Recently Played This Title, and it Made Me Wonder...

How did Monster Hunter ever get popular in America? 

Monster Hunter 1 seems to be something you would play for one of two reasons:
1. Nostalgia
2. To see where the series began

It isn't so much that I hate the game. I think it's neat (though I do prefer Monster Hunter Freedom for a first generation Monster Hunter title.) It just seems to be full of silly little mistakes. 

I was watching my sweet-heart play, and it took him until the third star rank in the village before he even had the money to make an armor. Which brings up my first observation that I don't understand about MH1.

Why is the amount of zenny you can get from one mission so low? All of the one star quests only give you 50 zenny. (And don't bring up the "they're just the tutorial" thing, or the fact that the village elder gives you the typical 1500 zenny thing... Unlike in most other Monster Hunters after this one, 1500 doesn't really do anything for you.)

Then there's the fact that you're armorless from the start, and you're forced to use the Sword and Shield weapon. It's too expensive - more because of armor prices (whether crafted or bought) - to just go and buy a different weapon to start with. 

Then there's the item stacks in the box. Why did they top off at the max you could carry with you on missions? That, and there was next to no space in your item box. It discourages gathering to stock up on supplies like any true hunter would. (At least, that's what I do with my farm and gathering quests.)

Then they only give you two pages for items? This wouldn't baffle me so much if I thought that maybe, just maybe, they would give you a gunner pouch, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't implemented until Monster Hunter Tri.

I guess I'm just baffled by all of the things that didn't seem to be very well thought out that went into the game. The fact that they fixed most of that with Monster Hunter Freedom just emphasizes more that these things were mistakes. 

In Freedom you're given multiple weapons in your box to choose from to use, you have a farm, and they added in two new sharpness levels. They also cut the prices of armors and weapons when crafting or buying them so that you can actually afford some of these things, as well as increasing the zenny reward for numerous missions. 

So, how did Monster Hunter take off if Monster Hunter 1 was, seemingly, such a flop?

I'll still play the game because it still feels like Monster Hunter. I still enjoy it because it's interesting to see where the game series started, but I don't think I'll ever get over some of the things that they did so...wrong. 

What are your thoughts and feelings on this matter? Do you think that these were mistakes, too?

It wasn't a flop, you're looking at it through retrospect / hindsight. At the time it was amazing for those of us who like these kind of games, and not to mention challenging.

I guess it's more that I started out with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd... I'm a little biased about how the game "should be."

Then again, my fiance didn't like Monster Hunter until Freedom Unite. He said the original Monster Hunter was too challenging and whatnot. 

I guess it just strikes me as odd that they would add so much content to Freedom. The sharpness, extra weapons, food skills, etc.

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I guess it's more that I started out with Monster Hunter Portable 3rd... I'm a little biased about how the game "should be."

Then again, my fiance didn't like Monster Hunter until Freedom Unite. He said the original Monster Hunter was too challenging and whatnot. 

I guess it just strikes me as odd that they would add so much content to Freedom. The sharpness, extra weapons, food skills, etc.

The original was challenging but it was still fun. And you should have started on Unite instead of P3rd (at least I think so), it was challenging as hell but had so much to offer.

Lol I started with the original and I think in a way it left me with a thirst for extreme difficulty that only unite has somewhat quenched.  I still want more but with third gen I am somewhat disappointed in how easy the games were.

The things that really confused me was the fact that in the first game, you don't get to hunts until late three stars. That is why I quit when I first played, someone let me borrow it. I played through the first few stars and by the time I got to the deliver wyvern eggs quest, it pissed me off. At the time, I had no clue that I could kill monsters and they would stop spawning eventually. I didn't think about paintballing the Rathalos so I could see where it was going. I didn't really even know what I was doing. So with the fact that I didn't hunt anything, it was too difficult, boring as hell since I didn't get to fight anything, and the fact that you needed internet just turned me away. I'm glad though that I got a PSP because some friends of mine had Freedom 2. I bought it because they wouldn't stop pestering me. I caved and once I played with friends I loved it. Though the first one will still confuse me. I know it was good for it's time, but I still didn't like it then. And I've always been a a guy who likes a challenge. To each his own I guess.

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The original was challenging but it was still fun. And you should have started on Unite instead of P3rd (at least I think so), it was challenging as hell but had so much to offer.

I'm not bothered by the level of difficulty. I'm just a little bewildered by why they left out levels of sharpness, a farm, and drastically limited the amount of resources you could keep in your house and on you. I really didn't like you needing to have space in your inventory to take rewards... 

And, I started with MHP3rd because I wanted to use Switch Axe and still be able to play with my fiance as he taught me the ropes. 

A few hundred hours of playing various Monster Hunters later - MHFU, Tri, MHP3rd, MHTU - and I'm finally able to actually pull myself away from Switch Axe and find a weapon I really liked besides it. I used Great Sword in MHFU, but I didn't actually get into it until I was High Rank in Tri Ultimate because, by then, I had found out that I actually liked Sword and Shield. So...who knew? 

I don't have much problem dealing with the challenge. Just some things struck me wrong, I guess. I'm not saying I don't like Monster Hunter 1 or Monster Hunter Freedom... They're fine in their own respects. I'm just confused about why they put so much into Freedom that wasn't in 1. I guess I just can't help but think "Why didn't you just put those things in in the first place?"

The UMD of the Sony PSP can contain 900 mb to 1.8 gb, and the ps2 from 700 mb, to 4.7 gb, so it may be because they used an older CD

Another possible reason is that it was originaly going to be an indie game, not a series. Fame can do that.

Also, MHF1 is a psp port of Monster hunter G, an expansion of MH released in Japan around a year after MH, so its a ps2 version of MHF1.

Plus, There is nearly a 2 year difference in their release dates. A lot happens in 2 years.

The only major difference between the two is the farm, new subspecies, g-rank, feline chefs, and a few other trivial things.

In reality, you cant compare MHF1 with the original MH, Because all those things were put in MHG before MHF1.

Release dates
Monster Hunter: March. 11/04
Monster Hunter G: January. 20/05
Monster Hunter Freedom: December. 01/05

All research done on the Monster Hunter Wiki. And the Interwebs.

So I hope that answered your question.

I, myself started on Monster Hunter Freedom, And boy, what a good game. Then I got MHFU, and that's my favorite game of all except I had to solo the game -_-, then of course, I got tri, I mean, who didn't, but by then I noticed that the game was getting easier. I didn't bother getting Mh3u because A: don't have a 3ds or Wii u, B: you start off with 50 armor, I mean honestly, way to take the fun out of the game, and C: MH4 will be out in 2 years, and my prediction is that it will be the Greatest Monster hunter game for a while to come.

Hoo boy, that was a long post, spent 3 hours researching xP

I think you're the only one who did any research instead of just putting only your opinion into the post. 

I knew the game was rather under the radar, but I didn't realize it was more of an Indie title. I always thought it was kind of a popular concept in Japan. 

I'm pretty excited for MH4, too...

I started on unite but didn't really get into the series until tri, but playing the old games can be fun.