2024-01-14
Village quests are the offline quests offered in the village. Anyone who has played Monster Hunter will probably know them well.
It's a mode for solo play, and since it's single-player, everything depends on your own skill. Monsters that were so easy to take down when you were playing multiplayer online with friends become frighteningly strong.
A monster you could hunt in under 10 minutes can take 40 or 50 minutes when you go alone. It's grueling, and it's scary. It takes time, but you also get a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat kind of fun.
There's a kind of enjoyment there that's different from multiplayer.
Real life has quests like that, too. Entrance exams for private middle school, high school entrance exams, university entrance exams, term exams, graduation theses, the written test for a driver's license, job hunting, certifications. Every one of them is a tricky, dispiriting customer, and the result is only ever cleared or not.
What surprised me while studying for middle school entrance exams was that to get in, you had to pass on your own strength. "What a cruel world," I thought. If you fail, you feel miserable. So I came up with all sorts of reasons and gave up on taking the middle school exams.
Of course, the story doesn't end there. That choice only postponed things; high school entrance exams were waiting. And it goes on and on. What's more, I realized that clear-cut ones like these are actually the better kind.
The worst are quests with no stated conditions for clearing them. This invisible wall that I run into now and then can't be cleared, and I can't move forward, until I achieve something. When it becomes visible, people sometimes call it a slump, but what I'm talking about is something more everyday.
Not even the conditions for clearing it are written anywhere. In that sense, entrance exams and tests, with their clear criteria like scores and passing grades, were really easy. It's the other kind of quest that stands in the way. If you leave it alone without breaking through, you have no sense of moving forward at all.
Time solves most things. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve this one. You can rest in front of the wall or wander around it, but it's not as if it will have vanished on its own while you do.
It always stands right in front of you. A wall like that is prepared for each and every one of us (thankfully). Surely we are being made to play that kind of game.
That's why you can't take on two-star (☆☆) quests until you clear the one-star (☆) urgent quest — the key quest that unlocks the next rank.
Super Mario is the same.
Only after clearing 1-1 can you go on to 1-2. Leaving it alone because you can't clear it doesn't count as clearing it.
Back to Monster Hunter. You can get advice on how to clear village quests, or give advice to others. You can also clear other quests online with everyone and savor the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
But to reach the other side of the invisible wall in front of you, you have to clear the village quest yourself. There's no point in asking "why." That's the kind of game we're playing.