Death of a Game: Dauntless

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays detectives! Our gift :). Thanks for the continued support, and until the next case!

[@carlosgirardot7566]

Next episode is Ultima Online!! I can't wait!! Man, UO was my first MMO when I was like, 12 or 13 years old and it was GREAT!! So immersive, very tight community, and the threat of PK's rolling up and killing you in Dungeons or while fighting anywhere in the world was always something that got your blood pumping! And then.. they came out with Trammel. And they made an EXACT copy of the already existing world, except.. You couldn't PK anymore, and you couldn't even use the STEALING skill. They completely ruined the game with that. Also, the lore being that the hero killed Mondain and shattered the gem of immortality and the shattered pieces of it, or the "Shards" being the different servers and copies of the same world was such a good idea.

[@Alexandrious]

Pantheon Rise of the Fallen may be on your radar soon. :)

[@carlosgirardot7566]

@@Alexandrious I've heard of it and it sounds good, but I also heard it's been in development hell and had a feature creep problem?

[@Yoda_Gaming1738]

they got rid of crafting in a game about killing monsters and using the monsters materials to craft weapons

[@gamerkingdom1442]

When I heard about this, I realized that it was a blessing that I’ve dropped this game years ago….

[@Caine132]

Dude same.

[@Triggermangravy]

Actual brain dead crypto bros saying it's a good thing to cut "unintuitive" mechanics that are too complicated to understand

[@bleepingbunny4446]

yeah thats really the reason

[@SetariM]

@@Triggermangravy More like "UGGGGGH I CAN'T 1-SHOT THIS MONSTER OR USE CHEATS, REMOVE THE MECHANICS THAT MAKE THE GAME THE GAME"

[@josephhalbohn8100]

About 2 hours into dauntless I had an epiphany. "Why am I playing this when MHW is right there"

[@ingueferroque]

Variety is the spice of life

[@kamiya4700]

Exactly what I thought when Dauntless decided to launch the game 3 days before MHW pc port...

[@Kaimax61]

@@ingueferroque Monhun itself is the variety. World was different enough that the MH1 Vets complained about it EVERYTIME.

[@jeanniemaycrawford4466]

Its free to play

[@NoctTap]

Why you playing other platforming games if there Mario games, you see how ridiculous your statement is! 😅

[@Shadowdragon0000000]

I called this games downhill trajectory two years ago when they yet again wiped everyone's progress and introduced those incredibly grindy skill unlock trees and the miserable open area grinds. They stopped trying to make new content and switched to finding more ways to recycle the content and come up with even grindier tasks.

[@Neodeleux]

This was the update that pushed me to quit. I was someone who beat all the escalations, got golden crown, did all of the battlepasses since the bull full plate hero one until quitting, crafted all the weapons and armor for my main classes (fists, axe, sword and hammer). That update killed all my drive to play. Might as well replay a monsterhunter game, at least that one wont reset all the hours i put in at randomly because they want more money...

[@DJ-fb9cf]

100%, they could have just made new stuff and profited just fine... But they lost track somewhere down the line (probably when they sold out to epic, the original team left, and kept selling themselves to shady companies)

[@RozKounelakion]

I called this game's downward trajectory when it released get on my level

[@mikoto7693]

I’d never heard of Dauntless until this video and I’m astounded that they consciously chose to do that. Especially in an online game. I recently lost just one of three characters in solo mode in Ark Survival Ascended due to an update bug. I recreated her, even though I could use cheats to recover most of her progress… I’ve stalled. It was such an unexpected loss that I just don’t have the inspiration for it. I’ve temporarily moved to another game entirely. I’ll return to the game and her in time but I’m just done for now. In an online game with hundreds instead of dozens it would suck so much more.

[@josephhelgersonjoseph6115]

Have you considered doing a series where you cover games that started dead but made a huge comeback like No Man’s Sky, Cyberpunk and Battlefield 4? Call it something like “Rebirth of a Game” or something like that?

[@Dillan96]

I think this is a great idea but how many games have had that rebirth?

[@snazzydrew]

​@@Dillan96it can be a short but fun series. Instead of detectives we can be disciples.

[@commander3192]

yes, this!

[@georgeghleung]

Second (or third?)

[@weezr]

Would help games out, please do wayfinder

[@williamedwards4151]

Not only did they not put a dent in the Monster Hunter franchise, they shit the bed so thoroughly that they drove people TO the Monster Hunter franchise.

[@Kicsivazz]

We used to do the bare minimum of a hunt back in the beta. Back then, the behemoths fled three times and you had to track them down by the clue of which direction they fled. Although usually you just simply checked all the arena locations as there are like 5-6 of them on each map. Nothing like Monster Hunter where you track footsteps and clues in the environment, but it was a start. For no-one's surprise with the lack of hints, the "hunt" was just confusing so they removed that part from the game instead of actually using the assets they had to alter the environment to indicate which direction to follow.

[@nairocamilo]

I remember this!

[@iamdoom9810]

The moment they removed hunts from a Monster Hunter-like, I knew Dauntless was no longer for me.

