0:02 most Hunter expansions are designed to
0:04 add to the base game they bring in new
0:06 content like Monsters locations as well
0:08 as new features quality of life
0:10 improvements that can really make the
0:11 entire game more pleasant to play
0:13 through as well as substantial gameplay
0:15 additions that affect the combat in a
0:18 major way for better or worse in this
0:20 video we will be discussing what is in
0:22 my opinion one of the worst gameplay
0:24 additions I am talking about most Hunter
0:26 world I spawns clutch claw and how it
0:37 [Music]
0:39 must answer combat tends to be pretty
0:42 grounded you have your weapon your items
0:44 your abilities and you have to use them
0:47 to take down large beasts in the first
0:48 three games the combat was like this
0:51 with each new entry providing new
0:52 attacks to every weapon to make them
0:55 more interesting to use most Hunter 4
0:57 introduced vertical elements into the
0:59 mix where Hunters could perform aerial
1:01 attacks and mount monsters
1:03 Generations at its core were used Force
1:05 combat but I did six hunting Styles
1:07 which dramatically changed the way you
1:09 approach the combat it also added
1:11 special attacks called Hunter Arts that
1:13 did a variety of different things
1:15 for Autumn that was my very first game
1:17 in the series and generations ultimate
1:20 was my second I like the combat of both
1:22 games but Generations felt like it was
1:24 too centralized on gimmicks they were a
1:26 lot of fun but I very much preferred
1:28 Thor's more grounded approach upon going
1:30 back and playing previous entries and
1:33 later fully replaying for ultimate I
1:34 decided that I liked its combat the most
1:36 out of any game it's slightly less
1:39 grounded than say Freedom Unite but I
1:40 feel like the vertical elements make the
1:42 fights feel much more Dynamic it still
1:45 feels realistic and very reliant on my
1:47 own weapons and abilities furthermore
1:49 this game added weapon types that I
1:51 really like and certain attacks to
1:52 existing weapons that I really enjoy
1:54 using most times the world was made
1:56 largely by the development team that
1:58 made for ultimate and as combat feels
2:00 like an evolution there are no hunting
2:02 Styles or arts in this game we still
2:04 have jump attacks we have new sliding
2:07 attacks overall the combat is still nice
2:09 and grounded without a Reliance on
2:11 special gimmicks yet it still has the
2:13 dynamic verticality sealing for ultimate
2:16 that adds many layers to each hunt it's
2:18 a great combat that is slightly let down
2:20 by a boring cast of Monsters
2:22 world does have one mechanic that I
2:24 would argue is kind of a gimmick a small
2:27 device called the Slinger you load it
2:28 with Special ammo and can fire it
2:31 causing different effects you can
2:33 distract monsters you can wash mud
2:35 offsets and monsters you can clear away
2:37 toxic effluvium you can load up your
2:39 flash Sonic and dunk bombs for easy
2:41 access you can even shoot certain parts
2:43 of the map and cause them to collapse
2:45 such as these crystals that fall and
2:47 deal heavy damage to wherever is under
2:49 them it's an alright mechanic but it's
2:50 not something I find myself using after
2:52 a while like near the beginning of the
2:54 game I'm like whoa I can make wrathian
2:56 walk over there that's so cool and then
2:57 it's something they never really use again
2:58 again
3:00 yes I can wash the mud off Barrel to do
3:02 extra damage or I can just hit him and
3:04 have the mud come off anyway it does not
3:06 help that only the sword and shield
3:08 could use it unshaved there's also
3:10 criticism to be made about how every
3:11 single armor piece has this ugly
3:13 appendage that often doesn't blend in or
3:15 fit very well
3:17 that being said prey should be given to
3:18 their Slinger as something that you
3:20 don't feel forced to use I can
3:22 completely ignore it and play a world
3:24 like it's for ultimate but people who
3:26 Master it have access to more options in
3:28 combat this is something that is very
3:31 important to keep in mind the Slinger
3:33 felt optional Generations various
3:35 hunting styles could be powerful but
3:37 those who wanted the standard combat
3:39 could just use Guild style and in some
3:41 cases have access to even more combat
3:43 options than the other styles making a
3:45 gimmick optional means that those who
3:46 dislike it can just ignore it and still
3:48 have a good time but those who like it
3:51 can reap additional benefits it's a very
