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Why does Monster Hunter 4 have to look like shit?

MH never really pushes consoles in the graphics department. It's always about gameplay and art design, but screens of the game never look all that great.
 
Takao said:
It's kind of sad that Japan's two most successful third party franchises look no better graphically than they did ten years ago. I suppose that's what happens when Nintendo handhelds own the market.
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That's a whole 'nother argument, but yeah, it's sad.
 
The game has a lot of effects running and much better lighting that Tri G. In cutscenes there's also quite a bit of nice animations for people and the monsters in general animate much better than in previous games. Shame about the dreadful texture resolution and low-poly environments, but you can't win 'em all.
 
Monsters look far better on 4 than 3G for me. Realtime self-shadowing on monsters, shadows cast on monsters and players, etc (:37~ on the Nintendo Direct trailer shows this pretty well. Maybe this is just your graphical preferences OP? I'll agree that in screenshots they look muddier, but in motion it's a leap forward. And I don't plan on looking at screenshots when I get the full game.
 
Het_Nkik said:
Maybe they're just budgeting accordingly instead of producing the game with the biggest and best graphics on a home console where it needs to sell 7 million copies to make a profit.

Sorry, I'm just bitter at the industry for slowly killing itself.
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I agree with this 100%. The game looks fine; there's no need to bump up the graphical fidelity just because it's technically possible.

I do kind of wish that they were making it a 3DS/Wii cross-compatible game like MH3U, so that there could be a version of the game that looks prettier through sheer hardware power, even with the exact same assets (ie: high resolution, anti-aliasing, etc). But I don't want them to waste their time trying to make their game into a big technical showcase.
 
muu said:
Monsters look far better on 4 than 3G for me. Realtime self-shadowing on monsters, shadows cast on monsters and players, etc (:37~ on the Nintendo Direct trailer shows this pretty well. Maybe this is just your graphical preferences OP? I'll agree that in screenshots they look muddier, but in motion it's a leap forward. And I don't plan on looking at screenshots when I get the full game.
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At worst, the game looks like ass

At best, it looks wildly imbalanced to good
 
1) The game isn't out yet, and those screenshots are not from a definitive build, so we may expect some improvements, seeing how Capcom has managed to push 3DS's limits.

2) It's a 3DS game, so their top priorities would ideally be a rock-solid framerate, and a seamless funny gameplay, over any frills and thrills.

3) Best selling Monster hunter games so far were on PSP, but that was not a big issues for Japanese fans of the series apparently, as in Japan - that's where pretty much all MH fanbase is - it is popular as a handheld game.

This one is bound to sell shedloads, hopefully it will be lots of fun and bring new features; this is what matters methinks, as much as I'd like a home-console version.
 
AgentOtaku said:
You REALLY think that?

Like you think this looks in the same league as Luigi's Mansion or Mario 3D Land? Outside of the great animation?
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For its scope and art style, yes, it does. Technically, I'm taking MH3U because I've actually experienced and seen that first hand but that runs on 60fps (even in 3D, I think) and with the scope of the world, the art style and animations, it looks great. I'm not saying other games are ugly (Luigi's Mansion looks great, too) but to call MH4/MH3DS ugly? No, not really. The one thing that plagues MH4 is texture size.

Technically I could say the Mii Street Pass Puzzles look EVEN better graphically. But that's a mostly a single model with a simple animation with hardly anything going on. So contextually, yes, Monster Hunter looks great.
 
Subtle said:
Doesn't look that bad. Looks like a typical 3DS game. I would really enjoy a PS4 MonHun game though.
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Yeah it looks like shit.

I am impressed that they didn't go for better graphic considering they earn a lot from MH franchize.
 
I've seen today a recent gameplay video and it looks lovely, except for some rough ground texture, and will look even better on my 3 ds screen. can't wait..
 
They made millions while still using assets very much like the first game. (some pretty much identical)

Sucks for us, but I'm sure they're enjoying the profits.
 
