Absolutely fantastic game held back a bit by its age. Going into 4 as my first MH game I loved every bit of it, combat is really fun and rewarding, the progression system is super satisfying making new armor after every kill and all the extra stuff you can do is a treat. I got through most of the main story before playing MHR, and found that going back to it afterwards was a bit difficult. It’s still a great game, but compared to the most recent iteration of the formula it feels like it does everything to make the moment to moment speed to clunky. Why can’t I walk and heal, why do most monsters stun me for like a minute without any chance to dodge out of the way, why can’t you get honey from the merchant until the very end. Every animation takes so long, even sheathing your weapon just to finally heal up or run away gives enough time for the monster to stun you and whittle you down. Another thing that really hurts the movement is if I’m so damn slow all the time why do they make it so that I have to run around a massive map just to find the damn guy and if I don’t throw a specific item at it I’ll have to do it all again when it runs away after 10 hits. Aside from that I think a standout are the locations and characters, the fact that your shops and things are all part of a group that you travel with everywhere is really damn cool and I haven’t seen it anywhere prior. The sheer mountain of content is a blessing and a curse, there’s so much to do if you want to do it, but it leaves me feeling a bit unsatisfied with a clean cut end point. Once the big ending cinematic played I decided that’s enough for now and counts as a finish.