to host your village so your friends can come visit. Visiting is mostly to trade pamphlets (guild cards) and for items, you might have better luck with gold fish and your friend with eggs, trade these with them and help each other out =) Also NPCs with menus will have their menus removed during visits.
The Guild Hall
Ok, this part I’ve been dreading to write because it is just as extensive as the village. While the Village harvest points, mining, bug catching, fishing, farming and livestock will get you a TON of stuff every day. Only via the guild can you get monster items and field items such as mushrooms and honey. Ok I am going to break the guild into parts so you know what is what.
The Rarities Display
Your Guild Hall will eventually have a hole in it. It is a new zone the Guild Basement. There is an Airu there who lives in a barrel. Talk with him and eventually you will be able to access a triangle menu. This is for displaying rare item finds.
The Mysterious Entourage
An Airu with a companion may show up in the Guild Hall. They demand to have a “red item” from you and you must find it. The quest is simple, trade anything (you won’t lose it this time) and of course it will probably be wrong. He then tells you what this 赤いもの, akaimono, red thing is that she wants, it is a シモフリトマト, Shimofuri-tomato. Ok, head to the farm, and harvest it until you get one. Then just return and give it to him. This won’t suffice, next the girl will want something blue 青いもの aoi-mono, or blue thing. It is an アオキノコ, blue mushroom. Just do a starter hunt from the guild and harvest one. You don’t have to win the guild hunt either you will retain all items in your inventory win or lose. Give them the blue shroom but it won’t be enough. She will want something golden after that. Well well, the kanji she uses hints at the fish monger. That is right head to the pier and fish for one. The fish is the only bright yellow fish that comes up every once in a while, in fact, you might have one by the time she asks for it. Once you get one just give it to them, they will then remain as members of your village. Fun times no?
These are your guild architects and decorators btw. The girl takes points and sells you guild items. The male will simply change the guilds appearance with those items. The exterior and interior of the guild can be customized so fiddle around with the menus until you get your guild looking the way you like.
The Clothier
Thought your Airu was stuck looking like a chump didn’t you? Wrong! Everytime you reach level 10 friendship with an Airu you get their fashion sense. Want to look like a ninja, make a level 10 out of the ninja looking Airu, he will give you, his uniform, take it to the Clothier at the Guild Hall (guy next to an item box) and viola, you can now look cool! The menu from the top is Change Clothes, Turn-in outfit and cancel. Every time you get level 10 and a set of threads from an Airu, turn it in to be able to change into it.
HUGE SPOILER
Or maybe an incentive for those with a 2ndG file
SPOILER STARTS
If you make level 10 friendship with your Otomo Airu, (your 2ndG Otomo), he will give you 3 sets of clothes! They are Mafomofu, Donguri Mairu, and Neko Samurai. どんぐりマイル, or donguri mairu means Acorn Mail. Mafomofu is winter garb and of course the Samurai, if you have it in your file, otherwise you won’t get it that I know of.
PM me if you want to know item your Otomo Airu loves the best =)
SPOILER ENDS
The Culture Shop
Another female Airu will appear next to the clothier. She is the culture shop owner but first she needs to see you got a sense of culture yourself. This is actually a very annoying quest because it takes time to please her and will be doubly annoying if you don’t read Japanese. Talk to her every day until you see this kanji. 最後, saigo or LAST. This is the last hint she will give you about what fashion she wants to see you wearing. It should be your starter outfit, just turn around and change back into your starter outfit talk with her again and after a few more bits of dialogue she will get a triangle prompt meaning the Culture shop is open. Use this to change the mood of your village to something you like. Normal, Festive, Mellow, Survivalist etc.
The Cook
After a hunt your party tires out, feed them after a hunt to get them back into fighting shape! So keep healthy supplies of veggies and fish and meat from the hunts to keep your kitchen stocked and ready. The more cooks the better the effect! Unlike other MH games no adverse effects occurs from eating that I have been able to discover. If you don’t prep your team between hunts they will be sluggish and outright unwilling to hunt later so keep them well fed between hunts. *i.e. Feed them after very hunt once.
The Little Sister (Multiplayer Hunting)
Online hunting does it for you? Fear not this game has it! Do the talking prompts with an Airu called イモト, imoto or little sister. Once she joins the village she will be in the guild hall. Her menu is for online play just remember 2 player means you have to make a party of 6 because 6 and 6 is 12. Party of 3 then you each take 4, party of 4 then you each take 3 Airus for the hunt. Thankfully the party pane lets you make up to 4 party presets so you can make 1 for each contingency. Of course you can play her quests offline too just use the top most selection of her menu. I actually recommend you do since it is the only way to access the monsters from Tri in this game at least.
The Barrel Bomb Maker
Some Airus use bombs but they don’t make them you have to keep them in your inventory. Use this character to make the bombs so that when the party goes to hunt it has the items the bomb users need. Otherwise they throw pebbles and these are not as strong. But they also tend to miss a lot and Barrel Bombs can be expensive to make in terms of material required so ... the first of many tactical considerations.
