Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate review!

You know, in anticipation of Monster Hunter: World, I decided to play through one of my oldest and favorite video games, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, a second time. And you know what? I never reviewed it. So today I have decided to review Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.



"But wait!" you ask. "If this is the third entry to the franchise then you should cover Monster Hunters 1 and 2 first!". I actually can't. The first two Monster Hunter games were released on the PS2 and this game is on the Wii U and 3DS. Plus, technically speaking, this isn't the third entry at all. It's an HD remake of Monster Hunter Tri. And in the time span between Monster Hunter 2 and Monster Hunter Tri the "real" third entry was released, Monster Hunter Freedom. Which also got a remake in the form of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. So technically speaking, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the SIXTH installment in the franchise. If I did my math correctly. I could be wrong. Math has never been my strong point (I've always been good at writing and English though!). But it doesn't really matter what order you play the game's in because the story is basically nonexistent!

 

In case you don't know what Monster Hunter is, it's an Action-Adventure franchise (made by Capcom!) with mild RPG elements starring the Monster Hunters, elite warriors trained to fight basically anything from brightly colored raptors, to giant sand-whales, to fire-breathing dragons. The core gameplay normally involves fighting increasingly powerful monsters and using the loot you get for defeating them to make weapons and armor to make yourself more powerful, which in turns let's you stand a chance against even stronger monsters, and the cycle repeats until you beat the game. However! There's no EXP or leveling up at all. The idea being that making armor and weapons is the only way to improve your stats, in addition to being prepared for anything. And when I say anything, I mean ANYTHING. Need a moment to heal? Bring a Flash Bomb to blind the monster so you can have a breather. Need to repair your weapon? Bring a Whetstone. Need to capture the monster alive? Bring a trap and some means of tranquilizing the monster.



If you never played a Monster Hunter game before, know this. This is a franchise that demands patience, preparation, and skill. There's no "dodge stats" or anything similar. The only way to avoid damage is to memorize the monster in question's attack patterns and position yourself accordingly. That said, it's a decent starting point into the franchise, thanks to a very thorough tutorial, and introducing the Great Jaggi, a very weak boss monster that is commonly used as target practice.


Up to four players can take on hunts together.

The story of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate kind of takes a back-seat to the gameplay. Which is unfortunate, since there's a surprising amount of lore in the Monster Hunter universe. Basically, after creating your character, you are sent to a place known as Moga Village to serve as that town's Monster Hunter, which is equal parts guardian and protector as well as a big-game hunter. Moga Village has recently been plagued by supernatural earthquakes and a good chunk of the story revolves around finding the cause of the earthquakes and putting a stop to them. It's simple and mostly exists to give you a goal besides beating up dragons, dinosaurs, werewolves, and whatever the heck Gigginox is to become stronger. Oh, and the whole time you'll be accompanied by Cha-Cha and Kayamba, a pair of tiki-men-like creatures that can support you by using healing/buffing spells and distracting monsters.



But as any decent Monster Hunter fan will tell you, do not play Monster Hunter for the story. They rarely differ from that style I just described (however, Monster Hunter 4 and Monster Hunter Stories put a heavier focus on the story than the rest of the franchise). Play it for the addicting, but somewhat repetitive gameplay. With that said, I do have to voice my opinions concerning the story progress method. You see, the way progression works is you select Quests from a menu, which sends you to one of six different locations to complete a task. These tasks can be as mundane as collecting a certain type of mushroom or as intense as fighting multiple giant monsters simultaneously while on a time limit. It can get repetitive easily, but it works. Unfortunately, some story moments are tied to Villager Requests, where have to gather specific materials and a form of currency known as Resource Points (rewarded for slaying monsters while in Free Hunt mode) to upgrade Moga Village. In retrospect, the Villager Requests feel like padding to lengthen the main campaign.