[@pineappleoverlord9k462]

You should remember that until world was a thing you never tracked down a monster in mh either. You checked all the areas and then when you found it all u did was paintball it. I know mhw was amazing and all but don't be spreading misinformation about the early days of dauntless like that. It was very similar to mh in the fact of how you found the monster

[@SH1NK1R01]

Yeah world was the first to use tracks. Previous mh games used the system that dauntless copied. So they not only copied something Capcom themselves stopped doing, they copied it poorly and people didn’t like it. Which is pretty funny.

[@TyrBarghest]

I got into this game during the open beta. It was when the Fortune update happened that myself and many others finally put the game down. We were suffering from so many bugs. There were so many small updates before the Fortune stuff came out that would render some monsters nearly unhuntable. Then, despite how many of us were filing complaints about the changes, Pheonix Labs just ignored us and did whatever they wanted to do. It wasn't a good sign for the game when the developers are refusing to listen to the players during the beta phase. The one point in time when listening to the players should be the thing you're doing.

[@AlexanTheMan]

Taking on a behemoth like Monster Hunter sure was a daunting task...

[@jokerledger5400]

hahaha, good one sir. have a like

[@gamerkingdom1442]

When I heard the updates from that “Awakening” expansion, i was honestly flabbergasted. This is one of the most self-destructing decisions I’ve ever heard….. 🤦‍♂️

[@LoreliaDeMildiane]

I don't know which impact it actually had, but I think you should have mentioned the fact that on PC it was an EGS exclusive, and no matter on which platform you wanted to play it you'd have to log in with an epic account. Personally that's why I didn't even try it.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

100%

[@W0lfscythe]

I wanted to try the game out, but the EGS account requirement is what kept me from playing it.

[@myfingid]

It had an impact. I was an open beta player. Back then you logged in via your Dauntless account (or whatever, not Epic). Once they switched to Epic and I could not longer log on I was done with it. Not saying I played constantly the whole time but I tried coming back, got hit with that Epic account requirement, and that was the end of the game so far as I was concerned. Had they gone with Steam, where I have an account, it wouldn't have been an issue, but I've been stead fast in not supporting Epics practice of buying exclusives.

[@JackkReaction]

​@@myfingid I am also in this camp. A company that would chop off their nose to spite their face so soon into the launch of their paid beta access is wild. They didn't even offer refunds to the people who had funded their development and offered feedback, who could no longer access their account because of a business decision. Despite the wider audience they gained from cross-platform play, they lost their hardcore players before they were given a chance to become pillars of the community. The writing was on the wall then, and I am still very proud of that subsection of Dauntless players - yourself included! I will do nothing but celebrate PL's downfall.

[@621bubble]

They also sold Founder Packs with the promise of a steam release and a key for it.

[@fishman21-f5b]

who think remove crafting for gear is good idea

[@datboiashy2957]

Anyone who hates players and money

[@danilobraga4660]

Phoenix Lab it seems

[@anphung659]

As someone who likes the cartoonish artstyle, I don’t think the choice of style here is bad (yes I know lots of ppl think Fortnite artstyle is “cringe”, cartoon=kids yada yada…), it’s the execution that sucks. The game feels like it was made to be a mobile game first and a console/pc game second. The UI elements just screams mobile game with its big, bold damage numbers, cheap looking bars and icons with no cohesion at all. The map is really flat with no verticality and variants. The player’s model just look like it came from some cheaply made mobile games from the 2010s, or an early test build, not a full release. Which is kinda weird, because Phoenix Lab had some pretty good artists working for them. Earlier this year they released a bunch of concept arts from an abandoned Phoenix Lab project, it went viral and was very pleasing. Probably the result of the higher up wanted to push the game out fast + having to work with a bunch of side projects, so they had to make do with the time crunch and put out half ass assets.

[@warlockwod]

And I think that if it was mobile since the start and focused on that it would be successful (I wouldn't play it but there was a huge market for it, I think)

[@TheRantingUnicorn]

I remember playing the game thinking "this feels like a mobile game with monsters so simple it should be a kids game"

[@AnimeFan4815]

Well the later ones could be a bit more challenging, but I tend to agree, even the art style and simplicity of 'out of combat' mechanics , seem very kid friendly

[@TheRantingUnicorn]

@radiofreeacab have you heard of a little game called Manhunt? Think that is for kids?

