Reading Report: 18 October 2026

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日もニャンと！逆鱗日和

モンスターハンター

A fairly productive week digging through uncleared high rank quests. I completed the village ラージャン (my first 2nd gen ラージャン ever) quest and the twin-metal Raths quest as well as a few 大連続狩猟 and after all that I was presented the final story hunt against アカムトルム (also my first of this species in 2nd gen). I used my dragon bow and Gold Rath set and started the 45-minute endurance hunt. I wasn't sure if it would end, and I was afraid of timing out, but when I saw him start to limp I felt a huge relief. Overall アカムトルム was not too hard, but it required fairly precise positioning and I was trampled by his charge several times. After defeating him I was awarded the credits of the game and the gratitude of the village.

So what was next? Basically the only pending village quest was the broken-horn ディアブロス, a buffed fight with near-G級 stats. I planned meticulously for the hunt, filling every item slot with coatings, bombs, traps, and more. However, despite my best efforts, the hunt went almost to 50 minutes and then the ディアブロス decided to end the hunt promptly by carting me three times in the last five minutes. Something about that hunt took the wind out of my sails a bit, and I decided I might just take a pause on Monster Hunter on the high of getting to the credits. It's disappointing to still not access several of the G級 subspecies or the unique elderdragon ヤマツカミ, but I think playing more would feel forced. So this will possibly be my last hunt report for a little while. We'll see how it all goes.

モンスターハンターストーリーズ２　破滅の翼

I pursued the imprisoned レウス and eventually climbed an abandoned tower, fighting through several ディアブロス and other tough monsters to get to him. At the peak of the tower we see him and エナ being loaded onto an airship, but we risk our own life to chase him down and our devotion awakens his bond with us, allowing him to finally open his wings, and he swoops down and saves us. Now flight is enabled. Also カイル, the hunter boy who has been antagonising us through the story, was basically betrayed by his hunter team when they handed レウス off to some mysterious, evil looking riders, and it's very clear that he's ready to have a change of heart soon.

『モンスターハンター』プレイ日記 本日もニャンと！逆鱗日和

It's the start of yet an other Play Journal by Otsuka Kadoman. This time the title has ニャンと included, referencing the fact that MHP2G is the first game where you can hunt with a felyne companion. This book is entirely focused on MHP2G and starts with a dilemma. P2G has a file transfer system and you can basically start it from a completed P2nd save to jump right into the new G級 quests. But Kadoman is addict and wants to have the chance to start it all again from the start (I don't blame him, I like early-game Monster Hunter too), so that's what he does. My only criticism is that he decides to be a gunlance main again, like he had this perfect chance for a fresh start and decided he wants to make all the same weapons and armour again... Anyway.

The bulk of essays were a few hunt reports. The first was a three-player hunt where he and two friends tried to beat a low rank ティガレックス. Despite their best efforts and decent gear, they fail the quest over and over, losing spirit as they go further. They bring countless traps, flash bombs, and other supplemental items, but they still fail. The second essay starts with Kadoman saying that フルフル is an easy match-up against gunlance. He then shares examples of when he was hunting with 中目黒目黒 (I honestly don't know how this is read except that he calls this friend メグロさん (Meguro-san) once so that's basically how I read the whole name afterwards) and how effortless it was, clearing the hunt in under 5 minutes at times. However, the desire sensor refused to give Meguro the 電撃袋 he needed and he eventually got frustrated. As a change of pace, Meguro suggests that Kadoman and he should race to see who can hunt フルフル fastest. Kadoman is really confident about it, of course, reflecting on the great match-up, and he agrees. However the hunt doesn't go to plan and フルフル manages to get several strong, unblockable attacks off, causing Kadoman to fail his quest. Thankfully (maybe?) Meguro's フルフル does the same to him and both hunters fail at roughly the same time. The two of them decide that maybe フルフル is just easier when you have a few hunters to keep it distracted.

