Monster Hunter XX Demo -- Valphalk (Greatsword)
6So the "blind date" went... not EXTREMELY well... though all things considered, I feel like it went about the way I could've hoped, considering a brand new monster I'd never seen and all....
That's kinda the deal with these demos, anyway, having played a fair few of them by now... especially when they have a "WARNING" or an "ADVANCED" disclaimer over one of the monsters in question, it's usually because they're trying to hype up a new flagship contender.
A subtler way they like to key up expectations for these guys is by... making them a tier or two stronger than the weapons you're using. Then there's also how demos like to offer shorter hunts and some even completely remove secondary weapon properties... meaning no elements, despite most of them being made out of creature lines with notable elemental affinities. (On the flip side, this means the frequent application of Dragonblight by Valphalk has no effect on the player, since there's no secondary effects to remove from your weapons anyway.)
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Another go is fine by me, though! Totally new prey is fun and all, but I also really wanted to try out the new "Brave" style... but... Brave is weird. I sure wasn't going to try to go in blind to both Valphalk's AND my own attack patterns...
On the surface, Brave seems a lot like Adept in that a big highlight is flashily dodging attacks, but the manner in which they achieve this couldn't be more different:
Adept requires you attempt to block or dodge something at the last moment to trigger a special stance from which you can use some devastating variations on what will generally be your weapon's more notable attacks.
Brave will instead turn your sheathe action into a "stance" that takes a little longer than normal, but can be held at the expense of a heavy stamina drain and converting green health into volatile red health. The purpose becomes twofold: you'll dodge (into sheathe) attacks while you're holding the stance, which can generally be canceled freely into from the rest of your moveset... and the stance itself can be canceled into your weapon style's more generally lucrative basic attacks, which are otherwise totally disabled.
This all might seem needlessly complicated and silly, deliberately NOT allowing yourself to use the most important parts of your moveset in exchange for a risky dodge that serves double duty as the vital bottleneck FOR those valuable moves... seems like there's a greedy middleman that isn't worth putting up with...
But wait, there's more! Every time you deal damage, especially FROM this "Brave stance"... you'll fill a blue meter above your player name. Once completely full, you'll enter "Brave mode" ...and that's when things get REALLY wild. Your moveset expands dramatically from being extremely hindered by vital moves being removed... to, in general terms... having your critical weapon functions supercharged, often in downright game-breaking ways. (Most styles even get access to quick sidestep dodges, too!)
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How this is achieved will vary from weapon to weapon, but I selected what seemed to be the most extreme version of this to be my guide into what exactly Brave style is: the Greatsword.
Fair warning, I haven't really put much effort into Greatsword use since... well, the first generation... which is to say... before it even got its signature charge attack at all! Isn't that wild? Modern Greatsword usage is ALL about charged attacks, which we'll see a ton of emphasis on here, because it's become a huge part of the weapon and even huger-er in Brave style.
For starters... you... literally can't use charge attacks... at all... UNLESS you do it from Brave stance, where you can do the basic charge attack and nothing else. You can't access the stronger charge attack at all, either. If you land one, though, you'll get a HUGE boost to your Brave gauge, with the maximum level charge yielding over half the gauge filled in one blow.
Once you fill the gauge, everything changes. Your moving unsheathe attack BECOMES the strong charge... with outrageous charging speed, in fact. The strong charged strike can ALSO still be followed up on by a quick roundslash that will double down on the already hefty damage your strong charge attack just did. AND you can dodge out of this follow-up! Coupled with the Brave stance's primary function of helping you dodge and put away your weapon, this makes a Greatsword wielder into a veritable killing machine in Brave mode.
Add in the Lion's Maw Hunter Art which does a fairly powerful attack for its outrageous speed that automatically sheathes your weapon... AND increases the damage of your next attack... which, oh, by the way, is probably going to be a heavy charge attack straight off the draw!
It takes awhile to get into the altered Brave style rhythm of drawing, stancing, charging, and sheathing, and then getting used to a DIFFERENT rhythm entirely when you activate Brave mode... but a true Greatsword aficionado is all about that kind of thing.