[@lumbacon2133]

@radiofreeacab Ok, in that case, I should have no problem showing my 5-year old cousin one of the thousands of Steam p0rn games, since apparently all games are made for kids

[@TheRantingUnicorn]

@@radiofreeacab Because objectively speaking, saying "all games are for kids" is wrong. The fact that there legally is a requirement for a age rating dismiss your statement Also I am 24 with a wife and kid

[@Krakorin]

@@radiofreeacab El gordo bait

[@luketfer]

A lot of people forget that, at the time Dauntless got announced, Monster Hunter wasn't on PC apart from Monster Hunter Online, there was a knockoff called RaiderZ that wasn't very good. However when Monster Hunter World was announced to be multiplatform and on PC it took a LOT of wind out of Dauntless hype.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

def

[@calvinwilson3617]

Yeah MHW was basically a 'debunked rumor' until it was actually announced out of nowhere with a trailer. I believe dauntless was in, or about to be in early beta. That was a devastating blow. They could have improved the game but it seems they got bought out and have to milk the players now

[@LudaSuva]

The time I spent on this game I was just wondering to myself ''who does this game appeal to'' constantly

[@mimielleuse]

painful yet needed... goodbye dauntless

[@insanerambling]

I Loved old Dauntless, then reforged came and played for like a day and figured out it wasn't for me. Decided to come back since I heard there was a big update... The new update looks like a Frankenstein of mechanics from different parts of the game poorly taped together... Such a shame

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Yes, the update was terrible and it's a shame

[@TheExFatal]

16:22 it's so funny to think about that monster hunter used to do this on the PS2 way back when with monsters like Green Plesioth, but eventually started making variants genuinely distinct from each other as far back as 3 Ultimate

[@drakzeraberserk3146]

they still do this, even 4U still did colour swaps. Congoala/emerald congoala diablos/black diablos gravious/black gravious. gypceros/purple gypceros kecha wach/ash kecha wacha khezu/red khezu monoblos/white monoblos najarala/tidal najarala rathalos/azure rathalos/silver rathalos rathian/pink rathian/gold rathian tetsucabra/berserk tetsucabra tigrex/brute tigrex/molten tigrex yian kut kut/blue yian kut kut zinogre/stygian zinogre dalamadur/shan dalamadur kirin/oroshi kirin this was one point that made no sense to me cos MH has been doing same shit since time and memorial. hell even world did exact same thing especially iceborne

[@Kaimax61]

@@drakzeraberserk3146 They aren't color swaps, Are you seriously complaining about sub-species in MH4 of all things? and wasted your time trying to listing them all like a "gotcha"? They're ALL DIFFERENT Kirin is Lightning, Oroshi Kirin is Ice. Kirin can't make ICE ARMORS to shield itself. the ones in DAUNTLESS, DOESN'T HAVE ANY DIFFERENCE Besides Literal colors.

[@bau9894]

​​@@Kaimax61 "you wasted your time listing them all like a gotcha?" HAHAHAHAHA know the difference between variants and sub species thankyou. look at the other monsters he listed and tell me they aren't recolors😂😅🤓

[@syto24]

​@@drakzeraberserk3146 NGL your comparison is terrible. These aren't just pallet swaps. These monsters were genuinely different and had different move sets and difficulty levels

[@drakzeraberserk3146]

@@syto24 thing is tho i never said they didint have different movesets, from me playing dauntless back in the day (never caught on super much tbh, played a decent bit but i hate F2P MTX games cos shops) they also had new moves and agression. so both games did the exact same thing.

[@bizarroman69]

Son, why do you want to buy Monster Hunter? We already have Monster Hunter at home.

[@tristanmestroni6724]

I played this game with some friends purely because it was one of the only games that had cross platform play with switch, xbox and pc. At the time (pandemic) I was playing games regularly with a group of very casual guys and it was literally one of the only options. But after about a week we just moved on. It was too complicated for the most casual of us, it was not rewarding enough for the others.

[@saveversus]

What a shame. I remember liking this game pre-pandemic.

[@LynnLyns]

Ive been listening to you while working out today, you have a good voice to narrate stuff, imma stick around.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Appreciate it 👍

[@TheFishTCG]

LETS GO BABY THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

[@BlazeMakesGames]

Yeah from day 1 i've always just felt like the Dauntless Team were clearly fans of MH, but clearly never really fully understand what makes it appealing. They put weapons and monsters in the game and were like "See? It's the same!" without actually incorporating any of the depth of MH's weapon and monster design. The weapons are just way to simplistic in their mechanics and the Monsters just weren't very interesting to fight. And sure, maybe part of that comes down to a smaller budget. But even just focusing on a handful of really good monsters and only having a few weapon options, but having them all be really well designed and on par with MH tier stuff would likely have gone a lot longer towards growing a proper fanbase and allowing them to expand on the system later

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Sad how many Dauntless fans ignore this, including many admitting they don't or didn't even play MH

[@mindisfrozen]

I still remember playing the game with my friend at launch, and after pushing though, completed the first battle pass and unlocked the final emote- it didn't even loop. The emote (which I think was a dance) didn't even loop.

[@Borando96]

A bit of a correction about the alpha and beta tests being only playable by paying: I got invited to the 21th test, which was a "Dauntless Tech Alpha" without paying. It was scheduled for the 7th & 8th of July 2017. After that, I got frequent invites for the other other tests too. IIrc I was also instantly in the beta, but not so sure about that anymore, might be mistaking the last few alpha test as a closed beta, but since I got a survey request at the 15th of December 2018, I guess I was in the beta. 1 thing that wasn't mentioned here, which was IMO also a curial moment for its downfall, was the epic exclusive deal. Before that, it had its own launcher and you only needed the dauntless acc. That change to epic came also at the time, when epic was snatching left and right with exclusives and ppl getting pissed about that. I remember very well, that many in the general chat in game said, how they wouldn't make an epic acc, just to play Dauntless, especially with MHW is around the corner. I also stopped playing after that.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks, if true! (if not thanks for the feedback regardless)

[@Borando96]

@nerdSlayerstudioss I still have the emails, if you'd like to see them.

