Reading Report: 04 October 2026

モンスターハンターポータブル　２ｎｄ　Ｇ

モンスターハンター

This week was almost exclusively Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. I was feeling close to the end of village high rank and thought I might be able to push to the end of it, but ended up hitting some road blocks and moved onto clearing through hub low rank instead. This week involved getting the capacity to take screenshots on my ps vita (normally psp games are blocked but certain custom software can disable the blocks), grinding out a full ゲリョス∪ armour set, and upgrading the リオレウス Sword and Shield to its high rank maximum, requiring quite a few リオレイア希少種 parts.

Grinding out ゲリョス亜種 and リオレイア希少種 felt like pure monster hunter the way I love it. Just clearing out every quest once is one thing, but there's something fun about coming up with a routine and hunting the same monster repeatedly. I guess it's the most obvious time while playing where you really notice your play adapt to the monster behaviour. リオレイア希少種 has a really nasty tail spin follow-up after her triple fireball attack, and I realised after a while it was a lot easier to punish and get out of the way if I attacked her left leg during that combo. Luck was on my side and I ended up getting a handful of rare drops as well. Something I'm still struggling with, especially as I upgrade more high rank weapons to their max level, is constantly being poor. On one hand I know selling monster parts is the best way to supplement my income, but I wonder which monster yields the best parts for the work. I guess the answer depends on so many factors, not least of all being the one I'm most comfortable hunting repeatedly with little risk. I think part of my hesitation is this feeling like I want the monster to provide something more than just zenny value. So maybe I should hunt フルフル to get extracts in addition to valuable parts...

Speaking of フルフル, I wonder if this is a sort of stockholm thing, or if I'm just seeing the light of old gen more and more, but I've really started to appreciate the design of the first- and second-gen monsters, especially フルフル and ゲリョス. Even though they're both real freaks, I think there's something to appreciate about a monster designed to just be a freaky guy.

モンスターハンターストーリーズ２　破滅の翼

This week I finished up the story in the ロロスカ地方 and am now starting my adventure in the ラムル地方. ロロスカ地方 involved some more chores, hunting a トビカガチ and フルフル, and then we finally approached the glowing chasm of the area, fighting a double battle against アルセルタス and ゲネル・セルタス. At one point their combined form was described as 合体, fairly standard but evocative of the mecha influence from which the pair were derived, and their combination was also described as 雌雄一対（しゆういっつい）, a more scientific-sounding description, and it makes me think of like those bugs that fuse butts. After defeating the pair we finally met デデ爺さん, a quirky wyverian living in a natural hotsprings at the peak of a snowy mountain. He refuses to unseal レウス, saying that we have to come up with the answer ourselves if we want to help レウス. A name was given to the chasm-enhanced monsters -- 凶光化（きょうこうか）-- and アユリア noticed that while normal monsters are susceptible to this effect, オトモン (Monsties in English, I think) can resist the effect. All of this comes together when we investigate a second chasm on the same mountain and start fighting a 凶光化レイギエナ. About halfway through the fight, レウス responds to the effect and unleashes his wings (his 破滅の翼), going berserk and chasing after the レイギエナ by himself. We're able to temper him, but it demonstrates that he's sort of related to the current 凶光化 phenomenon, and maybe a strong 絆 between ourselves and him could help "purify/resist" the affliction. Then, just as we're feeling relieved about the state of things, we got blindsided by a bunch of hunters who capture レウス and drag us to the hunter capital, ルルシオン, in ラムル地方. We have some allies on the inside who want to help us help レウス if they can, but if he's a threat there's little they can do. So... yadda yadda yadda, it's back to odd jobs with a new companion, リヴェルト. Again it's been like 10 years since I played Stories 1, but I think リヴェルト (our new companion, a hunter who fights without a monster) and リリア (the official who wants to help us but can't right now) are returning characters from that game. リヴェルト is pretty cool. He uses the Golem Great Sword, an iconic bone sword that pairs well with his brutal fighting style. I've just barely stepped into the new area, but so far ラムル地方 is the nicest looking area, looking a bit sunburnt without being a generic desert (so far, I believe I have yet to find the proper desert part). My first fight was against a ダイミョウザザミ亜種, and it was very nice to have monsters deal decent damage again. Maybe instead of grinding out new オトモン I'll just move quickly through the area to try to maintain the difficulty curve for as long as possible.

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日ももっと！逆鱗日和

A fairly standard week of reading. Based on my pace I should be done with the book and started on something new by next report. Essays early in the week wrote about Kadoman's experience with the arena/training quests, an element of Monster Hunter that he's ignored almost completely up to this point. He starts by saying it's a great way to practice monsters he's unfamiliar with, and a low cost way to practice weapons. He talks about his experience trying some unfamiliar weapons against monsters in the arena, but then ends by talking about how the イャンガルルガ refused to be defeated by any weapons. I think the most interesting part about this is that he described ガルルガ as a 壁 (literally, a wall). Walls are a phenomenon we talk about in English speaking communities as well (not just for Monhun but also for other games). Just another cute overlap in vocabulary.

In another of his "A gunlancer speaks on X weapon", he writes about Portable 2nd's Light Bowgun. He basically describes it as effective but auraless. Maybe his personal identity is just so rooted in gunlance use, but I couldn't help but recall that his main weapon for a lot of MH1 was the bowgun, and he should put some more respect on it! (lol). He also wrote a short essay about the high number of female hunters he plays with. He supposes some reasons the game might appeal to both a male demographic and a female demographic, and honestly I find stuff like that a bit reductive, but at the end he also comments on how he noticed most female hunters play with the in-your-face weapon types, like dual blades, hammer, and long sword; and most men he plays with (himself included) prefer hiding behind a big shield. I hunted in a fairly dedicated group for a while early on in my hunting career and my group was three women (including myself) and one man. I'm not sure my experience matches Kadoman's, but his observation didn't feel totally inaccurate, either.

Kadoman writes about how happy he was to see the Silver Rathalos (リオレウス希少種) gunlance has a dragon element. He says in MH2 barely any gunlances have element and that sort of disappointed him, but in Portable 2nd a lot of elemental gunlances were added, or element was added to existing gunlances. I checked a resource to confirm this, and it's true. In MH2 the amount of gunlances with element or status could be counted on one hand, with the majority being raw-only. I wonder if this decision was made because gunlance already has design factors like shell type, and innate fire element in the shells. Anyway, I'm grateful for the change as well.

Finally, he writes about the hardest quests to clear, not for their difficult monsters but for their monotony. He says quests like "slay 15 blango" are so boring he can barely stand to start them, and for that reason they'll probably be the last quests he ever clears, if he clears them at all. I'm currently up to the final essay about Portable 2nd, and the rest of the book is some supplemental stuff, plus one essay about the Portable 2nd G demo (I think...).