The first few weeks of this games launch is some of the most fun I'd ever had with the entire franchise. Just me and the boys running off into the Ancient Forest on the first day with shitty gear trying to take down Anjanath and Rathalos early? Getting lost in the shitty maze like level design? Finding weird shortcuts and then getting lost cause they turned us all around? Shit was choice.

Would go as far to say the first blind playthrough of this is genuinely one of the funnest Monster Hunter games ever. Playing on a big TV, comfy on my bed with my controller, the size of the world, the feeling of adventure? The presentation is so fucking good even with one of the dumbest stories ever put into any video game I've played.

So what kind of kills this game? Well, its endgame grind and the post launch content does. Reskins of Elder Dragons that hit harder. Going out to get tempered Elder Dragon tracks, coming back to Astera (which has a fuckhuge loading screen), praying for RNG to give you a Tempered Elder, getting the Elder, hoping it drops the Streamstone you want, repeat. For a game called Monster Hunter this endgame loop made it so you were only fighting 5 or so monsters over and over. Don't even get me started on the fake MMO/always online/live service FOMO nonsense this game loves to push.

Is the game terrible though? Nah. Does it become more of a chore to play? Yeah. Should you still play it? Nah bitch if you have Switch just get Rise in March lmao.