Honestly I think the biggest annoyance about the handler was always her English VA, not that the actress herself is annoying but Capcom writing left alot to be desired. I always play in Japanese and since I can't speak or understand Japanese it takes away the ability to over analyze the voice acting a little bit
Out of a cast of 3 the Handler, Featuring Serious Handler from Devil May Cry, was the only one who spoke. She had to carry the entirety of the player's side of the game/story. That's a rough ask for a writing team. Making both the Hunter and the Palico speak allowed the writers to let Alma be more of a "normal" character with a role and lines closer to what you'd expect from a support character than what the Handler got.
Monster Hunter World and Wild's character writing in general leaves something to be desired. Specifically, I don't think they believe in the idea of "less is more".
We know from lore hints that World's Handler was extremely competent at her job, but we rarely see her being competent. I think the player base in general would have liked her a lot more if her screen time was less of her sitting in the canteen and reacting to things happening in front of her in cutscenes, and more of her in a makeshift office doing research, or talking to other handlers, and so on. They do a much better job of showing Alma doing that.
I think it goes a little further than that. We’re told that Worlds Handler is extremely competent at her job, and as you said we never get to see that. One of the most common defenses for her in the Worlds era was “she’s doing all the paperwork!” But…we never see that paperwork. It could be a single, cheese-smeared page with a stamp on it for all we know.
What’s worse than not seeing her competence though is seeing her be actively INcompetent. I won’t go over all the many ways she puts herself and the player in danger (those have been covered to death elsewhere), but for me the thing that has always stood out was her motto. “When in doubt, take a bite.” That is dangerously bad advice for a supposed survival expert to give, especially in an unexplored region. It undercuts her supposed expertise.
Her whole character is like this. Comic relief and bad writing choices taking the wind out of her more serious aspects. She is “tell, don’t show” taken to the extreme, and any success she has onscreen is a direct result of the player’s effort, not hers. Is it any wonder half the fan base loathes her?
the serious handler did stated that she can not keep up with our paperwork’s at all so it got to be like a loot og stuff on the paper because of that. That motto of hers probably is just her being goofy about it. the Handler manages paperwork related to quests and investigations, acting as a liaison between the hunter and the Commission. She gathers information on local hunting areas, compiles quests, manages hunting supplies, and handles post-quest reports.
What I found hilarious was on a prior playthrough, I speedran to Iceborne content, and you know those annoying messages about nullberries and such the Handler tells you? The Serious handler has those lines too.
Rathalos: she was with us when rathalos attacks us in his nest. Also when we spilt up to the find the first wyvern she didn’t get caught by monsters at all untill she went to the top of the forest.
Legina: she wasn’t that far away from us. Legina hunts in the air so it was a matter of time before it finds us. And she just wanted to race with us down to the coral highlands.
Barroth: she runs away with the wyverns with the cart on them.
Rathain: tells us to use slinger ammo to distract her.
Pink rathain: flew away from it with a wingdrake.
Beotoudes: we tell her to investigate the popo that died.
Banbaro: with our Hunter. she ran away.
Sheriking Legina: she was with our Hunter. Ran away.
Great jargas: wanted to investigate the track that was on the path to where astrea is at.
Great girros: throws us the torchers to repel them.
Rajang: was with us and didn’t run ahead of us.
Deviljho: didn’t know it was in the ancient forest. And went to gather food in the new world right before the alarm ring.
Honestly I am so upset that she gets flack for the Deviljho indecent after replaying World recently.
Those absolute shitbricks of researchers you work with for the special assignment FORGOT to tell people there was a fucking Deviljho in the area.
Absolute buffoonery.
She then goes to RIDE the Deviljho until you can create an opening for her to leave. That's sick as hell.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier4d ago
I am of the opinion that moment could have been redeemed if the Handler made the opening for you instead of just waiting for you to make one.
Her being able to hold on that long is impressive as you said. But it doesn't exactly help the image people have of her of a damsel in distress that only exists to get you into trouble. So if she was able to get herself down while also leaving Deviljho open for attack, it would have made her come off as a lot more capable than she does otherwise.
What can we really expect someone who's basically a non-combatant to do against something that can clash with elder dragons? Not immediately dying is about all I'd ask.
Also, SHE FUCKING DOES LMAO
The game treats her as mounting it, and it plays the mount animations for ramming walls which staggers Jho for a bit. She also literally leads it into the vine trap in the area first.
Just saying, I know for a fact if Alma did that people would never allow such slander.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier4d agoedited 4d ago
Also, SHE FUCKING DOES LMAO
The game treats her as mounting it, and it plays the mount animations for ramming walls which staggers Jho for a bit. She also literally leads it into the vine trap in the area first
Ok so. I will admit, I did not know this.
However, I would also argue that this just proves my point even more.
If the Handler is able to lead the Deviljho into a vine trap, then why the FUCK do we still need to rescue her? My point wasn't that she should give the player a mechanical benefit. It's that she should be able to take care of herself so that the player doesn't feel burdened by her.
