I've never played a Monster Hunter game, but a friend and I thought it looked like something worth trying this time around.

It took over 4 and a half hours to get to a point where we could join one another. Then it seemed like we were good from there, but quests we'd post kept saying they were 1/1 players, and not allowing others in. Apparently your friends that you're trying to play with need to play the beginning of the mission solo, until you get to the cutscene, then quit out of the mission (load screen), then join your friend's mission (another load screen), then you have to catch up to where they are to help them.

My suspicion is that the Assigned quests are essentially "training" missions for each monster type, but to get any sort of progression in the game and have to go through these hoops for every mission we go out on is super frustrating. Can we progress and get new monster types without doing Assigned quests? Are we going about this all wrong? Or is this actually what we're expected to have to put up with constantly?

Seems like a major oversight for the campaign not being coop unless you sos flare when prompted to. Investigations are easier to get into a group. I hope they are able to change it with a patch.

First, to answer your question you pretty much do need to clear assigned quests to keep going up in Hunter Rank.

I agree that the current system of needing to view the cutscenes before you co-op is pretty bad all told but as a series regular I guess I'm willing to be slightly forgiving initially since this is the first time the series has combined single player and multiplayer progression into one. You used to have separate quest lines and HR for each so given the series penchant for design weirdness I can totally understand where this is coming from given that this is their first attempt at it. I also vastly prefer this janky system to having to go through separate SP and MP progression so maybe that's where my tolerance is coming from.

Again, I think the current situation sucks and I'm not defending it. I sorely hope it gets patched to make a bit more sense but it also totally makes sense to me that it's this weirdly designed.

Yeah, there were similar complaints in the "new player" thread, and just about everywhere on the internet. It's pretty clear they botched how they handled the traditional story quests with multiplayer. I'm playing the game almost exclusively with a friend and we have it down now, but it sucks.

Basically for assigned quests, you have to both start it (one can start it as a posted quest for multiple people), and you both have to get to the point where you see whatever the opening cutscene is. Then, one person can jump out of their quest and join the other person's quest. If there are no cutscenes, then you can join as a normal quest. You will both get credit for the quest. Sometimes, depending on the quest, we just do it solo but stay in our PSN party so we can chat about what's happening.

All other quests can be done multiplayer like normal. The consensus I've seen from MH vets is that the story was traditionally single-player only and really serves as a (long) tutorial for how to play the game. The majority of the game is *not* story, but it certainly is frustrating since it's billed as a pure multiplayer experience and then the campaign quests are a huge pain in the ass. Despite all that, we're still having a lot of fun playing the game together.

Make a squad and have all your friends join for easy access play with eachother at any time.

The assigned quests are pretty much the single player campaign. All the other quests can be with multiplayer, though.

Turns out Monster Hunter World is one of those games that makes multiplayer hard from the get-go until you've cleared some solo content...Unlike every other game in the series from Freedom Unite and onward.

The loops you have to do to play with your friends is a hassle and that’s my biggest gripe with this game. My friends die a lot so I’m totally fine with playing with random people to get what I need.

IMO this is the only thing where they totally dropped the ball. Love pretty much all the other changes.

Agreed that the implementation of multiplayer story is this game's one unforgivable sin. It is truly awful. It won't matter for end-game, but for new people who just want to play through it together and stay partied up, it is unbelievably obnoxious and stupid. What on earth were they thinking? Even a good story wouldn't be worth putting up with these weird restrictions on multiplayer, and I wouldn't call the story in this game. It is bog-standard stuff. No to mention that your protagonist is silent!

Too bad, because I pretty much love the game otherwise.