Now something important to note is that there are no less than twelve weapon types in the game. And the first rule of a Monster Hunter game is try out all twelve weapon types at least once. Each weapon type comes with it's own unique strengths and weaknesses as well as different combos to perform. And some weapon types, once you learn how to use them properly, can cream certain monsters more easily than others. Example, once you're decent at the Hammer, (which sacrifices range in exchange for the unique ability to literally knockout enemies/bosses with successive attacks), the Rathian boss becomes a cakewalk (especially a Thunder element Hammer, but more on that later). Likewise, using the Gun-Lance against the Barroth boss is ideal, thanks to the Gun-Lance's shotgun-esque burst attacks shredding through Barroth's armor. Or you could just stick with the weapon you feel most comfortable with. That's normally what I do (Switch Axes for Life!). After all, while some weapon types have an easier time with certain opponents, it is POSSIBLE to defeat just about any monster with just about ANY weapon type. As long as you know what you are doing.



Which leads me to a gripe I've had with the entire franchise, at least up until Monster Hunter: World since Capcom basically removed the problem in that game (apparently). The Armor needed to use Melee weapons, and the Armor needed to use Long-Range weapons, are separated. This basically means that if you stick with one category, but want to try out the other category, you're going to need to make a whole other armor set just so you have decent stats to support the other category. This system has always annoyed me, as it made some weapons excessively difficult to use. And if you want to keep both categories up to date you're going to need to do twice the amount of material grinding!



Speaking of grinding, something that might turn some people off is the amount of grinding you have to do. Mostly because A) some materials are obnoxiously rare. And B) You will never get every material from a monster in one go. So chances are if there's a weapon or armor set you want, you're going to have to fight the same monster repeatedly until you have enough materials to make those weapons and armor. Thankfully, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's main campaign is pretty forgiving when compared to other campaigns in the franchise, so newcomers shouldn't too much of a problem. What I mean when I say that is you can go a ludicrously long time without updating your gear.



Speaking of Armor, another thing to note. In addition to providing stat boosts, each set of armor comes with Skills, passive abilities that further enhance your character. However! The Skills only activate if you are wearing entire set. So no, you can't mix-and-match armor pieces to look cool. Example, The Wroggi Armor has the skills Razor Sharp and Poison Immunity, which increase the power of cutting weapons like Greatswords and Dual Blades and give you a complete immunity to poison respectively, but only if you wear all five pieces of the Wroggi Armor (Helmet, Chestplate, Belt/Faulds, Gloves, and Boots!) at the same time.



Anyway, on to the highlight of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate... The boss battles! Now, something you must know about the franchise as a whole is that they are most well-known for having fantastic boss battles, and this game is no slouch in that department. First of all, if you think you can just hit a boss a couple (hundred) times and kill it like that, that's not going to happen. Most, if not all of the monsters can only be (safely) damaged when you see an opening in their attack patterns. And you have to be prepared for just about anything. After all, some bosses can paralyze you, cut your stats in half, poison you, set you on fire, and *hip check you across time and space. Plus, while most bosses are really fun to fight, there is definitely going to be a "White Whale" moment for you. In my experience and learning about other people's experiences, there's always going to be that one monster that you despise for creaming you but that same monster will inadvertently teach you how to get better at the game. Or you get so mad you give up and trade in the game, which is really childish of you to do so. Besides, I live with the philosophy that "challenging" does not mean "bad". Of course, a good video game has to strike a balance between being rewardingly challenging and downright unfair, which I think Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does rather well.

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Just a quick note, you can eat/drink at the Canteen (which is literally a glorified bar) to receive special buffs at the beginning of a hunt. Some buffs are basically mandatory for some Quests, most notably Gathering Quests. But if there's one thing that always grinds my gears, it's the underwater combat... *shudders*



To get a full grasp of the underwater combat, we must understand the history of Monster Hunter Tri When Monster Hunter Tri was being developed, Capcom wanted a way to add verticality so hunts didn't always take place on a series of platforms. Underwater combat was born, and became a major selling point of Tri, as it was the first game in the franchise that allowed the Hunters to go in deep bodies of water. Unfortunately, many players, myself included, found it to be clunky and awkward to control, as well as shortening almost every weapon type's combos, which render the more combo-focused weapons like the Sword'n'Shield kind of useless. That's not even mentioning how difficult it is to see underwater, as for some inexplicable reason, the camera has a bad habit of getting stuck at awkward angles, obscuring your vision. Especially in the Flooded Forest area. Understandably, Capcom has never included underwater combat ever again, and in it's place came a parkour system that lets you climb up walls and do all sorts of crazy stunts.