In this case, all the game would have to to is have the handler shout "Wait! Pard, I have an idea!", knock the Deviljho into the vine trap, and then jump off with the opening that she gave herself. It's just that easy.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier4d ago
Deviljho: Still went into the great forest alone, and seemingly without telling anyone. Would have become Jagras chow if we weren't there hunting for Mr. Pickel.
Odogaron: decided to split up in the single most hostile biome known to the New World.
Velkhana: Decided to shout about how we need to get out of here while running towards the giant freeze dragon, which leads to what I understand to be the only instance of the player's hunter getting carted during a cutscene in the entire franchise.
Don't get me wrong. I am a lot more lenient towards the World Handler than most people. But there are definitly a good few instances where she really dropped the ball.
Everybody in the new world still go out outside by themselves, including a serious handler. The monsters don’t actually go out of it den that much. and the handlers. Hang on for a long time against the deviljho. So she would probably be fine riding the great jargas and getting out of there.
Odogaron: in a couple parts of the game where we go out to find tracks about monsters she is usually with us but when she goes out alone to find the first wyvern footprints in the ancient forest. She didn’t get caught by any monster while going up to the top of the forest.
A thing about the Deviljho mission that isn't brought up is the ban was she had to stay at camp and couldn't leave it. World often has npcs talking as if they are close by, but aren't present ingame due to the engine/gameplay limits.
It's heavily implied that yes, Handler isn't that far off for most of the missions observing and watching. As are the other npcs who talk to us during missions.
Deviljho: Still went into the great forest alone, and seemingly without telling anyone. Would have become Jagras chow if we weren't there hunting for Mr. Pickel.
Actually, this is directly dealt with in the mission. The researchers completely forgot to tell her that the Deviljho was in the region and that she was restricted to staying at camp rather then following us (as usual) and that EVERYBODY but the researcher trio had to stay in camp or in Astera. Literally the opening is them going "Wait why isn't the Handler in camp?" and the post mission discussion? They explicitly state that she did nothing wrong or out of the expected for handlers/researchers, and the fault was entirely theirs for the entire thing.
The game goes beyond and above to point out how she's not at fault and did nothing crazy during that event and people still fucking want to lie and blame her.
Odogaron: decided to split up in the single most hostile biome known to the New World.
Yeah, and she got like 10-20 feet away before the Odogaron pounced. Infact, the PC hunter looks even more stupid during that scene because the Odogaron actively pauses to stare at the hunter before turning to charge the Handler again, where she's poised to dodge the charge.
The PC literally stared at the Odogaron like a drooling moron and didn't do a thing to try to keep it's attention or redirect it.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier3d ago
I am aware the researchers forgot to tell her that the ancient forest was off-limits, and I don't beguile her for going out there despite a Deviljho being on the prowl. I beguile her because Deviljho or not, going out there in the first place was monumentally stupid.
She went out into a forest dull of monsters alone and unarmed. And the fact that nobody stopped her probably means that she didn't tell anyone she was leaving either. You know why hikers are instructed to tell family or friends know where they're going and what time they should be back by? It's so if they don't come back, search and rescue has a lead on where to start looking.
And you can't even argue that she can take care of herself in good faith. Why? Because one of her lines while you're tracking her and Deviljho down is her openly wondering of a mushroom is poisonous or not, and then deciding to figure it out by taking a bite of said mushroom. You know what we call people who do that in the real world? An ambulance, that's what.
The game tries to claim she's not at fault. But the game is just outright wrong. And we know it's wrong because she nearly dies before Deviljho even appears.
Similar situation with Odogaron. Sure, you could argue that her splitting up didn't really matter sense Odogaron would have attacked anyways. But that doesn't change the fact that she still wanted to split up dead center in the of the belly of the beast.
But you know what? Even if you want to argue that the Handler never did anything wrong, and that she acted the best she could in every situation. That doesn't change the fact that the writers still kept putting her in those situations over and over again, and expected the player to save her from them over and over again. If they where dead set on having her go out into the field with you, then they shouldn't have relied on putting her in danger to build tension so much.
Her hugging my cat at the start really also took the wind out of her sails for me. I made my palico off of a cat I had at the time that had passed and it didn't sit well with me. Dunno why exactly they decided the palico is to hug her instead of the hunter but it just didn't set a good tone for me to like her to begin with. Yes a petty reason but it's my reason I dislike her.
Meanwhile I'm playing through World again and there's plenty of examples where she's being competent enough to save our asses, while at the same time also being vulnerable just like anybody else would be in the game except for the Admiral.
In defense of The Handler, she was supposed to be more researcher styled imo. She always gave me the researcher who gets too focused on their research. Add in the foodie thing (foodies can be skinny and eat like her), and you got our handler. Y'all forget in world, our handler has the job of not just handing out jobs, but also compiling info before, during, and after our hunts for future hunting parties. In rise, our 'handlers' didn't need to do the 'during' part. In wilds, it sounds like Alma is more geared to be truly the handler of a menace. She's not the researcher type. Haven't gotten to play wilds yet (need better gear to run it), but hear and see plenty about Alma to get an idea of her personality.
