is an

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developed and published by

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for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

. The first handheld installment in the ''

Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game ''Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms, ...

'' franchise, the game is an enhanced port of '' Monster Hunter G'', rebalanced to allow for easier solo quest completion and game progression.

Gameplay

Just like its predecessors, ''

'' and ''Monster Hunter G'', this game revolves around the player completing quests and gathering materials to upgrade their equipment in order to advance. The more rare the items and equipment, the stronger the main physical aspects of the character will be. Unlike other hack 'n' slash games, this game requires planning and skill in order to overcome large monsters instead of brute force. There are many weapons which the hunter can use to bring down the monsters, these are Sword and Shield, Great Swords, Dual Blades, Hammers, Lances, Light Bowguns and Heavy Bowguns. Each requires a variety of items to create which are acquired by completing quests, and collecting the spoils carved from monsters or found on the ground.

Singleplayer

In this mode the player can do village elder quests, and enter the Offline Gathering Hall to do guild quests by themselves, and buy items to aid in the completion of the quest. The player can also tend to a farm to harvest useful items.

Multiplayer

If players enter the Online Gathering Hall they can go on quests with other players via the PSP's adhoc. They can exchange guild cards which keep track of the characters stats. They can also go on treasure hunting quests. While the characters are waiting for others to join their quests there is a table they can sit at. While sitting at the table, you can push the different directions on the directional arrows to perform various animations such as swinging their beer mug, or passing out from drunkenness. Players can also use third party software to connect with other players over the internet to play with each other wirelessly.

Classes

Hunter Ranks

There are a number of Hunter ranks, given numerical values from HR1 to HR5. As the player's Hunter rank increases, they will get access to more difficult monsters, and in turn more and better items and weapons.

G-Rank

G-Rank is a new addition to ''Monster Hunter Freedom''. These quests are taken straight from ''Monster Hunter G'', which was unreleased in the U.S and Europe, and present a much more difficult challenge for hunters. In return for this, hunters receive better rewards for completing the quest as well as access to some of the stronger variations of previously encountered monsters, known as "sub-species". There are also certain monsters that can only be encountered in this particular rank.

Reception

The game received "average reviews" according to video game

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Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

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'' gave it a score of two nines and two eights, for a total of 34 out of 40.

Notes

References

External links

Official ''Monster Hunter'' website
* {{Monster Hunter Series 2005 video games Action role-playing video games Monster Hunter Multiplayer online games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Role-playing video games Video game remakes Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Akihiko Narita Video games scored by Masato Kouda