As for the presentation, the graphics aren't the best in the world. There's some wonky texture pop on some early-game weapons and some areas. Something that I don't see a lot of people talk about much are the region designs. I really like this even with the sub-par graphics. The amount of detail put in these areas is kind of overlooked, in my opinion. Special mention goes to the Misty Peaks region, which isn't unlocked until you unlock the High Rank difficulty. Some of the later weapons and armor also look really cool, if a little over-the-top. The bosses themselves have some impressive and memorable designs, and are beautifully animated as well.



But the music? Oh man, the MUSIC!!! Oh, you have no idea how much I LOVE the music in Monster Hunter! The music, by itself, is more than enough reason to play this game (at least until Monster Hunter: World comes out). I am dead serious when I say that. Most of the soundtrack is orchestral and grand, but there are exceptions, like how "Moonquake" is very tribal in nature and features ominous chanting in a mysterious (albeit fictional) language (then again, it plays when you fight the final boss, and the first rule of any final boss in a Monster Hunter game is that their battle theme must include ominous chanting in a mysterious-but-fictional language), or how the Zinogre Battle Theme uses electric guitar during the main chorus.



Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a pretty great game in it's own right, in addition to being a solid remake of the original Monster Hunter Tri. If you can get past the sub-par graphics, clumsy underwater combat and repetitive nature of the game, it's worth a Tri. Geddit? Of course, there's basically no reason to play this once Monster Hunter: World releases this January, unless they leave out some fan-favorite monsters from this game like Deviljho (aka G.I. Jho, aka JhoJho's Bizarre Adventure, aka the Pickle-Saurus). Why Deviljho has so many nicknames is a mystery. I give Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate a 8/10.

*-For those of you who don't get the joke, there's a very entertaining and/or frustrating (depending on who you ask) glitch with the Plesioth boss. You see, one of it's attacks involves hip-checking you. The glitch here is because of Plesioth's unusual hitboxes, it's possible to get hit by the hip-check even if you are nowhere near it, or even behind it. Hence, Plesioth became the Jar Jar Binks of Monster Hunter, being almost universally hated by the player community because of this glitch. In fact, Plesioth's infamy is so great that Capcom included a fishing minigame in Monster Hunter 4 where you can fish up Plesioths and they die the moment they leave the water. Poetic Justice at it's finest.

P.S. I just now realized that all of the gripes I have with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are fixed in Monster Hunter: World.

EDIT: It just now occurred to me I never explained what I meant when I said " Example, once you're decent at the Hammer, (which sacrifices range in exchange for the unique ability to literally knockout enemies/bosses with successive attacks), the Rathian boss becomes a cakewalk (especially a Thunder element Hammer, but more on that later)". Basically, every individual weapon (NOT weapon TYPE, but the weapon itself) normally comes with an element attached to it. And adding even more to the "be prepared for anything" mentality Monster Hunter has, certain monsters take extra damage from certain elements. Example, Rathian is weak to Thunder, hence why I said that a Thunder element Hammer would essentially curb-stomp it. Some monsters might have multiple weaknesses as well, or possess the ability to change their weaknesses on the fly (Barroth is the most infamous example of this, being weak to Water when it has Armor on, and weak to Fire when it's Armor is destroyed). Unfortunately, since monsters don't have health bars, and the only way to see how much health they have left is to check their body language (limping means 25% health left, for example), the only way to tell what a monster is weak to is to either A) fight the monster with weapons that have the same base damage but each have a different element and time yourself, B) Google it, or C) check the armor you get from the loot of that monster, as the elemental weaknesses on the armor will mirror that of the monster you got the materials from (in other words, Rathian Armor will be just as weak to Thunder as a real Rathian). Sorry for not remembering this info earlier.

Fire Emblem Warriors first-ish impressions!

