it's alright... this game has some of the most shameless character designs i've ever seen in anything. i really hate the idea of this stupid boy 'owning' these ladies and i also hate that they decided to go with the rock crystal gacha system. its so unnecessary. the field skill walls were horrible... not to mention the very frequent tutorial popups that straight up leave out information or explain things poorly sometimes. and all the weird creepy shit that tora does... it all bogs the experience down so much for me personally.

but there are parts of this game that are really good... which really sucks, because i'm so conflicted. the environments are stunning, the battle system is very deep and complex (once you eventually wrap your head around it), and despite a lot of the character designs, there are a few great characters here. zeke was the best part of this game by far and he made it all worth it. xc2 doesn't hold a candle to the first game but its not awful. i did decide to play through it twice so that must mean something

this was my first monster hunter. i don't know if any other game experience will come close to playing this for thousands of hours as a kid, online and offline. the online community was the nicest in any game i've played to date, and i do rate games based on my online interactions, unlike the ESRB. this is the best monster hunter visually. the subdued colors and art direction in general are just beautiful. even the ui in this game is amazing on the eyes. one of the best looking games on wii, with one of my favorite soundtracks ever. and yeah underwater combat isn't the best but the final boss monster is so cool that i think It alone makes up for it. not a perfect game but i can't bring myself to rate it any lower