Monster Hunter Journal: Day 9
One of the more annoying issues of being the local village Monster Hunter is that they now expect me to throw myself at every beast that shows its ugly face.
Today I found myself trudging through a swamp, knee deep in sludge and Aptonoth droppings. According to the Guild Girl (Not to Self: I think she just loves sending me on do-or-die quests.) I have to hunt out a creature called the Gobul. Underwater combat is not one of my favourite things but I doubt the Gobul is going to give me a chance.
Now, according to my sources i.e. ChaCha, the Gobul is a rather large fish creature with a large flashing bulb on its head. Sounds like one of those deep sea fish, so I will have to keep my eyes open...or closed, which ever the case may be. The water is getting much deeper, so that means I have to start swimming underwater more. Not only is swinging a sword around much harder than normal, most of the water is a muddy brown colour, which makes spotting monsters even harder than it usually is.
Out of the corner of my eye I spot some water plants that I can harvest, funny that the bubbles are right next to it. I managed to get close enough and rip one out of the ground but it does not look like any of the plants I have seen so far. Suddenly I am belted through the water and I cannot move a muscle. Chacha is handy as always and comes over to belt me back into conciousness. As I get my bearings, a huge row of teeth confront me. Within seconds the most blinding light hits me and I wake up in the camp. I get the feeling that was the Gobul.
The key tactic would be to take out the Gobul bulb to prevent it blinding me and eating my face. Wandering back through the swamps, then diving back into the murky water, seemed like a crazy plan but after scanning around for a few moments, I spotted the same plants with bubbles coming out of them, so it was best to not pick them and instead stab them. That did the trick but now the Gobul is really annoyed. Now was not the time to back down, so I wildly stabbed at the Gobul bulb, which is seems to really hate. It also seems way more agile than a mere human, so getting it onto land would be my best option.
Using myself as bait, I slowly forced the Gobul to get closer and close to land and as I scrambled to safety, the Gobul did exactly what I wanted it to do. It shot out of the water with great speed, landing and killing some hapless Bnahabra bug. With the Gobul out of its natural territory, things seemed to be going my way. He was still agile but his fat waddling body was not built for the land. With another flurry of blows, I managed to lop the whole Gobul bulb off! It screamed in pain and then proceeded to puff up and deploy numerous pointy barbs from its skin. Despite its lack of agility on land, it was now a much bigger object to avoid. A few handy rolls and dodges and the Gobul was panting and wheezing. Time to go in for the kill.
After what felt like an eternity, I prodded the lifeless corpse off the Gobul, as Chacha carved a few chunks from its corpse. Looking around for a few seconds, I grabbed the Gobul bulb and headed off to the village. This will come in handy.
Current Outlook: Wet.
While the controls and combat are a little tricky to start with, once you have them sorted the game really clicks. Yes it still has some annoying issues but not enough to make me hate the game. I fail at something, I try something different or I grind for materials and craft something better.