3:52 difficult balancing act that world
3:54 achieved with the Slinger
3:57 so I spawn gets announced and they start
3:58 dropping information one of the things
4:00 they announced is that all the weapons
4:03 can use the Slinger unsheet hooray great
4:05 change then they announced a new edition
4:07 of clutch claw a new expansion of the
4:09 Slinger that allows you to grab once or
4:11 Monsters you can use this to either
4:13 weaken various body parts and make them
4:16 take more damage or you can latch onto
4:17 their head and unload all your Slinger
4:19 ammo into it causing the monster to go
4:22 careening into a wall it expands the use
4:24 of the Slinger greatly and is even
4:25 available for people in the base game
4:28 Who purchase iceborn let's cut to the
4:30 chase I think the clutch Claw is a
4:31 terrible addition that ruined the entire
4:33 game here's why [Music]
4:35 [Music] foreign
4:41 part of the monster you first have to
4:43 aim and press the right face button with
4:45 how fast the monsters move this can be
4:47 quite difficult especially when there's
4:49 a specific part in mind for example
4:51 sometimes I want to clutch onto
4:53 brachios's head and will end up on his
4:55 arm the aiming is also inconsistent
4:57 despite the reticle being locked onto
4:59 one part you'll clutch onto whatever the
5:01 floor makes contact with sometimes I'll
5:03 clutch onto a monster's head only for
5:05 them to suddenly turn around as I end up
5:07 on something I didn't intend to it's
5:09 quite clunky to use when you're clutched
5:11 onto a monster you will be thrown off
5:13 and take damage if they perform an
5:15 attack and with how fast I spawn
5:17 monsters move around and attack this can
5:19 be pretty common so until you find a
5:21 lengthy opening you'll be dealing less
5:23 damage than you could there's also some
5:25 real inconsistencies here if baryoth's
5:27 tail touches me during his hip check I
5:29 do not take any damage or get knocked
5:31 back but if I'm clutched onto his tail
5:33 it is if the full attack hit me and
5:35 there's a lot of cases where this happens
5:36 happens
5:37 so you have to be quick about
5:40 tenderizing and finding an opening to
5:42 perform your clutch claw attack each
5:43 weapon has their own unique attack at
5:45 varying lengths and if the monster
5:47 attacks during them you will be thrown
5:49 off light weapons like the long sword or
5:51 sword and shield or light bow gun have
5:54 quick animations while the charged blade
5:56 great sword and other heavy weapons are
5:58 slower the charge blade attack in
6:00 particular is annoying because you
6:02 always end up in ax mode and combined
6:03 with the speed of its clutch floor
6:05 attack it led to me never using the
6:07 weapon in this game this means that
6:09 light weapons have a clear Advantage
6:11 being able to quickly tenderize in and
6:13 out while the heavy weapon users are
6:15 stuck with lengthy animations that are
6:17 more easily interrupted there's a clear
6:19 imbalance here that the developers were
6:21 aware of and had a solution for light
6:23 weapons after clutch claw attack the
6:25 theme park twice while heavy weapons can
6:28 just do it once instead of say buffing
6:29 the heavy weapons to be less of a
6:31 disadvantage like giving them faster
6:34 animations they instead just Nerf the
6:36 light weapons with how fast these
6:38 monsters move finding multiple
6:40 opportunities in a short space of time
6:42 can be very difficult and with how
6:43 annoying it is to aim at apart
6:45 consistently it makes tenderizing really unfun
6:46 unfun
6:48 let's discuss another issue and that's
6:51 weapon integration some weapons have the
6:53 ability to combo into the clutch claw
6:55 right after attacks take the hammer for
6:58 instance after performing charge attacks
6:59 they can press the left trigger to
7:00 instantly clutch onto a monster
7:03 attacking while swinging in it's fun to
7:05 do and allows you more opportunities to
7:08 clutch the Lance has a particularly good
7:10 counter that combos into the clutch plot
7:12 and moves so good people missed it when
7:14 it was absent in the next game however
7:16 with weapons like the long sword there
7:18 are no clutch combo attacks you have to
7:20 manually stop and aim every time you
7:22 want to do it and there's no cool moves
7:24 to integrate into your combos which
7:25 makes finding opportunities rather
7:28 difficult it makes the clutch claw feel
7:30 like an afterthought I mentioned earlier
7:31 that it was annoying trying to find
7:33 Opportunities use to clutch onto a
