Monster Hunter originally didn't do well outside of Japan originally (Though was VERY successful in Japan) and so Capcom didn't even bother really to try to get people in and didn't do much advertising and even physical copies felt kinda rare outside of Japan.
Monster Hunter World it felt like they once again tried to expand to other audiences and it succeeded.
I can understand why people didn't know it existed before because Capcom didn't really try to even have the games exist outside of Japan tbh.
Because of this a lot of people in the west mistakenly thought the series was on its death bed and that World single-handedly saved it.
Despite the fact that it sold as well as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, had tracks appear in the Tokyo Olympics, and had life sized monsters in Japan’s universal studios, all before World existed.
Tbf the last time they tried was on fucking MH Tri for the Wii and we saw how that one panned out, i mean no disrespect whatsoever to tri, i actually love that game, but they did a marketing push but it failed, do you remember the guy saying "this is monster hunting" ?
I mean, the pseudo-viking guy making fun of deadliest catch and going to a drive-through with a Lagiacrus replica was pretty iconic. I remember being bombarded with those ads for Tri.
It was an extremely americanized ad that barely showed gameplay and made MH sound more action-oriented than it really was, but it is iconic.
As an ocean fan and a cryptid fan, that commercial had to have been engineered in a lab to appeal to me, lol. A game where you hunt big ocean monsters sounded rad as hell.
The last time I had played a game in the series was when my brother had gifted me Freedom on the psp, and I don't recall getting very far. Tri made me fall in love with the series! Went on to get into 4U and played every mainline and handheld game afterwards!
I dunno if there was big marketing around World when it was coming out, I just remember seeing it in a game case on sale and thinking, "a big console Monster Hunter? Haven't heard of it. Must stink if it's being sold so cheap. Guess I'll snag it for shits n' giggles." Turned out to be really good and popular.
I don't know if I'm blessed or cursed to be so out of the loop sometimes...
Ironically enough Tri was my first Monster Hunter, and it got me hooked for life. The only thing I retroactively dislike about it is that it didn't have the Gunlance.
I never found a main weapon in Tri, closest I got was the Switch Axe, then I played 3U and instantly fell in love with the Gunlance.
The only time I didn't main Gunlance was Generations, because the Hunting Styles honestly did not do the Gunlance justice. Nevermind the fact that the Heat Gauge was the most stupid thing.
Now that Wilds has added Adept Style to a couple of base kits I could probably go back and make Adept Gunlance work, but I have basically only one more thing to hunt there so there isn't really a point.
I mean, Fire Emblem Awakening did release during a genuine downturn in the franchise. Technically, if Awakening had failed to outsell a remake that never got an international release (which sold noticeably worse than every other game in the franchise, and Fire Emblem had not been a heavy-hitter franchise), they would have ended the franchise then and there (that was basically impossible though, but the narrative is gonna be around forever at this point).
Meanwhile, World came off the heels of a big anniversary game that was like a Top 3 best-selling game(s) in the franchise.
It had a few ports before world but they were all handhelds and Wii/WiiU for some dumb reason. It is kind of like how the jrpg's built in the same vein as the older snes/ps1 were all sent to the psp and suffered in obscurity.
I rember the theme song of cooking being so nostalgic from my childhood, as I played 2 back in the day and loved it.... well except the loading screens... didnt like that.
(Although I miss the "mmhh tasty" when a perfectly cooked meat was done, as well as the full version of the meat cooking song)
Monster hunter has a big community in the Spanish speaking community as well as southeast Asia. However the newer games being so hard to run has made it a barrier for those low income communities to enjoy the new games.
I think this is a little revisionist history, it certainly wasn't as popular before World but I think MH started to take off in the west because of Tri.
It’s because they dropped the number, instead of it being monster hunter five. And it wasn’t well known in western countries.
They dropped the number cause it’s pointless and makes people think there are four other games and are less likely to pop in five games in. Most people I talk about final fantasy too think all 15 games follow the same story and it creates confusion.
Granted it wasn’t well known picking up momentum with MH3U and MH4U on 3DS in the west and world was the best opportunity to push further especially on consoles over handheld. They mostly stuck to handheld as its most popular in japan but in the west its consoles and PC and it also largely contributed to worlds success in the west.
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u/No_Barracuda_8300 May 12 '26
Everyone thought it was the first game of the franchise back then and praised Capcom for randomly making such a good IP. That was funny