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> Results: Monster Hunter Freedom
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What GamerDad says about the ESRB Content Descriptors:
Blood: GamerDad had some nice bloody battles ﾖ but nothing worse than typical T-rated fare. Use of Alcohol: After a long day of monster hunting, GamerDad joined the hunters at the lodge ... Violence: GamerDad noticed that the only thing other than killing monsters was doing stuff to get better prepared to kill more monsters. There is something odd about a role-playing game where your character doesn't level up and become more powerful and go on to save the world. But an action role-playing game where you are taking missions and killing monsters in order to gather stuff to make new weapons to go on killing more and more monsters ﾖ that is fairly well traveled territory. But Monster Hunter Freedom does it a bit differently ﾖ it is really a minimalist combat dungeon crawl at it's' core. And that is where the freedom comes in ﾖ you just keep on taking missions and the game doesn't really ever have a distinct ﾑending' as most would define. The game is very simple but deceptively deep ﾖ you enter a town, take on a mission (or missions) and go out and deal with the mission. You can gather up companions to help, and you always want to gather up anything you can in order to craft new weaponry. Since you aren't leveling up, the rewards are components you use for new armor or weapons ﾖ often from the monsters you're killing. There are other skills as well ﾖ the typical fishing and gathering herbs are here, but also beekeeping and stealing eggs from dragons. It sounds like a perfect setup for a game with great combat controls and a robust online component ﾖ only this has neither. The controls are frustrating to learn, and never satisfying ﾖ you will feel you are fighting the controls as much as the monsters, which is made worse by the lack of significant ﾑhit feedback'. The lack of an online multiplayer is the biggest shame, though ﾖ in an open-ended game where you can team up to take on huge monster hunts, every time you play it is painfully obvious what you're missing due to the lack of multiplayer. The game is still a good amount of fun and does pretty well as a single player romp that you can put down and pick up again when the mood strikes ﾖ it is just unfortunate that what could have been true greatness was left as ﾑpretty good'.  
I like clarity and certainty in my life ﾖ it is like comfort food. Assigning a GamerDad Age Seal for Monster Hunter Freedom was like that ﾖ there is nothing but occasionally bloody and constantly visceral battles to this game and the occasional visits to the town centers for a bit of refreshment. Simple and plain and Rated T for good reason ﾖ and really intended for teens.
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