The final essay I read was about Kadoman discovering the new 黄の種 (yellow seed) item in the shop. He planted it and harvested the new material, オオモロコシ. That material, as it turns out, can be crafted into a new gunlance, the 砲モロコシ (which I mentioned in a Monhun Stories 2 report a few weeks ago because I like it too!). Getting a brand new gimmick gunlance overjoyed Kadoman and he wrote about how fun it was to play with.

ダンダダン

Momo's amnesia arc begins. I love how sentimental Okarun is about her not remembering him, and how they manage to bond by the end of the volume anyway. Despite being such a slow-burn relationship, and something that's actively been put on pause sort of, it's so well done. Not much else to the volume honestly, just Momo x Okarun content and a fight against a Mummy.

ドラゴンクエストＩＶ導かれし者たち

I decided to resume this game after pausing it in (checks reading reports...) January! I finally finished アリーナ's chapter, saving the princess モニカ from betrothal to デスピサロ, a mysterious warrior who had defeated everyone in the tournament at エンドール. Then I did chapter 3, starring トルネコ, which was surprisingly quick. Maybe my item luck was just good but I managed to get loaded fairly fast. I prevented war between ボンモール and エンドール (the same one from chapter 2) by convincing both kings that their children were in love. This was foreshadowed by a note found in a bookshelf in エンドール in chapter 2 written to モニカ from an unnamed person who turns out to be リック from ボンモール. I liked that little touch as it made me feel like my snooping was rewarded. After saving 35,000g to buy our own shop in エンドール, トルネコ and his wife and child (mostly トルネコ to be honest) rounded up enough stuff to make another 60,000g to fund the underground tunnel to an eastern continent where トルネコ expects to find a legendary blade. And thus ends chapter 3. Chapter 4 features ミネア and マーニャ, the sisters seeking revenge for their father's death. Their father, エドガン, was a legendary 錬金術師 (alchemist) studying the 進化の秘法 (Secret of Evolution). However, his student, バルザック, killed エドガン in order to seek the power for himself. When you beat バルザック he's described as 不覚をとった (new vocab learned) by the real threat, キングレオ. キングレオ handily defeats the party and ミネア and マーニャ are forced to flee, seeking more powerful allies until they can return to properly defeat キングレオ. And so ends chapter 4.
One of the things I really like in DQIV (and most DQ games) is the incidental character stories that are often tragic. During chapter 4 we had to enter the mines of a town called アッテムト, a place which has become cursed with a hazardous miasma and enemies emerging from the mine. Just outside the mine in a pool of poison you can check a skeleton. 9 out of 10 skeletons have a canned, "It doesn't response, it's just a dead body" dialogue, but this one has a note on it which mentions a character called ピピン. Over to the east in the inn you can find a pair of siblings called ルナ and ピピン who have sailed here from エンドール (or at least the continent around there) to meet their father who is a miner in アッテムト. By the time the story wraps up and ミネア and マーニャ are fleeing the southern continent to seek the hero, they have to board a ship heading north. There you find ルナ and ピピン again, also sailing north. Through subtle writing you can see that ルナ discovered what happened to their father and is now protecting ピピン from the truth, and ピピン is confused why they're going home after coming all this way without seeing their father. It's a story thread that adds depth to the world without insisting upon itself. Seeing that storyline through is completely optional but very rewarding for someone paying attention, and I like that it doesn't offer a happy resolution. It's great writing that makes me want to save the world.

Chapter 5, the titular 導かれし者たち, finally opens with the main character, るびい (of course she's me), spared death by the self-sacrifice of an entire town of people who believe in the higher purpose of our fate. After the town's razing we're basically left without a clear goal or information beyond "find allies", which I think is great. All the other chapters open with a clear goal, small(ish) goal, and that makes sense because the characters all have a lot of agency. The hero was raised in a sheltered village, not told of her fate until the last minute by people rushing her into shelter. It feels a bit like escaping the Asylum in Dark Souls, looking for fragments of civilisation to get a clue about who or what comes next. Though I will say, you get access to エンドール fairly quickly and once you meet ミネア (and マーニャ), she does a fine job telling you exactly where she wants you to go. So we started on our way down the desert in search of トルネコ who we've heard may have gotten his hands on a ship.