This game sucks because it's not kino. In all seriousness, this game is not a bad Monster Hunter, those exist and this game is way far above them. If we're being real and I am allowed to stash away my hate-boner for Rise for a moment, the game genuinely isn't bad. It's actually got some really great things going for it, the problem is they didn't fucking finish the game again so it sucks if you had gotten it when it came out. It's balance is better than 4U's and XX's for sure but, those are not high bars to clear. Wirebugs still suck, the progression sucks, the "difficulty" is built around AoEs and instant-kill moves to "compensate" for how busted and overtuned they made the player characters, it has too many MMO elements bc they want to replace Frontier for some reason, you know that game that failed for being fucking ass. At least it has a respectable (although far, far from perfect) monster roster and the skill meta isn't that fucked. No Fatalis armor bullshit. The charm system sucks, and the augmentation is the worst thing the franchise has done, above Hyper monsters and the Temporal Mantle. 1 in 7.6 billion odds to get what you want? Fuck you.

This was the 2nd worst game to come out for the franchise only in front of the 1st gen games. Attrocious launch as it was purposefully incomplete to pad out with "free content drops" aka them releasing already finished content. The weapon balance is so offputting, not because anything outright sucks but because certain weapons (cough cough Bow and LS) were given so much to use and so many tools that they outright made it novelty to play any other weapon most of the time. Wirebugs for mobility were great but they led to overdesigned locales and awful travel. Wirebugs in combat were just the worst thing ever. Bugs, such as the frames per second bug, made the game so much worse to play on Switch. If you weren't at exactly 60 fps, and you never hit that on Switch, monsters would have different hitboxes and frame data. Tracking became fucked, and most attacks that were walkable away or rollable become tracking hellscapes you have to use the guardpoint they decided to give every weapon, making most weapons feel cheap, or not worth using over a better weapon that can now parry. And just like base World, there was fucking nothing worthwhile to do. Unlike World however, the balance and soul were not here, effectively making it a worse entry.

One of the better Monster Hunters after it fully released. Terrible endgame monsters you can tell were stunted by the pandemic shutting down development (Fatalis and Alatreon are really terribly done fights, especially Fatalis who has weapon matchups that are insanely bad to the point runners will avoid them) but there was a soul and care put into this game not found in most other games. There was finally an actual gameplay loop, albeit way too grindy. The clutch claw and tenderization nerf was atrocious and should be modded out of your game ASAP if you're on PC. It has a few flaws holding it back, but many of them are moddable on PC. The game boasts far, far more pros than cons without a doubt. Great MH game. Aged a bit better than.... some other entries.

Judging it purely as it came out after all it's updates, but before Iceborne came out, this game was pretty bad. Not because the content sucks, but because there was jack shit to do that wasn't bad. The weapon balance was actually pretty good, and if you ignored the Drachen armor, set-building was actually really interesting. There just wasn't anything to do once you got a set or two actually finalized, because the postgame loop just did not exist properly. It sucked once you got that shiny decoration you wanted. A 60 dollar demo.

This used to be one of my favorites, but the more you play this game, the closer you get to fully completing it, and the better you understand the mechanics, motion values, and the weapon balance, you realize how flimsy and half-baked this game is. Tons of content, but almost none of it worthwhile or fun to do. Bloated attacks, terrible "difficulty" on a lot of the postgame challenges, some of the worst weapon balance in the entire franchise if not THE worst (if you're not playing a weapon + style combo in the top 7 or 8, you don't exist), and almost none of it is actually worth doing outside of just "doing it." Don't take my words for it though, but most speedrunners and people REALLY good at this game have all grown jaded over this game after thousands of hours poured into it. I'm sitting at around 2k myself and, I can tell you right now...... it's maybe fun for the first blind go. Don't bother with its postgame unless you're just genuinely bored, or doing it with a first timer. Some of the most superficial that Monster Hunter has gotten.

Easily one of if not the best MH game in the franchise. The weapon balance is best in this game compared to every other game. The progression actually rocks. The hub quests are fun and not overbearing. There's no asinine gimmick other than underwater combat, which is great on a controller (sucks to be on a 3ds though). The ONLY and I do mean only downside to this game is Capcom's insanely stupid take on how multiplayer should be done. See, they thought to themselves "well, the 3DS is a mobile platform, which means theyre gonna probably be outdoors when they play! NO ONLINE FOR THE 3DS!" so now if you want to play online multiplayer, you either have to emulate it on PC or you have to use the Wii U to connect online. Genuinely asking, what was their thought process?

One of the best, but also the start of the downfall of Monster Hunter. It has sheer content amount to carry it's weight, but it has the worst single player progression in the franchise next to MH1. The weapon balance here is just.... ridiculous... but nothing like XX. Some of the quests are way overtuned for solo play, to the point where if you cannot find someone to play with you might as well shelf the game if you don't want to dump the time needed to get good enough (we're talking very late G-Rank stuff). The guild quest gimmick and the relic weapons are very, very much a cancer to this game. Holds back half an entire star alone.

The literal only thing holding this game back from being THE best MH game in the franchise is the fact that Capcom couldn't figure out how playstation achivements worked, so they never made G-Rank for the Vita. This also in turn held back the Vita so much because this franchise was HUGE in Japan. It's Freedom Unite, but easier, but because they never made G-Rank for it it has way less content to do. Said content is very, very good however, but it pales in comparison to MHFU due to that game's sheer vast competent playtime. Basically, it's less of a good thing that we already had plenty of.