MH Oldschool

There's been occasional discourse in the Discord since MH2's server went up over the design problems and benefits of having a fully fledged offline mode that is meant to be a complete experience of itself. The offline mode in MH2 does not do much to encourage you to go online, meaning that it is hypothetically possible for some or maybe even most players to finish the entirety of the offline content before going online. This can often then disrupt the online progression, making the early game quests too easy thanks to better equipment. The opposite is also true, if the player goes to the village after going online.

I am curious to hear everyone's thoughts - do you consider the existence of an offline mode, as it's present in MH2(dos), to be a design flaw? If so, why? If not, why not?

I think it's nice that both online and offline are perfectly valid ways to experience the game. I've been having fun progressing the online primarily, with offline for farming materials in between (from monsters I've already seen online first). It's easy to get carried away and finish the village while still a low HR online, but going to Dundorma afterwards and hunting purely for HR points with no gear benefit would take away from the experience for me. If village progression was locked behind HR it would mean nobody could've experienced Dos at all until the recent server revival, so self imposed limits seem like the best way to handle it.

How did you handle village progression in your playthrough?