[@gmmg3879]

To be fair, this postmortem seems to be missing one minor point. When the game went with free to play model and was still showing some hope for the future it was for a while available through their standalone launcher but shortly after that they decided to drop it completely in favour of being listed on one of the stores. Unfortunately they picked the one that was getting a fair and justified amount of hate for bringing exclusive titles into PC market. At least for me it was the "well, frick" moment when I gave up of this game completely.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Fair point. The epic store dealio

[@madlinkers8595]

forgot this game even existed

[@r3dh0ll0w8]

i remembered H2o delirious played it, and at the begining he talks about him being sponsored by it, and just by that, i knew it won't last long😅

[@dreamllusion8390]

Happy new year, y'all. Detectives and non-detectives alike! Enjoy the time with family, with your friends. Or take that time for yourself to rest, doing stuff that you like. As long as you can get your physical and/or mental ressources back! ❤

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Great message and the same to you

[@littlegreyhawk6854]

I installed dauntless, killed one or two "big" monsters and then gave up, why would i want to play a game with a combat system way worse then most mobile games, let alone Monster Hunter. I didn't even explore any other aspects of the game because of how boring combat felt.

[@fittedurge4763]

If this is after reforged you're right, before reforged, it was actually fun with you and 3 others having to hunt down a single behemoth. The behemoths were actually threatening as you did have to dodge and time your moves like monster hunter just watered down. One unique weapon the game had that monster hunter doesn't was the repeaters, they were two guns with massive fall off damage which makes them sound pointless until you learn that reloading near a monster buffs your damage and abilities greatly promoting a ranged yet close combat gameplay. Need I mention the hammer being combined with a shotgun?

[@calvinwilson3617]

The sadest part is, i was actually excited to come back just for the weapon swapping. And the game was so beyond broken. My entire quest chat would just display "Error, translation text not found" Gave up after i saw that you had to PAY for new weapons

[@Kormelev]

You left out that they went exclusive for the Epic Game store less than a year after doing their early crowd funding. At the time backers didn't want it exclusive on Epic Game's store. It really killed excitement and momentum for the game.

[@fabiopauli420]

16:25 ok i have to disagree here Gnasher is the base ragetail creates shockwaves and has a sliding attack flameborn creates and shoots fireballs AND is weak to elemental damage and has a bounce+explosion attack deepfrost shoots ice at you, the slide is longer and faster, is weak to elemental fire attacks All of them also have mostly different attack patterns outside of that. They use their tails differently. 19:00 wrong. You fight 6-7 behemoths. With the concept of doublebattles and augments being introduced what opened up build veriety IF you get a high enough rating you also gain access to the "keystone" behemoth of that escalation dropping best in slot gear materials for that element. It also allowed you to infuse the weapons you got from hunting the regular behemoths into these legendary type weapons, allowing even more build variety with the later edition of mod and special slots to tailor the weapon to even more of your liking Every sword in the game had access to parry, a spin or the general buff state. Overall Dauntless was a game about build variety and theory crafting. You could make a build that you went in as a glasscanon but due to cells/armor that buffed you for not taking damage for a while you could delete behemoths if you understood their attack patterns or you could build tank/heal builds. With increadibly sustain with the downside that you couldnt kill behemoths as fast risking them going to 100% danger causing you to take more damage than you could heal (100% reduced self heal) the best escalation for build variety was and technically still is Frost escalation. As you pick a class before entering that have incredible synergy with certain weapon types for example: 50% stun damage on hammers + 2% attack speed for each of your teammates every time you deal enough stun damage to stun the behemoth? permanent damage buff for each wound inflected with a warpike? Guranteed crits on chainblades?! Frost escalation is/was peak dauntless (All of this changed with Ascension, screw Ascencion)

[@Relhio]

Yea no shit, that wasn't his point. It wasn't about their moves, it was about showing their evolution through their visuals, which should reflect from the environment they're in. If one is is in an arctic or volcanic area, I'd expect them to look a bit different than just being blue or red, that was the point he was trying to make, don't make strawman arguments.

[@fabiopauli420]

@@Relhio 16:14 "But they arent just visually different they have different properties in even how they act" How is my argument a strawman?

[@faedwill6853]

The last time I played this game, the Aether Striker weapon type was added. Fast forward to now, and still no new weapon types have been added. There's nothing more bittersweet than this kind of validation for dropping a game.

[@nogidoki3325]

Wait what i havent played it in years and now it died?

[@fishman21-f5b]

mhwild will kill it

[@midwestbox]

@@fishman21-f5b MH didn't even kill the game, it's own greed killed it.