7:36 monster without being thrown off but if
7:37 you use a temporal or Rock Steady
7:40 mantles this will not happen and you'll
7:42 be able to clutch and attack freely the
7:44 issue here is that both tours are only
7:46 available in world's post game so you
7:48 have to go back to the old content to
7:50 access them another problem is that
7:52 because the clutch Claw is so reliant on
7:55 them other tools are made irrelevant why
7:56 bring the elemental mantles or the
7:58 health booster when these two in
8:00 particular are so much more useful
8:03 so the designers were aware that clutch
8:05 flooring and attacking monsters could be
8:07 quite difficult and they did Implement a
8:08 mechanic to help us out
8:11 this is the clutch claw stagger or the
8:13 clagger as fans dubbed it monsters will
8:15 clogger into this position where they
8:17 face to the side allowing you to aim at
8:19 their parts fairly easily they hold this
8:21 position for several seconds and will
8:23 reset the timer if you clutch onto them
8:25 almost every monster in the game does
8:27 this and it completely breaks the flow
8:28 of combat
8:31 for starters the monster reels backwards
8:33 so far that any melee combo you are
8:34 doing wouldn't hit them so you have to
8:37 stop if you are performing a strong
8:39 multi-head attack and the first hit
8:41 claggers them then you've just wasted it
8:43 the monster is now so far away that you
8:44 either have the sheath and run up to
8:47 them wasting valuable time or clutch
8:48 onto them which is what the game wants
8:50 you to do
8:52 the fight completely halts just so the
8:55 game can go okay tenderize now base
8:57 world was also updated so that even if
8:58 you don't have high spawn and by
9:00 extension the clutch claw the monsters
9:03 will still do this it's a really jarring
9:05 addition for sure not to mention how
9:08 unnatural it looks so those are all the
9:10 major issues with the clutch claw and
9:11 I'm sure you're thinking at this point
9:13 if I don't like it then I shouldn't use
9:16 it and you would be right I wasn't too
9:18 big on the Slinger and I didn't really
9:19 use it but the clutch Claw is
9:22 implemented very differently in the next
9:24 chapter of the video I will explain how
9:25 I spawn actively punishes you for not
9:27 using it and how that ruins the whole game
9:35 now personally I didn't find World all
9:37 that difficult to be honest I thought
9:39 rise was more challenging the reason for
9:41 this was that wild monsters tend to die
9:44 really fast so iceborn comes along the
9:46 master rank expansion featuring much
9:48 higher difficulty they also introduced
9:50 the clutch claw which allows for you to
9:52 deal higher damage this could make the
9:55 game easier could it not let's do some
9:57 maths real quick the chaster stage
9:59 showed the health of certain monsters in
10:01 4 and 4 ultimate as well as rise in
10:03 sunbreak if you're wondering why Verizon
10:05 Sunbury costume absurdly High compared
10:07 to the other game is because we have
10:08 access to stronger and faster abilities
10:10 in that game so all that is taken into
10:12 account this is also only the solo
10:15 scaling for Ultimate Health pools are
10:16 also a generally lower than average but
10:19 are compensated by faster monster speeds
10:21 and higher attack power but some getting
10:22 off topic
10:24 if you divide the expansion Health by
10:26 the base game Health you can see that
10:29 sunbreak multiplied Rises Health by 2.4
10:31 and 4 ultimate multiplied its base game
10:34 by 1.8 resulting in the numbers you see
10:37 now rounding up and down respectively
10:39 thus roughly an increase of double the
10:41 health so let's look at World these
10:43 Health pools are pretty low across the
10:45 board and a kind of attribute well as
10:47 non-existent difficulty to them and if
10:50 we look at I spawns Health pools whoa a
10:51 pretty massive increase wouldn't you say
10:54 doing the math from earlier this is the
10:55 biggest increase of all being over
10:58 triple world's Health the reason for
11:00 such an increase is the clutch claw you
11:01 see it allows us to deal much more
11:03 damage to monsters and the developers
11:06 probably realized oh no the monsters
11:08 will die fast like they did in world so
11:10 they cranked up the monster's Health to
11:12 compensate not only this but they nerfed
11:14 monster hit zone so that they take even
11:16 less damage by this point I shall
11:18 probably mention the war Banks they deal
11:20 roughly two percent of the monsters
11:22 Total Health and damage they do massive
