Hunter

I've talked before about how much I've fallen in love with Monster Hunter, and how I want to apply the way I play that game to how I live my life. That's something I think about a lot, but it's not something that's particularly easy to do - after all, you don't get to die three times in real life before you have to start over with the only real punishment being time and a bit of money. It's not easy to get the resources to keep trying different things in real life - not without help.

And I suppose that's another thing that I really need to learn from Monster Hunter. Can you play the game by yourself and finish all of the content on your own? Yes. And having accomplished that, it would be hard to argue that you're not skilled and competent and what have you. But the game is so much more fun when you are playing with others, and not only more fun, but easier and faster as well. After all, two people are much more efficient at tackling a single problem than one, and four especially more so than that. Each working together, fighting the same monster but in four unique ways, making a team that is there to support one another and help them not only to fight, but to get the things they need to advance.

That's never really been something I've been particularly good at. I very much like knowing that I can do something on my own. And I don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing. But knowing that you can do something alone doesn't mean that you have to. Just because you can do something by yourself doesn't mean that you should. After all, it's like I said - it's far more efficient to have multiple people tackling the same problem.

I don't know why Monster Hunter in particular has hit me so hard when it comes to finding inspiration. I would argue it's not even my favorite game - that honor still goes to Kingdom Hearts 2. But as much as I love that game and it's entire series, it still boils down to the same cliche of "My friends are my power." And that's not a bad message, but it's one you hear in many places. And Monster Hunter isn't like that. Yes, the best way to play it is with your friends. But if you are bad you will hold them back. And if they are bad they will hold you back. It's about getting good together. Supporting each other to both become better hunters. Not leaning on. Supporting. And that can be all the difference.