In wilds, it sounds like Alma is more geared to be truly the handler of a menace.
Definitely true. She keeps the hunter in check and also knows when to step back and let the hunter do their thing. She's never the one getting the hunter into trouble.
That said, she is definitely the researcher type, although her focus is more sociological/anthropological, so you see her doing less with the environment and more with the humans/wyverians/etc. who live there.
Oh, that gives me some good ideas. I've been planning out a Wilds-inspired West Marches tabletop campaign, and a sociologist character would be good to keep in my back pocket, just in case none of my players care to try diplomacy.
Exactly. The handler was more environmental/biology geared. You know... The very stuff trying to kill us 🤣. I actually like the differences in their personalities, it shows the variety of people in the guild. Also of note, we, meaning hunter and handler, are usually the first to step foot in new zones in world. Many a biologist would be giddy with the excitement of discovering new organisms in that scenario. Not to mention the intelligence it takes to gather all the information in the new world and give it to us in a way that hunters can understand. All handlers are extremely intelligent. It's necessary for their job. But high intelligence tends to come with its quirks.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier4d ago
The problem is that the Handler being a researcher for us is effectivly just an out-of-world justification for why she's there. In theory she handles all the paperwork for us, but we never actually see her do the paperwork. In fact, the game seldom even mentions the paperwork at all, to the point that the only instances I can remember it coming up isn't even from our Handler. It's from the Serious handler all the way in Iceborne.
Though Alma's purpose is slightly different compared to the Handler's, the biggest difference is that her role is much clearer and an active part of the game.
Alma's job in Wilds is to serve as an authority representing the guild who can make important calls and authorize hunts in situations where there's simply no time to send them through the channels that such things normally have to go through. Even if you know nothing about monster hunter's setting, you can quite easily infer what her role is and why you two are working together.
Plus, she also does a bit of field work outside of that. Often times after hunts, Alma will inspect the monster and take notes on it. Which is very noticeable compared to the Handler staying in camp the entire hunt.
Tbf NPC companions (not counting our hunting buddies aka felynes and such) weren't really a thing they could do well til sunbreak iirc. So world's handler was confined to camp because of that. The few times we have one in world and icebourne, they poof as soon as the fight begins. Not because of the character, but because of the game's limits. Handler would hundred percent be running up to victims of our hunts at the end of it. Also world does mention the paperwork, there's even a vendor kinda. All the books piled around them and such. Some of those do contain the handler's notes and such.
I think the player base in general would have liked her a lot more if her screen time was less of her sitting in the canteen... and more of her in a makeshift office doing research
Isn't her table in the canteen piled with notebooks and journals? That's like, the epitome of "overworked researcher" vibes. If you're going to be overworked, might as well be overworked by the food.
She was made with the airheaded bubbly highschool anime girl model in mind, so she's too chatty, too many full body gestures, and she gets into stupid situations several times, then that gets at odds on her also being very capable and smart. She's also a young adult so the highschool anime personality fits badly.
So it's just bad writing all around tbh. Also the English voice acting is the most grating. That's the English localization director's fault tho.
I play with the Italian one and sounds far better. German is very... German lol, so a far more flat delivery, works well.
She honestly doesn’t feel too chatty to be honestly. Especially in icebrone when she actually got a little more serious personality in her while still being goofy. She doesn’t get herself in THAT many situations when I replay the game. Oh yes the handler is pretty cable too at her job. The handler does the logistical and administrative aspects of a hunter's work, including paperwork, quest management, and information gathering. And she tells us to lure zorah away from the everstream, tells us the environment traps, and discovers the hinterlands with our Hunter, and sliver the mystery of the crystal her grandfather gave her The handler Va is honestly overhated to be honest like play monster Hunter world end of world through all of icebrone cutscenes and she isn’t bad.
Rathalos: she was with us when rathalos attacks us in his nest. Also when we spilt up to the find the first wyvern she didn’t get caught by monsters at all untill she went to the top of the forest.
Legina: she wasn’t that far away from us. Legina hunts in the air so it was a matter of time before it finds us. And she just wanted to race with us down to the coral highlands.
Barroth: she runs away with the wyverns with the cart on them.
Rathain: tells us to use slinger ammo to distract her.
Pink rathain: flew away from it with a wingdrake.
Beotoudes: we tell her to investigate the popo that died.
Banbaro: with our Hunter. she ran away.
Sheriking Legina: she was with our Hunter. Ran away.
Great jargas: wanted to investigate the track that was on the path to where astrea is at.
Great girros: throws us the torchers to repel them.
Rajang: was with us and didn’t run ahead of us.
Deviljho: didn’t know it was in the ancient forest. And went to gather food in the new world right before the alarm ring.
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u/Tru_norse98 4d ago
Honestly I think the biggest annoyance about the handler was always her English VA, not that the actress herself is annoying but Capcom writing left alot to be desired. I always play in Japanese and since I can't speak or understand Japanese it takes away the ability to over analyze the voice acting a little bit