Monster Hunter is primarily about social play in settings that support what has always made it popular in Japan. Keeping it primarily on handhelds makes sense in a lot of ways, regardless of visual limitations.

Ultimately, it's a case of "it's nice to want things". It'd be nice to see MH monsters with UE4 visuals, but that's not really the selling point of the series so ultimately isn't critical. If by some chance MH3U on Wii U grinds out a larger console following for the series as time goes by, Capcom might invest more resources in fully overhauling the visual assets for console releases.

For instance, I wouldn't rule out MH4 getting a Wii U version that has more dramatically upgraded environmental and character assets - especially since the Wii U version of MH3U was a rush job with almost nothing to it besides redrawing the UI at 1080p.

But again, it probably boils down to whether it becomes worth it to sink a lot of money into console versions of the games again.
 
mullet2000 said:
Okay. And? It still looks better than their previous release which is on the same hardware. Not to mention the game isn't even done yet.
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It was a correction. You said 3 Ultimate just came out, and that wasn't really the case. Typically games look better as the platform ages, especially sequels developed for hardware vs. an expanded port.

FootNinja said:
MH never really pushes consoles in the graphics department. It's always about gameplay and art design, but screens of the game never look all that great.
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Really? I thought the Monster Hunter games on PSP were quite the lookers, and so was Tri on Wii. 4 is a decent looking game on 3DS. The problem is that in 2013 PS2-esque visuals are no longer that impressive.
 
Criminal Upper said:
Because the last thing the Monster Hunter team wants to do is push boundaries.
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Exactly. They're so terrified to fuck up the formula that they'd rather create an entirely new series in Dragons Dogma than mess with it. I mean hell, the big addition to 3 was underwater, and now that shits gone.
 
The better question is why is Monster Hunter coming to a system with only one analogue stick.

I suppose Nintendo's money is slicker than Sonys
 
Snapshot King said:
Exactly. They're so terrified to fuck up the formula that they'd rather create an entirely new series in Dragons Dogma than mess with it. I mean hell, the big addition to 3 was underwater, and now that shits gone.
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How can you fuck up formula making your game look better ?

dan2026 said:
The better question is why is Monster Hunter coming to a system with only one analogue stick.

I suppose Nintendo's money is slicker than Sonys
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Because Vita 2 sticks is too much

/s

Capcom LOVES Nintendo their love is unconditional. Tons of good games missed other consoles because of that.
 
AgentOtaku said:
You REALLY think that?

Like you think this looks in the same league as Luigi's Mansion or Mario 3D Land? Outside of the great animation?
Click to expand...
Lighting is better. Environments are also bigger. It's a trade-off, but it works. Both of those games also are much simpler in terms of artistic approach, which allows them to look better a lot more easily. And Nintendo plus its partners at its core will always understand how to juice their systems better than third parties (to be fair Capcom has showcased the 3DS' capabilities from a more "realistic" approach quite nicely with Resident Evil: Revelations).

I think MH4 looks quite nice in motion. If it had higher resolution textures it would be a much better looking game. You do what you can on the 3DS, though. I don't really care as long as its framerate is smooth.
 
At this point, I think Capcom just loves milking as much as they can out of the series. They can makes these games for pennies and sell millions of copies. I think the only reason we're not seeing a new console version that isn't a handheld port is because it would be expensive. Why take the risk?

If the fanbase is willing to buy what looks like it was possible on a handheld made before Youtube existed, why risk any money?
 
3DS games always look better on the system's screens than they do on a PC or other device. It's not a looker by any means, but I'm sure it will be acceptable once it's in your hands on a 3DS.
 
I've never really seen screen caps from a 3DS game look 'good.' Even MH3U looked pretty arsy in screens. However, the game is really beautiful on the 3DS and Capcom really knows how to take advantage of the 3D and depth.
 
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