11:24 power heartbreak damage and they knock
11:26 down the monster on top of that it's
11:28 free damage everywhere you can only do
11:30 it when the monster is not enraged and
11:32 this means that if you play optimally
11:34 must have spent half the fight on the
11:35 floor and the other half absolutely Furious
11:37 Furious
11:38 do you see why they increase the health
11:41 so much now if you actively use the
11:43 clutch claw the way it's intended your
11:45 hunts will last normal lengths if you
11:47 refuse to use it though they can often
11:49 end up much longer you see the
11:50 tenderizing and the Damage felt through
11:53 wall Banks adds up and I find that hunts
11:55 can take over 25 minutes which was never
11:57 the case in the base game I want to
11:59 remind you all that world was clutch
12:01 claw free and you didn't have to use a
12:03 Slinger if you did it gave you an
12:06 advantage but not a huge one now you
12:08 basically have to use the clutch claw to
12:10 get the results you used to I should
12:12 also mention that the clutch Claw is
12:14 available to use in the base game and if
12:16 you do use it then it basically destroys
12:18 the monsters since they clearly weren't
12:20 designed with it in mind another problem
12:22 from this is that because the claw was
12:23 available in the world from the start
12:25 and breaks the game a little bit people
12:27 who start playing might get the
12:29 impression that like the Slinger it's a
12:30 neat little bonus that they can use
12:32 occasionally but overall they can get by
12:34 just fine without it and they would be
12:36 right but once they hit iceborn that's
12:38 tool becomes necessary in order to
12:40 achieve the same hunt times they could
12:43 in weld the entire game changes and
12:45 because the tool is horrible to use it's
12:47 for the worst the armor skill weakness
12:49 exploit was also nerfed so that a
12:51 monster part has to be tenderized for
12:53 you to receive the full effect this also
12:55 applies to the base game which punishes
12:58 people who didn't buy ice spawn I also
12:59 just hate the effect it has on the fight
13:02 when the monster isn't tenderized you
13:03 know that every single hit isn't as
13:05 damaging as it could be when the monster
13:07 goes down in every other game The
13:09 Natural Instinct would be to start
13:12 beating them up but in iceborn you will
13:14 look around for the tenderized parts and
13:15 if there were none you'd waste the
13:18 opportunity by tenderizing instead I'm
13:20 not a person who speeds runs or cares
13:21 about getting up to more damage I don't
13:24 even make mixed sets the fact of the
13:25 matter is that it's not fun to be aware
13:27 that you're not using your full
13:29 abilities to do maximum damage but on
13:31 the other hand using the mechanic isn't
13:33 really fun either and the worst part was
13:36 world's combat did not need fixing or
13:38 changing like this it was great and
13:40 probably my favorite combat in the
13:42 series since it's an evolution of 4
13:44 ultimate's Combat all the game needed
13:46 was higher difficulty and better
13:48 monsters which iceborn provided it
13:50 actually gave weapons some pretty cool
13:52 additions the universal ability to use
13:54 the Slinger and shift was good but some
13:57 weapons also got useful combos like the
13:58 great sword being able to skip to the
14:00 true charge slash by firing a Slinger
14:03 burst that stuff was cool and it was all
14:05 that was really needed iceborn then
14:07 proceeded to actually ruin the combat
14:09 with the claw and that honestly just
14:11 stings the game was so close to being
14:13 perfect for me and then they just messed
14:15 up forever you can't even play the best
14:17 game without being reminded of the claw
14:19 since musters still do the clagger it's
14:22 just permanently tarnished no other
14:24 Mustangs a game received such a huge
14:25 addition that completely changed the
14:28 combat like this with the expansion and
14:29 it actually made me worried for the
14:31 future my biggest hope for stun break
14:33 was not more monsters or more difficulty
14:37 no My Hope was that they wouldn't ruin a
14:39 perfectly good combat system with a
14:41 needless Edition again so I've discussed
14:43 why the clutch claw sucked and how it
14:45 ruined I spawn for me in the next
14:47 chapter of the video I am going to
14:49 discuss the wire bugs and how they
14:57 the wire bug is a movement and combat
14:59 tool introduced in most times arise it's
15:01 basically a grappling hook that lets you
15:03 swing from anything including the air