You know what's terrible? A hurricane heading straight for Florida (where I live). You know what is not terrible? The fact that given my current location, the worst the hurricane can do to me is give me a lot of rain and not much else. But less chatting about weather! We're here to talk about Fire Emblem Warriors, the hack'n'slash adventure that I want REALLY badly to play, but doesn't release until October 20th. So instead of a review I'm doing a first-ish impressions. It's not a first impressions, that would require my opinion on the game back when it was first announced. So it's a second impressions? I guess?



But why Fire Emblem Warriors in particular? Because I'm crazy excited for it, even if there are a few things I would like to get off my chest concerning this game. For those of you who don't know what Fire Emblem is, it's a 30+ year old franchise of Strategy-RPG hybrid games famous for combining lovable characters with some punishingly hardcore tactical gameplay, set in a fantasy setting vaguely reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. It was a very obscure series until Super Smash Bros included Marth (the main hero of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon) as a playable character, inadvertently causing a massive surge of interest for this franchise. And then a second surge of interest when Fire Emblem: Awakening was released, as that game was intended to be the swan song of the franchise but made so much revenue that Nintendo decided to turn Fire Emblem into one of their "Golden IPs", big name franchises that are always guaranteed to make a lot of money (examples include Super Mario Bros, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda). And now, the mobile app Fire Emblem Heroes has become one of the besting selling apps of all time, making over $4 million in the span of six months.



Fire Emblem Warriors is a spin-off of the franchise, trading the head-scratching complex strategy elements for a simpler, more action-focused hack'n'slash adventure starring fan-favorite characters from across the franchise... Unfortunately, because there are a LOT of characters throughout the series, Tecmo Koei (the company working on Fire Emblem Warriors) has decided to focus almost exclusively on Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and the Fire Emblem Fates trilogy of games.



Personally speaking, the fact that they are focusing on the games they chose makes sense. All of these games (sans Shadow Dragon) already have 3D models to work with, which saves Tecmo Koei a lot of time, and are also relatively recent/popular entries in the franchise (again, sans Shadow Dragon). Something that is a little disappointing is how... What's the word? Safe? Yeah, let's go with safe, the playable cast is. Of course we haven't seen the full roster yet at the time of this post, but all the characters that are in are mainstays every Fire Emblem fan expected, like Chrom, Lucina, Camilla, Xander, and Marth. The problem here? There's no legitimately surprising characters revealed. The closest we got to an unexpected character was Cordelia (though she may be a fan-favorite, she doesn't have any relevance to the overall story of her home game). Plus, there's only one character from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Marth), technically two if the rumors that Tiki is also playable.



Something that I found humorous but was irritating to others, was one of the guys working on the game said they're keeping sword-using characters to a minimum, because they are bringing the Weapon Triangle (a rock-paper-scissors-like system found in most Fire Emblem games) into this game, and for the sake of variety in the roster. The problem here? If you look at the game's boxart, every character on the box art is holding a sword. Just be thankful that they are steadily unveiling more characters with a notable lack of swords in their arsenal. but it definitely doesn't help that the two brand new characters (Rowen and Liana) are both sword users. Which leads me to something I need to get off my chest regarding the two brand-new characters.



Now, I know a lot of people don't like the brand new characters, either because of their overly complicated designs (or for looking like Dragon Ball Z rejects), or finding them to be redundant compared to the preexisting characters. Personally speaking, I do genuinely think Rowen's design is rather bland, and Liana, while her design is not bad, per se, she comes across as kind of generic when compared to the rest of the cast. The fact that they are both sword-users, in a franchise with literal hundreds of sword-users, isn't doing them any favors. But if they have entertaining dialogue or decent character development, it'll redeem them in my eyes. I'm not a pessimistic person (I'm a bonafide optimist, because even though it's my job/hobby to critique video games, I don't actively look for flaws in the game itself) but I don't have my hopes up for these two.