[@orewaren8549]

MH watched as an ant killed itself infront of it

[@kofinart]

Wild Hearts next! I had HIGH hopes for that one, the karakuri system really differentiated itself from Monster Hunter

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I put it on the list!

[@Ezekialify]

As a double highest tier backer of this game. I quit instantly when they pulled that shit with EPIC. RIP Bozo.

[@myfingid]

Yep, killed it for me as well. Once I couldn't log in anymore that was the end of the game. Honestly we all should have been refunded when that happened.

[@hugohuge1963]

I played the game back in closed beta since I never had a console that had MH, and I really wanted to try a game like MH out before Worlds released. It was decently fun, and mastering the hammer was enjoyable, albeit fairly simple. Then updates came and the game just.... got worse and worse. I don't think I enjoyed a single update they put out. The game felt floatier, the crafting felt useless outside of weapon progression (there were only like 2 sets that did anything useful iirc) and it just felt more and more afk. When they made the maps into big, unending hunts I just couldn't find enjoyment anymore. There were zero stakes in these hunts, you just walked from monster to monster and killed them for resources. So fucking boring. Each new weapon felt dull and OP, there wasn't a single weapon outside of the base 4 that I cared to play with. Recently seeing news about the latest update, all I could think was "yeah, that's about where they were heading, huh?"

[@BlazeMakesGames]

yeah your quick comment about the hammer hits me pretty hard cause I remember when I tried it I thought the weapon mechanics were way too simple so I asked people what the most complex weapon was and they told me it was the hammer. And when I learned how it worked I was just like "that's it?" They were clearly fans of monster hunter but they also simultaneously clearly did not understand what makes monster hunter's weapons so deep and complex and fun to play with

[@ladiesman2138]

I haven't even retouched Dauntless because of what I've heard

[@RalchRI]

I think that, one of the things that make Monster Hunter: World feel special, is that there is a lot of attention to detail to the interactions between different creatures and the enviroment. Areas and monters are designed in tandem, so you can see why the big monster you're hunting is living there. The amazing graphics and scale of World do help, but the world crafted areas are a key element of what makes Monster Hunter: World so satisfying to play. The fact that they have a universe filled with so many weird and over the top creatures, but still manage to do so with a strong style and identity is impressive. The fact that they've managed to make them feel as pieces of a believable ecosystem even more so.

[@battlericky17]

I always listen to your entire video, i like to chill out to your vids specifically with no lights on and just fully relax. Typically i can get a good nights rest AFTER watching your videos whereas other youtubers i simply just fall asleep to them and turn off the video as im falling asleep

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Glad I can help you unwind.

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

This wasn’t just a “death”, it was straight up first-degree murder! At least MH Wilds is coming out soon, that will hopefully be big and great to play

[@ByteBitson]

I told my friend when this game came out "They made the monsters near impossible for furries to enjoy, this game is going to flop"

[@TheRealRuddRants]

26:52 You know the clue is obvious when they mentioned greedy add money-related vocabulary. Even with corporate meddling and sabotage.

[@ARIXANDRE]

Sir, your output has been epic. Thank you and Happy New Year!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Appreciate it! Happy New Year to you as well!

[@afterfx8012]

i only try this game once... and until today i forgot this game exist

[@HKaito]

I like that everything comes back to PSO and it still relevant.

[@DJ-fb9cf]

I really, really hope they pull back from this somehow, I've been with this game since the beginning and Reforged was fun, it was fine. But then they pull all of this.

[@andrewmolek5247]

2:45, mostly greed. Dauntless completely slipped and hit its head because some crypto company is involved in a game studio, when it has no reason to do so other than milk its waning fanbase dry. I played the game when it first came out, the got back like 3 months before awakening. Honestly pretty damn fun, and now everything at awakening launch just looked and felt worse, on top of making everything PTW.

[@Bat0541]

Dauntless only really got the initial attention it did because of the void left for games of its type on PC. I only had any interest in it because I love Monster Hunter, and there were no MH offerings outside of handhelds at the time they announced it, and I was getting sick of playing MH on handhelds after a decade, it was just bad luck that the actual Monster Hunter Series would come out with that EXACT offering right as Dauntless was trying to get on its feet, to me that still is the most impactful factor to why it struggled as hard as it did, but after everything I saw about the game as it went on, it likely only sped up the inevitable, the amount of causality between the poor decisions made with the game and the Monster Hunter World shadow cast over the game is beyond me, but I remember when Dauntless got announced, being interested in playing it, checking it out. I remember them doing early access and all that jazz (and people being a little weary of the founder packs and stuff) and then I fully remember the absolute runaway excitement caused by World, The first multiplatform Monster Hunter ever, first time ever on PC, as well as the biggest visual overhaul the series had ever seen, all RIGHT next to Dauntless just trying to get some feet under itself. I never looked at Dauntless again, anecdotal for sure, but I'm sure I'm far from the only one who had this same experience with the title.

