New PSP Monster Hunter for Europe

By Robert Purchese Published 9 October, 2008

The one that's winning Japan.

Capcom finally plans on bringing phenomenally successful PSP game Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G to Europe.

The game's due to arrive here in the spring, and under the new name of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

The obvious hope will be recreating the Monster Hunter sales story from Japan, where 2nd G has shipped over 2.4 million copies since the beginning of the year.

This has helped the PSP become the best selling platform in Japan of 2008.

The idea in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is to find a beast and then kill it, all in an action RPG manner. There's more than 500 hours of this, and thousands of items of loot on offer.

But the real draw comes from Wi-Fi multiplayer, where groups of four can venture out and tackle the biggest bosses on offer.

This feature has been received so well in Japan that MHFU will be the first PSP game to use the new ad-hoc online multiplayer via PS3 service, which launches over there on 30th October.

The thing is, previous Monster Hunter games have always struggled over here, despite decent reviews. Perhaps we're just not sociable enough.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Widge #1 4 years ago

    They don't succeed because they're so bland!

  • locus2k1 #2 4 years ago

    ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME!!!!!

    *sigh*

  • drumbaby #3 4 years ago

    Fuck yeah! Now do the decent thing and make a proper HD sequel, Cappers, not this frigging Wii shit.

  • locus2k1 #4 4 years ago

    im looking forward to MH3, sorry drumbaby :D

  • drumbaby #5 4 years ago

    That's probably because you have, or are planning to have a Wii. Neither of those apply to me. :)

    I just want Capcom to stop this 'all titles are now multiplatform' charade, because clearly it's BS.

  • Aysir #6 4 years ago

    I'm with drumbaby on this. The Wii version is just like releasing another PS2 version - apart from new terrain (underwater) it's not gonna do anything that the PSP can't. A proper PS3/360 version would have been far more interesting.

  • mingster #7 4 years ago

    It will be too difficult for wii owners as well.
    It will only sell on the wii in Japan no way casual gamers can manage this.

  • ruttyboy #8 4 years ago

    As I understand it they didn't suceed because there was no way you could play them (officially) over the internet, only locally, whereas in Japan you can. This reduced them to effectively a single player MMORPG without any real story element.

  • Arwin #9 4 years ago

    Decent reviews? Reviews here have been rather bad, across the board! From the reviews I've always considered this game to be rather bad. In fact, with 6/10, Eurogamer's is a bit higher ...
    Edited by Arwin at 09/10/08 @ 13:33

  • Goffee #10 4 years ago

    The question is, how many reviewers played it - in multiplayer - properly - that seems to be the kicker and one which most westerners never get to enjoy.

    I think the Wii version will be fun as long as the MP is done properly

  • penhalion #11 4 years ago

    I liked the first monster hunter until about half way through, when the cat people were introduced. After that I hadn't a clue what was supposed to be happening.

  • Dafridge #12 4 years ago

    Monster Hunter is a game that will appeal to eastern gamers and hence reveiwers here won't like it.
    its addictive in the same way that WoW is addictive.

  • locus2k1 #13 4 years ago

    aye ive put in about 700 hours in total on MH 1 & 2 :D
    Edited by locus2k1 at 09/10/08 @ 14:23

  • Triggerhappytel #14 4 years ago

    "As I understand it they didn't suceed because there was no way you could play them (officially) over the internet, only locally, whereas in Japan you can. This reduced them to effectively a single player MMORPG without any real story element."

    Didn't stop FFXII selling millions of copies!

    ;)

  • Dafridge #15 4 years ago

    x-link kai has previously been an option but Sony announced today that psp can link to internet to play multiplayer through PS3's. Service will go live in Jp end of month. Hopefully it will be functioning here when MH2G is released here.

    I still haven't got to rank 5 on elder quests. The game is huge and gives awesome value for money.

  • Fodder #16 4 years ago

    "As I understand it they didn't suceed because there was no way you could play them (officially) over the internet, only locally, whereas in Japan you can."

    No, the Japanese PSP versions are local multiplayer only too.

  • mingster #17 4 years ago

    You can't say its a badgame it s actually really really good and well made and has enormous replay and value for money.
    Moreso than most games.
    The reason it got rubbish review scores is its too hard and no way a reviewer can get a good idea of the game by playing it for less than 20+hours.
    After that you start to finally get some weapons and armour that allow you to actually start to feel slightly tough.
    Before the 20 hour mark you are a pathetic wimp that can only beat up basic herbivores. That don't fight back.
    The extremely good extra free downloadable content was a bonus as well this added 25+ hours to the game and was free.
    more than some games give you altogether.

  • HermitArcader #18 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011