With all that said, I kind of like the roster (aside from the brand new characters). I can understand WHY they would pick the characters they did. Are there some characters that I would like to see added (either in the base game or in DLC packs)? Yes. Definitely. Chief among them would be Donnel, because I think it would be funny to see this normal, average farm boy kick a ton of booty, Anna, because she's basically the official mascot of Fire Emblem (she is the only character to appear in every game in the franchise!), and Henry, because he's a pun-spouting, crow-loving maniac who also happens to be a respectably powerful Dark Mage. But alas, if we're getting a Dark Mage from Awakening, it's going to be Tharja (frankly the fact she HASN'T been announced is baffling to me, unless they decide to save her for DLC). Because everyone loves Tharja. She's a goth girl who is so creepy she actually is kind of cute (platonically) in her own weird, disturbing, gothic way. I wouldn't mind if Tharja got in, in fact I kind of want her in simply because A) she's a goth girl and this game has a notable lack of goth girls, and if Night in the Woods has taught me anything, everything's better with goth girls. And B) ever since they announced that the Support Conversations, optional cutscenes where the heroes take a break from the action to hang out and be friends, would be in the game, I had a hilarious mental image of Camilla and Tharja having a conversation together and complaining about random guys hitting on them. I don't know why, but if that happened in the game, I would die from laughter. And then become a Force ghost to continue running this blog. I just now realized that "become a Force Ghost" is my most frequently used joke on this blog.



Ignoring my Tharja rant, I have something important to say regarding the characters already in. I know I said the roster has been really safe, for better or for worse, but as long as the characters are fun to play as, I'm willing to let the roster problem slide. So far, the only characters that seem boring to me are the two brand new characters (but that's to be expected) and to a lesser extent Chrom, Lucina, and Hinoka. Cordelia looks really fun, what with all the flying around on a Pegasus and throwing explosive javelins. Takumi looks insane given the ludicrous range on his attacks. Just the idea of the pint-sized Lissa using a battle-axe twice the size of her entire body is hilariously awesome. Leo, Robin, and Elise all look fun with their magic spells causing lots of destruction on the battlefield. And OF COURSE, the character with the most interesting moveset shown thus far is Camilla. Which gives very mixed feelings. On the one hand, Camilla has a pretty fun looking moveset, complete with fire tornadoes and flying around on a skeletal dragon. On the other... I don't really care for Camilla as a character at all. Then again, I never played the game(s) she's from, and I've only seen snippets of Fates's story. So there's a chance she's actually the best character in the entire franchise. Second Best! Sorry, nothing is topping Henry.


Chrom has been seeking vengeance on Mr. Sakurai
 ever since he kicked him out of Smash Bros!

Anyway, the last major thing I want to talk about is the gameplay. So far, it looks fun, even if it's a tad easy looking (judging from the fact that during that hands-off demo the only time the playable cast struggle was against bosses and mini-bosses and literally curb-stomp regular enemies). Of course, this might be a case of "For the sake of not taking a million years to make progress during this demo we're lowering the difficulty/buffing up the main heroes" syndrome that Capcom does when they let people demo most Monster Hunter games. The only major thing I want from this game is for them to show off some new areas, since as far as I'm aware the only area they've shown was a fairly generic looking forest region. Unless I am mistaken, and I'd love to be proven wrong. But still, it WOULD be nice to see some different areas, like a desert region or a snowy mountain. And the characters I mentioned that I really want in the game to some capacity.



Actually, one LAST, last thing I need to get off my chest. I am hoping beyond hope that the dialogue/voice acting from the "Twist of Fate" trailer wasn't from the final build of the game. Because it was pretty mediocre. I mean, Xander, Ryoma, Leo, Marth, and Robin sound great, but seriously, why is Hinoka's voice so unbearingly annoying!? And if that's her canon voice from Fire Emblem Fates, just... Why!? She sounds like a stereotypical American trying to do an English dub for a low-budget cartoon!!!

Long story short, Donnel, Anna, or Henry have to be in Fire Emblem Warriors to make me happy, there has to be more area variety to make me happy, the fact that Camilla has the most interesting moveset so far is causing me mixed feelings, why Tharja hasn't been announced at all is baffling to me, Hinoka's voice is pretty bad, but the game is shaping up for the better in my eyes. Now we got all of that out of the way, we'll have to wait until October for me to get my hands on the game before I can give a final review.