[@topherman420]

I played Dauntless from closed beta on PC until a bit after the hard escalations were introduced. I put about 2000 hours on it. My favorite mode was escalations and I would play those for hours. I did really enjoy the game and was pretty good at it. I played all weapons regularly except sword and fists. I even reforged a weapon to 110 (some in the 60s, 20s, 40s). I spent alot of money on that game too, to the point where there would be nothing new for me to get because I had it all. After awhile it became a struggle to enjoy with the lack of new content, it was just grinding weapons to reforge. The one new monster we would get every 6 months was pretty much done within a couple days. My guild was the only thing that kept me going because they were so amazing. We held raffles, contests and events which is what kept the fun up....but theres only so much fun the players can add to a game with no content. Eventually our guild stopped playing the game a couple years ago (with alot of paying players within it). I knew the game was dying hard from that point on but I never thought it would get that much worse then the condition I left it in. The removal of the crafting, cells and weapon choices is just baffling to me. Half the fun was finding new builds and discussing them with your guildies then testing them out. Ill be waiting for the inevitable closure and may log in to say a final good bye when it does, but I wouldnt be able to get into the new 'update'.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

That's a lot of hours! Glad you had a great time with your guild!

[@theactualTVB]

I have somewhat of a request for a Death of a Game topic when you get a chance to cover, please cover Family Guy Online. It has somewhat of an interesting developing history as it was supposed to be an attempted and anticipated official online Family Guy MMORPG but had failed to capture audiences and was shutdown almost a year in, but has stapled a cult following over the years due to the idea itself being meme status (which is saying a lot seeing as how Family Guy has given a reputation of having huge meme status)

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

That sounds interesting, I'll look into it!

[@theactualTVB]

@@nerdSlayerstudiossthanks mate

[@FigWidIt]

Back-to-Back hits this month in uploads Detective 👏👏

[@maddoxarcane8283]

I honestly do agree that removing the ability to craft your weapons was a bad idea, but i enjoy the way you craft and upgrade armor a lot more. In all honesty I also enjoy the new combat a lot, it feels good being able to swap between the different weapons and their unique abilities in battle.

[@sunnycastform6864]

There is one good thing about the awakening update... It made me go back to playing God Eater.

[@luketfer]

Yeah I think God Eater being mostly on the PSP did not help that series because it's basically Monster Hunter + strange mythological creatures and is kinda good.

[@mileserwin]

I could not comprehend the controversy so here i am. I have been waiting for this video for years. I saw the death of this game years ago. I cannot say I'm surprised. They had it coming.

[@kenelt]

"so you invested houndreds of hours in our game, SIKE new progression system we will remove stuff in your inventory and set your progress back instead of adding content. for the 3th time."

[@mbekmbek7214]

When I think about it Dauntless did try to innovate, they have customizable moveset, then MH Rise did it better with Switch Skills, and I believe the 2 weapons swapable mid-hunt is teased in roadmap way before MH Wilds revealed they can do that too.

[@DarkRavenFilms]

I played the game when it launched and loved it. But then they went from their own launcher to Epic exclusive, and I refuse to deal with the Epic launcher which is what killed the game for me.

[@fittedurge4763]

I remember playing the game during the beta and loving it but quit because I barely played it, years later I wanted to replay it hoping to basically watered down monster hunter(not a bad thing as I want more monster hunter like games), what I was met with was not that but a bland hack and slash with the behemoths not even being a threat by themselves. careful dodges and timed combos? Nope just slash at what is basically a giant meat punch bag, no need to dodge just slash you'll be fine.

[@GordonFreeman032]

i cracked the case at the "LEAGUE OF LEGENDS EXECUTIVES" clue

[@bradleydevron]

I think many of us can agree that Dauntless' lacking visual style is doubled with the Monsters, especially since Monster Hunter has some of the genuine best monster designs out there. Also, with the Wilds example in the end, there wasn't even Rey Dau, Uth Duna, and the Black Flame in any of it! Just the much weaker Chatacabra and Doshaguma for large monsters, and it still looks like a blast! Says a lot, doesn't it?

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Yep, early monsters/threats still feel/look epic

[@bradleydevron]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Even sillier monsters like Yian Kut-ku and Kulu-Ya-Ku can have such auras and be plain memorable! The great designs also nail being iconic, too. Just see how the fans reacted to the confirmation of YIan Kut-Ku being in Wilds after a break in gen 5 (World's Gen, funnily enough, alongside Rise, which probably only worsened things for Dauntless) for proof of that. In that sense, Dauntless didn't learn this fact from Monster Hunter: The Monsters are not just bosses to fight and nothing else...they're as much the stars of the show as the player characters...and their cats, dogs, and raptor-birds. Danutless also lacks good dogs, cool raptor-bids, and walking, talking cats, all of whom can help in hunts (especially the cats).

[@marcusaaronliaogo9158]

Monster hunter has awesome ecology.

