Japanese multi-platinum selling Monster Hunter Portable 2G will be coming to European gamers as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Since its release in Japan earlier this year, the game has shipped over 2.4 million copies, making it one of the most successful games on the PSP (PlayStation Portable). To date the Monster Hunter series has sold over 7.8 million units worldwide. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is scheduled for release across PAL territories this coming spring.The epic Monster Hunter series is the leading PSP franchise in Japan becoming the fastest selling third party portable game on any format. More than just a game, Monster Hunter has become a social and cultural gaming phenomenon, giving rise to Monster Hunter festivals and seminars plus numerous merchandising lines. With the upcoming release of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in Europe players will be invited to experience the thrill of the hunt with more action and combat than ever before.
“Monster Hunter’s success on the PSP in Japan is unprecedented,” commented David Reeves, President Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “So it is great news that the latest instalment of the series will shortly be available in Europe and I am confident that its key tenet of social gaming that has made Monster Hunter so popular with Japanese gamers will resonate strongly with European PSP owners.”
With over 500 hours of gameplay and previously unreleased monsters, weapons and missions, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is set to be the biggest game of the series so far. Via Ad-Hoc functionality, players can experience the social gaming phenomenon that’s gripping Japan and adventure with up to three friends for a thrilling and savaging multiplayer hunting party. From devising the strategy to executing the attack, team play with your friends is going to be key to hunting down the ferocious beasts.
Monster Hunters can prepare for the ultimate fight with more than 2000 armour sets, 1500 weapons and 400 missions to choose and customise their characters from. Throughout the strategic gameplay players will be rewarded for their deep fighting combat sequences and tactics, encouraging them to seek out the more experienced Monster Hunters and team up in order to learn from their experience.
New to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is the fully customisable AI Felyne companion who will accompany players on quests and gather extra resources for the player. PSP owners may then share their companions with other players through ‘felyne casting’ with users transferring data through the PSP sleep mode.
Also new to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is the improved media install option where players can save the game to a memory stick, allowing the game to load from the memory stick and UMD simultaneously for faster loading times. Fans of the series will be pleased to hear that they can transfer their data from Monster Hunter Freedom 2 over to the new game.