Minecraft Story Mode Season 2: Giant Consequences Review!

You know that review I did for Episode 1 of Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2? That one is one of my favorite blog posts ever. Took a while to make because there was so much lore and characters and gameplay and, well, story to go over but it was fun writing that blog post. So you know what I'm gonna do? I'm writing about Episode 2 of Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2. Why? Because even though the core game mechanics remain the same, each episode of a Season of literally any Telltale game counts as a whole game by itself. For the sake of being courteous, I will try my hardest not to spoil the events of the previous episode. But my advice? Either read the review of the previous review for context or, you know, buy the game itself. It should only cost you $5. And then another $5 because this is an episodic game, meaning the game is divided into episodes drip fed throughout the year, with each episode being around $5. Or your country's equivalent of $5 in case you don't live in the US. Or not. Your choice.



I will go ahead and assume you have read/played Episode 1 from this point onwards, so if you have not, beware of spoilers. This episode, titled Giant Consequences, picks up immediately where the previous one left off. After main hero Jesse and his/her (as per usual, Jesse's gender is up to you to decide) Friends return from their latest adventure and first ever run in with the Admin (the primary antagonist for this season), they inadvertently unleash the Admin's Wrath right in the heart of Beacon Town in the form of a Godzilla-sized Prismarine Colossus.



Which leads to an exciting, but surprisingly short David-vs-Goliath style showdown between Jesse and Friends and the Admin's Colossus. And while most of it was a quick-time event, it was still exciting and fun. And I know some folks will be annoyed by the heavy reliance of quick-time events in this series but I never had a problem with quick-time events, at least Minecraft Story Mode's quick-time events. But still, the fact that Jesse and friends managed to take down the Admin's Colossus in just under 15 minutes is rather impressive, especially when one realizes that the Admin is for all intents and purposes, a literal god.



But that victory was short-lived. Literally everything up to this point was only an elaborate test to see if Jesse or any of his/her friends have what it takes to ascend to godhood and join the Admin as his partner in metaphysical crime. After being defeated rather swiftly as a Colossus, the Admin takes the form of a British snowman (pictured above!), mostly to mess with Jesse and Friends. It's at this point he gives Jesse and Friends one more challenge and the main objective for this episode. Using a magic clock, the Admin traps Beacon Town in a never ending plague of nighttime and snowstorms. Said clock is hidden inside a giant fortress of ice and snow. The Admin's challenge here is that Jesse and Friends must find a way to track down the Ice fortress, retrieve the clock, and use it to save Beacon Town from what the Admin likes to call, "A diamond-class wave of death and destruction".



So Jesse and his/her friends set off on another adventure to complete the Admin's challenge and (hopefully) put a stop to him for good. Oh, and they (reluctantly) bring along Stella, mostly because her sense of grandeur and irrational obsession with becoming Jesse's rival would probably get her killed if our heroes don't keep an eye or two on her. Oh, and her Joker Syndrome for Jesse is turned up to eleven, to the point where she comes across more as a lovestruck stalker (even if you're playing as Female!Jesse) than as a wannabe-rival. Anyway, two more new characters (Radar and Vos) join the team. Well, I say they are NEW characters, but they both made minor appearances in the previous episode. Radar, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (one of my personal favorite voice actors ever!), is literally Jesse's secretary. Amidst all the action and drama, it's easy to forget that Jesse still has his/her responsibilities as a glorified mayor to deal with. Anyway, Radar is a surprisingly likable character because of his shy and timid nature (and the fact he's voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) combined with his desire to prove himself make him compelling and somewhat relatable. Vos, on the other hand, is an old friend of Jack the Chuck Norris-esque adventurer-turned-tour guide. Vos was rescued by Jesse and Friends during the events of the previous episode, but he doesn't appear all that grateful, making off-handed stealth insults to Radar and Lukas (THE NERVE!!!) and repeatedly encouraging the rest of the gang to leave Lukas and Radar behind. Of course, there's a reason for Vos's negativity, but I won't spoil it here. And last but definitely not least, fan favorite Lukas is returning. Instant awesome points.