[@bradleydevron]

​@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 It's not enough to just have a dinosaur with a sword for a tail, they actually get into the details of the Glavenus having ways to maintain it's sword and repurpose the soot that inevitably gets onto it in a useful way, alongside citing it as being very intelligent and backing it up with a tricky fighting style that uses said sword tail masterfully, especially with the Acidic subspecies (which has a lighter sword tail, and thus a proportional decrease of raw power and increase of flexibility and agility). If that's what one of the more wild non-Elders has, it says a lot about the whole of it. Also again shows how the bland beasts of Dauntless pale in comparison to stuff like the Rath duo, Zinogre, Nargacuga, Nergigante, and more.

[@SmokedRye]

Tried the game out in 2019 when it came out for PS4, honestly it was both the art style and the combat that killed it for me. Especially with how floaty the movement, weapon impact, etc. Phoenix Labs had years to at least fix the combat, but never did sadly, so it suffering major cuts and flops was it's own doing.

[@ssj4rally59]

i think they ruined it when they made armor effectively useless outside of bling (Defense and offensive scaled off weapons) and when the reworked very fun passives like HP threshold buffs, and when they reworked hunting into a big arena with multiple people instead of the original 1-4 man 'mission' style.

[@kkplx]

small correction: MHworld is not and was never always online.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Fair point, it's even beatable solo. Like PSO.

[@kkplx]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss yep. i respect them a lot for it, probably their roots as a portable series where you couldn't always enforce an internet connection. means you'll always be able to play world and rise for example. I hope wilds won't try to enforce always-online.

[@drakologarnus7248]

i love how they had the monster hunter stuff right but when they hyped up the new update and redid everything they removed the HUGE major factor that makes monster hunter MONSTER HUNTER hunting the monster and making the gear and weapons THEMED after that monster. and instead gave each weapon type 3 "Epic exotic weapons" that are basicly just quest weapons that are not tied to any of the creatures

[@chris9418]

If you want to add in some more - they removed all the original kickstarter items from those who funded them during that period of time and then tried to sell it to us in the store. I was one of the original high tier funders (titles, standard, all the goods) and opened the game to find it out. Throw some more fuel to the fire and the devs cancelled Everhaven which was close to release and desired by many

[@mcshev.]

perfect timing literally could not have been better just thinking about this

[@ZomGKiwi]

With monster hunter wild coming out soon, there is no way Dauntless will never recover.

[@Fournonu]

Dauntless was genuinely a silver plated game i enjoyed going to when i was burnt out, how the hell did we get here.

[@Noblesix84]

I played the game in its early days, and it was enough for a free game, but I wasnt able to stick with it. Hearing the stuff that happened to it over the years I'm glad I dipped when I did.

[@KryyssTV]

What killed Dauntless was just how little variety there was. Not only were environments recycled but, as mentioned, the monsters themselves suffered from visual and mechanical similarities which combined with a roster of monsters that barely expanded over the years just led to there being no reason to keep playing. By contrast you have games like Dark Myth Wu Kong, that was in development for a shorter period and with a team of equal size to Pheonix Labs, that managed to include over 100 bosses which were largely unique from one another. So where was all the revenue from sales and investment capital being spent? Most likely just filling the pockets of greedy executives who had a talent for duping investors.

[@fittedurge4763]

I'm still baffled at the decision of changing the game from being like monster hunter into basically a hack and slash except all the enemies are clumped into a few giant meaty punching bags. This game was a good starter for those who wanted to try getting into monster hunter, I would know because that's how I got into monster hunter.

[@RocketSlug]

I remember checking out Dauntless when it came out on Switch. Maining the hammer, their most complicated weapon, helped me stick with it longer than I expected since it was a mashup of my two favorite weapons in MH (charge blade and gunlance)

[@midwestbox]

I was a huge fan of the game in its initial launch. I didn't mind the art style as much even if it was very simple but I could see why most wouldn't like it. I was in the tech alpha prior to the founders alpha which I bought into, loved the game early on and played from the alpha days til the reforged update when they added the open hunt system. It just didn't work because the scaling based off players was hot garbage, you'd be forced to play with players undergeared af who'd hit the behemoth, ragequit from being garbage, but the scaling still kept that missing player, causing behemoths in higher tiers to become nearly unplayable. It doesn't help they didn't add private hunts until months later. The steam/awakening launch was the final nail in the coffin and the game definitely deserves a death at this point, the fact they still have fanboys to me (some who STILL make videos glazing the update on how great all the poor and confusing decisions that update brought). Great video as always and a christmas present that I didn't know I wanted until then. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

[@MyBlackguy]

Dauntless got me into MH so it holds a special place for me

[@standheaykic66]

They failed to capture the essence of monster hunter, which matter of fact, is the weapon mechanic. Weapon in monster hunter feels more grounded, so you need to put some work through the combo to make it flasshy. That's the part when you realize you're good at the game. That's why even if they can copy the monster moveset, the fight/hunt itself doesn't feel impactful.

[@ernjdasdd]

The guy who made Dauntless started as a solo developer and when creating Dauntless he stated he's making Dauntless cause at the time Capcom wouldn't make a Monster Hunter game for modern hardware. Then soon after Capcom showed the trailer for Monster Hunter World.