15:06 itself Hunters can also use wire bugs
15:08 for certain attacks Nuno silk binds
15:10 in general they're a huge parts of this
15:12 game so how do they avoid the problems
15:15 the clutch claw had while the wire bugs
15:16 are much better integrated into the
15:18 Hunter's move sets with three different
15:20 buttons the hunters can swing up
15:22 forwards or in any direction they desire
15:24 and once you get the hang of it
15:27 traversing the maps can be really fun
15:29 but the wire bugs are also really nicely
15:31 integrated into the weapons with the
15:33 clutch claw you had 14 different weapons
15:35 all trying to perform one specific
15:38 action in one specific way and some were
15:40 better at it than others some even had
15:42 more options than the rest with the rise
15:45 every weapon has two silk bands at once
15:47 and each can be used by pressing the
15:49 left trigger and the face buttons some
15:51 are used for high damaging attacks some
15:53 are used for Mobility some are used to
15:55 buff your weapon and some are used for
15:57 both these silk binds are custom
15:59 designed for every weapon and this makes
16:01 them fun to use since they mostly have
16:03 meaningful effects though the spiritual
16:05 successor of Hunter rights essentially
16:08 now here's the second reason which is
16:09 related to why the clutch claw was such
16:12 a poor addition rise was designed with
16:14 the wire bugs in mind the game's locales
16:16 were designed around them when designing
16:18 each weapon they were also designing
16:20 their silk bind attacks and how they
16:23 functioned most of all they could also
16:25 design the game's difficulty around it
16:27 which is why ariser's Health pulse was
16:29 so much higher than worlds earlier I
16:31 criticized iceborn for making the clutch
16:33 floor more or less mandatory now
16:35 arguably the wire bugs are mandatory in
16:37 the same way but if you don't use them
16:39 you're not dealing anywhere near optimal
16:40 damage and your hunts will take a lot
16:42 longer yeah I don't have an issue this time
16:43 time
16:45 the reason for this is that the wire
16:47 bugs are integral to Rider's identity
16:49 they were a part of the game from the
16:51 very beginning if somebody doesn't like
16:53 using them they'll know that perhaps the
16:55 game isn't for them but if they do like
16:57 them they'll most likely enjoy the whole
16:59 game and its expansion now if you recall
17:01 I really liked world's combat for what
17:04 it was it was simply you your weapon and
17:06 your abilities plus a Slinger if you
17:07 felt like using it
17:10 I spawn changed it by forcing the clutch
17:11 clear on me and now suddenly the whole
17:13 game is sent at around tenderizing and
17:15 warbangs in order to deal good damage
17:17 thus changing the combat flow massively
17:20 and for the worse with ryze I like the
17:22 wire bugs from the beginning so them
17:23 feeling mandatory wasn't an issue
17:25 because I like using them and I have a
17:28 good time if you look up world and I
17:29 spawn together as a complete experience
17:32 World lies to you by saying you don't
17:34 actually need the clutch claw only for I
17:35 spawn to pull the rug from underneath
17:37 rise is honest to you about the wire
17:39 bugs from the very beginning the biggest
17:41 issues with ryze were the weapon balance
17:43 with some being way too strong partly
17:45 due to their silk binds and why even
17:46 riding basically being mandatory
17:48 sunbreak fixed the weapon balance issues
17:51 with Nerfs and Buffs where needed I made
17:53 wyvern riding optional sunbreak did
17:55 introduce a new tool that drastically
17:57 changed the combat in the form of the
17:58 switch skill swap but this doesn't
18:01 change the flow of combat nor did they
18:02 literally need to rebalance the entire
18:04 game around it to be honest you don't
18:07 even need to use it all it does is allow
18:09 Hunters to switch play Styles and allow
18:11 for greater combat possibilities there's
18:13 no concern about it breaking the base
18:15 game either because it only unlocks when
18:18 you're in master rank I believe most of
18:19 the issues with the clutch claw are a
18:21 result of it being introduced in ice
18:23 Bond if it was designed for a world they
18:24 could have made it fit better with the
18:25 rest of the game
18:27 they could have integrated it more with
18:29 weapons and changed the monster's
18:31 function to incorporate it better with
18:33 an expansion they could have rebalanced
18:36 it further ispawn's final update doubled