My first praise goes to the Admin himself. My favorite kind of villains are the ones who are so charismatic and entertaining to watch, that you can't help but love to hate them. He behaves like some kind of unholy lovechild of the Q from Star Trek: Next Generation and DC Comics' the Joker. He manages to be charming, threatening, and actually kind of cool (geddit?) all at the same time. He also delivers some really memorable lines throughout both this episode and the one before (and probably the one after), and regularly switches from speaking in formal/regal, grammatically correct English befitting a god, and using almost Valley Girl levels of modern slang.



Anyway, this episode in particular has a rather obvious winter theme. And it's rather funny, because I remember speculating (read: creating a mental wishlist) of things we might see (read: Things I personally want to see) this season shortly after it was announced and one of the first things that came to my mind was a icy/snowy location (the other things being a nod to *Orespawn, some kind of outer space adventure, and Jesse and Friends poking fun at some of the MANY games that have taken inspiration from Minecraft like Terraria or Roblox).


I'm not sure if Male!Jesse's left glove is supposed to
look like a fingerless glove or if the texture is glitched
in this picture, but at least the rest of the outfit looks cool.

This episode's gameplay and presentation is almost identical to the previous episode, but that's to be expected. You still have to choose branching dialogue, make moral choices that permanently alter the story (how drastic the alteration is depends on the choice you made), perform Quick Time Events when things start getting hectic, solve puzzles in a classic Point-and-Click Adventure style, and engage in 1v1 (sometimes 1v3) sword-based combat. Later on you can play two minigames while inside the Admin's fortress, the first being a Minecraft themed escape room and the second being a Duck Hunt style shoot-em-up. I like both of these minigames (and the boss battles that follow after them!), as they break up the tried and true formula and breathe some new life into the franchise.



As for the presentation, the set pieces are rather impressive, and the music is also top-NOTCH (geddit? Because the creator of Minecraft is frequently called Notch!), namely the song that plays when you first encounter Stella (due to how whimsical and lighthearted it is). and the main theme, which sounds like a wordless, slower, more serene version of the main theme from The Lion King. In fact, most of this episode's soundtrack has a near universal serenity to it. Which is fitting, given the notable winter theme this episode runs with. And if you played the original Minecraft, you know that the Snow Biomes (such as Snow Forest and Snow Mountain) are arguably the most peaceful and serene areas in the game. Giant Consequences also introduces some rather creative creatures to test Jesse and Friends while they are inside the fortress, all of which have designs so well made, that you wish they were in Minecraft proper. And as per usual, the voice acting is spot on, although admittedly there are plenty of lines that I feel Female!Jesse delivered better than Male!Jesse (and vice versa).



I thoroughly enjoyed Giant Consequences. It gave us a proper introduction to Minecraft Story Mode's best villain yet, and I love the winter theme throughout the episode. It also had some nice surprises that I honestly didn't see coming on my first playthrough and a cliffhanger ending so shocking it left me speechless. It also gave me a bit of jumpscare thanks to a post credit scene teasing the premise of the next episode. That said, it was rather short, even by Minecraft Story Mode standards (most episodes are about 3-4 hours long, this episode was about 1.5-2 hours long). I give Minecraft Story Mode Season 2: Giant Consequences an 8/10.

*- Orespawn is a popular and rather well-known fan made mod for the PC version of Minecraft that, when installed, adds dozens of enemies, blocks, biomes, weapons, armor, bosses, and dungeon types that are not currently in Minecraft officially. An argument can be made that most of Orespawn's content deserves to be in the official version of Minecraft, especially since this mod, among other things, is the primary reason why the majority of players prefer the PC version (I prefer the PS4 version myself, mostly because I find using a keyboard and mouse for gaming to be rather awkward and clumsy). Here's hoping that one of the perks of the Better Together Update planned for Minecraft proper makes it so home console folks like me have access to this mod. At which point some folks will (hopefully) migrate to home consoles.