Hunting
Ok time for the big cheese to get their time in the sun! Hunting starts like all other games in this series. Easy and short. There will be one receptionist at first then another as your Guild Hall expands each offers different tier quests. The one in green easy the one in blue intermediate to difficult. Imoto will offer online play and the hardest quests *relatively speaking*. All are accessed via the triangle button prompt. Option One is Quests! Option 2 is Previously Completed Quests and Option 3 is Party set up and Option 4 is Cancel. Party set up can also be accessed after you select a quest and prior to departing. If your party is set after selecting a quest just press circle at the party set up screen and the first prompt will be for Depart to Quest and the Second for Party Set up, so you can make last minute tweaks to your team before setting off.
So from the top my recommendations:
Party Organization:
In single play you can have up to 12 Airus. I strongly urge you take the bard for EVERY hunt. They cure most status ailments. Other than that take at least 3 hunter types as they can absorb some damage while sheering while other Airu types cannot so that comes in handy in a pinch when you need an item that only comes from sheering. Hunter is written as follows in Japanese or rather Katakana English: ハンター.
Controls
Hunting Controls are fairly straightforward at first, until you realize you can USE the whole of the environment to aid you or hinder your opponents. It is very similar to Patapon when you first look at it except you don’t have to make music here or anything =)
Here are the commands:
The Icon with the Airu Attack Stick is Attack
The Icon with the Solid Green Arrow is Move
The Icon with the Solid Blue Arrow is Burrow
The Icon with the Solid Yellow Arrow is Move back or Left.
The Icon with the Honeycomb is harvest Honey
The Icon with the Dog Collar thing is Rally, useful when some of your Airus are behind because of status effects this helps you rally up and move together again.
The Icon with the pebble toss is Throw Environment Object (usually a flower or mushroom) THIS IS TACTICAL! Tossing a paralyze shroom, sleep herb or Poison shroom will have that effect on the enemy it lands on. So think wisely. If no enemies are there harvest but WARNING harvesting may produce the same effect on some of your party. So use CAUTION!
The Icon with the Flower Pot Being tossed is uproot and discard, this is handy when walking by a field of sleep flowers, as harvesting will knock out some of your team to sleep. This can be bad if you see enemies beyond and only one would fall asleep, a direct assault would be better so uproot and toss those flowers away harmlessly away from the field of battle.
The Icon with the cat on his belly on the Arrow is Sneak! Useful for duh! Sneaking past monsters behind cover, or sleeping monsters.
The Icon with the Scissors is sheering. You can sheer pelts and leathers from animals. Preferably when they are sleeping, Sheering an animal removes them from the field. On some animals this serves the same as carve, you carve out a section of an animal in both cases the icon looks the same.
The Icon with the cat with dots after his step and a Solid Green Arrow is tip-toe, almost as effectve as sneak except enemies behind cover will see you and lunge out in an attempt to ambush you. Take heed you know the difference.
The Icon with the palm tree is knock down fruit
The Icon with the Sickle or Scythe (pronounced sai-hth) is harvest.
The Icon with the Fork and Knife is eat, Aokinokos blue mushrooms and mushroom clumps, light blue mushrooms in sets of 3 heal you in the field
The Icon with the solid green Z’s is well uh sleep, this heals your party over time but only for a short while.
The Right Trigger, R is halt command refresh button. This halts your party and selects a new set of orders all generated randomly. CAUTION each time you use the horn you lose a little of your life. Use ONLY when no useful or appropriate commands appear, not for some other command like harvest, if your life bar is ok just keep moving forward. You can repeat quests and harvest things you need during easier quests.
Strategies
Ok here is where not knowing Japanese sucks. Quests do not require to bring down a Yan ku-ku and bring his rotting carcass. But pieces of them so starting out look at your enemies behavior in some cases a direct attack may not be good for you at all. Actually you are not required to kill any of the big monsters just carve a piece of them. I’m not sure which is crueller to honest.
SPOILER
This is one and only walkthrough for a boss fight I will give you as an example of what I mean by combat in this game and paying attention to your environment.
SPOILER START
DosFango the big warthog boss The goal is to get his 牙 , kiba or Fang. Get it Dos (two) (Fango English word meant to solicit the Fang into the mind). Well his opening move is to charge up a rush! Simply burrow, wait until his is past your party and resurface, attack him knock him down and then sheer him for the fang. That is it
SPOILER ENDS
Ok so keep a SHARP eye out for the commands issued and most of all for the things around you. You can use the environment to help you or hinder your foes. Also every hunting quest will have the objective in brackets, I know it is a pain but look up the Kanji in the brackets to get some idea of what the quest is looking for. If you need additional help just PM me through the forum and I will help you.
The game mechanics make for a rich experience though admittedly not a very challenging but still the game was made to be a more approachable Monster Hunter.
The Trainer
Yeah he is back and as far as I can tell he is the only human in the game. He tells you your hunting fortunes and the billboard next to him are hunting tips.
Ok so there you have it my prelim guide. I will try to polish it up for people as I realize it is kind of sloppy right now. For very very specific questions just PM me and I’ll try to help as best I can.
Happy Hunting!
This post has been edited by Basukesu: 17 September 2010 - 10:48 AM
