MetalGuardian
Banned
This worried me when I started too so I'll address this. I'll try to find a convincing argument even for someone who hasn't played the game yet.
Time limits freeze me completely (couldn't handle Pikmin and Majora's Mask), so I know saying things like "it's an easy time limit to hit" won't help, but it's different in MH. In other games, the time limits have the purpose of making the player act faster, pretty much rushing him, but the purpose of the time limit in MH is functionally the same as the limit of 10 potions per quest, or the limit of an HP bar etc, i.e. the player should hit more and get hit less. That's all it is, and as long as focus on those two things by utilizing other aspects of the game, the time limit did its job and disappears.
Let's say you kill a monster while using 4 potions. I'll be able to say 100% certain that you did it within the time limit. Conversely, if you haven't killed the monster yet but have already used all 10 potions, it's likely that you're close to hitting the time limit too. If you're fine with limited health in games as a concept, you're fine with the time limit in MH. If that still doesn't convince you, you can just play while ignoring the time limit and focusing on the limit of health, I guarantee you won't notice a difference.
edit: Forgot to say the most important thing, if that's true and the time limit is balanced to the health limit, why does the time limit exist in the first place
Because it's possible to stay inside the quest but be in a different area from the monster, it could be possible to play in a way completely different from how the game was designed (as in, a snipe/crawl playstyle), so there was an added effect that if you leave a monster alone too long, it can recharge its health back. The time limit is the offset to this, so the player won't continue with the quest forever.
Fantastic, this makes me feel a lot better about the mechanic. If the time limit propels the player into a more dynamic and beneficial playstyle as opposed to existing merely as a brain-dead obstacle to artificially inflate difficulty, I should be okay with it.
A question of equal importance though... does the Monster Hunter fiction give a reason for the time-limit existing within the universe? I love me some cohesive mechanics that fit into a game's narrative!