[@hotheadtxt]

Yeah I applied for the closed beta and never got an invitation, then MHW got announced on PC and I got an invitation immediately lol. At that moment I also knew it wouldn't last.

[@Claudia-km9lo]

I wonder if you're gonna make a video about Atlyss since, it's one of the few western games in that genre on small scale online RPG that has seen considerable success.

[@Holammer]

It should be reviewed. Game probably sold a few 100k (200k bare minimum) by now. Quite the feat for a game developed by a solo dev.

[@GrammerPancreas]

I mean, Path of Exile, Warframe, and Destiny also exist. Those are far bigger successes and are also MORPGs. I felt it was really weird that they just got completely ignored.

[@vewyscawymonsta]

I spent days and days grinding up the Silver Sword just for it to be a starter weapon everyone gets now.

[@coreyjnichols193]

I remember the original ramsgate. It was never the same once we got the new town. The beginning of the end. I stopped playing shortly after gliders showed up.

[@Ridsssss]

as long as people that dont understand MH are in charge, there will NEVER be a worthy competitor to the king

[@codym5352]

I actually liked Dauntless even after I finally got in to Monster Hunter Worlds. I think where it made the mistake was that it was it came out only 5 months before the Iceborne DLC, was an Epic store exclusive for far too long and only finally came to Steam AFTER Monster Hunter Wilds was announced, if they had released it like June 2020 on Steam from the start it could've ridden the Iceborne hype from the fans who were finishing the DLC and wanted another MH-like game. They released at the time when a lot of fangirls were riding the " Refusing to use the Epic Launcher" bandwagon. Otherwise it was a decent playing moderately less-complicated MH that could've been a really good substitution as a less-intimidating/ more newcomer friendly entry to that style of game. They shouldn't have stuck with Epic for so long and they had really bad release timing

[@ave4622]

I tried it out in its early days. I remember that monster's attacks were pretty badly choreographed and janky. That's a big turnoff.

[@Malao558]

I actually really enjoyed this game. I played a demo build at PAX, got into early access and all. Played it a little bit, but the game was content light at the time so I dipped. Came back years later to discover it had retroactively become EGS exclusive, went “oh, that’s a shame” and didn’t reinstall it. From what I hear I didn’t miss much.

[@Machina03exe]

I remember being invited to try it, and after I finished the tutorial, messaging the rep, telling him that he couldn't pay me to play it. I did the same thing with Anthem at E3.

[@brownranger1797]

Pheonix labs actively went against player feedback in favor of monetizing their game as much as possible.

[@samronin1141]

I still remember when MHW was new and people on Twitch would ask if it was worth buying. If the gameplay style would be for them. At that point a lot of chat would point to Dauntless as a pseudo demo for the basic combat mechanics. And then urge people to buy MHW if they wanted the much better version.

[@FlyinTonite]

Came in around Monster Hunter World and died around Monster Hunter Wild. It's almost poetic

[@ivanelgharbi5861]

I ceirtanly dont apreciate when a game tries to scam me, and thats more and more common every day with western games. I really miss the old day when you unlocked things, not buy them.

[@AshenSentinel24]

I don't blame the companies but the morons that buy into it. That's why companies keep pushing that idea bc there will always be whales throwing their money at them.

[@Vicerel]

The moment you compared it to kids bop I realized you were not taking prisoners on this one.

[@GustavoThimoteo]

It's time, this is one of the tittles I knew would come, and still hurts to see it.

[@slothjolly8075]

For a sec I read “tittles” as “titties” 😅

[@Carnax6969]

I haven't played Dauntless in quite some time, but since the latest update disregards the time investment of the playerbase, I've little to no desire to play again.

[@The_KlaVra]

I remember playing so much this game, it was my favorite for a while, but got really boring after a while. It felt like if you didnt play the meta stuff, you cant compete on the top dungeons and that killed the fun, I wanted to play my way and I couldnt if I didnt molded. I will miss all the good days of dauntless, specially the weird graphics, having not a good pc, this game was my life for a while.

[@Underground_Owl]

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is still an absolute gem, to this very day. It's a real shame it ended up stuck on 3DS and now it's not even possible any more to play the full game (unless you downloaded the extra data prior to the 3DS' online functionalities sunsetting), let alone its online mode through legitimate means. There are other methods of course, and I can say it's well worth it to get your hands on the game one way or another.

[@-whiterabbitproductions-433]

One good thing about dauntless. It'll show anybody the basics of monster hunter games. I had learn a lot of things with dauntless.

[@MojaveKnight17]

So much content detective Dreams ❤

[@reaversal5728]

I'll never forget when me and my friend ran into a dev and played with them. They said I can't wait till everyone sees what we will do I stopped playing after that times update

[@williamknox6648]

Honestly i loved Dauntless when MHW came out because playing it helped me figure out how Monster Hunter works

[@B-019]

Damn, that was FAST. I'm still digesting your last video, man! I guess that's a good problem to have, though. Good work as always!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks for the support, glad you're enjoying the content!