18:38 the tenderize time from 90 seconds to
18:41 180 and introduced a decoration that
18:42 allowed light weapons to tend to rise in
18:45 one hit good additions that slightly fix
18:47 the mechanic but are ultimately too
18:49 little too late I have zero doubt that
18:51 if World received another expansion on
18:53 top of I spawn it would have rebalanced
18:54 the clutch floor so that like the
18:56 Slinger in the base game it would have
18:57 been a nice bonus and not something you
18:58 had to do
19:01 the lesson here is that huge mechanics
19:03 like this should not be introduced in
19:05 expansions especially if they change the
19:07 combat to such a degree that the base
19:09 game has to be rebalanced to account for
19:11 them furthermore I don't think the main
19:13 Series team should try these huge
19:15 experimental editions they should focus
19:18 on making raw grounded combat that's not
19:20 relying on gimmicks while incorporating
19:21 the best parts of the portable team's
19:24 experimentation I say that because it's
19:26 exactly what world did but combat is
19:28 largely grounded but several of the new
19:29 weapon attacks are taken right from
19:32 generations rebalanced and retooled to
19:34 work with this combat and it makes them
19:37 really fun to play the next game should
19:38 have worlds combat but maybe with
19:40 ryzer's switch skill system that would
19:42 be really good
19:45 the title of the video is how the clutch
19:46 claw ruined iceborn and so you're
19:48 probably thinking did it really make the
19:51 game bad this one edition when playing a
19:54 monster hunter game for me the two most
19:56 important things are the quality of the
19:57 monsters in the game and how fun the
20:00 combat is that's not to say that other
20:01 things don't matter like the story
20:03 pacing or end games but the main point
20:05 is that if a game can't pass those two
20:07 simple checks then I won't enjoy playing
20:10 it everything else is secondary in the
20:12 case of for ultimate Generations
20:14 portable third I like the combat and I
20:16 like the monsters so those games are good
20:17 good
20:19 I like world's combat but I find the
20:22 monsters rather boring there isn't much
20:24 variety and a lot of them fight in the
20:26 exact same way there's only three that I
20:28 would consider to be memorable
20:30 now if we look at iceborn the muscles
20:32 are good with some great returning
20:34 monsters and some genuinely cool
20:36 subspecies of wild monsters that I found
20:38 boring the originals are also really
20:40 creative but because the act of fighting
20:42 them is unfun it tarnishes the whole experience
20:43 experience
20:46 I enjoy fighting zunoga brute tigrex
20:49 volcano or bambarro I do not enjoy
20:51 fighting them with a clutch claw playing
20:53 such a huge role and because combat is
20:55 such a huge part of monstanta it does
20:58 ruin the whole game for me I like
21:00 sunbreak significantly more than I spawn
21:01 but without the clutch floor the
21:03 situation would be similar to 14
21:05 Generations what I consider the one to
21:08 be best than the other just slightly I
21:09 still think I'd like sunbreak more
21:11 overall because I spawn has a lot of
21:13 problems that sun brake doesn't have but
21:15 that's better than me just outright
21:23 the clutch claw ruined must turn to
21:26 World in several ways it took some of
21:27 the best combat we've had in a series
21:30 over centralized it around a poorly
21:31 implemented gimmick and therefore
21:33 changed the entire game for the worse
21:36 some of you might be wondering I spawn
21:38 is a bit old why make a video now the
21:40 answer is that I made a few digs up the
21:41 clutch claw in my underwater combat
21:44 video where I compare two bad mechanics
21:46 with each other some commenters were
21:48 curious as to why it was bad and I
21:50 wanted to talk about this in detail for
21:51 a while now particularly why the wire
21:53 bugs are better
21:54 I'm sure some of you might suggest
21:56 trying out the ice spawn Community
21:58 Edition mod since it reportedly does
21:59 rebalance the clutch claw to be
22:01 something of a bonus rather than
22:03 mandatory at the moment I'm not really
22:04 interested but maybe in the future
22:06 that'll be all for today
22:08 I hope you enjoyed this video
22:11 do you dislike the clutch floor or
22:13 better yet do you actually like it let
22:14 me know why in the comments because
22:15 either way I do want to know your
22:17 thoughts remember to like And subscribe
22:19 and have a good day [Music]
